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Xenoblade Chronicles X |OT2| Welcome to New L+A a.k.a. Read the Frakkin' Manual!

NeonZ

Member
I saw a really good recreation of Mia (from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance) randomly standing around. I wish player avatars could be permanently recruited...
 

Zalusithix

Member
Speaking of recruitment, I wonder when the supply of fresh newbies will dry up for scouting.

Edit: Encountered an amusing one while doing my usual low level recruit and dump medal farming.
aBjV9b8.png
Must really not want people to think that he's possibly a girl because of the female avatar. Or perhaps it's a psychological trick and it is a female on the other side. The world will never know!

Also on the topic, it's kind of amusing that as you get higher in level, you're less desirable as a recruit target (unless you're running one of the blossom builds). I can't remember the last time I was, and I'm better equipped than the vast majority that show up for sniper builds.

Hell, I can barely find anybody with a decent build on the search, let alone better ones. There's all of one person showing up on a search for sniper/knife that has higher raw damage capability, and that's because they didn't spec for sleep. So drop 150% damage from that and survivability. The rest are either works in progress or just "what are you even trying to do?" level things. (Caveat: Lifehold Squad.) Granted the build is wasted on anybody without Soft Touch, and the AI probably can't play it worth a damn anyhow, but it's flabbergasting how anything outside of the blossom build is hard to find good results on. I seriously give props to any person that shows up trying something else and obviously put some thought and effort into the execution.
 
So I reached chapter 5 but I have two problems

How can I trigger the Guinea Pigs Needed quest? I talked to Alexis, but she only talks some stuff about Skells.

I can't find Irina around the concourse area anymore, did she moved to another place?
 

Zalusithix

Member
So I reached chapter 5 but I have two problems

How can I trigger the Guinea Pigs Needed quest? I talked to Alexis, but she only talks some stuff about Skells.

I can't find Irina around the concourse area anymore, did she moved to another place?

The quest is a basic mission given out at the blade concourse. What missions show up there is random, so just keep refreshing it and it should eventually pop. I had to do something similar to get the ball rolling with Hope's mission. As for Irina, I'm not sure. A heart to heart issue perhaps where she's waiting elsewhere?
 

Ninferno

Member
Even with lv60 scouts, we can still one-shot guys like Joker and send them to scout lv* instantly, so even if the lv7-9 go extinct it shouldn't be an issue.
 

Zalusithix

Member
Even with lv60 scouts, we can still one-shot guys like Joker and send them to scout lv* instantly, so even if the lv7-9 go extinct it shouldn't be an issue.

Yeah, but it's nice not even having to go to the Joker. Just killing anything near a higher level quick travel point is enough to send the lowbies to *. Quick travel -> one shot nearest enemy in a second -> release and travel back. You're back at the concourse before you'd have even reached the Joker.

Laziness knows no bounds. ;)
 

Zalusithix

Member
I just got my Ares 90, and OMFG. You guys weren't exaggerating, this thing is Orlandu in robot form.

Congrats! Now to start farming for a 60 skell + gear + augs. Unless you plan on sticking with the Ares in the long run. Nothing wrong with that route either, though the lack of any customization on weapon loadouts can get a bit stale after awhile.

I still pull my primary Ares out of the hanger every so often to drive around and fire off the chainguns. Best vehicle mode of all the skells by far, and there's just something satisfying about the last bit of animation after you're done with firing where they eject/reload/whatever they're doing.
 

Ninferno

Member
So I reached chapter 5 but I have two problems

How can I trigger the Guinea Pigs Needed quest? I talked to Alexis, but she only talks some stuff about Skells.

I can't find Irina around the concourse area anymore, did she moved to another place?

On the Guinea Pigs missions, like Zalusithix said, some affinity missions require certain basic mission to be picked up first.

On party member disappearing from their usual posts, it is due to heart-to-heart triggering. Refer to http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/701151-xenoblade-chronicles-x/73028786 for their locations. If you notice people missing, you are likely to be looking for them, which implies you probably use them a lot, which in turn means they could have been picking up affinity points which is exactly why their heart-to-heart is triggered:)
 

Blackage

Member
That feeling when you accidentally discover the evasion/overdrive build in the middle of the fight with the last boss after losing all your Skells. :eek:
 

Steejee

Member
I just got my Ares 90, and OMFG. You guys weren't exaggerating, this thing is Orlandu in robot form.

