Lots of side stories in octopathic traveler 2 It looks like they would be simple, but “Sword Hunter in the Decaying Temple” isn’t one of them! It seems simple enough. Sai’s battered young warrior will mention how a thief stole the family sword. He will emphatically say that the person is in the decaying Eastern Sai Sands Temple. But going there might not reveal anything. There’s a quick hack, and that means a solo run.
What you need to do after talking to the Young Sai Warrior is head to the Tavern. Eliminate everyone in your party except the person you chose as the main character. (If you’ve never done this before, you need to hover over your party’s allies and press Y or square, depending on your platform.) For the thief to target him and show up, you need to only move towards the decaying temple.
Unfortunately, this is a daunting task! The Southern Sai Sands and Eastern Sai Sands areas only have a danger level of 16. So getting to the decaying temple isn’t so bad.
However, the decaying temple is a level 40 area and this optional boss is difficult. Head south to encounter Sword Hunter Karma. I went into battle with a throne that was exactly level 40 until I came back with it at level 50 and with a weapon master as a side job.
This character will start the fight in a position with seven shield points. Of his six weaknesses at the start, four are Axe, Dagger, Polearm, and Staff, with Dagger still being a weakness for other stances. However, one of Karma’s stances has a shield point and no weaknesses, so keep an eye out for breaking through an enemy that has no weaknesses. It also switches to unbreakable stances when near death which has 15 shield points. He is weak against everything.
However, what should concern you during the Unbreakable Stance of the Sword Hunter fight is if you see the “Karma Hostility Grows” message. This means the boss is preparing to use Killer Karma. This will deal 9999 damage and cause the game to end, so break it immediately. Winning gives you the Young Warrior Souvenir Sword.
If you survive the fight, you can teleport to Sai to complete “Sword Hunter in the Decaying Temple” on octopathic traveler 2. For all these troubles, you will only get 12,000 leaves and a refreshing jam. Also, if you want the Remembrance Sword to be an actual usable weapon and not a key item, you can steal it from the Young Warrior by flying with Throne during the day or Mug with Osvald at night.
octopathic traveler 2 is available for Switch, PS4, PS5 and PC. A demo is available.