Gareth is a boss involved in several activities, leading the Brigand group in Octopath Traveler. You are going to encounter this boss while progressing through Therion’s story.
The Octopath Traveler Gareth boss will be the last obstacle in Therion’s chapter 3 that you must defeat to progress with his story.
Being a leader of a gang, the boss will fight you along with two of his subordinates, and he can give you a tough time if you lack proper planning for the battle. However, knowing Gareth’s location in Octopath Traveler is vital before knowing the strategy.
Gareth location
During Chapter 3 of Therion’s story, you need to reach the Black Market to find the Dragonstones from the merchant. However, you will see the merchant’s death unfolding before you and the murderer running deeper into the black market.
Following a chase, you will find Darius to be the killer, but here Gareth will combat in place of his boss, and Darius will escape. Your fight with Gareth will start here, and you need to know his weaknesses to end the fight quickly in Octopath Traveler.
Gareth weaknesses
This boss shows apparent weaknesses against some physical and elemental attacks. To deal maximum damage, you can exploit Gareth’s flaw against the Axe, Staves and Swords damage.
You can also rely on Wind and Ice elemental attacks to break your enemy and end the fight as soon as possible. Your success depends on exploiting these weaknesses and spamming the same attacks using the mentioned weapons to win the battle.
However, it is also crucial to understand the special attacks of this boss to have a higher chance of winning the fight on your first try.
Gareth special attacks
This boss has the ability to change his weaknesses right after you break him down the first time. After recovery from every break, the weakness will change, but Gareth’s vulnerability toward Wind attacks will remain constant.
Gareth can perform several attacks that can deal a good amount of damage to a single or whole party member.
| Special Attacks | What They Do |
|---|---|
| Evasive Breath | This will increase the Evasion stat for the boss for the next four turns. |
| Steal Life | Physical attack that deals damage to the whole party and restores health equivalent to 50 percent of the damage dealt. |
| Steal Magic | It’s a physical attack that takes away 50 percent of the maximum SP from a single party member. |
| Will o’ Wisp | AOE attack based on fire that deals a good amount of damage to the whole party. |
| Steal All | The boss takes away the ability of the members to use any kind of item during the battle. You can only unlock the items after breaking down Gareth. |
How to defeat Gareth in Octopath Traveler
The boss starts the battle by having around 38,000 HP and 5 SP. Initially, you need to focus your attacks on the accompanying thieves. You must take them down before concentrating your powerful attacks on the boss.
You should initially utilize the physical attacks based on Staves and use Wind Elemental damage to deal maximum damage. The boss will change its weakness after recovery from the break, and you should change the weapon to Sword and use Ice along with Wind attacks to take away HP from the boss.
It is also crucial to land maximum damage attacks on the thieves accompanying the boss in combat. These puppets are weak to lightning attacks, and you can also break them down quickly by using Polearm or Daggers attacks, so use these options to get on with the main boss quickly.
The boss can change the number of attacks he can perform in a single turn to three. You need to be careful and have certain items that buff you in your attacks and help restore the HP of your whole party. Using the Leghold Trap ability to increase your chances of survival in the battle against Gareth in Octopath Traveler is also essential.
You must follow these steps and spam your attacks to end the fight quickly. However, you need to ensure that you get the best party possible against Gareth in Octopath Traveler.
Best party for Gareth
You need to select the protagonists that provide you with the ability to deal maximum physical and elemental damage by exploiting vulnerabilities of Gareth. The inclusion of Therion is inevitable, and he allows you to do maximum damage using the Sword attacks.
You also need Cyrus in your team, as his ability to use lightning elemental damage is excellent. You need this ability against the thieves that accompany the boss. So use Cyrus’s Lightning Blast to take the maximum SP points away from your enemies.
H’aanit and Ophilia complete our party, as these characters can allow you to summon beasts to hit the vulnerable points of your enemies. You also need healing during the battle, so having these characters completes our party.
What else to bring to the fight?
You need items like Healing Grapes and Olive of Life during this battle. The single-targeted attacks from Gareth are powerful, and you need some revival or HP restoration during the battle.
Gareth drops
- 6,400 Leaves
- Gareth’s Helm
- EXP 750
- JP 500
