Defeating Yan Long in 16 Turns [] Octopath Traveler: CotC

Damn this boss is hard. Before I had the Nier characters, my first clear was at 26 turns with two 4 stars, and a LOT of luck. Using this specific setup allowed me to nearly remove the RNG factor, which I didn't think possible on clears longer than one break. Hopefully, this can serve as a template to make your own teams. Now, its is not a very budgety clear so I'll answer a few questions you might have:

1. Is this possible as f2p?
Yes, especially if you are one of those that saved up for Nier and got these characters. You can swap out the Nier characters with strong attackers, but Ophilia and Olberic are central to removing the RNG here. Agnes or Alfyn can replace Ophilia, but without Olberic you may have to rely on a little luck.

2. When is a budget video coming?
I have no plans to make one. Yan Long is balanced around 5*s with A3, so he is per definition not a budget boss. Even using this team took me several hours of tinkering to polish the turn order and produce an RNG-free clear.

3. Is Yan Long possible with four 5 stars?
I believe so, with a ton of luck, the right characters, and a lot of time-investment and patience. Personally I don't have time for that kind of approach. If you are f2p you should be able to clear him within 30 turns and secure Tier 2 in the #YanLongRace, provided you have at least 6 suitable 5* characters.

4. Which characters are suitable for Yan Long?
Of the ones that have releases as per March 2023: Ophilia, Agnes, Olberic, Fiore, Lars, Lionel, Kouren, Edea, Alfyn, Theo, Soleil, Odette, Varkyn, 2B, A2, 9S, W'ludai, Dorothea, Cardona, Tressa, Hasumi, Lynette, Glossom (in physical comps), Therion and Gertrude (for killing crows). There may be others depending on your comp so do experiment!

0:00 - Intro
1:20 - Battle Start
4:08 - Summoning Crows
5:57 - Hunting Birds
8:19 - Outro
9:00 - Team Overview

Strategic Notes:
The gist of the strategy is to defeat Yan Long in two breaks and finish off the birds afterwards. You can pretty much follow the video the letter, but take note of the following:
- Turn 4: If A2 is at critical HP, Ophilia uses Healing Protection. Otherwise she does Preservation (just in case). 2B uses Savage Assault (sword), but if shields are 3 this turn she uses Crushing Assault (axe) instead (the difference is due to Olberic's random spear hits).
- Turn 8: This is a critical turn and can easily lead to failure without proper setup. Olberic is supposed to die here, but he can sometimes be killed prematurely. And if that is followed by YL and the crows ganging up on the same character, they will die. But this is the worst case scenario, and even then you can revive them with Ophilia. The most important thing is to finish off Yan Long. If people die it doesn't matter if you can revive them later.
- Turn 9: I chose to break the crows as well to prevent them from ganging up on a weakened character. Safety first!
- Turn 11 and beyond: You are pretty much safe now so there is no need to follow everything exactly. Just make sure to survive and try to finish in less than 20 turns (if you want to hit tier 3 of the YL race).

Equipment
- I used HP accessories and Physical gear for the most part.
- Speed equipment to manipulate order. Fiore must be faster than 2B, and ideally faster than A2 (but I couldn't manage it due to her gaining 15% speed in berserk). Ophilia must be between Yan Long's first and second actions.
- Origin/Twilight Weapons across the board.

Hope that covers everything! Please leave a comment if any question, and enjoy the video! :D

Music by Yasunori Nishiki from Octopath Traveler Champions of the Continent: Original Soundtrack: "Tytos the Hero" and "Master of Power"