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[Parshias7]

Does Shulk get another healing art besides Light Heal?

No. The easiest way to cut Sharla out of your team is to use Dunban as a tank. Dunban tanks with evasion, so slap some Agility Up gems on him and you won't need much healing. Once you get Riki he has a really strong cone heal move that makes him all the healing you'll really need.

My favorite party set-up is Melia/Dunban/Riki, although I occasionally swap Melia out for Shulk or Seven. Really anyonebutSharla/Dunban/Riki is really solid.

 

[jorgejjvr]

No. The easiest way to cut Sharla out of your team is to use Dunban as a tank. Dunban tanks with evasion, so slap some Agility Up gems on him and you won't need much healing. Once you get Riki he has a really strong cone heal move that makes him all the healing you'll really need.

My favorite party set-up is Melia/Dunban/Riki, although I occasionally swap Melia out for Shulk or Seven. Really anyonebutSharla/Dunban/Riki is really solid.

Maybe that's what I need. Ability up gems. Because Dunban dies way too fast on me and is the first one to go

 

[RiggyRob]

There are so many cool cutscenes in this game. Really impressive considering they're all in-engine.

What I liked best was that the game would remember the equipment you were wearing during a cutscene and show that same equipment when a flashback happens. Really cool feature.

 

[chaosblade]

Maybe that's what I need. Ability up gems. Because Dunban dies way too fast on me and is the first one to go

If you are using heavy armor on him, that's counter-intuitive since weight subtracts from agility. If he's dodging most physical attacks he doesn't need defense. Ether attacks are a threat, but light armor has the best ether defense.

If you have Serene Heart (and it doesn't take long to get it) you should pump points into that. 50% agility boost, and it gets higher at low health.

 

[jorgejjvr]

If you are using heavy armor on him, that's counter-intuitive since weight subtracts from agility. If he's dodging most physical attacks he doesn't need defense. Ether attacks are a threat, but light armor has the best ether defense.

If you have Serene Heart (and it doesn't take long to get it) you should pump points into that. 50% agility boost, and it gets higher at low health.

How do I know if he has heavy or light armor?

 

[chaosblade]

How do I know if he has heavy or light armor?

When you look at the stats for a piece of equipment it should say light/medium/heavy. Generally the weight stat will correlate with that, 1-2 is light, 2-3 is medium, 4-5 is heavy.

Your Dunban probably can't actually equip heavy armor since it requires a skill (I think he unlocks it, but it's lower down the tree) but light is better than medium on him.

There are also skills that offer modifiers for certain types of armor. Dunban has a "Lightweight Expert" skill I think, which improves the stats for lightweight armor he wears. And by using armor that all weighs just 1 unit, you can use a weight reduction skill (I know Shulk has one you can link) to make it effectively 0. That's an easy +5 agility.

 

[jorgejjvr]

When you look at the stats for a piece of equipment it should say light/medium/heavy. Generally the weight stat will correlate with that, 1-2 is light, 2-3 is medium, 4-5 is heavy.

Your Dunban probably can't actually equip heavy armor since it requires a skill (I think he unlocks it, but it's lower down the tree) but light is better than medium on him.

There are also skills that offer modifiers for certain types of armor. Dunban has a "Lightweight Expert" skill I think, which improves the stats for lightweight armor he wears. And by using armor that all weighs just 1 unit, you can use a weight reduction skill (I know Shulk has one you can link) to make it effectively 0. That's an easy +5 agility.

Thanks so much

 

[StarStabbedMoon]

How do I know if he has heavy or light armor?

Another easy way to tell armor weight is to highlight an armor with Dunban, and if it turns your agility stat into a lovely red color, that means it's heavier than what you have currently equipped. You want to keep that agility stat as high as possible with him.

 

[FlyinJ]

What is the deal with these "collectible flashbacks" that play sometimes when you grab a blue glowing collectible? Like "Oh, now we have 3 dung mushrooms, yay!". What are these telling me to do? And does the game log any of these events so I know I'll need 3 dung mushrooms for... something later?

