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In the first game, the Scholar Cyrus has to deal with unscrupulous academics who steal books from the Royal Archive for nefarious purposes. Octopath Traveler 2 raises the stakes by having the Scholar Osvald framed by a fellow academic and imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit.
Octopath Traveler 2 draws from a wide variety of story types and settings, and Osvald's story is about escaping an oppressive prison and then getting revenge on the man responsible for everything. And since a prison break on an isolated, snowy island is hardly an easy task, the game takes the unusual step of splitting Osvald's introduction into two chapters. This walkthrough will focus on Osvald's Chapter 1.
Wrongfully Accused
Whether the player starts the game with Osvald or starts with a different protagonist and encounters him on the side of the road, the game will warn players that Osvald's origin story is longer than usual and will take 2 chapters to complete instead of the usual 1. Once players accept this, they'll see the trial where Osvald is convicted for murder and sentenced to imprisonment on Frigit Isle.
Five years later, Osvald has mostly finished his escape plan. However, he runs into trouble when his cellmate steals the diary with all his notes. This is to introduce players to Osvald's nighttime action, Mug. While other characters can get NPC possessions by asking, buying, or stealing them, Osvald can beat people up and take them. However, players should note that this will always be a one-on-one duel between Osvald and the NPC. At the moment Osvald is muzzled and can't use his Scholar skills, so players should just hit the cellmate with a stick until he gives up.
After the fight, the game introduces the sadistic Warden Davids and players get to hear Osvald thinking about his escape plan. All he needs at this point is a route, cold-weather clothing, and an accomplice.
Free Time Plotting
The story picks up during the free period of the next day. Osvald has three tasks to complete, and there are three green markers on the map. Players can only complete one task each day, but they can do them in any order with no change to the story. As such, players may as well start with the cafeteria, which is the flat building right behind Osvald.
In this location, Osvald will want to find his accomplice. To do this, he'll want to Scrutinize his fellow inmates. Scrutinize is Osvald's daytime action, and any of the tasks will unlock this action since all of them use it. Scrutinize is the risky way of getting information from NPCs: Osvald doesn't have to be a certain level or pay NPCs any money, but if he fails enough times he'll ruin the party's reputation in town. This will prevent players from Scrutinizing until they pay the town's tavern keeper some money to restore the party reputation.
However, since this is Osvald's Chapter 1, his chance of success is always 100 percent. Players can Scrutinize the three prisoners with green dialog balloons (and the one with a normal balloon), but the one they're looking for is Emerald, the man by the stove. Emerald will ask Osvald if he's a hungry beast or thinking up an escape plan, and players can answer "The Former" or "The Latter." Emerald has already seen through Osvald, though, and so he'll make Osvald tell the truth even if players try to lie.
The second task is to find the Provisioner and secure some cold-weather clothes. The Provisioner, Bale, is standing in the middle of the yard near the giant bell, and he won't give Osvald anything for free. This means Osvald has to Scrutinize more prisoners to find Bale's weakness, and three prisoners with green dialog will appear throughout the Yard. Players can also Scrutinize the other guards and prisoners in the area, but none of them have special information or hidden items. The prisoner with Bale's Weakness is standing to the left of the cafeteria.
The third task is to find someone who knows about the prison's history. Players will have to enter the main building (behind the Provisioner) to get this info, and there are more prisoners and guards to Scrutinize inside. Once again, players can get a lot of backstories from these NPCs but only one of them knows anything useful. Specifically, it's the prisoner with a green dialog balloon standing at the top of the main staircase. He'll tell Osvald to find a Labor Report in the prison library, which is back outside and just to the right. Here players will find a glowing blue dot on a bookshelf on the far wall, and this marks the Labor Report's location.
However, before going to the library, players should go around the side of the staircase and use the ladder to go up to the prison's third level. On the right is a chest with an Inspiriting Plum.
The Great Escape
With everything in place, all Osvald has to do is wait for the right moment to set his plan into motion. The moment comes when inspectors visit the island prison, and so Emerald tells Osvald to meet him in the storage shed. There's nothing to interact with in the mining area, so once players get control they should head straight down to the Yard.
The shed in question is the building with the pointed roof behind the cafeteria. Once Osvald enters, Emerald will join him as a temporary companion. Emerald wields daggers, and his combat skills are Sabotage, a physical attack debuff; Stab in the Dark, a dagger skill that attacks 2 to 4 times; and First Aid, a skill that restores an ally's HP.
