Main Walkthrough

The majority of Side Stories in Octopath Traveler II are not connected to one another. There are only a few exceptions, and The Traveler's bag, From the Far Reaches of Hell, and A Gate Between Worlds constitute one such quest chain. You'll trigger the chain early in your journey, but you won't be prepared to finish it until you've more or less completed the rest of the game. 

This guide will take you through all three Side Stories. Completing the first two quests is not a big deal. Completing the third, though... hoo boy.

The Traveler's Bag

Location: Varies with starting character
Reward: 1,00 leaves, Slippery Nut, 3 Healing Grapes

Your first brush with this questline comes immediately after your starting character completes the first chapter of their story (or, in Osvald's case, his second chapter). Where this Side Story takes place depends on your character:
  • Osvald - Southern Cape Cold Snows
  • Castti - Western Canalbrine Coast
  • Temenos - Eastern Flamechurch Pass
  • Ochette - Northern Beasting Traverse
  • Partitio - Southern Oresrush Wilds
  • Agnea - Eastern Cropdale Trail
  • Throné - Eastern New Delsta Highroad
  • Hikari - Northern Ryu Sands
Regardless of the route you're on when you leave your starting town you'll run into Al, a young man in a pickle. Someone has stolen his bag. The thief, a Glowering Man, is somewhere on the route during the night. Talk to him until the man, revealed to be a Brigand, attacks. He's weak to Polearm, Dagger, Axe, Staff, and Light, and should give you no trouble.

Take Al's Bag back to Al to complete the Side Story. He'll gratefully accept the bag and leave.


From the Far Reaches of Hell

Location: Montwise
Reward: 4,500 leaves, Coat of Arms

Head to Montwise and visit the Library in the north of the town. If you complete the Procuring Peculiar Tomes Side Story you'll find Al on the east side of the Library. He's trying to read one of the tomes you donated to the Library, but it is written in a language he can't decipher. He'll need a translator.

In order to find said translator you'll need to travel to the Nameless Isle, a Danger Level 38 dungeon located in On the Water. You'll need to complete one of Partitio's Scent of Commerce quests to get a boat that will allow you to reach Nameless Isle. Defeat the Gigantes at the end of the Nameless Isle's path and you'll discover an explorer named Georges Lazuli. Scrutinize him to learn How to Decipher Unknown Languages. Take this info back to Al to complete the Side Story.


A Gate Between Worlds

Location: ??? / Gate of Finis
Reward: Spurning Ribbon

Head back to the open sea and sail to the southeast corner of the map. You'll need to defeat the Scourge of the Sea to access this area, if you haven't already. Down here you'll find an island known only as ???, and if you completed From the Far Reaches of Hell you'll discover an open gate in the middle of the island. Inside is Al, terrified and injured, and speaking to him will trigger the Side Story.

This area should look frighteningly familiar to players who completed the original Octopath Traveler. There's a save point a little ways north of Al, and if you go up the stairs past the save point you'll be subjected to, by far, the most dangerous boss battle in Octopath Traveler II. Feel free to try it whenever you like, but you will not be winning this fight unless your party is kitted out for end-game combat. Unless you are an absolute expert at these games, consider getting every one of your party members above level 80 at a minimum.

Ready? Well, alright then... divide your party up into two teams, then get ready for the onslaught.


Omniscient Eye

Shields:
  • 8 / 16 (Omniscient Eye)
  • 5 (Wailing Soul)
  • 5 (Screaming Soul)
  • 4 (Raging Soul)
Weaknesses:
  • Dagger, Axe, Staff, Lightning, Light (Omniscient Eye)
  • Sword, Axe, Bow, Wind, Light, Dark (Wailing Soul, phase 1)
  • Polearm, Axe, Bow, Ice, Wind (Screaming Soul, phase 1)
  • Axe, Staff, Ice, Wind, Light (Raging Soul, phase 1)
  • Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Light (All Souls, phase 2)
Drop: Nothing
Steal: Nothing

