I was looking for the best places to grind after doing the one at the Northern Highplain, you know, where the Behemoth and that big wolf thing are fighting. I got pissed off because I felt like there could have been a faster way, and I found it! Actually, my friend found it for me and told me about it back when we both first got into Gran Pulse, but it's even better now that you can fight the Mature Cactaur with a growth egg. Near the northern pond you will find a Cactaur. This is your first target. Your party should be Fang, Snow, Hope. Go into the battle under the Conservation Paradigm (Sen/Syn/Sen). This way, no one will attack the cactaur while he grows, Snow provokes him, and Hope will buff you. When you get the Enfire effect put on you, the cactuar should already be at it's biggest. Now switch to Delta Attack (Com/Rav/Sen) and blast away at him. This way, the battle will go by a LOT faster because when this cactuar attacks with 1,000 needles he will inflict Pain and Fog which makes you not able to act. Since all the attacks are on Snow, you will be status ailment free and able to attack continuously! Each fight takes about a minute for me. (EDIT: Confirmed time 1:03)
 
When this fight is done, go south a bit (towards the entrance to Vallis Media on your map) and you'll find ANOTHER cactaur very close to the one you just fought. Repeat the fight, and go back to the other one and he will have respawned. Voila, every two fights will give you one orb in the latter half of a Stage 10 Crystarium! 30,000 CP per 1 minute fight.
 
I'm finding this a lot faster than the behemoth monster fight. If you need some clarification on the location, just ask

sweet - ill give this a try!!

lol, the whole game is a grind.
 
Waste of time.

" I was looking for the best places to grind after doing the one at the Northern Highplain, you know, where the Behemoth and that big wolf thing are fighting. I got pissed off because I felt like there could have been a faster way, and I found it! Actually, my friend found it for me and told me about it back when we both first got into Gran Pulse, but it's even better now that you can fight the Mature Cactaur with a growth egg. Near the northern pond you will find a Cactaur. This is your first target. Your party should be Fang, Snow, Hope. Go into the battle under the Conservation Paradigm (Sen/Syn/Sen). This way, no one will attack the cactaur while he grows, Snow provokes him, and Hope will buff you. When you get the Enfire effect put on you, the cactuar should already be at it's biggest. Now switch to Delta Attack (Com/Rav/Sen) and blast away at him. This way, the battle will go by a LOT faster because when this cactuar attacks with 1,000 needles he will inflict Pain and Fog which makes you not able to act. Since all the attacks are on Snow, you will be status ailment free and able to attack continuously! Each fight takes about a minute for me. (EDIT: Confirmed time 1:03) When this fight is done, go south a bit (towards the entrance to Vallis Media on your map) and you'll find ANOTHER cactaur very close to the one you just fought. Repeat the fight, and go back to the other one and he will have respawned. Voila, every two fights will give you one orb in the latter half of a Stage 10 Crystarium! 30,000 CP per 1 minute fight. I'm finding this a lot faster than the behemoth monster fight. If you need some clarification on the location, just ask "

What chapter? I just did vanilles eidolon fight if that helps

the best place to grind is in da club

Your mom is the best grinding spot! I'm sorry, this joke is not aimed at anyone specifically and these jokes are getting old, but I have to make them.

" lol, the whole game is a grind.  Waste of time. "

Definitely gonna give this a shot for my preparations for mission 64 and maxing the grid...really wish there was some high level post game dungeon or something

" @Lambert said:

" lol, the whole game is a grind.  Waste of time. "

I'm sick of people coming into threads which have nothing to do with asking about people opinions of the game, and insisting that the game is garbage. Why do so many people feel the need to declare how much they don't like FFXIII? Must be the leftover sour PS3 fanboys or something, I dunno. This thread has nothing to do with what you're saying, and no one really cares.
 
@CornontheCobbe:  @Fallen189:   It's on Chapter 11, Gran Pulse. I reccommend this for end-game grinding because fighting a Cactaur that big will be pretty difficult. They come in three varieties: Cactaur, Cactaur Level 2 and Cactaur Prime. (I can't remember the name of the 2nd one) but the Prime cactaur are hard to kill as soon as you get to Gran Pulse. I reccommend just taking it slow and just normally fighting the enemies there when you get there, then when you feel you're ready try the cactaurs. Of course, the Growth Egg gives you the most CP (CP X2) and thats from Mission 55 so you will definitely have to progress in the story. "

 Thanks mannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!

