Xenoblade

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 2:  Chapters 2-3, and a bit of 4


Xenoblade seems to be divided among "short story Chapters" and "long combat Chapters".  Chapter 2 was one of the former.  It took only about 10 minutes to clear in New Game Plus after skipping the cutscenes.  There was no point in even trying to fight fair when Dunban returned at Level 79 with no way to de-level him in Expert Mode.  Shulk and friends "defeated" Level 10 Metal Face at Level 79 within seconds, with the help of a 38,640 Monado Buster.


Chapter 3 had more substantial content for Shulk, including a funny sidequest description:  "Two precocious young girls are incessantly disputing the relative merits of Team Reyn and Team Shulk.  To stop them, demonstrate what friendship is".  So if only Edward and Jacob got along, the Twilight "Saga" would be hundreds of pages shorter.  (WHY does Xenoblade have a Twilight fan reference?  And just as I'm making fun of Midnight Sun on Goodreads too. . .)


Tephra Cave's new section had a Level 11 Gluttonous Eugen who could ignore Speed evasion with Gorge, and once nearly crushed Shulk with Daze from an Ultra Smash I.  Shulk survived with about 24 HP out of 1187 (!) and cast Light Heal to continue.  A Monado Buster and a Shadow Eye + Back Slash finished off the frog once it was clear that it liked to use Gorge.


The Arachno mandatory fight barely qualified as a "boss", but they at least managed to kill Reyn.  Cyclone was fun to use, but disappointing when the Topple only lasted 3 seconds.  Arachno Queen was worthier than her subjects at Level 12, and had the formidable Arachno Crush I that would have overkilled Shulk if he didn't foresee it and cast Shield.  Reyn didn't die until near the end of the fight, but his low level made him ineffectual, and Shulk refrained from backstabbing with Back Slash to preserve some variant honor.


Some "Chapter legal" gear included an Ether Def Up II gem attached to the Monado III, and a Quark Gear helmet.  A Tephra Cave sidequest ended just as Chapter 4 began on Bionis' Leg and gave a Topple Resist II gem that Shulk couldn't use with his current armor.


Chapter 4 will take a while since there are so many unique monsters on Bionis' Leg.  Shulk's first target was a Level 16 Vagrant Aifead and two Level 14 Brave Tirkin companions.  The bird twins died first, and Speed dodged most of Vagrant Aifead's Physical attacks.  Vagrant Aifead once restored its health by 3340.  Not difficult to handle, but it suggested that purely defensive tactics would not always work.  A Shadow Eye powered Back Slash + Stream Edge plucked the miniboss's feathers.


I doubt Shulk can beat all the Bionis' Leg unique enemies yet, since some of them rival endgame bosses.  He won't concentrate much on sidequests for a while until Central Bionis, where Monado Eater can be found.  His current loadout looks like this for "in depth" opponents:


Level 12


Monado III (Muscle Up II, Ether Def Up II)
Quark Gear
Blessed Brigandine (Recovery Up II)
Empyreal Gauntlets
Empyreal Girdle
Empyreal Greaves

[Boro]

Thats cool stuff! can he return later to tackle out-of-depth problems?

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Thats cool stuff! can he return later to tackle out-of-depth problems?

You're meant to return to Bionis' Leg at different times throughout the game, since it's one of the "open world" areas.  Shulk has some out of depth equipment that has been used against the out of depth monsters, as mentioned in previous posts.  But if he can't take on something at Level 79 via the Expert Mode menu, he'll return in some later Chapter.  (That's more likely than you expect.)


Ether Def will be a priority for solo Shulk because only Physical damage can be dodged with Monado Speed or the Agility stat.  Ether based unique monsters and bosses will require noticeably higher levels, if my predictions are correct.


