Who needs Wikipedia when I have you my ocd friend!

@Tech101: About gem crafting, there's a pretty good guide up on the GameFAQs Xenoblade forum... basically, the idea when you go in to craft gems is first to refine the traits you want into cylinders as close to 100% as you can possibly get without going over (100% or more yields a gem, of course), and then combine those high-percentage cylinders to gain more powerful gems. by 'refining', I mean to use a set of characters with attributes geared toward cylinder creation (in order to separate out multiple traits from crystals with more than one attribute) — Sharla as the shooter has a bonus where the Cylinder Gauge fills up more with a Gentle flame, and Shulk has a 'Good' chance of giving you a Gentle flame, so early on (while you're messing around) you can practice with those two for separating out the qualities into cylinders. You can't really strategize with their character bonuses until you've got more people in your party, so don't stress over it early on.

Once you've got the cylinders separated out, you can start putting everything together. There's two ways of going about it, the first of which is to take individual cylinders and raise their qualities via Medium flame bonuses. this becomes easier later on in the game, since you gain a character with a bonus that gives you three cylinders right off the bat — you can pair them with a character that has a better chance of giving you Medium flame so that you wind up raising three separate qualities with little effort.

Early on, though, it's easiest to just collect a lot of cylinders and add them all together. I try to aim for a combned total of 160% or above (150% if I'm in a hurry and want to risk it), and then use Shulk and Reyn together to create the gem. Shulk is more likely to go into Fever mode, Reyn is the most likely character to give you Strong Flame and not Medium or Gentle, and both of them should have pretty strong affinity for one another no matter how far along you are compared to the rest of your characters, so you'll get more turns with them.

The goal you're reaching for is to get into Heat mode, which is when your characters manage to raise the percentage of any one quality to 200% or more — at that point, instead of a gem at the same level as the materials you've put into it, you'll get a gem the next level up (level III materials would yield a level IV gem, for example). If you manage to raise that one quality to 300% or more, you'll go into Mega-Heat mode, where you'll receive two gems for your effort, both one level over the materials you've put into them (two level IV gems with your level III materials). This is why you want to refine out individual qualities; if they're focused on only one thing, the percentage of that one thing will be much higher than if their turns were bounced between two separate quality percentages equally.

The whole process is a bit tricky to get the hang of, and it takes a bit of trial and error to figure out the best team with who you've got at the moment for refinement. Shulk/Reyn is the best for actual crafting with the refined cylinders, hands-down IMO.

One thing that's handy to keep in mind is that you can start the crafting process even though you don't have any traits at 100%; you can hit 'confirm' at any time so long as you've chosen two or more materials to craft with. it looks all sad when you don't manage to create a gem, but that refinement is a vital part of the process if you're wanting to outfit your characters with the best possible gems. well-placed high-level gems can mean the difference between life and death in battle :3

I've crafted gems like, twice, and my main character is level 97, and I have about 5 more quests left. In the entire game.
So I never really found gem crafting important (though I will try it more for achievements Pre-endgame).

Anyone know if Lv.100 is the Lv. cap? I would hope so.
...
Now I just need to affinity/AP/Skill Tree grind...

Thanks tbd. That helped quite a bit! Another question. Once you start collecting higher ranked cylinders and stones are the lower ranked ones any good anymore? I just noticed once I read your post that I even had level two ranked anything for gem crafting!

@tech101: naah, once you've got a nice supply of high-level gems, the low-level stuff is only good for selling — obviously you don't want to start getting rid of all your level II stuff when you pick up a handful of unrefined level III crystals/cylinders, but when you've got your party well equipped you can go ahead and get rid of the low-level stuff without a problem IMO. selling low-level gems and gemcrafting materials makes for some pretty good trips to the store when you're going around and picking up Arts manuals :3

@TysonQ7: good for you? i want my party outfitted the best i can possibly get them, though, and gemcrafting is the way to go if you need specific gems. if you do every single quest in the game you pick up some good stuff (and that's probably why you haven't needed to craft anything, i'd bet), but if you're not a completionist and don't care, you'll need to supplement your inventory a tad.

