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The Battle Tested Weapons are some of the strongest you can get in Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent, and can be upgraded into even better versions. However, in order to get one, you'll need to find and defeat a challenging NPC somewhere in Orsterra.

Related: Octopath Traveler: Champions Of The Continent - How To Get The Battle Tested Fan

To get the Battle Tested Sword for your warrior travelers, you'll need to defeat the Former Warrior in Shepherds Rock. Let's take a look at where to find this NPC, her attacks and weaknesses, and how to defeat her.

Where To Find The Former Warrior

battle tested sword former warrior shepherds rock map

The Former Warrior is found to the right of the fountain in Shepherds Rock. To talk to the Former Warrior, you'll first need to reach Rank 22 in Power, and unlock and clear the Shepherds Rock Expert Hunt. After that, you can challenge this NPC.

Battle Strategy

bt sword battle

The Former Warrior is weak to spear and ice attacks. She has a counter-attack that deals high damage back to her attacker when struck with physical attacks. When her counter is active, take care not to deal too much damage or just use elemental attacks to avoid dying to her counter. Additionally, buff your front-row's physical defense, and debuff the boss's physical attack to reduce the damage of the counter.

For this fight, your main strategy will be to use multi-hit attacks to strike at the Former Warrior's weak point, frequently putting her into the broken state. Then, when the boss is vulnerable, boost your highest damage attack to deal high damage to the boss. With the right units, you should only need to repeat this process a few times before the boss is down.

party for fighting former warrior
An example party for defeating the Former Warrior.

Sofia and Aslyte are strong ice-attackers with access to multi-hit attacks, making them perfect for dealing with this boss, especially when considering that their attacks can get around her counter-attack.

For spear attacks, Gilderoy, Barrad, Pia, and Devin are standouts, all with access to multi-hit spear attacks. Additionally, Helga has access to multi-hit spear attacks and ice attacks, making her a versatile pick.

Although your party is made up mostly of Merchants, you won't actually need a Tank unit for this fight, especially if you are able to break the Former Warrior every other turn. Even then, the boss's main source of damage comes from her counter-attacks, which can't be negated using Provoke abilities.

Instead, bring a healer with access to Regen, like Theo, Cedric, or Agnes. By regenerating the front-rows health at the end of the turn, you can restore your party's health after the counter-attacks, rather than before.

Rewards

bt sword acquired

The first time you defeat the Former Warrior, you will obtain the Battle Tested Sword. Additionally, you'll get one Historic Material, which can be used later in the exchange to trade for any Battle Tested Weapon of your choosing.

After you get the first Battle Tested Sword, the chance to get additional copies of the weapon drops significantly. You will only be able to defeat the Former Warrior by Contending once per day, but you can use Impress to battle them repeatedly for more chances of getting the weapon.

Next: Octopath Traveler: Champions Of The Continent - How To Get The Battle Tested Axe