This guide will show you all of the information you need to know as a complete beginner, along with some useful tips to help you play the game more efficiently.
Starting Out (Rerolling & Choosing a Path)
Upon starting the game, you will be given a free random 5★ Traveler. Any of the 5★ Travelers that you can potentially get from the starting rolls can carry you to the endgame. Though if you only want the best 5★ Travelers and are willing to reroll for them, then here are my suggestions:
Lynette (Healer) Viola (Debuffer & Breaker) Fiore (Balanced DPS Unit)
After choosing your starting 5★ Traveler, you will be presented with three paths to take: Wealth, Power, or Fame. Each path will let you start off in different zones with different NPCs, enemies, story quests, and bosses. But since you can change which quests you want to prioritize later anyway, feel free to choose whatever path you want to try out first.
The Influence System
This game has an Influence System for the three paths — Wealth, Power, and Fame. Improving your Influence allows you to get Rubies and even account buffs such as Gold/EXP acquisition boosts. You can improve your Influence levels by farming Influence through the following methods:
Pulling Travelers in the gacha Upgrading a Traveler’s Job Board Clearing story quests
Three Kinds of Story Quests
Clearing Story Quests is one of the best ways to farm Influence. It also allows you to farm tons of free rewards like Rubies and Leaves. Here are the three kinds of Story Quests in the game:
Main Story Quests Side Story Quests Traveler Story Quests
#1: Main Story Quests
Out of all three Story Quest types, Main Story Quests will give you the most Influence and rewards. Each path has its own Main Story Quests, and the type of Influence you earn depends on which path that MSQ belongs to. TIP: When it comes to Main Story Quests, it is advisable to clear the chapters of each path one at a time. If you do this, you’ll have time to strengthen your party before each chapter.
#2: Side Story Quests
Side Story Quests allow you to explore storylines that are mostly unrelated to the main storyline. While they’re just optional, I still recommend accepting these quests whenever you come across them. You can farm Rubies here — not to mention that Side Story Quests in this game are actually good. They’re not just throwaway filler quests unlike in other RPGs!
#3: Traveler Story Quests
Traveler Story Quests are unlocked as soon as the Travelers required for them are obtained by you — in the gacha or otherwise. You can find these TSQs in random places on the world map, but mostly in cities where there are a lot of NPCs. Make sure to actively seek them out. While they’re optional like Side Story Quests, they also allow you to farm much-needed Rubies and Influence.
All Jobs & What They Do
Each Traveler has a Job, and every Job type has a specific role to fulfill in a party. Here’s a brief guide on each Job type and what they can do for your party. Warriors are balanced units with decent DPS and relatively high Hit Points. They use Swords and they excel at soaking up damage for your party whilst also providing some damage output. Apothecaries are tank-healer hybrids who use Axes. They excel at healing their party and whittling down enemy HP with their decent offensive abilities. Merchants are high Defense units with Provoke skills that attract enemy aggro. They use polearms (spears) and they’re the best at tanking damage from the enemy. Dancers are MDPS-buffer hybrids who use Fans. They excel at giving your party all kinds of buffs and attacking enemies with element-based skills. Thieves are high-speed attackers who use Daggers. They excel at debuffing enemy units and tearing apart their shields regardless of weaknesses — allowing you to Break them easier. Hunters are one of the best DPS-oriented Jobs in the game. They use Bows and they excel at dealing high damage through single-target and multi-target attacks. Scholars are the best MDPS units in the game. They use Tomes and they excel at single-target and multi-target attacks using element-based skills. Clerics are the main healers of any party. They use Staves and they excel at healing party members. They can also provide decent DPS with offensive element-based skills when they’re not healing. TIP: If you’re a beginner, I recommend that you create a party that covers at least half of these Jobs — preferably even all of them. A multi-Job setup will help you Break enemies more often since their Shield Count is still relatively low in the early game.
Combat Guide
Combat in Octopath Traveler: COTC follows the traditional turn-based strategy gameplay we see in most conventional JRPGs, but not quite so. Here’s a brief guide on how to navigate the Combat menu and how to use the features in it.
