This list will not spell Octopath
If you couldn’t tell from the title, Octopath Traveler 2 is all about eight protagonists who have their own stories to tell. To experience everything in the game and reach the true ending, you’ll need to see each tale to its conclusions. However, since you can only bring four party members along with you at once, you’ll make some tough decisions about who should stay in your party.
The great thing about Octopath Traveler 2 is that everyone is good in their own way. Each protagonist brings something unique to the table that the others can’t cover, so no one is truly useless. Additionally, you’ll need to level up everyone if you’re going for 100% completion. I highly recommend swapping characters in and out of your party during your adventure, especially since some are better at different stages of the game than others. Having said that, there are certain protagonists that are especially powerful. If you’re interested in determining who those characters are, hopefully this list will help.
Characters are evaluated based on their overall usefulness in the game from beginning to end. We’ve linked to every character’s respective character guide, so click those to learn more about their skills and talents. We’ve also covered every character’s Latent Power here, so check that out for more information. Again, no one is useless in Octopath Traveler 2, so a low ranking does not mean a character is bad. In fact, what better way to illustrate this point than with our first pick.
8: Agnea
In the early game, Agnea is absolutely one of the best characters to have in your party. Not only are the skills in the Dancer kit valuable, but she can recruit valuable NPCs using her Allure ability. With her Dance Session perk, certain NPCs can add SP restoration to any of her Dancer moves. For SP hungry characters like Hikari and Osvald, I cannot stress enough how much utility Agnea brings to the table.
It’s only once you start reaching the mid and late game that Agnea starts to lose some luster. Other characters will bring better SP recovery (oh how we’ll get to that) and can equip Dancer as a secondary job. She does offer some unique utility by equipping the Inventor secondary job, as her Latent Power synergizes well with skills like Arkar’s Coil and Critical Scope. Agnea has her uses, but she’ll mostly excel in niche cases.
7: Temenos
Temenos is another character that is very good through the early game. No one can heal as well as he does at this stage, and his native access to skills like Aelfric’s Blessing can massively boost the power of your lead damage dealer. Additionally, his Latent Power is incredibly exploitable. If you give him Scholar as a secondary job, he’ll become one of the most powerful shield breakers you’ll find. This makes his Coerce Path Action one of the best in the game, especially if you equip the right secondary skills.
Even though he’s consistently useful throughout the game, Temenos does get outclassed later on. Other characters receive better shield breaking moves, and his niche as a healer becomes easier to replace. His EX Skills eventually let him set up some unorthodox and powerful strategies, but whether those are worthwhile is up to you. Coerce never stops being useful, but he might not stay in your main party until the end of the game.
6: Partitio
Let’s get one thing straight: Partitio’s Path Actions are amazing. Hire lets you bring along NPCs that can grant major discounts or earn extra money when you sell items, both of which help you rack up fat stacks of cash. Additionally, Partitio’s Latent Power makes him an incredible BP Battery. In the early game, his Donate BP skill is one of the best ways to augment the power of your lead DPS. Even in the later game, it’s still useful!
Once you have more money than you could ever hope to spend, Partitio’s value diminishes. Additionally, other characters become better and more reliable BP batteries (trust me, we’ll get to this too). That said, Partitio does get a unique second wind once you unlock the secret Arcanist Job. Seal of Diffusion works extremely well with the Merchant’s kit, especially when you make skills like Sidestep and Rest affect your whole party. Make no mistake; Partitio is one of the best defensive characters in the game. He’s only ranked relatively low because you might not need that amazing defense if you use other characters that can defeat bosses without breaking a sweat.
5: Osvald
Osvald is a very difficult character to rank. He is, without a doubt, the best source of magic damage in the game. Other party members can take on caster roles, but none do it as well as Osvald. He also learns unique and useful EX Skills that enable him to buff party members and break enemy shields.
There is no denying that Osvald is powerful. However, Octopath Traveler 2 is honestly biased towards its physical attackers. It’s much easier to buff physical attacks and debuff enemy defenses overall. Additionally, for Osvald to reach his full potential, you’ll need to spend turns setting up spells like Advanced Magic or Alephan’s Wisdom. You could make the argument that Osvald’s multi-hit spells lessen the need for the Deal More Damage support skill, which could be a boon for the midgame. Still, this is a relatively niche advantage.
