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Xenoblade |OT| Sorry I Kept You Waiting!

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
More low level NG+ videos.

Fourth boss, both parts. Took longer than it should have since I struggled to topple him on the first part, and break him on the second.

Bonus battle - Reckless Godwin (+ minions). Some slowdown in this video due to so many onscreen enemies fighting. Like I said, it's an all-Dunban show since he's so much higher level at this point. Without him around it actually would have been pretty ugly due to that talent art (heck, it was ugly with him around).

Bonus battle 2 - Baelfael Gogol (level 82), after beating one I really wanted to do it again and get a video. Unfortunately, it wasn't nearly as smooth the second time around, but either way, I've killed two of these damn things at level 12/16/27. Unbeatable was activating like crazy in that fight, even though I wanted it to NOT activate so Dunban's Jaws of Death would activate.

Oh, and on that last one it was recording the wrong thing at first, so I had to stop and fix it, so it starts a tad late. Doesn't really miss anything other than me putting Armor up and running in to attack.
 

Zornica

Banned
Bonus battle - Reckless Godwin (+ minions). Some slowdown in this video due to so many onscreen enemies fighting. Like I said, it's an all-Dunban show since he's so much higher level at this point. Without him around it actually would have been pretty ugly due to that talent art (heck, it was ugly with him around).

Is there a reason why you fought the minions too? Seems way harder that way.
I really wish I had the time to exploit the game like this.
 
I was determined to beat the game before June 3rd because that was when I left for my week-long vacation to Mexico. I didn't want to be thinking about the story or feel the yearning to play while I was supposed to be enjoying my vacation. But even though I did succeed in beating it before I left, I still had the music stuck in my head all week, and I still couldn't wait to play it when I got home. Lol...

Anyway, I've been having trouble deciding between starting a NG+ or messing around with "post-game" stuff first. The main reason I'd like to go NG+ is because I missed out on nearly every
Alcamoth, Mechonis Field and Agnaritha quest
. I couldn't help but blow through their point of no return because I was too entranced by the main story, but now I'd really like to do them. But before I do that I'm going to try to get some good gems and equipment from late-game monsters, as well as all of the
4th and 5th skill trees for every character (I have really high area affinity in Colony 9, Central Bionis and Fallen Arm, so it would be a shame to waste it)
.

Also, before I left I accidentally discovered a really dirty trick in (late/post-game spoilers):
Tephra Cave. I was level 78 but I really wanted one of those juicy Haste gems that the lizards drop in there. I tried my luck and got pretty close, but I just kept drawing aggro from side mobs which always resulted in my death. That is, until I was in the area with the little pond that you drop into if you skip to the Heavenly Window landmark, do a 180° turn and run through a hole guarded by some Bunnits. There are usually 2 wisps and 2 lizards there, and there's a small ledge where you can jump down and run to the Spring of Grief. That ledge is the key. I was getting my ass kicked by the 2 lizards as usual, when I decided to bail out and jumped off the ledge. I noticed that the lizards couldn't jump down after me, but I still had aggro.

Oh exploitable.

On my next fight I controlled Melia, and then had Reyn for tanking (he actually did better than Dunban against these enemies, for some reason) and Riki for his ether attacks and heals. I drew aggro from a lizard, jumped off the ledge, and ran way out of its range and started nuking it. This worked great, and I was well on my way to killing it when it randomly de-aggroed and ran back to it's original location. Fuck. So on my next try I stayed a little closer — out of range of its melee attacks but in the range of its topple art — and it worked like a charm; I was dropping lizards like crazy and taking minimal damage. I could even handle 2 lizards and 1 wisp at once, although it wasn't easy. I felt really naughty for doing it but at the same time it felt so good. I didn't actually get enough drops to form my Haste VI gem though, because I was getting a ton of exp for killing monsters 12+ levels higher than me, and I was level 80 before I knew it. I wanted to fight the final boss at level 80, so I took off and beat the game. But now that I've gotten that out of the way, it's Haste gem farming time!
 

Exeunt

Member
Anyway, I've been having trouble deciding between starting a NG+ or messing around with "post-game" stuff first. The main reason I'd like to go NG+ is because I missed out on nearly every
Alcamoth, Mechonis Field and Agnaritha quest
. I couldn't help but blow through their point of no return because I was too entranced by the main story, but now I'd really like to do them. But before I do that I'm going to try to get some good gems and equipment from late-game monsters, as well as all of the
4th and 5th skill trees for every character (I have really high area affinity in Colony 9, Central Bionis and Fallen Arm, so it would be a shame to waste it)
.

