As you look around and explore the Octopath Traveler 2 map, eventually you may realize there’s no way to reach certain areas. This is because there’s an extra way to get around. If you want to get to everything, you need a boat. While you can buy rides to certain ports without one, certain areas are inaccessible without one. If you’re trying to figure out how to buy a boat in Octopath Traveler 2, you’ll need three things: Partitio, access to Tropu’hopu, and 100,000 leaves.
First, the opportunity to even buy a boat in Octopath Traveler 2 won’t happen unless Partitio is in your party. Add him to your group, then head to the shipyard area in Tropu’hopu. (Head to the exit to the east when you first get or fast travel to that town.)
Once you get to the shipyard, an event will automatically trigger if Partitio is in your party. You’ll see a man arguing about the price of a boat. Partitio will show interest in what’s going on. Proceed further into the area and walk toward the person standing on the dock. This is Terry, and approaching will immediately kick off another event.
From here, you’ll learn that you need 100,000 leaves to buy the boat Terry built. Now, since I started my journey with Throne, I basically didn’t make any purchases for the first 20 hours unless I needed items for Inventor skills. (I did a lot of stealing.) By the time I reached Tropu’hopu, I had the money to buy the boat. However, if you haven’t been stealing from everyone or beating them up to mug their belongings, you can get the money via going through Partitio’s storyline and general gameplay.
If you do have 100,000 leaves, you can immediately buy the boat. Terry will use the funds to complete it. You can then decide what color you’d like it to be (unpainted, black, blue, and red are options) and if you’d like a design on the sails (an octopus, sun, or trident are available). You can then set sail from ports to the open ocean. This means you can come across islands, treasures, or otherwise inaccessible areas.
However, note that the seas are dangerous! I’d say make sure your party is around level 34, to ensure the enemies lurking in the ocean don’t cause too much damage.
Octopath Traveler 2 is available for the Switch, PS4, PS5, and PC. A demo is available.
