History GameBreaker / OctopathTravelerChampionsOfTheContinent

* Cecily. Cecily has access to Polearm, Axe, and Tome attacks that can [[HerdHittingAttack hit all enemies 3 times]], while also having access to a couple of [[LightEmUp Light-elemental]] attacks. One of her passives also boosts the damage she deals with Polearms, Axes and Tomes by 20%, making her hit harder than most other Merchants. Between her versatility and damage output, she is one of the most desired characters of a class that normally gets overlooked, making her an amazing farming unit, and really good in boss fights with multiple foes. Her only issues are that her SP costs are high die to Merchants generally not having high SP combined with her skill costs, and she's less consistent against single bosses, but as long as the foe is weak to any of the four attacks she can use, she's going to excel. If anything, her "true" downside is that because she covers so much, she ideally should be Awakening 2 so she can have all four weapon types to use, otherwise the player has to pick and choose what skills she uses.

* Richard. Richard provides multiple ways of increasing Sword and Polearm damage output for the entire party (especially the former). When he's at full health, Richard provides a 15% increase to P.Atk, Sword damage, and Polearm damage for the entire front row. One of his abilities also has a chance to lower the enemy's Sword Resistance, so any enemy that has a weakness to Swords is going to go down ''very'' quickly if Richard is in the party. He also has good firepower to boot, and his [[LimitBreak Ultimate]] provides another boost to his party's Sword and Polearm damage. Because of this, his teammates don't need to equip accessories to boost Sword or Polearm damage, and thus can go with other accessories that give more raw stats. His role as a damage booster puts him high on Japanese tier lists, letting characters like A2 or Lars rip through bosses like they're tissue paper as long as said boss has a Sword vulnerability. Even if the enemy doesn't have a Sword or Polearm weakness, he still provides a 15% P.Atk bonus just by sitting in the back row, so it's hard to go wrong with him in any physical damage team. Richard is such a powerful character that he's capable of letting a team kill Battle Tested enemies in almost one round should they be weak to either Swords or Polearms. His only drawbacks are steep SP costs and lacking tools for dealing with multiple enemies at once, but both can be handled by either saving him as a reserve unit, or giving him SP restoring equipment.

* Nephti. Despite being a MagicallyIneptFighter, Nephti's a textbook case of GatheringSteam. Her gimmick is that she can use her LimitBreak up to 10 times, with each use increasing her Support Points. As she builds up her Support Points, her abilities become more potent and gain additional effects at certain thresholds. Nephti's kit allows her to hit Axe, Tome, and Staff weaknesses all at once, and she also has several abilities to buff and heal her teammates, as well as protect them from StatusEffects once her Support Points get high enough. Once she's built up her Support Points, Nephti becomes one of the most versatile characters in the game, and is only held back by how she needs to take multiple turns to build up her Support Points, making her more suited for long, drawn-out battles rather than short fights.

* Rinyuu. Rinyuu is a fantastic SupportPartyMember who can provide plenty of healing, stat boosts, and status ailment immunities all at once. What makes her shine is two of her abilities: Crusader's Prayer and Gracious Prayer. Once cast, these abilities will grant a continuous boost to all allies (not just the front row) as long as Rinyuu's SP holds out, provided she doesn't use another ability or end up disabled by the enemy. Crusader's Prayer grants P.Atk, E.Atk, increases raw damage output, and grants immunity to Silence and Terror, while Gracious Prayer grants RegeneratingHealth, P.Def, E.Def, and immunity to Paralysis and Sleep. She can't channel both simultaneously, but once she starts channeling one, you can just send her to the back row and she'll keep on channeling it, leaving her paired ally free to act while still buffing everyone. When fully Boosted, channeling a prayer costs 20 SP per turn, which is trivial while she's in the back row. Additionally, even if she's not channeling a prayer, she still provides RegeneratingMana to her paired ally and SP cost reduction to the entire front row while she's in the back row. This makes her the ultimate backpack character and easily among the best buffers in the game. Her only major issue is that enemies with forced swap attacks can really screw her over, but as long as the enemy can't do so, Rinyuu makes healing unnecessary except certain fights where regen isn't enough.

