Octopath Traveler Guide: Choosing Your Protagonist
Octopath Traveler
Choosing Your Protagonist
In Octopath Traveler, you can begin your game with any of the eight playable characters. Each one has their own story, skills, and weapons they can use. They are all unique and helpful in their own way, so it can be hard to decide who to start with.
Choosing your first character is more important than just how your journey begins – Your first character is referred to as your protagonist, and you will not be able to swap them out of your party for most of the game. You will eventually be able to switch, but it will be near the end.
Some people may just want to pick whoever they like playing with the most, some may want to start with their favorite story, and others may want to pick the most useful character.
Whatever your reason, I’m going to go over the basics of each of the game’s eight characters to help you decide who you want for the long haul. This will include spoilers for the beginning of each character’s story.
H’aanit the Hunter
H’aanit is a hunter from the village of Swarkii in the Woodlands. She is a descendant of an ancient clan that hunts beasts. Her master left on a journey to hunt a dangerous beast called, Redeye, a year ago and has not returned.
His animal companion eventually returns to the village without him, and so H’aanit embarks on her own journey to find out what happened to her master.
H’aanit’s Gameplay
H’aanit is an excellent physical attacker who uses bows and axes.
Path Action – Provoke
This allows her to force an NPC into a battle with her beasts.
Talent – Capture
This allows her to capture non-human creatures and use them in battle. When you go to capture them, it will tell you your capture success rate, their strength, and what ability is used when you summon them in battle.
Useful Skills
Besides her captured beasts, H’aanit has a permanent pet named Linde. Linde will either use a Sword sweep that hits multiple enemies, or a polearm attack that hits one enemy.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you cannot target specific enemies with Linde or your captured beasts – They will randomly target enemies.
Take Aim is another useful skill, which increases the party’s critical hit rate and accuracy.
Protagonist Rating: 7/10
H’aanit is my main character, though I chose her before I knew you couldn’t switch protagonists out of your group. Even so, she is a decent choice because of her multiple weapon attacks, strong physical damage, and versatility to fulfill multiple roles with her captured beasts.
Therion the Thief
Therion is a thief whose heists have become famous, which makes the wealthy fear they will be next on his list.
He hears a rumor while in the Cliftlands one day, about a mansion that houses a great treasure. The mansion is heavily guarded which causes Therion to believe these rumors and plan to sneak in to claim the treasure for himself.
After getting in, he finds out that it was all a trap and is caught by the butler. It turns out that they were looking for a thief to reclaim three dragon stones that belong to the family. They put a band around Therion’s wrist that marks him as a failed thief. He must recover all three dragon stones and return them to the lady of the mansion to get his shameful mark removed.
Therion’s Gameplay
Therion is a physical attacker who uses daggers and swords.
Path Action – Steal
This allows Therion to steal items from certain NPCs. It has a success rate, and your reputation will suffer if you fail.
Talent – Pick Lock – Therion can open the locked purple chests that you will find throughout the game.
Useful Skills
His Steal can also be used during battle to take one item from each enemy he encounters. This also has a success rate, which you can increase by boosting before use.
He also has a variety of support and debuff skills. He can lower an enemy’s physical attack and physical defense, share half of his SP with an ally, and steal SP and HP from enemies. The last two abilities are damaging, two-hit dagger attacks, and the amount he steals depends on how much damage he deals.
One of his passives also gives him the chance to perform a follow-up attack whenever he uses a non-damaging ability.
Protagonist Rating: Varies depending on your party. Either 5 or 6/10 or 7 or 8/10.
At first, I had Therion high on the list of great protagonists, but in reality, he isn’t a must have at all times. His Steal is extremely useful, I stole a strong dagger and two very strong armor pieces during chapter two of his story. However, you do this while in town, which is where you can freely swap your party members out. This means that you can just bring him out to steal items, then swap him back.
So far, I haven’t stolen any extremely useful items from enemies, but that might change later. He also is good to have for the purple chests, but once you get them all, the talent is useless.
His combat skills can be game changers though, depending on your other three teammates. If you are running with people who use a lot of SP and a healer, particularly Cyrus and Ophilia, you can greatly save on items by using share SP and just healing with Ophilia’s group heals.
The ability to lower an enemy’s physical defense and attack can also be a great asset in most fights. Plus, he can help the group by being able to heal himself in most situations.
Alfyn the Apothecary
Alfyn is an apothecary from a small village in the Riverlands. When he was a young child, he was very sick and was saved by an apothecary, which led Alfyn to devote his life to following this man’s example. His dream is to travel the land healing and saving as many people as he can, though he’s hesitant to leave his village after becoming so accustomed to treating everyone. His best friend convinces him that the village will be fine and that Alfyn is free to follow his dreams.