If that's your motivation for doing New Game+, I would recommend fighting the high-level uniques first and going back later for a new playthrough. The quests really aren't anything to write home about so if you miss some it's really only an issue if you're a completionist. The ones in (late-game area)
Agniratha
in particular seem rather rushed, and if you fought the unique monsters in that area you're not missing anything. The only area you listed I would say had more noteworthy sidequests was
Alcamoth
, and those were linked with
Makna Forest
and
Valak Mountain
. Otherwise, they weren't really special just because they were timed. From what I've read, completed quests (i.e. all the others you did) don't carry over to New Game+ anyway. The quests would be less of a challenge and more of a chore at your level, so overall I don't recommend replaying just to complete them.

I could even handle 2 lizards and 1 wisp at once, although it wasn't easy. I felt really naughty for doing it but at the same time it felt so good.

Oh.
 
What do you guys mean by "post-game content"? Just the stuff right before the point of no return or am I missing something? Also, does the merchant in Alcamoth relocate after the thingy happens? He has a scroll I want.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
What do you guys mean by "post-game content"? Just the stuff right before the point of no return or am I missing something? Also, does the merchant in Alcamoth relocate after the thingy happens? He has a scroll I want.
Yeah, everything that opens up after
Mechonis Core.
It all requies higher levels than the final boss.

It's a good chunk of content, one area opening up, a couple others getting new, high level enemies, lots of high level quests, and the superboss type enemies become available.
 
So something just happened (I'm at lvl 68) and I'm wondering about certain quests:

Egil just awakened the Mechonis and wrecked the capital. I can't get back to the capital at the moment, and I'm wondering if the couple of quests I had left will be available again at some point? I have a save file right before fighting Egil.

Also I have done all the timed quests in Alcamoth, but I still only got a 4 star affinity to it. Am I missing something? I'm pretty sure that the event which render the Alcamoth inactive will happen soon, will I be able to raise affinity after that? Also about heart-to-heart locations in Alcamoth do I need to view them all before the event?

Thanks for the help.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
So something just happened (I'm at lvl 68) and I'm wondering about certain quests:

Egil just awakened the Mechonis and wrecked the capital. I can't get back to the capital at the moment, and I'm wondering if the couple of quests I had left will be available again at some point? I have a save file right before fighting Egil.

Also I have done all the timed quests in Alcamoth, but I still only got a 4 star affinity to it. Am I missing something? I'm pretty sure that the event which render the Alcamoth inactive will happen soon, will I be able to raise affinity after that? Also about heart-to-heart locations in Alcamoth do I need to view them all before the event?

Thanks for the help.

1)
Are the quests still on your quest list? You CAN go back to Agniratha, purely due to a bug in the game. You can return to Central Factory from the Mechonis Core area (before Egil, where you beat the generator thing). From there, you can go to the transporter and return to Agniratha since the developers forgot to block it off. But if the quests aren't in your list anymore, you can't do them (AFAIK).

2)
The northern Bionis area also consists of Valak Mountain and Eryth Sea, so any quests there will count towards that affinity. Also, more quests will open up in those areas soon. And you can still view Heart to Hearts in Alcamoth later, just the quests expire.

But you are coming up on the final point of no return for all timed quests. So if you have any outstanding you should do them (except the ones in Colony 6, for some reason some of those are listed as timed even though they're just exclusive to one another and not actually timed).
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Next low level video. I don't even know if this guy counts as a boss, but since it's a forced encounter with boss music, and this area otherwise doesn't have a boss, I went ahead and recorded it.

The fight was a joke though.

Boss 5 - Satorl Guardian (level 12/16/27)

Is there a reason why you fought the minions too? Seems way harder that way.
I really wish I had the time to exploit the game like this.

I was hoping it would add difficulty, since everything is basically pretty easy unless I do something crazy like that Gogol fight. Even so, it really didn't make the fight any harder, just longer. Dunban has such ridiculous DPS and agility, especially for this point in the game, that his level in particular doesn't reflect anything. He has over 150 agility (plus night vision) and nearly 500 strength.



Edit: Going to toy around with my old PAL saves since I have one at 99 to try something. Funny looking back at the setup I used to beat Abaasy. Just based on the stats alone, my characters at level 79 were better than my old ones at 99. Dunban's agility was only 1 higher despite the 20 level difference. Shulk and 7th had LOWER agility at level 99. Gems also weren't very well chosen, wasn't thinking very strategically at all.

But it kind of goes to show a couple things. On one hand, it's hard to screw up. Even with an unoptimal party, or a poor setup, you can still be successful. On the other hand, it also shows that a really well setup party can make a huge difference to the point of being able to exploit the game quite a bit, as I did in my "low level" post-game stuff.
 