 

[Kinsei]

What is the deal with these "collectible flashbacks" that play sometimes when you grab a blue glowing collectible? Like "Oh, now we have 3 dung mushrooms, yay!". What are these telling me to do? And does the game log any of these events so I know I'll need 3 dung mushrooms for... something later?

Those are telling you that the item you picked up is for a sidequest you haven't accepted yet. It's letting you know not to sell it right away.

 

[Beren the Empty-Handed]

How do I know if he has heavy or light armor?

In the equipment screen (that lists all weapons, bottoms, etc that you have) you can hit start to pull up more information. It will say the weight there.

 

[chaosblade]

What is the deal with these "collectible flashbacks" that play sometimes when you grab a blue glowing collectible? Like "Oh, now we have 3 dung mushrooms, yay!". What are these telling me to do? And does the game log any of these events so I know I'll need 3 dung mushrooms for... something later?

It's basically telling you that item will be used for a quest or Colony 6 reconstruction. They also have exclamation marks in the item menu, so it's a warning that you might not want to sell those.

You shouldn't need to sell collectables anyway though.

 

[ChrisD]

Am I of a misunderstanding, or is Riki the Gem King? Doubles the gem creation? Does that mean double the increase per turn?

 

[chaosblade]

Am I of a misunderstanding, or is Riki the Gem King? Doubles the gem creation? Does that mean double the increase per turn?

Different characters are good at different things. Riki is can work as a decent shooter but is a better engineer for breaking down crystals into individual cylinders.

Dunban is probably the best shooter for actually creating gems when you combine him with Reyn as an engineer, since you should get lots of consistent strong flames. With a run of decent luck this can easily net more "points" than having Riki do a second cycle.

Generally though, once affinity between your whole party is pretty high it's not hard to mega heat gems in general. Shulk/Riki/Dunban are all good for it with Reyn as the engineer. Breaking them down and getting them close to 100 without going over becomes more difficult since everyone will give jump in and give boosts with party support. That's why Riki is a good engineer, he's bad at actually creating gems. Combine him with Sharla and you should get almost entirely gentle flames.

 

[Aaronrules380]

What is the deal with these "collectible flashbacks" that play sometimes when you grab a blue glowing collectible? Like "Oh, now we have 3 dung mushrooms, yay!". What are these telling me to do? And does the game log any of these events so I know I'll need 3 dung mushrooms for... something later?

Side quests

 

[toadsworth]

Exploring my way through

Spoiler

Makna Forest

now, but I have a few questions.

How do affinity coins work? I keep getting them but don't know how to use them. I read something about linking skills between party members?

I just got

Spoiler

Melia

for the party but have no idea how to use her. I can only summon 3 ethers at a time? How do i know when to summon which ones? I'd like to get proficient with her because she seems like she can output massive damage if played right.

 

[El Odio]

Exploring my way through

Spoiler

Makna Forest

now, but I have a few questions.

How do affinity coins work? I keep getting them but don't know how to use them. I read something about linking skills between party members?

I just got

Spoiler

Melia

for the party but have no idea how to use her. I can only summon 3 ethers at a time? How do i know when to summon which ones? I'd like to get proficient with her because she seems like she can output massive damage if played right.

Affinity coins are what you use to link skills. If you go to the skill tree and press y, you can then give characters skills possessed by another one at the cost of affinity coins.

 

[chaosblade]

Exploring my way through

Spoiler

Makna Forest

now, but I have a few questions.

How do affinity coins work? I keep getting them but don't know how to use them. I read something about linking skills between party members?

I just got

Spoiler

Melia

for the party but have no idea how to use her. I can only summon 3 ethers at a time? How do i know when to summon which ones? I'd like to get proficient with her because she seems like she can output massive damage if played right.

Affinity coins are used for skill links. You get one each time you level up, and one each time you kill a unique monster for the first time. When you're looking at a character's skill trees you can hit a button (minus on Wii, select on 3DS? apparently Y on 3DS) and it will take you to the skill links.

Links are based on the shape of the skill icon and the affinity between characters. And different skills have different costs, so a lot of the best ones tend to require a lot of coins. You can use them indiscriminately, they aren't permanently spent. When you remove a skill link you get those coins back.



