Violentvixen
(She/Her)
I really loved this as a NG+ touch. Definitely something I'd like to see more often.
-
Welcome to Talking Time's third iteration! If you would like to register for an account, or have already registered but have not yet been confirmed, please read the following:
- The CAPTCHA key's answer is "Percy"
- Once you've completed the registration process please email us from the email you used for registration at percyreghelper@gmail.com and include the username you used for registration
Once you have completed these steps, Moderation Staff will be able to get your account approved.
Project Triangle Strategy: Octopath Tactics
- Thread starter YangusKhan
- Start date
Went back to this for a NG+ round and got the golden ending. Amazing game. Nintendo tells me it was my most-played game of 2022 with 84 hours! I loved it even more the second time.
I typed up a unit tier list for the fun of it. Am I severely misjudging any character?
S
Erador - two amazing aggro abilities. King's Shield is the best ability in the game. Solid tanking and counter damage.
Frederica - becomes amazing when she generates TP with kills. At this point in the game, melee starts to feel weaker, and Frederica's damage output is critical.
Medina - expensive to run, but simultaneously healing and generate TP puts her over the other healers
A
Benedict - First turn Dragon Shield on 5 allies is super powerful and Twofold Turn and Now! come in handy when you're in trouble
Geela - healing from a distance is effective (but boring!)
Hughette - gaining high ground and immobilizing enemies is very effective. Wasting enemy turns is the key to victory.
Maxeell - Excellent mobility and damage. Being able to auto-revive means you can use him more aggressively.
B
Serenoa - decent but unspectacular. I probably should have used his TP+ ability more.
Rudolph - nice mix of bow damage and trap utility
Hossabara - can tank, heal, and damage. More fun to run than Geela.
Archibald - high damage but lacks mobility of Hughette and very slow
Quahag - I didn't use him too often - perhaps there is more to be exploited
Corentin - can eventually gain TP by standing on ice. That alone puts him above Ezana and Narve.
Milo - Nice mobility. Charm is strong. Debuffs are strong against bosses. Good evasion, but can be a victim to RNG.
C
Ezana - her abilities cost a lot of TP and she can't generate it herself. Lightning magic is good in general, but Rite of Lightning has low accuracy.
Flanagan - useful for mountainous maps, but pales next to Erador
Anna - seems really useful at first, but her damage and defense suffer at higher levels. Still can be useful in triggering follow-up attacks.
Julio - can feed mages with TP, but this is not needed with Frederica
D
Narve - no way to generate TP and lower damage than Ezana
Jens - ladders are very situational
Groma - eh
Roland - nice damage output, but very squishy
F
Piccoletta - Decoy is really useful at low levels, but at higher levels it gets quickly destroyed. Piccoletta herself does extremely poor damage. She should have had another ability.
Lionel - His abilities have too low of a success rate.
Decimal - Kind of interesting but has too many wasted turns.
I typed up a unit tier list for the fun of it. Am I severely misjudging any character?
S
Erador - two amazing aggro abilities. King's Shield is the best ability in the game. Solid tanking and counter damage.
Frederica - becomes amazing when she generates TP with kills. At this point in the game, melee starts to feel weaker, and Frederica's damage output is critical.
Medina - expensive to run, but simultaneously healing and generate TP puts her over the other healers
A
Benedict - First turn Dragon Shield on 5 allies is super powerful and Twofold Turn and Now! come in handy when you're in trouble
Geela - healing from a distance is effective (but boring!)
Hughette - gaining high ground and immobilizing enemies is very effective. Wasting enemy turns is the key to victory.
Maxeell - Excellent mobility and damage. Being able to auto-revive means you can use him more aggressively.
B
Serenoa - decent but unspectacular. I probably should have used his TP+ ability more.
Rudolph - nice mix of bow damage and trap utility
Hossabara - can tank, heal, and damage. More fun to run than Geela.
Archibald - high damage but lacks mobility of Hughette and very slow
Quahag - I didn't use him too often - perhaps there is more to be exploited
Corentin - can eventually gain TP by standing on ice. That alone puts him above Ezana and Narve.
