One of the first major bosses people will encounter in Octopath Traveler is the Guardian of the First Flame. This is part of the Cleric story and can be challenging for many players. Most people will encounter the Guardian of the First Flame in Octopath Traveler very early in the game, and therefore they’ll be at a relatively low level. To help with the boss battle against the Octopath Traveler Guardian of the First Flame, we’ve put together a few key points that should make the fight easier. Once you defeat the Guardian of the First Flame you can move on with the rest of Octopath Traveler.
Defeat the Guardian of the First Flame
Weak Against
- Swords
- Daggers
- Staves
- Ice Magic
- Wind Magic
Cleric Strategy
If you started as the cleric, chances are you don’t have much help with you to defeat the Guardian of the First Flame. If you started as just about any other class, you should have at least one other character with you, which makes this fight considerably easier. If you didn’t start as the cleric you can jump down to the General Strategy section to see how the Guardian of the First Flame attacks and what you should do to take it down.
Starting as the cleric, you will need some help to make this battle a little easier. Luckily, the cleric’s path action ability is Guide, which allows you to take an NPC into battle with you. It just so happens that right outside the Cave of Origin where you encounter the Guardian of the First Flame, there are two Knight Ardante guards. The guard to the right doesn’t inflict as much damage, but has the ability to heal Ophilia. The guard on the left won’t heal, but he is better at fighting and inflicts more damage to the Guardian of the First Flame.
Ideally, you want to use the Guide ability on the guard on the right at the cave entrance. The ability to heal you in combat is much more useful than additional damage when fighting the Guardian of the First Flame. Just make sure you don’t use the Summon command to bring him into battle until you’ve been hit a few times. If you’re around half health when you summon the guard into battle, he will immediately heal you back up to full health (or 300 HP). He’ll still heal you periodically throughout the fight, but if you have near full health when you summon him, he won’t initially heal you.
General Strategy
The Guardian of the First Flame uses a few basic attacks and will occasionally attack two times in a row. Throughout the battle, it will gain strength and start to glow purple. At this point make sure each member of your party has at least 200 HP. The Guardian of the First Flame generally follows the gain strength ability with a damaging magic attack. While the attack damage will vary depending on your armor and magic resistance, if you have at least 200 HP you should be safe from death.
Around the mid-point of the battle, the Guardian of the First Flame summons Dark Wisps. The number of Dark Wisps depends on the number of people in your party. For example, if you have three characters recruited, three Dark Wisps will appear. However, if you only have Ophilia, only one Dark Wisp will appear.
As the “trial begins” and the Dark Wisps appear, ignore them and focus on the Guardian of the First Flame. After three turns the Dark Wisps will use a highly damaging magic suicide attack that inflicts roughly 180 HP depending on your stats and armor. The Dark Wisps will be gone after the attack ends, but heal immediately after the attack to avoid dying to the Guardian of the First Flame’s next attack.
While you can try to defeat or Break the Dark Wisps before the big attack, it can be difficult to do that depending on your available party members. Breaking the Guardian of the First Flame won’t stop the Dark Wisps from attacking, but if you defeat the Guardian of the First Flame the Dark Wisps are defeated as well. You can use area attacks to hit all enemies at once, but your best course of action is to simply focus on the Guardian of the First Flame and be ready to heal up as soon as the Dark Wisps attack.
The Dark Wisps are weak to fire and holy magic, as well bow attacks, so if you have Cyrus in your party you can use his fire magic to potentially Break them a bit faster and avoid their attack, or even Ophilia’s holy attacks. However, if you don’t have attacks that hit multiple enemies as once, such as Fire Storm for Cyrus, you should just continue to focus on the Guardian of the First Flame and ignore the Dark Wisps. It’s better to end the fight quickly instead of trying to clear the Dark Wisps within three turns, especially since more Dark Wisps will appear if the fight drags out too long.
With this strategy you shouldn’t have too much trouble defeating the Guardian of the First Flame. If you’re looking for more insight, be sure to check out our Octopath Traveler game hub!
