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Xenoblade Chronicles |OT| Man, what a bunch of jokers.

Zornica

Banned
Okay, am I missing something with the
Telethia fight at the center of the Bionis? I'm only 3 levels below it and yet my best attacks don't do more then a few hundred damage and its immune to Monado Purge. After five minutes of a touch fight I think I may have gotten its health down one tenth

it has a very very high defense against physical attacks, but it is very weak against ether based arts.
use melia, riki would be a good supplement
being less than 2 levels below her helps too.
 

Leezard

Member
Okay, am I missing something with the
Telethia fight at the center of the Bionis? I'm only 3 levels below it and yet my best attacks don't do more then a few hundred damage and its immune to Monado Purge. After five minutes of a touch fight I think I may have gotten its health down one tenth

If you destroy her summoned guardians she can be hurt normally by attacks again. She will resummon them though, so it is preferred to go chain attack on her once you get the summons down. Ether damage hurts her well too.
 

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
Okay, am I missing something with the
Telethia fight at the center of the Bionis? I'm only 3 levels below it and yet my best attacks don't do more then a few hundred damage and its immune to Monado Purge. After five minutes of a touch fight I think I may have gotten its health down one tenth

Controlling Melia is the 'easiest' way to beat it, with her Ether based attacks. Although I used Riki who does have ether attacks, and can poison her as well as heal your team. This is generally considered the toughest fight in the storyline for the game, as most people don't use ether based attacks throughout the game
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
it has a very very high defense against physical attacks, but it is very weak against ether based arts.
use melia, riki would be a good supplement
being less than 2 levels below her helps too.

But I don't wanna run around grinding for an hour just to get up a level I got sick of that back when I had to do it for three hours for the
Gadolt
fight
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
I beat that a level or two lower than the boss with Shulk, Sharla, and 7th. Hardly an optimial party for that, it took forever. Using a better party (
I'd probably go with Melia, Sharla, and Riki
) should make that pretty easy.
 

Leezard

Member
But I don't wanna run around grinding for an hour just to get up a level I got sick of that back when I had to do it for three hours for the
Gadolt
fight

If you really don't think you can beat the boss right now you should just chill out and do some sidequests. There are loads of sidequests that give exp faster than grinding monsters.
 

Adam Prime

hates soccer, is Mexican
Complain about game being too easy.

Next day, complain about boss being impossible.

Xenoblade.

Haha so true. I just had the same experience. I think anything you fight at or below your current Lv is always 'easy' while fighting enemies at 1-3 levels about your current always feels 'impossible'. It's a weird balance. I retried the same battle against a unique monster at my current level and died 5 times, a hit away from beating him each time.
I come back, one more level higher, and beat him on my first try.



Video games. JRPG.
 

Adam Prime

hates soccer, is Mexican
Okay so I just got Melia in my party... and got me wondering after looking through her arts.

Is there really only one "healer" character in this game, Sharla? I really like how each character in this game is a specific class, but is healing in the middle of battle not really a "thing" in this game or something? I can't understand how in some battles you could beat a boss without a dedicated healer like Sharla.

So does everyone end up being viable in high level parties, or do you need to have Sharla since she's the only one with an Art who seems to be capable of healing an entire party?
 
Okay so I just got Melia in my party... and got me wondering after looking through her arts.

Is there really only one "healer" character in this game, Sharla? I really like how each character in this game is a specific class, but is healing in the middle of battle not really a "thing" in this game or something? I can't understand how in some battles you could beat a boss without a dedicated healer like Sharla.

So does everyone end up being viable in high level parties, or do you need to have Sharla since she's the only one with an Art who seems to be capable of healing an entire party?

You honestly don't need a dedicated healer, as long as your party has high enough agility and can wallop the enemy enough. Shulk's or
Riki's
healing abilities are more than enough to get you through most fights. Also, skill links and gems help a lot.

Consider that when you replace Sharla, you open up a number of options that are otherwise unavailable. Rather than doing a tank/dps (or mage)/healer setup, you can play around with various setups that are more offensive and can decimate an enemy MUCH faster. As your party heals automatically outside of battle, it's perfectly fine to go all-out and not worry about healing during the actual battle, assuming you can kill the enemy fast enough.
 

Adam Prime

hates soccer, is Mexican
You honestly don't need a dedicated healer, as long as your party has high enough agility and can wallop the enemy enough. Shulk's or
Riki's
healing abilities are more than enough to get you through most fights. Also, skill links and gems help a lot.

Consider that when you replace Sharla, you open up a number of options that are otherwise unavailable. Rather than doing a tank/dps (or mage)/healer setup, you can play around with various setups that are more offensive and can decimate an enemy MUCH faster. As your party heals automatically outside of battle, it's perfectly fine to go all-out and not worry about healing during the actual battle, assuming you can kill the enemy fast enough.

