Summer 2018’s Octopath Traveler is set to become the next staple of the JRPG genre. Like any good JRPG, Octopath has a collection of gimmick enemies that offer loads of money and experience when you defeat them. While Final Fantasy has Cacutars and Persona has Wealth Hands, Octopath Traveler has the adorable Cait monsters.
The Cait family of enemies are rare and difficult to defeat beasts, but if you do manage to find and slay them, you’ll earn a tremendous amount of experience, money, and job points. While the standard Cait and Cultured Cait offer terrific rewards upon their demise, the Chubby Cait provides greater dividends than any other standard enemy in the game. Here’s everything you need to know about these fruitful felines from how to defeat them, where to find them, and how to use them in battle.
HOW TO BATTLE THESE KILLER KITTIES
Just as heavyset cats are cuter than regular cats, Chubby Caits are much more powerful than their thinner counterparts. In battle, it’s almost impossible to hit a Chubby Cait with physical attacks, and when these blows do connect it’s usually only for single or double digit damage. Using elemental attacks and large soulstones that are guaranteed to land are therefore the best way to deal with these plump pussycats.
Chubby Caits will automatically flee from battle if they haven’t taken damage before their first turn. So it’s a good idea to have your first character target the Cait specifically with an elemental attack, and then have characters acting later in the turn inflict more powerful elemental damage. If you have the chance, you can use the Steal and Collect abilities on Chubby Caits to get a tremendous amount of money and some of the best items in the game.
Caits also only appear alongside other enemies of a different type. If you manage to defeat a Chubby Cait and weaken the remaining enemies to a near death state, you absolutely should start spamming the Dancer ability, Bewildering Grace. While this technique can have adverse effects, it also can multiply the money, experience, and job points earned in a battle and increase the Chubby Cait’s payout to an utterly absurd level.
WHERE THE CHUBBY CAITS HIDE
Chubby Caits spawn in areas with level recommendations of 45 or higher. This means that you’re not likely to see these enemies until the middle or later sections of the game. However, you can also encounter these sizable furballs in the Derelict Mines which has a danger level of 30. This side dungeon is in the South Quarrycrest Pass area on the side opposite the path to the Shrine of the Price of Thieves.
Sadly, there’s no way to increase the chances of explicitly encountering a Chubby Cait. The best way to increase the odds of running into one is to raise the overall encounter rate by equipping characters with the Alluring Ribbing item found in Stillsnow or the Forbidden Bow located in Goldshore. There’s also a chance that the Bewildering Grace technique will summon a Chubby Cait to the battlefield, but the likelihood of this happening is practically nonexistent.
HOW TO USE CHUBBY CAITS IN BATTLE
Another unlikely, but potentially fantastic, outcome in an encounter with a Chubby Cait is capturing it with H’aanit’s Beast Lore ability. H’aanit’s character specific techniques basically make her a Pokemon trainer, as she’s able to capture enemies and use their skills to help the party in battle. To increase the chances of successfully catching an enemy, H’aanit needs to have a high level, and the enemy needs to be nearly defeated and in the Break status. As the Chubby Cait is one of the rarest and most challenging to capture enemies in the game, its effects when summoned are also some of the best available.
When summoned in battle, a Chubby Cait applies one the following buffs to the entire party: reflect elemental attacks, counter physical attacks, damage immunity, heal above maximum HP, negate debuffs, auto-revive upon death, and block enemy buffs. While some of these effects are only useful in specific situations, all of them are fantastic boons and can make some of even the most challenging bosses much more manageable. As these effects do apply to the entire party, it’s probably not the best idea to use them during H’aanit’s one-on-one provoked battles.
Even though a Chubby Cait is phenomenally useful when summoned in battle, you shouldn’t try to capture it until the later sections of the game. Capturing an enemy does not yield any benefits, so you’re essentially trading a Chubby Cait’s substantial rewards for these rather powerful abilities. In the early and middle parts of the game the extra experience, money, and job points are way more useful than any of a Chubby Cait’s battle abilities. If you do want a powerful ally before heading into a dangerous area or a particularly tricky boss fight, this cute kitty cat will make an excellent addition to your team.
