octopath traveler champions of the continent cotc cyrus guide

Since the very beginning of Octopath Traveler COTC, players on the COTC reddit/discord have been shouting “CYRUS WHEN?

When there is an official SQEX tavern talk, twitch attendees are busy typing in chat “CYRUS?“,

When new players are asking who to save their gems for, the dominant answer has always been CYRUS!

Let’s see what all the hype is about for our Cyboy.

Tier List Overview of Cyrus #

In my tier list of all units by roles, Cyrus scores S+ as an elemental DPS. His 3 elemental coverage also makes him the only S rank breaker with 3-hit skills.

Other than damage, Cyrus has no utility for the party.

But people do say the best form of utility is death

Stats #

Cyrus currently has the highest EATK and SP stat in the game.
 
When equipped with the best available Tome weapon, he’ll continue to have the highest EATK stat in the game.
 
High EATK stat not only means more absolute damage, but also relatively higher damage to enemies with high EDEF than low EATK stats. 
 
Although it can be seen as both an advantage and a disadvantage, Cyrus’ turtle slow speed makes him your finisher, instead of your Break initiator.
 

Unit Kit #

Passives

  1. Start of battle: Reveal 1 weak point of all enemies 
    • Your 5* Peredir/walking encylopedia, fantastic quality of life
  2. Boost Self Fire/Ice/Lightning damage by 20%
    • Easy to use passive, the only question is how to best cap it to 30%
  3. Tri-Elemental Resistances 20%
    • He’s the only unit that has 20% elemental resistance to 3 elements: Ice/Fire/Wind

Best Skills

  • 4* + 5* skills: 3-hit Fire/Ice or Lightning to all foes
    • THE skill that makes Cyrus the ultimate tri-elemental damage DPS
    • Great for breaking foes
    • In the future, it’s quite easy to hit 99,999 x 3 with this skill
  • Initial and 1* skills: 1-hit Fire/Ice or Lightning to single foe
    • This skill actually deals slightly more damage than his 3-hit skills but only when used at max BP
    • Cost far less SP than his 3-hit skills; great for extended battles
    • Use this during enemy Break, and only if you can’t reach the damage cap
    • In the future, it’s possible to hit the damage cap with this skill even if the enemy isn’t broken
  • 2* skill: 2-hit Tome to single foe
    • Special mention, because this is currently the strongest tome damaging skill in the game until the release of Cecily. lol.

Generally you’ll want to pick:

  1. 3-hit Ice
  2. 3-hit Fire
  3. 3-hit Lightning
  4. 1-hit something based on enemy weakness
Cyrus does have a 25% EATK self buff skill, but you shouldn’t be wasting a turn buffing himself.
 

Ultimate Skill

  • 1-hit Fire, 1-hit Ice, and 1-hit Lightning to all foes
    • Skill with the highest elemental damage potential in the game right now, assuming an enemy is weak to all 3 elements
Awakening 4 Accessory
  • 60 EATK, 40 EDEF, 40 SP
  • +10% Fire/Ice/Lightning DMG

This is an B rank accessory as it’s basically a glorified Rune II accessory with EATK. It’s a great quality of life to not having to swap accessories for Cyrus, but it’s completely replaceable by several other accessories.

Best Accessories #

  • Eliza’s A4 (10% EATK for 5 turns, recover 500 hp per turn)
  • At least 10% in DMG to one of his elements based on enemy weakness, so any Rune II/III  Fire/Ice/Lightning
  • Once our four star units get their A4 accessories, you can give him Cornelia’s A4 (10% weakness damage) which is basically a 10% buff to Fire/Ice/Lightning.
  • Molu, Therese and Sofia’s A4 are also incredible on Cyrus, as they decrease enemy Fire/Ice/Lightning resistances

Skill Damage Rankings #

I assume all units at A4, Lv 100, with Beserk IV weapons.

Unit passives are generally active unless otherwise specified.

Click here to view the full skill firepower table and an explanation of how it’s made.

Top 25 damaging skills


Cyrus’ ultimate has the potential to be the strongest elemental damage skill in the game, but it requires the enemy to be weak to Fire Ice and Lightning.

Top 20 Fire skills
While Molu might have dethroned Cyrus as the top fire damage dealer… Cyrus’ 3-hit is still stronger.
 
Top 20 Ice skills
Cyrus is our top ice damage dealer. He’ll synergize well with Sofia’s ice resistance debuffs.
 
Top 20 Lightning skills
Cyrus is our top lightning damage dealer.
 
Top 20 Tome skills
Until Cecily appears, Cyrus is our strongest Tome damage dealer.
 
Summary
 
In short, Cyrus is our #1 damage dealer for Ice/Lightning and Tome (for now), and #2 damage dealer for Fire.
 
COTC is a game where firepower and damage is arguably more important than any other mechanic in the game.
 

Multi-hit skills along with his high EATK allows for Cyrus to bypass the 99,999 single hit damage cap.

Even in the far future of JP, Cyrus is still our #1 AOE damage king for Fire/Ice/Lightning and our Top 3 for Single Target damage for Ice/Lightning.

