Octopath Traveler 2: Where To Find The Best Hikari Learned Skills

Hikari the Warrior is a strong party member in Octopath Traveler 2, and you can make him even stronger by unlocking powerful abilities called Learned Skills. By using the Duel Path Action on NPCs during the day, Hikari can enter 1-vs-1 battle. If you can defeat your NPC opponent, you’ll knock them out and be asked to learn their unique skill. You can only learn five skills maximum from NPCs before you need to start swapping them out, and there are some extremely useful skills available in the wild. We aren’t going to list them all here, but we will list our favorites. These are the best skills we can’t live without in the late-game.

You can unlock these skills extremely early by using Poison and Bottled Nightmares to apply multiple status effects against enemies. You’ll need a lot of Bottled Nightmares to defeat the NPC, but it essentially (almost) guarantees victory if you have enough. You can purchase these items from the random vendors at the Black Market outside New Delsta. Get at least a few of the skills listed below to prepare yourself for the challenging end-game quest.

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Best Hikari Learned Skills

These are the most essential Hikari skills. These are often used by Strength: 9-10 NPCs, so make sure to stock up on Bottled Nightmares to make fighting them much easier. Putting NPCs to sleep also helps give you time to heal, buff, earn BP and prepare to break the foe.

Limb From Limb Location: Stormhail – Inside the Sacred Guard’s HQ. Inside the large structure, knock out the guard on the left that’s blocking the door. Inside, you’ll find the NPC with this sword attack.

Limb From Limb: Attacks a single target x4 times with your sword. An extremely powerful attack. One of the best attacks in the game.

Divine Protection Location: Canalbrine – Duel the Cleric behind the altar in the large church in the northeast corner of the town.

Divine Protection: One of the best abilities in the game. Grants immunity to any single character for 1-4 turns. Can be increased to 4 turns by spending BP. Immunity makes your character immune to all damage fully — you’ll take no damage from magic or physical attacks. Costs 100 SP.

Sentencing Gavel Location: Timberain – Located in front of the courthouse. Duel the judge NPC waiting outside to gain this useful staff attack.

Sentencing Gavel: Attacks all foes with a Staff attack x3 times. One of the best ways to break foes with Staff weakness.

Frenzied Fire Location: Timberain – Reach the Castle Courtyard area deeper into Timberain. Enter the area and go down the stairs to the left into the forest area. Find the Elderly Soldier NPC blocking the door.

Frenzied Fire: Unleashes a bow attack on all foes 4-8 times. This also uses the power / special effect of your equipped bow, so if you’re using the Armsmaster Legendary Bow, you’ll have a chance to reduce a random attribute. When hitting 4-8 times, this is almost guaranteed to apply something. It’s also incredibly powerful for breaking groups of enemies.

Last Gasp Location: Montwise – Duel the guard at the top of the stairs. The NPC Guard also can randomly drop a Battle-Tested weapon at a very low rate.

Last Gasp: Unleash a sword attack that deals more damage the lower your health is. Extremely powerful when Hikari is 1 HP. Is also very good when paired with the Alpione’s Amulet accessory, which also increases your damage when the party member’s HP is low.

Fatal Fang Location: Clockbank – Used by the Elderly Man NPC in the second-floor tavern. Knock out the NPC guarding the balcony, then encounter the Elderly Man during the day. This Elderly Man will also randomly drop a Battle-Tested weapon.

Fatal Fang: Unleashes a dagger attack on random foes 4-8 times. Has a random chance to apply poison for 2 turns. Another very good skill for breaking dagger weakness enemies.

That covers our favorite skills in Octopath Traveler 2. There are many more out there, so check everyone you can while exploring.