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[Smiles and Cries]

whoa

not sure how?
edit: back to the drawing board

Aki is getting more jumps in at a faster refresh somehow and my thinking is the run time to leap off the edge is shorter than mines and he stayed offline a few days to report today

looking for a shorter walk and jump spot lol
edit2: Oh I could kick myself facepalm this spot is 4x shorter

 

[Gvitor]

Finally maxed out Galactic Knight and finished the Yelv affinity mission 2, and got Essence Exchange. Combat has finally clicked in this path, now I'm constantly in overdrive melee comboing like a goddamn Jedi. If only I hadn't spent APs in useless arts in previous classes that didn't carry over...

Now I'll try to play with skells too, combat in that has been a mess for me. I still don't understand the view change in some arts.

 

[Zalusithix]

Now I'll try to play with skells too, combat in that has been a mess for me. I still don't understand the view change in some arts.

There is no view change with some arts - as in no art has a dedicated view change. Cockpit mode (the view change you speak of) is something that has a chance of happening with any art use. The chance of it happening increases in overdrive, and might be additionally affected by potential (I should do a controlled test on that some day). When you go into cockpit mode it refreshes the cooldowns of all arts. It's basically the key to being able to use the most useful hard hitting arts with any regularity, and thus sustained damage. Doesn't hurt that you're also invincible during cockpit mode.

The relationship with OD goes both ways too. In addition to OD making cockpit mode proc more, OD is more likely to extend when cockpit mode is reached during the OD. Considering you'll want OD for the various other perks that it offers in the first place, it's not too much different from the ground game in that regard. Optimized skell combat is a matter of getting into OD as quickly as possible and then staying in it. A huge difference from the ground game, however, is that GP is taken after the OD ends as opposed to when it begins. This means anything short of a potential 6k GP is too little to maintain OD. Whether the loss of OD for a period of time is acceptable or not depends on the skell and build. Either way, medium skells have the advantage of having 6k out of the gate, but other skells can reach 6k with the proper ground gear augs.

Getting the GP rapidly to perform/maintain OD is a matter of either having a fair number of GP art gain augs on the skell, or the use of MSL-MAG diskbombs. Unlike the ground game, there's no real way around those two methods. There is no Essence Exchange equivalent, and no skills to make maintaining OD easier. I suppose you could do an Essence Exchange to build TP, enter OD, then enter the skell with Stellar Entry to gain 3k GP and then skell OD, but that's a one time shot that'll be useless after the OD ends. Skells are just inherently more gear dependent. It's their trade off for not needing BP to get the most out of them.

 

[Gvitor]

There is no view change with some arts - as in no art has a dedicated view change. Cockpit mode (the view change you speak of) is something that has a chance of happening with any art use. The chance of it happening increases in overdrive, and might be additionally affected by potential (I should do a controlled test on that some day). When you go into cockpit mode it refreshes the cooldowns of all arts. It's basically the key to being able to use the most useful hard hitting arts with any regularity, and thus sustained damage. Doesn't hurt that you're also invincible during cockpit mode.

The relationship with OD goes both ways too. In addition to OD making cockpit mode proc more, OD is more likely to extend when cockpit mode is reached during the OD. Considering you'll want OD for the various other perks that it offers in the first place, it's not too much different from the ground game in that regard. Optimized skell combat is a matter of getting into OD as quickly as possible and then staying in it. A huge difference from the ground game, however, is that GP is taken after the OD ends as opposed to when it begins. This means anything short of a potential 6k GP is too little to maintain OD. Whether the loss of OD for a period of time is acceptable or not depends on the skell and build. Either way, medium skells have the advantage of having 6k out of the gate, but other skells can reach 6k with the proper ground gear augs.

Getting the GP rapidly to perform/maintain OD is a matter of either having a fair number of GP art gain augs on the skell, or the use of MSL-MAG diskbombs. Unlike the ground game, there's no real way around those two methods. There is no Essence Exchange equivalent, and no skills to make maintaining OD easier. I suppose you could do an Essence Exchange to build TP, enter OD, then enter the skell with Stellar Entry to gain 3k GP and then skell OD, but that's a one time shot that'll be useless after the OD ends. Skells are just inherently more gear dependent. It's their trade off for not needing BP to get the most out of them.

