Octopath Traveler 2 Beginner’s Guide to all Characters and Jobs

This guide explains the strengths and weaknesses of the Jobs in Octopath Traveler 2. We’ll cover a bit about each job, the importance of the relation between a character and their starter job, and which ones to pick first when starting the game!

What is the difference between Characters and Jobs

In the guide below, we’ll be covering each character and their respective job below. First, we need to talk about the distinction between the two.

A Character is one of the eight Travelers you can select to play from the start. Each Character has things unique to them, which are referred to as Path Actions, Talents, and Latent Power. Each of these affects only that individual character regardless of your progression.

Jobs are the class system of Octopath Traveler 2. Each Character is defined by a starting job, often called their Basic or Primary Job. This Job cannot be changed at any point. However, you can get access to jobs of other characters, and these become your Secondary Job. One to Three characters can use the same Secondary Job, depending on your progress with the respective Guilds.

Additionally, there are a set of special jobs, referred to as Advanced Jobs. These special jobs only exist as Secondary Jobs. Unlike the other jobs, they do not have a guild directly associated with them. This limits only the job to be used by only one character at a time, but they are often exceptionally powerful.

Basic Jobs explained

These are the standard jobs of each of the eight characters. We’ll be making note of the extra abilities provided by the character as well, as they can affect how well the job plays when starting out.

Castti, the Apothecary

The Apothecary is a fairly good option to start with. With access to healing moves, as well as decent physical and elemental attacks the Apothecary is a good all-rounder. One of their Active Skills also allows you to cleanse afflictions, and prevent them for a short time, making you deceptively during in combination with your healing.

Both of Castti’s Path Actions are low-risk, only working if you meet a required level or have a required item. She can use Inquire during the day to obtain information or Soothe at night to remove NPC that may block her path.

Castti’s Concoct Talent gives her access to a wide range of effects that are beneficial to you, or harmful to enemies. This lets you mix up to 5 ingredients, which can lets you deal damage or inflict afflictions on foes, or provide recovery and buffs for your team This, however, is unique to Castti which limits the potential of this job as a secondary job.

The biggest downside of the Apothecary is their reliance on their Concoct for any form of multi-target elemental damage. They do have Sweeping Cleave for physical damage, but it’s not particularly powerful or notable in any way.

However, Castti’s Latent Power called Every Drop Counts does make it much easier to actively use Concoct. This prevents the items from being consumed when using Concoct, allowing for more usage while reducing the amount of restocking needed.

For more information on the Apothecary, check out our Apothecary Job Guide. This goes over their skills in-depth while detailing which characters and jobs work best with the Apothecary Job in Octopath Traveler 2.

If you’d like to learn more about Castti, check out our Castti Character Guide. This covers her Path Actions, Talent, and Latent Power in detail. It also provides a summarized version of her story in Octopath Traveler 2.

Temenos, the Cleric

The Cleric is a fairly weak starting character. While they have early healing like the Apothecary, they generally lack offensive power early on, despite their higher Elemental Attack. What they lack in offense they are able to make up for with strong defensive buffs. So you’ll have a relatively easy time surviving.

Both of Temenos’ Path Actions are fairly low-risk, once you learn your limits with Coerce. Temenos is able to use Guide to summon allies in battle, which can offset his low offensive power. At night, he can Corece information from NPCs by interrogating them.

Temenos’ Latent Power called Judgment does alleviate a lot of struggles with early Coersion, so long as he is able to survive and build up the gauge or it, or start with it. Later on this can be made easier by a variety of Secondary Jobs.

A downside to the Cleric is that early damage is quite low. However, this can be made up for by trying to battle at night. This will activate Temenos’ Moonlight Judgment Talent, lowering enemy defenses. This helps Temenos out a ton early where he’s fairly weak.

For more information on the Cleric, check out our Cleric Job Guide. This goes over their skills in-depth while detailing which characters and jobs work best with the Cleric Job in Octopath Traveler 2.

If you’d like to learn more about Temenos, check out our Temenos Character Guide. This covers his Path Actions, Talent, and Latent Power in detail. It also provides a summarized version of his story in Octopath Traveler 2.

Agnea, the Dancer

The Dancer can be a fantastic starting character. Many of her skills focus on buffing which keeps her dealing decent damage. With the skill Ruinious Kick, she doesn’t even really need to think too much about enemy weaknesses.

Agnea has one risky Path Action and one safe Path Action. Entreat, her night time Path Action allows her to receive items from NPCs, and with it being level locked there’s no risk involved. However Allure has a variable chance of working, letting you take an NPC along with you into combat.

A strong upside to using allure is her Dance Session Talent. This applies extra effects to your Dance-related skills. This can allow you to heal and buff yourself or an ally at the same time. Early game you can even pair her dance skills with an SP recovery dance partner and be able to use it freely.