Attack
Clicking the “Attack” button will execute all of the actions you’ve chosen for each Traveler in that Turn. If you click the “Attack” button without choosing a specific action for each Traveler, they will automatically do normal attacks in that turn instead.
Skills
Skills are learned through the Job Boards and cost SP to cast. The higher the impact of the skill, the higher the SP cost will be. They are further categorized into elements and target types, so make sure to read skill descriptions first by holding the Skill Icons to bring them out.
Turn Order Meter
The Turn Order Meter is decided by one stat that all of your units and enemy units have — Speed. The higher their Speed, the faster they’ll be able to get their turn as soon as you click the “Attack” button.
Boost
You can Boost your unit’s actions by swiping a specific skill/attack icon you want to boost — as shown in the image above. Your Boost Gauge (orange orbs) increases by one orb every turn and is consumed every time you boost your units’ actions. Boosting your attacks and skills allow you to either increase their damage, effects, and duration (for buffs & debuffs). TIP: If you want to Break an enemy faster, boosting the normal attack of an ally whose weapon they’re weak against is recommended. This is because the Shield Count of an enemy is decreased not by total damage, but rather by hit counts.
Switch
To Switch, simply click on the icon highlighted in the lower-right part of the image above. Switching allows you to swap front row and back row units. There are two rows in a team’s formation:
Front row (can attack & can be attacked) Back row (can’t attack, can’t be attacked, & recovers HP and SP every turn)
The main reason why you should Switch often is to keep low-health units out of harm’s way and to let them recover HP and SP in the back row. TIP: You can also pull off great combos by switching. Try switching to your back row units whenever the enemy is in a Break phase and Boost their attacks. They’ll deal significantly more damage regardless of the enemy’s weakness.
Break
Breaking enemies involves decreasing their Shield Count (the blue shield icon under their names) to 0. You can do this by attacking them with weapons or element-based skills they’re weak against. After being broken, enemies won’t be able to do anything for 2 turns and your units’ damage will also be significantly increased. TIP: You can make the most out of a Break phase by applying DEF and MDEF Down debuffs to an enemy right before you Break them. Doing this requires some degree of understanding of the Turn Order Meter and the Speed of your units, so make sure to review them properly!
Powering Up Units
There are several methods that you can use to beef up your Travelers to make them more effective in combat:
Level Up Learn Skills (Job Boards) Equipment Limit Break Awakening Rarity/Grade Up
Method #1: Level Up
Leveling up your units increases their stats across the board. You can do this by either feeding your units Experience Nuts or by taking them into battle. TIP: If you have a lot of Experience Nuts in your Inventory, make sure to distribute them equally among the Travelers in your party. Do this in the early game at least, since you’ll benefit more from having multiple level 15s than a single Level 25 whose low-level teammates keep dying on them.
Method #2: Learn Skills (Job Boards)
You can earn Job Points by leveling up. These Job Points can be used on your Job Boards (or your Learn Skills page) where you can unlock nodes containing stat boosts and skills. TIP: Some nodes may not be worth unlocking — especially in the early game. What’s worth it and what’s not is up to you, but make sure to check each node before unlocking them to save your Job Points.
Method #3: Equipment
Most equipment can either be bought from NPCs or crafted in the Smithy. Some you can get as mail or quest rewards.
Equipment pieces can be categorized according to their level. The higher the level, the more effective they’ll be against enemies.
TIP: While it isn’t necessary, I still recommend that you equip your Travelers with equipment pieces that are at least the same level as your current enemies.
Equipping level-appropriate gear will help you conserve your HP and SP when going up against enemies of the same or higher level.
Method #4: Limit Break
Limit Breaking increases a unit’s level limit — allowing them to reach higher stats through leveling up. You can do this by using either of these materials:
Traveler Guidestones Bronze Guidestones Silver Guidestones Gold Guidestones
Traveler Guidestones are obtained by pulling duplicate Travelers in the gacha. Bronze, Silver, and Gold Guidestones can be farmed from Daily and Weekly Tasks, Exchange Shops, or Events. TIP: You can use Traveler Guidestones together with the other Guidestones for Limit Breaking depending on the rarity of the Traveler.
