Guide for Octopath Traveler - Intermission 1 (2024)

General

Before we dig into the first optional dungeon, I thought it would be a good time to note a few items.

First off, at this point in the game, you will almost certainly have unlocked the following achievements (if not, you definitely will soon!):

• Fighter

  Fought 100 battles.

  

  1 guide

• Brawler

  Fought 200 battles.

  

  1 guide

• Traveler

  Played more than 10 hours.

  

  1 guide

• Moneybags

  Obtained 80,000 leaves.

  

  1 guide

You may have encountered the rare Cait enemy by now. You'll need to catalog its weaknesses just like any other monster for the Strategist achievement, so keep your eyes peeled for them. Try to kill them when you find them as well for a good chunk of EXP and JP (it's much easier to hit them with spells and Soulstones rather than physical attacks, and damaging them makes the more likely to use the Groom skill, which prevents them from fleeing). Note that they will also still appear in higher level areas as well, so definitely don't waste your time looking for them in these areas if you don't want to.

Finally, if you haven't been using any of the Nut items you've been collecting, make sure you start! These provide your characters with permanent stat upgrades.

Much of the following are things you could have done earlier, but it was convenient from a walkthrough structure standpoint to move this all here.

The Whistlewood

* Note that the Flatlands Froggen VI enemy has a very low encounter rate (just 3%), so you likely won't run into it here. We will find them easier to encounter later, so I'll list this enemy again when it's easier to find.

In this short optional area, all there is to do is get some chests and fight some new enemies. After you're satisfied here, warp to Atlasdam.

Atlasdam

If you've been following the walkthrough, you likely will not have Purchased / Stolen from the NPCs here, so go around relieving them of their goods.

Now that you have a lot more money and now that Therion is starting to gain some levels, make sure you're Purchasing / Stealing every item from every NPC in each town (unless the item is outrageously expense or the steal chance is abysmally low). There are some items for the Collector achievement that are only available via these path options. The point of doing this is to just save time later when you're wrapping up achievements. For example, the Boy in the southeast corner of the Palace has some fairly unique equipment that only a few other NPCs carry as well. The exception here is if it's an obvious consumable item that you know you have (like Healing Grapes, etc... but if the steal chance is 100%, might as well grab it, right?).

• Side Story - Fit for a King: The NPC that starts this quest is left of the save point in the main part of town. You'll have to Purchase / Steal ingredients from the following NPCs to complete his side story:
  • Ambrosial Milk from the guy in front of the inn
  • Roc Egg from the boy in between the item shop and tavern (in the lower area with the other children)
  • Emperor Crab from Patron in the tavern
• Side Story - Theracio's Tutelage (I): This NPC is in the lower area southeast of the save point in the main part of town. Challenge / Provoke the Shifty Moneylender right next to him. You may wish to pick the stronger of Olberic or H'aanit for this fight (although H'aanit may be able to do some spicy damage with her summons, even at a lower level than Olberic).

There are a couple of new enemies (Fire Wisp and Ice Wisp) in the Subterranean Study (the first dungeon we completed) now that the danger level is higher, but we will naturally encounter these enemies shortly so there's not much point in seeking them out here.

Now fast travel to Rippletide.

Rippletide

• Side Story - Love Unrequited: Find Mathilda in front of the weapon shop. Either Challenge / Provoke Tony (to the left) or Guide / Allure his mother (who is just to the south, by the inn) over to Tony (the latter method is hilariously cruel).

Head west towards the Caves of Maiya.

Path to the Caves of Maiya

After grabbing the new enemies here, head to the Caves of Maiya to the southwest.

Caves of Maiya

Just a few more enemies to grab here, including the elusive Black Bat if you haven't grabbed it yet. When you're done, warp to Cobbleston.

Cobbleston

If you didn't grab the Captain's Sword earlier, you should be plenty strong enough to do it now (it's the house on the hill behind the tavern, you'll have to fight the Captain of the Watch to gain entry).

Before leaving town, make sure Therion is in your party. Also grab either Ophilia or Primrose for the next side story. We're going to be bringing Noelle with us to the next dungeon!

• Side Story - Noelle, Seeker of Knowledge (I): Find Noelle a few houses back from the tavern (up a couple flights of steps outside). Guide / Allure her to the next dungeon.

Head east to South Cobbleston Gap, then exit northeast to North Cobbleston Gap.

North Cobbleston Gap

After grabbing the locked chest that we missed before, and encountering the new enemies here, head to the Untouched Sanctum, which is in the northeast corner of the area.

Here is the map if you need it for navigation:

Untouched Sanctum

As noted in the Cobbleston section above, make sure you have Noelle in tow. Be cautious of both types of skeleton enemies here; they can hit particularly hard and have lots of HP. Luckily, both types are easy to break. Most of the enemies here are very resistant to physical attacks, so make sure you have plenty of Inspiriting Plums handy to restore your SP. The Pole Mace is a particularly good staff upgrade for either Cyrus or Ophilia.

