I pick and choose because I enjoy outfitting my army I mean that ' s the whole point of the game , in a way . Preparation really is half the battle Once you ' ve made it to late Chapter 2 or early Chapter 3 , you can start to autoequip more often and then adjust accordingly after because you ' ll have a better understanding of what you want and what works for you . I ' m glad to hear you sticking with it and I will say this the game has a slow start and I found myself a little uninterested with the story but by the end , I was hitting up every tavern and pursuing ever nook and cranny for more information about the world . It is the best realized world in the series and each chapter ramps things up considerably if you feel like the game is more a political war story than a Final Fantasy game , stick with it it ' s still a Final Fantasy story at the end of the day , through and through Oh and three words of advice for you 1 . Invest in Thieves early , preferably with Ramza . Story fights tend to have the best equipment available though it can be really tough to get you have to basically dominate a fight with shear power or perfect tactics in order to be in a position to exploit this advantage and equipment makes a BIG difference in the game . I ' ll even take it a step further if you don ' t mind spoilers though if you want to discover these tactics on your , I encourage you to learn it yourself ! Have two or three characters with Steal as their secondary and try and corner your victim and surround them . Steal their weapon first and frog them if you can . Then proceed to rob them nakedspoiler 2 . Monks save you money . They ' re a great source of MP if you want to use magic in the early game and can ' t afford pricey Ethers . And they don ' t require weapons to have attack advantages . Monks are a great early way of getting your army started with funds if that ' s what you ' re aiming for . 3 . Make the last person you kill on the battlefield the least interesting opponent , if you can . The reason for this is fallen enemies will become either chests that give you dropped items or even their equipment but sometimes they can become crystals that can grant you an ability ! VERY cool though you have to wait out their death timer . Lastly , I ' ll say there are ways to break the game early and exploit the rules to your favour . But you ' ll have to discover these yourself , since that ' s half the fun