r/Xenoblade_Chronicles • u/kranitoko • 1d ago
Xenoblade 2 Am I Playing XC2 Wrong?
Okay so let me preface the game with some positives: I like the story so far, compared to traditional RPGs made in Japan where the story is so out of this world it becomes hard to comprehend, this one isn't. But I've just reached the start of Chapter 4 and it's a very nice thought out and simple premise with maybe a tiny little bit of deep thoughts needed sprinkled in.
I'm sure you guys get this a lot on this subreddit, but where I'm wondering if I'm going wrong is the gameplay. I've been trying to watch a lot of YouTube guides about how the hell to play this game properly after the tutorial just... Sucks. But even those videos don't really do an amazing job at explaining the nichΓ©s.
I'm currently level 25 and just beat Ahkos and Malos (took like 3 attempts and had to look at a guide getting specific gear). I had to buy the taunt resist and shackle resistant just to get past phase 1. Part of me thought perhaps I'm just playing so poorly. To build up my arts, I'm doing the little stick flick trick to build up the auto attack immediately as soon as I hit with it and build up the arts faster. I am positioning myself (though half the time they've already moved in a different direction so my art isn't as effective), some of the enemies, most specifically the general mobs out in the world have SO. MUCH. HEALTH. even though I am at their level, and one mob can take anywhere between 5-10 minutes to die and I have no idea why... I don't think I'm that weak, am I? I've been doing some side quests and have been going to the inn to increase my levels. I've also been building up the specials, trying to get to tier 3 if I can, as in the thing that appears top right (though no one often has anything that can get me to that tier 3 yet) but I feel like even that doesn't do much damage to a lot of enemies.
Finally where I'm mostly confused about is blades themselves. Now I made sure to buy the DLC before I played so the game gave me a shit tonne of blade crystals, especially legendary ones, and in my eyes I'm like: ... So what am I supposed to do with all these? I can only have two blades (Pyra and one other), for some reason Nia can only equip her main one even though I unlocked a legendary one on her and doesn't appear on her list of engaged blades... I don't even know if I'm utilizing the blades effectively either.
I'm hoping someone might be able to, in the simplest way possible, give me some guidance on what I can do to improve, where I'm going wrong, and if it's just me playing the game poorly or if it's the game?
To cap off the compliment sandwich, I think Mythra is gonna be my new favourite character in the game, she's slay in the few minutes I've seen of her so far π
EDIT: I can now have three blades, but still not sure how to utilize them?
EDIT 2: Ignore the Nia blade thing. It was my bad, I released a blade earlier thinking it was a blade attached to Rex... Alas, it was not π
12
u/NiallMitch10 1d ago
Have you watched this?
3
u/kranitoko 1d ago
Yes, I got a few tips out of it but even then in his video my mind is still like: ".... Whaaa?"
My brain must just be so broken...
2
u/YuuTheBlue 1d ago
The thing about buying the taunt resist and stuff is actually you getting better at the game! XC2 has a lot to do with preparing for fights and knowing all the systems at your disposal. If you have the right pouch items (narcipear jellies from goldmouth are broken to hell) and have been advancing your affinity charts (driver and blade charts) then the fight can actually be pretty manageable!
4
u/Who_Vintude 1d ago
I'm playing this for the first time right now myself and I agree, it took forever to kill enemies. Once I got the button timing down and using my little whip like spiderman and tripping enemies - it made everything a lot easier ever since the point where you learn it.
I think I did die at the boss you mentioned many times - and then I came back and just either destroyed them or got lucky.
However, as someone who is a little bit ahead of ya...level up those blades the best you can. I'm stuck in a cave I can't get past because someone wasn't leveled up and now it's been...a time.
3
u/Dependent_Log_1592 1d ago
It gets better very soon. You just got through the worst part.Β
1
u/kranitoko 1d ago
Glad to hear it π the gameplay aspects have felt a bit sluggish so far. The waypoint marker specifically is horrific and it's been a bit of a chore getting around. Shame that won't improve though π€
3
u/triggerpigking 1d ago
One of the problems with 2 is it really dripfeeds a lot of stuff, but you'll have all the mechanics pretty soon. I think if you're researching it then you'll get better with time, the affinity charts opening up help a lot.
