Xenoblade

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

It's crazy how many times you had to +5 level bosses or use out of depth equipment for earlier segments.

Xenoblade is NOT a good game for solos, or challenge playthroughs in general due to how the battle mechanics work.  That's why these are BONUS episodes rather than a real "run" through the game.  Trying to fight humanoids and Mechon "faces" with a "shackled" Monado in a regular New Game doesn't work.


Enemies have massive amounts of HP, allowing for more chances for things to go wrong (i.e. Talent Arts coming out of nowhere).  Try killing an enemy at a much lower level than you, and marvel at how many Arts it takes to bring it down with the Monado III!  If you want good damage output in Xenoblade, you have to use Chains, which solos don't have.  Supposedly Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is even worse about giving enemies too much health, though I've never played it.


Solo Shulk may have been able to fight at lower levels and with in depth equipment for earlier chapters if I had acquired Monado Armour in the original playthrough.  The problem he had was that Ether damage can't be dodged, and Shield is specific to Talent Arts with Roman numerals after their names. He can't use the solo Edgar trick in FF6 of equipping Magic Evade armor until he blocks most attacks.


One disadvantage Shulk has relative to other lone heroes is that he has no Elixirs, or even Hi Potions.  He's stuck with Light Heal and its cooldown. 


I'll probably do some sidequests from here on out in case Shulk needs to grow to 87 to beat Zanza.  Starting with Fallen Arm in Chapters 12-13, the rewards seem to be better.


Riki would be a funny solo, provided the player doesn't mind missing out on the Chapters 1-6 story bosses.  (He can always go back and beat up unique monsters from earlier regions, though.)  Riki Is Angry makes enemies damage themselves whenever they attack him.  He can stack ailments such as Blaze, Chill, and Poison, and then combine it with Say Sorry's damage multiplier.  And Riki has the highest HP, combined with You Can Do It for healing similar to Shulk's Light Heal.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 17:  Chapter 13 Middle




A Level 80 Powerful Eligos in Fallen Arm seemed difficult but possible at Level 81 when Shulk sized it up.  Not when its auto-attacks hit for 1829 vs a max HP of 4882!  Maybe I should have tried with out of depth equipment appropriate for a monster near Zanza's level, but I decided to move on.


For fun, I fought the Level 58 Broken Mechon in a quest for parity, although it wasn't a boss or unique monster.  Shulk barely survived at 304/4191 HP, even with Monado Armour VII.  Enemy Arts such as a 2131 Dead Slash struck hard.


Level 57 Affluent Beleth proved that Shulk would have to use the +5 level trick for the rest of the game.  He wanted to decline the invitation to Fish Festival VI, which gave the monster Haste and Pierced Shulk's defenses.  Affluent Beleth offered Shulk some Slow Water to reduce his auto-attack rate, and was generally a bad host.  Thunderbolt II caused Paralysis and was exempt from Armour like Fish Festival VI due to being a Talent Art.


Shulk took a detour to Distant Fingertip by mistake and I enjoyed the scenery thanks to the Switch's draw distance.  You can't criticize the Definitive Edition for its graphics!  A Level 95 Wicked Sallos was there, but Shulk wouldn't have been able to touch it with that level difference.  Zanza himself would MISS too.  How did the "god" of Bionis create random wildlife that's much stronger than he is?


In Mechonis Field, a Level 59 Destroyer Salvacion (sic) was viable at Level 62.  Two of its special moves were Talent Arts:  Over Tentacle IV, and Ripple Laser III.  Ripple Laser III had the additional disadvantage of causing Paralysis.  Shield uses only half the Monado cooldown bar, fortunately.  Fire Shot singed Shulk with Blaze damage. 


I thought at first I was being unfair to Level 57 Amorous Arca when Shulk battled it at Level 60.  At least until it pulled out Naked Glow V for 2296 damage vs Shulk's max HP of 4270 and Pierce without providing a vision, that is!  So he had to grow to 62 and try again.  A Shadow Eye-less combo of Back Slash, Slit Edge, and Air Slash sabotaged the machine.


Monado Armour is useful, but overrated when Talent Arts ignore it.  Battle tactics are still mostly the same as when I used Speed.  Variety with Shulk mostly comes in which Monado Art he uses, since he doesn't have as many regular Arts as other characters.


