One Piece Odyssey is becoming one of the best JRPG releases for the franchise this year since Pirate Warriors. While we are aware that the old-school turn-based strategy game approach isn’t for everyone, this combat guide is catered to those who have just started with the game, and we’ll cover which crewmates pack the best punch when it comes to exploring areas.
We know it can get overwhelming when it comes to learning the skills you need to take note of when venturing into the memories of the Straw Hat crew. In fact, I was also overwhelmed by the prologue tutorial that I mentioned in our overall review of the game.
We hope this combat guide fastens your learning curve into treading through One Piece Odyssey’s challenging obstacles in the world of memories. Feel free to bookmark this guide for any updates that may come in the game.
Attack Types, Weaknesses, and Resistances
One Piece Odyssey uses a rock-paper-scissors approach in their combat system, and each crewmate and enemy has one of these primary attack types:
- Power: Red
- Speed: Orange
- Technique: Green
Additionally, some skills also have attached elemental and physical effects that make crewmates and opponents lose their turn, such as:
- Lightning
- Burn
- Poison
- Bleeding
- Confused
- Fainted
- Charmed
How To Read The Battlefield
One Piece Odyssey’s battle mechanics are designed for newcomers in the JRPG genre, so it’s quite easy to pick up. Here are the general combat tips for you to get the hang of the grind:
- Pay attention to the glowing red circle when planning your attacks. It’s ideal to try and strike the enemy with a protruding circle first so that you can create an attack chain, mitigating HP loss for your party.
- When choosing a skill, don’t forget to check how much attack power it can deal to the enemy. If there is a Resist indicator on the enemy, do not use that skill. On the other hand, if the enemy has a Weak indicator, feel free to use that skill.
- Don’t forget to combine your skill usage with basic attacks on your enemies so that your Tension Points (TP) can recover. Think of TP as your crewmate’s mana pool.
- Spend time in camps or taverns when you see it in your minimap. These give your crew HP recovery, 30% EXP gain, and increased critical hit chance for ten battles. You can also craft Food, Trick Balls, and Accessories to enhance your crew further.
- For a more efficient level grind, use Luffy’s Observation Haki. This will help you spot enemies with an EXP bonus once you defeat them.
Taking note of these early on will make your open-world battles easier over time, and you won’t have much of a headache dealing with more powerful enemies. This is one of the most important parts of our One Piece Odyssey combat guide.
Best Formations to Use
Aside from learning these attack types and other resistances and weaknesses, you may want to take advantage of exploring formations. These can help you defeat enemies faster. Here are some notable formations that you can use:
Leave it to the Captain
In this formation, Luffy will be the one to face the most powerful enemies in a certain encounter, while his other crewmates will serve as backup. This gives you time to plan your next moves on in that encounter strategically.
Protect the Doctor
Use this formation if your crewmates are heavily damaged, and you don’t have any healing items to nurse them back to full health, and you are heavily engaged in enemy encounters. Chopper’s healing can raise teammates’ health by up to 50%. Again, don’t forget to command Chopper to use basic attacks so he can have a steady supply of TP.
Swirly Brows and Moss-Head Charge
This is a good formation to use if you’re currently exploring worlds that are filled with Speed and Power Attack Type enemies. If you built both Sanji and Zoro to become tanky crewmates, this is a viable formation.
Best Characters To Utilize Skills In The Early Game
Once you’re acquainted with the turn-based battle mechanics of this One Piece Odyssey basic combat guide, it’s time to get familiar with the crewmates that you’ll probably abuse in the game, together with their affinities.
Notice that this o does not cover the other crewmates as they do not possess any AoE skills (e.g., Sanji, Chopper) in the early hours of your playthrough. But as you continue to play One Piece Odyssey, you will find more opportunities to use them.
Luffy (Power)
Luffy packs a punch as the protagonist in the game. He has both powerful single and multiple enemy attack skills at his disposal. Abuse Gum Gum Gatling on large enemy numbers in your area. Gum Gum Bazooka is ideal for elite enemies and boss fights. You could also use Gum Gum Pistol for the minor thugs if you want to finish them off quickly.
Nami (Speed)
Nami is the Straw Hat Pirate crew’s “greedy” navigator. This is due to her ability to find hidden Berries in the open world. However, she is considered “weak” in the eyes of this game. She’s even included in one formation called “Go with the weakling trio” with Usopp and Chopper.
But when it comes to her skill kit, there’s actually one skill that you can take advantage of called Thunderbolt Tempo. This skill can hit all enemies on the battlefield compared to the other crewmates’ AoE attacks, wherein it’s solely focused on one area.
So, for example, we have Luffy, that’s facing four foes. His Gum Gum Gatling skill will only hit his four opponents, and it won’t affect the other adversaries that are in the areas of his other deployed crewmates.
Zoro (Technique)
Zoro has a plethora of skills that can finish off opponents with a single hit if you have the right enhanced equipment. Depending on your strategy, you can give him a couple of ATK and DEF boosting equipment if you want him to be your main offense character aside from Luffy.
Oni Giri and Dragon Twister are two of his most conservative skills that can deal a decent amount of attack damage and save you TP, especially if you have the right accessories.
Robin (Technique)
Nico Robin is an archaeologist and a former member of a criminal organization. She’s considered the crew’s brains, always curious about how to solve puzzles in the game. Robin has a useful AoE skill early game that can help you quickly wipe out enemies.
Treinta Fleurs Flip is very powerful against male bandits in Alabasta with a physical weakness causing them to potentially faint. This is also an effective skill against other creatures, just take note of the Weak indicator so you know when to use it.
Usopp (Speed)
Usopp, though he is also part of the “weak trio”, has some pretty useful Trick Balls that can greatly turn the tides of battle. Hit enemies with balls that give them reduced stats like ATK, DEF, GUTS, and even resistances to elements like Lightning, Poison, and the like.
And that wraps up our basic combat guide for One Piece Odyssey. Hope you are enjoying the game as much as we are. Don’t forget to check out our other guides for more tips and tricks on your preferred games.
