Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Catch-all

Oh! Orbs!

Just saw literally my first one since that tutorial, however long ago.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

... Orbs? I ask, with characters in the low 30's, and a couple dozen hours in.

On a phone, so won't be eloquent.

Auto-attacks charge Blade Arts, which charge Specials (the right side of the diamond in the bottom left), with levels from I-IV. When one character launches a special, a tree appears at the top right of the screen, showing options for progressing the specials. The tree progresses from left to right, requiring the appropriate element and level for a given special (i.e. a level I special starts the tree, a level II special progresses it, and a level III special completes it, with the total effort called a Blade Combo).

Completion of the tree will lock out an ability for the enemy, but will also create a resistance orb to the element used. This means that attacks if that element do less damage. The party gauge, on the top left, slowly fills as combat progresses. It's broken into three sections. If someone gets KO'd in combat, a section can be sacrificed to revive them. If the entire party gauge gets filled, then you can press the + button to begin a party attack.

The party attack proceeds stepwise through the main characters, with blades (not techniques) chosen. Resistance orbs, if any, are displayed under the enemy's name. Attacking the enemy with the element that opposes the resistance orb will shatter it, removing the resistance and allowing a bonus round to the group attack. You can repeat this as often as you can shatter an orb.

Hope this helps!

Speaking of orbs. Ran into that lvl 82 ape in one of the early areas while doing affinity chart grind. I'm lvl 75.
Got 4 orbs on it and went into orb busting at 50% or so. Did 1.2 million dmg in that phase which was not enough to kill it. It has like 10% HP left, and the second I get out of orb busting phase (whatever the name is) it oneshots me. Sigh.
I wonder if each team member should have a dps char on their roster for the orb busting phase?
So far I've made 'pure drivers', as in 3 dps on one driver, 3 tanks on one driver, and 3 healers on one driver.

Coldstream wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

... Orbs? I ask, with characters in the low 30's, and a couple dozen hours in.

On a phone, so won't be eloquent.

And yet it was. Thanks!

FINALLY.

Good god, it took a lot of grinding, but KOS-MOS finally showed up for me.

This might be superstitious native talk, but I suspect that among the factors that affect your chances at pulling a rare blade there might be something to the effect of "time since last unique pulled." For all of my last four unique blades, they popped near the start of a grind session after having taken a long break. And for KOS-MOS, I had been grinding for hours, and opened well over a hundred legendary cores in that time. Then I spent a few hours running quests, and then left the game running all day because I was starting to suspect it might be a factor. Sure enough, she rolled from my third legendary core after starting to grind again this evening. Not that it really means anything -- after all, random could really just be random -- but still.

So, just in case anyone else finds themselves grinding for the last few unique blades -- either out of a completionist urge, or because like me you want to see one specific blade, here are the stats that were sufficient for me:

My luck was 851
My each of my "idea" stats was 9
I used three justice boosters (the relevant element for KOS-MOS)

And for whatever it is worth, the two I pulled before her came with around 800 luck, and came from cores where I used boosters NOT aligned with their respective elements. So, while it probably helps (I mean, the game says it should) it's not necessarily a requirement even for the last few.

Anyway, now that's done I can get serious about finishing the game. Or, you know, doing more side quests. Whatever.

Oh, and incidentally, I really don't recommend getting completionist on this one. It's painful.

I just got the orb tutorial at a chapter 2 boss, about level 13.

Although I haven't quite been able to pull it off yet. Seems I can't build the specials fast enough. I chained 2 together during that boss fight, but not the 3rd to finish it off.

The further into this game and its mechanics I get, the more impressed I am that there's just one DLC pack and that it's a full year of content updates. Nintendo could have F2P'd the sh*t out of this game.

Stele wrote:

I just got the orb tutorial at a chapter 2 boss, about level 13.

Although I haven't quite been able to pull it off yet. Seems I can't build the specials fast enough. I chained 2 together during that boss fight, but not the 3rd to finish it off. :?