Milo - Nice mobility. Charm is strong. Debuffs are strong against bosses. Good evasion, but can be a victim to RNG.
C
Ezana - her abilities cost a lot of TP and she can't generate it herself. Lightning magic is good in general, but Rite of Lightning has low accuracy.
Flanagan - useful for mountainous maps, but pales next to Erador
Anna - seems really useful at first, but her damage and defense suffer at higher levels. Still can be useful in triggering follow-up attacks.
Julio - can feed mages with TP, but this is not needed with Frederica
D
Narve - no way to generate TP and lower damage than Ezana
Jens - ladders are very situational
Groma - eh
Roland - nice damage output, but very squishy
F
Piccoletta - Decoy is really useful at low levels, but at higher levels it gets quickly destroyed. Piccoletta herself does extremely poor damage. She should have had another ability.
Lionel - His abilities have too low of a success rate.
Decimal - Kind of interesting but has too many wasted turns.
I find it very hard to rank the units in Triangle Strategy, largely because they're all so tightly balanced and useful in different situations. So most of the advice I'm going to post here will be about ways to better make use of units you're finding underwhelming, in descending order for whoever I find interesting to talk about on your list.
- Quahaug: I'm honestly surprised at you ranking this character squarely in the middle. Most tier lists either put him at the bottom (because they can't fathom a mage that has no direct healing or damage spells being good) or at the very peak (where he belongs). Teleporting allies is extremely strong for units like Archibald or Rudolph that lack mobility but benefit from good positioning, being able to rewind units can extend potent status effects or undo especially vicious enemy turns, reversing entire turns can refund you on heavy expenditures since defeated units don't come back, and the timestop is one of the rare ways to ensure Ezana's Rite of Thunderstorms can actually hit if done right.
- Corentin: The important thing to realize about the mages is that they each play slightly different roles outside of just burst damage (save for Frederica, whose secondary focus of fire mitigation isn't as essential since fire tiles are, um... kind of underused). For Corentin, that role is terrain control. Freezing the ground applies soft control to multiple enemies, Wall of Ice can corral foes and force them to waste turns in approaching your line, and the longer you can keep units on ice, the better for you. The extra TP gain for being on ice is extremely powerful, though, and ordinarily Corentin falls off a bit midgame until he gets that.
- Flanagan: Flanagan is an exceptionally tricky unit to figure out at first, because it's easy to compare him to Erador and rationalize that he's not as good at drawing aggro from multiple units, nor as good at dealing out damage when he does get that aggro. That's okay, because that's not what tanking is about. Tanking is about making the enemy waste loads of time while the rest of your team gets their ducks lined up, and Flanagan's durability and mobility give him a serious edge in that case. In particular, Flanagan excels in cases where you have chokepoints to use his strong damage reduction from front-facing moves, plus terrain variation so he can park himself easily in key spots (particularly with Aerial Assault) and I seriously can't overstate how strong the damage shaving of his weapon skill is for any nearby allies.
- Julio: You're right that Frederica doesn't really need help for TP sustain provided she can chain KOs together, but that's no reason to discount Julio immediately. Even aside from supplying your units (mages usually, but not always) with extra TP, Julio himself is a reasonably capable physical attacker. More than that, Best Regards and Not On My Watch give him some very valuable tools for going on the offensive, whether it's cheaply cracking open armored heavies or denying enemies their signature attacks. Plus, with his own ability to generate TP on KOs, and the low cost of his offensive moves, you're entirely free to have him get into the thick of things to pick off key targets when the mages have their gamefuel.
- Narve: Speaking of physical attackers, Narve is the best of the pure casters at being able to hit things when out of TP (not that he's great at it, but I'd say he's better at bopping things than Benedict at the very least). And since his skills are largely inexpensive, you don't really worry too much about him running low, because he still has stuff he can do (especially later once he gets his range boost and can more reasonably retreat to recover TP). Plus, being able to use all elements AND being able to heal makes him very versatile.