Alfyn’s Gameplay
Alfyn uses an ax and is a versatile support healer.
Path Action – Inquire
This allows Alfyn to get some extra info from certain NPCs around town. This can sometimes unlock hidden items to pick up around town, extra info you need for side quests, new weapons at the shop, and more.
The downside is that you won’t be able to use it if he is not high enough level
Talent – Concoct
Alfyn is one of my favorite characters to use because of his Concoct ability. This allows him to mix medicinal or hazardous items.
If you mix healing items, you can restore HP and cure status effects, restore SP, and more. You can also use it on a single ally if the base component reads, “small volume”, or the group if it reads, “large volume”. This gives him the potential to be the best healer in the game if you have the items to mix.
Hazardous materials allow him to use any of the elemental attacks in the game, and they hit multiple times. They won’t do much damage, but it allows you to easily break shields if you can’t otherwise cover that weakness.
Useful Skills
His normal skills allow him to heal and revive single allies. Even though Ophilia can target the group, Alyfyn’s heals are much stronger. He can also cure any status ailment and grant immunity to that ailment for a few turns.
His damaging abilities allow him to use axe attacks, an ice elemental attack, and poison enemies.
He also has great support skills that increase his max HP by 500, increase resistance against status ailments, and recover SP by attacking and being healed
Protagonist Rating: 8 or 9/10
Alfyn is very useful, especially early on as a healer when you don’t have to deal with a bunch of group wide damage. His Concoct skill is what really propels him up the list, but the only downside is the item requirement. Even if you have trouble getting the items, his base skills are always useful to have.
Primrose the Dancer
Primrose is a dancer in the pleasure district of Sunshade. She’s the daughter of House Azelhart, a once-proud family. Her father was killed by three men bearing the mark of the crow, and she seeks to get her revenge on them someday. Until then, she conceals her true identity – putting up with anything until she gets her chance.
A man bearing the mark of the crow arrives in Sunshade one day, and so Primrose takes up a journey to follow this man and exact her revenge.
Primrose Gameplay
Primrose uses daggers and stat-increasing dances in battle.
Path Action – Allure
Primrose can charm an NPC into following her. There is a chance that it can fail, which will lower your town’s reputation.
Talent – Summon
This allows Primrose to summon her follower into battle.
Useful Skills
Primrose is the buff master of the group. She can increase physical attack, physical defense, speed, and elemental attack of the targeted ally and she can target herself. She can also use Dark elemental attacks.
Her support skills allow her to increase the duration of her buffs by one turn, give her a 50% chance to counter attack a physical attack, recover SP each turn, and automatically revive herself once in battle.
Protagonist Rating: 6/10
Primrose is a fantastic support character, but not strictly needed at most times. Although she can really pump up an ally’s damage, speed, and physical defense, there are other characters I feel offer more as a protagonist.
Olberic the Warrior
Olberic used to be a famous knight, but his king and kingdom was brought down by betrayal. Disgraced and beaten, he ends up in a remote mountain village. Now, he spends his time teaching others to use the blade.
One day, a group of bandits attack the village and kidnaps Olberic’s protégé, Philip. When he goes to rescue him, he finds out that the person who betrayed his kingdom long ago is still out there. Olberic decides to set out in search of this man so that he may finally have answers for his past.
Olberic Gameplay
Olberic is a strong physical attacker and tank of the group, who uses Swords and Polearms.
Path Action – Challenge
This allows Olberic to challenge an NPC to battle, just like H’aanit’s Provoke ability. However, you cannot use it if his level is too low.
Talent – Bolster Defense
Olberic can Boost his Defend action to make it even stronger.
Useful Skills
First of all, Olberic can use Incite, which causes enemies to target him for single target skills and attacks. He also has a passive skill that will cause him to defend a near-death ally when they are targeted by a single target attack.
Besides those, he can increase his physical attack and defense, get increased physical and elemental defense when he gets a status ailment, increase his physical attack, and break the 9,999 damage cap.
Protagonist Rating: 8/10
Having a tank who doubles as a strong physical attacker can really help as you progress in the game and fight tougher opponents. His ability to increase his defenses and shield allies from danger is unmatched, and it is this reason I rate him high on the protagonist list.
Tressa the Merchant
Tressa is an enthusiastic merchant who stocks the shelves of her parents’ shop. She is a very skilled negotiator and loves helping her seaside hometown, yet she longs to see what lies beyond her horizon.
Pirates steal her town’s belongings one day, and so she uses her skills to get everything back. She also meets a traveler with a surprising past, who inspires her to start her own journey as a traveling merchant.