Yeah, I understand that in a simple on level fight you don't need a healer. But what about boss battles that last longer? I can't imagine doing some of those without a healer. Maybe I just need to experiment.

This is one of the first games that I haven't opened up a FAQ to start reading up on everything. I'm really trying to "play this game as I would" without any outside help or advice. But there are just little things that I wonder about.

... Another question, when finding things for the Collectapedia - are there certain items that you MUST trade to get to fill out? Most of the items that I see that are available to trade with are just junk, items. They sometimes trade equipment or gems, but it seems that they are just trading items, and I'm not sure what to do with them. My items page is full of things, but outside of placing them in your collectpedia, what's the point of all the little items that you collect a long the game?
 

Zornica

Banned
Yeah, I understand that in a simple on level fight you don't need a healer. But what about boss battles that last longer? I can't imagine doing some of those without a healer. Maybe I just need to experiment.

The thing is, you really don't need a healer. I feel like repeating myself here for the 5th? time but, I will do once more
The game teaches you the first few hours that you need a healer by having sharla in your party. most people tend to keep her because fights even with here in the party felt hard, and they would have died without heal. BUT thats because sharla is the weakest character of them all, combined with reyn fights tend to go on for twice or 3times longer than they would with a shulk/dunban/melia/riki party.and that is the catch.
I've beaten the game with out using sharla at all (after you get dunban), and even beat the 100+ enemies. It's no problem at all.
Having some agility gems (which is by far the most important attribute) helps too.

... Another question, when finding things for the Collectapedia - are there certain items that you MUST trade to get to fill out? Most of the items that I see that are available to trade with are just junk, items. They sometimes trade equipment or gems, but it seems that they are just trading items, and I'm not sure what to do with them. My items page is full of things, but outside of placing them in your collectpedia, what's the point of all the little items that you collect a long the game?

nearly everything you find is needed for at least 1 quest.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
... Another question, when finding things for the Collectapedia - are there certain items that you MUST trade to get to fill out? Most of the items that I see that are available to trade with are just junk, items. They sometimes trade equipment or gems, but it seems that they are just trading items, and I'm not sure what to do with them. My items page is full of things, but outside of placing them in your collectpedia, what's the point of all the little items that you collect a long the game?
The "Other" page is for trade-only items. Items from drops and the ones around on the ground are often used for quests. And sometimes you'll find trading can make it a lot easier to get some items you need. I think a lot of NPCs will trade you more/better stuff as you raise affinity with their area.
 

Ultratech

Member
I beat that a level or two lower than the boss with Shulk, Sharla, and 7th. Hardly an optimial party for that, it took forever. Using a better party (
I'd probably go with Melia, Sharla, and Riki
) should make that pretty easy.

Yeah, I kinda went into that fight blindly with Melia, Dunban, and Sharla, and managed to make it through ok. I also didn't realize that particular boss was the one people were having with. Think I was around the boss' level though.
 

flyover

Member
This is one of the first games that I haven't opened up a FAQ to start reading up on everything. I'm really trying to "play this game as I would" without any outside help or advice. But there are just little things that I wonder about.

That's the best way to play it. Like you, I often wind up checking FAQs (probably more than I should). But Xenoblade is better without doing so, if you can avoid it. For the most part, you can.

Just keep checking/asking in this thread for those "little things" and hope you can avoid spoilers. Enjoy the game. Wish I were playing it again for the first time.
 

nan0

Member
Very late-game stuff:

I'm currently at the heart in Bionis Interior and could fight Lorithia. Am I very close to the final boss, or is this the best time to backtrack and do all stuff remaining? Or is there a postgame after the final boss where some additional content is unlocked? I'm a bit torn between playing further (and beating the final boss) and doing quests and so on.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Very late-game stuff:

I'm currently at the heart in Bionis Interior and could fight Lorithia. Am I very close to the final boss, or is this the best time to backtrack and do all stuff remaining? Or is there a postgame after the final boss where some additional content is unlocked? I'm a bit torn between playing further (and beating the final boss) and doing quests and so on.

You're getting close. There is a pretty obvious point of no return before the final boss, and there is no "post-game," everything is available at the point you're at (even if you're way underleveled for a lot of stuff). Once you beat the final boss you'll have an option to save clear data to start NG+, no way to continue, so you need to keep a save for that.
 

nan0

Member
You're getting close. There is a pretty obvious point of no return before the final boss, and there is no "post-game," everything is available at the point you're at (even if you're way underleveled for a lot of stuff). Once you beat the final boss you'll have an option to save clear data to start NG+, no way to continue, so you need to keep a save for that.