- Jens: Jens is probably second only to Quahaug when it comes to indirect team support, but that's primarily because Jens' efficacy varies depending on the map. The greater the elevation differences, the greater Jens' power, but that's not just because of ladders (although those definitely help, as seen above with Quahaug). Spring Trap is such a huge swing in turn economy it's ridiculous. As soon as an enemy steps on one, their turn not only immediately ends, but you yeet them five spaces, which can and will chuck them to their demise off of a cliff or the side of a drawbridge or whatever. I have defeated bosses this way before and I will inevitably do so again, multiple times. And in the event your traps and ladders are all set up, Jens is still a pretty serviceable brick of a unit with some decent combat tools (but seriously, Spring Trap and ladders are amazing).
- Groma: One weird thing you've likely noticed is that straightforward hit-the-mans units in Triangle Strategy are extremely rare. Outside of Serenoa, most units either don't do physical stuff at all, or aim for a specific gameplan that doesn't involve just being in the middle of things doing damage. Groma is one of those units that just gets in there and dishes out damage and has enough survivability to stick around for a while. In particular, Skyward Fist is punishingly strong, and her ability to pass through units makes her a strong flanking pal. And since you've clearly gotten usage out of Milo, I shouldn't have to explain further than that.
- Lionel: What Lionel lacks in success rate on his abilities (particularly early on before he gets Endless Speech or whatever his weapon skill is called) he more than makes up for in range and cost. He's got enough durability (both physically and magically, which is uncommon) to stick around close enough to the fight to try multiple times, and inflicting either Fury or Temptation on an enemy unit from range, especially on a mage, is worth the gamble. I'll agree that Lionel is one of the weaker units in the game, although that's mostly due to his moveset and stats just being strongly antisynergistic in my book. That's not to say he's useless, though.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
I never got the hang of Quahaug, but could tell that there was a ton going on I just wasn't figuring out. Just didn't feel like putting the time into it.
I really, really hated Lionel's voice. I know this is a silly reason not to use a character, but there's so much of the sound design of this game that I love so I really didn't want to mute everything. If his skillset had been more interesting to me I'd probably have put up with it, but there were so many characters I liked more.
I love Jens. I absolutely deployed him in battles he made no sense in because it's just fun to launch enemies around.
I really, really hated Lionel's voice. I know this is a silly reason not to use a character, but there's so much of the sound design of this game that I love so I really didn't want to mute everything. If his skillset had been more interesting to me I'd probably have put up with it, but there were so many characters I liked more.
I love Jens. I absolutely deployed him in battles he made no sense in because it's just fun to launch enemies around.
Out of balder's list, I found Decimal really useful a number of times. His range is enormous, so while you do spend turns charging up for his abilities, when you get one off at the right time you can hit enemies all over the map. Think of him as long-range artillery.
It looks like you still have a few characters to get, also. Some of the ones not mentioned here are also very good!
It looks like you still have a few characters to get, also. Some of the ones not mentioned here are also very good!
Man, I really have a ways to go. I started this but I'm still only, like, 10-11 hours in, right after the plot has actually gotten going (with the Aesfrosti invasion) and I'm only just beginning to get characters and skills outside "hit enemy make HP go away."
ooooh yeah, you're early days. it takes a while to unlock the real fun stuff but for NG+ you'll already have a lot of it.
Thanks for the replies!
Beyond the turns where he can't contribute anything, the other reason I don't like Decimal and Ezana that much is that IMO, focusing down 1-2 enemies is much more effective than spreading damage around.
My typical strategy is to draw in a small number of enemy units at a time, chip them with melee attacks, and finish them off with Frederica. Meanwhile, Rudolph and Hughette try to strand other enemies away from the front line. Goal always to have a trickle flow of enemies into my grouped up army, so the battle is a series of 10-on-1s or 10-on-2s in my favor. If too many enemies are able to reach me at once, then I pop King's Shield and let Erador soak it all up while I try to focus down another 1-2 units to make it another manageable 10-on-2.