And yeah, Melia can summon 3 elementals. They have different effects so order matters. Doing Thunder first is ideal since it improves ether, they are released in reverse order so holding that one while firing the others will cause them to do a bit more damage. Likewise, holding onto wind will improve agility and help Dunban tank effectively. Or Earth for Reyn.

 

[toadsworth]

Affinity coins are what you use to link skills. If you go to the skill tree and press y, you can then give characters skills possessed by another one at the cost of affinity coins.

So I can spend one coin to give Dunban Shulk's backstab art? Or is it only the skills from the trees?

 

[chaosblade]

So I can spend one coin to give Dunban Shulk's backstab art? Or is it only the skills from the trees?

Skill links, not Art links It's just for skills from the skill trees.

 

[toadsworth]

Skill links, not Art links It's just for skills from the skill trees.

Ok, thanks! Does the skill link swap the skills or do they become shared? I'm sure all this is in the tutorial, I'm just bored at work

 

[chaosblade]

Ok, thanks! Does the skill link swap the skills or do they become shared? I'm sure all this is in the tutorial, I'm just bored at work

Shared, the character with the skill gets to keep it, and you can link to the same skill with as many characters as you want as long as they have an appropriate slot (i.e., an open circle skill for that character).

 

[Kinsei]

Ok, thanks! Does the skill link swap the skills or do they become shared? I'm sure all this is in the tutorial, I'm just bored at work

It becomes shared.

 

[Freedom = $1.05]

i feel like gem management is kind of a pain in the ass. I wish there was an prmopt that would show up if you to try to sell an item with a gem equipped. noticing that you have a gem, then having to remember the name of the piece of equipment, back out of the selling menu, going into your menu, finding the item, then having to go through that whole process to get the gem off, only to then go back and sell the item is pretty tedious.

Just has to be a better way to remove gems from stuff without having to go through so many steps. I know that ZR works, but it only works on some screens.

 

[Fireblend]

Exploring my way through

Spoiler

Makna Forest

now, but I have a few questions.

How do affinity coins work? I keep getting them but don't know how to use them. I read something about linking skills between party members?

I just got

Spoiler

Melia

for the party but have no idea how to use her. I can only summon 3 ethers at a time? How do i know when to summon which ones? I'd like to get proficient with her because she seems like she can output massive damage if played right.

Spoiler

Melia

(why is this a spoiler?) is really easy to use and a ton of fun. I basically made her my main as soon as she joined the party. Basically, you start the battle with an empty stack (last in, first out) of summons you have to fill before using. While a summon is in the stack, it has a passive effect on the entire party, which is cumulative (so if you have 2 thunder summons on your stack which raise the party's ether stat, that's better than having one). As soon as you unleash it, it leaves the stack and attacks, obviously (except if it has some other "unleashing" effect like water's healing).

As I said it's a stack, so the last element you summoned is the next one to be unleashed, with a max of 3 summons in your stack. I always summon 2 thunders right at the start of the battle (you get a "copy" art later which allows you to add a duplicate of your last summon to your stack without having to wait for the art bubble to refill so that's almost instantaneous), and then alternate between fire, wind and thunder to attack (prioritizing thunder since it's the stronger of the 3), keeping those 2 thunders to raise ether until it's obvious I can use them to kill whatever I'm fighting. Alternate those with Melia's other arts (two of which are used to topple) and she's pretty damn good at fighting.

If anyone has any other good Melia tips, please share! also, what's the consensus on Water Summon? Is it worth keeping on Melia? I'm playing with Shulk and Dunban(sometimes Sharla or Riki, for affinity) as NPCs.

 

[Beren the Empty-Handed]

i feel like gem management is kind of a pain in the ass. I wish there was an prmopt that would show up if you to try to sell an item with a gem equipped. noticing that you have a gem, then having to remember the name of the piece of equipment, back out of the selling menu, going into your menu, finding the item, then having to go through that whole process to get the gem off, only to then go back and sell the item is pretty tedious.