Thanks, then I'll do some backtracking.
 

Adam Prime

hates soccer, is Mexican
Okay well I have hit the point where I don't know how you could complete side quests in this game without a guide of some sort. I just started doing the
rebuilding Colony 6 sidequest(s) and it has me looking for a specific item(s) located on... Bionis Leg.

Uhh... that place is HUGE. I'm just supposed to go around murdering everything and searching every blue speck in hopes that I find it? Is there a super guide somewhere?
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Okay well I have hit the point where I don't know how you could complete side quests in this game without a guide of some sort. I just started doing the
rebuilding Colony 6 sidequest(s) and it has me looking for a specific item(s) located on... Bionis Leg.

Uhh... that place is HUGE. I'm just supposed to go around murdering everything and searching every blue speck in hopes that I find it? Is there a super guide somewhere?


There is one linked in the OT, but it's pretty much impossible to use without spoiling yourself.
 

Adam Prime

hates soccer, is Mexican
Damn that's a bummer. Well on the case of rebuilding the colony, is there any strategy to hunting down the items when they do not give you much clues how to find certain items? Or are some of those items only obtained after beating the high level monsters?
 

nan0

Member
Damn that's a bummer. Well on the case of rebuilding the colony, is there any strategy to hunting down the items when they do not give you much clues how to find certain items? Or are some of those items only obtained after beating the high level monsters?

No, the items you need correspond to the progess of the game. So level 2 items are found in earlier areas, where as higher levels will be found in later ones.

But they do not neccessarily are one of those blue items that lie around, you may also need to kill monsters to get them.

The most spoiler-free way I found was to search for the item name in the Xenoblade Wiki.
 
I'll second a vote for the Wiki. The spreadsheet is the ultimate guide but there is no way you can avoid major spoilers by looking at it.

Here is a direct link to the
Colony 6 rebuilding
section, with specific links for every item you'll need (it will generally say where to find them). If you don't want the rewards spoiled for you, don't scroll down to the bottom of the page. Other than that you should be fine.
 

Tess3ract

Banned
You really shouldn't allow spoilers to ruin your enjoyment of this game. It's not the reveals per-se that are good, it's the journey there.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
An Element Bursted Melia with some gems to boost Summon Bolt would strongly disagree.

its better, but without any healing skills I'm entirely dependent on the AI to keep us all healed up which...doesn't go so well

GOD this fight has so many cheap attacks. Nothing more fun then a sweep attack that automatically topples anyone it hits
 
its better, but without any healing skills I'm entirely dependent on the AI to keep us all healed up which...doesn't go so well

GOD this fight has so many cheap attacks. Nothing more fun then a sweep attack that automatically topples anyone it hits
I think I accidentally took that fight on my first try with Melia, Riki, and Sharla, and apart from having to spam the "to me, assholes!" arrow-key command to get them to not kill themselves, it worked pretty well.
 
GOD this fight has so many cheap attacks. Nothing more fun then a sweep attack that automatically topples anyone it hits

I'm not entirely sure which fight you're referring to, but there are a few extremely cheap fights in the game. The cheapest, to me at least, is one that comes very late in the game and is involved in a skill tree quest. I was way overpowered (my party was level 99) and the cheapness frustrated the hell out of me.

Ugh 3 weeks until release and my drive dies... Now to decide if its worth buying a used one for $99 at gamestop or not =\

If you're not going to get a Wii U at launch, do it. But you can probably find a used one for cheaper than $99...
 
I'm not entirely sure which fight you're referring to, but there are a few extremely cheap fights in the game. The cheapest, to me at least, is one that comes very late in the game and is involved in a skill tree quest. I was way overpowered (my party was level 99) and the cheapness frustrated the hell out of me.



If you're not going to get a Wii U at launch, do it. But you can probably find a used one for cheaper than $99...

Ya I know but I'm poor so everything I get for gaming is via trade ins so gamestop seems to be my only choice =\
 

Tess3ract

Banned
its better, but without any healing skills I'm entirely dependent on the AI to keep us all healed up which...doesn't go so well

GOD this fight has so many cheap attacks. Nothing more fun then a sweep attack that automatically topples anyone it hits
I played with Melia, Shulk, and Dunban and the AI healing was just fine and Melia raped face and could drop mini heals and shulk could auto heal any other damage.
 
The...what?
You can give your people (vague) orders with the D-pad, right? I don't recall the exact phrasing the game uses, so bear with me:

There's a "target enemy" order, and a "do what you want" order.

