How to defeat King Mugen / The Enshrouded King in Octopath Traveler 2

King’s fall

By the end of Hikari’s first chapter in Octopath Traveler 2, you probably already know how it’s going to end. Hikari’s goal is simple: find his friends, gather an army, and retake the land of Ku from his brother King Mugen.

The goal is one thing, but winning the fight is another. Mugen is no ordinary warrior, and it’ll take more than a couple sword swipes to take him down. Here’s the best way of navigating the arduous fight ahead.

Spoilers for Hikari’s Chapter 5 in Octopath Traveler 2 from here on out.

Best strategies for defeating King Mugen

After a lengthy initial sequence that includes another bout with Hikari’s former compatriot Ritsu, you’ll face down King Mugen. Clad in full armor and riding his horse, he’s quite imposing.

Thankfully, his first phase is fairly straightforward. He’ll dish out a lot of party-wide attacks and occasionally deliver some guaranteed-1-HP attacks. Keep an Apothecary on standby for fast, cheap revives, or a Cleric who can do party-wide revives while also keeping everyone topped off.

The challenge with King Mugen is how he can lock your party’s Boost efforts down with a single move. You’ll want to have some effective Break options on-hand. Temenos can use his Latent Power combined with Scholar’s Elemental Barrage, Hikari and Ochette can both bring extra moves in using Learned Skills or Captured Monsters, and weapons like the Double Tomahawk will help mitigate problems. Otherwise, just keep dishing out damage.

King Mugen is weak to Polearms, Axes, Lightning, and Light damage.

Facing your demons in Mugen Phase 2

After the first Mugen fight, you’ll have to deal with Hikari’s inner demons. What happens now is an interstitial fight that, as far as I’ve seen, is not losable. You’ll contend with the shadow inside Hikari, and eventually see Hikari rise triumphant in BP-infused glory. Hold on though, because Hikari’s brother hasn’t given up the fight just yet.

How to defeat The Enshrouded King in Octopath Traveler 2

Mugen embraces the darkness within, transforming into The Enshrouded King. This is the real big boss of Hikari’s Chapter 5 in Octopath Traveler 2, and it’s a doozy.

When it starts, The Enshrouded King will be weak to Swords, Polearms, Bows, Staffs, Lightning, and Wind. There’s a pretty decent mixture of classes that can hit these weak points, especially Hikari, whose Warrior skill “Aggressive Slash” lets him easily put out three Sword attacks in a turn without spending Boost Points. Additionally, if you want to seek it out, you can learn the “Limb From Limb” Learned Skill to really let Hikari dish out the sword swipes.

The trick is that, as the fight goes on, The Enshrouded King will start locking these weaknesses off one-by-one. An Armsmaster will really shine in this fight, able to hit weaknesses fairly easily. I also had Osvald sub-classed to Dancer, in order to keep my magic options open and have a universal shield break in Ruinous Kick. If you’ve cleared Osvald’s final chapter too, you’ll have access to another universal shield break too. Very handy for this fight!

For other helpful tips, Ochette can bring some hurt with both effective shield-breaking skills and the Leghold Trap, which can shift the King’s turns if you need a few more hits to break. Honestly though, this fight will likely be The Hikari Show, as you want to keep dumping points and damage onto him, setting up for big turns where you can Break and follow up with a Brand’s Blade or Tenretsuzan. Castti can help with Medicinal concoctions, or you could sub in Partitio to just directly donate BP.