Yvon is the only major boss that you have to fight during Cyrus’s Chapter 3 in Octopath Traveler. You will face him in his cellar after finding out that he attempts to steal the tome From the Far Reaches of Hell.
Although Yvon, the headmaster of the Royal Academy of Atlasdam, may seem like a regular man, he undergoes a vampire-like transformation which makes him incredibly strong and intimidating.
If you don’t have the proper information on this boss like his special attacks or his weaknesses beforehand, defeating Yvon will become a gruesome task in Octopath Traveler.
Yvon location
You will have to fight Yvon at the end of Cyrus’s chapter 3, specifically in his birthplace at Stoneguard. This will be a mansion in the northern region of north Stoneguard Heights in Octopath Traveler.
Upon entering the Yvon’s Cellar, you will first have to head east and then south across some stairs, then take the stairs in the western corner of the place to reach another area.
From here, head east to come across another set of stairs, and then go south and west across some stairs yet again. From this point, move to your left, passing the two rooms to reach a small set of stairs leading upwards.
These will lead to another room. Skip this room again and head west across a few more staircases to reach the final room of Yvon’s Cellar, where Yvon himself resides.
As you enter the room, you will be able to see that the blood-crystal Yvon takes allows him to transform into a monster, and the Octopath Traveler boss fight will initiate.
Yvon weaknesses
In order to deal the maximum amount of damage to this boss, you will have to understand Yvon’s weaknesses. The weaknesses of Yvon are a little bit complicated, as they change with each phase.
In the first phase, Yvon has two physical weaknesses – Dagger, and Staves, and one elemental weakness – Light. As you enter the second stage of the fight, there will be one added weakness – Fire.
Moving on to the third stage, there is another increase in its weakness – Ice.
Since Yvon increases the number of his shields with each phase, the number of weaknesses also increases. You can utilize the different variety of weaknesses to counter the increase in shields.
Yvon special attacks
Aside from his basic attack, Yvon has a couple of other special attacks that will seriously put a dent in your characters’ HP if you aren’t prepared for them.
Though all he manages to pull off are physical attacks, he can also inflict debuffs and gain a boost to his critical hit chances, attack damage, and physical defense as well.
Given below is a list of all of Yvon’s special attacks.
| Special Attacks | What They Do |
|---|---|
| Intimidate | Physical attack that targets a single party member. Has a chance to inflict Silence |
| Thrash | Physical attack that targets all party members |
| Physical Augmentation | Yvon gains a physical attack and physical defense buff for 4 turns |
| “Yvon is losing control of his body” | Yvon gains an Increased Critical buff and 2 new attacks |
| Pulverize | Heavy physical attack targeted at an individual character. Drains all BP |
| Shatter Soul | Heavy physical attack targeted at an individual character. Drains all SP |
How to defeat Yvon in Octopath Traveler
In order to defeat Octopath Traveler Yvon, you will have to keep a couple of things in mind to make a general strategy. The stages of the fight can be quite confusing, so it’s better to remember what happens in each stage.
Moreover, remembering the special attacks and their weaknesses will also play a huge role, since you will be trying to avoid most attacks and exploit Yvon’s weaknesses.
The fight with Yvon has 3 stages. He starts off with a total of 3 Shields, 3 weaknesses, and 63, 522 HP. Additionally, Yvon will also start off with a couple of Research Fellows as his minions.
Your first priority will be to get rid of these Research Fellows. They have two attacks, Tornado – which targets all party members with Wind for medium damage, and Whirlwind Slash – which targets a single party member four times.
Although they don’t give any notable buff to Yvon himself, it’s still better to get rid of the Research Fellows first to stop their annoying attacks and cut down Yvon’s turns.
You can target the Research Fellows’ weaknesses to get rid of them swiftly, which are – Axes, Spears, Lightening, and Dark. These guys only have four shields and 12, 704 HP, so they won’t be that hard to defeat.
Once you put the Research Fellows out of the picture, it’s time to focus on Yvon. Focus on his weaknesses and try to break him as quickly as you can. Your first break will cause him to increase the total number of his shields to 5, the second break to 8, and the third to 12 respectively.
While that happens, the number of weaknesses Yvon also increases, so you can exploit them to make quick work of his Shields. For that, it would help to have party members that target most, if not all of his weaknesses.
Aside from weaknesses, you will also have to pay a lot of attention to defense. All of Yvon’s attacks deal physical damage, and he can even increase the damage dealt with buffs.
That said, it would help to have characters with high physical defense. You could use a Thief in your party that can use the Shackle Foe ability to counter the increased physical damage buff. To improve the overall HP, you will require a healer, but we’ll discuss that later.
Towards the ending stages of the battle, Yvon will gain two new attacks that deplete your character’s BP and SP. You can get some mercenaries with the Hired Help to reduce the incoming damage with these heavy attacks though.
When he is below 50% of his HP, Yvon will start to waste some of his turns with “Yvon is losing control of his body” along with the increased critical buff. That is your cue to go all out on this boss, exploiting all of his weaknesses till he goes down.
Best party for Yvon
Yvon has a large variety of weaknesses, and exploiting those weaknesses is the key to victory. That said, the best party for Yvon would be one that not only has high defense or healing stats but also that can target most or all of Yvon’s weaknesses.
You can bring the following characters for the best outcome with Yvon:
- Cyrus
- Ophilia
- H’aanit
- Therion
Cyrus would be an obvious pick here because the boss appears in his story, so he has the best potential to fight this boss. With the help of his physical and elemental abilities, he can exploit most of Yvon’s weaknesses himself. For example, you can use the Fireball, Firestorm, and Icewind Scholar Skills to target Fire and Ice respectively.
Ophilia will serve as your main healer because she has a lot of skills that allow your party to heal up to quite an extent. Moreover, she can also target Yvon’s Ice and Fire weaknesses with the same scholar skills as Cyrus – in case Cyrus does not have any SP left.
H’aanit has a lot of attacks in store as well. He can not only use the Axe attacks to make quick work of the Research Fellows but also Dagger attacks to deal maximum physical damage to Yvon.
Therion will act as your thief, using Shackle Foe to reduce Yvon’s physical attack damage as discussed before. He can even use Dagger and Fire attacks two target two of Yvon’s weaknesses.
What else to bring to the fight?
Aside from bringing the best party to fight Yvon, you will also need a couple of other items. It’s always best to come prepared for the fight with everything you have, and that’s most true for this fight.
You will first need a bunch of healing and revive items especially if you do not have a healer in your party – The Healing Grape Bunch and Olives of Life respectively.
Additionally, you might also require items that boost BP and SP, items like Energizing Pomegranates, Inspiriting Plums Refreshing Jam, Revitalizing Jam, etc. This is because, in the ending stages of the fight, Yvon can use attacks that can drain BP, SP, and HP, which makes it harder to target his weaknesses.
Yvon drops
Upon being defeated, Yvon will drop the following items:
- Energizing Pomegranate (L)
- Healing Grape Bunch