There's also a "regroup" choice, which results in your other 2 dropping whatever they're doing and coming to stand right behind you. That's the one I'm talking about!
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
You can give your people (vague) orders with the D-pad, right? I don't recall the exact phrasing the game uses, so bear with me:

There's a "target enemy" order, and a "do what you want" order.

There's also a "regroup" choice, which results in your other 2 dropping whatever they're doing and coming to stand right behind you. That's the one I'm talking about!

...I probably should have paid attention to some tutorials sixty or so hours ago...

With that said, one improvement I would make to this game would be more control over your party's behavior. My ideal vision would be swapping between controlling all three members during battle but that may not be as fun as I think it would be, I'd settle for just examining the balance of the party gauge mechanics so that chain attacks don't basically become dangerous in the late game.
 
:lol, I think it's a rite of passage to have missed some semi-crucial mechanic in this game and only realize it exists after about 80 hours of gameplay. There's just too much stuff!

With that said, one improvement I would make to this game would be more control over your party's behavior. My ideal vision would be swapping between controlling all three members during battle but that may not be as fun as I think it would be, I'd settle for just examining the balance of the party gauge mechanics so that chain attacks don't basically become dangerous in the late game.
I'd agree with that last point. For the most part I said "eff chain attacks", because it just wasn't worth the risk. There are probably skill links that help you recharge the party gauge during a chain attack, but I wouldn't have thought of that earlier on when I needed it.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Okay, I love this game, I really really do. But the main story is starting to overstay its welcome by about five hours and several mini-boss battles. I mean,
giant random purple dragon?
Really?
 

Leezard

Member
Okay, I love this game, I really really do. But the main story is starting to overstay its welcome by about five hours and several mini-boss battles. I mean,
giant random purple dragon?
Really?

Yeah, that fight was a bit uncalled for.
Now you are at the point of no return, at least
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
That fight was the one I struggled most with, though it was apparently due to the game somehow glitching out (Monado Purge didn't work during that fight).
 
Yes, April sometime. Gamestop and Nintendo.com exclusive. If you pre-order at Gamestop you get some sort of art book. Apparently not many people have been pre-ordering (as a European who has had a lot of the games coming out 8 months late it does kill interest).

As for my game mechanic I missed until late. Elementals. They have strong physical defence bet weak ether defence so use ether based arts vs them...

Edit: I had a longer reply written about stuff but apparently if you leave the reply window open for too long the ticket expires eating the reply :(
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
Yeah, that fight was a bit uncalled for.
Now you are at the point of no return, at least

Okay, so I really truly am at this point? I thought I was
on Mechonis
but that was just a series of three seemingly final fights followed by half an hour of cutscenes, then I thought I was
inside the Bionis
but that was just a whole new area with a really cheap fight at the end but nooooow
I'm inside prison island
and I'm really truly finally close to killing the final big bad guy?
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Okay, so I really truly am at this point? I thought I was
on Mechonis
but that was just a series of three seemingly final fights followed by half an hour of cutscenes, then I thought I was
inside the Bionis
but that was just a whole new area with a really cheap fight at the end but nooooow
I'm inside prison island
and I'm really truly finally close to killing the final big bad guy?

Alright, I'll give in. The game never actually ends, it keeps generating content until you get tired of playing it.

Yeah, you're pretty much at the end now.
 

McNum

Member
Okay, so I really truly am at this point? I thought I was
on Mechonis
but that was just a series of three seemingly final fights followed by half an hour of cutscenes, then I thought I was
inside the Bionis
but that was just a whole new area with a really cheap fight at the end but nooooow
I'm inside prison island
and I'm really truly finally close to killing the final big bad guy?
Yup. Dunban will pretty much say "This is the point of no return" in those words when you hit it. Good luck!

Also, just to highlight the final little nice UI touch in the game. You cannot save beyond the point of no return, the save button gets disabled.
 

Leezard

Member
Okay, so I really truly am at this point? I thought I was
on Mechonis
but that was just a series of three seemingly final fights followed by half an hour of cutscenes, then I thought I was
inside the Bionis
but that was just a whole new area with a really cheap fight at the end but nooooow
I'm inside prison island
and I'm really truly finally close to killing the final big bad guy?

Yeah,
Once you beat the dragon you can pass the point of no return.


That fight was the one I struggled most with, though it was apparently due to the game somehow glitching out (Monado Purge didn't work during that fight).
Some enemies are immune to Monado Purge.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Some enemies are immune to Monado Purge.

Including that one? Because that was my first thought. I brought it up before and people were like "Oh, Monado Purge just doesn't last very long." Of course, I'd used it for the entire game, I knew how long it should last, so I figured maybe something went wrong since it didn't do anything about spike damage in that fight.
 
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