Here’s how to beat the whirlpool boss in Octopath Traveler 2
The Scourge of the Sea is a technically optional boss that you’ll inevitably fight sooner than later in Octopath Traveler 2. It is located in a whirlpool that blocks off your access to the eastern side of the ocean. Although you will get a warning before this encounter begins, it’s easy to be taken by surprise by how tough this boss is. If you’re stuck wondering how to explore the ocean to begin with, check out our guide here.
The main prize of defeating the Scourge of the Sea early is access to the Arcanist special job. This job can be found in an area with a danger level of 45. In other words, a roughly level 45 party should help this fight go smoothly. That said, if you’re confident and have developed a broken battle strategy, you can beat this thing earlier.
You’ll want reliable party-wide healing to counter the Scourge’s many attacks. Hunters and Scholars are your best bet for shield breaks, though a Warrior like Hikari can pull off huge damage near the beginning of the fight. Let’s go over the encounter.
Scourge of the Sea’s stats
The Scourge of the Sea has 95,000 HP. At this point in the game, dealing 20,000 – 30,000 damage during one shield break should be attainable. If you aren’t pushing those kinds of numbers, make sure to use heavy hitters like Hikari, Ochette, or Osvald with buffs and debuffs for either physical or magic damage. Characters like Partitio and Castti can also put in work by giving BP to other party members, exponentially boosting their damage potential.
At the start of the fight, Scourge of the Sea will be weak to Swords, Axes, Staves, Fire, and Light. After you break it once, it will potentially boost its shield point count and shuffle its weaknesses. Fortunately, the weaknesses it shuffles to are static. Use these elements to break it throughout the battle:
First shuffle: Daggers, Bows, Lightning, Dark
Second shuffle: Spears, Axes, Bows, Fire, Ice
Third shuffle: Sword, Fire, Ice, Lightning
As you can see, Osvald has an answer to deal damage to the Scourge regardless of the phase. Any physical damage dealer with the Hunter class will be covered through the first three sets of weaknesses, and a Warrior/Hunter will be covered throughout. Anyone using Armsmaster of course has nothing to worry about, especially if they have all the Divine Weapons.
The strategy for Scourge of the Sea
The central gimmick for this fight is Starboard Straight. This move will remove two party members from the fight, though they’ll fortunately return after a couple of turns. You’ll lose the fight if your remaining party members die, even if the removed party members are healthy.
Fortunately, in my testing, it appears your party leader won’t get knocked out of the fight. If your leader is your main damage dealer or shield breaker, this will let you progress the fight without waiting for the others to return. If you feel stuck with the party leader you chose, you fortunately can switch them out after you complete their respective final chapter.
In addition to straightforward damage, Scourge of the Sea will sporadically hit your party members with status ailments. Notable among these are Terror (preventing boost) and Confusion. These don’t hit frequently enough to be worth planning specifically around, though you may want to equip your healer with confusion protection to be safe.
Otherwise, this is honestly a straightforward boss. Break its shield down and deal huge boosted damage the way you always would during boss fights. It can charge and remove three of your party members later in the fight. That said, if you keep the pressure on it and drain its shield quickly, it won’t have the opportunity to strike you with this move. We recorded four iterations of its weaknesses, but it’s not out of the question to defeat it after it shuffles its vulnerabilities once.
As tempting as the Arcanist job is, there isn’t a ton of incentive to beat this boss in the midgame. If Scourge of the Sea is giving you trouble, consider progressing each protagonist’s storyline and return once you’ve gained a few levels.
Let’s talk about Left Straight
Now, there is one less-obvious perk for beating Scourge of the Sea that might warrant your attention.
After defeating the boss, you’ll have a chance to encounter it again during nighttime out in the water. As nightmarish as this might seem, there’s some real use to revisiting this fight. If Ochette can capture the Scourge of the Sea, she’ll gain access to the move Left Straight. Though this claims to deal staff damage, the true potential of this move is buried a bit. Left Straight breaks an enemy’s shield instantly.
There are some appropriate drawbacks here, of course. You need a max charge to even use the move, and it will only work once per fight. Still, this is an especially strong attack that will give your Ochette some valuable utility going into the endgame. Like other minibosses, you can also prepare it to get some Perfect Jerky if you’d prefer. Whether you want to hunt this foe or not, be prepared to see the Scourge pop up again while you sail!
