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[chaosblade]

so I'm about level 74ish and I'm at what I think its going to start the last dungeon/area of the game. Is it worth going back and finishing colony 6 and doing other sidequests, or should I just go on?

Just keep a save at the point of no return (which is very obvious), then you can go back and do whatever after you beat the game. NG+ in Xenoblade isn't great anyway, so if you do end up wanting to do more with the game you're better off just continuing from the point of no return instead of playing through 80%+ of the game just to unlock the post-game stuff again.

I think you need stuff from the last dungeon to finish Colony 6 anyway.

 

[Htown]

Just keep a save at the point of no return (which is very obvious), then you can go back and do whatever after you beat the game. NG+ in Xenoblade isn't great anyway, so if you do end up wanting to do more with the game you're better off just continuing from the point of no return instead of playing through 80%+ of the game just to unlock the post-game stuff again.

I think you need stuff from the last dungeon to finish Colony 6 anyway.

Does it give you a prompt at the point of no return? like "are you sure you want to do this now?

I just finished

Spoiler

beating Lorithia, and Dickson said MEET ME SOMEWHERE and left a blue portal behind

.

 

[chaosblade]

Does it give you a prompt at the point of no return? like "are you sure you want to do this now?

I just finished

Spoiler

beating Lorithia, and Dickson said MEET ME SOMEWHERE and left a blue portal behind

.

Dunban literally tells you that you can't go back and asks if you want to proceed. So yeah. And you can't save after the point of no return until you beat the game and make a clear file (which starts NG+, you can't continue from it).

 

[Htown]

Also, can I just say that I hate literally every piece of "armor" Shulk wears in this game? At least that I've seen.

Just... terrible. Awful looking. ALL OF THEM.

 

[CorvoSol]

Also, can I just say that I hate literally every piece of "armor" Shulk wears in this game? At least that I've seen.

Just... terrible. Awful looking. ALL OF THEM.

The winged helmets are okay.

 

[Htown]

The winged helmets are okay.

actually you're right. they are.

finished the game. decent if standard stuff for the ending, then they kinda messed it up by over-explaining

consensus is fuck new game plus, go back and do other stuff from an earlier save file?

 

[chaosblade]

actually you're right. they are.

finished the game. decent if standard stuff for the ending, then they kinda messed it up by over-explaining

consensus is fuck new game plus, go back and do other stuff from an earlier save file?

NG+ is only useful if you want to do a 100% playthrough. Doesn't really serve any other purpose since you have to replay the entire game just to get back to doing stuff that won't bore you to death due to being super overleveled.

There is a solid 30+ hours of post game content, but most of it is sidequests not all that different than the ones during the game. So if you didn't like doing those you probably won't like them here either. A handful give you some backstory.

Superbosses are the most interesting thing to tackle.

 

[Imp the Dimp]

Man, is there an easy way to acquire Forget-You-Nots? It took me almost an hour finding one in the Basin Cafe and I need another one for a quest and a third one to have all the collectables in Satorl Marsh.

According to this table nobody trades it (

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv?hl=en_US&key=0Anx12MiCQejudHJfUWhOTGd5Wm1uS25ub2FDeE5BekE&hl=en_US&f=true&noheader=false&gid=11

 

[icy_eagle]

So, have people been doing any 'unconventional' character builds? I had Sharla and melia switch roles on my 2nd playthrough just for kicks. Thunder Bullet + Boost Drive = Non-stop attacking . and healer melia was surprisingly fun and involving, if a bit challenging.

 

[Imp the Dimp]

Whenever "Engage the Enemy" kicks in, my goosebumps fucking kill me. Like, how the fuck can a videogame them possibly this fitting and this good??

 

[chaosblade]

Man, is there an easy way to acquire Forget-You-Nots? It took me almost an hour finding one in the Basin Cafe and I need another one for a quest and a third one to have all the collectables in Satorl Marsh.

According to this table nobody trades it (

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/lv?hl=en_US&key=0Anx12MiCQejudHJfUWhOTGd5Wm1uS25ub2FDeE5BekE&hl=en_US&f=true&noheader=false&gid=11

At night in that cave that the water flows through, IIRC. Still not common though.

Someone should translate that page that has all the blue orb spawns. Details what each one can be and what percentage each has for being a certain item.

 

[Imp the Dimp]

At night in that cave that the water flows through, IIRC. Still not common though.

Someone should translate that page that has all the blue orb spawns. Details what each one can be and what percentage each has for being a certain item.

Yeah, I found a second one for the quest and called it a day.

By the way guys, I'm thinking about ditching Sharla and Reyn for

Spoiler

Dunban

and

Spoiler

Melia

while keeping Shulk as the played character. Is the AI Melia good or should I control her myself? I heard she's the most OP fuck in the game so I wondered if the AI can make good use of her too.

 

[chaosblade]

The AI is so bad with her she isn't worth using unless you control her yourself. Seriously, sometimes she will just cast some elements and stand around for a while.

 

[Imp the Dimp]

The AI is so bad with her she isn't worth using unless you control her yourself. Seriously, sometimes she will just cast some elements and stand around for a while.

Is Melia,

Spoiler

Dunban

,

Spoiler

Riki

the strongest late game party you can run around with? I wonder if it's a good idea to drop Shulk when he can make Mechon vulnerable.

I'm currently lvl 50 and in

Spoiler

Galahad Fortress

.

 

[Soriku]

Is Melia,

Spoiler

Dunban

,

Spoiler

Riki

the strongest late game party you can run around with? I wonder if it's a good idea to drop Shulk when he can make Mechon vulnerable.

I'm currently lvl 50 and in

Spoiler

Galahad Fortress

.

During the post game I used Shulk, Dunban, and the last party member and tore everything apart once I made some good gems.

 

[chaosblade]

Is Melia,

Spoiler

Dunban

,

Spoiler

Riki

the strongest late game party you can run around with? I wonder if it's a good idea to drop Shulk when he can make Mechon vulnerable.

I'm currently lvl 50 and in

Spoiler

Galahad Fortress

.

There are four (or three and a half, kind of) characters that can effectively fight Mechon without needing Enchant. Shulk is obvious. Melia doesn't need Enchant because she shouldn't be dealing any physical damage, and Mechon are weak to ether damage naturally. Same goes for Riki to a lesser extent, if you have him setup with his status attacks those will hit Mechon fine, and the status work on them. Then the last character you get can also attack Mechon just fine.

Each character can get anti-Mechon weapons, you could have actually bought some at the beginning of that area if you wanted. They are worse than normal weapons, but don't require Enchant. Later in the game you'll start getting some as drops, and some of them will actually be good weapons (and look pretty awesome).

That doesn't make Enchant totally useless though, remember that it also adds a damage bonus when fighting Mechon on top of allowing normal weapons to hurt them. So a level 5-6 Enchant is going to be 250-300 addition damage on top of every attack, between three characters that's not-negligible damage bonus.

During the post game I used Shulk, Dunban, and the last party member and tore everything apart once I made some good gems.

Hell yeah, best party!

Not literally, but once you set everyone up right this party wrecks everything without much trouble at all.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

During the post game I used Shulk, Dunban, and the last party member and tore everything apart once I made some good gems.

Definitely my favorite party. Dunban and 7th have excellent survivablity once you get maxed agility gems, and especially if you get the HP steal and Aura Heal gems. But once you get Monado A

Spoiler

rmor

it doesn't even matter because it's the most broken skill in the game.

 

[theprodigy]

actually Melia/Riki will do half damage with their ether attacks without Enchant up
it's surprisingly easy to kill Mechon anyway considering this!

 

[Rootbeer]

gamestop has a buy 2 get 1 free sale on used games right now. picked up a copy of xenoblade (was $62 though argh!). Since it was going for a lot more previously I feel like it was the time to buy.

now I can return my friend's copy :3 I really had to have this one for my own collection

 

[Peagles]

Has this had a PAL reprint? It's back in stock in New Zealand!

 

[Kurtofan]

I just started playing, are the Head to Head events some sort of romance mechanic?

 

[Soriku]

I just started playing, are the Head to Head events some sort of romance mechanic?

Heart to heart. And no, they're just optional dialogue events with certain characters.

 

[chaosblade]

They do increase affinity though, more or less depending on which answers you pick. And that's important since higher affinity means you get more skill link options. There are plenty of other ways to increase affinity between party members, but doing a H2H with the right answers definitely gives a big boost.

 

[foxuzamaki]

Its good to see this kinda active

 

[Head of Vengarl]

Its good to see this kinda active

This game is so goddamn good, I feel like at the very least it will get some posts every couple months when someone plays it or replays it and wants to talk about it. I love reading the reactions as people play through it for the first time.

 

[icy_eagle]

Speaking of affinity, is there any way to effectively grind some? Really hate the slow growths.

 

[chaosblade]

Fastest way is to find an enemy you can survive against that has a debuff spike that can be cured by hitting A next to them and cheering them up. Or enemies that can quickly lower tension. Use really weak weapons so you don't kill the enemy and let the AI keep getting debuffed/reduced tension and keep cheering them up and you'll continuously gain affinity.

At higher levels there's a good enemy for this at Eryth Sea (level 87), has a sleep spike so as long as you can survive the enemy, you can just keep waking up the AI characters and they'll just keep falling asleep again almost immediately. Works best if the character you're controlling has 100% sleep resist so they don't fall asleep if you accidentally attack.

I don't remember any specific ones at lower levels.

 

[Imp the Dimp]

Spoiler

So, the freakin Mechonis has started moving and it's my task now to kill the Mechonis Core. That FMV right there was insanely spectacular. I absolutely loved it. I suppose I'm pretty far into the game?

(real and big spoilers, beware)

 

[foxuzamaki]

Spoiler

So, the freakin Mechonis has started moving and it's my task now to kill the Mechonis Core. That FMV right there was insanely spectacular. I absolutely loved it. I suppose I'm pretty far into the game?

(real and big spoilers, beware)

yup, you're pretty far, your really getting into "shit's getting real" territory.

 

[Kurtofan]

Heart to heart. And no, they're just optional dialogue events with certain characters.

Thanks.

Do I have to grind in this game? I am on the Bionis Leg and the tentacle boss is super hard (level 15)

 

[Soriku]

Thanks.

Do I have to grind in this game? I am on the Bionis Leg and the tentacle boss is super hard (level 15)

Do sidequests for EXP.

 

[chaosblade]

Thanks.

Do I have to grind in this game? I am on the Bionis Leg and the tentacle boss is super hard (level 15)

It depends on how well you know the game, so probably early on. If you know what you're doing you could probably beat the game and never do a side quest or kill a normal, non-unique enemy (I'd like to try this eventually). If it never clicks with you, you may find yourself grinding constantly to keep up.

 

[Starwolf_UK]

I don't remember any specific ones at lower levels.

Elementals in general due to their high physical resist, some of them have debuff spikes, like the ones in Eryth Sea (that is a commonly used example).

 

[Choppasmith]

So I finally got the 7th party member. About time, I tend to get annoyed at games and movies that telegraph very obvious things to the audience. I was surprised it wasn't quite what I expected though.

Anyone else think Kingdom Hearts when you arrive at that certain beach? Looks just like Destiny Islands.

I'm kinda frustrated with where I'm at right now.

Spoiler

I want to use Sharla's and Fiora's departure from the party to get the hang of other party members and build up some long overdue affinity without Shulk since he's good with almost everybody but there's Mechon in the area, and despite me getting some great weapon drops in Galahad Fortress, I have to use the weaker weapons sold in the Mechonis Village. What did you guys end up doing at this point of the game?

Also I feel sad for Melia, the game isn't shy about showing that she's got feelings for Shulk and then BAM dead girlfriend comes back to life. It's certainly more interesting than FFVII that's for sure

 

[Velinos]

Just got Melia and I am trying her out as my main. Up until now I've been using Shulk, Reyn, and Sharla exclusively and now I switched to using Melia, Sharla, and Shulk. I just finished reading the guide for Melia, so hopefully I can do well with her.

 

[foxuzamaki]

Just got Melia and I am trying her out as my main. Up until now I've been using Shulk, Reyn, and Sharla exclusively and now I switched to using Melia, Sharla, and Shulk. I just finished reading the guide for Melia, so hopefully I can do well with her.

Hope you like her

 

[Head of Vengarl]

Just got Melia and I am trying her out as my main. Up until now I've been using Shulk, Reyn, and Sharla exclusively and now I switched to using Melia, Sharla, and Shulk. I just finished reading the guide for Melia, so hopefully I can do well with her.

Melia can do a ton of damage, and is great against certain bosses/enemies who are resistant to physical attacks.

My Melia Setup

Weapon Gems: Electric Plus and Blaze Plus are the two most important gems for her, IMO. Back Attack Plus is great, but you probably won't get this gem until a bit later. If you don't have a Back Attack gem, Poison Plus or Arts Stealth gems (if you find yourself drawing aggro often) are also excellent choices.

Armor Gems: Ether Up gems are most important, because they increase her damage. Other than that, Melia is squishy so give her some defensive gems. Early in the game your best defensive options will likely be HP Up, Muscle Up, and/or Ether Def Up gems. Later on you will gain access to the amazing Debuff Resist and Unbeatable gems.

Battle: Melia can have 3 "summons" (little floating balls) active at a time. Each has an aura that buffs her and her party members in some way. Summon Bolt, for examble, gives you an Ether Up buff, which increases Melia's damage output since she is an ether spellcaster. At the start of battle, I use Summon Bolt and Summon Copy to have 2 bolt summons floating around her, for a double Ether Up buff (they stack). Now I'm ready to attack. *I use Summon Earth and cast it (using her Talent Art button) to inflict a long-lasting poison DoT on the enemy.* Then I use Summon Flare and cast it to inflict excellent damage and a fire DoT. Then I use Summon Bolt and cast it to inflict a big electric nuke on the enemy. The rest of the battle I'll just switch off casting Flare and Bolt, and throwing in other arts when necessary (Speak Break/Reflection if I'm getting attacked, Burst End/Mind Blast during her Element Burst state) until the enemy dies. It's really quite simple!

*Edit: I should mention that using Summon Earth is not always necessary. Like I said, it inflicts a long-lasting DoT. This is great for long battles (bosses or unique enemies) but can be overkill for regular mobs that die rather quickly. So against regular mobs, just skip Summon Earth and go straight to using Summon Flare for its superior upfront damage AoE and DoT.

Armor: Armor with good physical defense is your best bet, IMO. Melia is a ranged attacker so she's usually outside of the range of enemys' AoE ether attacks. Weight doesn't really matter, since she is one of the least agility-dependent characters in the game — she doesn't rely on auto-attacks (agility affects your auto-attack accuracy) because she should be kept at a distance from her enemies. I put the Rafaga set on her because it's one of the best looking armor sets in the game, IMO.

 

[flyover]

Melia can do a ton of damage, and is great against certain bosses/enemies who are resistant to physical attacks.

My Melia Setup...

Thanks for posting this. I'm one of those who didn't use Melia as much (or as well) as I should have during my first playthrough. This will be a great starting point for my next go.

 

[Head of Vengarl]

Thanks for posting this. I'm one of those who didn't use Melia as much (or as well) as I should have during my first playthrough. This will be a great starting point for my next go.

No problem. I actually didn't really play Melia in my first playthrough either lol. I knew how to play her but I usually prefer melee attackers in RPGs so I stuck with Shulk and Dunban mostly. The cool thing about Xenoblade is that every character is fun to play

Spoiler

except Sharla

 

[foxuzamaki]

No problem. I actually didn't really play Melia in my first playthrough either lol. I knew how to play her but I usually prefer melee attackers in RPGs so I stuck with Shulk and Dunban mostly. The cool thing about Xenoblade is that every character is fun to play

Spoiler

except Sharla

Hate to admit it but yeah lol, sharla doesnt have much attacks when you built her up as a healing machine like I did.

 

[foxuzamaki]

Melia can do a ton of damage, and is great against certain bosses/enemies who are resistant to physical attacks.

My Melia Setup

Weapon Gems: Electric Plus and Blaze Plus are the two most important gems for her, IMO. Back Attack Plus is great, but you probably won't get this gem until a bit later. If you don't have a Back Attack gem, Poison Plus or Arts Stealth gems (if you find yourself drawing aggro often) are also excellent choices.

Armor Gems: Ether Up gems are most important, because they increase her damage. Other than that, Melia is squishy so give her some defensive gems. Early in the game your best defensive options will likely be HP Up, Muscle Up, and/or Ether Def Up gems. Later on you will gain access to the amazing Debuff Resist and Unbeatable gems.

Battle: Melia can have 3 "summons" (little floating balls) active at a time. Each has an aura that buffs her and her party members in some way. Summon Bolt, for examble, gives you an Ether Up buff, which increases Melia's damage output since she is an ether spellcaster. At the start of battle, I use Summon Bolt and Summon Copy to have 2 bolt summons floating around her, for a double Ether Up buff (they stack). Now I'm ready to attack. I use Summon Earth and cast it (using her Talent Art button) to inflict a long-lasting poison DoT on the enemy. Then I use Summon Flare and cast it to inflict excellent damage and a fire DoT. Then I use Summon Bolt and cast it to inflict a big electric nuke on the enemy. The rest of the battle I'll just switch off casting Flare and Bolt, and throwing in other arts when necessary (Speak Break/Reflection if I'm getting attacked, Burst End/Mind Blast during her Element Burst state) until the enemy dies. It's really quite simple!

Armor: Armor with good physical defense is your best bet, IMO. Melia is a ranged attacker so she's usually outside of the range of enemys' AoE ether attacks. Weight doesn't really matter, since she is one of the least agility-dependent characters in the game — she doesn't rely on auto-attacks (agility affects your auto-attack accuracy) because she should be kept at a distance from her enemies. I put the Rafaga set on her because it's one of the best looking armor sets in the game, IMO.

