Octopath Traveler: How to Avoid Random Battles

How to Avoid Random Battles in Octopath Traveler

Listen we all love a good traditional, classic JRPG, but it’s not always sunshine and rainbows. We love that Octopath Traveler is going for an old-school JRPG vibe that takes us back to the glory days of the SNES/PS1 era of great RPGs developed in Japan. However, there are some wrinkles that we don’t mind being left in the past. One of those wrinkles is random battles and encounters. Some games handle them better than others, but there are times where you really just want to get from point A to point B without having to stop to bash a goblin’s face in. Octopath Traveler has random battles, and if you’re here, you’re probably wondering what you can to do avoid them or at least reduce the amount of time you spend engaged in them.

We have some good and bad news on that front. While you can’t outright avoid random battles in Octopath Traveler like you can in some other modern JRPGs such as Persona 5, you can reduce the rate at which you get into random encounters, albeit in a limited way.

The Scholar class gets a Support Skill (it’s called Evasive Maneuvers) that lowers the encounter rate. In order to get Evasive Maneuvers, you have to learn at least one skill (by spending Job Points) before the Support Skill is unlocked. Then, once that’s squared away, you can equip it by going to the main menu, finding the Skills section and then going to Equip Support Skills. From there, equip Evasive Maneuvers, and you’re all set. You won’t get in as many random battles now, but you’ll still encounter some for sure.

That does it for how to avoid random battles in Octopath Traveler for the Nintendo Switch. Be sure to check our wiki for more tips, tricks and information about Octopath Traveler.