* Bargello. Bargello's main asset is his ability to allow the party to break the usual damage cap, allowing well-built teams to devastate even the toughest bosses. His own damage output is also very impressive, with him specializing in [[DeviousDaggers Dagger]] and [[BlowYouAway Wind]] attacks, many of which will also inflict debuffs on his targets. One such attack, when used at a maximum Boost, drains 100 SP from everyone in the party to drastically increase its damage, which lets him utterly devastate just about anything. Finally, his LimitBreak is absurdly strong, as it restores SP to the entire party and restores 1 charge of all allies' Ultimates (except his own), allowing them to be used again. The only things holding him back are his [[FragileSpeedster low HP]] and relatively small SP pool (he only reaches 332 at level 100 while some characters can reach more than double that).

* EX Primrose. Classed as an Apothecary, Primrose can charge up the [[LimitBreak Ultimate]] gauge of her allies with two different abilities, one which can reach the entire party when at max Boost. Her own Ultimate also charges up the gauge of her allies when used. This already makes her very powerful, but her other utilities are also strong, with several [[ShockAndAwe Lightning]] attacks that can inflict debuffs on the enemy, and an ability that, when used at full Boost, can remove ''both'' status ailments and stat debuffs from her team simultaneously (Alfyn and Ophilia can only do one of those respectively, not both). Additionally, if she doesn't have any BP left after the recovery phase (i.e. after Boosting), she'll have 1 BP restored regardless. While she requires that your team have several powerful Ultimates and that they be built up, she can make using them ''much'' easier and is an amazing teammate for characters like Nephti.

* Sarisa. Sarisa's gimmick is that most of her abilities, after being used, will subsequently move her to the back row. This makes her an extremely useful backpack character who has a lot of utility, such as being able to remove enemy shields regardless of weaknesses, lower their resistances to Sword, Dagger and Fire, lower the enemy's Speed, lower their P.Atk and E.Atk, and she even has a healing spell to boot. She also grants her paired ally bonus SP regeneration and a bonus to their P.Atk while she's in the back row. This makes her superb when paired with allies like Lynette, who provides her own buff to the front row when she swaps rows ([[NecessaryDrawback sadly, when Sarisa swaps back after using a move, it won't count as an additional swap for Lynette's buff]]).

* Rinyuu. Rinyuu is a fantastic SupportPartyMember who can provide plenty of healing, stat boosts, and status ailment immunities all at once. What makes her shine is two of her abilities: Crusader's Prayer and Gracious Prayer. Once cast, these abilities will grant a continuous boost to all allies (not just the front row) as long as Rinyuu's SP holds out, provided she doesn't use another ability or end up disabled by the enemy. Crusader's Prayer grants P.Atk, E.Atk, increases raw damage output, and grants immunity to Silence and Terror, while Gracious Prayer grants RegeneratingHealth, P.Def, E.Def, and immunity to Paralysis and Sleep. She can't channel both simultaneously, but once she starts channeling one, you can just send her to the back row and she'll keep on channeling it, leaving her paired ally free to act while still buffing everyone. When fully Boosted, channeling a prayer costs 20 SP per turn, which is trivial while she's in the back row. Additionally, even if she's not channeling a prayer, she still provides RegeneratingMana to her paired ally and SP cost reduction to the entire front row while she's in the back row. This makes her the ultimate backpack character and easily among the best buffers in the game, with her only drawback being she's very susceptible to forced row swapping attacks. Her only major issue is that enemies with forced swap attacks can really screw her over, but as long as the enemy can't do so, Rinyuu makes healing unnecessary except certain fights where regen isn't enough.