Tressa Gameplay
Do you like money? Then Tressa is the character for you. She can also use polearms and bows.
Path Action – Purchase
Like Therion, Tressa can acquire belonging from NPCs. Unlike him, she buys the belongings. This means that you will always be able to get the items, but some may be very expensive.
Talent – Eye for Money
Enjoy collecting money by just walking around, because that is literally what her talent does. Whenever you enter a map, you will automatically pick up money. This talent does seem to have a cooldown, so you can’t just walk back and forth between maps to collect money.
Useful Skills
Tressa can use Collect in battle to get money from enemies. It works just like Therion’s Steal. Most of her other skills are also very useful. She can donate BP to an ally, recover her own HP, SP, and recover any status ailment for free with Rest, Sidestep to cause the next physical attack to miss, and hire a variety of mercenaries to help in combat.
Protagonist Rating: 9/10
Tressa is one of my favorites and I have her in my party almost all the time. Gathering money is always useful so you can buy more items or gear to make your fights easier. She can also always donate BP to make your attackers stronger, or support characters more heals or duration. She also has a useful support skill that gives you a 25% chance to not consume an item on use. Overall, you can’t go wrong when you have this money maker in your group.
Cyrus the Scholar
Cyrus is a professor at the Royal Academy in Atlasdam. He is very intelligent and is always in pursuit of more knowledge. When a tome goes missing one day, he decides to solve the case and get the tome back.
This leads him to find out that another tome was lost many years ago. Unrelated circumstances lead to him needing to leave town for a while, so he uses this opportunity to track down the long-lost tome.
Cyrus Gameplay
Cyrus uses a Staff and has group-wide elemental attacks. He will be your “mage” of the group.
Path Action – Scrutinize
This allows Cyrus to gain extra information from eligible NPCs. He can always use this, even if he is not a high level. The downside is that there is a chance that it will fail, which also causes your reputation in town to drop.
Talent – Study Foe
This allows Cyrus to automatically reveal one weakness of every enemy in a fight as soon as the battle starts.
Useful Skills
Again, he mostly uses group-wide fire, ice, and lightning elemental attacks, but he can also use Analyze to reveal an enemy’s weakness and their current/max health. This can be boosted to reveal multiple weaknesses at once, if the enemy has any.
Protagonist Rating: 10/10
Cyrus will always be useful to have around. His ability to target three specific weaknesses of every enemy at once is extremely helpful, especially since there is no other dedicated elemental attacker in the game.
Even though this is fantastic, his real use comes from his ability to reveal weaknesses. The most important aspect of battle is targeting an enemy’s weakness and breaking their shield so that you can deal maximum damage.
All this combined makes Cyrus an invaluable ally, and fantastic choice for your protagonist.
Ophilia the Cleric
Ophilia is a cleric in the Frostlands and a dutiful servant of the Order of the Flame. Originally, her adoptive sister is to embark on pilgrimage for the Order. The archbishop, Ophilia’s adoptive father, becomes very sick.
Ophilia decides to take the pilgrimage herself, so that her sister can stay behind to look after their father. Though she broke the rules to do so, Ophilia gets the blessing of her family to begin her pilgrimage.
Ophilia Gameplay
Ophilia is the traditional healer and uses a staff as her weapon.
Path Action – Guide
This allows her to lead an NPC around and summon them in battle, like Primrose’s path action. Ophilia’s cannot fail, but it also can’t be used if her level is too low.
Talent – Summon
Same as Primrose, she can summon her NPC follower in battle.
Useful Skills
Her heals don’t heal for that much. Even her stronger heal doesn’t heal for that much when boosted. This is offset by the fact that she can heal everyone at once. Her revive also can target everyone at once, so if you need group wide healing and revives without specific items, Ophilia is the only option.
She can also use Light elemental attacks, reduce damage of elemental attacks, and even reflect elemental attacks back to the attacker. This is especially useful if the enemy is weak to the attack that gets reflected.
Protagonist Rating: 6/10
It’s not that she’s a bad character, I just found other characters more useful as a protagonist. She is much more useful with the right sub-job. Her divine skill, which allows herself or any ally to trigger their ability twice, and passive which lets her heal above the target’s max HP are still going to be useful in most situations.
Final Pick
It should come as no surprise that my overall pick for most useful protagonist is Cyrus the Scholar. His ability to reveal enemy weaknesses and strong area elemental attacks are useful in nearly every situation.
A few characters I rate almost as high would be Tressa for her money-making ability, Olberic for his incredible attack and tankiness, and Alfyn for his unique and versatile Concoct ability.
I hope you enjoyed this guide on picking a main character in Octopath Traveler! Let me know in the comments if you have any questions or ratings of your own.