Xenoblade Chronicles 2

The element combo'ing is new but the base combat system and the skill upgrades and affinity chart is also similar

XC and XCX both had gear instead of just weapons but they all share a lot in common. I really liked the XCX combat style and flow at the end of the game but it was rough at the beginning

Theme and music-wise this one reminds me a lot of Xenoblade Chronicles, there are a lot of shared monsters and wording. Ive thought the music in all of them was above average


On a side note, the boy has started XC2 on his own switch profile, hes incredibly lucky with pulling rare blades from common cores. Hes about 20 hours behind me and has more rare blades from common cores than I do from rare cores

Patch coming on Dec. 21:

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Update Will Make Tiger! Tiger! Easier And Improve Maps - Siliconera

Expansion Pass owners will also receive a bundle of support items on this day. They will get five Jenerossi Teas (that Pyra loves), five Ardainian Bear Carvings (that Nia loves), 30,000 Ether for Poppi upgrading, 10 Rare Core Crystals, one Legendary Core Crystals, and three Overdrive Protocols that allow you to swap a Blade between Drivers

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Gotten 3 rare core crystals and no legendary in around 25 hours, so that seems huge. Also an increase of 29730ish ether compared to what I have gotten so far.

Not even thought about paid dlc for this game. Are there already dlc/microtransactions for items like core crystals?

That said, in game question. In chapter 3, after you get to the first village and the first quest in that you travel up into a cave network (level 20-23ish with the flowers). When you go up a bit, there is a little water area with a path down where you slide to the bottom close to the entrance to the village again. When you exit that slide, it is right next to a little elevated area where you see a chest on top if it. Is there any way to get to that? I've taken that slide a few times now and try to jump just as you exit, but I just slide and fall down. Is jumping the way to get to that, or is there a jump node (poppy skill) somewhere that gives access to it?

Question 2 is: Should I just use core crystals as I get them, or wait until I get luck built up? I've gotten one rare Driver so far and got that on Nia (big round healer robot thing). Also wondering if they all can get the same Drivers or if they are one shot, so I won't get the rare healer I got for Nia on anyone else? I figured that maybe they all can get the common ones, but rares and above are tied to characters meaning that rare I got for Nia would only ever spawn for her.

Question 3: Is the bottom left driver Kosmos from Xenosaga? It looks like it from the blacked out shadow.

Utnayan said:

On question 1. You have to time the jump. Jump about a second before you reach the end of the slide. Also, fast travel back up obviously.

Question 2: Higher luck definitely helps and a lot of folks are saying to wait until your luck is up either through items and/or affinity. What I am going to do next is equipment swap luck accessories in when I ooen them, then when I’m done, replace said equipment with what I had before.

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The last part I already do. Have one luck accessory with +21 and have always swapped that between the characters when using cores. Will try jumping more then. I always tried just before the opening, but probably too late then. Thanks!

Man I got start this tonight and I forgot how boring the opening bits of a JRPG can be. WTF I should have gotten Mario or Zelda kept coming up in my head that whole time. After getting past the first chapter I am bit more intrigued. Lots and lots of cut scenes though.

eventually you will want "rare blades" (the named ones with unique looks and abilities) as your secondary blades, so I wouldn't worry too much early on. Pay attention to the role of the blade you have as your secondary (tank, healer, attacker) as that will affect your drivers stats and damage. Pair up Nia with a healer second blade and pair up Rex with an attack second blade and let Tora tank. You can run some hybrid stuff later on, but going with the holy trinity of Tank / Healer / Attack for any of the story fights makes them so much easier since healing is more of a passive thing and the damage a non-tank takes scales up really really fast.

yes it takes forever to level up the "WP" weapon skill points, but keep in mind you are leveling the type of weapon your blade has and not just that blades weapon skills. So when you level up the 2 handed sword with Pyra on Rex, any other blades you happen to get in the story that use a 2-handed sword with Rex you will also keep those leveled up skills. Its more weapon type proficiency that you are leveling with the WP and not the individual weapon that Pyra has.

The story gets much better but the titties continue to be ridiculous, its typical of the JRPG style, they must really dig that kinda stuff cause every female is rocking gravity-defying teets that would cause her to fall over or knock herself out when she runs.

3 other quick tips for increasing damage or suitability :

always remember to upgrade blade chips when you get to a new town, thats one of the easiest damage upgrades.

When you see the little box on the right side for an "affinity upgrade" with a blades face in the background, make sure you press "+" and go to that blades affinity web and let it unlock, those are nice damage upgrades that work passively

lastly, keep an eye on your accessory gear slots, trash mobs drop upgrades there and they can really help early on give you an extra 200-400hp or boost healing / damage.

Another tip: if you haven't been, salvage. You make stupid amounts of money when you 5 star a region, like easily millions of gold in a mater of an hour or two. It's also the best way to 5 star every region, just use the silver cylinders when you start than upgrade to the gold ones when you get to 4 stars. Oh, make sure to equip any blade that has salvage mastery as a skill, it helps.

Yeah the skeevy levels of this game are through the roof and it's kind of embarrassing when my daughter says they need to wear clothes. I love the actual gameplay systems. The battle system is a ton of fun and all the various leveling and power systems show a bunch of promise but dammit if I don't actually play for a few minutes in between what seems like an hour of cut scenes.

Mix it up with some sidequests or run around and explore the world a bit, can find some interesting things.

Derkon said:

Mix it up with some sidequests or run around and explore the world a bit, can find some interesting things.

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I haven't got far enough yet. I am looking for Nia who got caught. I know it will eventually. I just forgot how story heavy JRPGs actually are lol. I was a huge fan in the 90s but haven't played one outside of final fantasy in a long time