* Bargello. Bargello's main asset is his ability to allow the party to break the usual damage cap, allowing well-built teams to devastate even the toughest bosses. His own damage output is also very impressive, with him specializing in [[DeviousDaggers Dagger]] and [[BlowYouAway Wind]] attacks, many of which will also inflict debuffs on his targets. One such attack, when used at a maximum Boost, drains 100 SP from everyone in the party to drastically increase its damage, which lets him utterly devastate just about anything. Finally, his LimitBreak is absurdly strong, as it restores SP to the entire party and completely fills their LimitBreak gauges. The only things holding him back are his [[FragileSpeedster low HP]] and relatively small SP pool (he only reaches 332 at level 100 while some characters can reach more than double that).

* Richard. Richard provides multiple ways of increasing Sword and Polearm damage output for the entire party (especially the former). When he's at full health, Richard provides a 15% increase to P.Atk, Sword damage, and Polearm damage for the entire front row. One of his abilities also has a chance to lower the enemy's Sword Resistance, so any enemy that has a weakness to Swords is going to go down ''very'' quickly if Richard is in the party. He also has good firepower to boot, and his [[LimitBreak Ultimate]] provides another boost to his party's Sword and Polearm damage. Because of this, his teammates don't need to equip accessories to boost Sword or Polearm damage, and thus can go with other accessories that give more raw stats. His role as a damage booster puts him high on Japanese tier lists, letting characters like A2 or Lars rip through bosses like they're tissue paper as long as said boss has a Sword vulnerability. Even if the enemy doesn't have a Sword or Polearm weakness, he still provides a 15% P.Atk bonus just by sitting in the back row, so it's hard to go wrong with him in any physical damage team. Richard is such a powerful character that he's capable of letting a team kill Battle Tested enemies in almost one round should they be weak to either Swords or Polearms. His only drawbacks are steep SP costs and lacking tools for dealing with multiple enemies at once, but both can be handled by either saving him as a reserve unit, or giving him SP restoring items.
* Hikari. Hikari is a powerhouse [[GatheringSteam once he gets going]], capable of exploiting '''''[[MultiMeleeMaster every physical weakness in the game]]'''''. This is accomplished via using his Tenretsuzan and Sougetsusen; each one causes him to be able to permanently exploit three new weaknesses with his attacks. Once both are used, he enters his "God of War" state, which increases his P.Atk by 30% and causes his abilities to double-cast at no additional SP cost. Coupled with abilities that can [[DamageIncreasingDebuff reduce the enemy's Sword Resistance, Polearm Resistance, and P.Def]], and he can make utter sushi out of anything once he reaches his "God of War" state. His only drawbacks are his [[MagicallyIneptFighter total lack of magic attacks]] and how he needs several turns to reach his "God of War" state.

* Cecily. Cecily has access to Polearm, Axe, and Tome attacks that can [[HerdHittingAttack hit all enemies 3 times]], while also having access to a couple of [[LightEmUp Light-elemental]] attacks. One of her passives also boosts the damage she deals with Polearms, Axes and Tomes by 20%, making her hit harder than most other Merchants. Between her versatility and damage output, she is one of the most desired characters of a class that normally gets overlooked, making her an amazing farming unit, and really good in boss fights with multiple foes. Her only issues are that her SP costs are high, and she's less consistent against single bosses, but as long as the foe is weak to any of the four attacks she can use, she's going to excel.

