"Sorry, my hand slipped."
— Alfyn, after defeating the Blotted Viper.
Alfyn Greengrass is one of eight playable characters in Octopath Traveler.
Profile
Appearance
Alfyn has disheveled brown hair, with the hairs of the crown up, and a small ponytail on the back of his head. He has a beige and brown shirt with a green jacket and brown leather vest. He has beige pants and dark brown boots. He carries a brown bag of medicine, has brown eyes and a friendly smile always adorns his face.
Personality
Alfyn is a kind and genuine young man, who is always willing to help those in need, expecting nothing in return. He cares about his friends and fellow townsfolk and wants to help them in any way possible. This is shown when he shows reluctance from starting an adventure to help cure the ill all over the realm and help the needy as he is worried of what will happen if he were to leave the village of Clearbrook.
It is revealed by his childhood friend and fellow apothecary, Zeph, that he had been quite the troublemaker in his younger years. However, this changed when he was struck with an illness and was healed by a strange man who did not ask for anything in return for his service and only did it as he saw a person in need. Alfyn soon adopts this policy once he gets better and pursues the profession of being an apothecary.
History
"Your name is Alfyn, and you are an apothecary. You treat the wounded and sick in a small village amid the babbling brooks of the Riverlands. Stricken ill as a child, you were saved by a traveler who asked for nothing in return, inspiring you to follow in his footsteps. Though hesitant to leave the only home you've known, your best friend convinces you to follow your dream, wherever it may lead you..."
— Alfyn's description when selecting him.
Alfyn was known as a runt by his friend, Zeph, with the two of them being close since their childhood years. When he was younger, Alfyn fell ill from a plague called the Great Pestilence. Zeph's father, who was renowned for his medicine, had been at a loss as to how to cure the disease. He, along with what could be assumed the rest of the sick in Clearbrook, only got better with the help of a traveler. After being saved by the stranger, Alfyn had asked why he would heal a dirt-poor person such as himself, but the man simply disregarded this and said that he helped because he was in need and asked nothing in return. This sparked his interest in becoming an apothecary and has then studied in order to become like the man who had saved him.
After the death of Zeph's father, Alfyn had suggested to him to study apothecary with him so that the both of them can help the people they care about, which paid off. The townsfolk started to depend on the both of them more after completing their practices, Alfyn especially with how he insistently gives out discounts and with his effective cures. A year before Alfyn's story begins, his mother passed away.
Chapter 1
Alfyn pays a visit to his mother's grave before returning to work. Him and Zeph soon find out that Zeph's little sister, Nina, was bitten by a Blotted Viper while trying to pick waterblooms for Zeph with her friend Lily. Alfyn tracks down the snake and slays it for its venom, bringing the venom to Zeph to make an anti-venom to cure Nina. He reflects on this experience and decides to travel the world as he has always wanted, following in the footsteps of the man who saved him in his youth by bringing his services to wherever he is needed.
Chapter 2
Alfyn eventually makes his way to Goldshore. He notices an ill child, but is rudely turned down by the child's mother, as the boy is already being seen to by another apothecary. Alfyn remains in town, but eventually notices Marlene praying. Marlene reveals that her child's illness is getting worse and that Vanessa has ended treatment due to Marlene's inability to pay for it. Alfyn offers to treat Flynn and goes off to find the necessary ingredients.
In a nearby cave, Alfyn encounters Vanessa again and realizes her true goal: she is intentionally inducing sicknesses and charging increasingly higher fees for her services so she can turn a profit and any patient that cannot pay is left to die. Outraged and disgusted, Alfyn fights Vanessa, defeating her and forces her to ingest slumberroot when she attempts to escape, knocking her out until she can be arrested. Alfyn returns to Goldshore to give the medicine before leaving to continue his journey.
Chapter 3
Alfyn travels to Saintsbridge, where he soon encounters a wounded man named Miguel. He goes to heal him, but is advised not to by another apothecary named Ogen. Alfyn is upset that another apothecary would callously ignore a person in need, but pays no heed to his words and goes to heal Miguel. Some time later, after some time at the local tavern, he returns to Miguel, but notices Miguel is out of bed. He then sees a commotion in town, and to his shock, it is Miguel kidnapping a child. Feeling immense guilt at enabling this, he chases after Miguel.
He encounters Miguel in a cave, and after a fight, he kills Miguel and rescues the child. This experience, however, leaves Alfyn shaken and he begins doubting his reasons for being an apothecary. As he departs town, he encounters Ogen, who explains why he told Alfyn to be more picky about who he heals.
Chapter 4
Alfyn decides to go to Orewell with his doubts continuing to bother him. He attempts to help some ill townsfolk, and Ogen eventually arrives to treat others. Alfyn offers to help, but Ogen refuses. Alfyn then goes to a tavern to mull over his doubts. Ogen comes in, having deduced that Alfyn's doubts are distracting him from crafting medicine properly. As Ogen and Alfyn drink, Alfyn notices Ogen does not appear to be physically healthy himself. However, Ogen dismisses this concern and leaves.