EDIT:  The slowness of the "regular" playthrough may have been Sharla's fault.  If you want maximum damage in Xenoblade, you want long color-coordinated Chains.  Sharla has few offensive Arts, and they're different colors.  Sharla, however, may be a good fit for a solo run if I do another.  She has healing, ailment immunity, and damage mitigation Arts.  Thunder Bullet covers the Ether side.  The challenge would come from keeping her gun from overheating.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 3:  Chapter 4 Silliness


A Level 32 Mount Torta wasn't technically a unique monster, since it didn't have lightning flashing across its name and level bar, but it was there!  A 4896 power Back Slash started the encounter against this Physical opponent.  Speed was preferred as usual for dodging the turtle's slaps, but Shield was required to dodge Savage III which could Daze.  Shadow Eye powered up Air Slash and Back Slash.  Reyn survived because he got no attention!  Shulk deserves extra respect here for doing it with this equipment set rather than the endgame one:



Monado III (Muscle Up II, Ether Def Up II)
Quark Gear
Blessed Brigandine (Recovery Up II)
Empyreal Gauntlets
Empyreal Girdle
Empyreal Greaves




Level 80 Envy Gogols were too much for Shulk at Level 79, especially when they debuffed his physical stats.  (Yes, there are other "deadly sin" Gogols such as Greed.)


A Level 16 Wild Andante was a unique monster Shulk was actually supposed to fight around this time, rather than the overleveled beasts roaming Bionis' Leg.  It was yet another typical Physical opponent, though Shield was there for Ferocious Gore I.  Speed served Shulk well as usual.   3786 Back Slash backstabs after a Cyclone Topple made the encounter a bit more exciting.  (3 seconds must be the BASE rate for Cyclone, with variations depending on how susceptible the enemy is to the ailment. . .)  But Topple only delayed vision attacks, instead of averting them.



One spider known as the Level 32 Clifftop Bayern survived Shulk's Monado, at least with the equipment set mentioned above.  Speed moved Shulk out of the way of its auto-attacks, but could do nothing against the Daze-inducing Talent Art of Dive Impact III, or the HP draining Devour.  Acid Bath dissolved Shulk's Physical Def.  Devour had one disadvantage for Clifftop Bayern:  it could never KILL Shulk, just lower his HP to 1 and give him enough time for Light Heal.  One last attempt to get around Clifftop Bayern's Physical Def with the Ether type Monado Purge failed.


For Take 2 against Clifftop Bayern, Shulk put on his endgame armor:


Charge Gear (Initial Tension III)
Agrius Plate (Physical Protect VI)
Agrius Arms (Buff Time Plus IV)
Lord Leggings (HP Up IV)
Combatant Boots (EXP Up III)


This made the fight difficult, but possible.  The spider's auto-attacks decreased from 690s power to 158 at best.  Clifftop Bayern was unusually weak to Break, so Shulk relied on a combo of Stream Edge/Air Slash + Cyclone + Shaker Edge.  This sometimes ran out the Light Heal cooldown, but even Daze from Shaker Edge couldn't prevent foreseen Arts.  I wonder if enemy Talent Arts ignore defenses.  A Dive Impact III in Take 1 had a recorded damage of 1990, while a Dive Impact III on Take 2 with improved armor dealt 2058 in a vision.


A timely Shield blocked Dive Impact III just before it landed, and an Air Slash sliced open Clifftop Bayern at the end.  It was a good time for a break after this long but entertaining combat.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 4:  Chapter 4 Tedium


After playing this update, I'm thinking of ways to torture the person who decided random drops was a good idea in a single player RPG.  To level an Art past VII, you need to find an upgrade book in a gold treasure chest.  Gold chests are already rare, and then you need to save scum until you find your desired Art.  Enemies can sometimes respawn when you reload a save, too, so occasionally you'll have to fight more battles just to check out a chest that's already appeared.  One of Riki's passive Skills increases the chances of gold chests dropping, but he hasn't returned yet.


Bionis' Leg featured several monsters that had new Art upgrades for Shulk.  Tempest Vang had Stream Edge, Sloth Gogol had Shadow Eye, and a General Arachno yielded Light Heal after a painful series of resets.  Shulk didn't have the AP to do much more than upgrade Stream Edge to VIII, increasing its damage and decreasing its cooldown time.