If you need magic, Osvald is the man to bring it. It’s just that other characters can deal huge damage too.
4: Throne
Throne doesn’t necessarily excel at any one thing, but she brings many interesting options to the table. The Thief kit is nice to have by default, as it brings great utility with skills like Armor Corrosive and Shackle Foe. Additionally, if you build her to maximize speed, Aeber’s Reckoning can deal huge damage to an entire enemy party. Her Latent Power doesn’t necessarily have great synergies like Agnea’s and Temenos’ do, but it is always helpful to get an extra turn on demand.
In the late game, Throne gets intriguing versatility with the EX Skill Disguise. This lets her mimic another party member’s equipped weapons and skills (though not talents), which opens up a myriad of interesting strategies that range from support to pure offense. Her Path Actions are also solid, especially since some items literally require Steal to be obtained. Throne probably won’t ever be the best member of your party, but she’ll do a good job pulling her weight through any stage of the game.
3: Ochette
Now we’re getting into broken territory. In the early game, Ochette is a solid physical attacker. The Hunter kit isn’t necessarily amazing, but the ability to use and capture monsters makes Ochette uniquely useful. Sure, you can’t pick who her monsters will target, but you can play around this quirk. This is an especially helpful method to cover weapon types or elements your party otherwise lacks.
Once you get to the late game of Octopath Traveler 2, Ochette evolves from good to absolutely ridiculous. Her EX Skill, Provoke Monsters, lets her use three monsters in a row. With a full boost gauge, that number is bolstered to six monsters in a row. Provoke Monsters is absolutely the best shield breaking skill in the game, especially when paired with monsters that hit the enemy party twice with any combination of weapons and elements. Even better, there’s nothing stopping her from chaining this ability over and over if she has the SP for it. Ochette does require some preparation, as this skill means nothing without a great roster of captured monsters. Still, the benefit is well worth the investment.
2: Hikari
Octopath Traveler 2 has no true protagonist, but Hikari sure does come close to one. Appropriately, he’s one of the best characters to lead your party from start to finish.
Right out the gate, Hikari pushes incredible damage with his strong stats and potent Latent Power. The Warrior kit also gives him tools to immediately perform well in the early game with support skills like Bolstering Break. He’ll also have early access to Deal More Damage to break the damage cap. This is important, as Hikari can literally reach five-digit damage numbers well before the midpoint of the game. All of this is in addition to Hikari’s Learned Skills talent, which allows him to equip skills used by NPCs he’s defeated. This makes Hikari incredibly versatile, allowing him to reliably cover all damage types or offer utility depending on what your party needs.
The only particularly bad thing to say about Hikari is that his Bribe Path Action is usually inferior to Temenos’ Coerce. Still, Hikari does so much damage so easily throughout the entire game that it’s hard to make any argument against him earning a slot on your roster. If you want to quickly kill every boss after one or two shield breaks, Hikari is the guy to do it.
1: Castti
Want to know the worst thing about Castti? She makes the game so ridiculously easy that you might get bored playing it.
In the early game, Castti covers all your bases. She can heal, she can deal damage, she can support, it’s all there. Her Path Actions are also great, since she can reliably get information from NPCs and can knock out characters while you’re still at a low level. She might drag the slightest bit in the middle of the game, but once you have enough money to buy plenty of items for her Concoct ability… forget it, you win.
Want to heal the party and restore their SP? Castti can do it. Want to boost everyone’s physical attack? Castti can do it. Want to endlessly fill your party’s BP gauge every turn? Guess what Castti can do? You might be saying to yourself “hey, that sounds pretty broken,” and that’s before I clarify that she can literally do all these things at once. Additionally, her Latent Power allows her to use Concoct without consuming items, meaning these broken concoctions are available to spam in random battles too. With the right setup, Castti can give your team full buffs and BP in every encounter, allowing you to defeat enemy groups in a single turn.
Castti won’t necessarily carry your team with her own damage potential, but that hardly matters when she’s practically tripling your party’s power. There is no team that is better off without Castti, and we’ve barely scratched the surface of what she’s capable of. Castti is the best character in Octopath Traveler 2, hands down.
