Xenoblade

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 10:  Chapter 7 Middle


Level 33 Agile Albatro was another standard bird-type unique monster, but it was part of a Frontier Village quest so Shulk had to kill it.  Agile Albatro Regenerated small amounts of HP with Winged Cure, but the real dangers were the Ether Arts of Tornado Spin and Wing Smite.  Tornado Spin also had the unfortunate side effect of Toppling Shulk during a failed Level 36 attempt.  And Skewer could make Shulk Bleed his HP away if he didn't dodge it with Speed.  Success only came with a Shaker Edge finisher at Level 38.


Level 37 Breezy Zolos was the first unique monster to come with a Spike aura in this challenge.  Every time Shulk swung his sword at the beast, he took 250 damage.  No small amount for a character with 3138 HP at Level 37. Shulk is always frailer than Reyn and Riki.  Are Nopon distant relatives of the Chansey family of Pokemon?


Only Purge nullified the Spike aura, and only for a short time.  And reapplying Purge meant Shulk had no time to cast Speed to avoid Physical Arts like Swing Cut and the Bleed-inducing Bloody Head Charge.  Monolith Soft threw in a Level 98 Deinos Sauros to patrol its area.  Shulk would have saved a lot of trouble if he sent that T-rex at Zanza!


Attempts from Levels 37-42 failed, at least until I tried out-of-depth equipment.  But the most satisfying victory came from out-of-depth gems rather than armor.  The setup looked like this:


Monado III (Strength Down III, Bleed Attack V, Bleed Attack V)
Forest Cap (Bleed Defence III)
Twin Tree Vest (Spike Defence VI)
Makna Gloves (Spike Defence V)
Twin Tree Trousers (Bleed Defence III)
Mist Sandals (Bleed Defence III)


Spike Defence gems are based on percentage rather than a fixed number, so Shulk became immune to all Spike auras.  After that win, it was time to stop playing for the day.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 11:  Chapter 7 End


This is a short update for Realms Beyond, but part of that session was spent doing quests that are of no interest to Realms Beyond.


Boro and the anonymous readers WOULD be interested, however, in the battle against the Level 36 Leone Telethia blocking the path to Chapter 8.  Shulk died multiple times, mostly from circumstances out of his control.  Speed was useless except for rarely dodging Sleep Spin.  Sleep Bullet was Ether type, and the only way he had to deal with that was to equip a Sleep Resist III gem.  One Sleep Bullet was confirmed to be Resisted during the successful attempt.  (Maybe most Sleep Resist gems are tied to quests or rebuilding Colony 6?)  When Leone Telethia was sadistic during a failed attempt, it drained Shulk's Monado with Talent Absorb to prevent Purge, then immediately cast Soul Read to dodge his attacks.


Pre-emptive Purge was sometimes used throughout the attempts.  Shield blocked Channel I and Ether Cannon II if foreseen in visions, but visions only appear if you're below a certain HP threshold.  Shulk learned that by changing to Channel I without warning.


Light Heal was Shulk's best friend as always.  Air Slash and Back Slash were more common than in other battles since he sometimes conserved his Monado cooldown for Purge, and had some downtime.  Stream Edge helped with Monado recharging as always.  An Air Slash finished off the boss when our hero had only 11 HP left out of 3077 (!).  Light Heal was on cooldown at the time.


Shulk's loadout at Level 36 was the same as before, just with this change:


Monado III (Strength Down III, Bleed Attack V, Bleed Attack V)
Forest Cap (Bleed Defence III)
Twin Tree Vest (Spike Defence VI)
Makna Gloves (Spike Defence V)
Twin Tree Trousers (Sleep Resist III)
Mist Sandals (Bleed Defence III)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 12:  Chapter 8 Beginning


Chapter 8's first unique monster was a Level 36 Turbulent Belmo.  This generic-looking bird had some tricks to make it a difficult opponent.  Twin Attack hit twice and had a Poison chance, but at least that was Physical and eligible for Speed evasion.  Poison Breath was Ether and unavoidable.  Piercing Breath disabled Shulk's defensive stats, making him even more reliant on dodging attacks.  Winged Awakening temporarily increased Turbulent Belmo's level.