* Rinyuu. Rinyuu is a fantastic SupportPartyMember who can provide plenty of healing, stat boosts, and status ailment immunities all at once. What makes her shine is two of her abilities: Crusader's Prayer and Gracious Prayer. Once cast, these abilities will grant a continuous boost to all allies (not just the front row) as long as Rinyuu's SP holds out, provided she doesn't use another ability or end up disabled by the enemy. Crusader's Prayer grants P.Atk, E.Atk, increases raw damage output, and grants immunity to Silence and Terror, while Gracious Prayer grants RegeneratingHealth, P.Def, E.Def, and immunity to Paralysis and Sleep. She can't channel both simultaneously, but once she starts channeling one, you can just send her to the back row and she'll keep on channeling it, leaving her paired ally free to act while still buffing everyone. When fully Boosted, channeling a prayer costs 20 SP per turn, which is trivial while she's in the back row. Additionally, even if she's not channeling a prayer, she still provides RegeneratingMana to her paired ally and SP cost reduction to the entire front row while she's in the back row. This makes her the ultimate backpack character and easily among the best buffers in the game, with her only drawback being she's very susceptible to forced row swapping attacks.

* Kota's Right Glove is an accessory that grants a large P.Atk boost to its wearer for the first three turns of battle, but also drains SP for those three turns. The limited duration may sound unimpressive, but when combined with certain P.Atk buff effects, such as Lynette's boost upon swapping, the duration of the P.Atk boost can be extended. Better yet, this stacks with other buffs, allowing a physical damage dealer to have a significant bonus throughout the fight if played correctly. The bonus is also very useful for farming against regular enemies, provided the player can take them all out in the first turn, rendering its SP drain effect moot.
** There is also a counterpart to it that can be found in Hell: the Bloodsoaked Cup, which increases E.Atk instead of P.Atk.

* Tatloch. The Empress of G'roha lives up to her title by being an extremely potent case of GatheringSteam with powerful damage output. Each time Tatloch uses an ability, she gains a Vigor point and [[LifeDrain heals herself for 5% of any damage she deals with a skill]]. At 3, 6, and 9 Vigor points, she grants the front row stat bonuses and regeneration effects, making her excel in long fights. She can also hit Fan, Sword, Polearm, Axe, and Wind weaknesses, giving her a lot of coverage, though she's generally used for Fan and/or Wind damage. Between this and how many of her attacks are great at breaking shields (provided the enemy is weak to Fan or Wind), Tatloch can inflict a world of pain on the enemy while passively providing stat buffs for the team. As icing on the cake, several of her abilities can inflict the Charm status effect, which works similarly to Paralysis and can affect enemies normally immune to Paralysis (though, obviously, not all enemies are vulnerable to Charm).

* Hikari. Hikari is a powerhouse [[GatheringSteam once he gets going]], capable of exploiting '''[[MultiMeleeMaster every weapon weakness in the game]]'''. This is accomplished via using his Tenretsuzan and Sougetsusen; each one causes him to be able to permanently exploit three new weaknesses with his attacks. Once both are used, he enters his "God of War" state, which increases his P.Atk by 30% and causes his abilities to double-cast at no additional SP cost. Coupled with abilities that can [[DamageIncreasingDebuff reduce the enemy's Sword Resistance, Polearm Resistance, and P.Def]], and he can make utter sushi out of anything once he reaches his "God of War" state. His only drawbacks are his [[MagicallyIneptFighter total lack of magic attacks]] and how he needs several turns to reach his "God of War" state.

* Tatloch. The Empress of G'roha lives up to her title by being an extremely potent case of GatheringSteam with powerful damage output. Each time Tatloch uses an ability, she gains a Vigor point and [[LifeDrain heals herself for 5% of any damage she deals with a skill]]. At 3, 6, and 9 Vigor points, she grants the front row stat bonuses and regeneration effects, making her excel in long fights. She can also hit Fan, Sword, Polearm, Axe, and Wind weaknesses, giving her a lot of coverage, though she's generally used for Fan and/or Wind damage. What makes her such a strong pick is her Charm debuff, which can cause the enemy to attack '''''each other''''' instead of your party, and it's something she can inflict on all enemies simultaneously with a little luck. Between this and how many of her attacks are great at breaking shields (provided the enemy is weak to Fan or Wind), Tatloch can inflict a world of pain on the enemy while passively providing stat buffs for the team.

* Tithi. Tithi has a lot of versatility combined with good [[ShockAndAwe Lightning]] damage capabilities. She can lower enemy resistance to Lightning attacks, and her ''Thunder's Poem'' can lower the enemy's P.Atk, E.Atk, P.Def, and E.Def simultaneously when used at maximum Boost. Meanwhile, her ''Brave Encouragement'' increases the front row's P.Atk, E.Atk, and Crit, and will also restore 1 BP if used at full Boost. Her Ultimate also provides 1 BP to the front row when used, and her passives provide her extra BP to work with. What makes her so good is that her skills are considered distinct from each other when she either uses them at non-full Boost or at full Boost. For example, ''Thunder's Poem'' will stack its P.Atk and E.Atk debuff if she first hits the enemy with it at full Boost and then hits them again with a non-full Boosted version. All of her abilities gain an additional effect when used at full Boost, making her [[DifficultButAwesome tricky to master]] due to her high dependency on BP, but she ends up being extremely versatile and not really deficient in any area except [[FragileSpeedster durability]].

* Rinyuu. Rinyuu is a fantastic SupportPartyMember who can provide plenty of healing, stat boosts, and status ailment immunities all at once. What makes her shine is two of her abilities: Crusader's Prayer and Gracious Prayer. Once cast, these abilities will grant a continuous boost to all allies (not just the front row) as long as Rinyuu's SP holds out, provided she doesn't use another ability or end up disabled by the enemy. Crusader's Prayer grants P.Atk, E.Atk, increases raw damage output, and grants immunity to Silence and Terror, while Gracious Prayer grants RegeneratingHealth, P.Def, E.Def, and immunity to Paralysis and Sleep. She can't channel both simultaneously, but once she starts channeling one, you can just send her to the back row and she'll keep on channeling it, leaving her paired ally free to act while still buffing everyone. When fully Boosted, channeling a prayer costs 20 SP per turn, which is trivial while she's in the back row. Additionally, even if she's not channeling a prayer, she still provides RegeneratingMana to her paired ally and SP cost reduction to the entire front row while she's in the back row. This makes her the ultimate backpack character and easily among the best buffers in the game, with her only drawback being she's very suspicble to forced row swapping attacks.

* Richard. Richard provides multiple ways of increasing Sword and Polearm damage output for the entire party (especially the former). When he's at full health, Richard provides a 15% increase to P.Atk, Sword damage, and Polearm damage for the entire front row. One of his abilities also has a chance to lower the enemy's Sword Resistance, so any enemy that has a weakness to Swords is going to go down ''very'' quickly if Richard is in the party. He also has good firepower to boot, and his [[LimitBreak Ultimate]] provides another boost to his party's Sword and Polearm damage. Because of this, his teammates don't need to equip accessories to boost Sword or Polearm damage, and thus can go with other accessories that give more raw stats. His role as a damage booster puts him high on Japanese tier lists, letting characters like A2 or Lars rip through bosses like they're tissue paper as long as said boss has a Sword vulnerability. Even if the enemy doesn't have a Sword or Polearm weakness, he still provides a 15% P.Atk bonus just by sitting in the back row, so it's hard to go wrong with him in any physical damage team. Richard is such a powerful character that he's capable of letting a team kill Battle Tested enemies in almost one round should they be weak to either Swords or Polearms. His only drawbacks are steep SP costs and lacking tools for dealing with multiple enemies at once.

* Cecily. Cecily has access to Polearm, Axe, and Tome attacks that can [[HerdHittingAttack hit all enemies 3 times]], while also having access to a couple of [[LightEmUp Light-elemental]] attacks. One of her passives also boosts the damage she deals with Polearms, Axes and Tomes by 20%, making her hit harder than most other Merchants. Between her versatility and damage output, she is one of the most desired characters of a class that normally gets overlooked.

* Rinyuu. Rinyuu is a fantastic SupportPartyMember who can provide plenty of healing, stat boosts, and status ailment immunities all at once. What makes her shine is two of her abilities: Crusader's Prayer and Gracious Prayer. Once cast, these abilities will grant a continuous boost to all allies (not just the front row) as long as Rinyuu's SP holds out, provided she doesn't use another ability or end up disabled by the enemy. Crusader's Prayer grants P.Atk, E.Atk, increases raw damage output, and grants immunity to Silence and Terror, while Gracious Prayer grants RegeneratingHealth, P.Def, E.Def, and immunity to Paralysis and Sleep. She can't channel both simultaneously, but once she starts channeling one, you can just send her to the back row and she'll keep on channeling it, leaving her paired ally free to act while still buffing everyone. When fully Boosted, channeling a prayer costs 20 SP per turn, which is trivial while she's in the back row. Additionally, even if she's not channeling a prayer, she still provides RegeneratingMana to her paired ally and SP cost reduction to the entire front row while she's in the back row. This makes her the ultimate backpack character and easily among the best buffers in the game.

* Lynette. Early on, she's the best 5-star character to start the game with, despite not having the raw damage output that Fiore and Sofia have. Lynette has strong [[PlayingWithFire fire magic]] and a few debuffing attacks that cause enemies to take increased magic damage, especially from fire attacks. However, what makes her so good is her buffs. Switching her grants the front row a damage buff for one turn, and her ''Masterful Cheer'' grants an even stronger buff that can last several turns. These two buffs can also stack, giving an enormous boost to her team's damage output. Her [[LimitBreak Ultimate ability]], however, takes this even further, granting bonuses to Physical Attack, Magic Attack, and Speed all at once, and it also stacks with ''Masterful Cheer''. It's thanks to this that she remains competitive even in the Japanese version, despite many other powerful additions to the game. The player can also give her the Brave Fan (from the ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'' collab) to increase the duration of her buffs by 1 turn, which includes the buff she gives when swapping rows, allowing her to keep her buffs up almost indefinitely if played right.
** Lynette's Ultimate is made dramatically more powerful if the player uses an Awakening Stone to upgrade it to level 10. Prior to that, Lynette needs a minimum of 3 turns to use her ultimate, and would require help from another character donating BP to her. Without anyone helping her, she would be able to get out her Ultimate in 4 turns minimum. The level 10 upgrade allows her to use it in ''2 turns without any assistance'', and allows her to use it twice per battle. This lets her apply a dramatic power boost to her team very quickly. As such, it is universally recommended to max out her Ultimate before getting any of Lynette's Awakening stages.

* Fortune weapons can be obtained by using the Game Board feature to obtain medals. Compared to other weapons, Fortune weapons can be customized however the player wishes (provided they get good stat rolls), normally allowing one stat to be heavily invested in at the cost of one or more other stats. For instance, one could make a Fortune weapon that gives an ungodly amount of P.Atk, though at a severe cost to E.Atk. For certain characters ([[MagicallyIneptFighter like A2]]), such a drawback won't be a problem. This can also be used to give a character a huge amount of extra HP or SP. For some characters, such as EX Fiore, this is a godsend (EX Fiore requires a lot of SP to do her tank job). Fortune weapons also provide a 20% boost to all damage dealt to enemies that aren't found in Hell, letting the party's damage dealers rip through Arena champions and the like with ease.

* Fortune weapons can be obtained by using the Game Board feature to obtain medals. Compared to other weapons, Fortune weapons can be customized however the player wishes (provided they get good stat rolls), normally allowing one stat to be heavily invested in at the cost of one or more other stats. For instance, one could make a Fortune weapon that gives an ungodly amount of P.Atk, though at a severe cost to E.Atk. For certain characters ([[MagicallyIneptFighter like A2]]), such a drawback won't be a problem. This can also be used to give a character a huge amount of extra HP or SP. For some characters, such as EX Fiore, this is a godsend (EX Fiore requires a lot of SP to do her tank job).