Alfyn, having been informed that Ogen is hiding a sickness, later encounters Ogen as he finishes up his work. Ogen initially denies Alfyn's claim that he is sick, but is immediately debilitated by the illness. Alfyn inspects him, and is horrified at the symptoms. He takes Ogen to the inn where Ogen tells Alfyn the remainder of his past and why he never treats himself. Alfyn takes the story in and leaves to walk around town. His doubts resurface, but he still wishes to help Ogen. As Alfyn looks through his bag, he notices a letter from Zeph, encouraging him to stick to his values. This letter eliminates Alfyn's doubts and creates a surge of determination within him. He promises to heal Ogen despite the man's wishes to die.
However, Alfyn also acknowledges to himself that he does not know what is afflicting Ogen or how to cure it. He thinks upon Ogen's symptoms and realizes that Ogen's illness is the same one that he suffered when he was a child. From this, Alfyn is able to recall how the cure was made, and heads to the Forest of Rubeh to get the ingredients. Using the medicine he created, he cured Ogen. Alfyn explains to Ogen his past and why he became an apothecary. This causes Ogen to remember how the same apothecary who cured Alfyn also treated Ogen. Alfyn is dismayed to learn the apothecary who saved him has likely passed away and creates a grave to honor him. Alfyn leaves town to continue healing others.
Relationships
Zeph
A fellow Apothecary and friend since childhood, Alfyn grew up together with Zeph and Nina in the small town of Clearbrook and have been quite close ever since. When Alfyn wondered whether or not it was right to venture out on a journey to see the world and help its people, just like the person who saved him when he was a child, Zeph encouraged him to go, saying that he would take care of the village in his absence. Their bond is so strong that they even agreed to switch satchels as a reminder that, no matter how far they are from each other, they'll always be there at each other's side.
In his traveler banters, Zeph is a recurring topic from time to time, showing how his dear friend is never far from mind.
Vanessa
The two were originally on good terms upon first encountering each other in the port town of Goldshore and seemed to share the philosophy of helping those in need regardless of circumstances. However, once Alfyn caught on to her scheme of taking advantage of the people's ignorance in the arts of medicine for her own profit, Alfyn became utterly disgusted with her for using her trade as a means for making money and vowed to stop her evil scam. After their battle, Alfyn hopes that Vanessa would think about her actions once she gets out of prison for what she's done.
Miguel
A well-known criminal in the town of Saintsbridge that the townspeople advise to stay away from. Another apothecary in town, Ogen, refuses to heal him because of his unsavory character. However, Alfyn could not ignore him when he saw that Miguel had a festering wound and healed him, choosing to stick to his philosophy that every life was worth saving. However, once the opportunity arises, Miguel escapes and kidnaps a child for ransom. He goes as far as to stab the child, to give him something "to really cry about." Alfyn blames himself for the child's suffering, seeing it as a result of his actions. Miguel's betrayal causes Alfyn to doubt himself and his philosophy until he reaffirms his resolve in chapter 4.
Ogen
A talented apothecary who Alfyn met in Saintsbridge. During their first meeting, Alfyn disliked him for refusing to treat Miguel. Ogen simply states that he chooses who he heals, an ideal that goes greatly against Alfyn’s own morals. During their second meeting at the tavern in Saintsbridge, he starts to respect Ogen for his talent in brewing medicine and his vast knowledge on diseases, going so far as wanting to be better than him just to be able to save more lives. For a while, they were simply acquaintances and would headbutt each other when it came to their own beliefs. However, when Ogen sees the similarity between Alfyn and his previous savior, he treats Alfyn a bit more kindly.
Battle
Having the class of an apothecary means that Alfyn is equipped with skills that help in healing himself and other party members along with creating numerous items that can help turn the tide of battle. He comes equipped with only axes, limiting his versatility in searching for weapon based weaknesses, but makes up for it with his skills — he can deal ice damage to foes and patch allies up from status ailments or get them back to full HP.
Alfyn can be compared to the Cleric Ophilia, however, the main difference is that Ophilia has more AoE healing spells while Alfyn's spells target only one. However, Alfyn has great elemental defence which enable potent single targed heals while also having potent melee attack options that Ophilia lacks.
As the oposite of Cyrus Scruntinize, Alfyn Inquire can give the same information with no chance of reputation loss or failure, but it's limited by level: making it more advantageous in most cases, except when the level is too low.
Out of all of the characters, he is the only one among the eight that has the talent to Concoct. Making use of his talent can help you create items in a pinch when you're low on Healing Grapes or Inspiring Plums, making him a great back up in battles that force you to use too much of your items. Furthermore, utilizing his concoct ability helps with finding all element based weaknesses. When concocting a potion the ingredients changes the properties such as adding fire, ice, lightning, light, wind, or dark elements which can hit a single foe twice or trice and a group once or twice. Alfyn is very versatile at finding the enemy weakness and boosting the other party members BP points. This combo attack is great for breaking the enemy and boosting your party to deal extra damage.
