Thanks for this post. I don't really need a guide to each character for strategy; I only had trouble wrapping my head around Melia at first because I wasn't using her correctly. Arts were my biggest concern because I didn't want to pour my AP into skills that would end up being inefficient but this information definitely puts me at ease for this. I found
a Bolt Summon book for Melia back in the High Entia Tomb that maxes out that Art
so I've started pouring some more AP there as well as boosting the AP of some other Arts that are in my regular character rotation. Shulk and Melia are still the most fun to play in my opinion, and they play quite differently as well. I'm still waiting on
the rest of the Advanced books
and the few I do have
basically Shulk's Monado skills and that Summon for Melia
have pretty high AP costs for the upper levels. Good to know that won't be an issue as I press forward!
Do you happen to know what the name of the monster was that dropped that book? I looked on that google doc for something that drops it and there was nothing in that area that I saw.
I'm at level 80 and near the end of the game, but I can't stop doing sidequests.
I finally completed Colony 6's reconstruction, but now a level 99 dragon stands between me and 100%. I've managed to defeat this thing with Melia's reflect art reflecting its instant death attack, but that's no good because then it doesn't drop treasure and what it drops is necessary to make a replica monado. Most I've taken him down is half HP using Melia, Riki, and Sharla. Non-ether attacks won't connect very often due to the level disparity. I did have a very slow and boring strategy that was working where I played as Reyn and did nothing but draw aggro and deal max spike damage while Riki and Sharla kept me alive, but Reyn was terrible at keeping aggro and eventually I died when the monster spammed an aoe attack that toppled everyone.
Do you happen to know what the name of the monster was that dropped that book? I looked on that google doc for something that drops it and there was nothing in that area that I saw.
I noticed some early advanced skill books. In the Val
ak Mountain
Quest; Balance of Power.
The Spider can drop Aura Burst, Covert Stance, Spear Break and Happy Happy while the Bird can drop Air Slash, Tempest Kick, Burnimate and Guard Shift.
Of course I looked up what could drop after the fact...of opening the chest and finding advanced books in there and going "eh?".
Doing some digging up it seems all uniques in that location and after G
alhad Fortress
can drop advanced books. I had previously thought it was a few areas past that, guess this time I was lucky or last play through was rather unlucky. Shame knowing that doesn't make the AP cost any less crazy to level arts past level 8.
I'm 4 quests away from finishing every possible quest(outside of exclusives, of course.) It's been such a fun ride, I just have the hearts to hearts left and 3 of the lv100 UM and then I can finally go for the ending.
The second half of the story moves a lot faster than the first half. I don't really like to say that any specific point is the halfway mark because it's completely dependant on how you play. In general, the rest of the areas from where you are will be more linear with fewer quests, and more cutscenes.
, I might be okay with this. The unique monsters in this area coupled with the
Surprise Quests
made it still quite engaging despite the area itself being smaller and more straightforward than most of the others. I just made my way into
Galahad Fortress
and I got a kick out of
the new battle theme that now plays when you confront normal Mechon
as well as the rooms in which
a slew of Mechon led by a unique monster storm down from their storage racks and all attack you at once. I definitely noticed the framerate drop in there a couple times, but it was quite a thrill nonetheless
. If the game keeps throwing more challenges like those at me, I'm fine if that's what the second half is going to look like.
Do you happen to know what the name of the monster was that dropped that book? I looked on that google doc for something that drops it and there was nothing in that area that I saw.
What RagnarokX said; it's not a drop, but a book that you find as a treasure. I actually didn't even know monsters dropped Arts books! To get this one, you have to open
the High Entia treasure chest in the High Entia Tomb Second Treasury
to get it. There is actually a quest
in Alcamoth that wants you to collect an item from that area which only spawns once the quest is assigned
so you might want to wait until you get that quest to go back at this point. It's a hidden area
which you reach from a hallway behind one of the Andos in a hallway in the Tomb
I'm 4 quests away from finishing every possible quest(outside of exclusives, of course.) It's been such a fun ride, I just have the hearts to hearts left and 3 of the lv100 UM and then I can finally go for the ending.