Gravijah

Member
now to reflect on a few things i didn't like about the game. endgame spoilers.

it felt as though characters just disappeared into the background for half of the game. Riki, the "joke character", didn't seem to have much development at all and could have easily been cut. Melia seemed to disappear after you leave the Imperial City until she had more story bits at the end.

Prison Island, as the penultimate dungeon, was very boring. i think around then is when the OST started to get a bit weaker, too, as the final boss songs weren't anything to write home about.

not being able to control the other party members was frustrating at times, as the AI can make very stupid mistakes. i like to micromanage my team, and in FFXII, i didn't use very many gambits, so i felt as though i was missing quite a bit of control.
 
If that's your motivation for doing New Game+, I would recommend fighting the high-level uniques first and going back later for a new playthrough. The quests really aren't anything to write home about so if you miss some it's really only an issue if you're a completionist. The ones in (late-game area)
Agniratha
in particular seem rather rushed, and if you fought the unique monsters in that area you're not missing anything. The only area you listed I would say had more noteworthy sidequests was
Alcamoth
, and those were linked with
Makna Forest
and
Valak Mountain
. Otherwise, they weren't really special just because they were timed. From what I've read, completed quests (i.e. all the others you did) don't carry over to New Game+ anyway. The quests would be less of a challenge and more of a chore at your level, so overall I don't recommend replaying just to complete them.
You make a good point. I do have completionist tendencies but not enough to the point of going through mundane quests to satisfy myself. The only cool thing I feel like I'm missing out on by not starting a NG+ is
the Monado III
. So awesome.

Get your mind out of the gutter!

now to reflect on a few things i didn't like about the game. endgame spoilers.

Prison Island, as the penultimate dungeon, was very boring. i think around then is when the OST started to get a bit weaker, too, as the final boss songs weren't anything to write home about.

not being able to control the other party members was frustrating at times, as the AI can make very stupid mistakes. i like to micromanage my team, and in FFXII, i didn't use very many gambits, so i felt as though i was missing quite a bit of control.

I echo these two complaints.
Prison Island was pretty bland overall, especially by this game's standards, so I don't feel like I'm being unfair when I say they could have done a lot better. However, the REAL final zone (the solar system) looked fucking amazing
.

As far as the AI, yeah that's pretty much a universal complaint. Even the last DS game I played (Dragon Quest IX) had a simple system of guiding your teammates to do what you wanted. I can't imagine it would have been too hard to introduce something like that, where you have the AI focus on healing, auto-attacking, using support arts, and so on. Oh well.
 
Really? I actually enjoyed
Prison Island second time through. I thought the music was cool and the scenery was interesting (dinosaurs for dinner?) and the dragon summoning bell was cool.
 

Exeunt

Member
now to reflect on a few things i didn't like about the game. endgame spoilers.

it felt as though characters just disappeared into the background for half of the game. Riki, the "joke character", didn't seem to have much development at all and could have easily been cut. Melia seemed to disappear after you leave the Imperial City until she had more story bits at the end.

I partially agree with this assessment. While it felt like they tried to give each character at least one little story arc to shine in, the execution was rather inconsistent. I guess that's a problem when you have a fair number of characters to juggle, but the fact remains that some characters are rather neglected. Having said that, I think it was intentional that
Riki wasn't featured very prominently in cutscenes. As you say, he is the "joke character," and the writers probably realized that he might be a little divisive. He never ruins a dramatic moment, but at the same time his role does feel a little diminished
. Of course, how well you think that went is another story.

Get your mind out of the gutter!

That hasn't been a valid option for years now.

I echo these two complaints.
Prison Island was pretty bland overall, especially by this game's standards, so I don't feel like I'm being unfair when I say they could have done a lot better. However, the REAL final zone (the solar system) looked fucking amazing
.

As far as the AI, yeah that's pretty much a universal complaint. Even the last DS game I played (Dragon Quest IX) had a simple system of guiding your teammates to do what you wanted. I can't imagine it would have been too hard to introduce something like that, where you have the AI focus on healing, auto-attacking, using support arts, and so on. Oh well.

I didn't really see anything wrong with the
final visit to Prison Island. I suppose they could've gone more "out there," with the final dungeon but it was fitting the way they set it up. But that's only in retrospect—the dungeon and its music worked fine when I was playing. I will grant that the final boss theme wasn't that memorable.