Can you tell me how you acquired this specific armor?

 

[chaosblade]

The wiki has a lot of info for this stuff but it looks like it's still being organized (slowly).

The quest "A Maid's Concerns" gives you the torso and leggings. "I Will Never Forgive You" also gives you the torso and leggings, but it's missable and a more difficult quest.

"Betrothal Test" will give you two pieces, depending on which sister you get it from. Both give you the gauntlets, one will give you the helmet and the other the boots.

And they are dropped by enemies in the back part of Tephra Cave. All of them are pretty rare silver (not gold!) chest drops.

Helm: Sonicia Gogol
Torso: Sonicia Gogol
Gauntlets: Tempest Vang
Boots: Sonicia Gogol

Didn't see anything for a legs drop.

 

[foxuzamaki]

The wiki has a lot of info for this stuff but it looks like it's still being organized (slowly).

The quest "A Maid's Concerns" gives you the torso and leggings. "I Will Never Forgive You" also gives you the torso and leggings, but it's missable and a more difficult quest.

"Betrothal Test" will give you two pieces, depending on which sister you get it from. Both give you the gauntlets, one will give you the helmet and the other the boots.

And they are dropped by enemies in the back part of Tephra Cave. All of them are pretty rare silver (not gold!) chest drops.

Helm: Sonicia Gogol
Torso: Sonicia Gogol
Gauntlets: Tempest Vang
Boots: Sonicia Gogol

Didn't see anything for a legs drop.

Thanks a bunch

 

[Head of Vengarl]

Yeah it took me a while to acquire all the pieces of that set. Was well worth it though!

And I should have mentioned in my above Melia post that using Summon Earth is not always necessary. Like I said, it inflicts a long-lasting DoT. This is great for long battles (bosses or unique enemies) but can be overkill for regular mobs that die rather quickly. So against regular mobs, just skip Summon Earth and go straight to using Summon Flare for its superior upfront damage AoE and DoT.

 

[sphinx]

hi people,.one quick question.

is it worth it to look for a pro controller? there are some EU copies with the red controller that are like 10 euros more expensive than the regular version... does it really enhance the experience? can I play normaly with normal wiimote-nunchuk without annoyances?

would rather not pay unless strictly necessary, it's expensive as it is.

 

[chaosblade]

Either control method works fine, CCPro gives you better camera control but the remote+nunchuck gives you slightly better control during battle. It's fine with either.

 

[Dunbar]

I'm getting ready to start my first play through. Can anyone point me toward a post in this thread with general gameplay/strategy advice? Or is there another starter guide I should check out?

ps. I'm planning to sell my game after I'm done, but I bought the original European version when it was still unknown whether or not NOA would release it in the US. Will the Euroversion sell for anything? I know the US version is hard to come by but I'm not sure how many people have modded Wiis, etc.

 

[chaosblade]

Read the OP.

Try out different character combinations, don't stick with the initial party through the entire game.

Take advantage of skills and skill links, they can make a huge difference.

Unless you intend to spend a TON of time on your first playthrough, don't do all the quests. Just accept them, and maybe go out of your way to do a handful if you feel like it. A lot of the generic quests will be completed as you go through the game (kill x of this, collect y of that).

For something a little more advanced, try to find and fight the named enemies. They give the best drops relative to their level, often better than anything you can buy in stores at that point in the game. They also give you more affinity coins for skill links, and give boat loads of experience and AP.

Since you can get the best equipment at any given point from drops, it's a good idea to prioritize buying the intermediate art books with your money instead of weapons and armor.


There's also the Xenoblade wiki, but as with all game wikis it's easy to run into an unintentional spoiler.

 

[sphinx]

Either control method works fine, CCPro gives you better camera control but the remote+nunchuck gives you slightly better control during battle. It's fine with either.

thanks!!

another question... I can't seem to find any retail strategy guide for this game, I assume there was never one to begin with, right? no Prima guide or similars, right?

 

[chaosblade]

There's not a proper guide for the game. The wiki has tons of info but the recent updates thing on the side of every page tends to have spoilers pop up regularly (I mean, there's a huge spoiler image featured on the home page today... so yeah). There's also a good info spreadsheet on Google docs that's linked in the OP, but that thing is loaded to the brim with spoilers.

This topic is still fairly good for getting questions answered, but it's not nearly as active as it used to be so answers might not always be immediate.