I can definitely imagine the utility of Quahag, but I found I only needed to run 1-2 healers at a time, and Geela/Hossabarra or Medina/Hossabarra were good enough duos to get me through. Is Hossabarra the best unit? Maybe not, but I think she's fun to play. Catapult is silly fun, and I enjoy the chess game of trying to set up Hossabarra's counter-attacks to trigger her healing ability and long movements to get her Trek +1 TP.
Beyond the turns where he can't contribute anything, the other reason I don't like Decimal and Ezana that much is that IMO, focusing down 1-2 enemies is much more effective than spreading damage around.
My typical strategy is to draw in a small number of enemy units at a time, chip them with melee attacks, and finish them off with Frederica. Meanwhile, Rudolph and Hughette try to strand other enemies away from the front line. Goal always to have a trickle flow of enemies into my grouped up army, so the battle is a series of 10-on-1s or 10-on-2s in my favor. If too many enemies are able to reach me at once, then I pop King's Shield and let Erador soak it all up while I try to focus down another 1-2 units to make it another manageable 10-on-2.
I can definitely imagine the utility of Quahag, but I found I only needed to run 1-2 healers at a time, and Geela/Hossabarra or Medina/Hossabarra were good enough duos to get me through. Is Hossabarra the best unit? Maybe not, but I think she's fun to play. Catapult is silly fun, and I enjoy the chess game of trying to set up Hossabarra's counter-attacks to trigger her healing ability and long movements to get her Trek +1 TP.
Quahag is a blast when there are environmental hazards. In one of the routes you fight a battle on little islands of stone surrounded by molten iron, and I walked him out onto that, and traded places with the boss.
Anyway it's a big game with a lot of characters and it's perfectly fine to not like a few. I have noticed that for almost every character one person rates low, someone else rates them high. The game just gives you a lot of tools to suit your play style.
Anyway it's a big game with a lot of characters and it's perfectly fine to not like a few. I have noticed that for almost every character one person rates low, someone else rates them high. The game just gives you a lot of tools to suit your play style.
If nothing else, I have to respect the VA just deadass going for a Morshu impersonation as the voice for the character.
I think I'm about halfway through the game, I'm on chapter X or XI and my characters are around lv. 17; I'm just starting to get more weapon level 2 items and a little more than half of my main units have been promoted.
I have been using a very boring standard character setup, studiously ignoring most of my extra characters, especially the ones with the weird abilities ("I make ladders!" "I'm a merchant!") I mostly use the core characters plus Corentin and Julio, and typically not Benedict. (his buffs are fine, but the offensive buff doesn't seem as effective as say, another unit like the old archer who can just do more damage; the defense buff doesn't seem to do much; I guess the movement buff can come in handy, but most of the time I want to avoid overextending someone so I've actually not found many uses for it.)
I want to use Hossabarra because she's rad, but I have yet to figure out a way for her to be useful. Her healing seems too limited due to positioning, but she's too fragile to be a full paladin and act as a fighter. The old archer, Archibald (heh.) is good. I like the shaman, although the problem with her is activating the weather to boost her spells will undo the clear skies bonus that Frederica gets to her fire damage, and Frederica is a powerhouse. I suppose I could rely on the other casters, like whatsisname the green coat guy with the wind spell, to not worry about that synergy clash, but...why, when Frederica is right there
I have been using a very boring standard character setup, studiously ignoring most of my extra characters, especially the ones with the weird abilities ("I make ladders!" "I'm a merchant!") I mostly use the core characters plus Corentin and Julio, and typically not Benedict. (his buffs are fine, but the offensive buff doesn't seem as effective as say, another unit like the old archer who can just do more damage; the defense buff doesn't seem to do much; I guess the movement buff can come in handy, but most of the time I want to avoid overextending someone so I've actually not found many uses for it.)
