New Dawn is a thorough rebalance project. It aims to make the strategic options available to the player more diverse, with more viable mechanics, fewer clear cut "best in slot" items and abilities, and more challenging and durable bosses to wield them against. It is in some ways a continuation of my previous mods, the Octoplus and Itemplus buff packages, but expands their scope to more in-depth changes to core mechanics and overall game balance. It's designed as an all-in-one overhaul mod, changing enemies as well as the player's tools, and altering the pace of progression through the game. It is intended for a veteran's perspective on the game, and to make things fresh after you know how to make most late-game bosses a non-threat in vanilla.

To install, extract the .rar file and drop NewDawn_p.pak into Octopath_Traveler2 > Content > Paks
New Dawn is designed to be used with a fresh save file. Unintended results may occur with an existing save file. The earlier in the game a save is, the safer it is to install.

The following is a list of changes from vanilla:

Ability Changes

Warrior


Merchant


Scholar


Dancer


Hunter


Thief


Cleric


Apothecary


Armsmaster


Arcanist


Inventor


Conjurer


Support Abilities

Support abilities have been re-ordered and shuffled around the jobs to more appropriate places, as per the following:


Latent Powers


Concoct


Learned Skills


Dance Sessions
Random count sessions have been changed to fixed numbers.

The LP restoring Rondo sessions have been given increased power.

Monster Abilities


Items
Items are where some of the heaviest balancing of New Dawn comes into play. Fang of Ferocity has been reduced to a 20% boost, and Finisher's Claws have been reduced to a 35% boost. All of the Battle-Tested, Divine, and Lost Tribe weapons have been reconsidered with more interesting secondary effects. In addition to Thunder's Roar, elemental pursuit weapons now exist for every weapon type and element. They've been sprinkled over lategame loot. The earliest one you're likely to find is the Absolute Zero bow from Ochette's Stormhail chapter, which triggers an icy pursuit on all attacks.

Elemental potency weapons have been drastically reworked. Potency stacking has been removed, with every element now corresponding to a particular weapon type. The damage numbers of spells have been adjusted to account for this, and the end result should be that you no longer need to choose a mage's class based purely on what weapons it lets them equip. That still matters, but Osvald no longer covets Armsmaster purely to equip three potency weapons, and other magically-inclined characters can function in more jobs than when they had to rely on heavy stacking on their primary element. The new elemental weapons are as follows:

Fire:
-Scorched Bone Spear
-Fire Dragon's Glaive
Ice:
-Frost Axe
-Icy Axe
Lightning:
-Thundercloud Bow (replaces Engagement Bow)
-Shattering Storm (replaces Tornado Bow)
Wind:
-Wind Whisperer
-Mooneater
Light:
-Jade Staff
-Sunshadow Staff
Dark:
-Heretic's Greatsword
-Eclipse Edge

Many other weapons and pieces of armor have also been adjusted, sometimes given small stat tweaks, sometimes given entirely new purposes. For example, the Tornado Glaive has been replaced by the Mystic Trident, a spear that has high elemental attack and absorbs SP on hit, and the Hallowed Rod has had its former light potency replaced with an effect that amplifies the power of healing received by the wielder.

The status ailment bottles have had their success chance increased to make them more reliable, with a corresponding price increase.

Battle-Tested weapons have had their drops changed. Instead of needing to farm a 2% chance to get another copy, the drops have been moved to each weapon's respective post-game NPC, with a 100% chance. They can no longer be obtained early, but once you have access to them, you can take as many as you need.

The Stone of Truth has been given 50 points of elemental attack, and now grants 2 stacks of greatly intensified spells at the start of battle. Its old effect of permanent intensified spells has been given to a new piece of armor, the Arcane Robe. The robe has one set location in the world, and more copies of it can be obtained from an appropriate post-game NPC.

The locations of certain items have been changed, both for balance reasons and to accommodate new additions. I recommend not spoiling yourself as to the new locations and just exploring, but if you want the details, check the readme.

The final boss now drops a new accessory, the Dawn Ribbon. The Dawn Ribbon multiplies experience and JP earned by 100 times, and is there to make the grind for the superboss as convenient as possible.

NPCs
NPCs can now be summoned unlimited times without leaving your party, although they still retreat from battle after a certain number of turns.

Currently the following NPCs have been adjusted:

Giselle: Has the unique Dance Session Golden Duet, which grants 1 BP and heals 1 status ailment. In battle, she uses Love, Sweet As Honey and Improved Offense.

Ort: In battle, he uses Sacred Slash, Steel Defenses, and Sacred Aura (grants light enchant to all characters for 3 turns and restores 75 SP)

Benkei: Teaches Aggressive Thrust as a learned skill. In battle, he uses Aggressive Thrust and We Are Soldiers Without Equal!.

Roque: Has the A Way With Words merchant support. In battle, he uses Capitalist Common Sense (9999 damage leaf toss) and Trick of the Trade.

Yurinas: In battle, she uses Windswept Slash, Spiny Shoot (3 randomly targeted sword hits that reduce speed), and Augmented Offense (increases the party's physical attack, elemental attack, and critical rate for 3 turns).

Rai Mei: Increased stats. In battle she uses Bolt Brandish, Bright Bolt, and Spear of Levin (increases the party's physical attack and grants lightning enchant for 3 turns).

Hermes: In battle, she uses Merfolk Dance (restore an ally's HP and grant them 40% SP regen for 3 turns) and Healing Veil.

Veronica: Increased stats. In battle, she uses Azure Right, Steel Defenses, and Targeted Strike.

Dolcinaea: Increased stats. In battle, she uses Dolcinaea's Melody, Moonstep, and Mellifluous Singing.

Enemies and Bosses
New Dawn is built atop the changes of Viridescence's excellent Octopath Troubler mod. Enemies have general multipliers of 1.8x HP and 1.4x shield points, accordingly. Bosses, in particular the penultimate and final chapter bosses, have been given special attention in addition to this, with increased stats and much more HP that should give these encounters the length and gravitas they deserve. After three playthroughs, including one with Troubler installed, I was tired of reaching the phase transition of a character's final boss, hearing the music change, getting pumped, and then immediately one-shotting them because I had already done too much damage at once to their small health bars. Hikari's and Ochette's final bosses, guarding some of the best post-story abilities and loot in the game, are especially buff in New Dawn. Good luck.

And have fun with the superboss: He isn't playing around this time.

Known Issues


Compatibility
New Dawn edits the following files and will be incompatible with mods that also edit them:
AbilityData
AbilitySetData
AilmentData
DiseaseData
PreparationData
SupportAbilityData
BattleVoiceSet
EnemyDB
JobData
NPCBattleData
NPCLeadData
SupportCharacterDB
ObjectData
GameTextEN
ItemDB
PurchaseItemTable
SubStoryTask
WorldMapTable
MainStory

Stealing Everything, and other Steal rebalance mods:
-Incompatible
Unlimited Followers:
-Redundant, New Dawn includes similar changes
Octopath Unlimiter:
-Compatible, but be aware that this will have drastic implications on game balance
Octopath Troubler:
-Redundant, New Dawn bases its enemy changes off of Troubler already
More Captured Monster Slots:
-Compatible
Winnehild's Battle Cry:
-Incompatible
Octopath Limiter:
-Compatible
Really Evasive Maneuvers:
-Incompatible

Special thanks to Beepo for technical help and Viridescence for letting me use his excellent work on the Octopath Troubler mod.

I do this as a hobby. If you want to toss a little support my way, you can tip me on ko-fi