Octopath Traveler Job Combinations: how to make the best subclass choice

by RPG Site Staff on 19 June, 2019

One of the best things about Octopath Traveler is just how open-ended its approach to classic RPG mechanics is. You obviously start out the game by choosing a starting character, but the more interesting thing is how the job system then evolves. There are eight different standard jobs in Octopath Traveler (covered alongside the advanced classes in our Job Classes List) - and over time you'll gain the ability to combine jobs together on a character to make unique hybrid classes.

This is actually a great system that allows you to create some great RPG classics that aren't featured as default jobs. Octopath Traveler doesn't have a Paladin type who mixes Knight skills and Holy magic, for instance, byt by using job combinations you can create one by combining th Cleric and Warrior job classes. It's super neat, seriously.

In order to get stuck in with job combinations and mashing jobs together, you'll first need to unlock each job by visiting its associated shrine. If you need help with that check out out Octopath Traveler Shrine Locations guide, which lists the exact place you can unlock every single job in the game - including the advanced classes. Now... on to those class combos...

Choosing the best Class / Job Combinations in Octopath Traveler

One thing we should get out of the way right up top is a disclaimer about job combinations: truthfully, there's no such thing as a 'bad' combination in Octopath Traveler. Depending on the overall make-up of your four-character party you can create some truly special fighting teams with even the most unorthodox of class choices, so you shouldn't let anything we write here put you off trying something crazy.

With that said, some characters do just naturally lend themselves well to certain combinations thanks to their natural abilities - so let's talk about that a little, starting out with the example we gave above - and then we'll go from there.

Remember that as you unlock skills on each class, you'll also unlock passive skills. While when you swap a job out the active skills and stat bonuses disappear with the job, the passive skills stick around. This means it can sometimes be useful to equip a subclass to a character, run with that job for a bit until you can afford to unlock a certain passive skill, then drop the job. A great example are the mages Cyrus and Ophilia - both will benefit hugely from the passive skill Second Wind from the Dancer job, which recovers SP every turn - but you won't be able to have both equipped with dancer at once. You can, however, unlock that passive and then use it once the Dancer job has been passed to someone else.

Finally, keep in mind that these subclass and job combinations are just suggestions and ideas to get you going. Experiment! That's what Octopath Traveler is about - and let us know your favorite combinations in the comments.

Job Combination Suggestions for Olberic

Warrior / Cleric: Ideally achieved by equipping the Cleric job to natural Warrior Olberic (Ophilia is hardly suited to taking up a sword), this job combination takes Octopath's most significant one-trick-pony early on and just powers him up by giving him access to healing and holy spells. This can help ensure that when he's tanking as his is main job he's never in danger, though this can also be achieved another way...
Warrior / Thief: Equip this one to Olberic to make for a fearsome character - the Thief class gives you access to the HP Thief and Armor Corrosive abilities - allowing you to debuff enemies, heal yourself at the cost of their health and then, once ready, unleash Olberic's physical might on them to finish them off.
Warrior / Apothecary: If you want to make the ultimate tank, this job combination is the way to go - at least until the advanced classes. The 20% HP bonus from the Apothecary class will boost Olberic's already hefty pool, plus you'll get boosts to Critical, Attack and Defense stats - and the ability to heal through a few different Apothecary commands.

Job Combination Suggestions for Cyrus

Scholar / Cleric: Equipping Scholar Cyrus with the Cleric is a job combination that will essentially turn him into a powerful archmage - or at least one that'll tide you over until you can unlock the Sorcerer Advanced Class. This opens Cyrus up to Holy/Light elemental Magic, plus healing.
Scholar / Dancer: Cyrus will get a boost from the Dancer class giving him higher speed, evasion and crucially elemental attack - and when enemies aren't susceptible to a specific weakness, he can instead double down on buffs or debuffs for either himself or other party members through the Dancer's abilities. The Dancer also has a great passive that restores SP, ideal for Cyrus.
Scholar / Merchant: A great class if you're all-in on Cyrus' magical abilities for one reason: the Merchant has the incredible Rest ability. It costs 0 SP and spends your turn to restore HP, SP and Heal Status Ailments - meaning you can always be fully loaded for a magical onslaught. The Merchant also grants some decent bonuses to Elemental Attack, Defense, HP, and SP.

