How to defeat Claude in Octopath Traveler 2

It’s time to beat up the real father

The end of Throne’s path is fraught with revelations about her past, as well as the history of the Blacksnakes. Where the revenge story should’ve ended with Mother and Father, Octopath Traveler 2 still has one more foe to face in Throne’s path, and his name is Claude.

Spoilers follow for Throne’s Chapter 4 in Octopath Traveler 2.

After journeying to a piece of the map that had always been mysteriously uncovered and retracing Throne’s steps, you’ll find yourself in the town of Lostseed. From here, you’ll venture further in until you find the root of it all, a seemingly immortal man named Claude. This all-father masterminded the whole thing, and after dealing with the mental load of what’s just been uncovered, you’ll need to go ahead and take him out.

Unshackling from Chained Pride

Many of the final path bosses in Octopath Traveler 2 have a special gimmick all their own. For Claude, that’s the Chained Pride ability. After popping this, your primary job skills will be locked away until you break him.

Luckily, there are some easy ways to get around this. Claude is weak to Daggers, Axes, Staffs, Lightning, and Darkness. The Thief class’ HP Steal, Cleric’s Mystic Staff, and weapons like the Double Tomahawk can do work here, so make sure your secondary classes are locked in. Additionally, Chained Pride does not lock down individual character skills, like Latent Powers, Hikari’s Learned Skills, or Ochette’s Beast Lore. This makes certain combinations, like Temenos’ Latent Power used on Scholar’s Elemental Barrage, extremely useful for getting rid of Chained Pride fast.

Fighting the Shadows in Claude’s stead

After dealing with Chained Pride and doing some damage to Claude, the chest-baring thief will retreat, leaving some “shadows” to fight you. These will be rehashes of previous fights in Throne’s past; first will be Pirro, and then a dual fight against both Mother and Father.

Throne will get some great voice lines here on her turn, but the good news is, these should be fairly simple to deal with at this point. In my own playthrough, I managed to clear out both Pirro and Mother/Father within a couple turns of them showing up. As long as your characters are decently levelled-up and well-equipped, this section should be a breeze.

Best strategies for defeating Claude in Octopath Traveler 2

After toppling his shadows, you’ll face a slightly meaner version of Claude for the remainder of the fight. How long that fight lasts depends on how much damage you’ve already put on him. In my experience, a well-boosted Hikari and Aeber’s Reckoning-spamming Throne made mincemeat of the immortal.

As for general strategies, ensuring you have good class coverage for Chained Pride is helpful. While some characters have built-in universal shield breaks, like Osvald’s One True Magic or Agnea’s Ruinous Kick, keep in mind these are accessed through their primary jobs and will get locked off. Bring secondary options, or better yet, some Learned Skills or Beast Lore creatures to really hit the weak points. I can highly recommend the Wild Moles and other creatures who use the double-dagger attack.

Otherwise, aside from Chained Pride and a few extra phases, Claude is largely about the numbers. Bring a decently solid team with some variety and prep work done, and you should walk on out of Lostseed triumphant.