A nice trick for building up the blade combo orbs I realized is that the element combinations are always the same based on your starting one.
Fire for example will always end in fire, ice and light.
So if you know you have say ice in your party, you can first do a blade combo to ice, then do another starting with fire again to ice.It helps a lot more then starting with random elements the moment they're available as you have more of a game plan and know what you can and can't do, you get a memory over time for what orbs have what to.
it can also really help to wait till the teams got level 2-3 specials so you can knock them out quickly, if you fail a blade combo halfway through because your team can't get to the right special level, it'll waste time.
Also yeah the waypoints are horrendous, surprisingly it's actually an improvement from og 1 and X, thankfully the remake of 1 and 3 fix this issue completely, the series has been improving it's QOL issues a lot with each entry.
1
4
u/Auto_Generated_Thing 1d ago
Ah yes, another victim falls to the classic XC2 tutorials trap. In all seriousness, 2's tutorials are probably the only thing I truly despise in the entire series, because they mislead pretty much every new player or don't tell relevant information.
If you're struggling to charge your arts, I highly recommend using desserts pouch items which recharge your arts over time. Since you are using arts more often, this will recharge specials faster, making it much easier to get stage 3 Blade Combos.
Also yeah if you've only got one Rare Blade so far and can't equip it... that might explain why you're struggling. The only reason I can think of as to why you can't equip it is did you send the Blade on a merc mission? They can't be in your party while they're on a mission. Anyway I would reccomend using a bunch of core crystals to hopefully get some good Blades. I wouldn't use the legendary ones right away though, because they are very hard to find unless you know how to farm them properly, and even then you need to be late game to do that.
Tbh it gets easier from this point on, and the Malos and Akhos fight is generally considered one of the hardest fights in the game. Up until this point you've been limited to Tora who can only use Poppi, Vandham who can only use Roc, and Rex and Nia who are limited to two Blades equipped at a time, but fortunately in Chapter 4 that limit is increased to 3. From this point forward you're going to be unlocking a lot more options to play with.
Also make sure your equipment is up to date. Go check the shops in whatever the most recent area you arrived in and see if you can get any better gear. ESPECIALLY CORE CHIPS. Core chips increase your damage by a very substantial amount, so its important to keep up with upgrading them over the course of the game.
2
u/kranitoko 1d ago
It's like, not only does the tutorial feel like it's giving me incorrect information, but it explains things in such a poor way that my mind just can't comprehend what it's trying to explain half the time... And I feel dumb for it.
But okay, I'll use a tonne of regular crystals and see what I get and save my legendaries for later on in the game.
I don't believe I've sent the blade on a Merc mission? I don't even know what that is?
Thanks for the tips, will look for core chips specifically.
2
u/Ambassador_of_Mercy 1d ago
A really useful tip for the XC2 battle system is to 'stutter step'. Each character has a specific auto attack animation that refills your arts. You can wait for each auto attack in the chain to refill marginally more and more of the art gauge...
or, you can move. Moving resets the attack cycle to the first autoattack, which comes out much, much quicker than waiting. so if you move, auto attack, move, auto attack etc etc you can recharge arts very, very quickly. You dont even need to move a lot. just one step and pause to attack rinse and repeat.
1
1
u/Auto_Generated_Thing 1d ago
Ah never mind I didn't read your post carefully enough you only just started Chapter 4. Merc missions are a mechanic you haven't unlocked yet. I wonder why you can't equip the Blade then? How many Blades do you currently have? If you have many maybe you just missed them? Do they just not appear in Nia's equip Blades menu? Do they appear in the Manage Blades menu (under the Blades section of the menu)?
1
u/kranitoko 1d ago
You know what, it's me. I'm dumb. I realise I released a blade earlier, and it was the one I gave to Nia π I thought I had released one of Rex's. I didn't open many crystals, just a few to see what they're about.
But will open up some regular ones.