Yeah, that's gonna take a while for me to get used to. Skell combat is complicated to me since it's gear dependent. In ground battles, you get Arts while you progress through the game and level up, so you slowly get used to them and create strategies, but Skells have a lot of them from the get-go and you have to purchase them from a pool of many gears/arts.

I mostly avoided them until now, but since I reached 30 not long ago and they're available to purchase now, I'm buying a couple for my team and upgrading them. Thanks for the tips!

 

[Zalusithix]

Yeah, that's gonna take a while for me to get used to. Skell combat is complicated to me since it's gear dependent. In ground battles, you get Arts while you progress through the game and level up, so you slowly get used to them and create strategies, but Skells have a lot of them from the get-go and you have to purchase them from a pool of many gears/arts.

I mostly avoided them until now, but since I reached 30 not long ago and they're available to purchase now, I'm buying a couple for my team and upgrading them. Thanks for the tips!

Ah, level 30 skells, those are a different beast all together. The stuff I talked about only really comes into play in the post/end game. Level 30 (and level 50 to an extent) skell combat wont be optimal ever. It's a waste of time to even try. The best you're going to be able to do at 30 is just going to be equipping any intergalactic level gear you find and using elements that the enemy is weak to. With level 50 skells you can expand that to creating element optimized builds where you take advantage of armor element boosts with weapons of the same type. Unlike level 30 skells, level 50 can use everything but the highest superweapons, and good level 50 gear isn't totally useless on 60 skells. Thus farming isn't a waste of time. That said, it's not until you're aiming at the level 60 skells that you're going to have the means to easily get all the gear and augments needed for infinite overdrive builds with superweapons. Even then you're not going to be superior to a good ground build with equal effort put into it. Different, but not superior.

So yeah, at your point with skell combat, there's really not much to it. Level 30 and early level 50 skells are what turns people off to them if they're not outright mecha fans. The combat potential just isn't there unfortunately. It's one of the areas where they really botched the implementation of skells in the game.

Edit: There is one exception I can think of for getting a capable skell early on, but that requires the help of somebody that can farm Yggy quickly. With enough tickets, the requisite augments would be easy enough to obtain assuming there was a supply of Bonjelium.

Oh, and I forgot. Slot in as many positional damage boost from above augments as your frame will allow once you have the flight module. Creating the XX is dead simple, and will give you a nice boost for a position that's very easy to maintain when in a skell against most enemies. You'll also want to get L's socketing machine up and running ASAP. That's useful for ground, and essential for skells.

 

[MrDaravon]

Yeah I'm at level 44, just beat Chapter 10 and gearing/using skells has been kind of a mess for me. I never would have known about the Phoenix/Buster being any good if I hadn't seen people mention it online. It's overwhelming with the number of gear/equipment slots skells have, plus you have to look at the abilities on each weapon and it's hard to tell in-game sometimes how more or less effective certain types of attacks (beam, ether etc) actually are and so on. Really really doesn't help that most of the gear names are a long series of numbers and letters.

I was trying to look up what level 50 skells to buy when I hit 50, I had one person recommend buying 2 heavies and 2 mediums, then the internet seems to recommend just buying Amdusias and/or Verus, but I'm not sure why on the Verus (I guess just because it comes with the G Buster?). And it's hard to find info in general since 90% of the skell talk is people talking about the Ares and/or Phoenix/GBuster. Right now I'm just mostly trying to get through the story so I don't think it overly matters, but it's constantly nagging at me.

 

[Vena]

Phoenix is funny to do with four skells using it with 3x 20% cooldown reduction on all of them. Might as well be fighting on the sun.

 

[Xenoboy]

Did some nice progress today. I finally finished the Duel III, is there a IV?
Farmed some Fluffy tuft to be able to make some hazard nullifiers and am probably going to finish Bozé's last mission soon. It seems he's coming around.

 

[Zalusithix]

Yeah I'm at level 44, just beat Chapter 10 and gearing/using skells has been kind of a mess for me. I never would have known about the Phoenix/Buster being any good if I hadn't seen people mention it online. It's overwhelming with the number of gear/equipment slots skells have, plus you have to look at the abilities on each weapon and it's hard to tell in-game sometimes how more or less effective certain types of attacks (beam, ether etc) actually are and so on. Really really doesn't help that most of the gear names are a long series of numbers and letters.