He's baaaaaaaack. Yep, Galdera has returned from the first Octopath Traveler, and he's even more difficult than last time, if such can be believed. You'll need to defeat two versions of Galdera to complete this Side Story, and both of them are utterly brutal. The Omniscient Eye, Galdera's first form, uses the following attacks:
  • Eternal Rancor, which protects the Omniscient Eye from all damage (Omniscient Eye)
  • Counter Reflection, a reflective barrier on all body parts that counterattacks anyone who uses an attack that doesn't target a weakness (Omniscient Eye)
  • Spatial Dominion, a Fire effect aura that damages your party each round (Omniscient Eye)
  • Spatial Prison, an Ice effect aura that drains your party's SP each round (Omniscient Eye)
  • Searing Orb, a heavy Fire attack against a single target (Omniscient Eye)
  • Elemental Veil, a buff to every enemy's elemental defense (Omniscient Eye)
  • Elemental Drain, a debuff to every character's elemental attack (Omniscient Eye)
  • Electrocute, a Lightning attack against the entire party (Omniscient Eye)
  • Contamination, a single-target attack that Poisons and Blinds the victim (Omniscient Eye)
  • Eternal Darkness, a Dark attack that hits the party three times (Omniscient Eye)
  • The unholy eye shudders, removing buffs from the entire party (Omniscient Eye)
  • Tainted Touch, a physical attack against a single target (Wailing Soul)
  • Umbral Strike, a physical attack against a single target that can inflict Blind (Wailing Soul)
  • Rend Flesh, a physical attack against the whole party (Raging Soul)
  • Overpower, a heavy physical attack against a single target (Raging Soul)
  • Strike of the Dead, a physical attack against a single target that debuffs speed (Raging Soul)
  • Drag Below, which temporarily removes one character from the party (Raging Soul)
  • Nether Flame, a heavy Fire attack against a single target (Screaming Soul)
  • Dark Resentment, a heavy Dark attack against a single target (Screaming Soul)
  • Delayed Incantation (1), an SP drain that goes off after one turn (Screaming Soul)
  • Delayed Incantation (2), a OHKO that goes off after one turn (Screaming Soul)
  • Delayed Incantation (3), a Fire attack against the whole party that goes off after one turn (Screaming Soul)
  • Delayed Incantation (4), an Ice attack against one target that goes off after one turn (Screaming Soul)
  • Shatter Mind, a physical attack that depletes SP from one target (Screaming Soul)
  • Self-Immolation, a Fire attack against the whole party that also kills the attacker (Screaming Soul)
The Omniscient Eye begins the battle by summoning a Wailing Soul, a Screaming Soul, and a Raging Soul. It will then make itself invulnerable to all attacks, and grant a reflective coating to its subordinates that will trigger a heavy counterattack if you use any attacks that do not target a weakness. After this the Omniscient Eye will largely provide buffs and debuffs while its minions attack your party, though the Eye also has a few attacks of its own. 

The three Souls act as a chain, and must be defeated more or less simultaneously. If you only kill one or two and then allow the Omiscient Eye to get a turn it will bring the Souls back one-by-one. You will also be subjected to a heavy Dark spell against the whole party if you kill a Soul when one of them is not Broken. Defeating the Souls will leave the Omniscient Eye vulnerable, and you'll get several rounds to smash the Eye more or less with impunity. Once you've Broken the Omniscient Eye it will swap to an ice aura that will steadily drain your SP.

Do enough damage to the Omniscient Eye and it will revive its Souls with the majority of their weaknesses - which are now all elemental - locked. Whenever you strike one of the Souls it will shift its weakness to the next one in line. The weaknesses start off out-of-sync, so trying to strike everything simultaneously will see your characters punished by two of the Souls, unless you manage to Break them in the process.

Continue to damage the Omniscient Eye and the Souls will be returned to their original weaknesses. This time around they will have a colored aura around them, and three of your four characters will have a colored number matching these auras over their heads. When the timer runs out the character will die... permanently. No comebacks. The one upside is that the Omniscient Eye will be vulnerable to attack, rather than being locked away by the Souls.

Get past this part and the Omniscient Eye will summon the Souls one last time, but sacrifice them for a 10,000 HP bump. It will then increase its shield count to 16, and move its attacks per round up to four. At this point the battle is a slugfest, and if you can survive, well, you win. The Omniscient Eye's four attacks can wipe out your party, so keeping it Broken is crucial to your survival.


