The game is pretty easy tbh. You dont even need a single materia on “dynamic mode” which is essentially “normal mode” since there is only that, easy mode, and a hard mode you have to unlock

Im not saying play without materia im just saying keep it on dynamic mode or it will be boring, and in dynamic mode very few fights will even seem risky if you have a solid grasp of the gameplay, which i have to assume 99% of literate players will have pretty quickly

Play in Dynamic mode. The bosses gave me a consistent challenge throughout and I did all of the side quests and world intel as I went through the game.

I played normal and did all the quests and finished level 50. I don't think I was over leveled.

Tbh you should be fine either way. The game only really gets challenging on hard mode and it's impossible to overlevel for that.

At the moment? Probably not. I played start to end doing every side quest and side tidbits like mini games. The game is not hard or easy more annoying than difficult most of the time.

Ok so I'm going to divide the advice here into 2 parts, Getting into Celestial, and then part 2 as Celestial and beyond, because they are truly two different worlds. For context I'm a long time Strive player and when I grind it out I can sit consistently in the top 100-50 Nago range. I'm no pro player but I've got some experience to my name.

Getting into Celestial. This is a tough thing to do, you're attempting to join the top ~5% at the highest level of ranked play. The first thing that needs to be there is mindset. It seems you've got a mindset centered around learning already established so that's great! But also prepare for lots and lots of frustration, even when you've got it all in theory you can still fail and if you get frustrated you will play worse, when that inevitably happens take a break and come back later. The next thing you need for Celestial is consistency. That means you are hitting the super input 9/10 times during a game, that you aren't accidentally doing moves you don't want all the time. You aren't dropping combos 9/10 times, even if you only know a basic BNB just don't drop it. Finally the last skill you'd need for Celestial is defense. Offense is incredibly strong in this game but we've been given great defensive options, know when to use FD, learn common match ups and their pressure options (specifically when to risk mashing against them), and know how to take that stray defensive hit or block and turn it into your own offense. After you got all that cherry pick those Celestial matches, everyone does it as the challenge just isn't realistically possible. If you feel like you can't beat someone twice during the Celestial Challenge then don't play them twice. If you're sure you can win then try and keep matching them. Best of Luck with the challenge

Since this comment is long enough I'm adding part 2 in the reply to this comment.

Swap jobs. The game has the massive JP spike to kind of soft cap job levels. It's the game's way of forcing you to switch up your team without actively forcing it since the amount of JP needed to get from 9 to 10 could have gotten you two more jobs to 9. As for what to swap with, probably something that synergizes well with what you're swapping off of. For example if you were a Spell Fencer swap to something like Ranger or Pirate to add elemental damage to your physical DPS, or if swapping from White Mage consider Performer or Salve Maker to add utility and buffs to your healer.

Generally, I get a handful of jobs to level 9 per character. Not huge amounts but around 3-5 at least I'd say. Having a lot of level 9 jobs gives you a whole lot more choices for job and subjob combos, as well as passives, going forwards - which is great for if you get stuck on a boss. it also let's you experiment with more jobs and that might help you decide which jobs you most want to push up in level once JP gains improve.

In Chapter 4, JP increases a decent amount and it starts becoming viable to push for level 10 and above, or you can continue pushing up a few more jobs to level 9 if you prefer (particularly the new jobs you get in chapter 4). Chapter 5 they increase again and it becomes quite easy to level to 10 and beyond.

It’s a soft cap to encourage you to use other jobs if you haven’t already. Don’t be disheartened, you’ll be earning 999 JP per farming fight in no time and blasting through those levels.

I actually grinded out JP Up on all my characters in chapter 2, it just depends on if there's a skill I want.

The game is telling you it’s time to swap jobs.

Real question: How necessary is it to grind?

I barely remembered anything about this game like how spells have a cast time. I just did the Wiegraft battle in Chapter 1. He was level 9 and I was 4-5 still mostly with some basic jobs.

Fun Fact: After you get the buggy, you can battle monsters that appear during the Underwater Reactor Events, in Junon. You just need to go into the room where the soldiers are doing drill and push the alarm and then you can get into battles. I use this for very quick level gains!

Note if your not using any Cheats for Limit Gauge and you are only needing one character to get to their next limit, equip them with Cover Materia so they get hit more often.

Personally I remember preferring the forest near Junon (where you can first get Yuffie) over the Mines as a Limit grind. I remember the enemies there giving better exp and the smallest group you could find was normally 3 enemies, biggest was 5 (and quite frequently) and there was a rare encounter (surprise attack) of 2. If I'm not mistaken the caves were a little inconsistent.

There's a few tricks you can do.

At early game there's a console mission that gives some exp, 12 class exp and 8 BP which can be cleared in less than 10 seconds with a levelled range art which whilst not a lot when spammed over and over isn't to bad.

Next is the Irina method in which you control Irina and take advantage of her Brain Jack art into using servant sacrifice to try and instant kill things a few levels higher than you. This one can be a bit tricky to get to grips with and Servant Sacrifice is fussy as hell to hit as well as landing the initial brain jack can go wrong so be careful with it.

Otherwise as far as Class levels specifically are concerned I wouldn't worry until you unlock a certain method of transportation and then is look up what is referred to as "Joker farming"

Do you have Skells? If so, go to the Greater Gemini Bridge in NW Primordia and repeatedly walk back and forth on the Level 46 female Prone soldier there. Don't draw your weapons, just step on her over and over. You can get your levels up to the mid-40s pretty easily while doing this. And at the same time you can earn enough Class Points for everyone who is currently on your roster.

Enel put a video out on this. Basically get the one heavy skell that has some Thermal Dmg Up effects on its gear, not Mastema the other one, then throw a Phoenix weapon on it and grab a few Insecoid Slayer XX augments and throw it on your weapons (despite being XX this is VERY easy Skell Weapon augment to make). Then there is a ravine in Oblivia with tons of higher level Bugs. You run through pulling them all, then kill them with a single Phoenix. Go watch Enel's video for the exact location and build parameters. That is just the general strategy.

Find any small-size enemies (like Blattas) that are higher level than you and proceed to eradicate them with Skells. Exp is based on level, but enemy difficulty is based on size. So you will be able to mow down hordes of small enemies with ease while still earning the same amount of exp.

Just to clarify, class level is not overall level. Your companions level up even out of your Team, they have to be with you to level up their classes. They'll reach level 30 about the same time as you

Based on the demo, I don't know if there will be random encounters.

They gain half the exp of those in the battle party.

Auto-clicker for the free XP levels if that’s available to you, while you rest/sleep. If not, then as others have said, EXP 7 w/ cactuar event or FF9 event grind for 30k (I think?) per run.

You can wait for the cactuar event that seems to come once a month or wait for the character exp bonus week. Otherwise, yes, that is the most exp per stamina/time at the moment. Though people also use stuff like autoclickers on the free exp stage.

Is there a way to autoclick on steam?

The fastest method of level grinding will vary from team to team. A good rule of thumb is doing the stage that your teams gets to eliminate the scorpion before the tail laser attack. It's a lenghty animation and finishing before it will help. Either way, that's not guaranteed to be the fastest way, cuz you need to take account of reload time for the stage too. Now about stage 7, it's definitely the better ratio of exp/stamina, that's an absolute statement.