Can I maybe get ideas on the best ways to level up to get lots of growth points? I know staying small and having a follower can help but it still seems to take a long time. I'm also not sure which if the followers you can recruit gives the most exp I'd try fighting the Bandit boss as I've heard he gives the most but problem is Solon usually gets killed due to the hit range of his bat so I'm not sure what to do I have upgraded weapons I know to use the ability tree but unlocking the others requiring sacrificing stats is the problem as you need alot any help is welcome
have you tried to eat plenty of strange fruits? It should be fine to keep those buffs as long as you don't exit or enter the dungeons. I suppose it is a way to make you competitive when facing those elite opponents while keeping your level low(You should notice that the exp needed to level up is way less when your level is extremely low after the sacrifice, right? So you could sacrifice all of your levels every time you finish a battle to maximize the gain)
Or maybe you could cultivate serval powerful followers instead of having buffs, the principle is the same.
Leveling in the early game is so much easier if you unlock the dodge ability asap, also upgrading the broken sword and off-handing it for the XP bonus. (If you go and grab the blacksmith key right away you get a free skill gem and dodge is unlockable without any sacrificing.) You can take on some pretty tough dungeon bosses while under-leveled if you just learn their patterns, dodge while chipping away. Defeat and recruit Bunshido as soon as you can, it's a bit tough to do early on but she is insanely OP and will make mince meat of everything.
Alternatively, here's something cheatier:
Defeat the giant rat at floor 5 of the sewer dungeon so that they appear in town. Shouldn't be too hard if you abuse potion buffs and Size Explosion. Recruit them, confiscate their weapon, then dismiss them. Now you can challenge them to easy boss fights as many times as you want, earning thousands of XP with each win. This also works with barrel master, chimera, bunshido and foreman, so pick whichever you're best at fighting
So far the lime slime is the easiest way to cheese things, but I do find ways of getting more exp is killing bosses that drop boosters, and also yeah, sacrificing stats. I generally just have a go at the companions like giant rat and barrel master, since I can customize their equipment some. And also makign use of that broken sword and ego to bolster exp gains. By giving stats to enemies as well as getting them larger. And upgraded it gives a flat passive EXP boost
There is an exploit, but ya know, same with the slime, easy cheese.