A small-town girl with big-time dreams, Agnea begins her story in the village of Cropdale. Everyone clearly loves her, and after a (fairly) successful performance at the local tavern Agnea needs to collect her tips for the evening. This brings up her Path Action.
Entreat
Agnea's nighttime Path Action is Entreat. Have Agnea perform a little dance for an eligible NPC and she'll request some form of payment. If Agnea's level is high enough she can collect whatever the person has on them. In this case you need to collect Tips from the two people in the tavern with the green word bubbles over their heads. Agnea will need to raise her level to collect more valuable items from other characters later in the game.
Gus, the bartender, will give Agnea the last of the money she needs to finally leave Cropdale. Huzzah! Once the tavern closes you can explore the town a bit.
- There's a save point outside the tavern. Make a point to use these often. Octopath Traveler II can be quite difficult.
- South of the tavern is a house. You can Entreat the Minstrel out front for a Raspberry and an Energizing Pomegranate, and the Elderly Man inside the house will give you an Herb of Healing.
- Just south of the previous house is a dock. Agnea can debark in a canoe if she approaches the end of the dock. To the east is another dock. You'll find a chest containing a Healing Grape over here. Sail west and then north, beneath two bridges, and you'll eventually come to another dock. The chest here contains an Olive of Life.
- North of the tavern is a Taciturn Man who is blocking the entrance to a house that may be a small hog farm. Entreat him for a Healing Grape and an Inspiriting Plum.
- In the northwest of town are two stores that you can't enter and the entrance to the Forest Path, which will be important in a bit. The two Villagers near the stores can be Entreated for a Tough Nut, a Refreshing Jam (though not right now), a Raspberry, and a Stimulating Earring.
- Agnea's home is in the southwest of the village. East of her home is a woman standing on a bridge. Entreat her for a Bottle of Poison Dust and a Shadow Soulstone. She has a Tenacious Bow, as well, though this is well out of Agnea's reach for the time being.
Enter Agnea's home, the one with the flowers around the front door. Her sister, Pala, and her father, Garud, are home, and neither seems all that hyped about Agnea's inevitable depature from the village. An extended cut scene will detail the life of Agnea's mother, a famous dancer. The next day the sisters will decide to help out in the village's upcoming festival, before Agnea leaves town.
Leave Agnea's home and head north to the stores. The item shop and the inn are now open, and you can pick up some new equipment for Agnea. You can either go heavy on offense and get just the Bronze Knife, or go more defensive and purchase a combination of the Dagger, Buckler, and / or Festival Garland. A few Healing Grapes can't hurt either. You'll be getting a bit more money shortly, so don't worry about this decision too much.
Once you're read, head north to the Forest Path.
Forest Path / Festival Grounds
Enemies
- Ancient Fish (water only) - Weak to Dagger, Axe, Wind
- Marmot - Weak to Dagger, Axe,
- Mossy Meep - Weak to Axe, Wind
- Woodland Birdian I - Weak to Dagger, Wind
- Woodland Birdian II - Weak to Dagger
When you first arrive in this area you won't need to fight any monsters, so be at ease. There's a save point to the north, and if you go northwest down the path next to the save point you'll find a chest containing a Healing Grape. You're blocked from going anywhere else in this place right now, so head directly north.
You'll now be at the Festival Grounds, and one of the men will ask Agnea to wrangle up some more helpers. This brings us to her second Path Action. (Though check the right side of the stage for a chest containing 500 leaves before you get started.)
Allure
Again using her dancing as a lure, Agnea can convince NPCs to follow her around, and they will help out during combat by providing their unique skills. Alluring NPCs can only be done during the day. There are two people that you can Allure:
- Standing near the save point on the Forest Path is a Villager who will follow Agnea around. Bring him back to the organizer to unlock the next, er, victim.
- Out front of the inn is another Villager. Drag him back to the Festival Grounds.
The festival preparations go smoothly after that... at least until Gus rushes up. Pala has gone missing in the woods, and there's evidence of a giant boar in the area. Not good. Gus will join Agnea as a full party member, at least for the moment, to find Pala. You should also use Allure to gather up some more help. There are a number of candidates:
- Two Villagers on the stage at the Festival Grounds are eligible. The man is more useful, as he's slightly stronger.
- A Woman on the right side of the Festival Grounds can provide a bit of offensive support with Slash. Across from her is a Minstrel who knows Wind Slash, which is easily the most useful of the skills you can pick up for the next section of the game. At the very least you should bring the Minstrel along for the final battle of this chapter.
- An Elderly Man on the northern bridge back in Cropdale provides Inspiriting Plum support. He's decent.
- A Villager outside a house in the south of Cropdale will use Flash in combat. Quite handy.