For now, I may play some Baldur's Gate for a bit.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 18:  More Chapter 13


Some unique monsters in Mechonis Field were tied to Fallen Arm region quests, so Shulk could solve both problems at once.  He finally managed to find a Tear of the Sky at Distant Fingertip, which only appeared during a random thunderstorm.  I knew I had a chance when I saw it raining in the Machina village.  This got Shulk some Alcyone Bottoms, and the corresponding Alcyone Top came from the Secret Area of Machina Refuge in Mechonis Field. 


If you're interested in completing sidequests for Fallen Arm, or want to find new equipment for Fiora in your normal playthroughs, pay a visit to Machina Refuge.


Level 60 Revolutionary Bifrons was the 1st unique opponent Shulk had to face.  This Mechon came with a Spike aura, which required the following equipment modifications:



Monado III (Double Attack V, Double Attack V, Double Attack IV)
Brave Cap (Spike Defence VI)
Alcyone Top (Spike Defence V)
Brave Gloves (Agility Up III)
Alcyone Bottoms (Topple Resist V)
Brave Shoes (Topple Resist V)


Revolutionary Bifrons liked to cast Laser for Ether damage.  Shulk had to worry more about Ether Chaff's debuff to Physical and Ether Def, or heavy Physical damage + Pierce from Naked Glow V.  Hard Bash had a Daze chance if it connected.  When the miniboss fought that dirty, having +5 level advantage was necessary even with Monado Armour VIII (65% damage reduction).  And Shulk lost once with those parameters.  It would have been much worse if he took damage from every attack without those Spike Resist gems!



Level 58 Infernal Crocell was a flying robot that was easier than Revolutionary Bifrons, but still likely would have
defeated Shulk if he hadn't been at Level 63.  Spinning Slice, a multi-hit Physical Art, was its main action.  Lock-On was a free round for Shulk as there were no other enemies in the area anyway.  Naked Lock, however, combined Pierce with Lock-On status.  Ether Bullet dealt Ether damage and decreased Ether Def, and the variety of attack types made Armour the best Monado Art once again.


Shulk tried to play fair and fight Jade Face at Level 60, but this was not to be.  Sure, Shulk could hide behind barricades to dodge its 3293 power Linear Laser IV sniper shot, but he couldn't handle an ordinary Level 58 M66/TRICK.  That's right, random Mechon can win against solo Shulk if he doesn't have Armour up at all times.  To give it the credit it deserved, it did have a 1737 power Drill Screw. 


You can probably see why I'm going to rely on +5 level advantage to deal with everything from here on out.  More might be needed for the timed section of the final Yaldabaoth battle.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 19:  Chapter 13 End, Chapter 14 Beginning


Shulk tried to take on Jade Face the honest way at Level 60 again, but an encounter with 3 Mechon shortly before the boss itself Confused him.  Confusion in Pokemon is an irritating status condition where you hit yourself 50% of the time for physical damage.  Shulk wished he were that fortunate.  In Xenoblade, he was forced to wander around aimlessly until the status wore off. 


In retrospect, I had a few Confuse Resist gems in my inventory, but I was annoyed enough to set Shulk's level to 65 and charge on towards Jade Face.  Gadolt's mech was an anticlimax in comparison.  With the level advantage, Linear Laser IV was reduced to 2426 power as seen in a vision.  It did cause Paralysis on the final rush into Gadolt's arena.  Ether Jammer caused both Slow and Ether Def Down, but Armour compensated for these debuffs.  Cross Jaggy knocked Shulk down for a respectable 1140 damage.  (He had 4450 max HP.) 


When Jade Face lost a certain percentage of his HP, Shulk finished him off with Shadow Eye + Stream Edge + Air Slash.  Using Arts is good for keeping your Tension up, and they're much stronger than auto-attacks even without bonuses like backstab multipliers.  The one drawback for Shulk is that only Stream Edge and auto-attacks can cool down the Monado.  Other potential solo heroes don't have this concern.


One opponent in Chapter 14 filled Shulk with dread:  Level 59 Faithful Lancelot.  This Mechon pulverized him even at Level 64 with liberal use of Armour with in depth equipment.  Even this out of depth armor and gem loadout failed on its first attempt:


Monado III (Double Attack V, Double Attack V, Double Attack IV)
Hierax Cap (Pierce Resist  V)
Lancelot Armour (Recovery Up V)
Lancelot Gauntlets (Daze Resist IV)
Hierax Bottoms (Topple Resist V)
Lancelot Boots (Topple Resist V)


It looks different from previous out of depth setups because it's specialized for Ether Def rather than Physical Def.  Shulk relied on his old standby Speed to dodge Hard Bash and Side Swing.  Speed's 75% drain of the Monado bar vs. Armour's 100% was superior if Shulk foresaw Naked Glow V and its Pierce side effect and had to block it with Shield.  As for the Ether type Laser, Shulk had to take full damage.  Ether Chaff was debilitating when it weakened both Shulk's Ether Def and his Light Heal.  At the end of the battle, Shulk cast Shadow Eye, then Back Slashed and Stream Edged to victory.


