The Octopath Traveler 2 best starting character is all about your interests. You can go with any character you like, but some protagonists in the game boost your beginning journey.
You do not have to worry about missing any aspect of the game by selecting one character over another. You can recruit characters later in the game to learn about their story and progress through their chapters.
A critical aspect of the first selected character is that you will have to keep that protagonist in your party until their main story is finished. So before making any choice, let’s look at what each character offers in Octopath Traveler 2.
How to choose a starting character in Octopath Traveler 2?
There are several factors that impact your decision to choose your starting character in the game. It all depends on how you want your protagonist to be in the early game.
You do not have any money at the start, so you must gain as much as possible to buy different weapons and early items. There’s a particular character in Octopath 2 that allows you to do that without much trouble.
You need power when it comes to fighting early monsters alone. The elemental or physical damage needs to be taken into account, along with its nature of it.
The support characters are not great to start with, as they need a team to support them and get their assistance while fighting bosses.
You should focus on the combat side more at the start and then keep adding characters with the progression. With keeping all these things in mind, let’s see which character is the best to start your Octopath 2 journey.
Best starting characters in Octopath Traveler 2
Throne
Belonging to the Thief class, this protagonist has all the skills to make you hefty rich even at the start of Octopath 2. She can act twice in a single turn due to her Latent power, Leave No Trace. This makes her very strong during combat, dealing good damage to the enemies.
Throne has the ability to gather all the essential resources at the start without relying on anyone’s support. You get your hands on powerful weapons and items that help you easily survive the horrors of initial bosses. You can gather all these resources without wasting a penny because her story starts in the most populated area of Solistia.
She can debuff enemies in combat, making it easy to inflict more damage and win the battles. It means she can take on any enemies without relying on other members. You can quickly add two more characters to your party as the Throne story starts near their places.
All these attributes make Throne the Octopath 2 best starting character.
Hikari
Hikari is the best warrior-class protagonist in the game. He’s the best character when it comes to dealing raw physical damage to the enemies.
He can acquire different skills from the NPCs, and his skill set will be vast compared to the other characters. You can master all the learned skills by utilizing his special talent, Learned Skills. Additionally, his latent power unleashes his true passion, making him the strongest in your party.
Hikari can become strong enough by these abilities to exploit the enemies’ elemental weaknesses. Initially, you need damage to remove the enemies, and this protagonist provides you with precisely that. All these points make Hikari one of the best Octopath Traveler 2 starting characters.
Ochette
This protagonist of Octopath 2 is specialized in physical attacks as she’s part of the Hunter class. She uses Axe and Bow to take down her foes and has the Provoke ability to put any NPCs against her wild beasts.
The other path action, Befriend, allows her to create friendships with NPCs and make them follow her everywhere.
She gains extra boosts in her special skills by using her Animal Instincts power, making her a beast of a character. She inflicts severe damage on her foes in that state.
Ochette’s special talent is fun as it allows her to Capture and Prepare the beasts. She can summon any animal during the battle to hit enemies’ weak points.
Other characters cannot match the raw damage she can inflict using Axe and Bow, and she can change her captured items into valuable items.
You just have to find resources before doing all these deeds. For that reason, it is good to recruit her after some time in your party, and not at the start.
Osvald
Osvald has all the tools that make him the most devastating protagonist in terms of elemental damage. Belonging to the Scholar class, he can Scrutinize to collect information for NPCs and use Mug to challenge them into combat and put them into the ground.
His special talent, Study Foe, unveils all the enemies’ weaknesses, making it easy for your party members to use the right weapons and elemental attacks to end the fight quickly.
Moreover, his latent power increases his spell’s range and damage while focusing on a single foe. These spells are mighty, even against the most potent enemies.
Osvald can target every kind of foe due to his wide range of attacks and can reduce early encounters with enemies and wild beasts. These things make him a strong character to add to your party later in the game.
Castti
This protagonist is great as she creates different concoctions to heal her allies and cause a status effect on the enemies. She is an Apothecary with all skills and abilities to play offensively and defensively for her team.
Cassti’s two path actions are Soothe and Inquire. You can use inquire to gather information from NPCs and soothe to end the miserable pain of those people, putting them to a long sleep.
Her talent and latent power are brilliant; you can use them to create strong effects during the battle. But she needs ingredients to get her skill going. You need money that is scarce at the start of the game, so her abilities are better utilized after you have farmed enough money.
Temenos
This guy belongs to the Cleric class and shows great healing powers and light magic skills. Temenos can heal each party member using his spells, making him one of the most important members of your squad.
Like everyone else, he got two path actions, Guide and Coerce. The guide action is utilized to bring NPCs along and coerce them to obtain information forcefully.
The latent power of Temeno’s is a weapon on its own as it allows you to reduce the Shield Points of the enemies, making them more vulnerable and easy to break. You can use his Moonlight Judgement talent to hit enemies with special effects as soon as the battle initiates.
Temenos is brilliant in his healing abilities but lacks the combat power you require at the start of your journey. So it’s better to not use him as a starting character unless you are looking for a challenge.
Agnea
The support characters are essential during your combat in Octopath 2. Agnea belongs to the Dancer class and has all the tools to support her party members.
The day path action for Agnea is Allure which allows her to bring the NPCs along a much-needed tool to complete several objectives.
Her nighttime path action, Entreat, will enable her to charm the NPCs and gather their items. She uses her Dance Session talent to produce several effects and can use her All Together Now latent power to increase the effect from one person to everyone.
She’s a difficult character when it comes to surviving on her own. Her support role is excellent, but you should recruit a few characters before adding her to your party.
Partitio
This protagonist is a merchant who mainly relies on money to impact the game significantly. With the introduction of day and night time, each player gets one Path action for daytime and one for the night.
Partitio can use his Purchase path during the day to buy things from different NPCs scattered across the Solistia. He uses his Hire action at night to recruit the NPCs into his team and bring them on during combat with other enemies.
Partitio’s special talent allows him to create different effects on the hired NPCs. That is why his ability is Business Partners. Additionally, the newly introduced Latent powers enable him to charge his BP fully.
The only problem with Partitio is his dependence on money to utilize his skills, making him a weak Octopath 2 starting character.