It will be funny because you'll be able to beat it without even touching the controller. The two AI characters will probably finish it before the boss gets more than a few attacks off :lol
(spoilers here are for near the end of the game)
And yeah, this party I'm using is just ridiculously broken. I went through
Agniratha
with exp off, just using what I'd gained in
Central Factory - I had it off in Mechonis Field as well
and I was still easily destroying every unique enemy there at level 65. At one point two at once attacked me, and it was practically like fighting two normal enemies with a bunch of HP. No difference apart from the fact Wise Gremory had heavy spike damage.
Ended up turning exp back on since I knew my level wasn't going to be enough for a couple upcoming bosses due to the agility penalty, but even those were total pushovers at essentially the minimum level. Even
Zanza vs Fiora
was a joke.
I seriously think the game ended the fight early because I was killing him so fast, since in my first playthrough I'm almost positive it went on for a while and I eventually started doing 0 damage or missing my attacks. That never happened this time, I just got his HP to somewhere around half and the battle just ended.
"In conclusion" what I'm getting at is that party setup definitely seems like the most important thing here. You can easily go through most of the game underleveled within limits (more than 5 levels and the agility penalty will prevent you from hitting most enemies). Not the whole game though, because the earlier parts will limit you too much since you won't have good enough gems, skills, and skill links to make up level differences.
I'm decently ahead of you and those timed quests still haven't expired. I'd atleast progress the plot a decent bit and then focus on sidequests again. I actually felt burned out around that area as well, to the point where I ran past a lot of enemies which caused me to be underleveled, but I regained my composure and caught up level wise when I hit a good stopping point for more quests.
Any tips for the fight with Gadolt at the gate to Meyneth shrine? Regardless of how well things go at first, I can't really do much about his Laser Bullet attack. It has a blue name and a circle. It usually kills my two partners outright, and leaves me with just a little hp. Any way to avoid/soften that? I can usually get Sharla to shield bullet one of them, then just have to revive one. I don't really feel like grinding out another level though, and the boss is already a level lower than Shulk, same level as the other two.
Okay, now I'm pretty sure I'm near the end (even though "the end" means an effload more sidequests and optional fights to do), I just got to where
Shulk revived after getting shot by that asshole Dickson and is apparently a super badass now. The Replica Monado is pretty cool looking, although the original Level 1 Monado is still the best IMO. Fiora's on borrowed time, Alvis is on some chaos/Yeshua type of shit (my money is on him being the True Monado), Melia stopped getting ignored long enough for the writers to screw her some more by offing her brother, and Riki is still awesome but pointless in the storyline.
I'm trying to figure out the best party to use. I'm not really that far, I'm at
Eryth Sea, after fighting the Telethia in Makna Forest. I originally had Shulk, Reyn and Sharla and it felt like a good combination of the balanced guy [Shulk], the tank [Reyn] and the healer [Sharla]
Now I'm conflicted on who to use. I used Shulk, Reyn and Riki during the fight against the Telethia and it went fairly well, but now I'm using Shulk, Sharla and Riki and I'm fighting I get damaged a lot more quickly but I'm usually healed in time by either Sharla or Riki. I tried using Melia earlier too, but I really don't understand how to use her powers effectively. I've also tried to use Dunban, but I'm not sure how to use him effectively as well, as he seems like a similar character to Reyn, but mixed with Shulk.
I'm trying to figure out the best party to use. I'm not really that far, I'm at
Eryth Sea, after fighting the Telethia in Makna Forest. I originally had Shulk, Reyn and Sharla and it felt like a good combination of the balanced guy [Shulk], the tank [Reyn] and the healer [Sharla]
Now I'm conflicted on who to use. I used Shulk, Reyn and Riki during the fight against the Telethia and it went fairly well, but now I'm using Shulk, Sharla and Riki and I'm fighting I get damaged a lot more quickly but I'm usually healed in time by either Sharla or Riki. I tried using Melia earlier too, but I really don't understand how to use her powers effectively. I've also tried to use Dunban, but I'm not sure how to use him effectively as well, as he seems like a similar character to Reyn, but mixed with Shulk.