Faithful Lancelot was one of the most interesting solo fights to play, but it does make me wonder how viable the rest of the game will be without the "+6 level evasion" exploit.


EDIT:  I wonder if Solo Reyn or Dunban would be viable with Aura Heal gems and Last Stand/Jaws of Death to auto-resurrect. . .

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 20:  Chapter 14 Entering Agniratha


A Surprise Quest worth 24,500 money, 23,500 experience, and Blaze Attack IV and Paralysis Resist IV gems placed a bounty on Level 60 Beautiful Vagul.  And what a fight it was!  Several equipment loadouts were tried, but only this Physical Def build lead to success:


Monado III (Double Attack V, Double Attack V, Double Attack IV)
Rafaga Gear (Spike Defence VI)
Lancelot Armour (Spike Defence V)
Lancelot Gauntlets (Recovery Up V)
Retrieved Leggings (Topple Resist V)
Lancelot Boots (Topple Resist V)


Beautiful Vagul's Spike aura could be nullified with gems, but it had a nasty surprise:  a Physical Def drop every time Shulk swung his sword in its direction.  This reduced his Tension to "depressed face" quickly, causing him to MISS many of his auto-attacks.  Beautiful Vagul cast Reconstruct to get Haste and Strength Up status.  If the Ether type Thunder Flash appeared, Paralysis followed.


Speed helped to dodge Physical Arts like Cut Attack, but he couldn't use it if his Monado never cooled down.  Armour was inferior to Speed, as seen in one failed attempt. 



I considered using the +6 level dodge exploit, but Shulk was fortunate enough at Level 65 to get a "angry face with flames" Tension that lasted a while.  He saw a fatal 1041 power Thunder Flash coming in a vision, and rushed the miniboss with Air Slash, Slit Edge, and Stream Edge before time ran out. 


One unintended side effect of a B button Tension event during Beautiful Vagul's fight was a Haste buff from Fiora.  I kept her in the party because a Colony 9 quest wanted high Affinity between 2 female characters, and I had forgotten one of her Skills did that.  Unfortunately, some affect the whole party, making it questionable for solos.  Then again, Beautiful Vagul had it coming!


For future battles, I may keep Melia in the inactive battle party for her Unyielding Heart passive Skill that "prevents reduction of accuracy when tension falls".  Shulk can't manage his Tension like Riki, so he may have to use this at some point.


During this update, Shulk had acquired enough experience from quests to tie Zanza's level of 82.  I had forgotten there was a "boss arena" with the radioactive green lines with generic Mechon, so Shulk won through outrageous overleveling.  None seemed to be unique monsters or bosses, however.


Shulk might need out of depth equipment for battles in the Mechon capital of Agniratha.  All the armor sold in its shop are either Heavy or Mechonis class. 


Level 64 Experienced Tristan was a weaker Beautiful Vagul.  It had a similar moveset with Cut Attack and Thunder Flash, and lacked the Spike aura or automatic Physical Def debuff.  Shulk still fought it at Level 69 because he was sick of matching unique monster levels after all the nonsense they put him through recently.  The only new trick Experienced Tristan had was Olden Shield, which added Physical Protect and Ether Protect status.


Expect Agniratha to take a while due to its size.  I may play some Baldur's Gate tomorrow.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 21:  Some Chapter 14 Unique Monsters


As one of the last large regions of the game, it shouldn't be surprising that there were many unique monsters for Shulk to fight.  Assume that Shulk is 5 levels over the enemy unless I mention otherwise.


First was Level 65 Meditative Varla, a flying Mechon.  Sliding Sword V gouged Shulk for around 2744 in one screenshot vs his 4608 max HP, and often came without warning.  Speed was preferred to dodge Rush and Shield Bash.  The latter was especially dangerous since it could Daze.  A Shadow Eye + Back Slash turned Meditative Varla into scrap metal once it was low enough on HP.