Just got mine last night too.

I tossed the same augments I had on my lvl 50 onto it (3x XX Above ATTACK) plus an ether reflect down XX, and promptly slaughtered a pile of tyrants I had been avoiding. Probably could have beaten a few of them before then...

To my great surprise it annihilated the Tyrant that's at the top of the big Primordia rock, thought he was going to be tougher. Spending more time trying to find the tyrants marked for survey then actually killing them!
 
On the Guinea Pigs missions, like Zalusithix said, some affinity missions require certain basic mission to be picked up first.

On party member disappearing from their usual posts, it is due to heart-to-heart triggering. Refer to http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/701151-xenoblade-chronicles-x/73028786 for their locations. If you notice people missing, you are likely to be looking for them, which implies you probably use them a lot, which in turn means they could have been picking up affinity points which is exactly why their heart-to-heart is triggered:)

The quest is a basic mission given out at the blade concourse. What missions show up there is random, so just keep refreshing it and it should eventually pop. I had to do something similar to get the ball rolling with Hope's mission. As for Irina, I'm not sure. A heart to heart issue perhaps where she's waiting elsewhere?

Thanks for answering bros. I already got the quest from the concourse, but it is not triggering. I wonder if I have to complete another quest befofe starting Guinea Pigs.
 

Zalusithix

Member
Thanks for answering bros. I already got the quest from the concourse, but it is not triggering. I wonder if I have to complete another quest befofe starting Guinea Pigs.

You have the quest, and it doesn't start when you go into the sealed off hangar area and talk to her? Odd.

Edit: At least I think it was talking to her first, and not one of the affinity quest points. So long ago, and I don't have access to my recording at work.
 
Alexa's first Affinity Mission is triggered by inspecting the affinity quest point with the Guinea Pigs mission accepted.

The Hangar also shouldn't be in use.

e: oh yeah, milestones I've hit:

Beat Chapter 10 - I'm overleveled and stuff so I had no problem with the boss.
Got Mechanical 5 and Biological 5 - Haven't gotten around to getting all the M5 probe locations yet
Unlocked my last AM
Six Stars
 

Curufinwe

Member
The story got pretty hoakey and kinda dumb in chapter 8. I much prefer the Xenosaga story to this, but I'm still enjoying the game 50+ hours in.
 
Yup, sorry guys, I was really dumb. I thought that Alexa should be at the hangar and talking to her there would trigger the quest. I just finished her affinity quest.

Thanks for the help! I can't wait to get the skell licence though. Is it on chapter 5 or later on?
 
Unless the early morning fog is influencing me, the female misaldi savages. Along with the diskbombs, meteor, and buster launcher.

Oh ok, cool, I'll start farming for the diskbombs at the same time then, that build looks fun.

It's a testament to this gow far this game for its claws into me that I've got 100%, some badass level 60 Skells and still want to find stuff to make and play with.
 

massoluk

Banned
How fucking rare a drop is Crude Neilnail Mask? I must have killed those bastards a dozen times, and not one drop. Much much easier time farming Rexoskell Sucker.
 

Sagely

Member
Just started playing this weekend and it's AMAZING. So much information and a gigantic world! It's a bit overwhelming but I can't wait to get familiar with all these delicious systems. Only 10 hours in so far and I haven't made much progress, because sprinting and leaping over Primordia feels so darned good. Not to mention the combat and that wonderful battle theme - I engage larger groups of enemies in order to keep the song going. It's like I'm washing away my peaceful days, anyway, anyhow~
 

Steejee

Member
How fucking rare a drop is Crude Neilnail Mask? I must have killed those bastards a dozen times, and not one drop. Much much easier time farming Rexoskell Sucker.

With store bought Treasure Sensor gear (VI i believe? Level 55 version) on main and one party member, I'd get two every few runs (Edit: though as per zalusithix's comment that gear would have no effect). For the Ares 90 I ended up just using tickets for the Yggrasil hearts and the masks, then farmed everything else. Those two with the masks were just too annoying to fight.