Fighting the Omniscient Eye and its Souls requires a great deal of precision play on your part. There is very little room for error, and choosing actions poorly can prove lethal for your party. You need to Break the Souls as quickly as possible, then heap on massive amounts of damage, then keep the damage coming on the Omniscient Eye. Although the methods for doing so vary from round to round, in general you want to follow this pattern:
  • Build up BP on your characters
  • Use Skills to rapidly Break the Souls
  • Debuff the Souls' defenses to maximize the effectiveness of your incoming attacks, and, if you can manage it, buff your own attacks
  • Build up BP again, most likely
  • Mash the Souls within two, maybe three moves
  • Break the Omniscient Eye
  • Build up BP again and continue to mash the Omniscient Eye until it comes out of its stun - if you're lucky it will use an attack on you, if not it will bring the Souls back and begin the cycle again
How you proceed through this cycle depends on the party you choose to pit against the Omniscient Eye. Everybody has their pluses and minuses, so we'll go through them one-by-one:
  • Castti is indispensible, as her Concoctions allow you to pummel your party with BP, and you'll need every single point to get through the battle. Combine Pomegranate Leaves, Diffusing Serum, and Strengthening Serum on a regular basis and you'll have more than enough BP for Breaking your enemies. Castti's also good at quickly chewing up shields on the Souls using Blusterbloom, the only element they all share in the first and final phases. When she's not dishing out BP Castti can use Hired Help as a Merchant to rip the Souls to pieces. If you aren't putting Castti on your team you'll more or less have to employ an Apothecary with Dohter's Charity to compensate for her absence.
  • Hikari's a solid choice for this phase. Not only can he dish out a ton of damage with his EX Skills - Shinjumonjigiri is a godsend - he has the weapons needed to tear down the shields of two of the three Souls. Turning Hikari into a Merchant will also allow him to use Hired Help on a regular basis, which is almost a necessity for this battle.
  • Agnea is good in both phases. If you choose to bring her along here she can use Windy Refrain to pick apart the shields on all of the Souls, as well as shift your characters forward during the next round of combat. Agnea also tends to be fast enough that she makes a good Thief, if you decide to use Aeber's Reckoning to dish out tons of damage during Breaks.
  • Osvald is a solid damage-dealer in this battle thanks to One True Magic, and if you equip him with the Stone of Truth all of his magic will hit twice rather than once. This is a great tactic for Breaking Souls during the second phase, when you can only target a single weakness at once. Osvald makes a great Cleric in this battle, healing away damage from the Omniscient Eye's auras and using Aelfric's Blessing to give your characters (preferably your Merchants) extra turns.
  • Ochette can prove quite useful in this round thanks to her companion animal. Boost her up, then use Provoke Beast and send out her companion to chip away at weapon weaknesses up to six times. This tactic is especially useful during the second phase, assuming your companion is Mahina, since she goes after elements rather than weapon weaknesses. Ochette can also use her Beastly Howl Latent Power to debuff the Souls in preparation for an assault, and many of her Provokes can do likewise. 
  • Throné will likely serve a similar role as Agnea in your party, using Aeber's Reckoning to tear up the Souls in (hopefully) a single turn. Throné can also put her Latent Power to good use, essentially gaining a free turn each round. Her speed makes Throné a decent choice for an Apothecary if you decide not to use Castti, though this will keep her too busy to attack most of the time.
  • Partitio serves as another Hired Help attacker, and his Latent Power makes him great for chipping away shields with his normal attacks. Using him to feed your characters BP when Castti / an Apothecary is busy can also prove useful under some circumstances. You can also just make Partitio your Apothecary, and he can use Dohter's Charity on himself to provide everyone with BP on a consistent basis.
  • Temenos is useful primarily as a healer, and can serve in any Job relatively well. Give him the Stone of Truth and he can fill more or less the same role as Osvald, albeit without One True Magic to deal tons of damage. Temenos's Latent Power is good for Breaking Souls in the second phase of the fight, though always keep in mind that if he doesn't Break a Soul using his Latent Power he's in for a nasty counterattack.
Breaking the Souls is half the fun in this battle. You have many options for doing so, though the only attack type that hits them all without triggering counterattacks is Wind. Wind Soulstones and Agnea's Windy Refrain are both solid options, though less-than-desirable since they only remove one shield. Besides that you'll need to use Boosted normal attacks that target weaknesses, or Skills that hit one target multiple times, to chip the Souls down. Hired Help - Beastling is perhaps your best weapon in this regard. Once the Souls are out of the way Breaking the Omniscient Eye is pretty easy.

