Building a functioning party in Bravely Default requires more than just a little thought. You can choose the Jobs that you like of course, but with a huge amount of abilities to learn, transfer and combine, things can get tremendously complex very quickly. The last thing you want is to find yourself in the middle of a battle that you’re not prepared for. Thankfully Bravely Default gives you a truck load of options to choose from, so you can customise things depending on the situation and even adapt on the fly. That said, we’re here to give you some great starting points for party builds; they’re not too complex, but they should open your eyes to just a little of what this game can do.
The Classic
- Monk
- Thief
- Red Mage
- White / Black Mage
First up we have what is considered a pretty standard RPG type team, harking back to the Final Fantasy titles in years gone by. You’ll have plenty of mixed damage, coverage of healing through both the Red & White Mage, and magic damage can be achieved by switching a Black Mage in when required. Compared to team formations later on, this is fairly trite and standard, however it’s a good base from which you can start learning the Brave and Default systems. Perhaps you want to commit your Red or Black Mage to 4 spells in a row, but keep your White Mage in a Default position, ready to react? Similarly, you might want your Thief to attempt 4 steals in a row before you defeat a random battle. It’s worth using these base classes to learn and experiment, whilst retaining the safety of a standard team build, just in case the worst happens.
Build Skills
- HP UP, Hidden Dragon, Pressure Point (Monk)
- Speed Up, Rob Blind (Thief)
- B/W Magic, MP Up (Red Mage)
- White Magic, Angelic Ward, Epic Group-Cast (White Mage)
- Black Magic, Damage Dispersion, M, Attack Up (Black Mage)
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The Mid Game Classic
- Knight
- Ninja
- Spell Fencer
- Spell Fencer
This next party is one of our favourites for the mid game. The Spell Fencer Job is fantastic during the mid game portion of Bravely Default. Not only can it target weaknesses through elemental sword magic, but their attacks also scale with physical attack rating, so the passives that you learn through the Monk and Pirate Job – P. Attack Up 10% & 20% – will boost their damage significantly. You can even grab yourself Two-Handed from the Knight class to boost this further. The result of everything here is that you have two heavy damage dealers, and you can use the Ninja to cast Kairai on your Knight and direct all incoming attacks their way. Even better, throw the Dual Shield skill on your Knight, and it’ll soak up waves and waves of damage all day long!
Build Requirements
- Dual Shields, P. Defense Up (Knight)
- Kairai (Ninja)
- Sword Magic, Sword Magic Amp (Spell Fencer)
- P. Attack Up (Monk, Pirate, Dark Knight)
- Two-Handed (Knight)
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The Pirate Dance
- Pirate
- Pirate
- Pirate
- Performer
This particular party combination may seem simple at first, but there is a little more to it than initially meets the eye. Firstly, you’re going to want to use 1 or 2 of the Pirates to strip away the defence of your target, by using Shell Split. Secondly, the Performer should be used to cast Love Power twice, to fully buff everyone’s attack rating. Finally, Free Lunch should be used to remove MP costs, and Amped Strike can then be used liberally to deal tremendous damage. Outside of these key skills, you should aim to increase the physical damage of your Pirates as much as possible, including skills like P. Attack Up and Two-Handed. It’s a fantastic build that can take down single targets in super quick time, but maybe bring some healing on your Performer just in case things go wrong.
Build Requirements
- P. Attack Up (Monk, Pirate, Dark Knight)
- Two-Handed (Knight)
- Shell Split (Pirate)
- Free Lunch (Swordmaster)
- Love Power (Performer)
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The Random Shredder
- Valkyrie
- Valkyrie
- Valkyrie
- Valkyrie
Alright, so we’re being a little cheeky here, and it might seem rather obvious, but there is a little nuance to this team. It’s designed to automate random battles by using the Valkyrie skills, whilst simultaneously farming a great deal of cash through the More Money skill, provided by the Merchant Job. This might seem obvious, but it’s worth noting that this can be done at quite an early point in the game, certainly once you have both Jobs unlocked. In the early game you can spend your BP on Crescent Moon attacks – hitting every enemy with 4 powerful attacks, 4 times over will make most battles end in short order. In the mid to late game this is made even easier by Sky High, which makes you start the battle already in the ‘Jump’ status, immediately dropping on your opponents. Either way, remember to equip a Spear for a boost in damage, and try to bring as many of the passives that we recommend below to help even further.
Build Benefits
- P. Attack 30% Up (Dark Knight)
- P. Attack 10% Up (Monk)
- Two-Handed (Knight)
- More Money (Merchant)

Categories: Bravely Default