On a sorta related aside, whoever was in charge of crafting/items in general really needed someone to edit down their additions. There are just soooo many fairly pointless augments, too many levels of augment, and too many materials. It's just overkill how much is currently in. It doesn't add any complexity or depth to have all that extra stuff, just more tedium, especially when the vast majority of the crafting is pointless anyways until post-game, and at that point there's no reason to craft the bulk of what's available.
 

Zalusithix

Member
Oh ok, cool, I'll start farming for the diskbombs at the same time then, that build looks fun.

It's a testament to this gow far this game for its claws into me that I've got 100%, some badass level 60 Skells and still want to find stuff to make and play with.
I still have at least half a dozen skell builds that I want to try. They'll require the creation of more frames and super weapons, and farming of complementary weapons. There's no real point to it other than to do it for the fun of doing it. I'm already more than capable of taking out anything the game throws at me. Figuring out how best to use the plethora of weapons available is a fun challenge though. Wish there were more choices for certain elements though. Gravity is horribly neglected.

How fucking rare a drop is Crude Neilnail Mask? I must have killed those bastards a dozen times, and not one drop. Much much easier time farming Rexoskell Sucker.
Rare. You'll be doing the mission many dozens of times if you don't want to use tickets on them. Best bet is to trivialize it with a bunch of OP build 60s in a party if you're not capable of clearing it quickly. It's not so bad when you're dispatching them in under a minute. Treasure sensor isn't going to help as timed missions don't give a damn what you have on.
 

Ulysses 31

Member
How fucking rare a drop is Crude Neilnail Mask? I must have killed those bastards a dozen times, and not one drop. Much much easier time farming Rexoskell Sucker.

Are you using core crusher skill? That prevents you from destroying appendages and the masks drop from breaking the faces.
 
Is there a way to grind affinity ? I want to do affinity quests so I do normal quests but my characters affinity isn't high enough and I'm levelling far too much, I fear the game will become easy.
 
I'm getting back into this game after a long break to try and finish the last few missions and work my way towards that sweet, sweet 100% survey rate
Is there a way to grind affinity ? I want to do affinity quests so I do normal quests but my characters affinity isn't high enough and I'm levelling far too much, I fear the game will become easy.

After the final chapter, you unlock support missions, some of which are designed to give you a lot of affinity. It still takes some time to raise though
 

Zalusithix

Member
After the final chapter, you unlock support missions, some of which are designed to give you a lot of affinity. It still takes some time to raise though

Too much time I'd argue. Still fast all things considered, but post game you really don't want to be spending any time grinding for affinity. Heck, I can level them from base to 60 via tyrant faster than I can get from no to full affinity.
 

Malus

Member
Too much time I'd argue. Still fast all things considered, but post game you really don't want to be spending any time grinding for affinity. Heck, I can level them from base to 60 via tyrant faster than I can get from no to full affinity.

Switch your characters with regularity and it shouldn't be much of a problem. I hated Gwin and barely used him but still ended up with nearly 3 star affinity with him before grinding.
 

Zalusithix

Member
Switch your characters with regularity and it shouldn't be much of a problem. I hated Gwin and barely used him but still ended up with nearly 3 star affinity with him before grinding.

For some of them, there's a reason I had no affinity with them. I disliked them. If it weren't for superweapons and abilities being locked behind them, they'd never be in my party. Ever. Others I simply didn't get around to while doing everything else. Running around town flipping in and out party members takes time, and when I was tackling a certain goal, doing that and updating their gear was a unnecessary distraction.

It's a minor thing really, but still kind of annoying when I have to run water torture over and over just so I can carry on the affinity quest chain.
 

Malus

Member
For some of them, there's a reason I had no affinity with them. I disliked them. If it weren't for superweapons and abilities being locked behind them, they'd never be in my party. Ever. Others I simply didn't get around to while doing everything else. Running around town flipping in and out party members takes time, and when I was tackling a certain goal, doing that and updating their gear was a unnecessary distraction.

It's a minor thing really, but still kind of annoying when I have to run water torture over and over just so I can carry on the affinity quest chain.

It's nothing compared to running the global nemesis for several hours to get my endgame augments lol.
 

Zalusithix

Member
It's nothing compared to running the global nemesis for several hours to get my endgame augments lol.

