Karma is a side story boss in Octopath Traveler II. He may only be fought as part of the Sword Hunter in the Decaying Temple side story.
Initially introduced as "Sword Hunter," Karma is a thief who stole the Keepsake Sword from a young boy. He subsequently hid himself away in the Decaying Temple, a dungeon that requires people to enter by themselves. When confronted by the player, Karma declares that his sword thirsts for blood and promptly attacks.
Battle[]
Karma may only be fought alone.
At specific health thresholds, Karma will use a different stance.
| % Health | Stance |  |
Weak |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100% - 76% | Unsheathing Stance | 7 |      
|
| 75% - 51% | Tiger and Wolf | 7 |   
|
| 50% - 26% | Flawless Stance | 1 | None |
| 25% - 1% | Unbreakable Stance | 15 |   
|
Once Karma uses a stance, his posture and appearance will change. Each stance has a different number of maximum shields and weaknesses. He will then use the following abilities for the next turns in the following order:
- Single Slice
- Double Slice
- Triple Slice
- Killer Karma
A warning message appears at the end of each turn he uses a "Slice" ability, indicating his level of hostility. The turn after using Triple Slice, Karma will use Killer Karma. Killer Karma consists of numerous small hits followed by a final hit that has a fixed damage of 9,999, instantly incapacitating the traveler unless they have the passive Hang Tough.
Once he recovers from a break, Karma will recover with 8 shields, change his weaknesses, and attack normally until the next health threshold is reached, whereupon he will use the next stance.
Abilities[]
- Unsheathing Stance: Karma's initial stance.
- Tiger and Wolf: Used a 75% of Karma's maximum health and after Unsheathing Stance. The following occurs:
- Karma sets his shields to 7.
- Karma gains a buff that evades all boosted attacks and latent powers and counters with Eye to Eye.
- Karma changes his weaknesses to the following:
- Flawless Stance: Used at ##% of Karma's maximum health. The following occurs:
- Karma decreases his maximum shield to 1.
- Karma changes his weaknesses to nothing. Karma must be broken using abilities that reduce shields directly, ignoring weaknesses.
- Unbreakable Stance: Used at ##% of Karma's maximum health. The following occurs:
- Karma increases his maximum shield to 15.
- Karma changes his weaknesses to be weak to all types of damage:
- Karma's hostility grows!: Used three turns prior to using Killer Karma.
- Karma's hostility grows further!: Used two turns prior to using Killer Karma.
- Karma's hostility is at its limit!: Used the turn prior to using Killer Karma.
- Single Slice: Physical attack, single target. [Power 75]
- Double Slice: Physical attack, single target. Hits twice. [Power 75]
- Triple Slice: Physical attack, single target. Hits 3 times. [Power 75]
- Killer Karma: Special attack. Hits 8 times for 1 damage, then finishes with a 9,999 damage hit.
- Attack: Physical attack, single target. [Power 100]
- Oblique Slash: Strong physical attack, single target. [Power 120]
- Armor Cleaver: Physical attack, single target. Applies
Decreased Physical Defense for 3 turns. [Power 105] - Severing Sword: Physical attack, single target. Applies Decreased Physical Attack for 3 turns. [Power 105]
- Ready Weapon: Buff. Gains 3 charges of Sidestep.
- Lesser Slash: Physical attack, single target. Reduces BP by 2. [Power 100]
- Karma stands ready...: Used whenever Karma recovers from a break. Changes Karma's weaknesses:
Strategies[]
- Killer Karma's 9999 damage final hit can be survived if the traveler has Hang Tough and isn't at critical health.
- Note that the traveler needs to heal themself before Karma attacks again - if Karma is set to use Killer Karma after and act again before the traveler can act, the traveler needs to defend to get a turn to heal up from 1 HP.
- There are multiple options to breaking the shield of Flawless Stance:
- Using an Almighty Soulstone
- A Warrior's Vengeful Blade counterattack
- A Dancer's Ruinous Kick
- Temenos's Latent Power
- Ochette's Latent Power (Beastly Howl)
- Osvald's One True Magic
- A Merchant's Hired Help Ability using Beastling
- Ochette summoning a Scourge of the Sea
- Hikari's learned skills "Unfailing Speed", "Right Hook" and "Shield Thief"
- An Apothecary's Weak to Poison debuff plus a source of poison such as Poision Axe
- At high levels of P.DEF, the damage Karma deals will become miniscule (except Killer Karma). Combined with Hang Tough, the traveler will be almost unkillable.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Due to the Decaying Temple's requirement to enter, Karma is the only boss that is fought one-on-one without the use of a Path Action or a character's first chapter.
- This also makes him the boss with the highest amount of health points of all the bosses fought one-on-one without the use of a Path Action or a character’s first chapter.