Octopath Traveler Ghisarma Fight Guide

Ghisarma is a difficult boss fight in Octopath Traveler but can be a lot tougher should you bring the wrong characters in your party.

At one point while playing through H’aanit’s Chapter 1, you will come across the boss Ghisarma. If you’ve chosen any character other than H’aanit earlier in the game and they aren’t that well developed yet, you will surely face a tough time against this boss.

This is because as you keep adding more members to your party, the difficulty level of this fight increases significantly.

With the rest of the bosses in other characters’ chapters, you will see a lot of other enemies along with the boss, but not Ghisarma. However, that doesn’t mean Ghisarma is any less than them – the loss of companions is compensated for by Ghisarma’s high amount of HP and attack damage.

You will encounter this boss way at the end of H’aanit’s first chapter – specifically when he learns that the beast terrorizes the local merchant and is tasked to deal with it. Before we start on how to deal with it though, you first need to know where to find Ghisarma in Octopath Traveler.

Ghisarma location

In the last stages of H’aanit’s chapter 1, he heads over to “The Whisperwood” in the Woodlands region, located west of S’warkii. This is where you find Ghisarma, who recently moved into the region as well. You learn that the beast has been causing trouble in the area and killing everything it comes across.

H’aanit deduces that Ghisarma was probably driven away from its previous territory by another beast, and hence terrorizes this region with anger.

Ghisarma weaknesses

Learning the weaknesses of Ghisarma will be the most important step in beating the boss. Exploiting these weaknesses will allow you to break Ghisarma’s defense to deal significantly large amounts of damage.

Each boss has a different set of shields that need to be broken by hitting it with its weaknesses – which may vary from boss to boss – in Ghisarma’s case, it’s weak to Sword, Bow, Thunder, Light, and Ice.

Now that you know Ghisarma’s weak points, you can exploit them easily without wasting time and moves with trial and error.

Moreover, it is also important to know that the number of shields Ghisarma has can vary depending on the characters in your party – but not its weaknesses.

If you only have H’aanit, then Ghisarma will have 5 shields. If you have two travelers then Ghisarma will have 6 Shields, and 8 in the case of 3 or more travelers.

Ghisarma special attacks

Ghisarma has a lot of attacks in store for you. These attacks will hit hard and have the potential to obliterate your party in a matter of seconds.

The boss has two basic attacks – the normal physical attack and the scratch attack. Both of them deal physical damage to a single target, but the scratch attack deals almost double the damage compared to the former.

Aside from these basic attacks, Ghisarma also has a few special attacks that it uses later during the fight.

Special AttacksWhat Do They Do
Fury and RageThis attack will counter any physical attack you throw at Ghisarma, allowing him to deal massive amounts of critical damage to a specific target
RampageAllows Ghisarma to deal physical damage to your party from two to six times at random.
Death from AboveDeals lethal critical damage to any one member of your party.

How to defeat Ghisarma

Best party for Ghisarma

First and foremost, in order to defeat Ghisarma you must come prepared with the right party. The best characters to bring to this fight are H’aanit and Ophilia.

The fight is relatively easier when you come with lesser party members. If you bring more than 4 travelers in the party with you, Ghisarma will have 9,768 HP, which is more than any boss of any traveler’s chapter 1.

It will also be easier in terms of Shields if you bring lesser party members with you because Ghisarma will have a lesser number of shields in that case – which will be easier to break.

H’aanit alone in your party would suffice – and would work the best since Ghisarma would be the weakest (comparatively) in that case. Moreover, H’aanit also possesses a couple of abilities that heavily impact Ghisarma.

These attacks include “Rain of Arrows” and his “Aim” ability. The former attack works best against Ghisarma since it is one of the boss’s weaknesses. Continuously using this attack will allow you to break his shields in no time and kick in some extra damage after that.

Additionally, the Forest Fox beast summon can also be pretty handy against Ghisarma. This boss can be blinded and poisoned.

If you bring Ophilia along with you to the party, Ghisarma will become a bit stronger, but your additional party member has a great skillset that can help you in the fight.

Ophilia can mostly be used to heal other party members during the fight. Keeping your HP topped up during this fight is a key factor to winning – especially H’aanit’s.

Whether or not you effectively counter Ghisarma’s “Fury and Rage” and “Death From Above” attacks will determine whether you win the fight or not. After you see the “The Ghisarma appears ready to respond to any attack” prompt when Ghisarma’s around half HP, get prepared for the Fury and Rage attack.

During this readied stage, Ghisarma can counter any physical attack – so you either need to use magic attacks to break or buff yourself up to withstand the attack.

After Ghisarma spends a turn preparing the Death from Above attack (denoted by the “Ghisarma is preparing to pounce” prompt), you better have something prepared to break, otherwise, you will suffer from major consequences.

Just deal with these two attacks and keep countering Ghisarma head-on, all while healing up constantly and you’ll defeat Ghisarma in no time.

What else to bring to the fight?

Coming prepared for the fight against Ghisarma is highly recommended. In this fight, you will need a lot of items that recover HP and SP – like Olive of Life(s) and Inspirating Plum(s).

This is because you will often require healing after Ghisarma lands one of its hard hits – especially if you don’t have Ophilia on your team.

You will also need to use Inspirating Plums to regain your SP so you can land heavier attacks on Ghisarma – targeting its weaknesses.

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A hardcore sandbox fan glued chiefly to his seat, busy creating his own worlds. When he's bored, he shows up here to conjure guides that unlock the secrets of the gaming realm.