Early Game PL Guide for Chars & Materia at the same time

Before starting this grind you must have obtained the buggy. Min lvl recommendation is 20.

Having some tents and hopefully you have the 4 summons up to this point. Lightning All and Restore All will be beneficial for first starting this grind.

Once you have obtained the buggy head back to Costa De Sol. From here take the boat back to Junon. Now head back to the Submarine Dock where you will see soldiers do rifle drills. Note that the building with the #59 on the right just 2 screens before the Sub Dock is an inn with a save point.
Screen following the inn.
Now head to this area.
From here push [OK] on the red box and red lights will go off.

Their is only 2 different mobs that will appear.

This one I recommend running from until you find very easy to kill as rewards are good but not great for the time it takes to kill. It also has a very strong attack called 100 Needles that will severely hurt based on your equipment and lvl.

This mob can come in a group of up to 3.

This is the recommended mob to fight as the rewards are well worth the battle.

700xp and 70ap 1500gil per mob.
Largest group I've seen is 3 and I believe I've seen up to 5 when I did this on PS1.

My recommended startegy since gil won't be an issue is to buy multiple [tents] from the store merchant and use the tents to restore your HP and MP faster than sleeping at the inn. The biggest issue here will be MP consumption as you will want to use [Choco/Mog] to try and freeze the mobs as their poison from the smog attack can become aggrivating. [Talisman] will prevent Poison but not the damage received from the attack itself.

Finally the best payout is as you level so does the characters you dont have in your party and the characters you will get down the road. This spot is pretty fast and good up to at least lvl 50 but i usually take it abouve and beyond. Good luck out their and happy hunting.

Their are better places to AP farm once you get the submarine, but for early game this is the best place I have found so far that is the most time efficient.

This was my gear during the farm.
Sephiroth!