Your adventure begins with only a couple of skills that are only going to take you so far in Octopath Traveler. Regardless of which characters you have picked for your party, you are eventually going to need to unlock new skills to stand against enemies in combat.
The experience points gained by leveling are not how you unlock new skills. What you will be looking for are Job Points (JP) which are different from experience points because the former will allow you to unlock character skills while the latter is focused on leveling up and increasing attributes and stats.
Each time you stand out victorious after a battle, you will be awarded JP to be used for all four characters in that party.
How to unlock new skills in Octopath Traveler
Out of the 7 skills for each Normal Job, the first two skills are already known. You need to unlock the rest by buying them with JP. The cost of skill numbers for a normal job are:
- Skill No. 3 = 30 JP
- Skill No. 4 = 100 JP
- Skill No. 5 = 500 JP
- Skill No. 6 = 1000 JP
- Skill No. 7= 3000 JP
In the pause menu under the Skills tab, you can view the required amount of JP for each skill to be unlocked. You can also check out the description and the category in which the skill falls. These can be two: either Passive or Aggressive.
4 Passive Abilities can be equipped at a time while no such restrictions apply to Aggressive Abilities that you can use in battle.
If you have enough JP and you have unlocked all 7 skills for a Normal Job, after that you will be able to unlock the Divine Skills. There is only one Divine Skill for each job and it costs at least 3 BP to use.
After unlocking the 7 skills for a job, Divine skill alone will cost you 5000. The divine skills for each normal job cost 30 SP and are mentioned below.
Cleric: Divine Skill of a Cleric is Aelfric’s Auspices which costs 30 SP and buffs a single ally 3 times.
Scholar: Alephan’s Enlightenment is the divine skill for Scholar costing 30 SP. It is also a buff type of skill that can reverse a spell cast by a foe for 3 turns.
Merchant: Merchant’s divine skill is known as Bifelgan’s Bounty and costs you 3 BP to use. Using this skill, you can target a single foe and receive a leaf for the elemental damage done.
Warrior: His divine skill is Brand’s Thunder. It can be used to attack a single foe by the sword.
Dancer: Divine skill for Dancer is Sealticge’s Seduction. Using this will make a skill applied to a single ally or foe, apply to all of them.
Apothecary: The divine skill is Dohter’s Charity and you can use it to apply the effect of one item to all allies.
Thief: Divine skill for thief is Aeber’s Reckoning which allows you to damage all the foes carrying a dagger.
Hunter: Divine skill for Hunter is Draefendi’s Rage which allows you to attack all foes using a bow.
Do note that while there is no strict rule regarding which skill to unlock first, the cost in JP for each subsequent skill you unlock will rise considerably. Therefore, prioritize the skills that you need and keep the skills that you want for a later time.