He can easily one-shot every normal mob for material farming.

He’ll shine like crazy with some support.

Unit Synergy #

  • Eliza is the best backpack for EATK Up
  • Lynette/Primrose/Tithi/Mabel/Lianna and multiple other units that buff EATK 
  • Viola/Falco/Stead for EDEF debuff
  • Lynette/Molu for fire res debuff
  • Sofia/Aslyte/Lianna for ice res debuff
  • Elvis/Olberic/Therese/Tithi for lightning res debuff
  • Laura/Bertrand for 3 turns passive EDEF and Lightning Res Down, great for general farming
  • Regen: Alfyn, Theo, Molrusso, Ophilia, Soleil, Hayes
  • Alfyn with Pomegranate Panacea is a DPS’ BFF

Reaching the 10 Buffs & Debuffs Cap #

This section is applicable to any unit, but I wanted to give readers a lesson on buffs and debuffs.

View my ultimate buff/debuff guide if you want to learn more about this mechanic. 

Bracket 1. ATK Skill Buff Options 

  • Lynette and Primrose for their 20% EATK, Lianna 15% EATK/Heal, Tithi 15% EATK/BP, Mabel 15% EATK/EDEF, Cyrus buffing himself for 15%/25% EATK. 
  • Several other units can buff front row or individual ally’s EATK, filter for them here

Bracket 2. ATK Passive Buff Options 

  • Full HP Eliza stationed behind Cyrus for a permanent 20% EATK passive buff. 
  • Eliza’s A4 gives 10% EATK passive buff.
  • Eunice, Manuel, and Pearl behind Cyrus for 10% EATK for 3 turns. 
  • Lynette switching row grants 10% EATK passive buff. 

Bracket 3. DMG Passive Buff Options 

Cyrus innately has 20%, so he only needs 10% from some other source (including equipment passives). Anything above 10% is wasted. 

  • Cyrus’ A4 accessory gives him 10% Fire/Ice/Lightning. 
  • Fire/Ice/Lightning Rune II gives 10%.
  • Lynette’s A4 gives 15% Fire, 60 EATK; Cardonna’s A4 gives 15% Ice, 20 EATK, 100 SP; Lianna’s A4 gives 15% Ice, 40 EATK, 60 SP; H’annit’s A4 gives 15% Lightning, 40 EATK, 40 SP.
  • Wingate stationed behind Cyrus for 20% DMG buff when enemy is broken (10% wasted). 
  • Lynette stationed behind Cyrus for a 10% Fire DMG. 
  • Aslyte stationed behind Cyrus for 20% Ice DMG (10% is wasted). 

Bracket 4. Ultimate ATK Buff Options 

  • Lynette’s ultimate gives 20% EATK; Pearl gives 20% EATK; Fabio gives 10% EATK

Now we are going into the last 6 brackets: debuffs. 

Bracket 5. EDEF Skill Debuff Options 

  • Viola for 25% EDEF, Falco/Stead for 20%. 
  • Nicola and Primrose 15% EDEF to all foes. Noelle, Lynette, Varkyn, Agnès, Sofia 15%. 

Bracket 6. EDEF Passive Debuff Options 

  • Laura, start of battle 15% EDEF for 3 turns. No other options for now. 

Bracket 7. DMG Skill Debuff Options 

  • Lynette can 15% and 20% Fire Res all foes. 
  • Aslyte 20% Ice Res all foes; Lianna 15% Ice Res; Sofia has two 15% Ice Res debuffs. 
  • Bertrand/Therese/Tithi/Olberic 15% Lightning Res, Elvis 20% Lightning Res debuff.

Bracket 8. DMG Passive Debuff Options 

  • Molu’s A4 15% Fire Res for 3 turns; and 15% Fire Res when breaking enemy
  • Aslyte 15% Ice Res when breaking, Sofia’s A4 15% Ice Res for 3 turns 
  • Bertrand start of battle 15% Lightning Res for 3 turns; Therese’s A4 15% Lightning Res for 15% for 3 turns and additional 15% when breaking. 
Bracket 9. Ultimate DEF Debuff Options 
 
  • Cedric and Jose for 10% EDEF down
Bracket 10. Ultimate RES Debuff Options 
 
  • None atm for Fire/Lightning
  • Aslyte and Julio can inflict 10% Ice Res down
 Aside from buff/debuffs, you’ll want allies to help break the enemy faster.
 

End Game Content Usage #

  • Tikilen Cup (two adds weak to lightning)
  • Varkyn Cup (Varkyn and one add weak to Ice)
  • Ri’tu Cup (Ri’tu Fire and one add weak to Ice)
  • Getrude Cup (Fire)
  • Yunnie Cup (Multiple adds weak to Lightning and one to Fire/Ice)
  • Lv 100 NPC: Taciturn Housewife (Lightning), Sea-gazing Graybeard (Fire), Once-famous Actress (Ice), Adventurer (Lightning)
  • The cup after Yan Long (spoiler)
  • The adds in the 2nd cup after Yan Long (spoiler)
  • Scholar Job Tower (spoiler)