- If you want to invest in Alfyn, it would be suggested to turn him into a Cleric so he would have the necessary elemental defence he needs to improve on his single-target assist skills and to gain more access better healing spells that affect all targets along with the access of light magic. It's good to note that Alfyn's base elemental defense is rather high, which means that his healing spell First Aid is already rather potent. Add it with the cleric's own elemental defense, Alfyn will be able to even heal up the party's HP way beyond their max HP gauge, given whether or not the player invests in him correctly.
- Changing him to the Warrior also helps improve his maximum health and defense, both important factors that help with one of his apothecary skills, Last Stand, that is dependent on the current HP he has when casting the skill. The addition to his physical attack that the Warrior and Hunter subclasses provide also assists in his overall damage output, allowing him to easily defeat more foes in addition with the new weapons he obtains from equipping said classes.
- Another great option for Alfyn is to make him a total support character by classing with the Thief. While he will not be able to take advantage of the Thief's Divine Skill due to low speed, he will be able to keep enemies shackled and feed the entire party BP through concocting Pomegranate Panaceas.
- If Alfyn is made into a Warmaster, he becomes the only character to be able to target all twelve weakness types on his own, using the Warmaster's six weapons to target all six physical weaknesses, while using his Concoct ability to target all six elemental weaknesses.
He's especially useful when another character is a Starseer, whose Divine Skill can do massive damage when all party BP is full. Alfyn can also support the party by helping break enemies with 3-hit elemental concoct skills. Finally, Alfyn can use Dohter's Charity on himself or another character in conjunction with Refreshing Jam for an instant party restore.
Apothecary Skills
| Skill Name | SP Cost | Damage Type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| First Aid | 4 | Restore HP to a single ally. | |
| Icicle | 7 | 
|
Deal ice damage to a single foe. |
| Rehabilitate | 10 | Cure a single ally of all status ailments, and render them immune to further ailments for 2 turns. | |
| Amputation | 8 | 
|
Unleash an axe attack on a single foe. |
| Empoison | 6 | Poison a single foe for 2 turns. | |
| Vivify | 16 | Revive a single incapacitated ally. | |
| Last Stand | 16 |
|
Attack all foes with an axe, dealing damage inversely proportional to your current HP. |
| Dohter's Charity | 30 | [Divine Skill] For 3 turns, items used by a single chosen ally will affect all. |
Support Skills
| No. of Skills Unlocked | Total JP | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 130 | Inspiration | With each successful standard attack, gain SP equal to 1% of the damage you deal. |
| 5 | 630 | Hale and Hearty | Increases maximum HP by 500. |
| 6 | 1,630 | Resist Ailments | Improves resistance to poison, sleep, confusion, blindness, silence, terror, and unconsciousness. |
| 7 | 4,630 | Heightened Healing | Gain an additional 30% HP or SP when being healed or restored. |
Subjobs:
Below are the sprites and appearance changes for Alfyn with each basic Subjob:
Each time a subjob is selected the appearance of the character will also change. The first sprite is the appearance with no Subjob equipped.
Quotes
- "And so I have a date with this viper, you see? We just met, and still you wanna come and help me out? Shucks, friend! I owe you one! They're good folks in this village, down to last. And Zeph's always stuck by my side...so damned if I won't stick by his! So, let's go! We're heading for the Caves of Rhiyo, just east of the village! We better hurry, for Nina's sake..." —Joined the Party
- "Let's get down to work!" —Max Boost
- "Alrighty!" —Max Boost
- "Dohter, lends us your aid!" —Using Dohter's Charity
- "Aw, shucks..." —Defeated
- "Sorry guys..." —Defeated
Gallery
Etymology
Alfyn could be from the Middle English alfyn, alphyn, aufyn, and other variants closely resembling it; Spanish alfil or arfil; or from the Arabic الفِيل (al-fīl, meaning the elephant'). His name might also be closely related to the Germanic word alphyn that mean 'chaser' or 'wolf' and also a heraldic creature. In England's first printed book, William Caxton's Game and Playe of Chesse, the judges are related to the alphyns.
His surname Greengrass is denoted to one who lived in a hamlet so named like it. Literally, the name would come from 'green grass', relating to a field of sorts when linking it to topography, however, this can also mean another thing entirely. It is mostly believed that this name was related to an area that was recently cultivated with 'new' grassland as green could also mean ripe or fresh when relating it to plants or fruit.
Trivia
- Early concept designs had suggested Alfyn was supposed to have a stubble, but in the art that was used in first introducing him, it was scrapped.
- Alfyn is the youngest among the male travelers, being 21-years old.
- He likes to go out to drink, even going as far as to invite Therion to a trip to the local tavern in their banters. In a tavern banter, he along with the rest of the male travelers have a drinking contest — Alfyn and Olberic end up tied, but the former acknowledged just how much of a ‘bottomless barrel’ the latter is as he barely seemed drunk by the end of their contest.
- In a banter with Tressa, Alfyn reveals that he takes great care of Zeph's satchel - cleaning it up as much as possible and stitching the bag whenever it starts to fray.