Ticket farming can be fairly mindless, but at least both Telethia and Yggy are infinitely more interesting to fight than water torture. Even with a crusher build that trivializes them, they're still more interesting to look at and see the parts blow off. Water torture amounts to getting in the skell and firing off phoenix three times while the tiny specs beneath you promptly incinerate. And for your reward you get a piece of an intangible heart. Nemisis parts I can use. Miranium I can use. BP I can use. Hearts... not so much.

If I had to put a positive spin on it, at least it's less time consuming per run than the BP one.
 
After the final chapter, you unlock support missions, some of which are designed to give you a lot of affinity. It still takes some time to raise though
OK thanks

Also, I've heard that
_____Lao______
becomes unusable after some point in the story. Does that mean I have to
do all the affinity quests and hearts to hearts sooner than later
?
 

Golnei

Member
OK thanks

Also, I've heard that
_____Lao______
becomes unusable after some point in the story. Does that mean I have to
do all the affinity quests and hearts to hearts sooner than later
?

His affinity missions are mandatory for main story progression, so you can't miss them; but his heart to hearts can only be done before chapter 9. Though they don't count for completion percentage, so you can get 100% without them.
 

Malus

Member
Ticket farming can be fairly mindless, but at least both Telethia and Yggy are infinitely more interesting to fight than water torture. Even with a crusher build that trivializes them, they're still more interesting to look at and see the parts blow off. Water torture amounts to getting in the skell and firing off phoenix three times while the tiny specs beneath you promptly incinerate. And for your reward you get a piece of an intangible heart. Nemisis parts I can use. Miranium I can use. BP I can use. Hearts... not so much.

If I had to put a positive spin on it, at least it's less time consuming per run than the BP one.

Global Nemesis is a bit more fun but 10x more time consuming to get the amount of tickets I need from them so it means little.

In the end it's all mindless grinding. Monolithsoft should probably cut down on total grind time in their games unless they wanna make it more interesting. The idea of using multiplayer squad battles to add some flavor to it had potential but didn't really amount to anything.
 

Zalusithix

Member
Global Nemesis is a bit more fun but 10x more time consuming to get the amount of tickets I need from them so it means little.

In the end it's all mindless grinding. Monolithsoft should probably cut down on total grind time in their games unless they wanna make it more interesting. The idea of using multiplayer squad battles to add some flavor to it had potential but didn't really amount to anything.

In the beginning when you only have an Ares 90 (or by foot) Yggy takes more time. Once you have a farming skell build, you can be in and out of from Yggy about as fast as water torture. This is what an average ticket run looks like with a skell focused on appendage breaks. It's almost comical watching the poor bastard constantly flinch in pain. Far more amusing than water torture runs.

But yeah, less grind would be appreciated. Ways to change predefined weapon attributes, etc.
 
Unless the early morning fog is influencing me, the female misaldi savages. Along with the diskbombs, meteor, and buster launcher.

I'm having no luck finding it there, or even finding any mention of it online outside of a few comments. Plenty of Dragon weapons, no Dragon's Maw. I'm wondering if it's just named something different in one of the European language versions.
 

Zalusithix

Member
I'm having no luck finding it there, or even finding any mention of it online outside of a few comments. Plenty of Dragon weapons, no Dragon's Maw. I'm wondering if it's just named something different in one of the European language versions.

Dragon's Maw is the name of the art provided by the Dragon weapon.
 

Zalusithix

Member
The ones from affinity quests are garbage. They're super easy to make, but they're garbage. The real question is are you working from scratch, or working from an Ares 90?

If from scratch and you don't want to do the Ares, then the diskbomb Lailah route first for sure. Then get some ME/SA M-Missiles for the shoulders for farming yggy.

Edit: Also, I'm probably going to be farming Yggy for the next few hours on and off, so if you want fast tickets, I can join up with you in a friend squad and dismember him for you. Just throw me a PM.

Edit 2: And that wraps up the the level 60 skell frame purchases. Pity I had to let go of the old frames to make room for all of them. Not like I was going to ever use them again, but they served their purpose well hundreds of hours ago, and it was kind of nostalgic seeing them. Now to finish collecting all the mats for the rest of the super weapons before Yggy goes on vacation.
 

Bulbasaur

Banned
Got the game last week. Haven't had a great deal of time to put into it yet but I've just finished the prologue and joined Blade. The many systems and sub menus are quite overwhelming so I think now it's time to read the manual! And the music is amazing. Reminds of Noriyuki Asakura, who did Tenchu / Way of the Samurai so I can't get enough.