Just has to be a better way to remove gems from stuff without having to go through so many steps. I know that ZR works, but it only works on some screens.

The game will remove the gem automatically when you sell an item that has one attached.

 

[Beren the Empty-Handed]

Spoiler

Melia

(why is this a spoiler?) is really easy to use and a ton of fun. I basically made her my main as soon as she joined the party. Basically, you start the battle with an empty stack (last in, first out) of summons you have to fill before using. While a summon is in the stack, it has a passive effect on the entire party, which is cumulative (so if you have 2 thunder summons on your stack which raise the party's ether stat, that's better than having one). As soon as you unleash it, it leaves the stack and attacks, obviously (except if it has some other "unleashing" effect like water's healing).

As I said it's a stack, so the last element you summoned is the next one to be unleashed, with a max of 3 summons in your stack. I always summon 2 thunders right at the start of the battle (you get a "copy" art later which allows you to add a duplicate of your last summon to your stack without having to wait for the art bubble to refill so that's almost instantaneous), and then alternate between fire, wind and thunder to attack, keeping those 2 thunders to raise ether until it's obvious I can use them to kill whatever I'm fighting. Alternate those with Melia's other arts (two of which are used to topple) and she's pretty damn good at fighting.

If anyone has any other good Melia tips, please share! also, what's the consensus on Water Summon? Is it worth keeping on Melia? I'm playing with Shulk and Dunban(sometimes Sharla or Riki, for affinity) as NPCs.

Pretty good analysis of Melia. You're missing the other half of her best strategy though! Spear Break + Starlight Kick is one of the best combos in the game. If the enemy isn't immune, it's an automatic Topple. Use it and abuse it. As far as Water Summon goes, I'd toss it. I prefer Thunder or Earth for my buffs, and Fire for my attacking (and whichever of Thunder or Earth I'm not using). I sometimes use Wind. I feel like Water isn't as helpful as the other Summons, and with 3 or 4 summons, Copy, Spear Break + Starlight Kick and whatever else you want, she'll be plenty busy. The Water buff just isn't worth it compared to everything else imo.

EDIT: Whoops, sorry for the double post.

 

[Freedom = $1.05]

The game will remove the gem automatically when you sell an item that has one attached.

oh, ok, because AFAIK it never explicitly tells you that so i thought i would lose the gems when i sell the item.

I'm guessing that doesn't count for Unique equipment, right?

 

[chaosblade]

oh, ok, because AFAIK it never explicitly tells you that so i thought i would lose the gems when i sell the item.

I'm guessing that doesn't count for Unique equipment, right?

It tells you when you try to sell an item that the gems will be unequipped. Or maybe it's after you sell it that it tells you it unequipped them.

And yeah, gems are basically the "effect" of the unique item, they can never be removed. Unique weapons would be a lot better if they would combine slots with locked gems. Having a weapon with just one gem in it is a huge waste, even if it's good, you're better off with a slightly worse weapon with three slots.

 

[ForteanMan]

Level 90 and 85 hrs later I completed the game over my lunch break at work moments ago. What an awesome, awesome experience. I think it's fair to say this game has now taken a place in my top games of all time. I'm getting ready to dive back in to New Game + in order to try and complete more of the sidequest stuff and to finish

Spoiler

reconstruction of Colony 6, I got all of the areas to level 4 before I just finally gave in and completed the game

. I think I might still be smiling from the ending, it was really good. Now I have to go back up and find all those links to the philosophy behind the concepts in the ending, because I'm not sure I 100% understood what was going on.

 

[Beren the Empty-Handed]

Level 90 and 85 hrs later I completed the game over my lunch break at work moments ago. What an awesome, awesome experience. I think it's fair to say this game has now taken a place in my top games of all time. I'm getting ready to dive back in to New Game + in order to try and complete more of the sidequest stuff and to finish

Spoiler

reconstruction of Colony 6, I got all of the areas to level 4 before I just finally gave in and completed the game.

. I think I might still be smiling from the ending, it was really good. Now I have to go back up and find all those links to the philosophy behind the concepts in the ending, because I'm not sure I 100% understood what was going on.