And I'll definitely get behind the AI complaint. It worked really well in simple fights and I don't remember having any issues with it until over halfway through the game. But as the environments and the fights became more complex, the AI really started to fall apart. Simple things like moving off of hazardous surfaces seem to be out of its scope, basically forcing you to call everyone back and wait for the enemy to follow. Even allowing you to issue the default commands to individual members of your squad would have been an improvement, but the current options—while functional—were certainly lacking. The Wii U GamePad would theoretically make it easier to execute more intricate commands in a game like this without relying too much on finger gymnastics, but I'm really getting ahead of myself here. AI could've been better.
 
Beat the game today. The ending was a bit omg anime for me, but as a whole I liked the ending and of course the game itself.

End game spoilers:
the whole space thing was crazy. I thought it was cool that there was a place in space named Saturn, but I didn't really pan the camera around or anything. Then I went to the next area and saw the name Jupiter and thought 'hmmm', panned the camera, and holy fuck, it was actually Jupiter! That whole area, while obviously incredibly linear, was just so awesome to me.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
I messed around with Sword Drive. Looks like it's definitely possible to hit 999999+ damage, depending on where the game caps it at (probably there, doubt you can do a million).

Never actually managed to pull it off though, chain attacks are too finicky, enemies like to die, and unless I control Reyn he uses Mad Taunt pretty much as soon as it's available not leaving Magnum Charge for me in a chain.

But I hit around 450k on chain link 4, and that was guarded by the enemy (that unique tude enemy that reduces all damage except from the front). And against a different enemy, I hit over 250k without a chain attack at all, just Berserk + Magnum Charge. 8x damage from the chain 5 or later and that's well over a million damage (two million, in fact!).

So theoretically... it's possible to 1HKO Abaasy. But not really. Because your damage penalty will cause the attack to do half damage, plus he has pretty high defense, and the combination of the two would probably result in you maxing at maybe 500k-600k damage. But that's still more than half his HP! :D
 

Ra1den

Member
It really is true that it's more fun to mess around with lots of different characters. I've been doing that and found myself enjoying combat a lot more now. Never realized how awesome Dunban's dodging ablility was until I started using him as my controlled character.
 
So I'm up to Sword Valley now. I kinda hated the Valak Mountain area; the extremely tilted slopes made it difficult to control the camera. Is it worth it to equip the anti-mechon weapons Dickson just sold me? On the one hand, their stats kinda suck, but on the other hand, if I'm going to be fighting a bunch of Mechon, I'd like to be wielding stuff that can damage them... Does their anti-Mechon-ness actually make a difference, or are they just anti-Mechon in name only?
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
It really is true that it's more fun to mess around with lots of different characters. I've been doing that and found myself enjoying combat a lot more now. Never realized how awesome Dunban's dodging ablility was until I started using him as my controlled character.

Indeed, it really makes me wish Heat Haze had a different secondary/"negative" effect. Dunban is too good of a tank to drop all aggro, but 100% critical hit rate would be amazing.

I guess it doesn't matter much though, he has so many good auras you can't really make use of them all.

Serene Heart - This art is practically broken since it boosts Dunban's already awesome agility even further. Even though it has no real secondary effect, it doesn't even need one.
Spirit Breath - Almost broken, 95% haste at max level, and the debuff removal is great until you get to the post-game stuff where it becomes useless due to debuff resist VI gems. 95% haste is always awesome though. This is pretty much the key art to use in any fight where extra agility isn't necessary (offense vs defense, more or less).
Jaws of Death - Makes Reyn's Last Stand look kind of silly in comparison, since this also fills the party gauge on revival AND increases physical art damage.
Peerless - Great strength boost, useful in a number of situations but it's normally outclassed by Spirit Breath/haste. Cure confuse is pointless for 99% of the game though.

Heat Haze is unfortunately no good since it drains all aggro, and Dunban is a tank at heart. Maybe if you're using him alongside Reyn it would work, but I'd still probably use Spirit Breath over this for the haste and use other methods for increasing crit rate.

Battle Eye is a mixed bag. Lock-on is kind of meh, since Dunban can hold aggro most of the time anyway. Increased double attack is nice, but it's limited and ultimately Spirit Breath will do more in the end with haste. The third effect of raising the talent gauge is nice though, since Dunban's talent art is arguably the second best in the game (after Shulk, obviously).

So I'm up to Sword Valley now. I kinda hated the Valak Mountain area; the extremely tilted slopes made it difficult to control the camera. Is it worth it to equip the anti-mechon weapons Dickson just sold me? On the one hand, their stats kinda suck, but on the other hand, if I'm going to be fighting a bunch of Mechon, I'd like to be wielding stuff that can damage them... Does their anti-Mechon-ness actually make a difference, or are they just anti-Mechon in name only?

