Octopath Traveler II - Which Main Character Should You Choose First?

Best Starter Characters in Octopath Traveler 2

This page is a guide for the best main character to choose in Octopath Traveler 2, including recommended starting characters for beginners and veterans, each character’s unique skills, and abilities, a summary of all character’s special characteristics and features, and other useful tips.

Octopath Traveler 2 Best Party Members

Best Starting Character for Beginners

Ochette (Hunter)

Out of the 8 playable Traveler characters, Ochette is the most beginner-friendly character. She comes with the unique Capture Talent that essentially lets her obtain various monsters and summon them once per battle.

Ochette’s Capture ability lets her keep up to 7 monsters. This allows you to cover up 7 damage types to exploit different enemy weaknesses with just Ochette alone. Some of the monsters that Ochette can summon are incredibly powerful and are able to output up to 9,999 area-of-effect (AoE) damage even from early game.

Ochette can also convert any captured monsters that you no longer need into items using her Prepare Talent. These monster byproducts can then be sold off at high prices in shops and is an easy way to make money in the game.

Octopath Traveler 2 Ochette Character Guide

Best Starting Character for Veterans

Osvald (Scholar)

Osvald is also a good character to choose at the beginning of the game thanks to some useful abilities he has access to early. Among these is his Evasive Maneuvers support skill which reduces the rate of random enemy encounters by half. This allows you to freely explore various locations with less stress compared to other characters.

Another notable ability unique to Osvald is his Study Foe Talent. At the start of each battle, Osvald can discern one of the enemy’s weaknesses which can easily shift the fight in your favor. Bear in mind that exploiting enemy vulnerabilities is extremely important as doing so lets you render the foe into the Break state, causing them to temporarily suffer greater damage while losing their current turn and the next one.

Lastly, Osvald is able to learn different elemental magic attacks that can hit multiple targets. This makes it well-suited for clearing regular battles quickly throughout the game.

Octopath Traveler 2 Osvald Character Guide

Partitio (Merchant)

Despite having average stats, Partitio rounds up the list of the best characters to pick at the start of the game. Unlike Ochette and Osvald, Partitio’s strength lies in supporting his allies using his Donate BP skill, an extremely powerful ability regardless of where you are in the main story.

Partitio’s Donate BP allows him to pass his own BP to any party member. A good way to use this ability is to give Partitio’s BP to an ally with a skill that the enemy is weak against. Doing so lets you inflict high damage on the first turn while reducing the target’s Shield Points (SP) to eventually force them into the Break state.

This is just one of the many ways to use Partitio’s Donate BP. Further, into the game, you will discover new and interesting ways to take advantage of this skill as you take on tougher enemies during the main story.

Octopath Traveler 2 Partitio Character Guide

All Main Character Traits

Character	Traits
Hikaru Ku (For Home)	Can learn a variety of skills with his Learned Skills Talent. Highest stat growth compared to other characters.
Agnea Bristani (For Stardom)	Can obtain items from NPCs at night using her Entreat Path Action. Can lower enemy Shield Points with Ruinous Kick skill. Can give attack buffs to allies.
Partitio Yellowil (For Prosperity)	Can use Donate BP skill to transfer his BP to any ally. Has the passive skill Boost-Start to increase BP at the start of the battle.
Osvald V. Vanstein (For Revenge)	Can challenge enemies to obtain items from them using his Mug Path Action. Can reduce random enemy encounters with Evasive Maneuvers for more stress-free exploration. Can reveal one enemy’s weakness at the start of battle using Study Foe.
Temenos Mistral (For Truth)	A valuable healer, Learns various recovery magic and revive magic, Can automatically debuff all enemies at night using Moonlight Judgement Talent.
Throné Anguis (For Freedom)	Can steal items from NPCs during the day with Steal Path Action. Increases experience points and money earned in battles at night, Automatically buffs all allies at night using Blessing of Darkness Talent,
Ochette (For Legends)	Can use Capture Talent to obtain monsters and summon them in battle. Can easily cover various damage types to exploit different enemy weaknesses by summoning monsters. Can potentially deal 9999 AoE damage even from the early game. Has increased the chance to encounter rare monsters with a unique support skill. Can use Prepare Talent to convert captured monsters into items.
Castti Florenz (For Memories)	A valuable healer. Can use Concoct Talent to craft various useful items.

The main character cannot be removed from the party

The main character you choose cannot be removed from the party until Chapter 5 (The Final Chapter). Because of this, try to pick a Traveler with good all-around skills as your main character if you do not have any particular preference at the start of the game.

Octopath Traveler 2 Permanent Events and Missable Features Guide

You will, however, be able to switch out your main character once you have cleared Chapter 5. Since it will take a while to reach the end chapter, try to decide on your main Traveler carefully.

Choosing a character that you like is the best

Overall, the best way to decide which character to choose first is to go with the one that you like. This decision can be based on the character’s overall design, job class, playstyle, story, and even voice actor. Keep in mind that you will eventually be able to recruit all characters to your party so you will not miss out on being able to use any of the Travelers in battle.

Note that you can go through the prologue episodes of all playable characters in one round of play. Because of this, feel free to start with the Traveler you like the most as the main character.

Each main character has different primary jobs, roles, and skills but you can eventually recruit all of them by progressing through the various story chapters.

Take the Octopath Traveler 2: Traveler Diagnosis Test (Personality Test)

The Official Octopath Traveler 2 Square Enix JP website has an Octopath Traveler 2: Traveler Diagnosis feature that will help you decide the main character to choose at the start of the game based on your personality. Try taking the test if you still do not know which Traveler to pick for your first run of the game.

Octopath Traveler 2 Traveler Diagnosis Test

Note that the Octopath Traveler 2: Traveler Diagnosis test is only available in Japanese. You can use your browser’s auto-translate function to view the personality test questions in English.

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