Shulk had to experiment with several gem loadouts.  One try with multiple Muscle Ups for Physical Def didn't work, but this was successful at Level 38 after one final Air Slash averted a Poison Breath vision:


Monado III (Strength Down III, Bleed Attack V, Bleed Attack V)
Forest Cap (Bleed Defence III)
Twin Tree Vest (Recovery Up V)
Makna Gloves (Agility Up IV)
Twin Tree Trousers (Agility Up IV)
Mist Sandals (Agility Up II)


Agility Up was there for evasion, while Recovery Up increased Light Heal's effectiveness.  This setup became obsolete after Shulk visited Alcamoth and started wearing the local armor:


Monado III (Strength Down III, Bleed Attack V, Bleed Attack V)
Forest Cap (Bleed Defence III)
Sky Top (Recovery Up V)
Sky Gloves (Agility Up IV)
Sky Bottoms (Agility Up IV)
Sky Shoes (Agility Up II)


Always make sure your armor has gem slots, at least if you're doing a New Game Plus "challenge" like this.  Some gem-less equipment sold in shops has superior Physical Def or Ether Def, but you'll be missing out on ailment resistances, stat boosts, and other bonuses.


A mandatory encounter with 4 Level 36 Defensive Kromars was considered part of the variant, since they were as tough as any boss.  Shulk stood no chance of victory when trying to match their level, so he won at 46 instead.  Defensive Kromars cast Foot Trap, an Ether spell that dealt damage and caused Bind.  Beastman Curse set up Arts Seal to prevent Light Heal for some time.  Speed was pointless under such conditions, but Cyclone hit multiple enemies at once.  Non Monado Arts like Back Slash, Slit Edge, and Air Slash cut through their HP when Shulk didn't need to worry about speeding up the Monado cooldown with auto-attacks.


Wonder how Shulk will deal with those High Entia assassins who are so resistant to Physical attacks?  Maybe those Bleed Attack gems will come in handy. . .

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 13:  Chapter 8 End


As Shulk learned to his relief, the Level 32-35 High Entia assassins in Alcamoth were NOT resistant to Physical attacks.  Instead, they took advantage of the Monado being "shackled" until Chapter 9 in the original playthrough.  In New Game Plus, the Monado III had no such restrictions and could kill them like any other enemy.


Shulk still needed to be Level 37 to win.  He fared poorly against groups of enemies in general, and those organized enough to use Chains in particular.  Cyclone at only Art level IV was still good enough to hurt multiple High Entia at once and Topple them if Stream Edge inflicted Break.  Back Slash, Air Slash, and Slit Edge hacked away their health bars.  



Next came Orluga Rufus at Level 36 in the High Entia Tomb.  This was a slow (non-Mechon) robot that sometimes used Physical techniques like Big Spin and the Topple-inducing Hard Push.  Speed dodged those when necessary.  R Laser ended at least one attempt when its Arts Seal side effect blocked Light Heal.  Shulk got even with this setup, still at Level 36:


Monado III (Ether Down V, Bleed Attack V, Bleed Attack V)
Forest Cap (Bleed Defence III)
Sky Top (Recovery Up V)
Sky Gloves (Arts Seal Resist V)
Sky Bottoms (Arts Seal Resist V)
Sky Shoes (Arts Seal Resist V)


Reddit users may mock Shulk and Reyn for enjoying gem crafting too much, but it really is useful for these variants when you can nullify ailments.  During the successful attempt, I must have acquired Shulk's vision ability in real life, since I cast Speed just before an unpredicted Hard Push.    


Chapter 8's final boss encounter was with Level 38 Tyrea and her Level 38 Solidum Telethia pet.  Solidum Telethia acted as the "tank", just like Reyn or Riki for the player.  Solidum Telethia played its role by casting Attention Seek to force Shulk to "Lock-On" to it, preventing him from focusing on Tyrea.  Soul Read evasion had to be removed with Purge, though it didn't seem to appear as often.  Delta Cannon, Ether Storm, and Ether Laser II dealt Ether damage as expected.


Tyrea merited the use of Speed for much of the battle, since she Toppled Shulk with Spiral Kick and threatened to kill with a Flying Bee follow-up.  Guilty Bomb III froze Shulk in place with Bind.  Tyrea also buffed her companion with Physical Protect from Telepathic Command.  Energy Drain decreased Shulk's Monado Bar.


