I beat the final boss with a Minstrel, Priest, Warrior, and Martial Artist. Lots of attack power + multiheal gets the job done.

To level up fast go to the Bowhole. Get to the final stairway that leads to the boss room, and stand in the topright corner of the little platform it's located on and sit tight while watching the enemies spawn and walk by. When you see a Liquid Metal Slime, pounce on him and finish him of as quickly as possible (if your party's over level 40 then they tend to run away often). Those things will give you tons of XP. I had to grind a Priest up for Multiheal and got her to level 38 this way.

I really need to use the bank in this game! >.<
There where some cool things in the shop a couple of weeks ago but before I checked, I must have died 3 times lol.

thanks for the advice, i'll have to remember about the metal slimes. I just beat the final boss with my Ranger (wolf whistle was my most consistent attack), Paladin, Priest, and Mage. I threw in plenty of Defending Champion and Multiheals & really had no trouble with my second attempt with everyone around lvl 40. Defending Champion seemed to make all the difference for me. Really cool game. What should I do now? I think have a dungeon to find..

I just got Dragon Quest Vi and still have to beat the final boss. I recently found out about the metal bubble slime. I feel like I should get back to DQIX, level my new Sage (who is a lvl 43 mage) to then take 'him' out. I really want to try out all those dungeons but I don't think anyone around carries their DS with DQIX on Tag Mode. Really a shame...

Grind, grind, grind, Squiggle!

I finally took the plunge and bought this game. Coming in the mail next Tuesday.

Those of you who still need tags to fully upgrade the Quester's Rest, this may very well be your last chance to get them. I don't know if I should go to my local event on March 5th in the SF Bay Area.

I recently got the legendary item the platinem pick for Hamish the the bottom of the well in Stornway. anybody know where i can continue that quest after i found the coffin?
I HATE waiting for ice crystals, Fresh waters, and Flurry feathers to respawn!

@Mr.iwantwiipoints: Without spoilers, if you go into your Battle Records screen and access the Quest List option, then Extra Quest, you will find the unlocked bonus quests with a hint on the top screen of what you need to do or rather where you need to go in order to activate the quest if you have not started or cleared it already. You may also need to connect to WiFi to download the new quests.

As for item spawns go, unfortunately, it depends on how long you've been active in your current game and each item spawns at different intervals. It is probably better to put your DS to sleep instead of turning it off in that regard, so it doesn't reset all the timers for different items. For an example, I can clear 2 grottoes before a Yggdrasil Leaf spawns on Pluvi Island or items appear in the basement of the Quester's Rest, about 30-40 minutes I'm guessing, but Coagulant appears frequently front of Stornway, probably every 10-20 minutes.

Anyways, good luck.

@sykotek

Thanks,... and to grottos have you beaten atlas yet i need to knock his socks off for more quests to poen up so i can ivestigate the coffin
and get to repopulating brigadoom

@Mr.iwantwiipoints: I've fought Atlas in over a dozen grottoes. If you continually farm the Level 1 Estark grotto you originally received, you should be able to get him, at least, I think that is how I first encountered him.

He's really rough from what I remember when first meeting him, there's a chance he can kill your party with critical attacks, so no one is truly safe from them without Secrets of the Shield equipped, but as someone else said here, Defending Champion is your friend (I learned that lesson much later), so make sure to use it when you need to heal everyone up. I also don't recall him using Disruptive Wave, so you should easily be able to buff your characters during that battle.

It may take awhile, but you should be able to beat him eventually. Good luck. I'm off to Best Buy to share some grotto maps.

Oh what, I didn't know about the Best Buy events, aaaaargh. So here I am, less than a minute from Best Buy, with no DS. SADNESS.

EDIT: Oh, been meaning to poke around for this but keep forgetting. Is there any reason to use the bank other than in order to not lose money when you die? I tend to spend all my money on items and equipment stuff any time I'm in a town so I never lose too much if I croak, so are there any incentives, bonuses or whatever for keeping gold there?

Wow...that was really disappointing. There was only 1 other person there besides me at my local Best Buy to get the new map. I waited for 2 hours after the event started too! Oh well, at least I gave that person some good maps, so mission accomplished, good deed of the day... completed.

@Jon: The bank's sole purpose is to keep you from losing half your money when your party gets wiped out. You do get some accolades for having x-amount in the bank at any given time, but they're not necessary unless you wanna be known as a...

White Sticker Saver – Save 100,000 Gold in the bank.
Blue Sticker Saver – Save 500,000 Gold in the bank.
Red Sticker Saver – Save 1,000,000 Gold in the bank.
Silver Sticker Saver – Save 5,000,000 Gold in the bank.
Gold Sticker Saver – Save 10,000,000 Gold in the bank.

Source: http://www.joemajewski.com/dragon-quest-ix-list-of-accolades/

@sykotek

thanks i'll probably not be playing for a weekor so, i've been playing goldeneye alot to lvl up and i just bought contra 3 the other day soo... anyways

Party:
Level 19 Minstrel
Level 19 Martial Artist
Level 18 Priest
Level 18 Mage

18 Hours in at Brigadoom. I'm taking the time to grind and learn some unusual skill trees. Plus, my Minstrel is equipped with the critical fan, which I bought from the DQ Wi-Fi Shop. Still wondering when I can start receiving the quest of the day...

@labrat: You'll have access to the extra quests after the credits roll. They're bi-weekly quests at this point, although you should have access the a bunch of them once you see the "ending" sequence, don't get your hopes up, they were never daily downloadable quests. The majority of grinding prior to the end credits are mainly for money, its not entirely necessary to grind much for levels and skills until then, but certain skills are definitely helpful to have in battles...such as the Shield skill, Defending Champion.

I went to a Best Buy event with a friend and we both got 4 tags. Then a couple of days later I sent both of our copies to a friend of mine in Boston who took them to PAX East, and they each came back with 170 tags. Wow.

@kurtasbestos WIN EPIC WIN

I don't have any Wi-Fi maps; nobody near my neighborhood probably has this game :
And even if they did, nobody ever logs on to Wi Fi connection. :/

DQIx was my first RPG, and I do have to say it made me want more!

Dragon Quest ix was my first dragon quest... six months latter I own almost every Nintendo DS Dragon Quest, also I am on the final boss. Grr... curse you Corvus.

Well turns out for the past 2 months I have been looking in the wrong area to get those last two figs, haha.
And oh my gawd, Giga Slash is amazing.

I actually stopped playing because i couldn't beat the last boss.... I am so ashamed of myself.
I should start over leveling my teams...