Next came Level 68 Wise Gremory, a beetle Mechon that thought it was clever when it sent out a Spike aura.  But Shulk had this loadout which nullified it entirely:


Monado III (Double Attack V, Double Attack V, Double Attack IV)
Rafaga Gear (Spike Defence VI)
Lancelot Armour (Spike Defence V)
Lancelot Gauntlets (Recovery Up V)
Retrieved Leggings (Topple Resist V)
Lancelot Boots (Topple Resist V)


Wise Gremory seemed to have a slower auto-attack speed than Meditative Varla, and was vulnerable to Break.  This gave Shulk enough time to Topple it with Cyclone and Daze it with Shaker Edge.  There wasn't enough Daze time to set up any backstabs, so Shulk cast Light Heal instead.  Big Combo VI for up to 4085 damage was the Talent Art to watch out for, but the timing was generous enough for Shulk to save himself with Shield.  Another Big Combo VI vision at the end of the fight prompted an aggressive finisher combo of Shadow Eye + Stream Edge + Back Slash + Air Slash.


A Level 64 Offensive/BRAVE joined the next miniboss as an ally, but it didn't count on Shulk hitting them both with a Buster that dealt 26,893 damage to one of them.  Another Buster smashed Offensive/BRAVE and injured the other enemy.  Level 67 Wrathful Orobas the bipedal Mechon was unusually susceptible to Break for a unique monster, resulting in several Stream Edge/Air Slash + Cyclone + Shaker Edge + 19,100 power Back Slash backstab combos.  Spike Defence gems were still useful since Wrathful Orobas had a Spike aura that activated when Toppled/Dazed.  Speed did make an appearance when Shulk dodged a 2063 Lower Chainsaw with it.


One 2551 Gala Chainsaw V was averted not with Shield, but with Daze from Shaker Edge.  The vision that came immediately afterwards was a Lower Chainsaw that would have MISSed with or without evasion boosts.  Fighting Wrathful Orobas was much more fun than the Speed/Light Heal attrition battles from earlier!


Level 68 Vagabond Allocer was a small flying Mechon that was more deadly than its size suggested.  Energy Shot was Ether type but was negligible.  Screw Shot, however, made Shulk suffer Bleed damage if he didn't dodge it.  After the initial failure, Shulk used the same armor but swapped out some gems:


Monado III (Double Attack V, Double Attack V, Double Attack IV)
Rafaga Gear (Bleed Defence VI)
Lancelot Armour (Bleed Defence V)
Lancelot Gauntlets (Recovery Up V)
Retrieved Leggings (Topple Resist V)
Lancelot Boots (Topple Resist V)


On Take 2, Shulk insisted on slashing Vagabond Allocer with 32,436 power Busters rather than dodge Screw Shot with Speed since he now had 95% Bleed resistance.  This was effective instead of reckless, though he still made sure to block a predicted 2737 Screw Dance IV with Shield.  A Shadow Eye + Buster destroyed the miniboss with style.


Level 65 Soothed Aglovale let Shulk experiment with Monado Armour for a bit.  Soothed Aglovale loved both auto-attacks and counter-attacks, and rarely used Ether Bullet.  Sometimes it wasted its "turn" sending Shulk into Lock-On status, but Soothed Aglovale occasionally used the threatening Naked Lock which added Pierce as well.  Speed saved Shulk once again because Pierce's  removal of Physical Def didn't matter when he was dodging generic melee and Spinning Slice.


Soothed Aglovale resisted Physical attacks, so the battle took longer than other unique monsters.  But Shulk was still able to Break + Topple + Daze to set up a 16,320 Back Slash backstab.  Topple/Daze makes for effective defense when possible as well since you can wait out Light Heal's cooldown.  So it was worth using Air Slash on occasion to "fish" for Break.  One Topple attempt later in the fight failed when Cyclone's animation didn't play quickly enough.  A later Topple was successful when an Air Slash prolonged a Break from Stream Edge.  One last Break + Topple + Daze + Back Slash combo ended the fight.


Not much progress in the "story", but this was a fun session because Shulk was able to vary his tactics a bit.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 22:  Gadolt in Chapter 14


One more unique monster appeared in Agniratha:  Level 66 Sentimental Flamral the insect (?) Mechon.  Soaked Wall gave it short-lived Damage Immunity, but it made no difference in practice even when using a solo character.  Shulk used Armour and Speed , but he sometimes had to conserve his Monado gauge for Shield.  This was because Hush Chop V sliced for 4093 damage in visions, often fatal even to a Level 71 player.