Other than the chests and enemies, the main thing to do here is bring Noelle to the monument next to the locked chest in the southeast corner, which will complete her first side story.

After clearing the Sanctum, pop back over to Cobbleston and head northeast through the Mountain Pass to the Brigands' Den.

Bridgands' Den

The singular reason we are here is to get the Brigand III enemy, which does not appear anywhere else. Now warp to Sunshade.

Sunshade

If you didn't finish "The Bouncer" side story earlier, you should be powerful enough to complete it now. I used H'aanit, as the Flatlands Froggen that I had captured in the Whistlewood was doing some decent damage and breaking him quickly.

• Side Story - The Bouncer: The Hired Barkeep in the southeastern corner of the tavern starts this side story. Challenge / Provoke the Drunken Bouncer just outside the tavern to complete it.

Now head to Eastern Sunshade Sands (via the southeast exit of Southern Sunshade Sands) and look for the Whistling Cavern just to the north. Again, make sure you have Therion along for a locked chest.

Map to get there is below if you need it for navigation purposes:

Whistling Cavern

* The Slayer Bug, Horse Fly, and Giant Scorpion, with encounter rates of 8%, 5%, and 3%, respectively, are difficult to encounter here. All will appear in other areas much more commonly later on, so don't stress yourself out trying to encounter them. I will list them again when they appear later.

That being said, the enemy packs here are fairly large, which increases your chances of seeing a Cait, so you may want to stick around and fight a bunch of battles anyway to see if you can get one to spawn, should you still need one.

When you are satisfied here, warp to Clearbrook

Clearbrook

Not much to do here except grab the locked chest if you didn't earlier. Keep Therion in your party, as there is another locked chest coming up shortly. Head west out of town to West Clearbrook Traverse and exit southeast to South Clearbrook Traverse. The Twin Falls dungeon is located to the northeast.

Map to get there is below, if you need it:

Twin Falls

Note that this optional dungeon has a boss, unlike the other optional dungeons we've done so far. You may wish to bring a combination of Primrose, Olberic, and/or Tressa due to the boss' weaknesses. Also note that you will need to uncover its weaknesses as part of the Strategist achievement, even though you haven't needed to do this for other bosses! After you kill it, it will begin spawning as a regular enemy in this area, giving you more chances to uncover its weaknesses should you somehow miss them during the initial battle.

The boss is at the north end of the area. You'll know you're getting close when you get a warning message about proceeding.

Note that the last couple chests cannot be collected until after defeating the boss. Now warp to Bolderfall.

Bolderfall

There is still a side story here that we could technically complete now, but since my strategy relies on having a bunch of Fire Soulstones for the NPC battle (and since the you, the user of the walkthrough, may not have many), I'll just mention it later when you're stronger.

Again, we will want Therion in our party for a locked chest, so make sure he's there (so much for keeping an even rotation of party members, huh?).

For now, head out to North Bolderfall Pass, across the long bridge to the north, and back down to the south to South Bolderfall Pass. Once there, head across the bridge that leads east, and head south down the cliffs to eventually reach Carrion Caves at the bottom of the ravine (the entrance is a little hidden, you'll have to run into the wall to the right once at the bottom).

Map below for navigation:

Carrion Caves

The boss is in the northwest corner of the area. Again, this boss will begin spawning as a regular enemy in this area after defeating it, should you miss learning some of its weaknesses. I had a somewhat tough time with this boss since I had some of my weaker characters in my party (for level balancing purposes). However, the exp reward for defeating the boss is pitifully low, so definitely head back to town and bring your strongest characters if you want.

Don't miss the chest with the Enchanted Axe after defeating the boss.

Now warp to S'warkii to tackle the last optional dungeon (for now). There are a couple others available, but they range from tough to impossible at your current level so we will return for them later. Put Therion in your party again if he isn't already, head north out of town to North S'warkii Trail, head west to West S'warkii Trail, and find the Path of Beasts in the southeast corner (you'll have to zig-zag your way down).

Map to get there:

Path of Beasts

* The Wanderweed encounter rate is only 5%, so again, in case you don't naturally encounter one here, I'll remind you later when they're more common.

Not much going on here other than the chests. In fact, the whole east half of the area doesn't have much going for it other than a clearing with a nice view of a waterfall.

With that, we are more than ready to continue with the Chapter 2s. Now that you have a whole bunch of fast travel points, it's a little easier to pick and choose whose Chapter 2 you will complete next. Interestingly, the characters' dedicated Chapter 2 dungeons have differing danger levels, implying a natural order in which to tackle them (with Tressa being the lowest at danger level 18 and H'aanit being the highest at danger level 27). However, since our focus is ACHIEVEMENTS, and there are enemies that will stop appearing forever if the danger level gets too high, we will base our decision on that! To that end, warp to Cobbleston.

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