I want to use Hossabarra because she's rad, but I have yet to figure out a way for her to be useful. Her healing seems too limited due to positioning, but she's too fragile to be a full paladin and act as a fighter. The old archer, Archibald (heh.) is good. I like the shaman, although the problem with her is activating the weather to boost her spells will undo the clear skies bonus that Frederica gets to her fire damage, and Frederica is a powerhouse. I suppose I could rely on the other casters, like whatsisname the green coat guy with the wind spell, to not worry about that synergy clash, but...why, when Frederica is right there
jpfriction
(He, Him)
Ladder dude is legit, don’t underestimate the power of ladders.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
Yeah, I used him for ladders and traps constantly. Shoving someone off a cliff never stopped being satisfying.
I never figured out Hossabarra either which is a shame since she seemed very cool.
I never figured out Hossabarra either which is a shame since she seemed very cool.
Hossabara gets billed as a healing unit in her main capacity, which is incorrect. Her actual thing is that, like Roland, she's a mobile unit that can dish out a lot of damage. The difference is that while Roland is faster and hits a little harder, Hossabara has a little more support capability, and a LOT more survivability lategame once she gets her Desperate Defense passive.
I just got my first 3-star-weapon upgrade, and picked Serenoa (over Roland, the other option using the azure crystal). How should I prioritize weapon level-ups? I wasn't sure about his "grant allies 1 tp" thing, but I'm guessing every character has some unique skill down there. Are those always worth getting?
y'all are starting to make me feel bad about not using ladderman. But he's also like, a full 10 levels behind everyone else so even grinding quickly in mock battles it'll take a while to get him up to snuff.
y'all are starting to make me feel bad about not using ladderman. But he's also like, a full 10 levels behind everyone else so even grinding quickly in mock battles it'll take a while to get him up to snuff.
I am less gaga for Jens than most people here, but he absolutely breaks some maps. I just looked at every map and asked "if I had a ladder anywhere here, does it completely redraw the battlefield?" And the answer is sometimes "yes". Also, if he's able to spend his turn locking down a boss who will move predictably, that can be very potent.
Ugh, it doesn't help the feeling that I'm playing wrong when the game starts kicking my ass. The last battle I fought I had to barely scrape out a win with only 3 units left. Now this chapter 13 battle against Thalas and Erika at the boat has beaten me twice. I'm getting tired of being bad 
Fortunately, this game is extremely easy to get under-par units up in levels very quickly. XP from units that are behind is not only scalar, it applies when they take virtually any action, not just attacking enemies. Jens can just play his usual build-stuff game and quickly slingshot up in levels at a pace you would have to see to believe.
Every character does have a unique weapon skill at weapon level 3 you can get, and as a rule, they offer some extremely strong moves that are almost always worth going for as the first upgrade. I don't know that I'd point to any as "you need this to win", but if you do pick one up for a unit, the applications and power of that move should become very quickly apparently. Serenoa's area TP regen is especially handy: the cost is high for him, but he's also a unit that doesn't need to spend to be effective, and getting multiple mages sauced up is always a good use of a turn.
Every character does have a unique weapon skill at weapon level 3 you can get, and as a rule, they offer some extremely strong moves that are almost always worth going for as the first upgrade. I don't know that I'd point to any as "you need this to win", but if you do pick one up for a unit, the applications and power of that move should become very quickly apparently. Serenoa's area TP regen is especially handy: the cost is high for him, but he's also a unit that doesn't need to spend to be effective, and getting multiple mages sauced up is always a good use of a turn.
Violentvixen
(She/Her)
This sounds normal? Many maps took me 2-3 tries and there's a lot of similar posts about retrying throughout the thread.Ugh, it doesn't help the feeling that I'm playing wrong when the game starts kicking my ass. The last battle I fought I had to barely scrape out a win with only 3 units left. Now this chapter 13 battle against Thalas and Erika at the boat has beaten me twice. I'm getting tired of being bad
Don't forget about Quietus powers (I did!) and level some units up like Kalir mentioned. The mock battles are really useful.
That's kind of a relief to hear, honestly. I'm constantly forgetting my Quietus powers too, maybe I should grind some kudos in the mock battles to buy an extra point.