I was trying to look up what level 50 skells to buy when I hit 50, I had one person recommend buying 2 heavies and 2 mediums, then the internet seems to recommend just buying Amdusias and/or Verus, but I'm not sure why on the Verus (I guess just because it comes with the G Buster?). And it's hard to find info in general since 90% of the skell talk is people talking about the Ares and/or Phoenix/GBuster. Right now I'm just mostly trying to get through the story so I don't think it overly matters, but it's constantly nagging at me.

I don't think it's really necessary to buy multiple level 50 skells. One good one is better than a bunch of mediocre ones. If you have the money to blow, have at it, but it's not needed.

As for the choice, heavies are often recommended because of the armor. The armor for them has either phys/thermal or beam/elec boosts on all 5 pieces. This greatly magnifies the damage output of a skell built around those elements. In comparison, medium skells only have one set of armor available to them with element boosting (beam), and light has none. Verus would be recommended because of the armor + OD boost melee arts which benefit the G-Buster (no gravity boosting armor available anywhere). Also, while the Phoenix is good for farming masses of weak enemies, there's better options for single targets.

Personally I'd recommend the heavy route at 50. A Mastema properly built around M-Sniper/Drones/Buster-Launcher is a force to be reckoned with. It's also ranged which allows sniping targets from a distance with a lesser chance of aggroing other things. Drop in some ME M-Missiles for part farming, or flip the armor out for thermal boost armor and a Phoenix for mass farming.

 

[theprodigy]

whoa

not sure how?
edit: back to the drawing board

Aki is getting more jumps in at a faster refresh somehow and my thinking is the run time to leap off the edge is shorter than mines and he stayed offline a few days to report today

looking for a shorter walk and jump spot lol
edit2: Oh I could kick myself facepalm this spot is 4x shorter

Which spot were you using before and which one are you using now? lol

 

[Wichu]

On the topic of Skell combat, fully-upgraded Diskbombs are ridiculous. I'm pretty sure I have upwards of 200000DPS with just my auto-attack (and fill my GP gauge in about five seconds). I haven't even upgraded my armour or applied SLAYER augments.

It's fun to hit the engage button and watch the enemy just explode in damage numbers

 

[B-Dubs]

So I finally sat down and made my first super weapon, the Dues Crusher. Holy fucking shit, it takes an entire health bar and a half off a telethia plume and I'm only using the shitty cheap to make level 60 skell. Getting the next super weapon is going to be so easy now.

 

[-Horizon-]

After putting the game down after beating the story, just started playing again to try and get the ares and whatnot. Ughhh these drop rates though. And its just for the ares70. I don't even want to think about the 90 and others ones on that list.
Did manage to take a xe-dom down for the first time so that felt good lol.

 

[B-Dubs]

After putting the game down after beating the story, just started playing again to try and get the ares and whatnot. Ughhh these drop rates though. And its just for the ares70. I don't even want to think about the 90 and others ones on that list.
Did manage to take a xe-dom down for the first time so that felt good lol.

It's a lot easier to just farm tickets and buy what you need FYI

 

[-Horizon-]

It's a lot easier to just farm tickets and buy what you need FYI

Ughhhhh >.<
I need to get 8 silver crests for 178 tickets each then...and I just used them all up on the advanced cores

 

[ShinMaruku]

So,

Spoiler

Who saw that Elma being a xenos frau coming from the beginning?

 

[Malus]

So,

Spoiler

Who saw that Elma being a xenos frau coming from the beginning?

I did because someone online spoiled it for me :'(

 

[Pokemaniac]

So,

Spoiler

Who saw that Elma being a xenos frau coming from the beginning?

I guessed pretty early on thanks to some rather obvious hints.

 

[Zalusithix]

There were enough hints given that you should have seen it from a mile away even without spoilers. Really, the only plot twist that wasn't foreshadowed heavily was the very last one.

 

[Malus]

There were enough hints given that you should have seen it from a mile away even without spoilers. Really, the only plot twist that wasn't foreshadowed heavily was the very last one.

