Farming Job Points in Octopath Traveler 2 can mean the difference between a breezy battle and a contest of wills. Learning the right skills for the right occasions is paramount to success in this game, where every round for every character is a fresh decision on whether to attack physically, conserve BP, or unleash some special ability that's only been made possible because you've spent some time in the field grinding out JP.
Here are some tips on the quickest and easiest ways to acquire lump sumps of the stuff, so that you can transform your bright-eyed party of travelers into the collective killing machine they were born to become.
Prime Passives
First, let's go over a few support skills that can help bolster the JP earnings per battle. Note that in order to get these support skills, you will need to have invested a decent amount of JP into a job already, but that's just the cyclical nature of an RPG characterization mechanic, right? So, here are the golden trio:
Life in the Shadows
This one comes courtesy of Throné. But to equip it on other characters, you'll need to have learned all the Thief skills for whoever you have equipped with the requisite Thief license, so this will take some time. That said, it's totally worth the effort - you will gain more EXP and JP during battles at night. Simple, straightforward, and perfect for our JP plans.
More Rare Monsters
As we will soon discuss at greater length, rarer foes mark richer rewards. Octopuffs and Caits are our primary sources of amazing JP payout; Ochette has this for her Hunter class, and as the name implies, it boosts the odds you'll bump into these exotic beasts.
Hard Worker
This one comes courtesy of Agnea. Hard Worker guarantees more JP after battles. Simple again! Here's the thing, though. You should note that equipping any of these skills on more than one party member does not enhance the effect. Having someone with both Life in the Shadows and Hard Worker, however, will result in that much more JP - sweet!
Arrow Of Fortune
You'll be forgiven for neglecting to trigger this one every single fight, but it's totally worth a nod nonetheless - Partitio's Merchant class has a skill called Arrow of Fortune that'll net you some Job Points relative to the amount of damage you inflict. Basically, this means the more powerful your Parti, the more your party will gain. Partihardi, you see? We really struggled to fit that reference in here.
Arrow of Fortune is one of those abilities we'll admit we frequently forgot we had in our arsenal. But if you see it, and you're in a fight that doesn't demand perfection every turn, by all means, loose that arrow, and gain that extra JP.
Caits And Octopuffs
Here's the big prize, and the reason we love More Rare Monsters so much. Caits and Octopuffs don't just drop loads of JP upon defeat. They drop bucketloads of JP. We're talking hundreds - thousands for the mightiest of the bunch.
You won't suffer much damage from these creatures. Rather, you have to deal with the fact that they'll soon flee when battle commences. Your best bet is Elemental Soulstones, since magic will usually hit them just fine, and you won't be reliant upon a character's Elemental Attack stat to deal decent damage with these. Their defenses are sky-high, mind you, so don't be alarmed when the, say, Wind Soulstone (L) does 27 damage; it'll still be enough, since the creatures' HP is abysmal.
The best characters to have in your party while on the hunt for these elusive creatures are Ochette and Osvald. Ochette can tap into her Heightened Senses support skill to increase your odds of acting first in battle, which means you've decreased the odds your quarry will get away before you can corner it. Osvald, as a Scholar with the highest inherent Elemental Attack, can bypass the need for Soulstones.
You'll want to increase your chance of encountering Octopuffs and Caits with the Octopuff Pot and Cait Powder, respectively. There are multiple copies of both, and as far as we can tell, equipping them on multiple characters will stack the odds, though we admit we aren't 100 percent certain on that front at this time. We'll update accordingly if we learn for sure.
JP Augmentor
Before we wrap, let's cover something that some of you may have come here for in the first place - an accessory, the JP Augmentor, that increases the amount of Job Points gained per battle. As you can imagine, this - in conjunction with our recommended abilities above - does a real dent on how much time you need to dedicate to grinding for fresh skills and such.
The JP Augmentor can be found at the Cavern of Waves, seen in our above image. As is the case with most optional dungeons in Octopath Traveler 2, getting here requires a little extra legwork. Or... seawork, as it were. From Toto'haha's ship anchorage ('Beasting Bay: Anchorage'), venture due east across the shoreline.
Staying on the sand, follow its course northbound as it wraps beneath a vegetation-covered arch. There's a canoe dock right past that. Climb aboard your trusty canoe, heading west a short while until you come upon a small island with a dock of its own. Disembark, head inside, and veer left after passing the save point. Hike upstairs, take a quick right when the pathway splits, and that's a bingo - the JP Augmentor is all yours.