Sees Gem Crafting is a really deep and importantly implemented feature

Ignores it completely
And yes, I've done all the quests. But that's just because I like the feeling of satisfaction I get when I finish one.
And because choosing to ignore the quests is like choosing to ignore a whole part of the game, well at least in my eyes. Well, different strokes for different beings, I suppose. Glad you're having fun playing your own way.

Thank you for your blessing to play the game however I like, TysonQ7! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
_/eyeroll

Oh, you're ever so welcome. Whenever you want to play a game differently than me, just say so and I'll give it to you again.

I wasn't under the impression that Xenoblade was something more, but the story has been more entertaining than most RPGs so far, and the setting where the game takes place is so unique and incredible. You live and die on the backs of two titans. How great is that? There's an area later in the game where you can look around to see the Bionis and the Mechonis slumped over towards each other with Sword Valley in between. It's too awesome.

I played for about an hour today. All I did was map out that hugh stinking marsh. I'm not complaining or anything but its HUGH!! LOL. I'm really starting to enjoy this game. After the last story sequence I think its one of if not the best story and presentation of any RPG I've played. Thanks to all who helped me understand some of the ins and outs as well. This game is really starting to become my favorite RPG ever!

The level cap is 99 but despite that there are 5 unique enemies with a level higher than that who are referred to by fans as the super bosses. They dpn't appear until after Mechonis core though but I know that you've got through that so you could give them a go if you want soon. I don't know how hard they are as I didn't fight them but there is one in Satorl marsh, one on the Fallen arm and three on Valak mountain. Xenoblade wiki has a page on them if you want to find out more.

Like @TysonQ7, I will also be completing every sidequest in the game. Unlike @TysonQ7, I will be experimenting with Ether gem crafting. Then I'll have the know how to create some very enhanced Ether gems later on in the game. Which will most likely level the playing field, when attempting to slay those 5 unique super bosses. You're only allowed to carry over 30 Ether gems into the New Game + file, so I'll only be transfering over the very best of my lot. I'm not going to complete any sidequests on my second playthrough, because I'll already posses any rewards that were worth keeping. I'll really only be playing through the game for a second time just to experience the amazing story again, and to complete any Trials I may not have completed on my first playthrough.

@TysonQ7, before you finish the game, would you please do me a favor? Would you please count the total amount of sidequests you've completed, and let me know how many there are in the game? I'd greatly appreciate it, if you would. I've only seen rough estimates online. Which state there are between 480-490 total sidequests in the game. A difference of ten sidequests may not be a big deal to most, but they are when you've been challenging yourself to complete as many as I have.

@Fonis
Thanks. I already ran into the SuperBoss on Valak mountain. Haven't seen one on the Fallen Arm though.

@G4L
Sure thing.

Wow, I'm really wrapping things up. But, I'm not fighting the Final Boss until I'm as OP as possible.
That means all Sidequests done, all Affinities maxed, All armor top notch, All skill trees maxed, and all arts Level X.
...It may not be possible for me to kill all UM's though, I believe I may have missed some Pre-cutoff.

That's what New Game + is for @TysonQ7. Being given another chance to defeat those unique monsters will give you more incentive to play through the game again.

@G4L
Maybe...
I don't use affinity coins at all so it's not really something I care about...

I think I've played enough Xenoblade to conclude it was made for 14-year-old boys.

• There's not too much swearing.
• There's loads of robot violence, but the party draws the line at killing. (It's like having an entire team of adventuring Batmans.)
• Boobs are displayed everywhere.

I like how your 3rd point contradicts your 1st point. And yes, it's rated T, NO REALLY?

Yes it is T rated, but I wouldn't say every T rated game is aimed solely at teen boys. I'm a pretty immature guy though, so I can handle it.

Boobs! I haven't seen any Boobs, although I haven't really left the first colony yet.

• Excessive swearing is mostly used by teenagers, not our grandparents. So i don't understand the point.
• These characters are actual, classic heroes so they don't kill people. I don't see how this is immature. People are just gotten too used to protagonists like what we see in GTA, who mindlessly shoot everyone in sight. There is still killing in this game, but it's done by the bad guys.
• The game really has some overly sexual outfits for women characters, but people either like or dislike this kind of stuff pretty much regardless of their age. My personal opinion is that it really is a bit out of place.