Best Latent Powers in Octopath Traveler 2, Ranked

Latent Powers are one of few reasons why it’s impossible to bench a character in Octopath Traveler (aside from the fact that they need to be there for their main story). These are special skills unique to every character, allowing you to build each of them uniquely given the circumstance. This guide aims to teach you more about Latent Powers, who has the best ones, and ways to efficiently use a Latent Power to its fullest potential.

Who has the best Latent Power in Octopath Traveler 2?

First of all, all Latent Powers have their use. However, the “best” ones are definitely everyone’s except Hikari, Osvald, and Ochette’s. This is because it’s hard to find utility in Latent Powers that are pure offense. With the right buffs plus the Warrior Deal More Damage skill, you can certainly deal powerful attacks over the 9,999 damage cap using them—but not much else.

The other character’s Latent Powers are much more fun to play around with. We’ve listed them in descending usefulness below.

5. Temenos – Judgment

Judgment is a Latent Power that allows any attack to break an enemy’s shield. It’s not a very versatile skill, but we’ve personally had a lot of fun with it. For example, a Latent Power supported Scholar Elemental Barrage in a boss battle (with no lackeys, just the boss by itself) will break their shield instantly.

Or, have you ever encountered those nasty NPCs you’re too low-leveled to Inquire or Scrutinize? There are also those that can only be Coerced since they’re only around at night. Well, just defend until your gauge is filled and sick an Elemental Barrage on them. That should be enough to bully the information that you need.

4. Throne – Leave No Trace

If you’re using Leave No Trace to deal attacks, that’s not what it’s for. Throne’s Latent Power is used to set up enemies, buff your allies, and provide support, among others. It's very flexible! In fact, below are a couple of setups you can test out:

• As a Thief, reduce both the enemy’s Phys. Atk. and Def.
• With a Dancer secondary job, raise Phys. Atk. and reduce Phys. Def. of the enemy (also works with Elem. Atk./Def.).
• With a Warrior secondary job, Provoke on the first turn and use Stout Wall on the second turn.
• With a Cleric secondary job, save Leave No Trace for a party-wide Revive and Heal.

Remember, Throne is the fastest character in the game. She will go first most of the time. And if you find her lagging after an enemy, you can give her a Speed accessory.

Related: Every Character in Octopath Traveler 2, Ranked

3. Castti – Every Drop Counts

Concoctions is a broken skill to have, and to have a free turn where you can Boost x4 and spend nothing for all that? Every Drop Counts is an absolute must-use. If you haven’t explored this beauty of skill to its fullest extent, know that you can do the following (and more) with the right ingredients:

• Revive and restore HP in one throw
• Restore HP, SP, and buff a stat in one throw
• Throw an AoE spell of more than one element
• Lower Elem. Def. and throw an AoE spell afterward

We could go on and on, but you get the picture. We like Castti with a Warrior secondary job for this, since Provoke can cause enemies to target her. Castti has an unnaturally high HP and Warrior just boosts that by 18% to 20%.

2. Agnea – All Together Now

All Together Now lets you turn the effect of a single target skill into an all-enemy or all-ally one. It’s essentially the reverse of Osvald’s Concentrate Spells and can be applied to most skills, as long as it is not self-targeting. Meaning, you can apply party-wide buffs with her Dancer skills. But if you’re wondering why it’s ranked so high, it’s because we found some of our favorite combinations with it:

• For example, with a Hunter secondary class, use Leghold Trap and cause all enemies to act at the end of the turn for two turns (or more if it’s boosted).
• With a Merchant secondary class, use Arrow of Fortune on broken enemies to gain a ton of JP. We discuss this more in our EXP & JP farming guide.
• With a Cleric secondary class, grant a boosted Sacred Shield to protect all allies from up to four attacks.

There are a ton more depending on the secondary job equipped, but we’ll leave it to you to explore. Agnea is great.

Related: Best team formations in Octopath Traveler 2

1. Partitio – Hoot and Holler

If you want to win your battles, you need to save, distribute, and boost your BP to the max. With Hoot and Holler, as well as support skills from hidden jobs like Conjurer, Partitio will never run out of BP to give. He can send Hikari an offense boost, throw BP to Throne for extra support, Temenos for a Judgement beatdown, and many others. You may not appreciate it early into the game, but Hoot and Holler is a Latent Power that will show its use against extremely difficult bosses, allowing you to defeat them in very few turns.

All Latent Powers in Octopath Traveler 2

For a quick reference, and so you don’t have to swap party members in your tavern, below is a list of every character's Latent Power in Octopath Traveler 2.

• Hikari: Gain access to a pool of powerful sword and spear skills.
• Temenos: Every attack unleashed with his Latent Power will break the enemy’s shield.
• Osvald: Turns AoE and random multi-hitting spells into a single target one with increased damage.
• Agnea: Turns single-target skills into an area-wide one. Applies to both those that target the enemy and those that target an ally. What you’re looking for are skills that have the word “single” in them (like “single foe” or “single ally”).
• Ochette: Gain access to a pool of powerful hunter skills.
• Castti: Brew Concoctions without spending a single ingredient. You must still have the item needed for the formula in your inventory.
• Throne: Act twice (consecutively) in one turn cycle.
• Partitio: Instantly fills up his BP to max.

For more help with Octopath Traveler 2, take a look at All Rusty Weapons and where to find them in Octopath Traveler 2 and All Hidden Jobs in Octopath Traveler 2 & How to Unlock Them here at Pro Game Guides.