Main Walkthrough

Danger Level: 52

One of a handful of dungeons accessible only by sea, the Curious Nest is located in the bay between Canalbrine and Conning Creek. In order to reach the Curious Nest you'll need access to On the Water, an area explorable by having a boat. Partitio can help you get a boat via his Scent of Commerce quest, specifically the one in Tropu'hopu.

Once you're On the Water you'll also need to defeat a Battle-Worn Shark that is guarding the bay between Canalbrine and Conning Creek. The On the Water guide covers this battle. Once the shark is gone you can say north of the channel it was guarding to reach Curious Nest.

Enemies

  • Cetus Maximus - Weak to Polearm, Staff, Fire, Dark - Drop / Steal Strengthening Serum
  • Davy Bones - Weak to Axe, Staff, Wind, Light - Drop / Steal Bottle of Blinding Dust
  • Reaper Crab - Weak to Polearm, Dagger, Axe, Fire - Drop / Steal Inspiriting Plum (M)
  • Sea Anemone - Weak to Sword, Polearm, Axe - Drop / Steal Dreamy Flower
  • Tyrannodrake (must defeat area boss) - See below for weaknesses - Drop / Steal Revitalizing Jam
  • Vagrant Frogking I - Weak to Sword, Staff, Wind, Dark - Drop / Steal Healing Grape (M)
  • Vagrant Frogking II - Weak to Sword, Staff, Wind, Dark - Drop / Steal Enfeebling Flower
  • Vagrant Frogking III - Weak to Dagger, Bow, Ice - Drop / Steal Healing Grape Bunch
  • Winged Landwalker - Weak to Sword, Axe, Lightning - Drop / Steal Olive of Life (M)

The Curious Nest is, indeed, curious, at least from the point of view of a dungeon. Rather than taking you around a twisting, turning area the Curious Nest consists of a northbound path with a single side path, this leading to a chest containing an Herb of Serenity. On the second level of the nest you'll find a save point, and if you continue up the stairs you'll find a room full of treasure chests... and something guarding them.

Tyrannodrake

Shields: 10
Weakness: 
  • Sword, Polearm, Dagger, Axe, Bow, Staff (first phase)
  • Polearm, Dagger, Axe, Wind, Light, Dark (second phase)
Drop: Revitalizing Jam
Steal: Nothing

Hoo boy. What looks like a ragged, fairly innocuous dragon quickly becomes one of Octopath Traveler II's more annoying bosses. The Tyrannodrake is a difficult enemy to defeat if you don't know its gimmick going in, and even when you do you still need to choose your attacks wisely. This battle can quickly become a slogfest if you run in with guns a-blazin'. The Tyrannodrake uses the following attacks: 

  • Adaptive Evolution, which removes a weakness from the Tyrannodrake every time it is struck by a weapon until there is only one weakness left
  • Physical Degredation, a debuff to everyone's physical attack and defense
  • A normal melee attack
  • Charge, a heavy melee attack against a single character
  • Blinding Claw, which damages and Blinds a single target
  • Horrific Claw, which damages and inflicts Terror on a single target
  • Bestial Roar, a physical attack against the whole party
  • Eclipse, a Dark attack against the whole party
  • Rotting Breath, a charged attack that damages everyone and reduces their maximum HP by 500 for the duration of the battle
  • Mutation, which restores several weaknesses and brings in three elemental weaknesses
The Tyrannodrake uses the same attacks throughout the battle, though it will introduce its charged-up Rotting Breath a little ways in. For the most part, what you see at the beginning of the battle, you'll continue to see at the end of the battle.

All six of the Tyrannodrake's weaknesses start out exposed, and they're all weapon weaknesses. The trick here is that each time you hit one of its weaknesses that weapon will be removed from the Tyrannodrake's list, until there's only one weakness left. Get the Tyrannodrake down to around half health and it will use Mutation to bump its weaknesses back up to six, though this time there will be three hidden, elemental weaknesses. Once again, the last weakness standing will be the only one your team can target.

You'll want to enter this battle with the capacity to target every weakness, though you'll really want to be able to exploit two of them. For the first round of weaknesses you should go with either Swords, using Aggressive Slice, or Bows, using Precise Shot. Use up every weakness type but the one you can exploit, then piledrive the Tyrannodrake once it is down to the single weakness. Do the same once it uses Mutation. It's more difficult to absolutely mash the Tyrannodrake's shields in the second half, though Thieves can use HP Thief to great effect.

Get stuck? You have a few alternative options for fighting the Tyrannodrake:
  • Put Temenos in your party. His Latent Power allows him to knock off shields regardless of the weapon or spell he's using. Feed him BP and keep his Latent Power gauge filled.
  • Have Agnea / Dancers use Ruinous Kick over and over. It also ignores weaknesses and gets rid of shields.
  • Use Osvald's One True Magic EX Skill, which, once again, ignores weaknesses. You'll need to complete Osvald's story to learn One True Magic.
  • Forget about the weaknesses and just fight the Tyrannodrake straight. Debuff the heck out of it - particularly its speed - and use a combination of powerful spells and EX Skills to demolish its HP. True, you won't do as much damage as you would if it were Broken, but with the right powerhouses in your party it's a feasible tactic.
Regardless of how you get past the Tyrannodrake, you'll be free to plunder its treasure once the beast is gone. There are five chests in the Tyrannodrake's room, and they contain two Decaying Dragon's Essences, a Tornado Glaive, a Lost Tribe's Bow, and a Fang of Ferocity. Nice haul.

Main Walkthrough