Sentimental Flamral's Flame Throw singed Shulk for an initial 400 and ticks of 40 Blaze damage.  Light Heal recovered for 2504 on a good roll thanks to the Humanity Skill tree's Ether bonus.  For an early game move that's apparently meant to be replaced by Sharla or Riki, Light Heal scales surprisingly well at Art level X.  A Stream Edge and Back Slash cut down Sentimental Flamral at the end.


The next boss was such a counter to solo Shulk that I did sidequests in between failed attempts while thinking of a plan.  Our hero received some experience from Fallen Arm missions, and he partially rebuilt Colony 6 with some materials.  Never bothered much with Colony 6 in the previous playthrough, but it's funny to watch everything improve suddenly, complete with a "DA-DA-DA!" sound effect.  Shulk created some gems with Reyn, including some that would enter the loadout.  The best result came from Blaze Defence IV cylinders that rose to 315%, raising the gem's tier.


Shulk had no way of defeating Level 68 Gadolt by sticking to the +5 level rule.  Sharla's boyfriend in his Jade Face mech had too many tricks.  Linear Laser V blasted constantly for 3060 damage, and often came out with no vision despite Shulk only having 4692 max HP at Level 73.  Another Ether Art was Laser Bullet, which burst for two hits of up to 1027 each.  Blow Jaggy sent Shulk into a Daze for 1400s, and he only had one 32% Daze Resist gem to begin to block it.  This was often lethal when combined with 572 power enemy auto-attacks, let alone Gadolt's other moves.


Ether Jammer Slowed Shulk to prevent his Monado from cooling down quickly enough, and decreased his Ether Def too.  Quick Cannon inflicted Paralysis, which could stack with Slow from Ether Jammer to make Shulk miserable.


Well, I should clarify that Gadolt had 2 "forms".  The 1st was defeated at Level 73, but NOT the 2nd.  The programmers were merciful enough to only require Shulk to beat the 2nd form once it appeared after inevitably dying to it.


Gadolt Round 2 periodically cast Shield Call to give itself Haste and summon 2 Level 64 Defensive/SHAME robots.  These were effective guards in spite of suffering from a level disadvantage since they could rely on both Lock-On to make Shulk focus on them, and Physical Protect status from an Art called Hard Armour.  Buster sometimes killed them during failed attempts, while Speed tried to dodge Blow Jaggy and auto-attacks from Gadolt.



Apparently "level advantage evasion" fails if you're either knocked on your butt or Dazed, since the Defensive/SHAME units hit for 260-285 with auto-attacks under these conditions.  That was the cause of at least one death.


Shulk resorted to Sullla's least favorite solo run tactic:  overleveling.  With this loadout at 74, Shulk finally had a chance:


Monado III (Double Attack V, Double Attack V, Double Attack IV)
Hierax Cap (Daze Resist IV)
Lancelot Armour (Ether Def Up IV)
Lancelot Gauntlets (Lock-On Resist IV)
Hierax Gauntlets (Lock-On Resist V)
Lancelot Boots (Lock-On Resist V)



Lock-On Resist rendered the Defensive/SHAME units mostly irrelevant when they could no longer make Shulk target them instead of Gadolt.  The "level advantage evasion" exploit allowed me to use "pre-emptive Shield" to block the frequent Linear Laser V without unreliable visions.  Remember that Ether moves don't check for accuracy, unlike Physical damage.


Even at 74, Gadolt was still a tense battle.  He was reduced to 631/4719 in one segment, low enough HP to make a 313 Ether Bullet from a Defensive/SHAME appear in a vision!  And the +6 level dodge failed to prevent a Blow Jaggy from connecting to Daze Shulk right before the finale.  I pressed the A button so quickly in the Monado menu that I accidentally used a 7898 damage Purge instead of Shield to block a coming Linear Laser V.  One last 6909 power Stream Edge took down Gadolt just before the Talent Art landed.


I guess I shouldn't feel too bad about the +5 level rule.  Leveling down only exists in Definitive Edition anyway, and this is fooling around in New Game Plus rather than a "real" playthrough.