Night has fallen, and so Osvald can Mug any of the NPCs in the Yard area. However, doing so now is a bad idea since Osvald is still muzzled and can't use his spells. Instead, players should head over to the guard post on the far left side of the area. Osvald will uncover the entrance to the underground tunnel in a cutscene, and at this point Emerald will unlock the muzzle so Osvald can speak and cast spells again.
How to Fight with Osvald
Players now get the chance to fight with Osvald for real, both against random encounters in the Underground Passage and in the Mugging duels on the surface. That makes this a good time to explain how his skills and abilities work.
- Osvald's Job is Scholar, which is the wizard class of Octopath Traveler. This means he starts with skills that deal fire and ice damage, and one of his learnable skills deals lightning damage. Other Scholar skills buff magic damage and reveal vulnerabilities, and one interesting skill can deal any of his magic damage types a random number of times.
- While Osvald can do incredible amounts of elemental damage, especially since all his attack spells hit every target on the field, the only weapons he can wield are staves.
- One downside to Osvald's magic is that all his spells cost a lot of SP. He gets more SP per level than most other characters, but he can still run out quickly. Abilities and items that provide extra SP are a must when using him.
- Osvald's Talent is Study Foe. When combat begins, he reveals a random enemy weakness for free. If Osvald encounters the same enemy again in a different combat, a second weakness will appear, and so on until all of them are visible. This can really help players since they don't have to test out different attack types to find one that works, especially since Osvald doesn't have the SP to spare for experiments.
- Osvald seems like a good pick for a player's first protagonist at first, but he comes with some serious issues. His expensive spells keep him from being very effective during early levels, and he's not as good at taking damage as other characters. There's also the fact that his intro story is two chapters instead of one, which means players will have to stick with him for longer than the other protagonists. Still, once Osvald gets a few more levels, he's a great addition to the main party.
- Osvald's Latent Power is Concentrate Spells. When it's active, his all-target spells will instead focus on a single enemy and deal even more damage. A concentrated spell can also be Boosted to the stratosphere, though it still only hits once.
Underground Passage
The Underground Passage is a proper dungeon, and that includes the random encounters. The Frost Mole 1 is vulnerable to daggers, staves, and fire, the Frost Mole 2 is vulnerable to staves and fire, the White Bat is vulnerable to daggers, staves, and fire, and the Ice Wisp is vulnerable to fire and lightning.
After descending the first winding staircase, players should enter a cell on the back wall to open a chest with a Healing Grape inside. The only way down is to take a ladder, and behind the ladder is an open cell door. Go through and then go left two cells to get an Inspiriting Plum. Players can also go left behind the broken staircase to find another cell with a Sinner's Staff inside. Be sure to equip this right away since it's a big improvement over the Stick Osvald starts with.
To continue on, players must descend another staircase. To the right of the stairs is another chest with an Olive of Life. Then there's another path to the left hidden behind the broken wall on the other side of the stairs, and at its end is an Ancient Necklace.
A little ways past the stairs is a prisoner who acts as a peddler, and next to him is a save point. This combination always means there's a boss fight right around the corner, so save and be sure to buy the Cloth Hood from the shop. Players may also want to go back up to the prison yard and Mug everyone now that Osvald has a few more levels. The two prison guards are harder to beat than the prisoners since they aren't vulnerable to staves, fire, or ice, but they have the best items.
How to Beat Warden Davids
- Warden Davids has 5 shields but is vulnerable to daggers, staves, fire, and lightning. The two Prison Guards have 2 shields and are vulnerable to daggers, staves, ice, and lightning.
- Because of these elemental weaknesses, players should buy the Scholar skill Lightning Bolt before starting this fight.
- Players should make sure to buy plenty of Inspiriting Plums to keep Osvald going throughout the battle.
- Occasionally, Davids will use the skill "Silence, Fool!" to knock one person unconscious. His favorite followup is "Punishment Time!" When this happens, players should Defend with whichever character is awake before Davids can take his next action.
- Emerald's skill Sabotage comes in handy during this fight. Davids mostly uses physical attacks, so the Sabotage debuff has a big impact on his damage output.
- Once Davids reaches half health, he summons in two more guards (assuming the first two are both gone), and Osvald unlocks his Latent Power. However, players should stick with all-target spells until all the guards are down.
- When Davids falls, he drops an Inspiriting Plum Basket.
With Warden Davids down, Osvald and Emerald are able to break through the Underground Passage and escape the prison. However, they still need to escape the island, and so Osvald's introduction continues in Chapter 2.
Octopath Traveler 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, and Switch.