To get hold of Octopath Traveler 0s The Battle System is not that difficult, especially if you are familiar with the other games in the first HD-2D series. But there are plenty of quirks to 0, not the least of which is the eight-member active battle party, which can shake things up in some notable ways.
True newbies to the Octopath scene will get more out of this quick guide than hardcore vets, but we've made sure to include at least a little that should be helpful even if you've already toured Orsterra 2018 and experienced the glory that is Partitio 2023.
Triangle strategy
Warrior, Mage, Rogue. Octopath Traveler 0 has eight classes, and there's certainly a lot of subtlety between most of your potential party members, but by and large, you'll be able to recognize the broad strokes here – there are archetypal warriors, magicians and villains divided into the various jobs, without mistaking it.
Apparently there is actually a warrior classbut I'm talking more about any character whose primary purpose is a mix of melee hits or dealing lots of physical damage. So, not only a true Warrior, but Hunters also fit, as well as various specialty classes that you will encounter with some special characters.
My point in all of this is to be on the hunt to find the famous RPG trinity and to ensure your party has all bases covered. Better yet, have a warrior, a mage, a rogue, and a curewhose primary function is thus separate from a “mage” which would instead be fixated on hitting enemies hard with lots of elemental damage.
As you follow this, you will discover it swords, spears, knives, axes, bows, tomes and staves all come to your party's arsenal quite naturally. Most elements will also get coverage, though you'll need to use skill mastery to cover any lag. (I found light-elemental attacks strangely lacking in options early on.) Fans are the only weapon you might not find in your party by proxy here, but that can easily be fixed.
A good break makes a good reprieve
Smashing a powerful enemy is not just a chance to strike – it is a chance to recover. This is less important against “regular” enemies, but once you're up against elite enemies that appear on screen and block treasures until they're defeated, you'll find that many of them have strong attacks that can hit your entire front row at once. This is certainly true for most managers as well.
You should aim for chip away at a tough enemy's shield points as a rule, Of course. But if you're in hard difficulty, looking to heal, and that enemy only has a handful more shield points before breaking, a good rule of thumb is to go after that split and use their dazed phase, not just to blast them with everything you've got, but to get your team working again.
Think of it this way: you're guaranteed to keep those well-timed heals on your battered party; there's no worry that your opponent will surprise you with a particularly deadly strike and reverse all your HP gains. Not until their turn order is finally up again. Speaking of that…
Maintain vigilance on tour orders
Not only should you always keep an eye on the turn order listed at the top of the screen, but yyou should also remember that things can change if you or your enemy uses speed reduction techniques, which will happen quite often. You'll see the affected target's upcoming action pushed back several spaces in real-time, reflecting the change, and it can help you adjust your strategy for the next round.
What's more, when you gain access to skills with descriptions that mention causing the target to act at the end of the turnfeel free to equip this on at least one character.
Not only will it keep the bosses at bay a bit longer (it's hardly infinite, but using it every other turn or so will have a visible effect), but it's especially useful against Caits, the flighty cat-like creatures that drop EXP when defeated but require high precision attacks (or luck). Disrupt the timing of their next action buying you time before they inevitably flee the battlefield.
Keep your best gear in rotation
High quality gear is limited, and your wallet sure will be, with a cast as big as Octopath Traveler 0's. Instead of having several prepared and ready suboptimal party ideas, make it a point to press “Uequip All” when you remove a character from your active party, so someone else can use their equipment instead.
Similarly, try to avoid the temptation to sell all equipment strapped to party members you never lose. Without diving into spoiler territory, you Power find yourself controlling more than eight party members at once during a very specific battle at the end of the game. Don't do like I did (let them go into the fight with zero protection).
Stealing can give you double loot
Many bosses in Octopath Traveler 0 will drop skills, and many more will drop stat-boosting nuts. Some will have decent (albeit rarely if ever unique) gear as well. The same goes for elite enemies. Generally speaking, if a boss or elite can be stolen from, their held item will be what they would have dropped after the battle.
There's a nice catch, though, which is that you'll still get the drop. In other words, you'll end up with not one but two skills, nuts, gear, what-have-you. Stealth techniques are hard to come by early on, but in time you'll have a handful of ways to do this. Make sure you always have at least one in your party.
“Save scumming” can drive you up
If you don't mind doing that, you can save your game between attempts to receive valuables via Path Actions on the dozens upon dozens of NPCs that populate Orsterra's many settlements. If something has, say, a three percent chance of success, you might feel like you'd be wasting time trying it this way, but it's always there if you change your mind.
For something more in the 15 percent range or more, though, it shouldn't (theoretically) take too long to eventually get the odds lined up in your favor. The success rate is calculated by the NPC's set stats (Wealth, Power or Fame – they have each) relative to what your own stats are in that category.
Eventually, few things will be difficult to obtain, but for the vast majority of your adventure, the game doesn't really expect you to sidestep potential risks to the city's reputation and eventually grab the ultra-powerful weapons long before you're “supposed” to.
Get Olberic ASAP
When the quest triggers to get the Octopath Traveler 1 Warrior Olberic, Soldier of the Fallen Hornburg, go ahead and do it. It should occur about halfway into the Power distributor bow, if I remember correctly; whether or not you regularly check the menu for uninitiated quests, you'll get to it when you can.
The point is, Olberic has the ability to surpass the Forceand you will really want to start hacking out copies of it, because it allows characters equipped with it to deal more than 9,999 damage – up to 99,999 damage. At the end of the game, this is not only very useful; it can feel outright expected. Those final bosses have hundreds of thousands of HP!