Most of this stuff just flies over my head

 

[Smiles and Cries]

Which spot were you using before and which one are you using now? lol

I was using the little island in the middle of the abyss FN304 which took forever to walk to the edge. Huge mistake.

I am closer to FN 303 now a little land bridge

Spoiler

saying so gives away a good tip for best diving spot but I have yet to test others lol

 

[theprodigy]

I was using the little island in the middle of the abyss FN304 which took forever to walk to the edge. Huge mistake.

I am closer to FN 303 now a little land bridge

Spoiler

saying so gives away a good tip for best diving spot but I have yet to test others lol

Hey that's the spot I used that one time!

 

[Smiles and Cries]

Hey that's the spot I used that one time!

yeah I did not think of it until I saw the huge gap with AKI getting 4x more jumps

the walk to the edge is a huge difference lol

the leaderboards update in 20 minutes I'll see how far behind I am if switching gave me the boost I expect lol

I'll need to go back to getting the game to 100% soon instead of grinding this stuff I hit 700 hours with this craziness

at least I got 3k tickets to spend

 

[Zalusithix]

at least I got 3k tickets to spend

That's what... 5 minutes of farming Yggy? =P I don't think you're going to find any rational benefit to your hours of suicidal jumping lol.

 

[Smiles and Cries]

update

That's what... 5 minutes of farming Yggy? =P I don't think you're going to find any rational benefit to your hours of suicidal jumping lol.

722 hours and 38 minutes of rational gaming

 

[Zalusithix]

I think the game has proven that if you make something a contest, then no matter how silly that something is, you'll have multiple people vying for the top slot.

They should have made something like "number of fights with Boze in the party" as one of them just to torture people. Then again, there's probably somebody out there that likes that guy. Somehow.

 

[Smiles and Cries]

I think the game has proven that if you make something a contest, then no matter how silly that something is, you'll have multiple people vying for the top slot.

They should have made something like "number of fights with Boze in the party" as one of them just to torture people. Then again, there's probably somebody out there that likes that guy. Somehow.

true, I hate Boze so would not go for that leaderboard

I don't get why I am still 3 days worth of jumps behind this AKI guy sheesh

maybe I should stick to Bikini buying... Nah I'll give it until Friday or first to 100K

Spoiler

watch the next update be AKI at 105495 I hope this is not a hacker

edit: I wonder if the jumps count your party members as well? could explain why AKI is way beyond possible daily jumps, I was jumping with 3 people since Friday

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

I'm literally crawling through this game. I can't tell if I love or loathe the fact that the filler collection missions basically require you to have the memory of a supercomputer and check your bestiary for drop tables constantly. I like the combat so grinding isn't bumming me out. Yet.

Is there any way to pull or crowd control in this game so you don't get 2-6 adds in every single damn fight? The only option seems to be attacking something, issuing a battle command to assemble, and then backing away. Am I doing it rite guise

 

[Zalusithix]

I'm literally crawling through this game. I can't tell if I love or loathe the fact that the filler collection missions basically require you to have the memory of a supercomputer and check your bestiary for drop tables constantly. I like the combat so grinding isn't bumming me out. Yet.

Is there any way to pull or crowd control in this game so you don't get 2-6 adds in every single damn fight? The only option seems to be attacking something, issuing a battle command to assemble, and then backing away. Am I doing it rite guise

Crowd control is possible using a knife and screamer (sleep). As long as your moronic AI teammates don't go smacking the thing you just slept. Soft touch augments help, but breaking parts will still wake enemies. Thus you still have to rely on them not going to town hitting everything.

Pulling can be done in a ranged skell easily enough for enemies that aren't linked. Heck, an M-Sniper build can pretty much one shot snipe any normal enemy when properly kitted out.

But yeah, for the most part the game is just "kill everything" with tactics be damned.

 

[Xenoboy]

Finally finished Bozé's last mission and oh man was it hard. That fucking monster wants you to be prepared, god damn. And it takes a while to kill it too -_-,
Otherwise, at least Bozé

Spoiler

has finally come to his senses.

 

[Zalusithix]

Finally finished Bozé's last mission and oh man was it hard. That fucking monster wants you to be prepared, god damn. And it takes a while to kill it too -_-,
Otherwise, at least Bozé

Spoiler

has finally come to his senses.

