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The town of Sai in Octopath Traveler 2 is a desert village on the edge of nowhere, full of desperate people looking for enough money to get by. The frequent fights with neighbors don't help matters, either, and they're the reason why protagonist Castti visits the area.
Sai is also the location of one of Partitio's Scent of Commerce side stories, not to mention one of the hardest side stories in all of Octopath Traveler 2. This guide will explain how to beat both of them, along with the side quest found in the town's East District.
Plans from a Ruined Nation Guide
Head up the stairs in the back of the East District to find a Master Carpenter. According to him, Sai used to be part of the kingdom of U, and if he could fix the old U fortress, it would create a lot of housing for the people of Sai. However, he can't rebuild without a blueprint for the fortress, and all the old U artisans fled east to the Harborlands.
Players can find the needed blueprints on an NPC called Former U Carpenter, who spends his days in the Canalbrine tavern. He holds a key item called Fort Orochi Plans, which players can get using any method.
Bring the plans back to the Master Carpenter for a reward of 6,500 leaves and a Tough Nut (M). The renovations will also give players access to two chests that contain a Battle Hatchet and a Refined Sword.
Scent of Commerce: Sai
When Partitio comes to Sai, he'll want to track down a famous old merchant named Masoud. Partitio wants a look at Masoud's famous Mercantile Manuscript, but first, he has to prove himself by bringing Masoud the thing he values most.
To start things off, players should head down into town and find Masoud's Daughter standing by a well. Hire her for 1,000 leaves (only Hiring will work) and return her to her father. This isn't the solution, but Masoud's Daughter will give Partitio a hint as to what the answer is. With this knowledge, head back up to Masoud and Hire him for 5,000 leaves.
The reward for completing this side story is access to the Mercantile Manuscript, which has a lot of background information about the eight regions, the eight jobs, and so on. It even explains why there are only six weapon types in the game and why the currency is called leaves.
Sword Hunter in the Decaying Temple
Players can get this side story when they enter Sai and head to the healing tent. However, beating this side quest is much harder than players might expect. According to the Young Warrior, a thief stole his ancestral sword and fled to a place called the Decaying Temple to the east.
Players can get to the Decaying Temple by taking the northern path from the Eastern Sai Sands, but its doors will only open if the protagonist is alone.
The way to do this is to go to the tavern and hit the "Remove" button on the Change Party screen. The Octopath protagonist that players pick first is normally locked into the active party, but they become unlocked once their main storyline ends. After that point, players can take any of the eight protagonists into the Decaying Temple.
The Decaying Temple's danger level is 40, and players should pay attention to that number. The enemies attack one at a time in this area, but the sword hunter, Karma, is a proper boss fight with dangerous gimmicks.
Beating Karma
Throughout the fight, Karma will switch to stances with new weaknesses, and when he does so, he slowly builds up his aggression and number of attacks. If players can't break through his shields before he maxes out, he'll unleash a special attack that hits four times and then deals 9999 damage, with no way to reduce the number.
This is effectively an instant kill for any character. On top of this, one of Karma's special stances has 1 shield but no weaknesses, so players must use a special ability like Temenos's Latent Power or the Dancer's Ruinous Kick.
Fortunately, there's a relatively easy way for any character to beat Karma. Simply give the character the Merchant job and have them buy any four of the job's skills. This will let them equip the Support Skill Hang Tough, which lets characters keep 1 HP after any attack so long as they started with over a quarter of their health left.
Karma only uses his special stances once each, so players who can keep their health up will survive Karma's ultimate attacks and eventually wear him down. The Merchant job can also speed this along by using Hired Help to bring in Veteran Soldiers and deal a tremendous amount of damage in a short amount of time.
Once Karma goes down, players can take the Keepsake Sword back to the Young Warrior and get 12,000 leaves and a Refreshing Jam.
It's an underwhelming reward considering the effort it takes to beat Karma, but at least players can say they soloed one of the game's most notorious bosses.
Octopath Traveler 2 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, and Switch.