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Octopath Traveler 2doesn’t just feature a meatier series of main quests than its predecessor; its developers also seem to have listened well to fan criticisms that the first game lacked enough side content. By contrast, this sequel’s brimming with it, including stuff we never expected to see.
Related:Octopath Traveler 2: Best Endgame Builds
‘A Tower of Trials’ is a prime example. Available only after completing Hikari’s fifth and final chapter, this quest takes you up the Five-Tiered Tower in a series of boss fights unlike anything else in the game. Each features its own set of challenges, but the reward - the Conjurer job class! - is worth the effort.
How To Begin ‘A Tower Of Trials’
The big thing to worry about here iscompleting Hikari’s entire story, all five chapters of it. Without getting into spoiler territory, we’ll simply say there’s a pretty good reason you can’t casually visit the city of Ku until after this objective is met. You won’t exactly be welcome here, so knocking on some tower door asking to participate in a ritual wouldn’t go over well.
From there, it’s simple stuff.Just head to the Five-Tiered Tower in Kuand speak with the person guarding the entrance. Insist you’re ready for the long haul, and you’ll soon face your first opponent.
We recommend your characters be at least level 50 before attempting this quest. The higher the better, obviously, but anything above 58 or so is probably overkill!
First Floor: Gken
We’re not sure how to put this gracefully, so we’re not going to bother.Gken is a joke. You’d have to come here with a small party composed exclusively of characters you’ve seldom bothered leveling in order for the guy to be a real issue. His weaknesses includeDaggers, Bows, and Wind.
Gken doesn’t hit hard, nor is his HP anything to write home about. He’s here to weed out the trash, we suppose. On to the real fights.
Save after every fight to avoid needing to redo the whole thing from the start if a fight goes south for you!
Second Floor: Ichchadhari The Snake Charmer
Unlike Gken,Ichchadhari can be a real threat. Ichchadhari begins the fight by summoning a pair of, well, snakes - go figure. This foe is fast; fast enough, in fact, to double or even triple your characters' turns at times. This is a fairly common tactic in the ‘Octopath Traveler 2 boss programming’ rule book - with four-character player parties, heightened speed can become mandatory for fights to get feisty.
First, let’s talk weaknesses:Ichhadhari is weak to Daggers, Bows, Polearms, and Darkness. As for her venomous friends,the snakes are weak to Swords, Axes, Ice, and Light. So, this is one of those battles where coverage for every enemy weakness is going to be awkward - just focus on a couple for each.
Ichchadhari’s strongest attack,Twin Snake Spin, can be prevented by knocking out one of the snakes. As the name implies, its usage hinges entirely on having those two snakes at her command. The bulk of this team’s other attacks involvedebuffs, primarily strength-lowering and paralyzation.
Your primary approach here should beconsistently breaking the snakes' defenses, as Ichchadhari on her own can’t do nearly as much when they’re impaired. Have characters who wield Swords and Axes hammer away at them. If you’re using multi-target elemental spells,Ice and Lightare smarter than Darkness, since they’ll crack the defensive crust of two out of three foes.
Third Floor: Tyran The Seeker
We didn’t find Tyran as irritating as Ichchadhari, as the tonfa-wielding fellow is more straightforward; that said, we reckon our levels (55+) had a lot to do with our high degree of success here.Tyran’s physical strikes hit hard, so while we can’t say for certain, we’d wager they’re hard enough to knock characters out cold if they lack the HP pool to endure.
Tyran’s weaknesses includeSwords, Bows, Fire, and Darkness. With 100k HP, the fight won’t be over in a blink (unless you have access to incredibly powerful moves, in which case this entire guide’s a bit unnecessary for you).That sword weakness is key,however - bringHikarialong, plus someone else who can wield the weapon type, and you may carve through hiseight (!) shieldsquickly enough to offset Tyran’s big hits.
In general, it’s best to usecharacters with high physical defensehere, since Tyran is relentlessly physical in his battle style. Osvald is fantastic 99% of the time; this is that 1% in which you might consider shelving him.
Fourth Floor: Audnvarg
Well, no one told us a werewolf was up here, but it’s too late to back down now. Oh, and Audnvarg has a single add - an enemy that fights alongside him - but it’s pathetic enough to die within a single round if you target it, so we’re not going to get into details on that score.
Initially, Audnvarg’s weaknesses consist ofAxes, Bows, Fire, and Light. However, they will eventually shift intoSwords, Staves, Lightning, and Wind. We like when this happens, because it taps into Hikari’s excellent damage output with swords again, not unlike Tyran. And once again, having someone else who wields swords will help to expedite the procedure -Audnvarg’s shield count rises to 11at this point.
One attack to watch out for isShred Leg. We had to look this up elsewhere to confirm what we believed (shame on us, we know - it happens occasionally!) but it appears toreduce the target’s speed permanently (until battle’s end), so there’s no getting around it. Should Shred Leg connect to everybody, Audnvarg will be relentlessly swift; thankfully, he doesn’t use itthatoften.
Watch out for the following message:“The enemy is gathering vast amounts of power.“Like most bosses, Audnvarg has a powerful move that requires a turn before pulling off; this one hits hard enough for the entire party that it’s well worth healing/defending to mitigate the carnage.
Final Floor: Hinoekagura The Priestess
First things first:Hinoekagura has 200k HP, some of the highest in Octopath Traveler 2. Her weaknesses?Bows, Polearms, Ice, Darkness. Her strategic MVP?Every time Hinoekagura attacks, she then attacks again with a fire-based spell,and this is compounded by the fact thatHinoekagura often gets two to three rounds in at once, meaningfour or six high-damage hits simultaneously.
Hinoekagura is a fan ofSealing Ceremonyas well. It eliminates someone for several turns, not unlike the ‘fun times’ seen from the Scourge of the Seas,another optional boss fight.
This holds true as a general rule, but having someone (or someones) withDeal More Damageto break the 9,999 barrier here will work wonders in your favor. Additionally, tap intoHired Helpif you have those Foreign Assassins, and if all else fails,have two characters stocking BP to unleash multi-strikes while someone heals and another buffs/debuffs as needed.
In ‘Oni’ form, Hinoekagura’s weaknesses shift toAxes, Staves, Wind, and Light. In neither of these cases are swords the solution, per se, but we still recommend having Deal More Damage on Hikari, whose muscle alone should be enough to put real dents in the priestess over time.
After this final battle, you’ll learn theConjurerclass - it’s terrific, so give it a whirl to your heart’s content!
