The Catmancer is Bravely Second’s “Blue Mage” job–like its predecessor, it can learn certain (otherwise exclusive) abilities from monsters. In terms of raw stats, it has decent physical and magical attributes and excels at wielding axes and knuckles.

Although the Catmancer looks like a jokey throwaway job, it can be effective when used well, thanks to its potentially massive pool of monster abilities. Since most of its abilities are physical-based, it’s also useful as a secondary job for a physical attacker.

Specialty: Learning¶

As long as one character has this equipped, all party members can learn applicable monster abilities when hit by one. Monster abilities can be used via the Catmancy or Cat Mastery command in battle.

With at least one Catmancer on the field, you’ll automatically learn monster abilities when your party members are hit by them. Note that you can’t learn supportive abilites normally, since monsters obviously won’t use them on you. In these cases, you’ll need to inflict confuse or charm or use Possession.

Level 1: Catmancy¶

Enables access to the Catmancy command. From here, the character can consume cat food items to use learned monster abilities.

Catmancy accomodates 13 monster abilities, with a wide variety of effects. Stand outs include White Wind, (restores the party’s HP by an amount equal to the user’s current HP), Spray (damages one while bypassing Default) and Sonic Boom (damages one while negating Physical Defence).

Unlike the Vampire job in Bravely Default, you need to expend specific (cat food) items to use monster abilities, rather than MP or BP. While these items aren’t too difficult to gather (you can buy them from the Adventurer’s Shop with the releveant upgrades), it can be a mewsance early on.

Level 2: Catnap¶

Has a 50% chance of putting each enemy to sleep.

While it’s not that reliable, this is a cheap and effective way of shutting down enemy mobs. Just bear in mind that hitting an enemy will wake it up; otherwise, you can use Catnap to meow down enemies at your own pace.

Level 3: Attack Item Amp¶

Damage dealt by attack items is increased by 1.5 times.

Attack items are useful for dealing decent damage regardless of your characters’ stats and the game generously gives you a lot of them. When it’s time to liberally toss an attack item, slap this ability on to make the meowst of it. Be sure to target an enemy’s elemental weakness too!

Level 4: Dig¶

Obtain a random cat food item during battle. The item(s) available depends on the location.

If you don’t mind spending some time farming, this is a cheap way of acquiring cat food or a way to acquire cat food before it’s available from the Adventurer’s Shop. To speed up the process, you can make multiple party members dig at the same time.

Level 5: Mislead¶

Reduces the user’s chance of being targeted by enemies to the lowest level possible.

If your Catmancer wants to avoid danger, this is a purractical way to go about it. Obviously, it’s useless if the enemy mainly uses group-based attacks.

Level 6: Learning¶

As long as one character has this equipped, all party members can learn applicable monster abilities when hit by one. Monster abilities can be used via the Catmancy or Cat Mastery command in battle.

If, for some reason, you don’t want a Catmancer around, but don’t want to miss out on purrtential monster abilities, this is the thing you’re looking for.

Level 7: Whisker Sense¶

The party’s chance of receiving a first strike or Brave Attack is boosted by 5%. Does not stack if multiple characters have it.

This is mewsful for getting the jump on enemy mobs. 5% isn’t much, but you can combine it with high Dexterity and/or Agility and accessories to boost the first strike/Brave Attack rate.

Level 8: Cat Mastery¶

Enables access to the Cat Mastery command. From here, the character can consume cat food items to use learned monster abilities.

13 monster abilities not enough for you? Via Cat Mastery, you can can acquire 8 more! Note that abilities accessed via Cat Mastery can only be learned after at least one character has acquired the Cat Mastery ability.

Notable mew abilities include Death Spiral (hits four random targets with a 50% chance of causing instant death), Dragonlord Strike (inflicts four times damage), Bone Crush (inflicts damage to all foes equal to their lost HP) and Electrolysis (damages all foes and makes them weak to fire).

Level 9: HP 20% Up¶

Increases the user’s Maximum HP by 20%.

This ability is learned rather late, so obviously it must be pretty good. Well, having more HP allows characters to survive more hits, so purrobably ?

Level 10: Purrfect Stance¶

Increases the user’s Physical Defence and Magical Defence to their maximum values for 10 turns.

This is a purrfect ability for tanks, especially when combined with the Astrologian’s Limit Break to reach 200% Physical Defence and Magical Defence in one action. In purrticular , it’s good against foes that like to Dispel your buffs.

Level 11: Meow to the Max¶

Increases damage dealt by the party’s monster abilities to 150% for 10 turns.

This ameowzing ability greatly boosts the power of monster abilities. Sadly it’s not passive like Bravely Default’s Monster Ability Up, but on the plus side, it affects the whole party and for a healthy number of turns to boot.