Roaming around Bionis' Leg led to "Secret Area Observation Platform", and unlocked the Explorer achievement.  It was also home to Level 78 Canyon Valencia, a unique monster Shulk couldn't defeat even one level above.  Speed helped to dodge some attacks, but failed to stop a 3064 power Hard Crash. . .even when the game recommended using it with a blue exclamation point in the battle menu.  Shulk was too Dazed to concentrate, and died.


Matching a Level 75 Mysterious Barnaby's level ended in failure.  Ankle Bite Toppled Shulk, but Reyn automatically Encouraged him to get on his feet.  Why does the AI ignore Reyn when he can die in one hit?!  I want a solo run, but apparently it's going to be like Trials of Mana where the AI companions inexplicably survive for a while.  Take 2 was successful at Level 80 with the help of Speed, and a Shadow Eye powered Back Slash and Slit Edge finisher combo.  Shulk might have lost if he had to fight the Pandora Pods in Mysterious Barnaby's room, but he knew how to Lure the spider out into a nearby hallway.



Next update will probably be more Chapter 4 aimless wandering.  If I get tired of it, I'll advance the story and return to Bionis' Leg later like the developers intended.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 5:  End of Chapter 4




Shulk found a cliff called "Believer's Paradise" on Bionis' Leg, but was disappointed that it didn't live up to its name.


Territorial Rotbart at Level 81 is supposed to teach new players that they shouldn't fight everything they see on Bionis' Leg.  For comparison, Zanza the final boss is at Level 82.  But in New Game Plus with his Monado III and appropriate armor, Shulk was ready.  Its Gore and Headbutt were typical Physical Arts that could be dodged with Speed.  Threatening Roar intimidated Shulk to decrease his Strength and Physical Def, but otherwise it was an easy if slow fight.  When the ogre crashed to the ground after a Shadow Eye + Stream Edge + Back Slash combo, Shulk reset a few times and acquired an Air Slash skill book from its treasure chest.



The mandatory encounter with Level 14 Berserk Arduns was matched with fair levels and equipment, but they were still weak and vulnerable to Cyclone.  At the Refugee Camp, Shulk bought some new armor, making his "in depth" equipment look like this:



Monado III (Muscle Up II, Ether Def Up II)
Quark Gear
Blessed Brigandine (Recovery Up II)
Prairie Gauntlets
Hide Belt (Strength Up II)
Survivor Shoes (Agility Up II)


Equipment at this point either has no gem slots, or has a built-in gem.  No point in crafting yet.  Shulk did a detour to Colony 9 to complete a couple of sidequests to raise the region's Affinity.  Sharla joined at Level 10, forcing Shulk to use the "Come to me" AI command in every battle to keep her from healing him.  Even that did nothing to stop automatic revivals using the Chain gauge, so I reset if that happened.


Mechon M71 at Level 18 was a more capable opponent than I expected.  The tentacles frequently inflicted Blaze status on Shulk with Fire Shot, dealing damage over time similar to Poison.  There was nothing he could do to dodge this without gems he didn't have.  On the 2nd attempt, Shulk made killing the Level 15 Mechon Tentacles his highest priority.  Monado Buster once dealt 6989 damage to Mechon M71 itself during the 2nd phase of the fight. 


A rare event occurred here:  using Battle Soul!  Battle Soul sounds useless for a solo run because it sacrifices half of your current HP to speed up cooldown bars, but Shulk needed it to reset his Monado in order to dodge a foreseen Tentacles.  He had low Tension at the time and was constantly missing auto-attacks that would have cooled down the Monado normally.  Shield blocked a Ripple Laser I.  Mechon M71 temporarily increased its level to 20 with the Awakening buff, but it wasn't enough to defeat a depressed Shulk.  A Shaker Edge shattered one final vision of a Rapid Tentacle.