Method #5: Awaken
Each Awakening Stage gives your units various stat boosts along with additional skill slots (only at certain stages). Like Limit Breaking, this method also requires Guidestones — except for 5★ Travelers who need Awakening Stones instead. The main method of obtaining these Awakening Stones is pulling duplicate 5★ units from the gacha. TIP: Awakening all Travelers up to Stage 2 is recommended for that extra skill slot. Though as a beginner, you’ll be fine without it regardless.
Method #6: Rarity/Grade Up
If your Traveler is either at 3.5★ or 4.5★ rarity, then you can unleash their full potential by using Seals and Sacred Seals. You can farm Seals and Sacred Seals from Hunt Dungeons which you’ll unlock later in the game. So if you’re a beginner, then you don’t have to worry about this method at all. Both 3.5★ and 4.5★ Travelers are nearly identical to their full-starred versions. You’ll do just fine with them up to the middle to late stages of the game.
Octopath Traveler: COTC General Tips
While Octopath Traveler: COTC is more of a laid-back casual RPG that you should play at your own pace, there are still some things you can do to improve your quality of gameplay.
Tip #1: Hunt Down Caits
Caits are rare monsters that appear in random places all over the World Map. They drop lots of EXP and Leaves when killed. There are many different kinds of Caits — each of them as harmless as the other (they only deal 1 damage per hit). The rarer the kind, the more EXP and Leaves they drop. Make sure to kill them as soon as you find one. Show no mercy!
Tip #2: Hunt Down Elite Monsters
Even though they don’t drop as much EXP or Leaves as Caits, I still recommend hunting Elite Monsters every day. They spawn in random places on the map — mostly in hidden locations. They also respawn a while later after they’re killed, so you can come back to kill them again whenever you want. They drop expensive items which, when sold to the Smithy, will give you tons of Leaves in addition to crafting materials.
Tip #3: Use “Find” For Random Caits and Rewards
The “Find” feature gives you 3 random Cait battles and 3 random items. Pretty cool, huh? The only catch is that you need to watch some good ‘ol advertisements first before you can claim them. Regardless of whether you hate ads or not, I highly recommend using the “Find” feature — especially if you’re a beginner. The average runtime of each ad is 30 seconds, and that comes out to about 3 minutes on average per day of watching ads. Not a bad tradeoff for potentially huge rewards!
Tip #4: Always Talk to NPCs
NPCs are the lifeblood of every story-based video game. That much is also true for Octopath Traveler: COTC. This is why you should always talk to NPCs and use the “Inquire” feature on them. This feature allows you to obtain items from them or even recruit them as temporary allies! The chances of you succeeding in taking items from them or recruiting them as allies depends on which path they acknowledge and how high your Influence is on that path.
Tip #5: Always Complete Your Dailies and Weeklies
Your Daily and Weekly Tasks are one of the best sources of Memory Shards and Guidestones in the game. You can also consider them as consistent sources of Rubies — allowing you to farm over 300 Rubies per month. If you want to earn a free multi-pull at the end of every month, then don’t forget to complete these tasks regularly!
Octopath Traveler: COTC Do’s & Don’ts
Here’s a brief list of things that you absolutely should and should not do as a beginner in Octopath Traveler: COTC. Do’s
Do your Daily and Weekly tasks Do talk to NPCs regularly Do hunt down Caits every day Do hunt down Elite Monsters every day Do use the “Find” function in the Menu every day Do go to the Smithy regularly to sell materials and craft equipment Do go to the Inn to completely restore all of your Travelers’ HP and SP
Don’ts
Don’t be satisfied with underleveled equipment Don’t spend Rubies on anything but the regular banner if you’re F2P Don’t spend too many EXP Nuts on one Traveler Don’t solely focus on clearing Main Story Quests only Don’t waste Sacred Flames (you can only use them one time to fully heal your team) Don’t fail more than five times when battling or haggling with NPCs Don’t be a hero – it’s smart to flee as soon as you encounter an enemy you can’t beat