He's still an annoying, full of himself, ass. He should get together with Murderess. They'd make a fine couple. =P (They'd likely hate each other, but that's all they deserve in life.)

 

[Smiles and Cries]

Bozé may end up being the last character I get to 5 hearts lol

I do not like him

 

[Zalusithix]

If it weren't for the fact that I needed him for Slayonet on my ground build, I'd never have even gone through his quest chain. Kind of like Murderess and the Antimatter Rifle.

I don't know how his character even got created to be honest. I can't see him being popular with any Japanese person.

 

[XiaNaphryz]

Spoiler

That was definitely him being positive about it. He's only done like two reviews ever that were legit straight up positive, and one was for Portal. On top of that he *hates* JRPGs, like with an untold vengeance. Given that XCX is JRPG *as fuck* maybe it just managed to swing so far into JRPG territory that it broke all the things that can make JRPGs intolerable.

Nah, he's had other generally positive reviews, notably Saints Row 2 and Alpha Protocol.

 

[Xenoboy]

I like Bozé, at least when he talks to humans, not with other Xenos. He's too much of a hater and I find it interesting that they made a character like him playable. I like him more than H.B, sorry, Murderess, Gwin and Doug. I do understand why so many are put off by him though.

 

[B-Dubs]

I like Bozé, at least when he talks to humans, not with other Xenos. He's too much of a hater and I find it interesting that they made a character like him playable. I like him more than H.B, sorry, Murderess, Gwin and Doug. I do understand why so many are put off by him though.

His story, through all of the affinity missions, is a pretty good parable on racism and whatnot. I like how at the end of it all he (affinity quest spoilers)

Spoiler

realizes that he's been taking out his rage on all of the xenos regardless if they were involved with Earth's destruction or not and that he needs to be a better person.

 

[Zalusithix]

While his xenophobic tendencies caused me to dislike him more, I hated him before that aspect even cropped up. The first conversation with him immediately had me wanting nothing more to do with him. His being so full of himself and immediately assuming superiority. His half baked interest into asian culture and lecturing on stuff he doesn't even understand. Basically the kind of person in real life that you wouldn't waste time on trying to rationalize with or correct.

As such, I took much the same approach I do in real life when faced with a person like that. Nod my head and smile hoping to be rid of them as fast as possible. Sure sensei. Whatever you say sensei. At least when the situation only involved myself. If it involved a xeno, I pretty much told him to shove it. Not like he was going to be able to do anything without me anyhow. I never gave him gear beyond what he came with. If it weren't for my character, he'd have been dead any number of times. =P

 

[Wichu]

I beat the Endbringer and Gradivus for the first time. They dropped Reflect.ADD-ETHER and Reflect.ADD-PHYS respectively. I have SpecUp.GRAV-RES XX already. Guess the game wants me to reflect the shit out of Pharsis next.

EDIT: Apparently you can get

Spoiler

Luxaar/Vita's sword

as a Skell weapon. I need it.

 

[ShinNoNoir]

Hmm, it seems like I was a bit overleveled for chapter 8 (party members' level 40-45 and 2 Skells). No challenge at all.

 

[Tripon]

Is the overall level cap 60?

 

[Zalusithix]

Is the overall level cap 60?

Yep. Which is more than enough to do anything you need/want to. Gear matters more than level.

Edit: I don't usually quote out of order, but he's not worth another post.

Boze had great heart to hearts. The last one in particular was awesome.

I'll never know, as I refuse to view any of his. =P

 

[Malus]

Boze had great heart to hearts. The last one in particular was awesome.

The game

Spoiler

drops so many hints that she isn't human that it's impossible not to guess it. For crying out loud, she never says "us" when refering to humans, but constantly says humans. The game doesn't hide it.

Spoiler

Even though I had it spoiled for me I still didn't get the hints to the point where I actually forgot about it until the end of the game.

 

[theSlacker]

So,

Spoiler

Who saw that Elma being a xenos frau coming from the beginning?

I was spoiled so I knew it but still

Spoiler

there were a bunch of hints to it beforehand. I don't know how hard I would have picked up on them if I wasn't already spoiled though.

 

[tkscz]

So,

Spoiler

Who saw that Elma being a xenos frau coming from the beginning?

