Octopath Traveler Character Skills - How to Unlock New Character Skills in Octopath Traveler

There are eight different characters to unlock in Octopath Traveler, and each of the characters has unique skills for you to unlock. In our Octopath Traveler character skills guide, we'll be walking you through how to unlock character skill in Octopath Traveler as easily as possible.

Octopath Traveler Skills

In case you didn’t already know, Octopath Traveler features turn-based combat, just like the 16-bit games of the era that it’s trying to ape. Each of the four characters in your party will take turns laying into the enemy team, which can spring upon you from anywhere in a random attack while you’re out exploring the wilds of Osterra, the world in which the game takes place.

After every battle your party win, you’ll be allocated a currency called JP points, for all four characters that took part in that one battle. This is entirely separate from the standard XP currency, which your four characters are also rewarded after a battle, and which is purely used to level up and increase your health and attack power.

You can then take these accumulated JP points for each of the eight characters, and unlock new Skills for them in the pause menu of Octopath Traveler. Simply press X, scroll down to Skills, and you’ll be able to take the JP points that you’ve accumulated so far, and spend them on unlocking brand new Skills for your characters.

There are two types of Skills in Octopath Traveler: passive and aggressive. You can equip four passive Skills (also called Support Skills) to one character at a time in Octopath Traveler, but there’s no such limitation on the aggressive Skills. Is this latter category of Skills that your character’s can then use when it’s their turn in battle. For example, H’aanit can unlock a Skill which lets her shoot a lightning bolt at a single foe, or Primrose can unlock an ability to bolster the physical attack of an ally for two turns.

You can choose which order to unlock brand new Skills in, picking whichever one you fancy first. However the next Skill you go to unlock will cost progressively more JP to unlock, jumping from 30 to 100, and then 100 to 500 points. Basically, always prioritize the Skills you think you’ll find more useful, rather than unlocking Skills in a set order down the list.

We’re all wrapped up with this Octopath Traveler guide on how to unlock brand new Skills for your characters to use, but there’s plenty more to cover on the game. Check out our Octopath Traveler characters guide for a deep dive into all eight characters, or our Octopath Traveler combat guide for a walkthrough of how to break and stun enemies.