I'm having more fun with this than the 1st run through the game.  Xenoblade's combat system seems to work better for solo characters vs. bosses, rather than the slog it can be with a full party mindlessly using Arts vs. regular enemies with excessive HP bars.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 23:  Chapters 14-16


For the next few bosses, Shulk had this loadout:


Monado III (Double Attack V, Double Attack V, Double Attack IV)
Hierax Cap (Daze Resist IV)
Lancelot Armour (Recovery Up V)
Lancelot Gauntlets (Arts Seal Resist V)
Hierax Gauntlets (Arts Seal Resist V)
Lancelot Boots (Arts Seal Resist V)


Egil fought Shulk outside of his mech at Level 70, although he decided to summon a few Mechon helpers.  HP Down to a max of 2372 was a common enough when the robots attacked or Sacrificed themselves that Shulk had to rely on Armour to survive.  Sometimes the additional enemies worked against Egil when each Stream Edge hit in the arc sped up the Monado cooldown.


Egil's Talent Art of Homing Missiles IV was ironically too powerful at 4972 damage to be effective.  Talent Arts are lethal to solo Shulk when they are just weak enough to reduce him to low HP without activating a vision.  When Homing Missiles IV would have overkilled him from max HP, Shulk saw it coming and blocked it with Shield every time.  Some of the smaller flying Mechon inflicted Blaze, but the ticks were only for 6 damage each for Level 75 Shulk.  A Shadow Eye + Back Slash destroyed Egil's humanoid form, no matter how many times he shouted "YOU SHALL PAY!"



Level 72 Yaldabaoth was an "interactive cutscene" battle in Chapter 14 and ended after a certain percentage of enemy HP was gone.  Machinery Field would have Arts Sealed Shulk if not for his gems, though it did decrease his Ether Def.  Egil Tail swiped for 1574 damage and knocked our hero to the ground.  Too bad his allies Encouraged him out of Daze instead of letting him fight like a proper solo!  Catastrophe blasted for 1260, and didn't live up to its name when Light Heal could cure for more.  Armour reduced a Catastrophe to 707 right before the cutscene played.


Level 70 Apocrypha Generator in Chapter 15 was a simple battle at Level 75.  It was a defensive opponent, often using Shield Barrier to set up Physical Protect and Ether Protect.  Armour dimmed Laser to pitiful double digit damage per hit.  Laser would have Toppled Shulk, though his allies kept Encouraging him out of the status.  You'd be surprised how long a Level 1 Reyn can remain on the battlefield.  


Sometimes Shulk tried Buster for style, and once pierced Apocrypha Generator for 27,011 damage.  Sounds like a lot, but that's modest by enemy HP standards in this game.  Magnetic Field:  First and Magnetic Field:  Zero both debuffed Shulk's Strength and Ether Def.  Not sure why those two moves had the same effect.  Great Laser VI was the only real threat of the fight, as it dealt 1283 damage and Paralyzed Shulk.  After that started happening, Shulk reused his pre-emptive Shield tactic.  One final Buster destroyed the machine.


Yaldabaoth's Chapter 15 rematch was much easier than I expected at Level 77.  Solo Shulk even won on the first try!  This was probably because Egil gave up Talent Arts, and thought Physical moves would be enough because he was in a giant robot with pointless Gnostic symbolism.  (Really, shouldn't "Yaldabaoth" be Zanza?)  Silly Egil!  Shulk had Speed to dodge the slow animations of Continual Model, Strength Model, and Weakness Model.  Chastise froze Shulk in place, but Bind was irrelevant when both Shulk and Yaldabaoth were melee specialists.   


Manufacture Drone was more dangerous.  The Mechon couldn't normally hit Shulk at his high level, but evading all those attacks still required animations that took time away from attacking.  Stream Edge compensated for Shulk being outnumbered for the same reason as in the Egil battle.


About halfway through the battle, Yaldabaoth cast Energy Replenish to become Invincible, then activated the Bionis Slash X vision.  If Shulk didn't destroy all Level 70 Energy Devices in time, Yaldabaoth would destroy Bionis.  It was here that I thought Shulk would have to go well above the +5 level range, but I was wrong.  Energy Devices had low HP and were susceptible to Buster and even non-Monado Arts like Slit Edge.  Shulk had about half the time limit to spare.


At around 1/4 Yaldabaoth HP, Shulk eliminated the Level 70 Exterminator/CLOCK robots.  Yaldabaoth promptly summoned Level 68 Offensive/MOTOR units, but that meant fewer dodging animations to deal with.  A Shadow Eye + 9632 Back Slash ended the chapter.