To survive this brawl, Shulk needed to be Level 43 and have the following loadout:


Monado III (Double Attack V, Double Attack V, Double Attack IV)
Forest Cap (Bleed Defence III)
Sky Top (Recovery Up V)
Sky Gloves (Arts Seal Resist V)
Sky Bottoms (Arts Seal Resist V)
Sky Shoes (Arts Seal Resist V)


Each Double Attack gem increased the chances of well, Double Attack.  Just as I had suspected, if auto-attack hit twice, the Monado cooldown refilled twice.  Buster and non-Monado Arts finished off Solidum Telethia, but Tyrea's Toppling made her difficult even without her partner.  Shaker Edge knocked her out after a "combo" of non-Monado Arts like Air Slash.


So ends Chapter 8.  It seems half of Chapter 9 is walking out of Alcamoth!  (That city is way too big, and many Xenoblade players despise its sidequests in particular.)  Shulk will fight on Prison Island in the next updates.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 13:  Chapter 9



Before teleporting to Prison Island, Shulk had to activate a couple of switches.  A Level 40 Subterranean Zomar lizard stood in the way of the 1st, and our hero only won at 45.  Its Shield Crash Dazed Shulk, and Swift Stance boosted the miniboss's auto-attack rate.  Speed was the general Monado Art, but Cyclone Toppled it since it wasn't immune to Break from Stream Edge/Air Slash.  Shulk even managed to get the side attack Slow bonus from Air Slash and Physical Def drop from Slit Edge once.



The 2nd switch was tougher than the 1st.  A gang of Level 35 [insert meaningless word] Hodes, Level 38 Tocos Orlugas, and a Level 40 Pelargos Ekidno challenged Shulk one after the other without much chance to rest.  To get past Tocos Orluga Topple attacks, Shulk had this loadout at Level 40:


Monado III (Double Attack V, Double Attack V, Double Attack IV)
Forest Cap (Bleed Defence III)
Sky Top (Recovery Up V)
Sky Gloves (Topple Resist V)
Sky Bottoms (Topple Resist V)
Sky Shoes (Agility Up V)


Pelargos Ekidno was formidable even by itself due to its Poison Breath.  Gore dealt significant Physical damage near the end, but it was too late for the pterodactyl (?) to avoid a Buster.


I had forgotten completely about the Level 40 Skyray, but Shulk was still at Level 40 at the time and ready for the fight.  It loved to debuff Shulk's offensive stats with Darkness Breath and nullify his defenses with Murmur of Darkness.  Speed allowed Shulk to ignore the Physical Def drop when active, and also avoid Tail Smash and Tripping Rush.  Tripping Rush would have Toppled Shulk if not for his gems.  Tail Smash Dazed him at least once when Speed expired, and there was nothing the solo character could do when Ether Meteor II pummeled him for major damage and Daze.  Still, Shulk managed to win on the 1st try, and even used Buster once.


Metal Face aka Mumkhar was the last Chapter 9 boss at Level 42.  It was tempting to try Buster for the Mechon damage bonus, but Speed was vital for safety against auto-attacks and Physical Arts like Last Resort and Killing Claw.  Grand Shot Dazed Shulk when fired, and so did Last Resort if it connected.  Shulk survived one of the latter with only 65/3428 HP and cast Light Heal just in time (!).


Once Metal Face lost most of his health bar, he left and so Chapter 10 began.  This opened up the Mystery of Makna Ruins quest sequence needed to unlock Monado Eater at last.


EDIT:  Never mind the Daze.  The real challenge during the Metal Face battle was having to hear "THINK THAT'S CLEVER, DO YOU?" every few seconds.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 14:  Chapter 10 Beginning


This session was played before starting the Baldur's Gate solo.  I'll still come back to Xenoblade on occasion, hopefully.  Monado Eater is NOT worth the trouble it takes to unlock.  You have to do far too many Frontier Village quests to raise its Affinity to ***.  And Shulk will not have the AP to spare to upgrade it to a usable level.  What he DOES want is Monado Armour, which is easier to obtain and comes later.  I'll probably rush through the next couple of chapters without stopping to do sidequests or fight every unique monster.