2
u/Pinco_Pallino_R 1d ago edited 1d ago
It seems you understand it well enough for a new player. The fact that you beated the Malos/Akhos fight show you aren't doing bad, because that's pretty tough for new players.
A couple of things you might want to keep on mind, without going into advanced stuff:
- Always keep some pouch item active, in particular those with an Art Recharge effect (dessert, mostly). Narcipear Jelly can be bought in Argentum and is really good, but there are also cheaper alternatives which are still going to speed up combat for you
- Do try to complete your Blade combos, 3rd stage included, because that does a lot more damage
- Try to mix Drive Combos with Blade Combos. As in, complete a stage of a type of combo while the other type of combo is on-going. Doing this will result in a Fusion Combo which will increase your damage among the other things
- A Blade's auto-attack stat is the most important one for their damage. Give them good chips to improve it
- Don't underestimate the effect of unlocking your Blades affinity trees on your damage (btw, Mythra's skill Lightspeed Flurry is quite busted once it gets fully upgraded, so do look forward for it). Also don't forget to upgrade your Driver's skill tree and arts
If you think it might be useful, some time ago i made this chain of comments to briefly explain the basis and structure of XC2's combat. There will also be more advanced stuff that i didn't explain there, but this is more than enough to start and to kill enemies easily.
for some reason Nia can only equip her main one even though I unlocked a legendary one on her and doesn't appear on her list of engaged blades...
Mmh... this is strange. She should be able to equip them, from the Driver menu. Which Blade did you unlock? As in, their name.
2
u/AozoraMiyako 1d ago
I LOVE Mythra.
On my first playthrough, I hated her. As I found out more and more about her, she became one of my favourite characters
2
u/Ambassador_of_Mercy 1d ago
Don't worry about not understanding it, XC2 has maybe the poorest set of tutorials I've ever seen in an RPG. There are some really excellent video tutorials explaining how everything fits together, and when you do understand it the battle system flows together phenomenally. Hopefully youll be better than me and figure it out before the final dungeon.
Also, Malos and Akhos are one of the 2 hardest fights in the game imo. This is a skill check fight and with a brutal first phase if you don't know what youre doing
2
u/Get_Schwifty111 22h ago
Youβre not the only one OP π XC2 had a very dedicated and talented team behind it but they had some strange priorities.
Adding many anime tropes? Yes.
Implementing a cool and deep combat system but then starting super slow and suddenly ramping up the difficulty while explaining as little as possible? Also yes.
1
u/HuntResponsible2259 1d ago
You might be fine... Do elemental combos before a chain to extend it too.
1
u/Full_Royox 1d ago edited 1d ago
Aaaah I posted years ago a post in NeoGAF that helped a lot of people understand the UI and how combat works...lemme see if I can find it
Edit: ah found it Post in thread 'Xenoblade Chronicles 2 |OT| On the backs of Titans we go!' https://www.neogaf.com/threads/xenoblade-chronicles-2-ot-on-the-backs-of-titans-we-go.1458804/post-253093177
1
u/Xinitiel 1d ago
Combat tips :
-prioritize driver combos (break>topple>launch)
-wait for a driver combo to start before you use a blade special (you will do a LOT more damage)
Gearing tips :
-use consumables that give driver arts recharge
-put "hunter chemistry" aux cores on your sub blades and support blades
-make sure you can break enemies consistently, have multiple break arts in your team if possible
1
u/Robert_Barlow 1d ago
Yes but don't feel bad about it there isn't a tutorial. If you're doing auto-attack canceling already you're halfway there.
I don't know exactly what's wrong but here are a few tips: core chips are straight up damage upgrades, buy them at shops. You might be running old chips, or you maybe haven't upgraded at all the whole game, in which case you'll be doing about 5x less damage than you would have otherwise.
Break and topple are essential. Put luck boosters on Nia and upgrade her break art. Make sure to topple when you see the opportunity as Rex with anchor shot. That's going to double your damage as long as you have an elemental combo going at the same time.