Job Combination Suggestions for Therion

Thief / Dancer: The Thief class, repped by Therion, is all about speed - and as is the Dancer class to an extent. The damage Therion deals is in part based on his speed stat, and the Dancer stat comes with a lovely 10% boost to speed (plus a handy 10% boost to Evasion, useful considering how squishy thieves are).
Thief / Scholar: While Therion isn't the most natural of mages, the Thief/Scholar job combination can work well if you center it around the Thief's steal SP ability, allowing you to refill at least two or three spells' worth of SP by sapping a broken enemy, thus keeping this mage stocked with spell slinging potential at all times.

Job Combination Suggestions of Ophilia

Cleric / Dancer: Ophilia is already the most natural support character in Octopath Traveler, so pairing her natural healing abilities with the Dancer's buff-based gameplay makes sense, plus it also gives Ophilia access to Daggers, which can prove useful. The boost to stats is decent too: a 10% buff to speed will help Ophilia to act earlier for vital heals, the 10% boost to Evasion will help her stay out of trouble and the 8% boon to Elemental Attack will help her Light element attacks.
Cleric / Scholar: Much as with the Scholar/Cleric combination up above, combining the two mages together to make one jack of all trades can actually be pretty useful, and it works well with Ophilia too - it won't improve the character's diversity, but gives them access to more skills that fit their existing stat set.

Job Combination Suggestions for Primrose

Dancer / Scholar: Dancer Primrose has abilities that are primarily based around buffing others, but by giving her the mage scholar job as her subclass you can actually make her into a hard-hitting mage with access to the three main elements plus Dark, which comes from her natural class. Given Primrose has fairly decent elemental attack stats on her Dancer class, Scholar just boosts that further but also moves to give her a lot more SP to play with.

Job Combination Suggestions for Alfyn

Apothecary / Warrior: By augmenting Alfyn's natural Apothecary abilities with that of a warrior you end up with a much more potent fighter. Alfyn is quite weak, but the Warrior stat boosts buff him out a bit, and it also gives him the ability to hit any element and 3 different weapon types - pretty good for a non-magical focused character.
Apothecary / Hunter: Alfyn is already all about items and things you collect in that his main unique skill, concoct, makes use of items you find out in the world. The Hunter class plays well back into these natural skills, offering up bow and axe usage alongside some very balanced stat bonuses.

Job Combination Suggestions for Tressa

Merchant / Thief: While a Thief is basically the opposite of a merchant, these two classes can work quite well together in the end: with this job combination Tressa will have access to Bows, Polearms, Swords and Daggers, plus Wind element magic. That's a good spread for weakness expoiting, but best of all is how Tressa is now a one-stop-shop for bleeding enemies dry. Steal commands can net you items, while Merchant stats allow her to take cash. Plus there's all those debuffs, which turn her into a fine support.
Merchant / Warrior: You wouldn't think it to look at her, but Tressa can actually become a pretty decent Tank in Octopath Traveler thanks to her natural stat growth. The Warrior class allows her to fully lean all the way into that if you choose to give it to her, plus it opens up swords and a range of new polearm abilities for her.

Job Combination Suggestions for H'aanit

Hunter / Warrior: H'aanit's hunting abilities make her one of the hardest-hitting characters in Octopath Traveler right out of the gate so long as you capture high-level characters with her, but giving her the Warrior job as a subclass will also make her a lot more hardy, allowing her to tank up as a queen of melee weakness exploiting before you unleash your most powerful monsters on bosses.
Hunter / Thief: Similar to the above, H'aanit can be given the Theif class instead - and this job combination will allow you to debuff enemies before unleashing those powerful captured creatures. The thief stat bonuses also lean nicely into the skills H'aanit's hunter class already has.