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Xenoblade 3D |OT| Is that a Monado in your pocket or are you just really feeling it?

Xbro

Member
I'm lv 23 at the marsh now. So much fun and so many challenges.
Xord
is very challenging.for me when my level is 21 and retried for 4 times. Until now, the most difficult unique monster for me is Solid Konev (lv10) in Tephra Cave.

I don't want to jump bridges, but I'm going to assume this isn't your first time playing.
 

thomaszyj

Neo Member
I don't want to jump bridges, but I'm going to assume this isn't your first time playing.
This is my second time to play the game. I feel it is boring to defeat unique monsters when my level is very high at the end of game. This time, I tried to kill unique monsters only. However, I still killed a few monsters to get enough sp to learn skills. Luckily, I challenged most unique monsters(only one exception) at the same or lower level. I found some strategies that I never thought in the first gameplay. It is really interesting.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
This is my second time to play the game. I feel it is boring to defeat unique monsters when my level is very high at the end of game. This time, I tried to kill unique monsters only. However, I still killed a few monsters to get enough sp to learn skills. Luckily, I challenged most unique monsters(only one exception) at the same or lower level. I found some strategies that I never thought in the first gameplay. It is really interesting.

That's pretty much what I'm doing, except avoiding I'm avoiding normal enemies wherever possible. Tirkin hideout was certainly interesting, felt like a stealth game.

At the boss you mentioned, it's a bit of a road block mostly because Sharla dies in one hit to nearly any of his attacks. Can't build the party gauge when I'm busy reviving her, and she keeps stealing aggro like crazy. Probably going to craft some gems next time I play, will have to see what I have available.
 

ivysaur12

Banned
"Ether" is basically synonymous with magic in this case. For your arts, anything with a gray line through it is an ether art and will be impacted by the ether stat.

Light Heal has it:
Shulk_LightHeal.png


Back Slash doesn't:
Shulk_BackSlash.png


Art color is also an indicator.

Blue arts are generally ether-based support arts, like healing, curing, or other status-related stuff. Purple arts are damage-based ether arts, like Reyn's Aura Burst. Auras are also always ether-based.

Red arts are physical attack arts, they will never be ether based.

Don't remember if any break arts are ether-based, but topple and daze arts can be either physical or ether.

I... had no idea what that line meant.
 

thomaszyj

Neo Member
That's pretty much what I'm doing, except avoiding I'm avoiding normal enemies wherever possible. Tirkin hideout was certainly interesting, felt like a stealth game.

At the boss you mentioned, it's a bit of a road block mostly because Sharla dies in one hit to nearly any of his attacks. Can't build the party gauge when I'm busy reviving her, and she keeps stealing aggro like crazy. Probably going to craft some gems next time I play, will have to see what I have available.
I do not craft gems before defeating ether mine story boss. The key for this battle is monado speed and Sharla's defense. I strongly suggest you to link Reyn's skill heavy equipment. With the heavy armor, Sharla and Reyn will survive longer. You can get the heavy armor from bionis leg and ether mine unique monsters. The key is to increase affinity between Sharla and Reyn and let Sharla link to the skill to wear heavy armor.
 
But where is the model viewer though?

What's the best guide everyone is using?

I'd also recommend the google spreadsheet to supplement the wiki, as others have suggested. It's great for searching and tracking your progress for 100% runs. The wiki has the most detail for stats and locations in particular, but this gives you basic facts and data quickly. Keep in mind the spreadsheet contains spoilers and shouldn't be used for a standard playthrough of the main story.

Model viewer is in the main menu at the title screen. You have to reset to access it.
 
As banal as some of these quests are, I will say: The quest in Frontier Village when you choose
Cherri to run the Pollen Works really colors the world pretty well.
More of those for XCX, less beat 10 monsters/find 50 of XYZ.

There's one sidequest in Satorl Marsh (minor sidequest spoiler)
where there's a Nopon somewhere in a cave that's injured and starving. He asks you for food, later to kill monsters outside the cave and also medicine. I made it my top priority to help that poor Nopon because otherwise I'd be leaving him there to die. That sidequest became my most memorable, I just felt so bad for the lil' guy. ):
I like the little personal stories you get from some sidequests, I also hope they continue that.
 

Brakke

Banned
People really don't read the tutorials, do they?

I always read the new character tutorials (because otherwise their combat mechanic is completely impossible to figure out...). It's weird though because you can pretty much get by without ever reading a tutorial except when all of a sudden you can't. It's a signal to noise thing. They never teach you that the tutorials are necessary so you just assume "well, I'm succeeding so I must have figured it out on my own".