Putting in spoilers for those who don't wan't to see stuff about some of the characters they may not have yet:
For Melia, you basically have to control her in order for her to not be garbage (which sucks) because they screwed up her AI. The way she works is this: She has the summon moves that call out a different elemental, which does a different buff on the party when summoned. You can at any time choose to release the summon by using her Talent Art (it's always available unlike some characters), which does an attack depending on the element released.
Melia is basically all about buffing her Ether Attack with Summon Bolt then releasing the bolts to do huge damage. You get a move with her later called Summon Copy that lets you duplicate the last element you summoned, so you can double up on Summon Bolt, then unload. Once you get Summon Earth with her is when she gets really good though, because then she can do damage over time in addition to the big spike DPS. In addition, Melia can Topple enemies without putting Break on them first by using Spear Break/Starlight Kick, which makes her good as well.
For Dunban, he's a tank but he's an evasion tank unlike Reyn who just takes the hits. This means you want as much Agility as possible, if you are able to max it with gems (max is +50) then do it. Dunban holds aggro primarily by doing a bunch of damage then dodging them once they're on him. Good moves include Serene Heart (which dramatically buffs his evasion and accuracy) and Battle Eye (aggro drawing move, also buffs his ability to Double Attack IIRC). Dunban can also Topple enemies on his own, even though he still has to inflict Break.
I've also tried to use Dunban, but I'm not sure how to use him effectively as well, as he seems like a similar character to Reyn, but mixed with Shulk.
Dunban is an evasion tank. You use him by putting him in light armor (or stuff with high Agility), slotting his armor with Agility gems until it caps, aggro the mobs with Peerless or Battle Eye and then proceed to DPS. He doesn't have positional stuff like most of the characters, all of his attacks typically are done in sequence starting with Gale Slash.
How I use him is open with auto-attack, Peerless, DPS combo (Gale Slash, Electric Gutbuster, Steel Strike in my case), Battle Eye, auto-attack until cooldown is up on DPS combo, repeat. If for any reason anyone grabs aggro, just Blinding Blossom on the character and you get aggro back.
Is this that horse-type boss in Makna? He's one of the first instances of Spike Damage, and if you aren't set up to Seal/Mind Blast/Topple-lock, you'll end up killing yourself in no time. Definitely one of those mobs that makes you go back and read the tutorial pop-up really carefully.
Yeah that's the one. I had no idea he has Spike; how do you tell an enemy has it? In any case, I finally beat that fucker. I must have tried 9 or 10 times before I killed it. The winning team was Shulk, Dunban & Riki (all level 37). I was very surprised because I had never used Dunban as a tank before; Reyn had been the one character that I never switched out because I thought he was supposed to be the game's main tank. But getting your ass kicked nearly 10 times straight will make you try new things, so I threw 2 Aggro Up gems on Dunban's weapon and benched Reyn. I had low hopes for Dunban's tanking ability because I had been using him as a damage-dealer so he had no aggro-increasing skills, but he blew me away. He is now my main tank and I haven't used Reyn since that battle. One of the posters in here pointed out the big difference, and I should have paid more attention to what he said: Reyn has shit agility but high HP and defense, so he acts as a sponge. This is great and all, but it means that he needs a lot of healing. Dunban, on the other hand, dodges most attacks so he only requires intermittent heals, which Shulk or Riki can take care of. Unless things change later on, I would be willing to say that Dunban is a superior tank to Reyn. This is not to say that the Breezy Zolos battle went smoothly -- Dunban actually died at the very end but Riki and Shulk had enough agility and HP Up gems to survive the last ~30 seconds of the battle without him. It was really close; I think Shulk had like 55 HP at one point.
And then I fought (Makna Forest boss)
the Telethia
. Wow, it was
way easier than the Breezy fight.