Shulk was dreaming about outer space for all of Chapter 16, so that doesn't count as part of the solo challenge.  He only missed out on 2 cutscene bosses anyway.  Only Chapter 17 remains!  Definitive Edition has one trick if Shulk needs to grind to win against Zanza. . .

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 24:  Filthy Casual Mode (and some Chapter 17)


Level 70 Sureny Telethia was the 1st Chapter 17 boss Shulk was eligible for.  It set up Soul Read evasion right at the beginning, and not even Double Attack chances could fill up the Monado quickly enough to Purge it.  So Shulk sacrificed half his HP to finish that process with Soul Read.  


Killer Sky Toppled all characters on screen and killed Reyn.  Killer Dive V Dazed Shulk at least once.  Ether Particles dealt minor damage and reduced Shulk's Ether Def.  Still, it wasn't a difficult battle as long as our hero used pre-emptive Purges to prevent Soul Read.


Level 72 Sani Telethia, however, was much worse when Shulk fought it at Level 75. Its Ether attacks like Shock Wave, Thunderbolt, Bolt from the Blue, and Splash Wave resulted in minor injuries that Shulk could shrug off with Light Heal.  Sani Telethia also had the interesting techniques of Sunlight Scatter, Weather Rain, and Weather Storm that changed the weather. 


The problem was that Shulk was permanently stuck at low Tension, and no B button prompts appeared.  I even tried reviving the inactive party members just to see if I could get more Tension, and nothing worked.  Sani Telethia couldn't kill Shulk if he continued to Light Heal, and Shulk couldn't kill Sani Telethia if none of his attacks connected.  Did Ness steal his Monado and give him the Casey Bat?  


Shulk surrendered by doing nothing for a while, and then came Take 2.  This was successful, especially with pre-emptive Purges.  A B button Tension prompt did appear this time, and I have no idea why.  Sani Telethia had one Talent Art, a 2085 power Telethia Buster VII.  Shulk foresaw one in a vision and blocked it with Shield. An Air Slash shortly afterwards cut the dragon down.


Here is where most Realms Beyond players will boo!  Alcamoth in Chapter 17 is swarming with non-unique Telethia, usually in the mid-80s level range.  I had a choice between either grinding via tedious sidequests, or a quicker way.  Definitive Edition comes with Casual Mode, an option in the Plus button menus that reduces enemy difficulty.  Shulk abandoned the solo restrictions here and killed dozens of Telethia with Casual Mode and a full party to grow his Expert Mode maximum level to 88.  Level 88 is the target in case I need "to +6" Zanza.


Casual Mode grinding reminded me of my Etrian Odyssey Untold 2 playthrough with 5 Landsknechts.  Untold 2 has horrible boss design and a tedious random drop system to upgrade your abilities, so you have to overlevel if you're not conforming to the sort of party the developers intended.  (i.e. Don't have a Protector/Beast on your team?  Enjoy attacks that overkill the whole party!) 


Untold 2 features Picnic difficulty, one that's more brain-dead than Casual Mode in Xenoblade, so the Landsknechts auto-battled FOEs that they had already defeated at least once on Expert.  This was needed to make the game tolerable.  Not fun, but tolerable.  Xenoblade may be flawed, but it's far superior to Untold 2.


After the leveling session was done, I turned off Casual Mode and warped back to Colony 6 to prepare for Bionis' Interior.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 25:  Chapter 17 Bionis' Interior Unique Monsters


One attempt to clean out the enemies surrounding Level 73 Victorious Gross at Level 88 ended in failure.  Not fighting the boss itself, just making it a duel rather than a multi-monster-melee.  Total Immunize V sent Shulk into Confusion, and all I could do was to watch as the level advantage became useless.  Shulk changed his loadout accordingly:


Monado III (Double Attack V, Double Attack V, Double Attack IV)
Hierax Cap (Daze Resist IV)
Lancelot Armour (Recovery Up V)
Lancelot Gauntlets (Confuse Resist V)
Hierax Bottoms (Confuse Resist V)
Lancelot Boots (Confuse Resist V)



Victorious Gross's amorphous body hit Shulk 3 times per auto-attack, up to 458 damage if an unlucky roll happened.  Immunize inflicted Lock-On and Slow, and was sure to be painful even if Shulk dodged the auto-attacks with Speed.  Counter-attacks added more Physical damage as if the regular hits weren't enough. 


Shulk's best option was to "+6" Victorious Gross and battle the glowing thing at Level 79.  Armour X reduced damage by 75%.  Hitting it with a Stream Edge revealed it was weak to Break. . .


