It’s the fodder that counts

Whether you’re grinding skirmishes or tearing through story missions, know that your skill points and experience are based on the KOs you pick up. Sure, just gunning for the immediate objectives to complete a mission will get you to victory faster. However, if you take the time to make a dent in a dense mob of small fry, you’ll rack up rewards way faster.

With that in mind, if you do decide to grind via skirmishes, aim for battles that involve a large force to optimize your KO count. Battle Arts that inflict wide area-of-effect damage around you will help out a lot here, especially if you can use attacks that inflict huge damage on enemy commanders while you simultaneously clear the field. You don’t necessarily need to go wild on every pack of commander-less enemies you see on the battlefield. However, at least making a quick dent on packs of foes as you see them will net you a modest chunk of EXP.