Main Walkthrough

Octopath Traveler II is a fairly complicated game, similar to its predecessor. If anything it is more complex than the original Octopath Traveler, bringing over the vast majority of that game's mechanics and adding a few more on top. It's pretty easy for a beginner to get lost when starting a new game.

This guide will cover the basics of Octopath Traveler II, including character selection, navigation, and combat. You'll be ready to dive into all eight of the game's stories before you know it.

Character Selection

When beginning a new game of Octopath Traveler II you'll need to choose between one of eight different characters. This character will be the team's leader, and until you complete their storyline - which is typically around four chapters long - they must remain in your party at all times. Each character has their own Job, set of Skills, Path Actions, and general specialties. When choosing a character from the world map you should take the time to read their descriptions to decide which one best suits your playstyle.

Choosing a character to start does not mean that you are precluded from recruiting the other seven characters. In order to see the entirety of Octopath Traveler II you'll need to travel to each character's starting location and play through their introductory scenario. You do not have to recruit them all to see the credits roll, but facing the 'final' boss of the game requires you to pick them all up at some point. You can change your party composition in the taverns spread throughout the game.

Which character you choose to start off the game is entirely up to you. They're all good in their own ways. If you're new to Octopath Traveler and want to start with a bit of an advantage, however, you may want to go with either Osvald or Ochette. Osvald's spells are great at quickly demolishing whole groups of enemies with ease, while Ochette is an all-around good fighter who can quickly target a wide variety of weaknesses, more than perhaps anyone else at the beginning of the game. 

(In fairness, though, you should go with whomever looks the best to you. They're all perfectly viable as a starting character. You'll just have a harder time running around as, say, Temenos, who specializes in healing and needs backup pretty early to do damage.)

Any character that you recruit after the first will appear immediately after you enter their introductory town. You have the choice of seeing their first chapter through or skipping it. If you want to play through the chapter later, go to the tavern in any town. Note that if you skip the chapter the character will join your party at level 1, and will need some work to bring up to speed with the rest of the party.

Navigation and Danger Levels

Octopath Traveler II consists of a series of interconnected maps that form a long trail through the world of Solistia. The towns and locations that figure into each of the eight starting chapters are all part of an uneven corridor that allow you to collect each of the characters early on, if you choose. As you complete chapters in each character's story new chapters will appear in outlying towns and cities, and you'll need to travel into new, more dangerous territory to push narratives forward.

Whenever you approach the entrance to a new area the title of that area will appear on the screen. If a Danger Level is included, that means you are headed into a combat area. The Danger Level indicates the approximate level at which your party members should be before they proceed. The non-linear nature of Octopath Traveler means that the game won't hold your hand if you try to enter areas early, so don't be surprised if you get walloped trying to tackle a Danger Level that's above your party's pay grade.

As you explore you'll occasionally find small pedestals with books on them. These are save points. You are highly encouraged to use save points whenever you come across one. Octopath Traveler II is not an easy game, and it gets more difficult as it goes along. Don't lose precious progress because your team fell in ill-advised combat.

Once you have visited a city you can use the World Map section of the main menu to fast travel to that city. You cannot fast travel to other locations such as dungeons or field areas.

Path Actions

Each party member in Octopath Traveler II receives two Path Actions. Path Actions are field abilities that allow your active party members to interact with NPCs in towns or in the field in particular ways. The effects of many Path Actions overlap, though they usually differ from one another in small ways. In general Path Actions allow you to do the following:

  • Recruit NPCs to follow your party around and become Summons
  • Capture non-Job Skills for use in combat
  • Gather items
  • Gather information
  • Fight NPCs
Each character has Path Actions that correspond to the game's current time of day. Osvald, for example, can use Scrutinize during the day to collect information from NPCs. During the night, however, he can instead use Mug, which allows Osvald to challenge NPCs to single combat. If Osvald wins he can steal an item from the NPC. You can change the time of day whenever you like, so long as the function isn't locked by the plot.