Shulk wasn't about to let Xord, aka Level 25 Mysterious Face, have any fun.  So he reloaded a save file and used Expert Mode to grow to 25 himself.  A Buster pierced him for 8946, and Shulk would have easily won if Xord hadn't activated the cutscene to end Chapter 4.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 6:  Beginning of Chapter 5


A shop near the Ether Mines sold new armor, making Shulk's loadout look like this:




Monado III (Muscle Up II, Ether Def Up II)
Safety Helmet (Daze Resist II)
Pelt Top
Pelt Gloves
Pelt Bottoms (Topple Resist II)
Grand Boots


My "rule" for gems is that if I'm facing "in depth" enemies, they must be at the same tier as what you'd find normally.  So Chapter 5 would use II gems. 


Be sure to look out for Secret Areas.  They don't just have a cool graphic, but also provide a decent amount of AP.  Level 29 Elegant Marin was found in one such area, Glowmoss Lake.  Attempting to fight this miniboss with its companions was suicide.  Battling it alone wasn't much easier.  Bubble and Ether Break II were both Ether based Arts, so Speed couldn't block them.  Bubble also decreased Agility.  Level 33 was needed to win as Shulk had no answers to these issues with this set of armor.



Level 22 Vengeful Daulton was another unique monster with companions.  Shulk fought dirty by taking each of them out individually, then running away and de-leveling before battling the monster itself.  Shulk doesn't believe duels should have "seconds".  Vengeful Daulton's most notable Art was Slow Water, which dealt Ether damage and inflicted Slow to decrease Shulk's auto-attack rate.  And a low auto-attack rate meant less time spent under Speed to dodge Vengeful Daulton's physical attacks.


The solution was to grow to Level 24 and equip the Humanity skill tree.  Humanity's Ether bonus increased the effectiveness of Light Heal, Shulk's only response against non-Physical threats.


Ether Mines is tedious, but it improves a bit in New Game Plus.  If you're so overleveled that the enemy's name is displayed on a black background, it will ignore you.


Next update should end Chapter 5, but I've played enough for today.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 7:  End of Chapter 5, Beginning of Chapter 6


Before his rematches with Xord at Level 25, Shulk equipped the following:


Monado III (Muscle Up II, Ether Def Up II, Ether Down II)
Safety Helmet (Daze Resist II)
Pelt Top
Pelt Gloves
Pelt Bottoms (Topple Resist II)
Grand Boots


Xord's first phase is tough in a normal playthrough because you have to hit the minions often enough to build up the Chain gauge before attacking the boss directly.  In New Game Plus, Shulk's Monado is permanently "unshackled", so "faced Mechon" work just like any other enemy.  The battle lasted less than 30 seconds total!  Shulk sneaked from behind and Back Slashed Xord while he was summoning his robots, and ended the fight shortly afterwards with a Buster.


Xord's second phase is meant to be more like a "normal" boss, but turned out to be more difficult for solo Shulk.  Overconfidence led to a 9276 Buster, before a Swing Beat Toppled Shulk.  Speed was the superior Monado Art here.  Berserk Boost granted Haste and increased Xord's auto-attack rate.  Wild Crash caused Bind, but this was no issue when both combatants were in melee range anyway.


Chapter 5 ended with a fight against a group of Mechon, the strongest being a Level 23 Mechon M69X.  Shulk was still at Level 25, but he still had to watch out for visions like an 880 Hard Attack.  Eating One II decreased Shulk's max HP and got around Speed since it was a Talent Art.  


Nopon Merchants in Chapter 6's Satorl Marsh sold new equipment, represented here:



Monado III (Muscle Up II, Ether Def Up II, Ether Down II)
Safety Helmet (Daze Resist II)
Pelt Top
Beach Bangle (Agility Up II)
Pelt Bottoms (Topple Resist II)
Webbed Sandals (Chill Defense IV)


EDIT:  Chill Defense IV comes with the Webbed Sandals, so it's not an "out of depth" gem.