Overall I'm pleased with my purchase, as a Wii U owner these type of meaty experiences are rare and I'm looking forward to investing countless hours into it in the coming months.
 

Griss

Member
Well, I just beat it.

Talk about a game that steadily declined in quality as the hours went on. The first 10 hours felt like I might be playing a GOTY contender, but by the end I felt like the game was failing at almost everything it set out to do.

The most egregious four flaws (in no order):
1. The flight module. Finding your way around Mira's magnificent topography was the heartbeat of the game. 'Alright, that looks awesome. How do I get over there?' 'Ooh! I just discovered a new view / cave / secret etc' I loved this aspect of the game, and while it was still a huge part of the gameplay it made up for so many other shortcomings. Unfortunately the flight module utterly stripped this part of the game design away and in the process damn near ruined the game for me. The initial rush of flying, incredible views and increased convenience in no way made up for how gutted the world felt once you got that ability, nor how much the game missed the topographical exploration gameplay.

2. The battle gameplay. The battle system the player has access to is in itself fine, but the gameplay has the exact same problem as the first Xenoblade - enemies never test you or force you to react. The entire time you're just going through the motions. The only reacting or planning you have to do is to your own parties' soul voices. Other than that 99% of battles in the game are just spamming a set routine of arts and waiting for the cooldowns to pop. Then you unlock Skell battles, and it's the same thing with 3x more waiting for cooldowns. Good enemy encounters and AI would have solved everything, but as it was, fighting in this game was simply dull as ditchwater.

3. The narrative. I don't mind a story light game where exploration or gameplay or what have you fills the void. If anything I welcome it. But when I have to spend hours reading thousands and thousands of lines of dialogue and it's all utterly cliched hyper-emotional shite that moves the plot forward at a glacier's pace? Then I get upset. The characters and story in this game were garbage, not helped by the bizarre decision to make the player a mute avatar rather than make the player Elma, as it should have been.

Some of the side quests have (or at least hint at) more interesting stories (see Professor B), but only by the woeful standard set by the main story. The production values on these things is PS2 era - characters standing around while text scrolls with the occasional dropped jaw- and yet while this is a huge weakness of the game there are what feels like hundreds of them.

I enjoyed some of the revelations at the end. On the other hand, why they thought it was a good idea to save all the plot points up for the last 10 minutes of the game is truly beyond me.

4. The quests. The quests were really poorly designed. Only a few hours into the game it becomes the worst example of 'fast-travel errand boy' I've yet seen, with you constantly hopping in and out of NLA using the gamepad map. The missions so rarely gave you any kind of meaty task that you found yourself fast travelling minute after minute after minute for 30 seconds battles at a time. I recently played a mission where you had to race some Prone to kill a captain. Of course it wasn't a real race - that would have required actual mission scripting. You just had to kill the dude in less than three minutes. And yet that was STILL the most interesting mission I had played in the last 10 hours.

...
I could go on. The tiny UI, the overabundance of systems that matter very little or not at all, the lack of environmental storytelling in a game focussed on exploration, Tatsu being a horribly failed Riki clone, the woeful, repetitive attempts at humour in the game, any scene involving Lao, the inappropriate and intrusive music along with the awful audio mixing, the bizarre introduction of allies and villains just to kill them off or use them in one or two cutscenes, the confusing nature of gear, and so on and so on.

I am glad I played it. Those opening hours were stunning, the rush I got was intense. The entire first Oblivia section was a joy. Getting the Skell was an awesome moment. While flaws were apparent by that point, the game still felt like everything might fall into place then, like I was still feeling my way around. But as time wore on from that point I felt like rather than coalescing into something special, the game just utterly fell apart by the time it crossed the finish line.

Coming after the magnificent Xenoblade Chronicles, I hate to say it but the game was a big disappointment.
 

random25

Member
Trying to catch up again after a long break. Gonna try making my own super ground build and experiment some more with different augs and skills.
 
*beats
Nardacyon, the Shadowless
*

I am convinced that Melee Accuracy Up XX is the best augment in the game.

EDIT: I also had to refrain from using Offensive Stance or else I would die... which is a sign I should change weapons.

EDIT 2: My bad. It's actually because I can't stack auras.
 
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