Like every good JRPG, Octopath Traveler has a diverse set of weapons with unique stat boosts and additional effects. This vast armory adds even more depth to Octopath’s already robust amount of combat strategies. By equipping specific weapons before battle, your characters can more easily exploit enemy weaknesses or find workarounds to their defenses due to effects like doubling attacks or inflicting poison. However, not every weapon possesses an effect that is useful in most situations.
Known as Forbidden Weapons, these arms offer tremendous stat boosts at the expense of a specific and hefty drawback. Some of these penalties are more substantial than others, and one or two may even be useful in certain situations. While these weapons can be tremendously helpful when you purchase them with Tressa’s path action in the middle and later parts of the game, this is only true if you use them the right way. Here’s everything you need to know about Octopath Traveler’s Forbidden Weapons so you can make the most of these double-edged swords.
The Forbidden Sword
Found in Stonegard when you interact with the man in front of the equipment shop with Tressa’s Purchase ability, the Forbidden Sword is a solid representation of how this series of weapons work. Boosting a character’s physical attack by 310 and speed by over 100 points, this sword can turn a reasonably leveled character into a powerhouse. Sadly, it does the same for the enemies you face too.
This sword has a chance to increase the physical attack of any foe you attack with it. While this can be disastrous if used against the wrong kind of adversary, so long as you target enemies that primarily deal elemental damage or you only use it as a means to break or finish off opponents, you should be fine. In fact, when given to a character with Warrior abilities that target multiple foes, the Forbidden Sword becomes a great asset in defeating hordes of enemies quickly.
The Forbidden Sword can also be found much later in the Refuge Ruins.
The Forbidden Spear
Found within the guarded house in Quarrycrest, the Forbidden Spear offers some wonderful attack bonuses, but also some debilitating effects. This weapon boosts physical and elemental attacks by over 300 points each, which is super helpful when trying to make a character as well-rounded attacker. However, it also lowers a character’s speed by nearly 100 points.
There isn’t really any way to put a positive spin on this drawback, but its effects can be mitigated by trying to make a character as durable and heavy hitting as possible. This spear is a perfect fit for a bulky character like Olberic when he’s given the Runelord subclass, which focuses on abilities that add elemental damage after a physical attack strikes an enemy.
Equipping speed boosting accessories may also help. A Sprightly Necklace increases speed by 80, making the penalty only 18 points.
The Forbidden Dagger
Found in Stillsnow – or chests in the Forest of Purgation or the Maw of the Ice Dragon – is a rather odd weapon. It boosts physical damage by nearly three hundred points and elemental damage by about one hundred and fifty points, but it also weakens fire and dark type attacks.
Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal, but the Thief and Dancer classes use fire and dark elemental attacks respectively and are the primary knife users in the game. However, the Warmaster class doesn’t have any immediate means of inflicting fire and dark damage. Therefore, you probably only want to equip this weapon to a character that has this advanced class in use.
The Forbidden Axe
Found in Wellspring, this axe is even more powerful than the fabled Golden Axe. It increases a characters’ physical attack by a monstrous three hundred and ninety-one points and their speed by eighty points but also lowers accuracy by 50 points. Basically, this weapon turns any character into an absolute powerhouse, which will miss the opponent a good amount of the time.
There really isn’t any good reason to use the Forbidden Axe in Octopath Traveler. Other weapons have nearly the same attack buff as this weapon and such a substantial accuracy decrease. The added damage just isn’t worth the frequent misses and regular interruptions to well thought out battle strategies.
An Unerring Bracelet (+50 accuracy) will negate the penalty completely, while an Unerring Necklace (+80 accuracy) will raise your character’s accuracy by 30 points.
The Forbidden Bow
Hidden away in Goldshore, the Forbidden Bow is actually the best weapon in this collection of arms. It increases physical attack by nearly 300 points and also boosts the likelihood of criticals by more than 100 points. The only downside to this weapon is that it increases the enemy encounter rate, but this really isn’t too big of a negative.
Between its high damage, increased chance to strike a foe critically, and the boosted encounter chances; this weapon is dramatically useful when you’re trying to grind for levels. While there are some more specific strategies and practices that can increase your party’s levels, all of them are made even more effective by equipping a character with the Forbidden Bow.
However, in long dungeons filled with tough enemies (i.e. the secret job shrines), you may want to avoid equipping this.
The Forbidden Staff
Within the Church of Saintsbridge, an NPC holds the Forbidden Staff. This weapon increases a character’s elemental attack by nearly 300 points but also lowers the chance of inflicting critical damage by 50 and physical attack by 100 points. All in all, though, those debuffs aren’t really significant hindrances.
Any character utilizing a staff is primarily going to focus on inflicting elemental damage as a Cleric or Scholar. As these classes naturally have weaker physical attack, these stat drops won’t really get in the way of any strategy. Critical hits happen so infrequently in Octopath to begin with, that this stat going further down isn’t that big a deal either. Ultimately, the Forbidden Staff is actually a pretty reliable weapon that works well on any character filling the role of a spellcaster.