Shulk made sure to complete sidequests here since Satorl Marsh is in the Central Bionis region.  Central Bionis Affinity is needed to start the quest that unlocks Monado Eater, a move Shulk might want later on. 


Satorl Marsh is a large region, and looks impressive at night in the Definitive Edition.  So it had many unique monsters for Shulk to solo.  The first was a Level 26 Cautious Balteid lizard.  It was a Physical opponent and therefore the victim of Speed evasion.  Attempting to battle Cautious Balteid with its Fighter Igna companions alive was a bad idea since it could use its own version of a Chain.  Intuition was a better Skill tree than Humanity because of the Agility bonus.


Shield Bash sometimes inflicted Topple when it hit, and Double Attacks were common.  For a monster named Cautious Balteid, it could hit hard in offense as well.  Shulk only managed to win at Level 30, with a Stream Edge + Back Slash finisher.


Satorl Marsh must have harsh natural selection when random monsters can be Level 84, stronger than the creator of their universe!  Shulk avoided them for now.


Level 31 Reckless Godwin currently holds the title of "hardest solo fight in Xenoblade".  Its auto-attack hit twice, and Combo could strike 3 times.  But that was FAR from the worst that Reckless Godwin could throw at Shulk.  Crazy Dance III Toppled Shulk many times throughout failed attempts.  Banishment inflicted Pierce, an ailment that erased ALL Physical and Ether Def.  Beastman Curse was an Art Seal move that disabled all of Shulk's talents except for Monado Arts and froze their cooldown bars, especially Light Heal when he needed to use it.


To give you an idea of how hard Reckless Godwin is for a solo, I beat him twice and compared the fights in a basic way.  Once was at Level 36 with the following "out of depth" equipment for maximum Physical Def:


Agrius Helm (Lock-On Resist IV)
Agrius Plate (Physical Protect VI)
Agrius Arms (Buff Time Plus IV)
Lord Leggings (HP Up IV)
Combatant Boots (EXP Up III)
 


This version was a difficult but "legitimate" fight.  What was the other way?  Raising Shulk to Level 37 with the "in depth" armor mentioned just below the Nopon Merchants in this post.  Believe it or not, that was the "cheater" way.  Remember in the normal playthrough when I mentioned that being 6 levels below your opponent makes your attacks MISS all the time?  That also applies to enemies.  Entering a fight with a Level 31 monster at Level 37 effectively gave Shulk permanent Monado Speed.


Now you know how messed up the Xenoblade mechanics are when endgame armor is inferior to being 6 levels above the enemy.  At least for Physical opponents.  Ether doesn't seem to play by those rules.


After that fight, I took a break from Xenoblade and did things that were actually productive in real life for a while.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 8:  End of Chapter 6


Aggressive Cornelius the Level 28 lizard was next on Shulk's unique monster hit list.  (Are all of them based on the [Adjective] + [Given Name] formula?)  Lure prevented nearby monsters from joining in, but Shulk was incapable of defeating Aggressive Cornelius at Level 28.  This was mostly because of Slow Ether, an Art with high damage and the Slow ailment.  Big Combo was its Physical special, with the possibility of Daze if Shulk survived.  This at least could be dodged with Speed.  Shulk won on a Level 32 attempt since there was nothing he could do about Slow Ether other than have better stats and Light Heal it.


Sunlight Schvaik the Level 30 bird was part of a long quest sequence in Satorl Marsh, so Shulk would have killed it even if he weren't hunting unique enemies for fun.  Its Build Up increased its Physical Def, and Gale blew for decent Ether damage.  Speed was still the way to go to avoid Physical damage, however.  Shulk needed to be Level 34 to win.


Level 28 Satorl Guardian was the de facto boss of Chapter 6, and I thought at first I was overleveled at 30.  I was wrong.  It packed Ether Arts such as the multi-hit Tornado Spin, and damage over time skills like Poison Stab and Ultra Poison Stab III.  Xenoblade has no consumable healing items, so Shulk couldn't drink an Antidote like Bartz or Vaan.  He was stuck with Light Heal.  Shulk was successful at Level 32 when a Shaker Edge clipped Satorl Guardian's wings.