Haha. It was a sloppy fight though, because I didn't use Melia and I think the game was telling me I should have (since it gives you that new art right before the fight). But at least I had Shulk's Monado art
Purge
to take care of the aura. There were points where I didn't have the talent gauge full so I couldn't use it, so we were just missing constantly, but Dunban was tanking so it kept missing him too. Probably the most awkward boss fight so far, lol.
Afterwards I decided to do some more sidequesting (mostly
Colony 6
stuff) and ether collecting, and I've been messing around with Melia a little more. She is definitely growing on me. I already have her arts maxed out though, and I can't find where to buy her intermediate books. Also, I was looking for a good place to do a little grind session, and I remembered seeing some level 30-something monsters to the east of Colony 9 in my early travels. So I went there and it turns out they are all around level 36-39 -- absolutely perfect. I fought Gentle Mother Armu (level 37 unique) and Gentle Rodriguez (level 40 unique) and after the Breezy Zolos fight I was surprised at how easy they went down. My team was Melia, Shulk & Dunban.
By the way, is there some trick to get particular gems? I want to make some Double Attack VI or Haste VI gems, but i never get any raw ones with that...its always the same crap.
NOTE: Party spoiler, don't highlight the black if you don't want to know.
IMO Dunban is superior to Reyn. Evasion in general in this game is OP as hell, my Shulk, Riki and
Fiora
have maxed Agility as well and hardly ever get hit. I've used Dunban ever since I got him and with the exception of one Unique Monster almost immediately after you get him, I've never had to change him out for Reyn. He dodges so much stuff it's ridiculous and deals huge damage, especially with his Talent Art.
By the way, is there some trick to get particular gems? I want to make some Double Attack VI or Haste VI gems, but i never get any raw ones with that...its always the same crap.
You barely need a tank at higher lvls when everyone have ridiculous agility. Dunban can barely hold aggro when i control 7th and i still dodge like crazy.
By the way, is there some trick to get particular gems? I want to make some Double Attack VI or Haste VI gems, but i never get any raw ones with that...its always the same crap.
I will try to explain this despite being slightly tipsy. A lot of gems are usually worthless stat 40 and useful stat 10. You'll want to combine two of those gems with characters that have low affinity and create a cylinder that's in the 50-80 range. Just to be clear, combine two gems consisting of 40 / 10 stat(if it's an 80 / 40 gem, you only need one.) Once you have two of them use Shulk and Dunban to mega heat it. If you are successful you will create two VI gems.
Enemy gem drops are always of specific types. There's no randomness factor, apart from the percentage.
For haste, (near end game spoiler)
Telethia in Alcamoth drop them fairly regularly, you'll need quite a few because they are always around 10% though IIRC
.
Deinos Sauros drop Double Attack, and while you're at it, you can get Debuff Resist from them as well (at max, it 100% negates debuffs and instant death, super useful).
I'll give you that, although with the 2 Aggro Up gems on Dunban and Aggro Down gems on my other characters I haven't had any problems so far. It really comes down to who has more survivability, and I give the edge to Dunban.
I'm trying to build affinity between Melia and Shulk so Shulk can get her +15 agility skill link, but every time I do a quest Dunban is the one that talks to her. So now Melia and Dunban are all buddy buddy and Shulk is a third wheel ._.
I'll give you that, although with the 2 Aggro Up gems on Dunban and Aggro Down gems on my other characters I haven't had any problems so far. It really comes down to who has more survivability, and I give the edge to Dunban.
I'm trying to build affinity between Melia and Shulk so Shulk can get her +15 agility skill link, but every time I do a quest Dunban is the one that talks to her. So now Melia and Dunban are all buddy buddy and Shulk is a third wheel ._.
Expected returns. Its not like they didnt know it was great, but they didnt need it portfolio wise last year with Zelda. With no new Wii software this year really except Mario Party 9, the trio of RPGs are needed to fill out the slate.
Man it's so easy to blow through the hours in this game. I must have spent at least 2 hours tonight just gathering ether crystals and crafting gems. I got my first Mega Heat, and on a Doube Attack gem no less! I was stoked. I'm also working on some Quick Step gems for when I'm running around doing low-level sidequests or collecting stuff.
