The Swordmaster is a robust physical-based job that specialises in performing swift counter-attacks. It has good physical attributes and armour proficiencies, allowing it to be a decent tank. Despite its name, it’s above average with swords, but excellent with katanas.

During prolonged battles, the Swordmaster is great to have, because it can combine defence with offence. Nothing Ventured halves physical damage, while retaliating with heavy attack and Before Swine does the same for magical damage. It can also passively counter physical hits.

Specialty: Counter¶

The user has a 60% chance of triggering a counter-attack (dealing 1 times damage) when receiving a single-target physical attack. Does not trigger for reflected attacks.

Physical foes who attack individuals are fairly common, so this ability is nice to have.

Level 1: Nothing Ventured¶

Triggers at the start of the turn. If the user is hit by a physical attack during the turn this is used, the user receives half the damage and counter-attacks dealing 2 times damage. Also greatly increases the chance of the user being targeted by foes.

This ability is a great alternative to Defaulting against physical foes. Of course you won’t gain BP, but you’ll have a chance of inflicting double damage, which is usually worth it. Can be combined with the Red Muleta accessory to the further increase the chance of being targeted.

Unlike Counter, this ability works when sustaining group-based attacks too. However keep in mind that counter-attacks from Nothing Ventured will prevent Counter from working–not that you’ll need it to.

Katana Lore¶

Increases the user’s katana proficiency to S.

When you’re not in the Swordmaster job and want to wield katanas still, you’ll want this ability. Katanas are some of the better weapons because of their decent attack rating and high critical rate. Later, you’ll be frequently using one particular katana to cut down humanoid foes.

Level 2: Squeaky Wheel¶

Reduce an enemy’s BP by 1. For bosses and certain foes, the success rate is 30%.

This move has a lot of strategic merit, such as forcing a tough foe to become immobile for one turn. In general though, you’ll only want to do that for bosses, which is a shame because the success rate is far too low to be reliably useful. Late-game, you could combine it with Mimic though.

Level 4: Multitask¶

Each time the user attacks, they have a 33% chance of performing a follow up attack, dealing 1 times damage.

Early on, this is an interesting way of boosting your damage output. It’s not reliable by any means, but you could do worse with your ability slots. Later, it’s useful for builds that rely on multiple attacks to overwhelm the enemy. For normal purposes though, it’s largely outclassed.

Level 5: Counter¶

The user has a 60% chance of triggering a counter-attack (dealing 1 times damage) when receiving a single-target physical attack. Does not trigger for reflected attacks.

Now you can give Counter to other jobs, although the cost is noticeable. If you want to counter in other jobs, you’re better off using the Fencer’s Stampede or Ninja’s Transcience. By the way, you can only trigger one counter-attack at a time, so don’t bother stacking it with Stampede.

Level 6: Before Swine¶

Triggers at the start of the turn. If the user is hit by a magical attack during the turn this is used, the user receives half the damage and counter-attacks dealing 3 times damage. Does not trigger for reflected magic. Also greatly increases the chance of the user being targeted by foes.

Magical foes are less common, which is offset by the higher damage. Like Nothing Ventured, this is a smart alternative to Defaulting if you don’t need to save up BP. You can even stack Nothing Ventured and Before Swine to counter all attacks, but it’s generally too costly.

Level 7: Counter Amp¶

Increases the damage dealt by counter-attacks to 1.5 times normal.

Want your counter-attacks to hurt even more? Then this ability is right up your alley. Naturally, it boosts the damage of Swordmaster counters like Counter, Nothing Ventured, Before Swine, etc. but it also improves the damage of Stampede and Transcience.

Level 8: The Worm Turns¶

Triggers at the start of the turn. If the user’s HP is below 20% and they’re hit by an attack during the turn this is used, the user counter-attacks dealing 7.5 times damage. Does not trigger for reflected magic. Also greatly increases the chance of the user being targeted by foes.

This is the ultimate counter-attack, but tricky to use. Generally, when you’re below 20% HP, you’re probably not going to survive many enemy hits. You can abuse this somewhat with the Valkyrie’s Spirit Barrier, but for the majority of the time, it’s not worth the risk.

Level 9: Redoubled Effort¶

The higher the user’s BP, the stronger their physical attacks (up to 1.46 times stronger with 4 BP).

This ability takes a little bit of effort to setup, but it can be useful for long battles if you’re focusing on counter-attacks. Otherwise, your effort is better placed elsewhere. By the way, you’ll need the Templar’s BP Limit Up to reach 4 BP.

Level 10: Free Lunch¶

For two turns, the user expends zero MP for spells they cast.

This is a rather odd ability for a Swordmaster, since they’re not good with spells, but fairly game-breaking if used in the hands of a powerful spell-caster. To make the most of it, gather 3 BP, then start with Free Lunch and unleash 3 spells on your first turn and 4 spells on your next turn.

You’ll go deep in the red at the end, but the benefits (wiping out an enemy mob or severely wounding a boss) usually make up for it. That said, Bravely Second has introduced a better and more reliable way to cast spells free of charge, by using MP Free in a Pinch as a Ghost.

Level 11: Eye for an Eye¶

Triggers at the start of the turn. Whenever one of your allies takes damage, the user counter-attacks dealing 4 times damage. Does not trigger for reflected magic.

This is basically the reverse of Nothing Ventured and Before Swine, triggering only when someone besides your Swordmaster gets attacked. The chance of it working is slightly higher than 3/4 (since group attacks trigger it too), so it’s fairly reliable.