Chapter 7 might take a while to post due to my upcoming schedule.


EDIT:  Apparently animals from Bionis are much sturdier than monsters from other RPGs.  Even at Level 80 with the Monado III, Shulk can't kill a Level 29 Makna Faris in one hit. . .with a Back Slash backstab for 35,376.  Granted, it isn't Back Slash X, but still. . .

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 9:  Chapter 7 Beginning


Chapter 7 opened in Makna Forest, a massive jungle with thin rope bridges.  It was also the homeland of the Nopons, who sold new equipment at the beginning.  Shulk's first "in depth" loadout looked like this:


Monado III (Muscle Up II, Ether Def Up II, Ether Down II)
Swep Gear
Makna Top
Beech Bangle (Agility Up II)
Makna Bottoms
Mist Sandals


A boss battle against 3 Level 28 Puera Telethias was unusual in that Shulk was the only permanent party member involved, even without the variant.  Alvis the guest could be instructed to "come to me", however.  I wasn't playing carefully enough on the 1st try and used Monado Buster.  The Puera Telethias took the opportunity to set up their Soul Read aura to dodge all of Shulk's attacks.  A 1564 power Telethia Arrow II pinned Shulk to the ground after he failed to hit the bosses to recharge his Monado.


Take 2 was still at Level 28, though I played like I should have on Take 1.  Monado cooldowns were reserved for Purge, an Ether type Art that removes auras and temporarily prevents monsters from reapplying them.  Some visions were pathetic, like a 176 damage Telethia Tail.  A Slit Edge pierced the final Puera Telethia.


A Level 34 Elder Gragus bird had the honor of being undefeated until Shulk used this set of "out of depth" equipment at Level 39, i.e. the best matchup possible without resorting to the "6+ level dodge":


Monado III (Muscle Up II, Ether Def Up II, Ether Down II)

Agrius Helm (Lock-On Resist IV)
Agrius Plate (Physical Protect VI)
Agrius Arms (Buff Time Plus IV)
Lord Leggings (HP Up IV)
Combatant Boots (EXP Up III)

 
The reasons Shulk had to resort to such dirty tricks:  Funky Dance and Scratch.  Funky Dance put him to Sleep and lowered his Tension, while Scratch inflicted Bleed to hemorrhage HP over time.  There was nothing Shulk could do about this other than Light Heal IX every 19 seconds if possible.


At this point, I ruled that B button presses to increase Tension were always legal, even if presented in game as other characters cheering Shulk on.  Depressed characters whiff most of their Physical attacks if at low Tension, and it's not like Shulk has Riki's Hero Time to preserve Tension.


Melia and Riki joined during Chapter 7, and Riki entered the "active" party at the minimum level of 22 due to his passive Skills to increase the chances of better chests dropping after battle.  He still sat on the sidelines during combat.


Shulk spent the rest of the section doing stupid fetch quests and "kill X number of monsters" missions for Frontier Village to raise its Affinity.  After that, and some gem crafting in Colony 9, his loadout looked like this:


Monado III (Muscle Up II, Ether Def Up II, Ether Down II)
Forest Cap (Bleed Defence III)
Twin Tree Vest (Slow Resist III)
Makna Gloves (Arts Seal Resist III)
Twin Tree Trousers (Arts Seal Resist III)
Mist Sandals (Arts Seal Resist III)


As you might have guessed, solo Shulk despises status ailments, particularly the one that disables Light Heal.  Then again, EVERY solo challenge character in an RPG hates ailments.


Solo Shulk is a fun semi-playthrough so far.  It feels more like a defensive class in a turn-based RPG, rather than the "click on all your Arts as they cool down, then use a Chain" rhythm of regular Xenoblade combat.


EDIT:  I can't get Monado Eater until a later Chapter (10?) because its sidequest doesn't appear until Pod Landing Site is available after the Emperor of the High Entia dies.