For now, it'll will be a rare thing. It will get much, much easier later.

I'm around the beginning of chapter 6 now, still immensely enjoying the game. Not really missing any blades for the most part, I've pulled a variety of elements on all my people with the correct classes pretty early on. The only thing I'd like to have is an ice blade on somebody, that's the one element that's never shown up so far.

I've been reminded that I enjoy anime quite a bit, I haven't watched or played anything with the sensibilities in quite a while; Xenoblade almost feels nostalgic to me in that sense.

zeroKFE wrote:

FINALLY.

Good god, it took a lot of grinding, but KOS-MOS finally showed up for me.

Is she exceedingly rare, was she one of your last missing rares or is there something else that's special about her?
...she was the first blade I pulled, immediately after the option to equip two blades was unlocked.

Seems like there isn’t a static chance to get a rare blade but a chance to get each individual blade, so it will get harder and harder to get a new blade the fewer you are missing.

Btw, how do you get 800 luck?!

I was thinking that might be the case as well, it certainly feels like I get fewer rare blades now when opening crystals than earlier when I hardly had any.

Shadout wrote:

Btw, how do you get 800 luck?!

I’m guessing accessories?

nako wrote:

I'm around the beginning of chapter 6 now, still immensely enjoying the game. Not really missing any blades for the most part, I've pulled a variety of elements on all my people with the correct classes pretty early on. The only thing I'd like to have is an ice blade on somebody, that's the one element that's never shown up so far.

Yeah, the random nature of the blades seems to result in this. I went quite a while without having access to a decent lightning blade.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Nintendo could have F2P'd the sh*t out of this game.

Nah, they'll just make a mobile Xeno game and do it then

shoptroll wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

Nintendo could have F2P'd the sh*t out of this game.

Nah, they'll just make a mobile Xeno game and do it then :lol:

Oh, sure. It's just interesting to look at this specific release and realize how much more exploitative it could have been and how likely it would have been in the hands of a different publisher. You can't pop over to the eShop to buy: rare crystals; legendary crystals; boosters; rare Blades; salvaging cylinders; ether crystals; etc., etc.

nako wrote:
zeroKFE wrote:

FINALLY.

Good god, it took a lot of grinding, but KOS-MOS finally showed up for me.

Is she exceedingly rare, was she one of your last missing rares or is there something else that's special about her?
...she was the first blade I pulled, immediately after the option to equip two blades was unlocked. :D

Yeah, as has been discussed there is DEFINITELY a factor where the more uniques you have, the harder it is to find the last remaining few.

I do think there might be an element where some uniques have different base rarities -- after all, there are definitely some that have just objectively more powerful sets of abilities (and KOS-MOS is among them). However, other than that, this supposition is primarily based on just how many people I see talking about KOS-MOS being their last blade to pull, and that's almost certainly a skewed data point. There are going to be far more people (like myself) who are going to decide to go crazy grinding to find her than there are who are going to go nuts chasing their last blade or two if it's just some random one like Gorg or Electra or whatever.

Shadout wrote:

Btw, how do you get 800 luck?!

Well, first off you get to a high level — when I got serious about grinding for my last few unique blades I think I was in the mid sixties, but I then took all my bonus levels at the inn and got to the high 70s, and eventually the low 80s (when I had 851).

Second, yes, accessories. There is one type of accessory that gives you a flat additive amount (relatively inconsequential), and one that gives you a percentage boost. At the end I think I was using a Comet Choker that was a 31 or 32% boost? Not sure. I do know, though, that both of the monsters I used to grind for legendary cores also dropped luck accessories like candy.

Third, and most important, is blades. Bitball, claw, and spear blades (and maybe axes?) each have a core chip type that gives them a +50 luck bonus. So, you find a blade of one of those weapon types whose stat bonus is luck, you give them that chip, and then you do that two more times and equip three such luck boosting blades. I think for my 851 number I was using one with a 20% boost, one with 17%, and one with 14%.