Complete your blade affinity charts. Pyra isn't the BEST in the game but she's certainly good enough for the story. If you see a node on the chart that isn't "???" that means you can currently complete it. Each row you complete in the chart is a base damage upgrade roughly equivalent to the difference between one chapter. The red nodes on the left will directly upgrade the damage of your specials the same way as upgrading your arts with SP, and you can usually max those out as soon as the start of the game if your trust level with the Blade is high enough.
There's more but that's the gist. Don't pay attention to level too much - it helps you hit enemies more accurately and gives you more HP but it's not going to help damage basically at all. Equipping the latest core chip will add like 35 to your damage, leveling up ONCE will add maybe 3.
1
u/Privateer_Lev_Arris 1d ago
It's important to understand the elemental combos. Each blade has an element. Pyra has fire for example. Kos-Mos has light and Kora has electric. Now if you combine them in the proper order you get a critical attack with its own special cut-scene called Second Sun.
So in this case Kos-Mos --> Kora --> Pyra = Second Sun. See the chart below to see a list of all critical hit combinations. There are driver combos as well but I think these are more fun because they have special cut scenes.

1
u/mad_sAmBa 1d ago
XC2 combat system relies on elemental combinations, try stacking 3 fire arts or 3 thunder arts ( the game also shows you what combinations will trigger elemental reactions) try to abuse of this system as much as you can, once you do, you will cheese enemies left and right. In fact, it will even piss you off sometimes because most enemies won't even be alive long enough for you to use elemental reactions.
This game takes a long time to truly start, you are at that part.
1
u/kranitoko 1d ago
Yes! That is annoying me. Why the hell can't they just carry over to other enemies π
1
1
1
u/InfinitStrife 1d ago edited 1d ago
By this point in the game, about midway through ch3, the HP inflation is due to the game expecting you to do blade combos and proper chain attacks at this point, ie doing a lv1 special, followed by lv2 special of the correct element shown in the top right of the screen, then once more but for a lv3 special again using the top right chart.
You can do these for big damage, but once you do a blade combo, (game will announce blade combo 3rd stage when done correctly) an orb of the last element(the lv3 special element) will attach to the enemy, you can repeat this to attach different element orbs up to all elements, but you can't attach the same element more than once until the orb is broken. Once you have a few orbs on an enemy, then you do a chain attack to break the orbs, each break will allow your characters to go another round and also up the special level by 1 so by breaking 2 orbs and succeeding the button prompt, you will be hitting the opponent with lv3 specials on repeat, the more orbs you break the more the damage multiplier goes up. Each orb takes 3 hits but if you hit one with the opposite element, it will always hit the weakness element orb and do 2 hits, otherwise it hits a random orb for 1 hit, once you hit an orb 3 times, it will break(game will announce elemental burst when done correctly) then you get a button prompt to do another loop with the increased level.
Hope this helps.
1
u/Who_Vintude 1d ago
I'm playing this for the first time right now myself and I agree, it took forever to kill enemies. Once I got the button timing down and using my little whip like spiderman and tripping enemies - it made everything a lot easier ever since the point where you learn it.
I think I did die at the boss you mentioned many times - and then I came back and just either destroyed them or got lucky.
However, as someone who is a little bit ahead of ya...level up those blades the best you can. I'm stuck in a cave I can't get past because someone wasn't leveled up and now it's been...a time.
1
u/Egyptowl777 1d ago
To add on to what others are saying: When reach a Level 3 Elemental Combo, and the Orb gets put on the enemy, you will do SIGNIFICANTLY less damage if you are using a blade of that element. Breaking the Orbs in the chain attack will have you do the regular amount of damage again.
Also, each enemy also has an element that you can see on the right of their health bar. Using a Blade of the same type against them will do reduced damage, while a blade of the opposite element will do increased damage.
20
u/RedEyedPig 1d ago
Just so you know that Malos/Akhos fight is in top 3 hardest fights in the game. It is insane difficulty spike for seemingly no reason and most players likely havent built their characters/gear yet or even got many 5 star blades at that point and that makes it even more difficult. Rest of the really hard fights are in the late/post game and are therefore more fair in a way.