They do damage Mechon, but they will be weaker than your normal weapons. So it's kind of a trade off. Deal with using enchant and getting a damage boost, or don't use Shulk/enchant but deal less overall damage.

Remember ether damage works on Mechon regardless, so Melia doesn't need those.

Personally, I think unless you just don't want to use Shulk, Enchant with normal weapons is the way to go. You get 50xEnchant level bonus damage on each hit, and Shulk is good regardless. It's a minor annoyance, but the reduced damage output of anti-Mechon weapons is more annoying.

Though later on, you'll start collecting weapons like that from drops. Some of the later ones are actually better than any normal weapons you have up to that point. Don't think you'll find anything like that where you're at though.
 

Esura

Banned
Yes, I think I'm almost done with this game. Lv. 72 with Shulk/Dunban/Seven at
the heart of the Bionis in the core
and I'm trying to fight
Lorinthia
but that boss is like three levels higher than me and I'm doing no meaningful amounts of damage. I don't want to do anymore quests so I was going to grind out some levels here but even with like 5000+ EXP per battle it is taking forever. I have the Monado Armor skill btw.

Any tips on how to cheese the remainder of this game so I can finally move on to another game?
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Yes, I think I'm almost done with this game. Lv. 72 with Shulk/Dunban/Seven at
the heart of the Bionis in the core
and I'm trying to fight
Lorinthia
but that boss is like three levels higher than me and I'm doing no meaningful amounts of damage. I don't want to do anymore quests so I was going to grind out some levels here but even with like 5000+ EXP per battle it is taking forever. I have the Monado Armor skill btw.

Any tips on how to cheese the remainder of this game so I can finally move on to another game?

Use ether damage, especially for that fight. If you really want to cheese the rest of the game use
Riki (DoT attacks, especially ether ones, and try to tank with him due to the high HP), Shulk (Monado arts + Light heal), Sharla (healing)
and you can win pretty much any battle through attrition. You could also main Melia instead but she's more fragile and isn't going to tank as well.

You can win with that party though if you topple lock the enemy, that will increase your damage a ton since the physical protect shield goes away when it's toppled and dazed. That's how I beat it with that party, at a lower level than you are right now.
 

Jarlaxle

Member
Yes, I think I'm almost done with this game. Lv. 72 with Shulk/Dunban/Seven at
the heart of the Bionis in the core
and I'm trying to fight
Lorinthia
but that boss is like three levels higher than me and I'm doing no meaningful amounts of damage. I don't want to do anymore quests so I was going to grind out some levels here but even with like 5000+ EXP per battle it is taking forever. I have the Monado Armor skill btw.

Any tips on how to cheese the remainder of this game so I can finally move on to another game?

This is the same thing I went through last week until last night. I just couldn't beat this boss for whatever reason. I had no problem with any other part of the game but I spent 2.5 hours last night just fighting the boss over and over and over again using different people and different tactics.

There is a place you can pretty easily level up if you'd like to (I leveled up to 75 from 71 in about an hour and a half) over in the Bionis' Leg. Use the South bridge point and then just go down the hill and across the pads in the middle of the lake. Most of the enemies there are all 75 and 76 in level but they really aren't hard and give really good experience. Then just skill link everything that ups experience and put any eperience gems on and go through the circuit like 5 times or so. That should do the trick.

Even with the increased levels though I couldn't beat it with that party. I'm obviously not good enough to topple lock and I had barely used anyone else. Save yourself some time and start using Melia (this was the only time in the whole game so far that I'd used her). She just does damage where it seems like no one else could. I controlled Melia, had 7th drawing aggro, and Sharla to try and keep us healed. I still had some difficulties (I had the boss down to 1 or 2 more hits last night using Melia, 7ty, and Shulk and died on my first attempt of the night). You'll eventually do it. Take out the other enemies before attacking the main boss. It lowers her defense. If you don't know how to use Melia, which I really didn't, there's a great guide in the OP to her and I just followed the suggested pattern. It doesn't take too long to go get all her art books if you hadn't been buying them like me.

Now that I'm done with that part, I haven't had anymore trouble going back to my main party of Shulk, Dunban, and 7th yet and hopefully I won't the rest of the way. I hope to finish this game this weekend.
 
Which arts are good to equip for 7th?

I haven't used 7th as the controlled character, but will probably do so near the end game, and it's always nice with some second opinions.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Which arts are good to equip for 7th?

I haven't used 7th as the controlled character, but will probably do so near the end game, and it's always nice with some second opinions.