Minor mechanical spoiler about how to equip them, related to something that happens at the end of chapter 7:

Spoiler:

Once Rex can equip everyone's blades, you can remove the story linked blades from your drivers in a roundabout way, thus allowing you to equip three commons on Zeke or whoever else you might be using as your core opener. You still can't directly disengage the story linked blades, but if you move them out of the top slot, then you can have Rex equip them, freeing up a third slot.

That is pretty nice, though from what I’ve read both Dromarh and Brigid are pretty good at their respective jobs. Last two drivers are my backliners. So far back nobody really know where they are anymore. Everyone are happy about that.

I just wish I could force the other drivers to switch blades during combat. Have I missed something?

What do you need them to switch Blades for? They'll automatically switch Blades if one of their Blades is available for the next part of a combo.

zeroKFE wrote:
Stele wrote:

I just got the orb tutorial at a chapter 2 boss, about level 13.

Although I haven't quite been able to pull it off yet. Seems I can't build the specials fast enough. I chained 2 together during that boss fight, but not the 3rd to finish it off. :?

For now, it'll will be a rare thing. It will get much, much easier later.

Oh, and to repeat some related advice that hasn't been stated for a while in the thread:

1. Choose the right driver affinity board perks.

Choosing the right abilities to chase on your driver's affinity boards is a huge factor here. Early on you definitely want the ability that gives you one art at the start of battle, and probably the second one as well. (Ironically, since they cost so much, the one that gives you your final art at the start of battle is far less consequential, to the point where it's more or less the last one I have to get on all my drivers.) Beyond that, though, the real key is the ability that lets you cancel one driver art into the next. This lets you just chain arts nonstop with all the benefits that come from canceling; i.e., faster recharge time for the art used, and a bigger boost to charging your special meter. Additionally, I generally find that the timing for canceling one art into the next is much more forgiving than canceling auto attacks; if you press too early it doesn't fail, and for most weapon types I think it's easier to tell where the end of the last hit in the arts are than the last hits in the auto attack sequences.

Slight spoiler for the existence of a character found (I think?) in chapter 3

Spoiler:

And if you equip Mythra focused on increasing crit percentage, you will suddenly find yourself almost always having a special or two ready to go. In addition to her having abilities that naturally boost her crit percentage (making it more valuable to boost via aux core and core chip selection), one of her core abilities give you a chance on crit to reset the cooldown for the art or special you used when you got a crit. Especially as you level up that particular ability, and approach 50% crit rate on her, you will get to a point where the only time you ever see an auto attack from her after the first one that starts your art chain is when you are waiting on the timing for a driver combo. (And as a result your special meter will charge VERY, VERY fast.)

Then, your problem is not waiting for specials, but rather managing your aggro.

2. Use the right pouch items.

Boost your art and special regen through pouch items. Everything else offered is nice, but of secondary importance. The quality of your offense, defense, and healing is all directly proportional to the frequency with which you are using your arts and specials, and no other bonus is even remotely as valuable in any way, shape, or form.

3. Time your use of driver combos to extend the window for blade combos, and vice versa.

When you trigger a blade combo and a driver combo close to each other you get a "fusion" effect, which amplifies the effects and extends your timers. This matters a lot more later in the game (for example, if you are grinding for legendary cores and want to be able to finish driver combos with a smash as frequently as possible), but earlier on you can get a lot more blade combos off just by strategically activating your topple to give your other characters a bit more time to charge their specials.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

What do you need them to switch Blades for? They'll automatically switch Blades if one of their Blades is available for the next part of a combo.