Doing heavy amounts of damage - like, 20,000+ per turn, per attacker - is crucial to winning this battle. You have a number of options for doing this:
  • Hired Help - Veteran Soldier or Foreign Assassin (Merchant - you'll need a looooot of money to keep using this move, but it is one of the most useful Skills in your repertoire)
  • Brand's Blade (Warrior)
  • Draefendi's Bow (Hunter)
  • Aeber's Reckoning (Thief)
  • Sixfold Strike (Armsmaster - use this on single targets only)
  • Lionheart's Axe: On the Hunt (Armsmaster)
  • One True Magic II (Osvald)
  • Shinjumonjigiri (Hikari)
  • Any of Hikari's Latent Powers
Ideally you want to pair these Skills with offensive buffs on your party and defensive buffs on the enemy that will maximize your damage. Most of your characters have buff and debuff options, though Ochette is perhaps the best thanks to her wide range of useful Provokes. Her Latent Power is also great at swiftly debuffing every enemy on the field.

Once you reach the final phase of the fight it is crucial to Break the Omniscient Eye and keep it Broken. Continue to do damage once you get rid of the Souls for the final time, but try to hold back plenty of BP on your party members so they can not only Break the Eye, but annihilate it with their best attacks. If this isn't possible then try to line your team up with defensive buffs that will keep them alive through the Eye's four-turn onslaught. The fight is almost over when you reach this point, and losing can crush your spirit after such a lengthy battle.

Did you win? Great! Alas, defeating the Omniscient Eye is only one half of the fun...


Galdera, the Fallen

Shields:
  • 99 / 20 (Galdera, the Fallen)
  • 9 / 15 (Abyssal Maw)
  • 9 / 15 (Blade of the Fallen)
  • 9 / 15 (Sundering Arm)
Weaknesses:
  • Dagger, Polearm, Bow, Ice (Galdera, the Fallen)
  • Sword, Polearm, Axe, Bow (Abyssal Maw)
  • Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Light (Blade of the Fallen)
  • Sword, Dagger, Axe, Fire, Light (Sundering Arm)
Drop: ?
Steal: Nothing

Yep, the Omniscient Eye was only Galdera's, er, undercarriage. Now you're face-to-face with the god, and he is... unhappy. Pitted against the four characters that you didn't use during the first battle, Galdera, the Fallen is as nasty a boss as they come in Octopath Traveler II. If you've been hoarding powerful items over the course of the game, this is the time to use 'em. Galdera, the Fallen uses the following attacks:
  • Normal melee attacks (all enemies)
  • Veil of Darkness, which renders Galdera's main body immune to attacks (Galdera, the Fallen)
  • Augmentation, an offensive buff to one target (Galdera, the Fallen)
  • Reflective Barrier, which reflects spells back at the caster (Galdera, the Fallen)
  • Auspices of the Fallen, which prevents debuffs from afflicting the target (Galdera, the Fallen)
  • Wave of Nothingness, which removes all buffs from your party (Galdera, the Fallen)
  • The veil of darkness expands, which reduces the shields of Galdera's main body but buffs those of any remaining components (Galdera, the Fallen)
  • Create Soul, which recovers shield points for Galdera every turn (Galdera, the Fallen)
  • Exterminate, a two-hit physical attack against a single target (Galdera, the Fallen)
  • Banish Soul, a Dark attack against your whole party (Galdera, the Fallen)
  • Crushing Death, a two-hit Dark attack against your whole party (Galdera, the Fallen)
  • Meteor Storm, a multi-hit, randomly-targeted attack against your whole party (Galdera, the Fallen)
  • Eternal Void, a heavy Dark attack against your whole party (Galdera, the Fallen)
  • Impending Doom, a single-turn OHKO move against a single target (Galdera, the Fallen)
  • Consume Aether, an attack against your whole party that drains their SP, granting a buff to elemental attack for every part of Galdera (Abyssal Maw)
  • Consume Soul, which steals BP from the party to restore shields on Galdera's components (Abyssal Maw)
  • Consume Life, which steals HP from the party to restore Galdera's components (Abyssal Maw)
  • Frozen Hell, a three-hit Ice attack against your whole party (Abyssal Maw)
  • Hell's Thunder, a three-hit Lightning attack against your whole party (Abyssal Maw)
  • Hellwind, a three-hit Wind attack against your whole party (Abyssal Maw)
  • Shadow Eye, an offensive debuff against the whole party (Abyssal Maw)
  • Sweep, a melee attack against your whole party (Blade of the Fallen)
  • Shrieking Blade, a heavy melee attack against your whole party that can inflict Terror (Blade of the Fallen)
  • Misfortune Strike, which cuts health off of the party's HP totals (Blade of the Fallen)
  • Almighty Sweep, an even heavier melee attack against your whole party (Blade of the Fallen)
  • Body Blow, a heavy melee attack against one target that also eliminates BP (Blade of the Fallen)
  • Vorpal Strike, a heavy melee attack against one target (Blade of the Fallen)
  • Arcane Sphere, a heavy Dark attack against a single target (Sundering Arm)
  • Wave of Darkness, a Dark attack against your whole party that can inflict Blind (Sundering Arm)
  • Healing Seal, a debuff that prevents the target from using healing spells or items (Sundering Arm)
  • Physical Seal, a debuff that prevents the target from using physical Skills (Sundering Arm)
  • Magical Seal, a debuff that prevents the target from using magical attack Skills (Sundering Arm)
Galdera begins the battle with three components helping him: Abyssal Maw, Blade of the Fallen, and Sundering Arm. The Maw provides offensive magic attacks and some leeching skills, the Blade mashes your party with brutal physical attacks, and the Arm is a mixed bag with debuffs and spells. For the most part Galdera's body provides buffs for the other components, and doesn't do anything to your team all that often. You can't hurt the body during this phase of the fight.

