Octopath Traveler How to Beat Heathcote & Guards
Items Acquired
Energizing Pomegranate (M)
So, the butler can hold his own, huh? We’re going to have to fight our way out!
The first thing we’ll note about this battle is that Heathcote is susceptible to poison, and the dagger is one of his weaknesses, so you should make this your main weapon in order to speed the fight along. We’ll also note (since this may be one of your first fights) that their SP (shield points) go up if you have anyone with you. For example, the SP listed up above is with Alfyn. It’s a bit lower if Therion is by himself.
Still, this is a good fight. Heathcote comes with a guard so you can have any other party member focus on him if you wish. He can also re-summon guards, so be wary of that. In fact, let’s go over his moves really quick and then we’ll go over some strategy:
- Attack: Heathcote’s basic physical attack. He’ll hit you for around 30-40 damage if you aren’t guarding.
- Slice: Heathcote’s sword skill will deliver a vertical slash, dealing 40-50 damage if it connects. You have a good chance of evading this move if you are wearing the black clothing set.
- Double Spear: Heathcote will swing his spear (where did he get a spear?!), hitting the party twice in a row for about 20 (or less) damage per attack.
- Sweep: Another spear move! This is a single-hit move with Heathcote’s (or the Guards) spear, dealing about the same damage as one hit from his Double Spear move (maybe slightly more). Not very threatening.
- Steel Defenses: What a bother! The guard will use his turn to buff up his physical defense. He can also use this on Heathcote as well. This status lasts for about three turns (as you can see by his weakness bar).
- Violent Slash: This move belongs to the Guards who will attack 3-4 times with their sword at you. As bad as that sounds, each hit is pathetic, dealing around 10 (or lower) damage to you.
- Heathcote summoned a retainer: This move happens when you kill the guard before Heathcote. He will simply summon another guard to help him continue the fight.
- Heathcote hops lightly: This move starts to happen near the end of battle and is a status effect Heathcote will use. Namely, it gives him two turns of nearly guaranteed evasion, so don’t bother trying to attack. Use this as time to build BP or heal yourself.
- Stunning Strike: Heathcote only uses this move after his “senses are heightened” near the end of the fight, returning to normal after he uses it. Try to guard for this attack as we don’t need to be stunned, but this attack in particular has a high chance of missing you naturally if you have stacked your evasion gear like we recommended.
All in all, this is a pretty easy fight. There’s no super-damaging attacks up above (as long as you stay above 100 HP you are more than good). There’s a few annoying status effects here and there, but you’ve got your own annoying status effects with your chance to poison or put people to sleep.
For the most part you want to focus on Heathcote as he can just summon more minions. The basic strategy is to whittle his SP down and then use yours to blast him with a maximum Wildfire spell (or, if you need HP and bought HP Thief, you can use that charged up to fully heal yourself). Watch out for his special evasion near the end of the fight and you’re basically golden.
Also note that you can steal an Energizing Pomegranate (M) from him during this fight (and an Olive of Live from the guard), but note that your chance to steal starts very very low. It gets much better as Heathcote loses health, so try near the end of the fight for a 70%+ chance. Note that you get another one for winning the fight as well (two total).
If you happen to have allies with you this fight is even easier, but with HP Thief, items and your dagger this is a fairly easy fight by yourself as well.