For one, I sometimes want one of their blades to start the combo.
And also for their affinity charts. On Nia I made some blade her primary, because I wanted it to use some of its skills needed in the affinity chart. She.Just.Keeps.Switching.Away.From.It!

zeroKFE wrote:

2. Use the right pouch items.

Boost your art and special regen through pouch items. Everything else offered is nice, but of secondary importance. The quality of your offense, defense, and healing is all directly proportional to the frequency with which you are using your arts and specials, and no other bonus is even remotely as valuable in any way, shape, or form.

Hmm, on one hand I'm glad to hear this and a bit bummed. I've been pounding cinnapons (I think!) on Rex in order to speed up the art meter, but not the other characters where I put other stuff for the heck of it.

So, I'm glad to know I was on the right track with the art meter increase, but bummed that the rest of the food stuff is somewhat inconsequential.

Guess I can ignore min/max and simply do what I want, but now I've got that little bit in the back of my head saying "increase the art meter, it'll help speed the game a long a little" and "speeding the game along" is paramount to me since I can game, oh, maybe three hours a week right now.

Shadout wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

What do you need them to switch Blades for? They'll automatically switch Blades if one of their Blades is available for the next part of a combo.

For one, I sometimes want one of their blades to start the combo.
And also for their affinity charts. On Nia I made some blade her primary, because I wanted it to use some of its skills needed in the affinity chart. She.Just.Keeps.Switching.Away.From.It!

Well, you can always change her gambits around.

Oops, wrong game!

Seriously, would love gambits in more games.

Shadout wrote:

That is pretty nice, though from what I’ve read both Dromarh and Brigid are pretty good at their respective jobs. Last two drivers are my backliners. So far back nobody really know where they are anymore. Everyone are happy about that.

I just wish I could force the other drivers to switch blades during combat. Have I missed something?

Yeah, generally speaking, the story blades are among the best. However, I've used that mechanic for three reasons:

1. Getting three luck boosting blades equipped, as mentioned above.
2. Better control over which blades get affinity boosts from finish quests, especially once story blades are maxed out.
3. Spoilers for a character that arrives in chapter 5, I think, as well as the continuance of the vague mechanical spoiler discussed above

Spoiler:

Zeke generally sits the bench for me, but Pandoria is awesome equipped on Rex. She's crazy strong, and a good alternative to axes as a launcher.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

What do you need them to switch Blades for? They'll automatically switch Blades if one of their Blades is available for the next part of a combo.

The driver AI is great about switching to set up for blade combos, but they aren't great about driver combos. And, this is reasonable — in the vast majority of situations, especially earlier on in the game, it's far more important for that to be the priority.

To get driver combos going, though, because you can only barely and indirectly control what weapon type your AI drivers are using by shifting elements, you have to get clever with what you equip on them, and rely heavily on your controlled driver (probably Rex) to do the heavy lifting.

Most people seem to suggest just getting as many break abilities on your AI drivers as possible, and have Rex the rest — i.e., have him equipped with topple, launch, and smash. Personally, I went another way, mostly because I really am not fond of Rex's smash blade. Instead, I equip my tank with three katanas (which give that tank a smash attack), Nia (or the other driver) with three break abilities, and on Rex I have topple, launch, and a spear user for additional break chances — many high level monsters have high break resistance, so making attempts as frequently as possible is important.

Anyway, you can see that either way if you want to prioritize driver combos, you find yourself annoyingly restricted about who you can equip. For example, on Nia I have a few claw healers that I prefer over the bit ball healers I find myself using for break, but since I can't really control which blade she's using other than through what element I have up for blade combos, that's a much less valuable choice if I want to be able to trigger driver combos effectively.

garion333 wrote:
zeroKFE wrote:

2. Use the right pouch items.

Boost your art and special regen through pouch items. Everything else offered is nice, but of secondary importance. The quality of your offense, defense, and healing is all directly proportional to the frequency with which you are using your arts and specials, and no other bonus is even remotely as valuable in any way, shape, or form.

Hmm, on one hand I'm glad to hear this and a bit bummed. I've been pounding cinnapons (I think!) on Rex in order to speed up the art meter, but not the other characters where I put other stuff for the heck of it.