I use:

Speed Shift is the best aura in the game, effect wise. Cooldown hurts it a lot though, but 95% haste + 25% double attack is pretty darn awesome, even with the 25% defense penalty.

Healing Energy is decent and worth having around too. Especially before you start getting megaheat Debuff Resist since it clears debuffs.

Power Drain is really good since at max level it can essentially be permanent (effect lasts longer than the cooldown), and the 20-25% strength is great since the character is almost exclusively a physical attacker. Plus it lowers the enemy's strength.

Two or more red arts are nice for chains. I go with Double Wind since it's a nice AoE attack, either Double Blade or Spear Blade is fine. Or both. I use Spear Blade since she's pretty much never behind the enemy to take advantage of Double Blade.

Final Cross is kind of an obvious choice. You probably aren't going to use it more than once per battle outside chains, and you'll probably never use it in a lot of normal battles, but in longer/tougher fights it's great.

Cross Impact is a good daze art, worth having around.

Can use about anything for the last art.
 

Cedric

Member
So I'm nearing the end of Xenoblade, I just finished
Bionis Interior
and decided to go back to complete skills, quests, the collectopedia and so forth. Man, I gotta say this has probably been the best gaming experience in my whole life. I didn't have a clue what Xenoblade was about, all I knew was that it was supposed to be a good rpg. When it came to N.A., my father decided to buy it and since I had no expectations whatsoever I was completely blown away.

Gaur Plains is probably the most awesome "welcome to this game" moment, it remains my favourite area (although after checking it out on youtube, Bionis Left Shoulder would've been my favourite had it not been cut out) in the whole game. I find that as you get older, RPGs get less interesting (it might also be because of Square-Enix's inability to put out decent games), but Xenoblade was the only game to ever make me feel like I was a kid again. It is most definitely in my top 3 games of all time. Also, Riki is a beast.

edit: speaking of Riki, what is his best physical art? I use Burninate, Freezinate, Lurgy, You Can Do It, Riki Tantrum, Happy Happy and Herotime. I want to give him a second physical attack to go with tantrum.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
edit: speaking of Riki, what is his best physical art? I use Burninate, Freezinate, Lurgy, You Can Do It, Riki Tantrum, Happy Happy and Herotime. I want to give him a second physical attack to go with tantrum.

Bitey Bitey for bleed damage, unless you're using Dunban. Gale Slash is better due to Dunban's strength, so in that case you might want to go with Sneaky instead.
 

Esura

Banned
Thanks for all the help guys, it paid off. I was right there, just right there at the end...then hit a brick wall at the second form of the final boss. I wish I could of at least saved as now I have to do that annoying fight before the final...ugh...

I tried all sorts of teams against it, even the cheese team I was recommended but...everything goes to crap when it summons guardians. Not only do they not die fast enough before they double team Sharla, but Riki really do not gather aggro at all. After fighting the shadow bosses before the final boss I ended up at lv. 77 with all.

Also, they need to fix those wikis and stuff. Says the second fight stops at 25% health...which is a lie. The battle didn't even stop at half health.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
I think it's when the boss is at 25% health, not after you take off 25%. And you're a tad low, most people manage it a couple levels higher. It's doable at that level though, I did it on my second playthrough pretty easily.

Fortunately,
the second form is the hardest, the third form is actually the easiest.
 

aceface

Member
I've been experimenting with topple locks...what's the best party to use for this strategy? It seems that Dunban and Reyn have the most topple moves. Also, does Daze stack like Topple does?

Also I recently switched from Shulk/Reyn/Sharla who I had been using for the whole game to Shulk/Dunban/seventh. Holy shit it's mass destruction now! Battles go so fast. So far the lack of healing has not been too much of a problem. I mean, my characters HP is in the red a lot more but I seem to be able to beat whatever I am fighting before people start dying.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
I've been experimenting with topple locks...what's the best party to use for this strategy? It seems that Dunban and Reyn have the most topple moves. Also, does Daze stack like Topple does?

Also I recently switched from Shulk/Reyn/Sharla who I had been using for the whole game to Shulk/Dunban/seventh. Holy shit it's mass destruction now! Battles go so fast. So far the lack of healing has not been too much of a problem. I mean, my characters HP is in the red a lot more but I seem to be able to beat whatever I am fighting before people start dying.

Shulk/Dunban/Reyn, depending on how far you are, and yes, daze stacks too.

All three characters have a topple attack (Shulk gets his very late in the game though), and Reyn and Shulk both have daze attacks.

