Topic: Xenoblade Chronicles 2

It's the common video game curse: the second you want some specific thing from an RNG activity, you never get it until a grind. Then when you're not aiming for it you get them by the dozens.

I was so angry when it took me like 10 minutes to get an aurora at the Leftherian Archipelago, then hours later when doing other stuff I got two auroras within the span of like 2 hours lel.

@EvilLucario Funny how I've encountered places where I need specific field skill and when I don't have what's needed, I'll bond with couple of crystals to see if I can randomly get what I want. Usually I don't even get a rare blade out of those 5 or so crystals I decide to use but twice I've got a new rare blade and they happened to have the skill I needed. One of those times was to access that one room at the end of the huge stairs with the water slide that go underground. You need to dive and I just happened to get Gorg from the first crystal I used. Sure, I'd been there before and this was my second time visiting, just to see if I'd missed anything while I was there but I wasn't even close to having all the required skills back then.

Whoa whoa whoa! I just had a Blade get S1 level Affinity! I didn't know that was a thing! How do I see the level and what is the actual cap? Is there one? I had assumed S for a complete chart was maxed out!

@Heavyarms55 S+ is the cap. You reach that after S9. I have a few Blades at the S+ rank. They're pretty broken. LOL! To view a Blade's rank and additional information, cycle the menu on the bottom-right while viewing a Blade's stats.

What benefits do these higher affinity levels offer? Faster switches? Higher damage?

I noticed that too, and couldn't figure it out.

On a semi related note, I was looking at some affinity charts - Zenobia's in particular, with her requirements being to be in the party when you defeat various unique opponents, and I thought to my self what the map needs is a filter for all of the grave stones for fallen monsters. lso, it would be handy if the grave stones told you the monster and its level.
Although, I suppose I could easily just check online.

My last activity before I removed the card from my switch (and move on to Fire Emblem Warriors) was to beat Territorial Rotbart. I don't remember getting anything decent from it though...

@AlternateButtons The key regarding getting a specific blade element is the chart which shows Compassion, Trust, Bravery, and Truth in addition to boosters. For example if your driver has a low Bravery level compared to the other 3 and you use no Bravery boosters, it's rare that you'll get fire/water blades.

I'm trying to complete Poppi's affinity chart but can't get 50,000 points in Tiger! Tiger!, anyone got some advice?

So, I'm near the end of chapter 8, and have everyone at at least Level 60, but I'm stuck at the final(?) hallway of the World Tree where there are a few teams of the motorcycle robot enemies, the giant robot enemy, and a few others. I unfortunately keep dying at this part and can't even beat 1 team of 3 of the motorcycle enemies, any suggestions? Do I need to simply level up to beat them, or am I missing something? On Rex I got Mythra, Roc, Wulfric, on Nia I got Dromarch and 2 common healers, and on Zeke I have attackers I believe, along with Pandoria.

@Grumblevolcano

Do you know you get bonuses for a perfect run - that is, no damage, all treasure, all ether crystals and all enemies defeated.
You can play it on easy, with no penalty to your score. I achieved a score of 75,910 on the first stage.

@edhe All enemies defeated doesn't seem to count towards perfect, I managed to get perfect just from no damage, all ether crystals and all treasure.

@Grumblevolcano

I can't confirm this, but if defeating enemies adds to your score, it'll be multiplied when the perfect bonuses are applied, and you'll get a greater score than you would if you didn't kill any. I can't remember if defeating the enemies actually gives you score, so correct me if I'm wrong.

What is the best score you can get though?

@edhe I only defeated some of the enemies and got 74,782. I know there's a special bonus unrelated to perfect that involves not killing any of the enemies.

@NintenNinja16 I'd recommend leveling up some more so basically side quest and merc mission completion. Don't forget that increasing the dev level of regions opens up more of these.

So you managed it?

I just looked it up on reddit, and from what I understand, you get points for kills and items (even duplicate spanners or oxygen tanks or whatever).
Furthermore, you get a bonus to your score by:

• Finishing the level with full health (although you should be careful not to get hit without having collected the spanner upgrade, as you will lose a treasure chest)
• Achieveing 3 medals.

You can get other medals by collecting all ether crystals (which will reward you with a further 100 crystals), collecting all treasure chests (which will reward you with a further 300 crystals), and, apparently, by not killing an enemy, although, in my understanding, you need to either kill all enemies or avoid all of them for the optimal score. It's not something I was aware of.
There isn't a medal for killing them all, after all.

I found this information on the Xenoblade reddit:

I never really bothered with Poppi - I installed a Tank III mod on her, but the more advanced gear was locked out, so I didn't really feel compelled to bother with it, when I wasn't able to outfit her with the best gear. I've since gotten all of the tech manuals, so it might be something I'll look in to, now I've beaten the story.

Yeah, Poppi is by far the single best Blade in the game. She's the fastest and easiest way to solo superbosses, and can really give Rex a run for his money in terms of DPS/DPM, even with him maxed out. I used Tora for the entire game, he carried me so hard during Chapter 7 lol.

Poppi is probably my favorite character in XC actually, overtaking Melia from XC1 as my past favorite.

This £29.99 at Argos right now. Amazon too but they are sold out, you can order from Amazon but it won't be fulfilled for 1-2 months.

@AlternateButtons, I believe my entire party was around level 60 at that point. Just for reference.

@AlternateButtons It never gets easier, friend, and unlike Xeno X there's no magic enemy level-down feature if you're getting repeatedly beaten down by story enemies. You can't just stop fighting if you're currently evenly matched with opponents, otherwise later ones WILL pull ahead.

...Forgive me for asking, but are you actually using the experience you accrue from quests by sleeping in inns?

@AlternateButtons When you discover new Locations/Landmarks, complete sidequests, and (I think) finish Merc Missions, you get bonus XP. When you rest at an Inn, you can cash in on that XP to instantly level up. If you haven't claimed any XP at all, you'll likely have enough XP to go up like 10+ levels or something.

@AlternateButtons In every Xenoblade game I've played (XC, XCX, XC2) the easiest way to level up is to complete quest. Yeah the ones in this game are long and require you to do multiple things to complete but it will be more efficient to do them than grind on enemies for the same amount of time.

Merc missions aren't as bad as you make them out to be. You send off some blades you aren't using and go about doing your business in the game, in 15-30 minutes they come back with exp, items, and upgraded field skills. You keep sending off groups on new missions and all that experience adds up.

I don't know what else to say that can help you out. You say you understand how the battles work. Maybe try a different team set up. Try out different blades on your drivers that benefit their role. Make sure your blades are equipped with the latest and strongest core chips you have found or bought.

@AlternateButtons I'm in the same chapter. Have been for the last month or so but mainly because I've been doing all kinds of other stuff instead of story progression (and I haven't played every day like I used to). The enemies are tough but I can still kill most of them (I think everyone in my team are level 55). I just run past the level 60 guys. I think I'm at the last battle before the chapter ends and I tried it once. I didn't stand a chance but I think it was mostly because I didn't have the best team for the battle and I haven't changed my items for a really long time.

I haven't leveled up at the inns or stopped to grind at any point. I've played ~90 hours. Don't underestimate the usefulness of merc missions.Most of them take 15 minutes or so. Let's say you get 500 exp every time. That's still 100 000 exp gained in 50 hours and all you needed to do is to choose a team for each mission. And that number would actually be even higher since you can send multiple teams once you increase your merc rank. In addition, you get items, shops get additional items you can buy and you unlock things in affinity charts.