In determining the best early game jobs in Bravely Default, two things must be noted about this period; there are lots of new jobs to play with, and there is a limited amount of experience to go around. When the game finally gets going, directly after throwing totally not Final Fantasy tropes at you throughout an extended intro, you’re then expected to try out a growing list of Jobs as and when they become available. Yet with said limited experience points, exactly which Jobs should you commit to and why? It’s these early game Jobs that we’re going to write about today. We’re going to summarise the 5 best and most powerful Jobs, why you should commit your time to them and exactly when you should consider dropping them and moving on. Let’s get into it then!
Monk Job
Gained very early on, the Monk is an early physical powerhouse. It’s ideally suited to units like Tiz or Edea, and is capable of putting out some great damage throughout the first quarter of the game. Not only this, but it’s damage isn’t contingent on having any equipment, thanks to Knuckle Lore adding damage equal to 2 x your level to your physical attack.
It’s usefulness doesn’t stop with physical damage either, with abilities like Inner Alchemy letting you remove annoying status ailments without relying on a teammate or item. It’s not without its issues – we’d stay away from Invigorate for example – but overall the early skills are highly useful, with Hidden Dragon especially being the highlight.
Early Key Skills
- Inner Alchemy (Level 3)
- HP 10% Up (Level 4)
- Knuckle Lore (Level 5)
- Hidden Dragon (Level 6)
Adertisement
Black Mage Job
Having an early game spell caster, specifically those that have access to elemental spells, is always tremendously useful. The Black Mage joins early and immediately contributes some big chunks of damage, doing you a solid by either deleting entire random encounters or removing lumps of HP from a boss battle.
In most cases the usefulness stops there, and you find your time split between doing great damage and fumbling for your heal spells to keep your glass cannon firing. In Bravely Default however, things are a little different: Skills like Damage Dispersion mean that you can keep your mage firing again and again, default button be damned. If we’re honest there is a bit of a dip that appears once you reach the mid game. Jobs like the Summoner and Red Mage come along and make your little ball of explosions feel a bit less special, but it’s worth grabbing the skills below before moving on. Just remember to come back in the late game when the class comes back into form.
Early Key Skills
- Damage Dispersion (Level 5)
- Silence Immunity (Level 6)
- Black Magic Lv.3 (Level 7)
- Black Resonance (Level 8)
Knight Job
The Knight Job, regardless of the game, is a boring choice. There’s no escaping this fact, and Bravely Default is no different in this regard – it’s quite a well armoured Job, a good choice for a tanky team member that will no doubt be outclassed later on. So far so JRPG. Why then is it on our list?
In a word, Skills. The Job plays host to some of the best skills that you can get your hands on in the early game of Bravely Default. So good in fact that you’ll want to take some of them over to almost any other Job you choose to take on. Firstly, Stomp as actually quite a nice physical attack, especially when you consider it’s negative points – physical defence being reduced – is offset by it’s equipment choices. Further to this, Two-Handed and Shield Lore are absolutely fantastic skills that remain useful throughout. Want to boost your mid game Pirate’s damage? Slap Two-Handed on that massive axe. Need to improve the defence of a squishy class? Shield Lore has your back.
Early Key Skills
- Stomp (Level 1)
- Two-Handed (Level 2)
- Shield Lore (Level 7)
Merchant Job
Early game JRPG games tend to follow the same philosophy: Do some things, beat some bad guys, reach a new town, enjoy a bit of story, leave said town and repeat. It’s the mantra of traditional JRPG and RPG games, and it’s one that Bravely Default sticks to, certainly in the early game. In this case, it’s the ‘reach a new town’ part that we’re interested in.
New towns = New equipment.
Essentially the Merchant Job, at least in the early game, comes down to basic logic and decision making: If you like new equipment, grab yourself at least one Merchant and level it up. The Job itself comes with a variety of skills, none of which you’ll care about in the early game. Keep one in your party until you reach level 9, get the More Money skill and move on. You’ll thank us later. Oh, and if you’re struggling with it’s pitiful equipment statistics in battle, perhaps consider giving it some of those nice Knight skills you learned previously…
Early Key Skills
- More Money (Level 9)
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Spell Fencer Job
Epitomising the early game damage dealer, Spell Fencer comes along at the same time as the Merchant and immediately outperforms pretty much any other Job. It’s a sign that the game is really starting to flex it’s muscles, gradually opening a Pandora’s Box filled with weird and wonderful abilities and options. It’s a fantastic, high damage early game Job and whilst it will eventually be outclassed, it won’t be beaten for quite a while.
Along with the fantastic elemental damage, which can be applied to any physically attacking weapon by the way, the Job comes with another fantastic benefit: Auto-Aspir Blade will keep the spells coming by restoring your MP when you’re not exploiting a weakness! On balance, it’s probably the absolute best early game Job, to the point where we’re actually recommending you keep using it deep into the mid game – just when you think it’s falling off, level 11 comes along and boosts it even further.
Early KeySkills
- Sword Magic Lv.1 (Level 1)
- Sword Magic Lv. 3 (Level 2)
- Auto-Aspir Blade (Level 5)
- Sword Magic Amp (Level 11)
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Categories: Bravely Default