Ignore Lambert, he's made it his job to post in every FFXIII thread about how much he hates it.  I don't think it has anything to do about being a sour PS3 fanboy :P. 
 
I usually go for the Ochu pack for my CP grinding, though it got nerfed in the US version (You used to be able to pre-emptive them every fight in the Japanese version).  You get about 26k CP per fight plus some pretty decent drops that can be sold(not great, only like 50-60k per hour in cash, but that's decent for money made while grinding CP).  They drop chocobo parts that you can use as organice weapon parts to get a 3x XP bonus on an item fast as well.  It's a good overall grinding spot with a focus on CP. 
 
The ochu pack is at Paddra's Pasture in the Steppes.　 Need a chocobo to get there, the pack you are looking for is near a chest where you fight the Mission 55 monster.  It's not an overall hard fight, albeit slower in the US version.　If you have decent tier 2 equipment and around 7k HP you should be fine. 
  
You should be able to pull in just under a million CP per hour, depending on how strong you are/how long it takes you to do each fight.　　I hear weaker parties pull in like 700k CP an hour which is still great.

Dude me too, check it out....
 

SWEET RAMPS BRO!

Sounds interesting, but I don't know man, the behemoth and megistotherian is still probably the best one just for CP. I'm destroying them in 3 seconds flat, combined with like 10 seconds of walking time to get them to respawn, it will still be more CP per hour than the Gigantaurs and the Ochus.

Apparently grinding the  Behemoth and Megistotherian gives the highest cp per hour:  http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps3/file/928790/59307 

I just death spam Adamantoises, especially since they drop traps and those ingots that are worth 150,000. The one in Eden is great to grind.

" lol, the whole game is a grind.  Waste of time. "

" @gla55jAw: Sure thing! Ok, so you know where the closest pond is near the Northern Highplain of the Archylte Steppe? Go there. You will know this is the spot because there will be a chocobo standing by the pond. Now this chocobo is directly in the middle of these two cactaurs. They might not show up on the screen from this viewpoint because they load only when you're pretty close to them, but one is close to the pond and the other is closer to those small cliffs you'll see up the hill. "

lol @ grinding aka horrible game design.

" lol @ grinding aka horrible game design. "

" @Lambert said:

" lol @ grinding aka horrible game design. "

No dude your wrong. Most people who play JRPGs enjoy this stuff.   I understand you don't like the game, as you've stated in many threads. And that's fine that you don't like it, but it isn't really necessary to bash it in every thread that pops up. "

" lol @ grinding aka horrible game design. "

Quick question:
The best grinding spot is at the end of Orphan's cradle where the easy 2 minute long fights give you 32,000CP. The guide says I cant go back here, but can I? I reloaded my end game save and have done most of the missions, can I not go back through orphan's cradle again, complete the game again, do the endgame saving which reloads me to teleport to pulse? Cos that should be everyone's favourite CP spot, it's fantastic and I spent 3 hours there before I just didn't think I could go back. I'm going to go try it now actually I'll post my findings soon.
 
Edit: sorry, cant go back I asked someone else, those areas are closed off when you complete the game again. >:(

I still think the fighting behemoth is the fastest, a batlle with lighning/snow/fang all on COM takes 3-4 seconds with 13.2k (with growth egg) it's really quick imo

Once you've gotten enough power, moving onto the Admantoises in Gran Pulse is the best place for grinding.  The trap-components they drop (for ultima weapons) and the platinum ingots (worth 150,000gil) become crucial to end-game hunting.  
 
You'll earn more than enough CP well before you earn more than enough Gil.  Focus on getting Gil and the CP will come naturally (btw, the Adamantoises are worth 40K CP per kill, 80K CP with a growth egg).
 
I used this video to figure out how to set up my party.  With the right stats and the correct weapons (he shows his accessories and weapons at the end of the video), you can down at Adamantoise in 1:30, easy.  
 
Make sure you look at the video's info for an explanation of the Paradigm shifts: