Given the gacha nature of the game, and the increasing difficulty of the boss fights, some characters are bound to end up stronger than the competition.note
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Playable Characters
Warriors
- 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 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 (coupled with Richard having a small SP pool) and lacking tools for dealing with multiple enemies at once, but both can be handled by either saving him as a reserve unit or by giving him SP restoring equipment.
- Hikari. Hikari is a powerhouse once he gets going, capable of exploiting 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 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 total lack of magic attacks and how he needs several turns to reach his "God of War" state. Combo him with the previously mentioned Richard, and Hikari is an absolute beast.
Merchants
- Cecily. Cecily has access to Polearm, Axe, and Tome attacks that can hit all enemies 3 times, while also having access to a couple of 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 (along with having an unimpressive SP pool) 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.
- Leon. As far as Merchants go, Leon has among the highest damage output of the bunch. One of his main abilities is a 5-hit Polearm attack that grants him the Multi-Strike buff, which raises his Polearm damage, lowers his SP costs, and causes some of his abilities to trigger twice (while consuming the Multi-Strike buff). Leon also has several debuffs attached to many of his strongest attacks, which also hit Staff weaknesses, allowing him to inflict a lot of pain. Additionally, by staying in the front row, Leon passively raises the elemental resistance of the front row by 20%, granting an enormous amount of survivability against magic attacks. His only drawback is his total lack of magic attacks, but this often isn't a problem due to his sheer physical damage capabilities.
- Partitio. The Merchant of Octopath Traveler II puts everyone else in the class to shame. He has a wide variety of multi-hit Polearm and Bow attacks, with his EX skill allowing him to start each turn with a 5-hit random-target Polearm attack before anyone else gets to move. He can also take 1 BP from everyone with one of his Polearm attacks to make it hit absurdly hard, and his Ultimate restores 5 BP to everyone in the party. To put it context, Alfyn can only restore up to 4 BP with his Pomegranate Panacea, and only to the front row, while Partitio's Ultimate does it for the entire party. As far as Polearm users go, no one comes even close to what Partitio can offer as both a damage dealer and as a BP battery.
Thieves
- A2. While A2 does not have any elemental attacks, she more than makes up for it with her ridiculous physical damage output, so much so that she's considered the strongest single-target damage dealer in the game. Her Berserk Mode ability is what makes her so devastating - for 6-9 turnsnote , it increases her Attack, Crit, Speed, and raw damage output by 15%, while also causing all her damaging abilities to trigger twice at no additional SP cost. However, while in Berserk Mode, she loses 40% of her maximum HP at the end of every turn (though she thankfully cannot be reduced below 1 HP by this), and she can only use Berserk Mode once per battle. A2 can utterly eviscerate even the toughest of bosses, but Berserk Mode makes her a Fragile Speedster who can just as easily be knocked out without her teammates supporting her. With support, however, she is an absolute beast at damage output.
- Therion. Therion is one of the best multi-target breakers in the game so far thanks to his Hellfire ability, which deals two Fire-elemental hits to all enemies, reduces their shields regardless of weaknesses, and has a small chance to Paralyze enemies he hits with Hellfire. Additionally, when Therion fully-Boosts an ability, he will use it twice at no additional SP cost. This makes him able to shave four shields off all enemies in just one turn, making him invaluable in a wide variety of fights. Furthermore, his Draining Dagger ability means he'll rarely ever run out of SP, allowing him to avoid needing SP regeneration accessories.
- 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 (sadly, when Sarisa swaps back after using a move, it won't count as an additional swap for Lynette's buff).
- 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 Dagger and 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 Limit Break 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. Maximizing his Limit Break does require you to build up several characters and max out their Ultimates, but once this is done, Bargello can allow most characters to use their Ultimates up to 4 times. Combined with characters like EX Primrose, who can make it easier for allies to build up their Ultimate gauges, this can allow for a steady stream of your team's most powerful attacks. The only things holding Bargello back are his low HP and relatively small SP pool (he only reaches 332 at level 100 while some characters can reach more than double that).
- Sonia. Much like Therion, Sonia is amazing at shredding through shields against multiple targets. One of her passives activates when she switches from the back row to the front, causing her next ability to trigger twice at no additional cost. This can be combined with a Wind attack that, when used at full Boost, hits all enemies 3 times and reduces their shields regardless of weaknesses; combined with the aforementioned passive, that allows her to shred 6 shields off every enemy at once. She also comes with a variety of debuffs, as well as a 2-hit Dagger attack that restores 1 BP to her when used, making it easier for her to continue using fully Boosted attacks. Finally, when she switches from the front row to the back, the entire front row has some of its SP restored, making her an exceptionally powerful ally in just about any fight.
Apothecaries
- Alfyn. Just like in the original game, Alfyn is a fantastic multirole character in Champions of the Continent. He has a 4-hit Axe and 4-hit Ice attack, he can revive allies, he can remove status ailments (and provide immunity to most ailments for a few turns while doing so), and he can provide Regenerating Health which also provides Fire and Ice resistance buffs. His best ability, however, is that he can provide 1-4 BP to the entire front row (though he can only do this twice per battle). This makes Alfyn an extremely useful and versatile character, and his lack of specialization arguably doesn't hinder him too much considering what he has to offer.
- Nephti. Despite being a Magically Inept Fighter, Nephti is a textbook case of Gathering Steam. Her gimmick revolves around her Cheer On points, which she gains either by using her Limit Break (which she can use up to 10 times) or from one of her passive abilities. As she builds up Cheer On points, her abilities become more potent and gain additional effects at certain thresholds; an important one is that at 7 or more Cheer On points, she enables allies to deal critical hits with elemental attacks. Nephti's kit allows her to hit Axe, Tome, and Staff weaknesses simultaneously, and she also has several abilities to buff and heal her teammates, as well as protect them from Status Effects. Once she's built up her Cheer On points, Nephti becomes a highly versatile Support Party Member, though she is held back by her somewhat low damage outputnote and by needing several turns to build up her Cheer On points to unlock all her utility.
- Zenia. She has access to a unique "Deathwish" buff she can place on a single ally that grants them a 30% increase to P.Atk, E.Atk, reduces Physical damage they take by 30%, and makes their attacks always crit, but this effect will kill them after a set amount of turns. However, Zegna can also remove the "Deathwish" effect with another ability she has, cancelling the death timer (though it also removes the stat bonuses). She can also dish out plenty of Dark-elemental damage, heal all eight members of the party simultaneously (while also removing status ailments), inflict debuffs that greatly lower the enemy's E.Def, has a quad-hit Axe attack, and has numerous ways to inflict Poison on the enemy, making her fantastically versatile and able to boost an ally like A2 to deal ridiculous damage.
- EX Primrose. Classed as an Apothecary, Primrose can charge up the 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 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 and Bargello.
Hunters
- Ochette. In a class that doesn't have that many stand-out characters, Ochette leads the pack by being able to hit up to seven different weaknesses, though she'll usually be dealing Bow damage, and in practice she can only hit five different weaknesses depending on whether she has Mahina or Akalā selected. She also has access to Leghold Trap, which delays a target enemy's action to the end of the turn and is a lot more broken in Champions of the Continent than in the original games due to CotC's mechanics. She also has a Bow attack that hits all enemies three times, removing shields regardless of weaknesses, and another Bow attack that hits six random enemies. Oh, and when she Breaks an enemy, she gains a buff that lets her use an ability twice at no additional SP cost in her next turn. This makes Ochette a deadly damage dealer with some great utility to boot.
Scholars
- Cyrus. Cyrus is one of the best Scholars in the game because he can use Fire, Ice, and Lightning elemental attacks (as well as Tome attacks), has a passive that significantly boosts the damage of all three elements, and has fantastic stats for his role (high E.Atk, high SP). His spells also hit multiple times per cast, making him great at breaking shields due to his wide coverage. He's not without utility either, as his Analyze can be helpful whenever a boss switches its weaknesses. His only drawbacks are durability, poor physical damage output (which usually isn't important), poor Speed (which sometimes isn't even a drawback since having him attack last in a turn can be used strategically), and high SP costs on his spells (which may necessitate bringing along a character who can help recharge his SP in battle). Few other mages can contest his offensive versatility, and he's up there with the best in terms of raw magic damage output (only contested by the likes of Sofia, who can debuff enemies to take more magic damage).
- Ditraina. Ditraina is one of the few mages who can deal critical hits with her spells, and also has the means to increase her damage cap by 30,000. This centers around her "Infinite Light" and "Infinite Dark" self-buffs, which are applied to her whenever she uses an elemental ability, depending on which element is used. When she has these self-buffs, her abilities gain additional effects, such as casting twice at no additional cost, buffing her E.Atk, lowering her enemy's E.Def, or landing up to six hits on a single enemy with one spell. Ditraina is the very definition of a Glass Cannon, as she can deal terrifying damage, but can quickly be taken out if an enemy lands a solid hit on her.
- Isla. The Cait Scholar is a surprisingly powerful addition to a mage roster thanks to one of her passives, which increases the cap on E.Atk bonuses from passives and equipment to 50% (instead of 30%) for everyone in the front row and raises their damage cap by 20,000. She also does pretty solid Fire and Lightning damage, and has a few attacks that, after being used, will cause her to switch to the back row, letting her avoid taking hits. She can also boost the E.Atk of the front row (though only by 15%) and boost the Fire and Lightning damage of other Scholars with the same move, so she's got damage and utility all in one furry package.
Clerics
- Ophilia. Much like in the original game, Ophilia is a fantastic White Mage, having excellent healing options (both via burst healing or by giving Regenerating Health to multiple allies at once) and the ability to revive allies, including a party-wide revive as her Limit Break and an Auto-Revive that can be used four times per battle. She also does excellent Holy elemental damage that hits multiple times, which is very helpful against later bosses that need a lot of hits to Break. One of her abilities will also remove any debuffs affecting the front row's Attack, Defense, etc., though it does not do anything against status ailments like Poison or Sleep. Once you have a 5-star version of her, there's very little reason not to make her a permanent member of your party, even if the enemy is not vulnerable to Holy attacks. Her only real drawbacks are her high SP costs and poor physical capabilities, which can be easily compensated for with other party members. And while Rinyuu can outperform her, it's hard to go wrong with Ophilia, who is also available in the permanent character pool while Rinyuu is event-specific (and thus harder to acquire).
- Rinyuu. Rinyuu is a fantastic Support Party Member 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 Regenerating Health, 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 Regenerating Mana 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 can cover for all of the team's healing throughout the entire fight.
- Temenos. The devs seem to have fully embraced the "Temenuke" Memetic Mutation with him in Champions of the Continent, as he has access to an absurdly power AOE Holy spell with up to a 1,000 potency. To put it in perspective, most characters don't even have an attack with 400 potency, let alone 1,000, so you should be surprised if Temenos doesn't hit the damage cap with it. If combined with other characters who allow the damage cap to be raised, such as Bargello, Temenos will be able to deliver the hardest hitting attacks in the game. Outside of his offensive power, he also has solid utility, with his Ultimate boosting the potency of his allies' moves by 50% for 1 turn, and one of his normal abilities being able to place an Auto-Revive effect on the entire front row at once. His Latent Power from Octopath Traveler II is even better in Champions of the Continent, as it will change his attacks to hit the enemy as though he were hitting their weaknesses (i.e. if he hits with a Holy attack, the enemy will take it as though they were weak to Holy damage), letting them deal full damage and shave off shields. While Temenos might not match Clerics like Rinyuu or Ophilia as a healer, he more than makes up for it by being an offensive powerhouse capable of obliterating just about anything.
Dancers
- 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 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 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 Bravely Default 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.
- Tithi. Tithi has a lot of versatility combined with good 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 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 durability, and only her high SP costs really hold her back.
- EX Fiore (Dancer). In this form, Fiore is the ultimate tank in Champions of the Continent against any sort of single-target attacks, whether they are physical or magical. While using either Physical or Elemental Counter Melody, she will Draw Aggro for single-target attacks in place of an ally in the front row. When using either melody, if it blocks the correct attack type, Fiore will negate the damage, counter with some Fan damage, and inflict the Combust effect, which deals non-elemental magic damage and removes 1 shield point from the enemy (though it cannot Break them). Both melodies also work even if the enemy in question is immune to Provoke. As long as Fiore's SP holds out, she can utterly neuter any foe that relies on single-target attacks, making it almost trivial to survive fights against them. The only drawbacks are that she cannot protect her team from a Herd-Hitting Attack, nor can she protect against both Physical and Magic attacks simultaneously. She also has extremely high SP costs, but this can be mitigated with SP regeneration accessories and by making her a Fortune Fan that boosts her maximum SP.
- Tatloch. The Empress of G'roha lives up to her title by being an extremely potent case of Gathering Steam with powerful damage output. Each time Tatloch uses an ability, she gains a Life point and heals herself for 5% of any damage she deals with a skill. At 3, 6, and 9 Life 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. She's also not that fragile compared to other Dancers, having a high base HP (which helps her Life Drain mechanic) and good Speed that makes her a Lightning Bruiser, and she even has an ability that boosts the P.Atk and Speed of the entire team (not just the front row). 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 Enchant status effect, which works similarly to Paralysis by preventing them from acting and can affect enemies normally immune to Paralysis (though, obviously, not all enemies are vulnerable to Enchant). Tatloch is considered one of the best characters in the game so far in long drawn-out fights thanks to her Life point mechanic, as long as the player can accommodate her high SP costs.
- Agnea. Just like in Octopath Traveler II, Agnea is a fantastic buffer in Champions of the Continent. Her biggest contribution is her EX skill, which raises the team's damage cap and increases the cap for other buffs from 30% to 50%. In a game where stacking buffs upon each other is such a big deal, this skill alone makes Agnea an utterly game-warping character to have in a player's roster. Her other tools are also top-notch, with Windy Refrain letting the front row strike first on the next turn (provided she uses at least 1 BP), and her All Together Now allowing her expand her buffs and attacks to affect more targets. Additionally, Agnea's own buffing abilities focus on increasing the raw Physical and Magical damage output of her allies, not on increasing their P.Atk or E.Atk stats, so they stack extremely well with other buffers like Lynette (who has two very good buffs for P.Atk and E.Atk) and let her teammates massacre just about any foe.
Equipment
- Like in the original game, Beastly and Dragon Scarves are some of the best accessories in the game, due to them providing a flat HP and SP regen at the end of each turn. What makes them outright broken for this game though is that they not only stack with each other, but also still work when a unit is in the backrow. Units in the backrow get a percentage HP and SP restored when they start a turn there, meaning if you equip someone with either Scarf, and then need to swap them, said character gets a significant regen, allowing the player to easily counter punishing fights. Very often you'll see a player's party filled with them, and for good reason given the game's lack of healing items. There are also the Spirit Scarves, which restore both HP and SP simultaneously, albeit with only the strength of a Beastly/Dragon Scarf I. The Spirit Scarves make it much easier to add a different accessory instead of requiring two scarves.
- 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.
- Hasumi's A4 accessory, the Maiden's Bell, extends the duration of augmenting effects granted by the wearer by 1 turn. This doesn't stack with similar effects, but this is a godsend for any support character by letting their buffs last longer. This is the same effect as the Brave Fan, a weapon that can be obtained via the Bravely Default collab dungeon, but it isn't restricted to Dancers, and the Brave Fan has weak stats once the late-game is reached. Even then, the Brave Fan is still considered a game-breaking weapon on characters like Lynette, and the Maiden's Bell is even better since it doesn't have those drawbacks.
- 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 (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 10% boost to all damage dealt to enemies in the living world (namely, non-Hell enemies), letting the party's damage dealers rip through Arena champions and the like with ease.