You could arguably sub in 7th since that's another character with topple and daze, but the topple attack requires max tension (but no break) and has a ridiculous cooldown, so you're probably not going to use it more than once outside a chain attack. But on the other hand, this character is better at raising the party gauge than Reyn (and probably Shulk too), and quick party gauge filling is a pretty key element to good topple locks.
 

upandaway

Member
Finally got to Melia and used her a little (M/Dunban/Sharla). Whew! Dunno about any shady business, but she's definitely more fun than Shulk. To be honest the battle system was the only thing I was iffy about, even after it 'clicked', and I actually like it now. No being infuriated by aggro or repositioning (and just spamming the side/back slashes from pure lack of interest), not anymore!

It took me so long to give up playing as the main character. It feels so wrong. Will I get arrested for not using the Modano? Will they throw me in jail?
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Beat the next "boss" with a level 15 Shulk. Alvis kicked some ass too during a chain attack. Thought about doing it at level 12, but I figure the extra few levels worth of agility (and a slightly smaller level penalty) would probably make a pretty decent difference since you don't have your party during that fight, and I wasn't sure how helpful my temporary assistant would be.

Boss 6 - Puera Telethia (x3)

Finally got to Melia and used her a little (M/Dunban/Sharla). Whew! Dunno about any shady business, but she's definitely more fun than Shulk. To be honest the battle system was the only thing I was iffy about, even after it 'clicked', and I actually like it now. No being infuriated by aggro or repositioning (and just spamming the side/back slashes from pure lack of interest), not anymore!

It took me so long to give up playing as the main character. It feels so wrong. Will I get arrested for not using the Modano? Will they throw me in jail?

You get rewarded by getting affinity up between different characters, meaning more skill links for them (among other things)! And each character plays at least a little differently, so it's worth giving them all a spin at some point.

If you don't play as Shulk, do you still get the battle visions?

Yes, you just have to use something other than Monado arts to counter them, unless he's in battle and you can just warn him (which is kind of funny, really).
 

aceface

Member
Finally got to Melia and used her a little (M/Dunban/Sharla). Whew! Dunno about any shady business, but she's definitely more fun than Shulk. To be honest the battle system was the only thing I was iffy about, even after it 'clicked', and I actually like it now. No being infuriated by aggro or repositioning (and just spamming the side/back slashes from pure lack of interest), not anymore!

It took me so long to give up playing as the main character. It feels so wrong. Will I get arrested for not using the Modano? Will they throw me in jail?

If you don't play as Shulk, do you still get the battle visions?
 

upandaway

Member
I only started to consider switching from Shulk was because I thought I could get rid of those visions! Alas, no such luck.

Maybe I'm missing something but I never had any trouble countering those. Or rather, they usually shatter 1 second after activating. That's just obnoxious, man.


You get rewarded by getting affinity up between different characters, meaning more skill links for them (among other things)! And each character plays at least a little differently, so it's worth giving them all a spin at some point.
Eh, I don't like switching them around. I don't think I'm comfortable enough to juggle it all on the spot. How bad is it if all my characters end up loving Melia alone?
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
I only started to consider switching from Shulk was because I thought I could get rid of those visions! Alas, no such luck.

Maybe I'm missing something but I never had any trouble countering those. Or rather, they usually shatter 1 second after activating. That's just obnoxious, man.



Eh, I don't like switching them around. I don't think I'm comfortable enough to juggle it all on the spot. How bad is it if all my characters end up loving Melia alone?

Fully shatter or just change? They change as soon as something regarding the enemy's attack changes. You can lower the enemy's strength, causing them to do less damage (but still kill you) and the vision tag will "shatter" and adjust.


Not changing characters = low affinity between characters = less skill link possibilities = the game is harder.

Doesn't matter a ton for most of the game. Can help out during some tough parts later in the game, and you'll definitely want some good skill links and high affinity for "post-game" content.
 

upandaway

Member
I, uh, there are different kinds of shatter? Whoops. But oh well, what matters is that no one ever dies from them, even as I never try to counter them when they happen.
They're just sort of, pausing the game. They don't even penetrate my memory anymore.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
Dead Mammut. Didn't record anything because it wasn't really an interesting fight. Only won by toppling locking, initiated it with Demon Slayer on one of those small monsters nearby.

Still, level 96 enemy down!

icGtIIzLF2i5h.jpg


Also beat the next boss. And discovered what happens when you're fighting an enemy you're not supposed to "win" against and kicking their ass too hard :lol

And when I did beat the boss, I won in a single chain attack.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
What happens? Different dialogue?

That's the thing, nothing really happens at all.