So, I'm glad to know I was on the right track with the art meter increase, but bummed that the rest of the food stuff is somewhat inconsequential.

Guess I can ignore min/max and simply do what I want, but now I've got that little bit in the back of my head saying "increase the art meter, it'll help speed the game a long a little" and "speeding the game along" is paramount to me since I can game, oh, maybe three hours a week right now.

Well, there is good news for you there.

Once you unlock (and can afford to use) more two and three diamond pouch items, you'll have plenty of interesting choices to make again. Many of them have two or three effects, so you can pick and choose additional effects, or just how heavily you want to prioritize art/special recharge boosts vs other effects, since many options come with different proportions on items from different shops.

Also, there are pouch expansions to find out in the world, so eventually all your characters will be able to have two items running at a time, further increasing your options for making interesting choices about what buffs you have active.

(You unlock items mostly through merc missions, by the way.)

Interesting. I might have just ended up with the right combination of Blades on my characters, but they initiate and follow-up on driver combos just fine. Nia will break and topple on her own, so I've been able to tune Rex's abilities accordingly.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Interesting. I might have just ended up with the right combination of Blades on my characters, but they initiate and follow-up on driver combos just fine. Nia will break and topple on her own, so I've been able to tune Rex's abilities accordingly.

Yeah, I mean, most of the game I really didn't bother worrying about it. Equipping based purely on elemental variety, general ability, and let's be honest, aesthetics, will get you at least to a launch frequently enough, and that's more than enough for crowd control and buffing damage.

It mostly becomes a thing when you are trying to wring items out of monsters as efficiently as possible, which basically means smashing them as frequently as you can -- like, as soon as one smash happens, immediately break, topple launch them all over again to the exclusion of all other concerns. After all, each smash gives you a hit from their loot table, and killing with a smash gives a similar boost to loot drops as killing them with a chain attack does, except that it is MUCH faster. (Incidentally, the Overcharge Bangle accessory is also key for doing this, since it will let your controlled character change blades fast and freely.)

zeroKFE wrote:

Anyway, you can see that either way if you want to prioritize driver combos, you find yourself annoyingly restricted about who you can equip. For example, on Nia I have a few claw healers that I prefer over the bit ball healers I find myself using for break, but since I can't really control which blade she's using other than through what element I have up for blade combos, that's a much less valuable choice if I want to be able to trigger driver combos effectively.

Which blades are you using?

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Interesting. I might have just ended up with the right combination of Blades on my characters, but they initiate and follow-up on driver combos just fine. Nia will break and topple on her own, so I've been able to tune Rex's abilities accordingly.

Following up on this: I've been pretty critical of the randomness involved with rare Blades, but one way that randomness is really beneficial to the experience of the game is that everyone ends up with slightly different parties and thus slightly different experiences.

My first rare was Floren, an Earth healer, for Nia. Because of that, I was able to reliably build a solid Blade combo of Earth -> Fire -> Earth, and I believe that's where one of Nia's break skills comes from. Floren also has botany skills, so I've been flush with botany items but found other materials more scarce, and that's affected the difficulty of some side quests and whatnot.

My second rare was Azami, a dark ranged attacker, for Rex, and that's had its own series of affects on the flow of the game. Like, for instance, that she also has botany, so I have more plants than I know what to do with.

My team is
Rex: Pyra 2.0, Wulfric, Roc
Nia: Dromarch, Boreas, Kora - got Boreas as one of my first rares, ignored him for a long time since he looed silly, but he is pretty decent, and one of the easiest blades to max affinity chart on, at least among those I have seen.
4th driver: 'main blade', Aegaeon, Perceval.

Havent really looked much at blade combo synergy. They use break reasonably often - Wulfric got break as well for Rex, but I rarely use it. Pyra 2.0 topple has basically zero cooldown. But I dont have a launch on Rex, and only on one other char, who is awful at using it.