The game

Spoiler

drops so many hints that she isn't human that it's impossible not to guess it. For crying out loud, she never says "us" when refering to humans, but constantly says humans. The game doesn't hide it.

 

[Wichu]

Turns out the Reflect augments didn't really help with Pharsis. I had to reduce my gravity resistance to use them, so I just got owned by her gravity attacks instead.

I'm tempted just to cheese this fight with Ultrafauna Slayers with a superweapon. Has anyone managed to beat her in a non-cheese Skell fight?

 

[-Horizon-]

Ok, now I just gotta wait for the miranium to tick over 100,000 before I can finally claim the ares 90.

 

[Zalusithix]

Turns out the Reflect augments didn't really help with Pharsis. I had to reduce my gravity resistance to use them, so I just got owned by her gravity attacks instead.

I'm tempted just to cheese this fight with Ultrafauna Slayers with a superweapon. Has anyone managed to beat her in a non-cheese Skell fight?

I don't think using ultrafauna slayer augments and superweapons counts as cheesing things. Rather, going in without any superweapons or augments is just unnecessarily gimping yourself. Without some level of stacking the odds in your favor, the high end tyrants will make short work of a skell. Whether that stacking comes in the form of incredibly high resists, evasion, regeneration, or damage doesn't really matter. In the case of Pharsis you also have the high regeneration which will be hard to outdamage without superweapons or slayer augs. I mean, you don't have to one shot her by any stretch of the imagination, but not using anything? Seems like a waste of time (and somewhat boring with the no superweapon rule).

 

[Wichu]

I don't think using ultrafauna slayer augments and superweapons counts as cheesing things. Rather, going in without any superweapons or augments is just unnecessarily gimping yourself. Without some level of stacking the odds in your favor, the high end tyrants will make short work of a skell. Whether that stacking comes in the form of incredibly high resists, evasion, regeneration, or damage doesn't really matter. In the case of Pharsis you also have the high regeneration which will be hard to outdamage without superweapons or slayer augs. I mean, you don't have to one shot her by any stretch of the imagination, but not using anything? Seems like a waste of time (and somewhat boring with the no superweapon rule).

I meant using Slayer augments on a superweapon for that one-/two-shot kill. I'm using Megaflame-Bullet at the moment (the only level 60 superweapon other than Hexad-Partican I've unlocked so far), but it's not powerful enough to kill Pharsis before she starts regenerating and prolonging the fight.

I killed Endbringer this way, but it doesn't regenerate and all its powerful attacks are ether - I could heal off any damage it got through Ether Resist pretty quickly. Pharsis has powerful gravity and physical attacks, so Resist augments aren't as useful - her physical attacks outdamage my healing once she gets her Enraged aura.

I guess it's time to farm Ultrafauna Slayers then

 

[Zalusithix]

I meant using Slayer augments on a superweapon for that one-/two-shot kill. I'm using Megaflame-Bullet at the moment (the only level 60 superweapon other than Hexad-Partican I've unlocked so far), but it's not powerful enough to kill Pharsis before she starts regenerating and prolonging the fight.

I killed Endbringer this way, but it doesn't regenerate and all its powerful attacks are ether - I could heal off any damage it got through Ether Resist pretty quickly. Pharsis has powerful gravity and physical attacks, so Resist augments aren't as useful - her physical attacks outdamage my healing once she gets her Enraged aura.

I guess it's time to farm Ultrafauna Slayers then

You mention healing, so you're using a Lailah I take it? If so, the healing per tick is dependent on your HP. With some HP drive augs on ground gear and ~90 gravity / physical resist, you should be healing faster than she can hurt you. My Lailah has the Megaflame and Antimatter Rifle. With positional augs in the frame and about 10 ultrafauna slayer augs, killing her was no problem. Not a one/two shot ordeal either. Can reduce the slayer aug count further to extend the battle longer, but you want to at least have the capacity to burst the HP down at the end.

Edit: Correction to the above resists. I was at 60/80/50/70/50/80 (phys/ether/elec/beam/therm/grav) in the above video.

 

[-Horizon-]

Oh man, finally being able to give the middle finger to some of these tyrants is oh so worth it.

Luciel still managed to take me down before I got it though lol.

Drinks fuel like a nutso though. And that run animation lmao.