Agnea’s Latent Power is called All Together Now which is considerably powerful. This acts like a lesser version of the Dancer’s Divine Skills, spreading the effects of a buff or another attack. This works exceptionally well considering you can use it to hit multiple enemies with Ruinous Kick at the same time.

The only downside is that the Dancer lacks early Elemental Damage, only getting access to a single-target spell after some time. Thankfully, she can use her Latent Power to also spread this, making it decently effective.

For more information on the Dancer, check out our Dancer Job Guide. This goes over their skills in-depth while detailing which characters and jobs work best with the Dancer Job in Octopath Traveler 2.

If you’d like to learn more about Agnea, check out our Agnea Character Guide. This covers her Path Actions, Talent, and Latent Power in detail. It also provides a summarized version of her story in Octopath Traveler 2.

Ochette, the Hunter

The Hunter is a fairly good starting character. Thanks to her Capture Talent, Ochette is a solid all-rounder. While Hunter’s skills are more physically-oriented, she’s very capable of dealing a decent mix of damage.

Her Capture Talent allows for a lot of flexibility, giving access to a wide range of skills to use alongside her Job Skills. There’s plenty of options for both Single-target and Multi-target skills that cover a variety of weaknesses

Ochette has one great Path Action and one that’s a bit tough to use at times. Her nighttime Path Action, Befriend, is great for expanding her combat potential by letting you summon a NPC to battle after sharing food with them. Provoke isn’t too great though, as it relies entirely on your Capture Talent which can make it harder to win duels.

The fact that Ochette has the worst of the Path Actions for making NPCs move is a huge downside. Ambush, Challenge, and Soothe are all much more reliable and involve no risk or setup at all. It doesn’t help that most NPCs that block paths also tend to block during both times of day, meaning it competes with all three of the other options.

Despite that, Ochette’s Latent Power called Animal Instincts offers a good mix of utility and damage options. It gives her the choice of a strong multi-target attack or a powerful single-target attack, but it can also reduce the enemy shield while debuffing enemy defenses.

For more information on the Hunter, check out our Hunter Job Guide. This goes over their skills in-depth while detailing which characters and jobs work best with the Hunter Job in Octopath Traveler 2.

If you’d like to learn more about Ochette, check out our Ochette Character Guide. This covers her Path Actions, Talent, and Latent Power in detail. It also provides a summarized version of her story in Octopath Traveler 2.

Partitio, the Merchant

The Merchant can be a great starting character. With access to a move that allow them to generate extra JP, they can get their skills quite quickly. This allows them more options sooner, making them excellent all-rounders.

Both of Partitio’s Path Actions are safe and reliable to use. While both require money to make use of, the Collect skill can help offset these costs. Purchase allows you to buy items from NPCs, with cost being based on the item’s power or rarity. Hire Allows you to pay an NPC to follow you into battle.

Hire also allow you to benefit from Partitio’s Business Partners Talent. This talent adds an extra effect to hired NPCs that can reduce the costs of the Hired Help skill, reduce the cost of the Purchase Path Action, or even let you sell items for additional money.

Partito’s Latent Power is called Hoot and Holler. This Latent Power instantly fills your BP to the maximum. This allows Partitio to flexibly use BP for support or damage, and have a backup should something backfire.

The biggest downside is that Merchant entirely revolves around gaining and spending money. This forces you to pick up Hired Help and Collect as soon as possible to get the most out of the character. You may also find yourself delaying battles to Collect from as many foes as possible, which can make the game feel slow.

For more information on the Merchant, check out our Merchant Job Guide. This goes over their skills in-depth while detailing which characters and jobs work best with the Merchant Job in Octopath Traveler 2.

If you’d like to learn more about Partitio, check out our Partitio Character Guide. This covers his Path Actions, Talent, and Latent Power in detail. It also provides a summarized version of his story in Octopath Traveler 2.

Osvald, the Scholar

The Scholar is an excellent starting character. As a caster job that can cover half of the elements on its own, the Scholar is capable of dealing a ton of damage. While they’re not as consistent as their original Octopath Traveler counterpart, they’re still quite strong.

Both of Osvald’s Path Actions are fairly low-risk. Scrutinize is the one you have to worry about most since it’s a chance-based method of gaining information from NPCs. Mug doesn’t punish you at all for not succeeding, so as long as you learn your limits, it’s a great way to get items.

Osvald’s Talent, called Study Foe, reveals a new weakness at the start of each battle. This can give a bit of a leg up in combat and save you time from hunting specific weaknesses. Scholars can also do this as a secondary job, but they need to use the Analyze skill.

Osvald’s Latent Power, called Concentrate Spells, makes him the strongest Scholar. It allows him to increase the damage of his spells, while also making them single-target. This can make him exceptionally good at taking down bosses.

The biggest drawback to playing the Scholar is the slow start to his story, spanning to chapters before you’re even on the main map of the game and able to get rolling. He starts very heavy on the story, but it returns to normal pretty quickly after. This can be a downside for a first-time player, expecting more of the classic JRPG fare right out of the gate.

