Octopath Traveler: Session 5

This session was kind of short, so I combined it with the next day's session.

I ran around doing a lot of side quests now that I've figured out that the Steal/Purchase path actions need to be used for a fair number of them.  I know they've designed it so that some side quests have multiple valid ways to finish them, but I have only knowingly encountered anything like that once or twice.  One was a side quest I didn't even know existed until I inspected a building in Flamesgrace that I had apparently missed and also apparently already had the key items for both of its options, so I didn't really get to properly begin it, but whatever.

After that I ran around a bit getting JP and visiting the "donut" towns to make sure I'd exhausted my possibilities with Alfyn's path action.  In the process, I explored another one of those side areas, the Whistling Cavern in the Sunlands.  Curiously, just like with The Whistlewood, this area had no boss at the end.  These areas give really good JP, so I might have to use them to finish off the whole process of getting everyone's skills.  At any rate, it's more predictable than hoping for the random chance of a Cait joining a battle, and then being fast enough to kill it before it runs.

I then decided to head out from the "donut", to Stonegard, where H'aanit's Chapter 2 takes place.  Interestingly, upon entering the town, I got the option to start that bit of story immediately, or to just enter the town normally.  Being that all I wanted to do was explore and talk to NPCs and stuff, I chose not to continue the story.  It was here that I noticed that some NPCs have level requirements for Alfyn's path action, so my next course of action became levelling people up a bit.  I needed to get skills for people anyway, so it made sense.

My focus shifting to JP grinding, I chose the Untouched Sanctum as my spot and got Primrose and Tressa their Divine skills.  Then on a whim I went back to Carrion Caves to kill the boss, and noticed that the typical JP reward there is about double that of Untouched Sanctum.  I had Cyrus in the party for the Carrion Caves boss anyway, so I got him his Divine skill there.  Up next: The project that is Alfyn.  In addition to getting his skills, I wanted to fill out as much of his Concoct menu as possible so I know the effects of his concoctions for future use.  Unfortunately, I haven't yet found good sources of all of the materials, and filling in the ones that revive party members will require me to let someone die first, but I filled in what I could while running around fighting things.

Also, after I beat the boss of Carrion Caves, it apparently became a rare spawn, and I got to fight it again.  H'aanit can actually capture it, and it's a ten-star monster with a fire attack that hits everything.  I successfully Mercy Strike'd it down to 1 HP with its defense broken, but a max boost Capture only had an 8% chance.  Tried it once, failed, and decided against banging my head repeatedly against the 8% chance.  I would've had to Mercy Strike it ten more times just to try again, on every attempt.  Not saying I won't go back and try that later, but right now I just want to get JP for people.  Also, Tressa was able to use Collect to get over 11,000 money from it.