Are you going to try and beat those superbosses? Or have you done that already?

 

[ForteanMan]

Are you going to try and beat those superbosses? Or have you done that already?

That too! I haven't done it yet. It seems pretty intense aren't they over the character's level cap?

 

[chaosblade]

That too! I haven't done it yet. It seems pretty intense aren't they over the character's level cap?

There are 5 monsters over the level cap, 4 of which are "well" over it and always have red tags.

The trick is basically to maximize your hit rate by making maxed out Agility and Night Vision gems, along with whatever else is necessary for the particular enemy. The weakest of the actual superboss enemies actually drops the Night Vision V crystals, but you can beat that with just agility boosts, and maybe some lower level night vision for a low agility character like Reyn.

 

[ForteanMan]

There are 5 monsters over the level cap, 4 of which are "well" over it and always have red tags.

The trick is basically to maximize your hit rate by making maxed out Agility and Night Vision gems, along with whatever else is necessary for the particular enemy.

Ah cool. Thanks for the info. I think I'll give them a go when my new game + playthrough gets me there.

 

[Adam Prime]

lol guys,

watching all that Xenoblade X footage has made me want to NOT play more Xenoblade 3D. My thinking is I don't want to get burnt out on it all, and by comparison Xenoblade 3D looks sooo lame. I understood none of this makes sense, but maybe I'll take a break and finish up Majora's Mask 3D and then jump into Radiant Historia.

I mean listening to these Xenoblade X OSTs just gets me so hyped... and then I'm like "Blegh, I've already played Xenoblade. I don't want to play it because it isn't X."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-8AeGP6CW0

And that Main Theme is so hype
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOzx6-VrsZY&index=2&list=PLCeTk3FzeBF7LNB-Fq3ChjSf6bVdT3iJ1


.... plus Radiant Historia looks like a pretty rad game.

 

[TheMoon]

Get that nasty theme out of here! Keep this thread clean! No Sawano allowed!

 

[Adam Prime]

Get that nasty theme out of here! Keep this thread clean! No Sawano allowed!

Whhhhhatt. That main theme is beautiful mix of orchestra and techno. My two favorite music genres! I love it!!!

I am dead serious.

 

[ZeroX03]

Get that nasty theme out of here! Keep this thread clean! No Sawano allowed!

I don't hate it, but it's got nothing on Xenoblade's title theme.

 

[Adam Prime]

I don't hate it, but it's got nothing on Xenoblade's title theme.

Oh yeah, Xenoblade's title theme is fantastic. It's my permanent theme on my 3DS. But I am really diggggggin that X theme. That whole game as the techno vibe mixed with orchestra. Pretty cool!

 

[StarStabbedMoon]

.... plus Radiant Historia looks like a pretty rad game.

Radiant Historia is fantastic.

Just be sure to finish Xenoblade...

 

[Fou-Lu]

Finally beat Xenoblade for the first time. Going through withdrawal already. What a spectacular game! And that ending... Amazing and mind blowing.

Should I look at the other xeno games? I know they are very different, but I loved the style and themes of Xenoblade.

 

[vareon]

Man

Spoiler

Alcamoth

is stupid huge. There's huge and there's stupid huge. I just wish it wasn't so empty!

 

[Overside]

Finally beat Xenoblade for the first time. Going through withdrawal already. What a spectacular game! And that ending... Amazing and mind blowing.

Should I look at the other xeno games? I know they are very different, but I loved the style and themes of Xenoblade.

DOnt bother with Xenosaga, you can just watch its citscenes on youtube, and... thats pretty all there is to the series when compared to xenoblade.

Themes are there, but they arent used very well, and they certainly arent integrated to the level xenoblades was.

Xenogears was better, and you will definately begin to recognize the budding aspects that would eventually become Fully featured in xenoblade, albeit on fifth generation technology. Combat system is nowhere near as good, but has really cool animations. The overworld is rocking once it ifinally opens up, the towns are a blast to explore, and exploration is always rewarded with some goodies.


At least for the first half of the game. And then square pulled the plug and forced the team to help finish ff7, so the rest of the game is sitting on a chair reading text.