At least the Retreat option exists, where you get to keep all the EXP/levels and kudos you've earned, so the last two failed attempts have gotten me a lot of levels for the characters there. Unfortunately the current mock battle (and this seems to be a trend) is a level or two beneath the recommended level for the battle, so the exp gains I can get there will be very limited.
Agreed, especially with how consistent it is in that regard.
(Also, I finally got that battle on the third try. Hooray for new strategies! And maybe also level-ups??)
(Also, I finally got that battle on the third try. Hooray for new strategies! And maybe also level-ups??)
I went from that one tough battle directly to the fight against Avlora at the pond and got my ass absolutely whupped first time. I didn't realize just how powerful lightning on the water was, nor did I realize that standing on the fountain counted as being in the water and triggered the entire pool. My next attempt will absolutely feature Ezana and possibly even Narve if I have the patience to grind him up from level 10 to level 22 (I know it's fast, but that's still a lot of levels). (Does anyone know if that effect deals friendly fire damage? I didn't catch whether the enemy's lightning hit themselves when I got zapped last time.)
Trying to figure out a strategy. My best ideas right now are "sit still and literally don't move, let enemies come to me at the end of the pond" or maybe "move everyone to one side/corner, stay grouped up, and pray"
Trying to figure out a strategy. My best ideas right now are "sit still and literally don't move, let enemies come to me at the end of the pond" or maybe "move everyone to one side/corner, stay grouped up, and pray"
To clarify, she says she lost her son in this war or at least a recent one, so my guess is it's probably sometime early in the game when Wolffort first goes to battle.
Last edited:
Mmm, I don't think that really tracks. There've been no wars since the Saltiron War and she does not have the bearing of someone who has just recently lost a child. Erador has known her for quite some time, since she had her old tavern with her son, and that was long before the current war. I'd need to watch through again to be sure but I got the strong impression he'd died in the Saltiron War.
Lightning on water will deal friendly damage, yes. If I'm remembering the scenario right, there are some dry spots you can perch on and shoot lightning from while everyone else is safe, then run in and whack anyone who's stunned. Thrown items can also work if you don't want to level up all the way. I'd do Narve before Ezana, he's faster (I think) and has a broader range of other spells.
Lightning on water will deal friendly damage, yes. If I'm remembering the scenario right, there are some dry spots you can perch on and shoot lightning from while everyone else is safe, then run in and whack anyone who's stunned. Thrown items can also work if you don't want to level up all the way. I'd do Narve before Ezana, he's faster (I think) and has a broader range of other spells.
I guess that just makes her...nearly 70 years old. Which, no, doesn't track at all.
Hence my confusion!
But the whole game's timeline is kinda wiggy anyway, I just get preoccupied with timelines. Same with Elden Ring.
But the whole game's timeline is kinda wiggy anyway, I just get preoccupied with timelines. Same with Elden Ring.
I think I just got to The Decision. I'm in chapter 17 and Roland wants to give the kingdom to Hyzante (absolutely insane) , Benedict wants to ally with Aesfrost (also insane, but logical??) and Frederica just wants to free the Roselle (which doesn't address any of the major problems??). Guessing based on some things I accidentally read, I have a feeling that this decision ties into which ending of the game I get; not sure if there are more decisions down the line or what they affect, of course. Some (or all?) of the paths seem particularly extreme, but I guess that's why the perfectly-balanced "golden path" also exists.
Currently leaning towards Frederica, possibly considering Benedict, not entertaining Roland for a second.
Hmm...I doubt it, but is one easier than the others?
Currently leaning towards Frederica, possibly considering Benedict, not entertaining Roland for a second.
Hmm...I doubt it, but is one easier than the others?
I did both Frederica's and Benedict's, and I would not say either one was significantly harder than the other. I can't speak for Roland's route.
One thing to keep in mind if you want more info- each person's route will have you lose one of the other 3. Frederica will lose you Benedict, Benedict will lose you Roland, and Roland will lose you Frederica.