There's one sidequest in Satorl Marsh (minor sidequest spoiler)
where there's a Nopon somewhere in a cave that's injured and starving. He asks you for food, later to kill monsters outside the cave and also medicine. I made it my top priority to help that poor Nopon because otherwise I'd be leaving him there to die. That sidequest became my most memorable, I just felt so bad for the lil' guy. ):
I like the little personal stories you get from some sidequests, I also hope they continue that.

Hah I had the same experience. Definitely dug that one.
 

ramyeon

Member
There's one sidequest in Satorl Marsh (minor sidequest spoiler)
where there's a Nopon somewhere in a cave that's injured and starving. He asks you for food, later to kill monsters outside the cave and also medicine. I made it my top priority to help that poor Nopon because otherwise I'd be leaving him there to die. That sidequest became my most memorable, I just felt so bad for the lil' guy. ):
I like the little personal stories you get from some sidequests, I also hope they continue that.
I hope you do the Frontier Village side quests that link in with that lone Nopon's quest line!
 

ChrisD

Member
People really don't read the tutorials, do they?

I have, though. I read every tutorial as they come up, and even open up the Tutorial menu from time-to-time (mostly when I get a new character or want to use someone else). That line is just really hard to see on a 3DS screen. :p
 
How do you improve affinity? Every time I go to a heart to heart moment I never get to do it lol

This is my second play through, but I never tried to work on affinity

- Give gifts to them (look up on a wiki or something to see what's best).
- Have them in your party as you accept / progress through sidequests.
- Do Chain Attacks.
- Help them during battle when hit with ailments such as topple, low tension (their portrait has a sad face), and deadness.
- Do successful Burst Affinity during fights (where the action slows briefly and you time your button press with the shrinking circle).

The last two are the best methods. One trick that works pretty well early game is when you spot a group of Mechon, engage them but do not use Enchant. Your other two team members will keep attacking and constantly dealing only 1 damage and stuff to them will lower their tension until the point that you can run up and cheer them on.

A better method supposedly that I haven't tried is find a Unique Monster that causes sleep or topple constantly. Let your part get hit with the status ailments, run up and save them, get distance, repeat until they die or you're bored, flee. No idea who a good target is though. A Google result has suggested Flabbergasted Jerome is a suitable target, but I don't know why he's good.
 

Verilligo

Member
Confound it Shulk AI, stop using Battle Soul. I can't even switch it out due to the lack of Arts.

He's so suicidal with it. :(

Unequip the art if you're going to have the AI control Shulk. There's a button for that, it was 2 on the Wiimote, I'm not sure what the 3DS controls require you to push. Not replace one art with another, but flat-out unequip art.
 

ChrisD

Member
Unequip the art if you're going to have the AI control Shulk. There's a button for that, it was 2 on the Wiimote, I'm not sure what the 3DS controls require you to push. Not replace one art with another, but flat-out unequip art.

I pressed multiple buttons in different sequences looking for just a way to do that, but it was to no avail. Going to skim the Digital Manual really quick and see if it says anything there. Thanks for letting me know the option is(was?) there. I had given up on it.
 

Pangya

Member
I pressed multiple buttons in different sequences looking for just a way to do that, but it was to no avail. Going to skim the Digital Manual really quick and see if it says anything there. Thanks for letting me know the option is(was?) there. I had given up on it.

Should be ZR button.
 

ramyeon

Member
I pressed multiple buttons in different sequences looking for just a way to do that, but it was to no avail. Going to skim the Digital Manual really quick and see if it says anything there. Thanks for letting me know the option is(was?) there. I had given up on it.
Isn't it ZR? That's the button used to unequip basically everything else (Gems, equipment etc).
 

VICI0US

Member
I'm really enjoying the game, but the UI is distractingly awful.

It really sucks that they didn't scale the name plates that pop up over enemies to a smaller size. It's difficult to see what's going on due to this lazy oversight.

The fact that 80% of the screen is covered with this UI at times is just absurd.

the uh.. "usage" of the bottom screen is insultingly bad.

like seriously, you couldn't at least put a pattern or background down there? just a blank black screen with an off-center map and character portraits
 

ramyeon

Member
the uh.. "usage" of the bottom screen is insultingly bad.

like seriously, you couldn't at least put a pattern or background down there? just a blank black screen with an off-center map and character portraits
Yeah the bottom screen sucks, although I didn't notice it after I started playing to be honest. It felt so good to play this again on such a convenient, comfortable platform and have it perform so well. For that alone I'm glad this port happened.
 