Xenoblade is pretty much the first xeno story like rpg (And it really isnt even a xeno game) that Takahashi didnt get publisher screwed out of finishing the way he wanted.

In fact, his mind was blown when he told nintendo he was going to scrap half the game to meet the deadline, and Nintendo told not to stop halfway, that they would delay the game, and he would deliver a product he was satisfied with.

Man

Spoiler

Alcamoth

is stupid huge. There's huge and there's stupid huge. I just wish it wasn't so empty!

Careful what you wish for.

 

[A.J.]

Does this game chug horribly in the mechon city for anyone else? I swear this game is really wearing on me the more I play.

 

[JumpJeff84]

So I've played about three hours of this so far. I've basically been running around getting into battles and trying to get used to the combat system. Kinda reminds me of FF12 to be honest. I still don't really understand how Chain Attacks work, can anyone gimme a primer on that?

And I gotta say, this game is ugly. I really like it and expect to get sucked in, but it looks so blown out and low res.

 

[Elfforkusu]

Does this game chug horribly in the mechon city for anyone else? I swear this game is really wearing on me the more I play.

Everything through Fallen Arm is definitely the best part of the game, the Mechonis bits can be a grind...

I took a break to do a bunch of sidequests + explore the entire Bionis on one of my playthroughs, that helped.

And I gotta say, this game is ugly. I really like it and expect to get sucked in, but it looks so blown out and low res.

Yeah, the low res is killer. One day I will be able to play dolphin-emu on a portable, and it will be glorious. But today is not that day.

 

[ivysaur12]

Does this game chug horribly in the mechon city for anyone else? I swear this game is really wearing on me the more I play.

Like frame-rate wise or mentally?

 

[SolicitorPirate]

Alright, so I just got through the

Spoiler

Bionis' lung

and met

Spoiler

Melia and Bakura from Yugioh.

Quite a lot of interesting stuff has happened. Don't really know how to talk about them though, since I want to do this blind and conversing and speculating about story stuff would likely just spoil things for me. Let's just say I'm really interested to see where this story is going.

On more gameplay oriented matters though, could someone explain how

Spoiler

Melia

works as a character? I don't quite get playing her yet.

 

[RetrospectiveLamb]

I was really looking forward to buying this and playing it...but I just found out that it is for the new 3DS only and that really sucks

 

[Overside]

Alright, so I just got through the

Spoiler

Bionis' lung

and met

Spoiler

Melia and Bakura from Yugioh.

Quite a lot of interesting stuff has happened. Don't really know how to talk about them though, since I want to do this blind and conversing and speculating about story stuff would likely just spoil things for me. Let's just say I'm really interested to see where this story is going.

On more gameplay oriented matters though, could someone explain how

Spoiler

Melia

works as a character? I don't quite get playing her yet.

Shes a blaster mage... more nuke mage.

Summoning her elements gives her area of effect buffs.

Lightning boosts ether
Flare boosts strength
Water creates a healing aura (This is a trap, dont waste a slot on it)

These buffs persist to melia and anyone nearby as long as they are up, they stay up until you fire them.

There are more but you wont see them for a bit.


Firing spells attack with them, they fire in the order opposite of summoning (The last one you summoned fires first)

Lightining does straight damage. Lots of it, it recovers fast. Its a good idea to have multiples summoned, since its an ether attack, the ether buff stats, and it does ridiculous damage.

Flare does area damage, and then inflicts burn which does continuous damage. Using flare as the final attack of a chain combo will lead to stupid high numbers for recurring flare damage. Its funny. You should laugh at the pain and anguish you inflicted. Melia does.

Water does damage and absorbs some hp from it. Meh.

Firing spells raises your talent art. When its full, Melia gains an enhanced aura., that lasts until a spell or two is fired. During this enhanced aura is the only time two powerful spells unlocke din the future can be used.

Hypnosis is really good for stopping bad futures. Its basically a nope button.

Melia will gain an incredibly powerful, near omnipotent break and topple combo.

Melia enjoys shoving massive creatures off cliffs.