Bravely Default 2 is a refreshing take on the classic JRPG formula. Combining the tried and true formula of a story with elemental crystals with an expansive job party system and a story that feels like a love letter to the classics, there’s plenty to love about this game. One of the most important aspects of gameplay in the Bravely Default series involves the jobs and skills system. Players can mix and match different job classes and skills to create a party that best suits whatever they’re fighting against.

With that said, it can be a bit overwhelming when starting the game and figuring out what jobs and skills to invest your party’s experience points in. Here are some of the skills that every player should focus on when starting out, all from jobs available by the end of the first chapter of the game.

10 The Freelancer’s Divining Rod

The Freelancer job is the first that players have access to as they begin the game with Seth, and since it may seem like nothing special, it might be overlooked. However, if you take a closer look at the Freelancer’s skill list, you’ll realize that’s far from the truth. This class provides many skills that help you on your journey and help your characters grow.

The Divining Rod ability, for example, is unlocked at level 3 and is absolutely essential for any one character to unlock, at the very least. With this equipped, the game displays how many unopened treasure chests are nearby, allowing players to make sure they’ve grabbed the best equipment they can for their journey.

9 White Mage: Solar-Powered

The White Mage class is one of your first and most important magic classes. White Mage skills are essential for at least a few members of your party, if not all of them, because of how important healing is during battle. However, aside from the basic Cure, Cura, and Raise skills to heal and revive your party members, the White Mage also offers a useful skill early on.

At level 5, characters in the white mage class get a skill called Solar-Powered. With this equipped, characters gain a few MP every turn when fighting during the day, along with other benefits such as increased restorative power. This helps keep healers’ MP topped up so they can focus on what they do best.

8 Black Mage: Lunar-Powered

The Black Mage is another early game class that is also one of the most important classes to focus on, as this class will be your primary magic damage dealer, letting you exploit various enemy weaknesses. As such, you can expect that the Black Mage job relies heavily on MP to be functional.

Fortunately, at level 5, Black Mage offers Lunar-Powered, a skill that complements White Mage’s Solar-Powered skill. This skill restores MP and increases evasion and magic attack power, among other things. Getting both Lunar- and Solar-Powered on your characters ensures that you’re seldom short on MP.

7 Vanguard’s Defang Weakens Enemies

The Vanguard is an excellent class that makes use of equipped shields to perform some attacks. This job can be used to save the rest of your party by taking the brunt of the damage, thanks to its high defensive stats, but that’s far from all the class offers.

One of the Vanguard’s abilities especially comes in handy by being proactive rather than reactive to the enemy, and that’s the Defang ability. This ability gets two things done. First of all, it’s a physical attack against the enemy. Secondly, it also reduces their physical attack for five turns, protecting your entire party.

6 Black Mage: Poison

While all of the Black Mage’s magic spells are great, letting you cast them either on an individual enemy or all enemies at once and allowing players to exploit weaknesses, the poison spell stands out for a few reasons.

At first glance, it may seem like a weak magic attack choice, but once poison is cast, it continually does damage to the enemy. Plus, in Bravely Default 2, even bosses aren’t immune to being poison, so using Poison allows you to do some serious damage over the course of time, even if your characters are busy with other actions.

5 Monk’s Strong Strike, Combined With Bloody-Minded

Monk is one of the best early game classes in Bravely Default 2. With a combination of unique skills and hard-hitting abilities, there’s a lot to love here. One of Monk’s major drawbacks is that many of the skills require HP to use. One of the most powerful Monk skills is learned at level 1, called Strong Strike.

Unfortunately, this skill has a high chance of missing, so players may waste precious HP, only to miss. However, when combined with the Berserker’s passive skill, Bloody Minded, which makes physical attacks unmissable, but also does damage when they’re performed. Since Strong Strike drains HP anyways, this makes for a powerful combo that promises big-hitting attacks.

4 The Bard’s Buff Skills

At first glance, the Bard class may be overlooked by many players for its lack of magic and physical offensive abilities. However, when used right, the Bard’s many skills can be used as a support role to buff your party and make them unstoppable.

Right out of the gate, at levels 1 and 2, Bard provides skills that reduce physical and magical damage on your entire party by 15%. What’s more, these buffs stack, making your party unstoppable. Later Bard skills spice it up too, allowing you to increase aim and magical damage, among other attributes. It’s definitely worth investing in.

3 Thief’s Attack Item Amp

If you know the power of attack items in battle, then you’ll be pleased to know that the Thief class has a skill dedicated to precisely that. This is a passive skill learned at level 7, so once your characters learn it, they simply need to equip it.

The skill, Attack Item Amp, short for Amplification, increases damage done by using attack items by an incredible 50%. This allows your characters to go to town (literally, for attack items, and figuratively) with attack items, exploiting weaknesses left and right and dealing massive amounts of damage.

2 Raw Power

Beast Master is a unique class, allowing players to capture enemies from the field and unleash them as moves against enemies. However, there’s plenty more under the hood that the Beast Master offers.

For example, the ability Raw Power, learned at level 7, increases your character’s attack the more they Brave, in increments of 10%. This lets you take a risky gamble where maxing out your BP usage grants a massive attack increase, allowing for characters built on offensive physical damage to deal the most damage that they can per attack.

1 Spearhead

Another Beast Master skill, Spearhead is useful because it lets players strategize with a powerful advantage. Unlocked at level 8, right after Raw Power, this skill ensures that the character with this skill equipped, as well as a Spear-type weapon, will act first in battle.

This allows for gameplay possibilities that extend beyond just dealing damage. A character with Spearhead equipped could use their action to heal the party, afflict status effects on the enemy, or anything in between. The possibilities are endless and always advantageous.

NEXT: Bravely Default 2: A Step-By-Step Guide To Unlocking Every Final Job Level