- A Villager near Agnea's home can provide A Good Thwacking, which allows Agnea to exploit Staff weaknesses.
You can only Allure one character at a time, and you can only use their special skills a limited number of times before they leave your service. In this case you don't need to be too conservative, since the village will be a short walk away from the coming dungeon, but in the future you'll want to think carefully about deploying NPCs into combat. Some of them are very, very powerful.
Take the western route through Forest Path, and be ready to fight, as monsters will begin to spawn over here. This area is surprisingly difficult considering it's the beginnng of the game, and you may want to run around for a few minutes and level Agnea and Gus so they're prepared to go deeper into the woods. Remember to sprint to speed up the random battles if you decide to do this. Gus is not amazing at exploiting weaknesses with his axe, so make sure you have a good follower to Summon with Agnea. You can also teach Agnea the Sweeping Gale Skill to target Wind weaknesses once you have enough JP.
Just west of the bridge and down a southern side route you'll find a chest containing a Wind Soulstone. North of here you'll find a dock, and if you sail north you'll find a small, abandoned home. Inside it is a chest containing Fur Armor. This is a good substitute for the Traveler's Mantle if you don't feel like spending so many leaves back in the village.
Whether you head there by water or by land, your next destination is in the northwest of the Forest Path. Try to raise Agnea to at least level 5 before you take the next step, as there's a nasty boss not too far in your future.
Veil of Trees
Enemies
Spooky. Before you go too far into this area by land, hop onto a canoe in Forest Path and sail into Veil of Trees. You'll be stopped from making much progress into the area, but you can reach a dock near a chest. The chest contains a Sprightly Ring, which will make Agnea faster in combat when equipped.
Enter by land and head west, up the steps. Sitting nearby is a chest containing a Healing Grape. West of here, across a fallen log bridge and south of the next torch, you'll find a chest containing an Inspiriting Plum. Continue to follow the main path as it winds to the north.
In the northwest you'll see a save point. Before approaching it, check the sides of the main path. There's another fallen log that will take you south, where you'll find a chest containing a Slippery Nut. If you hug the side of the path as you run north you can also find a hidden path leading to another chest. Inside this one is an Olive of Life.
Near the save point, which is already a bad sign, you'll find a Peddler, which is a really bad sign. Buy a few Healing Grapes from the man if you think you'll need 'em, then save up and carry on west to the end of the path. Agnea and Gus won't find Pala, buuuut...
Duorduor
Shields: 5
Weakness: Dagger, Axe, Wind (Duorduor) / Dagger (Forest Marmot)
Drops: Inspiriting Plum
That is a big pig. Agnea's first major challenge, the Duorduor isn't too bad so long as you came along prepared, and leveled up to 6+ before reaching the end of the Veil of Trees. The Duorduor has a few attacks of note:
- A standard melee attack
- Snort and Heavy Snort, which hit Agnea and Gus for moderate damage (more for Heavy Snort)
- Whimper, which deals heavy melee damage and can knock its target Unconscious
- Boar Rush, a heavy melee attack against one target that also buffs the Duorduor
- Forage For Berries, which restores a small amount of the Duorduor's health
During the first phase of the battle the Duorduor will use its melee attack, Snort, and occasionally Whimper to do damage. Once you've Broken it a single time the Duorduor will occasionally become agitated and begin to charge up. If you don't Break it again by its next turn the Duorduor will use Boar Rush to badly damage one character.
Break the Duorduor twice and it will summon in two Forest Marmots to help it. At this point you'll unlock Agnea's Latent Power, All Together Now, which allows single-striking skills to hit every enemy on the field. You can use this to quickly wipe out the Forest Marmots and keep things in your favor. Past this point the Duorduor will unlock Heavy Snort, which is more dangerous than Snort, and Forage For Berries, which is no big deal.
Thanks to its weaknesses it's pretty easy to Break the Duorduor, though you should take care to hold back on pumping too much BP into your strikes. This could leave your team vulnerable when the Duorduor begins to charge up. Use normal attacks to Break the Duorduor, then have one character charge up and use Sweeping Gale (Agnea) or Chop Wood (Gus) to inflict heavy damage to the beast. Agnea can inflate the power of Chop Wood with Lion Dance. Any Summon you brought along will be a great help, though the Minstrel from the festival is by far the best choice.
Defeat the Duorduor and all will end happily, as Pala strolls casually up, completely ignorant of what just happened. The group will then run into Garud, whom you can Entreat for Mama's Dress. This changes Agnea's look from now on, in case you wondered why she didn't look like the game art. Agnea will put on a dance performance for the ages, and the next morning she'll set out to become a star. Chapter complete!