The Hardest Bosses In Octopath Traveler 2

The numerous bosses found in "Octopath Traveler 2" make up the most difficult challenges that players will face in the game. There are literally dozens of these fights across the critically acclaimed turn-based RPG. Some of the early battles are more straightforward while many of the later fights require players to make use of advanced strategies and a deep understanding of the game's battle mechanics. But with the irregular storyline that the game features, players might have a hard time trying to figure out which bosses are the hardest to beat. Each of the eight playable characters featured in the game will have four to five bosses that they have to face across their individual paths, but there are also several optional bosses, bosses that players will have to face in the final chapter, and one secret side boss that can only be challenged by those who complete the prerequisite quests.

Of course, there are a lot of variables when it comes to boss fights. One player might take more time to prepare than another, making the battle considerably easier. Likewise, different play styles might be more beneficial in different kinds of fights, making a fight that seemed easy for one player feel much more difficult for another. But then there are some boss battles that are probably going to be challenging for any player. Here are the four hardest bosses in "Octopath Traveler 2."

Most of the super difficult bosses in the game are either the final boss of a given path, optional bosses, or part of the endgame content. There is one mid-path boss that's significantly harder than all of the others though and that's Thurston. He's the third boss on Partitio's path and easily one of the most frustrating fights in the entire game. Thurston himself wouldn't be all that impressive on his own, but there's one reason why this fight has so many players pulling their hair out: His steam engine.

Thurston's steam engine completely obscures him from the battle and removes all of his weaknesses, meaning he can hit the player, but they can't hit him. In order to attack Thurston, players first have to attack the fog machine itself which starts out only being susceptible to physical attacks and then later becomes vulnerable to magic instead. Even once they do this, however, they will only have a small window during which to attack Thurston before he will summon a new steam engine and become invulnerable once more.

Team composition can make or break this fight and having party members that can multi-attack the steam engine makes all the difference.

Lajackal of the Sorrowful Moon is another character boss that's quite difficult, and some players may not even end up fighting it. They have to choose between an owl or a fox at the beginning of Ochette's path. Whichever one they pick will end up being their companion for the duration of the game while the other animal will end up being the path's final boss. Only players who choose the owl, Mahina, will face Lajackal. Both are difficult, but Lajackal is the harder of the two.

One of the things that makes this boss so challenging is its sheer attack power. Its Devour attack brings individual party members down to 1HP. Meanwhile, it has several full-party attacks and attacks that debuff the whole team, forcing players to stay on top of keeping their party healthy, so they don't drop on Lajackal's next attack. This makes it so a lot of players spend most of the fight struggling to keep the party up rather than being able to focus on dealing damage. It also buffs its own defense and regenerates 1,000 hp per turn, making it truly difficult to take down.

All of this makes fighting Lajackal feel like a battle of attrition where one wrong move can mean game over.

One of the more challenging optional bosses is definitely the Dreadwolf. This monstrous beast is found inside the Infernal Castle which is located on the part of the map labeled Beneath the Wall. This requires the player to have amassed at least seven out of the eight characters in their party before they can gain access to the region. They will then have to fight their way through the castle before they can face the big bad wolf itself.

One of the things that makes this fight so hard is that the Dreadwolf will continuously summon a pair of War Wolves to fight on its behalf. These smaller wolves protect all but one (fire) of their pack leader's weaknesses, meaning that players will have to defeat them before being able to significantly damage the Dreadwolf. This makes it kind of like the Thurston fight, except it's much harder. The War Wolves are no pushovers themselves and the Dreadwolf deals considerably more damage. This can turn the fight into a delicate balancing act of maintaining party health, dealing out debuffs, and whittling down the War Wolves while saving big attacks for when the Dreadwolf's vulnerabilities become available.

Hard though the fight may be, one of the perks of defeating the Dreadwolf is that it nets the player a High Priest's Book of Scripture, which grants them an extra Cleric job license.

Easily the most difficult fight in the game is against Galdera, the Fallen. Many players may put down the controller after defeating Vide, the Wicked, and watching the credits roll — but there is a much harder boss lying in wait. To challenge Galdera, players must first complete The Traveler's Bag, Procuring the Peculiar Tomes, and From the Far Reaches of Hell quests.

The player will be using all eight of their characters in this fight, but they will be split up into two parties. One will deal with the first phase of the battle where they will be fighting what looks like a giant Eyeball embedded in a blob of skeletal corpses. After that, the second will be fighting the beast's top half, which is more like a strange, armored dragon.

Both stages are incredibly difficult, with Gadera being able to call upon more enemies to protect its weaknesses and having a vast arsenal of abilities at its disposal. Each version has plenty of shields and can nullify buffs. Plus, the top and bottom have numerous high-damage attacks, but the first stage deals more magic damage while the second is more physical.

Players seeking to fight Galdera need to be sure they are as ready as possible. They are encouraged to level up their characters, use all the nuts in their inventory, make sure their party has the best equipment, and otherwise pull out all the stops to optimize their team and ensure that they're as prepared as possible before attempting to take this fight on.