A Level 74 Drakos Telethia (non-unique) crashed the event and spent most of the time trying to push Shulk off the platform for a ring out.  When it wasn't casting Ether Particles to reduce Shulk's Ether Def and knock him down to negate +6 level evasion for its Victorious Gross partner, that is.  Killer Sky from Drakos Telethia Toppled Shulk for a short time.  Eventually the dragon died, and Shulk resumed the fight against the miniboss.


Victorious Gross set up Anti-Antibody to boost its Agility and Physical Protect.  (Does that mean it's a pathogen within Bionis instead of the equivalent of an antibody?)  Shulk exploited the Break vulnerability to Topple it with Cyclone and Back Slash backstab it for up to 11,592 damage.  It was an entertaining battle even with the level exploit!


Level 75 Officer Robusto had an unusually coherent name for a Xenoblade miniboss, and looked sort of like a spider made of "energy".  (Think "energy beings" in Star Trek.)  Genome Break put Shulk to Sleep, but attacks quickly awoke him.  More like Final Fantasy's naps than Pokemon's slumber.  A Level 72 Largo Selua entered the fray.  It couldn't do much to Shulk at Level 80, or so it seemed at first.  Its Vile Fungus Poisoned Shulk for 51 ticks and Arts Sealed him to prevent Light Heal. 


On Take 2, Officer Robusto did not have Largo Selua as an ally.  It was suspiciously vulnerable to Break + Topple + Daze, which was a trap.  Officer Robusto had a Spike aura for that situation that pierced Shulk for 1760 damage (!) for every attack in that state.  Time to change gems!


Monado III (Double Attack V, Double Attack V, Double Attack IV)
Hierax Cap (Spike Defence V)
Lancelot Armour (Recovery Up V)
Lancelot Gauntlets (Spike Defence VI)
Hierax Bottoms (Topple Resist V)
Lancelot Boots (Topple Resist V)      



Now Shulk could Back Slash backstab Officer Robusto for 13,473 at his leisure.  The Monado had to be used defensively when a vision revealed a 4412 Big Combo VI, just in time for Shield.  A Shadow Eye + Air Slash finished off Officer Robusto shortly after a Genome Break failed to make Shulk doze off.


Level 72 Active Impulso was so cruel, Shulk had to use the +6 level trick to win.  This loadout helped:


Monado III (Double Attack V, Double Attack V, Double Attack IV)
Hierax Cap (Arts Seal Resist V)
Lancelot Armour (Poison Defence V)
Lancelot Gauntlets (Poison Defence V)
Hierax Bottoms (Arts Seal Resist V)
Lancelot Boots (Arts Seal Resist V)


Poison Resist is underwhelming as a gem.  Two level Vs only give 43% Poison Defence?!  This was intended to block Vile Fungus, as Active Impulso was a relative of the common Largo Selua.


Auto-attacks from Active Impulso's tentacle vs. Level 77 Shulk slapped him for 1058 each.  This forced him to cast Speed at the cost of other Monado Arts.  Nutrient Absorb V, if not stopped, dropped Shulk's HP to 1.  Now you know why he needed evasion from overleveling!


Active Impulso was vulnerable to Break + Topple, so Cyclone and Back Slash backstab for 11,576 appeared.  One tactic that I hadn't considered before was viable due to the leveling trick.  If Shulk kept his HP at around the halfway mark, he could see Nutrient Absorb V coming instead of being blindsided.  Xenoblade solos force you to think creatively, at least for Shulk.  A Dunban solo would involve an extra variant popular among Realms Beyond players, since has a passive Skill that benefits from it. . .


Level 76 Ghostly Mahatos had a corporeal form and played fair unlike its comrades.  Ether Bullet shot for 561 against Level 81 Shulk.  He tried preemptive Shield to block Ether Cannon VII, but its 1840s damage was milder than its Roman numeral hinted at.  Speed was better most of the time, since it dodged common 650 auto-attacks.  Shield blocked a 2358 power Channel V foreseen in a vision once, and an Ether Cannon VII at the end of the battle.  One possible mistake in the Xenoblade wiki suggested Ghostly Mahatos would use an Art called Super Aura to regenerate HP once below 50%, but it never happened in my fight.  What gives?


And that's the end of Xenoblade updates for the day.  Tomorrow, Shulk should at least fight the Bionis' Interior bosses, and maybe move on to Prison Island's revisit.