Overside

Banned
Man this shit sounds so bonkers and so much cooler than the rote-as-fuck hero journey it starts as. I wish they telegraphed this stuff more.

I love a story that makes you excited to go read source texts. Like True Detective got me to go read The King in Yellow. I want this game to inspire me to go read this stuff you're referring to but here I am just short of Nopon village and there's nothing to indicate anything you've explained here.

Well, things like this, actual event oriented story/plot, you arent going to get until you get to that point in the game, and see the events themselves, which is why these parts I have spoilered, because they are actually story spoilers, rather than themes and symbology type story stuff.

You have, seen some things that have indicated this, but you just have no way of really knowing what it was until later, when you go, huh. I guess that wasnt a figure of speech or whatever.

And if you are just before frontier village, then you have seen one of the very important events described, although you may not understand the full importance of what shulk was taught to do, until later in the game. Even gameplay mechanics/moves have a significant place in the story.

However, you should be about knee deep in symbology and themes by now. Which will begin opening up worlds of story beyond simply rote event after event.

For example, the very first thing you see in the game, is probably the most awesome visual representation of the forming of a Dyad... Ever.

sacred-geometry-overview-20-638.jpg


The binding/dividing line of this dyad is one of the most instantly iconic pieces of imagry in the game, visible and eye drawing from pretty much any of the early areas of the game, stretching all the way out from the mechonis, and into the bionis.

Duality is also a huge theme for the rest of the game as well.

Dyads, are begat by the Monad, so you know you have 3 entities, or a triad. The dyads, which we watched come into existance, and the monad that created them.

Have you seen a symbol that might be representative of a triad? You have. Its been plastered center shot of a cutscene you just recently watched, if you are in makna forest, far enough to be 'right before frontier village'. Might want to keep an eye out for that symbol. And its pretty obvious how many beings will be bearing it.

Story veterans:
No, this is not about Zanzas 'trinity', that is a false triad, that zanza created, because he fancies himself the Monad. He did it wrong, because he sucks.

The story of the events that happen in a sequential order is not going to unfold, until the events of the story unfold in a narrow, narrative linear fashion, as things like plots do. And this is well done enough, and is fun, but its never really what a Xeno story has been about, and blade has one of the best of the bunch in that regaurd. The story of the games world, symbology and themes, is woven into both the top layer of plot, and also into the gameplay, and it runs deep, and wide.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
I do not craft gems before defeating ether mine story boss. The key for this battle is monado speed and Sharla's defense. I strongly suggest you to link Reyn's skill heavy equipment. With the heavy armor, Sharla and Reyn will survive longer. You can get the heavy armor from bionis leg and ether mine unique monsters. The key is to increase affinity between Sharla and Reyn and let Sharla link to the skill to wear heavy armor.

Yeah, I don't have anymore heavy equipment and my playthrough rules don't let me go back and grind for stuff.

Gems and probably buying some armor from the Nopon merchant if he has anything slotted will be my only options.
 

El Odio

Banned
Riki is so awesome. Heropon Riki b̶e̶s̶t̶e̶s̶t̶ very cool!
Fixed that for you.
I'm at that Frontier Village as well and already level 39 thanks to doing some refugee camp quests so Eryth Sea should be interesting.
 

thomaszyj

Neo Member
Yeah, I don't have anymore heavy equipment and my playthrough rules don't let me go back and grind for stuff.

Gems and probably buying some armor from the Nopon merchant if he has anything slotted will be my only options.
You can get agility and muscle up from ether mine and craft the crystal to above 75%. Get 2 crystals and it is possible for you to get higher level gems. Because the affinity is low, this method may be easier to get good gems. Completing the collectopaedia will also give you relatively good armor and gems. Or you can also save and load to get what you want from gold chests just like the way to get advanced art books.
 
I kept getting my ass kicked by the boss right after Riki joined the party, so I made my way around the world map a few times until I realized that I didn't even touch Colony 6. No idea how. So I'm starting to rebuild it now and go thru a few side quests.

The game's scope continues to impress me, it really is something special. A treat technical feat on 3DS too!
 

Fireblend

Banned
10 hours into the game, I keep forgetting about the plethora of systems I have to keep an eye on. Skill trees, arts, equipment, gems, etc... in particular I think the equipment UI could be improved; it's hard for me to tell whether a piece of equipment is better than another one, specially since gem effects are shown when comparing gear.

Anyway, I'm level 23 at the
Colony 6 mine trying to rescue Juju
. Does that sound about right?
 