Mystery of Makna Ruins II had a Level 46 Brutal Gravar lizard as a miniboss.  Its dual-wield sword techniques were fast and its Combo hit 3 times.  Smash hit for 4900 in a vision, enough to overkill Level 51 Shulk with HP to spare. These were Physical attacks that called for Speed evasion.  Beastman Curse turned off Shulk's non-Monado Arts.  Several failed attempts with in depth equipment led Shulk to switch to Intuition for the 15 Agility.  And once it was clear he would still lose, he broke out the out of depth armor:


Monado III (Double Attack V, Double Attack V, Double Attack IV)
Rafaga Gear (Arts Seal Resist IV)
Agrius Plate (Physical Protect VI) 
Agrius Arms (Buff Time Plus IV)
Retrieved Leggings (Arts Seal Resist VResist V)
Lancelot Boots (Arts Seal Resist V)



Is Rafaga Gear named after the Spanish word for "flash", "la ráfaga"?  Even with all the advantages, it was still a tense fight.  Shulk needed to Purge away The King's Roar which granted Brutal Gravar Haste and Strength Up.


Forgot to remove the out of depth armor when battling a Level 39 Tempestuous Edegia.  Oops!  It mostly seemed to attack with the Ether type Electric Rush.  Shulk frequently MISSed since he spent much of the fight at low Tension.  There's not much he can do about low Tension, or prevent his otherwise inactive party members from Encouraging him out of a Topple from Tripping Rush.  Aggro is probably directed the most at the Leader character since it's Game Over if they lose.


Valak Mountain was another area that was far too big to justify programming.  Navigating the Xenoblade world is mostly running around, with occasional climbing in specific locations.  It's not like Breath of the Wild where there's much more variety in both activities and methods of navigation.  The comparison is apt since Monolith Soft worked on both games.  If you think I'm exaggerating about how empty Xenoblade can be in proportion to its size, consider that the game has an "auto-run" button to avoid too much strain on the joystick.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 14:  Chapter 10 End


Throughout this section, Shulk wore the in depth Jail Cap, Jail Top, Jail Gloves, Jail Bottoms, and Jail Shoes for their gem slots.  After jumping around ice tubes and dying a few times to fall damage, Shulk discovered there was some "platforming" in Xenoblade.  At the end, he landed in a Level 47 Barbaric Sitri's spider nest.  He was Level 80 at the time to avoid normal encounters, but Barbaric Sitri rude for not allowing him a chance to pause and set up Expert Mode de-leveling.


Even at Level 80, Barbaric Sitri managed to put up a fight.  One reason for this was Devour, which drained 1458 HP from Shulk's total of 4861.  Light Heal was able to recover that back, but Shulk often MISSed due to his low Tension.  Tension seems to override other attack accuracy modifiers, even the "greater than or equal to 6 level advantage".  Dive Impact III was a Talent Art that hit for 1414, and Shulk had no way of restoring his Monado cooldown to use Shield if his auto-attacks kept missing.  With a B button action command, Shulk pulled himself out of Daze and went on to squash Barbaric Sitri with the help of Buster.



Level 45 Conflagrant Raxeal in a lava cave was a rare mandatory unique enemy.  The fish didn't play fairly and had several "elemental" enemies in its lair that had the combination of passive Spike damage and Lock-On to draw Shulk's aggression towards them instead of the miniboss.  Thunderbolt II gave Shulk some Ether shocking, and Boiling Wave's Blaze side effect burned him for gradual damage much like a Pokemon.  Speed dodged auto-attacks and Vortex, however, so it was worth keeping up.  Shulk won after gaining levels thanks to more HP and weaker Blaze "damage ticks":  126 at Level 45, vs 86 at Level 50.



Mumkhar at Level 48 was more challenging than his Metal Face mech.  He gashed Shulk twice per auto-attack, and Light Heal couldn't keep up with the injuries.  Speed increased evasion, but didn't guarantee every Physical attack would MISS.  Eagle Slice and Eagle Triple Blade were his preferred methods of offense, though he supplemented them with Blaze singing from Fiery Pain IV. 


To win, Shulk needed a special configuration at Level 53.  He switched his Skill tree to Integrity to get the 15% Block Rate in order to halve Physical damage, and equipped the following gems:


Monado III (Double Attack V, Double Attack V, Double Attack IV)
Jail Cap (Agility Up IV)
Jail Top (Agility Up IV)
Jail Gloves (Agility Up III)
Jail Bottoms (Topple Resist V)
Jail Shoes (Topple Resist V)


With the added dodge rate from the gems, Shulk could forgo Speed for Cyclone.  Mumkhar resisted  Break status, but was not immune to it.  Stream Edge + Cyclone + Shaker Edge + Back Slash backstab made for a fast and fun combo that Toppled and Dazed Mumkhar.