For more information on the Scholar, check out our Scholar Job Guide. This goes over their skills in-depth while detailing which characters and jobs work best with the Scholar Job in Octopath Traveler 2.

If you’d like to learn more about Osvald, check out our Osvald Character Guide. This covers his Path Actions, Talent, and Latent Power in detail. It also provides a summarized version of his story in Octopath Traveler 2.

Throné, the Thief

The Thief is an exceptionally good starter. They have a skill set built around dealing a ton of damage, which helps make the early fights go very quickly. While they have great damage, they lack multi-target options, this can make some encounters take a bit longer as you’ll have to focus enemies down one at a time.

Both of Throné’s Path Actions are great. While Steal is chance based, usually unless it’s a rare or powerful item, you’ll have decent odds of taking it from an NPC. Ambush is purely level based, so there’s no risk involved at all there.

Throné’s talent only works at nighttime, where Blessing of Darkness boosts your offensive Attributes. This makes her exceptionally strong and helps her clear through early encounters and even some bosses exceptionally quickly.

Throné’s Latent Power, Leave No Trace, is also great as it gives her situations where she can act twice in one turn. This can allow her to buff and debuff on the same turn, and follow up the next turn with huge damage, or even quickly debuff and hit a foe with a powerful attack.

The biggest downside to the Thief is that her story involves topics that can cause a lot of unease for some people. This alone can be a reason that someone might not enjoy her, though the scene that doesn’t involve such things can be enjoyable. The gameplay at least is very satisfying.

For more information on the Thief, check out our Thief Job Guide. This goes over their skills in-depth while detailing which characters and jobs work best with the Thief Job in Octopath Traveler 2.

If you’d like to learn more about Throné, check out our Throné Character Guide. This covers her Path Actions, Talent, and Latent Power in detail. It also provides a summarized version of her story in Octopath Traveler 2.

Hikari, the Warrior

The Warrior is a great starter. While they only deal physical damage for the most part, they are able to expand their skill set much the same way that the Hunter can. This makes the Warrior very flexible and quite strong, just from the options you have access to.

Both of Hikari’s Path Actions are very safe, though one requires money. Thankfully, Bribe is cheap enough early on that you can get great information from NPCs without it setting you back too much. Challenge lets you duel NPCs and lean skills from them, which lets you customize their kit a bit more to your liking.

Thanks to his Learned Skill talent, Hikari has plenty of options for skill choices. You can get healing, damage, buffs, debuffs, and everything in between. While you will have to eventually replace the Learned Skills with new ones as you go along, they are a big part of Hikari’s flexibility.

Hikari’s Latent Power, Shadow’s Hold, gives him access to three powerful skills that don’t consume SP. You have Tenretsuzan for huge single-target damage, Heinka to deal extra damage and get another turn, and Sogetsusen to deal strong multi-target damage.

The biggest downside to the Warrior is that they deal physical damage exclusively, not accounting Hikari’s Learned Skills. This can make them harder to be suitable mages, but can still benefit from the extra coverage a caster secondary job can provide.

For more information on the Warrior, check out our Warrior Job Guide. This goes over their skills in-depth while detailing which characters and jobs work best with the Warrior Job in Octopath Traveler 2.

If you’d like to learn more about Hikari, check out our Hikari Character Guide. This covers his Path Actions, Talent, and Latent Power in detail. It also provides a summarized version of his story in Octopath Traveler 2.

Which Character Should You Start with and why

For me, there’s one clear winner and that’s Throné the Thief. I do still consider Agnea the Dancer, Osvald the Scholar, and Hikari the Warrior to also be great options as well. Throné is just my first choice.

The biggest reason for this is Throné’s high Physical Attack and Speed stats. While she’s a bit on the fragile side, she has Shackle Foe to help with that for harder fights. Overall, this makes her one of the easiest to pick up and play while getting an enjoyable experience out of it right from the start.

Another reason I like Throné as a starting character is that Throné also gets some very nice Support Skills, while also being the nearest to a very early Advanced Job location. This culminates in her being able to get very strong fairly quickly.

Agnea gets a runner-up spot due to her Dance Session talent. This alone can make her a very potent character when you get familiar with game mechanics. It’s also hard to deny Ruinous Kick being a strong skill too, dealing heavy damage and always damaging Shields.

Osvald is here purely for his high damage potential. If you can get past his slow story-heavy start, much like Throné he can get very powerful very quickly. Between having strong multi-target spells that you can make into potent single-target spells almost as needed, there are very little for downsides to be had.

Hikari is also worth a mention just for the options you have with him. Between Learned Skills, Shadow’s Hold, and Warrior Skills alone, you can have tools for every situation. Additionally, you have access to great buffs, and the ability to counter physical damage.

Here on VULKK.com we have a selection of guides to help you on your path. From Beginner Guides to get you started, to Character Guides and their unique talents and abilities to the individual Job Guides and which characters and jobs best synergize with each other.