How much missable stuff is there right at the beginning? I'm not in a jrpg town mood at the moment and I'm tempted to just rush to plot points to keep things snappy.
Emulating this game can have the strangest of bugs at times. I've had a handful of occasions where after leaving a menu (usually) Shulk will either be low on health or dead, for no reason. Its amusing when it happens but odd still...
When you attack and receive purple damage, thats a spike. The damage a physical spike does is fixed so stick to strong arts and try to avoid auto-attack. It basically exists to prevent double attack and haste ruling the roost (double attack does 2 auto attacks and haste makes auto attacks occur more often).
There are also status spikes like accuracy down, slow etc...those are similar in that pay attention to the buff words coming out each time you connect an attack.
Finally got back to playing xenoblade after finishing my finals.
I just got to the place
where I got Melina as a party member. I heard she is really good if I use her properly, but how is she just as cpu controlling? My current part is Dunban(leader), Shulk and Reyn. I want to put Melina in the party, but I just can't see myself taking out Shulk(need monado stuff) and Reyn (Tanker). Would Dunban/Reyn/Melina or Dunban/Shulk/Melina party work? Cause so far the fight seems challenging in some parts (like bosses)
How much missable stuff is there right at the beginning? I'm not in a jrpg town mood at the moment and I'm tempted to just rush to plot points to keep things snappy.
i don't think you get locked out of anything until you're about 5-10 hours in if you're really rushing things (about the 20-25 hour mark for me since i wasn't).
the plot moves pretty slowly in the early parts of the game. it's at the end that you get a bunch of revelations and cutscenes.
Finally got back to playing xenoblade after finishing my finals.
I just got to the place
where I got Melina as a party member. I heard she is really good if I use her properly, but how is she just as cpu controlling? My current part is Dunban(leader), Shulk and Reyn. I want to put Melina in the party, but I just can't see myself taking out Shulk(need monado stuff) and Reyn (Tanker). Would Dunban/Reyn/Melina or Dunban/Shulk/Melina party work? Cause so far the fight seems challenging in some parts (like bosses)
i don't think you get locked out of anything until you're about 5-10 hours in if you're really rushing things (about the 20-25 hour mark for me since i wasn't).
the plot moves pretty slowly in the early parts of the game. it's at the end that you get a bunch of revelations and cutscenes.
How much missable stuff is there right at the beginning? I'm not in a jrpg town mood at the moment and I'm tempted to just rush to plot points to keep things snappy.
If you don't do any quest or "town stuff" at all, the first missable part happens about ~30 to 40 hours into the game. and the stuff you would be missing there isn't a big deal anyway.
Emulating this game can have the strangest of bugs at times. I've had a handful of occasions where after leaving a menu (usually) Shulk will either be low on health or dead, for no reason. Its amusing when it happens but odd still...
I haven't had that one, but my party randomly did change targets mid chain attack, which really sucked because I was fighting those level 77 Arduns on the leg while underleveled. So when my party randomly ran across the area to attack the other level 77 one I wasn't too happy.
Then I took 3 attempts to kill a level 79 Tokilos while I'm still level 71. Got it, got my silver chest and item I needed for restoration.
But then it steals it from me because I needed it for a quest. Needless to say, I again was not too happy.
splish splash? is that an item or something?
if it is an item, you can't miss it.
if you tell me the location (+collum/row in the collectopedia would be ideal) I could look it up in the wiki.
Usually, if you need an item from a zone no longer accessible, you can get it from Colony 6 after you improve the Special reconstruction lvls. The higher the lvl the more spots with blue orbs will show up.
splish splash? is that an item or something?
if it is an item, you can't miss it.
if you tell me the location (+collum/row in the collectopedia would be ideal) I could look it up in the wiki.
Usually, if you need an item from a zone no longer accessible, you can get it from Colony 6 after you improve the Special reconstruction lvls. The higher the lvl the more spots with blue orbs will show up.
So it's possible to get items at Colony 6 even if you are locked out of a zone? The drop rates on this is extremely low in the zone it's supposed to be in.