Brakke

Banned
About to start playing this for the first time. Anything important to know when starting off?

Accept but don't obsess over quests.

Read the tutorials they're mad good.

Push on until Guar Plain, that's when you're out of the prologue and the true Xenoblade begins.

Other than that, just press on, and on... and on!!

Welcome to the party.
 

NolbertoS

Member
So I'm about 2 hours in and honestly not feeling the love that GAF has for this game. Played Xenogears, Xenosaga 1, 2, and 3 but Monado is meh to me. I think I might just take a break from the game and play some Super Smash Bros until I need the urge to get back into Xenoblade.
 
BTW, what's the opinion around here on the strategy of picking off adds surrounding a field boss, running from the fight, and repeating until my party can take on the boss Mano E Mano?
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
BTW, what's the opinion around here on the strategy of picking off adds surrounding a field boss, running from the fight, and repeating until my party can take on the boss Mano E Mano?

Cheeeeese. Shouldn't be necessary at all, but killing the small stuff first can help. Especially when dealing with enemies that can do their own chain attacks like Tirkins.


I had an enemy do this to me though, lol. One of the Tirkin UMs on Bionis Leg literally gave up and booked it, ran through another group of Tirkins and out of his own aggro range, then ran back to his starting point with full HP. Was like whaaaaaat. Have it recorded, will upload it eventually.

You can get agility and muscle up from ether mine and craft the crystal to above 75%. Get 2 crystals and it is possible for you to get higher level gems. Because the affinity is low, this method may be easier to get good gems. Completing the collectopaedia will also give you relatively good armor and gems. Or you can also save and load to get what you want from gold chests just like the way to get advanced art books.

I know all this, but thanks. Wasn't really asking for help, just commenting on what I was doing.

My rules for my play through are, roughly:

- Fight all the UMs possible, once. Repeat kills for grinding are out. Might make an exception if I tackle post game.

- Avoid normal enemies when possible. Adds for UMs and stuff like that in the way will get killed off, but if it is reasonably avoidable I will avoid it.

- No chest farming, whatever I get is what I get.

- No quests, with exceptions. I'm getting the challenge quests since I am killing the UMs anyway, and I will need to do some prereq quests for some enemies to be available.

Might be forgetting something, but that is most of it. Have definitely abused the collectopedia, Lightning Attack from Tephra Cave is incredibly good early in the game.
 

GaimeGuy

Volunteer Deputy Campaign Director, Obama for America '16
So I'm about 2 hours in and honestly not feeling the love that GAF has for this game. Played Xenogears, Xenosaga 1, 2, and 3 but Monado is meh to me. I think I might just take a break from the game and play some Super Smash Bros until I need the urge to get back into Xenoblade.

This has nothing to do with Xenogears or saga. Tetsuya Takahashi just loves "Xeno" (he directed Xenogears, Xenosaga, and Xenoblade).


At least play until you reach the Gaur Plains and explore them a bit.
 

ZeroX03

Banned
BTW, what's the opinion around here on the strategy of picking off adds surrounding a field boss, running from the fight, and repeating until my party can take on the boss Mano E Mano?

That's exactly what Lure is designed for. Separate the mooks from the bosses.

So I'm about 2 hours in and honestly not feeling the love that GAF has for this game. Played Xenogears, Xenosaga 1, 2, and 3 but Monado is meh to me. I think I might just take a break from the game and play some Super Smash Bros until I need the urge to get back into Xenoblade.

You're like the 5th person to come into this thread and say "I'm a few hours in and not feeling it". Keep playing. You're like 5% through the game. Soon you'll be really feeling it.
 

Jintor

Member
Overside, Jesus Christ mate, I might have to reread a summary for xenoblade cos suddenly the story is making a lot more sense than when I played it a few years back
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
That's exactly what Lure is designed for. Separate the mooks from the bosses.



You're like the 5th person to come into this thread and say "I'm a few hours in and not feeling it". Keep playing. You're like 5% through the game. Soon you'll be really feeling it.

Some enemies are automatically grouped and attack together, you can see this when you select the enemy, sometimes other enemies will have yellow arrows over their heads.

Some are solo despite having other enemies around them. That is where lure works well.
 

ZeroX03

Banned
Some enemies are automatically grouped and attack together, you can see this when you select the enemy, sometimes other enemies will have yellow arrows over their heads.

Some are solo despite having other enemies around them. That is where lure works well.

Yeah. I'm in Satorl Marsh and almost all the field bosses are separate from the units around them.
 
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