As you do damage to Galdera's various components they will become more powerful, particularly the Blade of the Fallen. Defeat two of them and the third will receive a hearty shield buff from the main body, as well as an extra attack per round. Defeat the final component and Galdera's main body will enter the battle, boosting its attacks per round to four and employing a wide range of powerful attacks. Galdera will also cast Create Soul, which bestows two shields upon the monster every round, with seemingly no upper limit. (99, perhaps?)


There are fewer changes as you progress through this fight, compared to the battle with the Omniscient Eye, but that's almost worse. Galdera is almost unfairly powerful, and you need to go the same route if you want to beat him. This fight practically begs for you to rig your team so they can quickly obliterate Galdera's body parts, then resist his attacks. Otherwise your team will likely get pounded to dust within two or three turns.

Your first order of business is to obliterate Galdera's body parts. There are two ways you can do this:
  • Use a steady stream of attacks from your whole party, all smacking the body parts in tandem, to take them out over time
  • Greatly buff a single character and let them demolish the body parts on their own
If you take the former route you'll like use Hired Hands to get rid of shields and health, then use EX Skills to finish off the rest of each component's HP. If you take the latter route you'll need to do something along the lines of the following to power up your single attacker:
  • Make them an Armsmaster, and outfit them with items that boost their attack power
  • Equip Alpione's Amulet on the attacker so they do more damage the lower their health
  • Use Sealtigce's Seduction (Dancer) on the character so they can hit every enemy at once
  • Buff their physical attack with a Skill or an item
  • If possible, debuff the physical defense of the components so they'll take more damage
  • Use a Forbidden Elixir on Armsmaster to max out their BP and SP and reduce their HP to one
  • Use Lionheart's Axe: On the Hunt to attack the components
If you do all of the above Galdera's parts should fall in a maximum of two hits, and possibly one if you luck out. You'll need a few rounds of tense preparation, but this method is a fair bit safer than trying to fight Galdera normally. 

