Octopath Traveller 0 is out now. As a first for the series, you’ll be diving into the game as an original hero, rather than choosing from eight pre-built stories.
As you set out across the world to gather allies and rebuild the town of Wishvale, you’ll have eight total classes (Jobs) to choose from. You can change between any unlocked job at will, but once you’ve chosen one, it can be a while before you unlock another.
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Here’s a quick guide on how to unlock Jobs and what each Job is good at in the Break & Boost combat system of Octopath Traveller 0.
How do I unlock new Jobs?
When you start your adventure, you’ll choose your first of eight Jobs. You will most likely be with this class for the first handful of hours of the campaign. Your main hero can freely switch between any unlocked Jobs, but other party members are stuck in the job they come with, so balancing your party is crucial.
Your character’s levels will inform your stats, and levelling up increases your damage, hit points and other stats. However, as you fight and particularly by Breaking enemies, you’ll also unlock Job Points (JP).
In the menu, you spend JP to unlock new active abilities. Examples would be a new spell for your mage or a new attack for your Warrior.
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Once you’ve unlocked a certain number of active skills, you’ll unlock a passive (Support Skill) for that Job. These passives might be a percentage chance to heal when your character takes an action, or a raw stat increase. The JP needed to unlock an active skill increases the more you have unlocked.
However, when you have unlocked roughly half of the active skills available, you will get the option to choose a new Job to swap to.
One caveat: if you choose a new job, you must progress that job to unlock another. So if you choose Warrior first, then unlock Hunter, you need to progress Hunter before you can select your third Job. I say this now because if you choose one you don’t enjoy, you still have to play it to unlock another.
Here’s what each Job is good for and which you should choose:
Warrior
Weapons: Swords, Polearms
Warrior is your base tank and damage-dealing class. They have the highest hitpoints of any job, and tend to do very good single-target damage. They also have some buffing abilities to increase their own stats and deal greater damage. The warrior has active abilities like Helmsplitter, which does Sword damage and lowers the enemy’s defence stats for the following round. Alternatively, skills like Spearhead deal Polearm damage and cause you to act faster in future turns.
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The passive Support Skills for the Warrior mostly focus on improving their own stats. The first raises your own attack stat when at 100% HP, while the latter ones give you core stat boosts.
Hunter
Weapons: Axe, Bow
The Hunter is a good all-rounder class, but you will have a Hunter in your party from very early in the game when you unlock the companion Phenn. Hunters have lower hitpoints than the Warriors, but make up for it with higher critical chance and accuracy. The Hunter also has access to an elemental Wind spell with Trade Tempest, and some good spread damage with Rain of Arrows.
The Hunter is one of the few Jobs that has a passive that allows them to attack when placed in the back row of combat.
Apothecary
Weapons: Axe, Tome
Apothecary is the other Job you will have access to almost from the outset, as one of your first companions fills this class. The Apothecary is one of the half-caster classes; it has some front-line offensive abilities, but also a few buffs and heals for themselves and the party. Abilities that I found most useful are the Apothecary’s ability to inflict status effects like Blindness and grant allies status immunity.
The Support Skills for the Apothecary improve their own resistance to status effects, as well as restoring their own SP in battle.
Merchant
Weapons: Bow, Polearm
Another half-caster, the Merchant Job is focused on earning currency as well as boosting Job Point gains for themselves and allies. The ability to increase your own and your allies’ Job Points gain is a great thing to have early on, because you’ll be unlocking new skills faster. Arrow of Fortune, as an ability, deals Bow damage and provides JP depending on the total damage dealt. Similarly, Collect steals cash from your enemies.
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Support Skills like Extra Leaves does exactly what it says on the tin, give you more currency (Leaves) from each combat.
Cleric
Weapons: Staff, Fan
Cleric is the core healer of the group, with the most abilities focused towards supporting the team, and a couple of offensive spells using the Light element. The Cleric’s Heal Wounds ability is a great solution to heal the whole front or back row at once. Holy Light is also a great source of Light damage, which I otherwise didn’t see all that often.
Unsurprisingly, the Cleric’s Support Skills are all about healing, increasing the amount healed and giving yourself a free revive when your cleric is dropped. Cleric is one of the last classes I found through companions, so it could be a good one to start with.
Scholar
Weapons: Staff, Tome
Scholar is your damage-dealing spellcaster, and the first Job that I chose when playing for review. The Scholar Job deals excellent group damage, with access to Fire, Wind and Light spells. These are very useful, particularly in some of the earlier snowy areas when you’re following the Master of Power plotline, and there are many Fire-weak enemies.
The Scholar passive Study is incredibly useful; it gives you a free glimpse at one weakness for each enemy on the field. So from the outset, you’ll be able to choose your attacks wisely to deal the most damage. Scholar is another role that wasn’t filled until later in the campaign for me, so having my hero play that role was very useful.
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Dancer
Weapons: Fan, Dagger
If Cleric and Scholar are your full-time damage-dealers and healers, Dancer is your full-time support Job. The Dancer focuses on providing buffs to your own party and debuffing enemies, with a little bit of damage thrown in.
Daggers and fans felt like some of the less-common weaknesses throughout my campaign, so having a Dancer wasn’t always as useful as some of the other classes. However, having greater control over the battlefield with speed buffs and debuffs is very useful.
Dancer Support skills improve their own buff duration, as well as giving BP to allies.
Thief
Weapons: Sword, Dagger
Thief is an interesting Job, which fills a similar role to Merchant in its mix of damage and support. The Thief has a range of debuffing abilities, as well as abilities that steal health and cash. The Thief is also one of the few classes with access to Dark magic elements. Thief is very squishy, but very versatile in terms of abilities, with a few abilities that deal multiple attacks or hit multiple enemies.
Thief’s Support Skills mainly focus on increasing their own Speed and Evasion stats, as well as increasing the duration of their own debuff abilities.
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So there you have it, eight Jobs to choose from. As you progress through your adventure in Octopath Traveller 0, you’ll meet 30 companions to join your party, many of which draw abilities from multiple classes to create their own combat style. So be aware that two Clerics might not have the same ability pool to choose from.
What Job are you going to start with? And what eight-hero party are you taking with you while you rebuild Wishvale?
A copy of Octopath Traveller 0 was supplied to Quest Daily.