Path Actions typically have requirements before they will work on an NPC. These requirements are as follows:
  • Use an item in your inventory
  • Give the NPC a specific amount of money
  • Be a certain level
  • Complete a task, such as fighting the NPC
Path Actions not involving the exchange of items or money usually have a percentage chance of working. If you try to Steal from NPCs as Throné, for example, there may only be a partial chance that she'll succeed. If Throné fails to Steal an item her Reputation in that particular town will be tarnished, and if you fail too many times you'll be barred from using any Path Actions. If this happens you can speak to the bartender in that town's tavern and pay them off to return your Reputation to normal.


Combat Basics

Octopath Traveler II is a turn-based JRPG. This means that combat takes place on an open field, between two teams of characters. Everyone takes their turn based on their speed, relative to one another. Turn order is displayed at the top of the screen. 

The goal of combat is fairly simple: Defeat all of the enemies on the field before they defeat your party. You do this by using attacks to reduce the enemy's Hit Points (HP) to zero, removing them from combat. This is done through a combination of normal attacks and the use of Skills, which requires the expenditure of Skill Points (SP). If any of your characters are reduced to zero HP they are knocked out, and must be revived to return to the fight. If all four of your party members are knocked out it's Game Over. The HP and SP stats of your characters are displayed in the top-left corner of the screen.

Although each character and each Job has its own commands, every character can use the same basic commands in combat:
  • Attack - The character hits an enemy with their weapon. Some characters can have multiple weapons equipped at a time, and you can swap to a different weapon by moving to the left or right.
  • Item - The character uses an item from the party's inventory to either heal a friend or harm an enemy. Items are purchased in stores, collected from treasure chests in towns, field locations, and dungeons, acquired via Path Actions, or dropped by defeated enemies.
  • Defend - The character sacrifices their action to raise their defense.
  • Flee - The whole party attempts to run from the battle. If successful the fight immediately ends. Flee cannot be used during certain storyline battles, or in boss battles.

Shields, Weaknesses, and Breaking Enemies

Each enemy you encounter has a number and a series of boxes under its sprite. The number indicates the number of shields the enemy has, and the boxes indicate the enemy's weaknesses. Exploiting both is crucial to defeating enemies and winning battles.

The first time you encounter a particular type of enemy all of its weaknesses will be blacked out. It is your job to use different types of attacks on the enemy to reveal their weaknesses. Every enemy of that type will thereafter have their weakness icons displayed, allowing you to more easily target their weaknesses. The attack types that you can exploit, both weapon-based and magical, are as follows:
  • Sword
  • Polearm
  • Axe
  • Dagger
  • Bow
  • Staff
  • Fire
  • Ice
  • Lightning
  • Wind
  • Light
  • Dark
Whenever you strike an enemy with their weakness they will immediately lose one of their shields. If that enemy is reduced to zero shields they Break, stunning the enemy for a single turn and greatly reducing their defenses. This usually gives you the opportunity to pile on with your characters and defeat your target. Your attacks won't do that much damage if you don't Break enemies first, so exploiting weaknesses is a must-do in Octopath Traveler II. The weaknesses your weapons and Skills target is displayed beside their names in the menu.

In addition to Breaking enemies to do additional damage, you'll also need to do it for your own safety. Many bosses in the game will perform a charging move, heralded by dialogue on the screen and an ominous purple aura around their sprite. If the boss reaches their next turn they will use an especially harsh move to badly harm your characters. Breaking a boss while they are charging in this manner will stop the move in its tracks and save your team some pain.


Boost Points

The stats of your characters, again in the top-right corner of the screen, also include five dots with the letters BP beside them. Each turn your characters take one of these dots will light up. This indicates your character's current number of Boost Points (BP). 