Regardless of the method you use you'll also need to defend your characters against Galdera's attacks, as they're just too powerful to ignore. You have a few options for doing this, as well:
  • Have Hikari use the Divine Protection Learnable Skill. He can learn it by Challenging and defeating the head Cleric in the church in Canalbrine. Combine this with Sealtigce's Seduction and everyone in the party will be rendered invincible for several rounds.
  • Have Partitio Hire the Cleric from Canalbrine (she'll be in her room at night, on the west side of the church) and Summon her. You can only Summon the Cleric twice, and she costs a hefty 150,000 leaves, but she'll grant your party members two rounds of Divine Protection.
  • Combine Sidestep with Sealtigce's Seduction. This won't protect you against Galdera's magical attacks, but it will stop the Blade of the Fallen from wiping out your party for several rounds.
  • Use Temenos's Prayer for Plenty on your party members. This will boost their HP counts well above their normal maximum, giving you more room to absorb Galdera's attacks.
There are a lot of factors to consider when forming a team for this battle, especially given that half of your party also needs to fight the Omniscient Eye, so we'll go through everyone once again:
  • Hikari is an MVP in this battle. Not only is he great at filling in the role of the Armsmaster, he's the only person who can reliably use Divine Protection. Combining the two is a natural choice. Keep Hikari stocked with SP, BP, and Sealtigce's Seduction and he'll handle the most important roles. If you don't want to make Hikari the Armsmaster he still has an extremely powerful Learnable Skill in Limb from Limb, a four-strike Sword Skill that you can pick up from a Sanctum Knight in the Sacred Guard Headquarters in Stormhail. He's in the room on the left, guarded by another Sanctum Knight.
  • Partitio is excellent in this battle for doling out BP, and if you make him a Dancer he can more quickly reapply Sealtigce's Seduction to your Armsmaster than just about any party member. Partitio can also learn Negotiate Schedule, which, at a steep fee, will out and out stop any of Galdera's components from taking their turn. Note that Negotiate Schedule does not work against Galdera's main body.
  • Agnea makes a great party member for this section, both thanks to Sealtigce's Seduction access and because she can learn and use Windy Refrain, which rearranges the turn order to your benefit. Her ability to quickly apply Skills to the whole party also makes her a great Inventor, if you want to make the components susceptible to Critical or just heal the whole party. Given her usefulness as a utility character you should steer Agnea's build away from attacking.
  • Castti is just as useful here as she is in the first battle, and should take on the role of restocking everyone with BP and SP via her Concoctions. If you decide to use her here then make sure someone in the first Galdera battle becomes an Apothecary and uses Dohter's Charity to dole out BP.
  • Ochette is a great candidate for your primary attacker if you decide not to use Hikari, and her Provoke Beasts Skill can prove invaluable for applying a variety of buffs and debuffs. Her Beastly Howl Latent Power is particularly good for reducing the defenses of Galdera's components.
  • Throné can prove quite handy thanks to her Latent Power, which gives her two turns in a single round, as well as her attack power via Aeber's Reckoning. If you decide not to use Hikari as your primary attacker then Throné is not a bad candidate, though her higher-than-average speed will often make it difficult to buff her before she can go on the offensive.
  • Temenos gets a lot of use in this battle thanks to his access to Aelfric's Blessing, which can grant your attackers and utility characters an extra turn at the end of the round. He's also pretty good at disposing of shields, if need be, though shield disposal is less of a priority in this battle given how Galdera works in the latter half. Come into the fight at night with Temenos in the party and he'll also enfeeble all of Galdera's components, freeing up a turn for something else.
  • Osvald is handy primarily if you take the time to buff his magic via Alephan's Wisdom. If you decide not to go the physical route with your attacker you can boost Osvald's attackers instead, obliterating Galdera's components with One True Magic III. 
Regardless of your team composition, it is crucial that you balance offense and defense in this fight. Maintaining everyone's BP, buffs, and Skills (like Sealtigce's Seduction) is just as important as doing damage. This version of Galdera has less HP than the Omniscient Eye, but its components hit like a mack truck if given the chance. Spend the first few rounds getting everybody set up, healing as needed. Outfitting your whole party with the A Step Ahead Inventor Skill, as well as the Boost-Start Merchant Skill, will make this a bit easier. 

It is important to note that, unlike virtually every other battle in Octopath Traveler II, disposing of Galdera's shields is of secondary importance here. Yes, it can be handy to have a round to yourself, but it takes so long to Break Galdera and its components - particularly in the second half of the battle - that you're better off just focusing on defense and damage output. Throw up Divine Protection often enough and Galdera won't be doing any damage anyway.


Manage to defeat Galdera, the Fallen and you will have successfully completed what is by far the most difficult feat in Octopath Traveler II. Well done! In the aftermath you'll learn something crucial about Al, who will take his leave, and you can carry on with your journey. (Though, uh, the chances are pretty good that Galdera was your last stop, so...)