The enemy just stops taking damage until they're able to end the battle. I sat there and beat on the boss for probably 2-3 minutes not really doing anything, just kind of went along with it once I realized I wasn't doing damage anymore. After a while I was ready to end it (since I'm going to upload this and don't want it to take forever).

Ended up having to manually call my teammates over to me to have them stop attacking just so it could get up from being toppled to use it's battle-ending attack.

Edit: for reference, I originally wanted to do this with the very first boss (Metal Face), but he ended the fight before I was ready.



Boss 7, both parts (level 15/14/27)
 

Jarlaxle

Member
Just beat the game (level 79). Great, great, game. I finished with 61 hours. Quite a long game considering I really didn't do many sidequests at all. I really enjoyed it.
 
Yesterday I finally got to play for the first time since June 1st, and I hopped right back to
Tephra Cave to farm Haste gems off the lizards
. I then went to
Eryth Sea and fought some of the Telethia there for fun, and felt like an idiot when I got a Haste gem drop. I totally forgot they dropped them too; I thought they dropped Double Attack gems. Bummer because I wasted all that time fighting those lizards when I could have just farmed the much easier Telethia. And then I got even more bummed when I looked at the spreadsheet and found that only Deinos Sauros and their unique counterpart drop Double Attack V gems. I tried fighting one without the use of topple-lock and it wrecked me. Stupid instant death move
.

The good news is that I megaheated the Haste gems, so I have two maxed Haste VIs! I got so close (seriously had to be less than 10 points off) to getting another megaheat, but ended up with a 48% Haste VI. Bleh, oh well.

I've realized that I really need Night Vision, but in order to get a rank VI gem you need to beat a fucking
level 105 unique. I can't exactly do that unless I have Night Vision..
.
 

Exeunt

Member
I've realized that I really need Night Vision, but in order to get a rank VI gem you need to beat a fucking
level 105 unique. I can't exactly do that unless I have Night Vision..
.

How is your affinity with Central Bionis? I believe once you get it to four or five stars you can
trade with Scarlen to obtain some rank V Night Vision gems. They aren't perfect but they will help you hit Daedala and get the cylinders you need. You are also going to want Spike Defence or the appropriate skill links to take it down. Deinos Sauros will be good for you to defeat eventually since they will also drop Debuff Resist crystals that can protect you against Instant Death; you will need either that or Divine Protect if you want to defeat the hardest unique monsters
.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
You can also trade for rank IV ones in Colony 6 as a last resort. I think they offer 25% or so.


Beat the next "boss." This would have been a fun one if I could actually take damage. Defense should have been more balanced between armor and the character's natural stat.

Might start using a naked Dunban since I'm maining him, primarily to raise affinity. That might make things a little more interesting.

Boss 8 - level 27/14/18



Naked Dunban didn't work out very well, just got slaughtered by enemies 10+ levels over me. Especially the next boss.

And now I finally run into an enemy that can screw me over. Subterranean Zomar can actually deal decent damage, even though I got my party leveled to 20+. Tried a few times and the best I did was get him to around half health since the fight just goes on so long, and he deals pretty good damage. Might end up having to resort to spike resist so I can throw some topples in.
 
Just wrapped up the game today, I think it's my game of the generation. I've enjoyed a ton of other games across all the platforms, but I haven't been so entranced by one like I have with Xenoblade. THIS game should be a template for future RPGs of the same type.
 

StAidan

Member
Finally got back into it this weekend after my hard drive death (it took a week and a half to get it back from data recovery). Went through
Mechonis
Field and am in the middle of
Central Factory
right now.

At this point I'm kind of just cruising along because my earlier sidequest breaks have pushed me to about 5 levels ahead of whatever enemies I encounter. I could turn off XP gain I guess, but it doesn't really bother me that much.

Before I get too much further I'm going to try and pick up the fourth skill trees that I haven't already gotten, since my earliest party members are imminently close to maxing out their original three.

Still enjoying the game as much as ever.
 
Finally got back into it this weekend after my hard drive death (it took a week and a half to get it back from data recovery). Went through
Mechonis
Field and am in the middle of
Central Factory
right now.

At this point I'm kind of just cruising along because my earlier sidequest breaks have pushed me to about 5 levels ahead of whatever enemies I encounter. I could turn off XP gain I guess, but it doesn't really bother me that much.

Before I get too much further I'm going to try and pick up the fourth skill trees that I haven't already gotten, since my earliest party members are imminently close to maxing out their original three.

Still enjoying the game as much as ever.

It may be good to try and level a bit, I was the same as you, but the part you're coming up on has a lot of cutscenes and not a lot of gameplay from there on out. (but bosses are still encountered)
 
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