BP is used to power up the moves of your characters, and can be applied to almost every attack with the push of a button. (Which button depends on your system. On controllers it's typically the top bumpers.) Applying BP to an action typically has one of three effects:
  • It increases the number of attacks used on a single enemy. If you pump three BP into a character's normal melee strike, for example, that character will hit their target four times, once for their original attack, and three more times for the BP they expended.
  • It increases the power of Skills. Hikari, for example, can use BP to make his Sword Skills hit harder, while Temenos can use BP to bolster the healing strength of his spells.
  • It increases the number of turns a buff lasts on an ally, or a debuff on an enemy. Where one of Agnea's dances might buff someone for two turns, applying BP can make the buff last four or six turns instead.
You can apply three BP to any one action at a maximum. Each character can build up five BP in total before it stops accumulating.

The strategic use of BP is critical in combat, especially when fighting bosses. It can be tempting to push all of your BP into a single, powerful attack at any given time, but if you're too hasty you may find your team unable to react when a monster is charging up a powerful move and needs to be Broken within one or two turns. As a general rule of thumb it's wise to let at least one of your party members conserve their BP for sticky situations.


Latent Powers

New to Octopath Traveler II, Latent Powers are special abilities unique to each of your characters. Beside the stats of each party member is a circular gauge that fills as party members take damage and / or Break enemies, and once it fills completely that character can use their Latent Power. Latent Powers allow that character to inflict hurt on the enemy party above and beyond the norm.

Latent Powers are single-use only before they need to recharge. That said, once a Latent Power is charged, you can hold on to it for an opportune moment. Use these attacks wisely.


Leveling, Jobs, Skills, and Job Points

As you win battles your characters will receive experience. When a character receives enough experience they will go up a level. As characters go up in level they will grow generally stronger. Each character has their own specialties in regards to their stat progression, so Hikari will always be a better melee fighter than, say, Osvald, who leans more towards spellcasting.

When you start a new game of Octopath Traveler II each character will be restrained to their current Job. Eventually, however, your characters will acquire the ability to equip secondary Jobs on top of their starting Job, granting access to additional weapon and Skill options. These Jobs intially consist of the Jobs of the other party members, though eventually you'll find other, unique Jobs to equip as well. Characters will always retain the abilities of their original Job, and only one person can equip each Secondary Job at a time. You can change this with some Secondary Jobs by acquiring Licenses, allowing up to three characters to equip the same Secondary Job (in essence allowing the whole party to consist of a single Job, if you wish).

As you defeat enemies you'll also gain Job Points (JP). JP can be used in the menu to acquire new Skills for your character. Skills can be purchased in any order you like, assuming you have enough JP. Skills become progressively more expensive as you buy more for a particular Job, requiring thousands of JP to fully master a Job.

As you acquire Skills from a Job your character will also learn Support Skills. Support Skills are passive additions to your character that provide bonuses and mechanics changes in combat. Unlike Skills, which are permanently tied to a particular Job, you can equip Support Skills however you like. Proper use of Support Skills can make characters much more powerful. Always reconsider your equipped Support Skills when changing Jobs.


Talents

The last mechanic we'll look at is Talents. Talents are abilities, unique to each character, that have a wide range of effects. Partitio and Agnea, for example, gain access to additional bonuses when Summoning characters into a fight, while Throné and Temenos automatically provide buffs and / or debuffs if they're in the party during the night. Talents are oddball abilities, and they can range from decent (Hikari's Learned Skills) to indispensible (Castti's Concoctions).


Summing Up

The information presented above may look daunting at first, but the basics are actually pretty basic. The Octopath Traveler games have excellent mechanics, and rather than being incredibly complex off the bat they take the basics and mess with them more and more as you proceed through the game. The best way to learn how to play is simply to play, even if that means losing the occaisonal battle. The dungeons in Octopath Traveler II are never so long that losing progress is a rough blow, just so long as you remember to save your game on a regular basis. Enjoy!

Main Walkthrough