Guess the best ones to replace would be Wulfric or Aegaeon.

Edit: despoilering a tiny bit

Shadout wrote:
zeroKFE wrote:

Anyway, you can see that either way if you want to prioritize driver combos, you find yourself annoyingly restricted about who you can equip. For example, on Nia I have a few claw healers that I prefer over the bit ball healers I find myself using for break, but since I can't really control which blade she's using other than through what element I have up for blade combos, that's a much less valuable choice if I want to be able to trigger driver combos effectively.

Which blades are you using?

For smash farming items, you mean, or in general?

While I do have a smash farming setups with other blades and drivers (I had to make it interesting somehow, and often that meant answering the question "would this other dumb setup work well too?"), what I mostly used was along these lines:

Controlling Rex, equipped with the Overcharge Bangle for fast switches, and using:
Pyra for topple, obviously.
Vale for break. Other spear users are fine too, but her set of abilities deal out damage real fast, and she gets stronger the more you use her specials. Wulfric might compete, but I often use the accessory that boosts damage significantly when characters are the opposite gender which helps out Vale vs him.

Spoiler:

Pandoria

for launch, primarily. Sometimes Agate, since I STILL haven't gone hunting bosses to properly level up Zenobia, and her bonuses work best vs higher level monsters, and I was farming monsters lower level than me. Dagas might be good too, but he was one of my last three pulled, so I didn't really have a chance to mess around with him. Also, he and Gorg also are up against the issue with the accessory mentioned above.
Outside of smash farming, I'll still mostly use the spear, or swap in a later story blade to allow the fifth driver into the party, and usually swap the overcharge bangle out to something like a crit damage booster.

Fourth driver with all three katanas for smash.
Perceval, Theory, and

Spoiler:

Aegaeon

all boost agility, which makes them ideal for evasion tanking.
Newt was also one of my last three pulled blades, so I've been using her to level her up, but she boosts HP rather than agility, so she probably wouldn't make the cut for harder fights.
When not smash farming, I'll use the respective story blade because they are also quite good, and have the other two as katanas. Finch and and Kasandra do sometimes see some use just to mix things up (Finch boosts agility, and Kasandra deals good damage), but the rest of the shield hammer users might as well not exist.

Nia with all her blades capable of break.
Drommarch, because he's great, and why not.
Then, two of the bitball users, mostly chosen for elemental synergy with what I choose on the other two drivers. Honestly, I haven't looked too closely to compare their abilities, since they all are quite effective as healers, and not great for damage. Claw users are generally a better hybrid of damage and healing, but they launch rather than break, and the timing window for launching is so short that if you want it done consistently, you really have to do it yourself. So, mostly Boreas, Floren, or Vess, but I rolled Dahlia late so I was using her a bit to level her up.
Outside of smash farming, I'll put Kora or Nim in instead for variety and better damage. Adenine is on Rex and I haven't bothered overdriving her, but she's also quite a good balance and has built in loot bonuses. Ursula I rolled late, and is a royal pain to level up.

I like the gacha system, even if it has its problems. I like that it forces you to make do with what you get and try things out. The storyline game is easy enough that you can get by without min/maxing on Blades, anyway.

That being said, I still haven't gotten a Lightning rare after getting 12+ rares so far from crystals. Luckily I stumbled into

Spoiler:

The Vess storyline in Gormott

and was able to secure a Lightning blade for Nia at least. Oh and about that "found" Blade:

Spoiler:

as soon as Vess' driver coughed in the very first scene, I knew how this was going to end and I would get Vess. lol

The best part of the gacha system is that moment when the animation turns from the normal opening into a Rare blade intro movie (instead of the simpler intro movie for Common blade). I still get super excited when that happens and watch every moment! I feel like I'm more interested in my Blades because of this. If I just got them all through story beats I wouldn't be as excited.