So ends Chapter 10.  Chapter 11 has Sword Valley and Galahad Fortress, locations that can't be revisited after a certain point afterwards.  So I may spend some time fighting unique enemies there.  Shulk's still getting most of his New Game Plus AP from discovering locations, and he's saving all of it for Monado Armour.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 15:  Chapter 11 Bankruptcy--For Mumkhar


Shulk's loadout changed little in Sword Valley, except for adding a few "Brave" items to his armor:


Monado III (Double Attack V, Double Attack V, Double Attack IV)
Brave Cap (Agility Up IV)
Jail Top (Agility Up IV)
Brave Gloves (Agility Up III)
Jail Bottoms (Topple Resist V)
Brave Shoes (Topple Resist V)



Level 49 Prudent Purson was the first unique Mechon here, and was mandatory to the story in a "Surprise Quest".  It was an exclusively Physical fighter with Break Screw, Hard Attack, and a Side Swing that would have Toppled Shulk if he didn't have the gems to resist it.  Speed was essential to winning at Level 54.  Using Cyclone + Shaker Edge to Topple and Daze Prudent Purson at Level 49 was hubris, as Shulk learned after the robot ground him up with fast auto-attacks.



Level 50 Tranquil Morax was the next required unique enemy, and Shulk entered the arena at Level 55.  It fought similarly to Prudent Purson with mostly Physical Arts that Shulk dodged with Speed.  One trick distinguished it from other Mechon:  Over Eater VI, which lowered Shulk's maximum HP from 4065 to 2032 for a while.  Shield blocked it, but visions were unreliable.  One problem that appears when battling an enemy at a lower level is that you often don't get below the HP threshold required to see Talent Arts coming.



Chapter 11's true boss was Level 52 Mumkhar in his Metal Face mech and two Level 48 Mass-Produced Faces.  Buster cleaved the Mass-Produced Faces, while Speed dodged Physical damage.  Custom Dead Way fired often for unblockable Ether type damage, but it was mild.  What killed Shulk on the first attempt was Hell Talon Venom IV, a Poison attack that was NOT foreseen in a vision.


Shulk could have equipped Poison Defence gems and tried again at Level 52 like a good solo challenge, but I was sick of playing at that point and decided to grow to Level 57 and split Mumkhar in half with 20,387 power Busters.  It's still within the 5 level difference, so it's still legal.  *Shifts eyes* If Monado Armour lives up to the hype, it'll be a far less honorable tactic.  

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Xenoblade Chronicles BONUS 16:  Chapters 11-13, Featuring Monado Armour


There were still a few unique Mechon in Galahad Fortress, and since that area would eventually be destroyed, Shulk had to fight them now if he wanted to do so at all.  Level 52 Glacier Acon had some nasty Arts for a solo run.  Ether Chaff decreased both Physical and Ether Def.  This dual debuff hinted at "magical" damage to come, and it did in the form of Bolt Screw and Atomic Glow IV.  Atomic Glow IV didn't turn Shulk green, but instead afflicted him with heavy Blaze damage that ended any hopes of a Level 52 victory. 


Even at 57, Glacier Acon was still hard because Shulk never saw that move coming in a vision.  Speed was the preferred Monado Art to dodge Drill Screw, Side Swing, and auto-attacks.


Shulk challenged Level 55 Glorious Jurom at Level 60 to be safe.  It wasn't as cruel as Glacier Acon because it stuck to Physical type Arts for the most part.  Upper Chainsaw II was an unforeseen Talent Art, however.  The usual Speed tactics won this battle.


A battle vs. Nemesis Face and assorted Mechon (e.g. Defensive Guard Unit, M94 Guard Unit) was difficult enough that Shulk could only win at Level 58.  Any more and he would have had to use the "6 level above" exploit.  These were tricky because they had access to numerous status ailments, like Bind, Paralysis from Lightning Ball, Blaze, and Lock-On.  I may not have mentioned Paralysis before, but it lowers the auto-attack rate, and by extension increases Monado cooldown time.  Buster's anti-Mechon damage multiplier and line targeting made the battle more survivable.  Turning Mechon into scrap metal was a better defense than trying to dodge with Speed when so many attacks were Ether based anyway.


Level 60 Gold Face was a cutscene battle, but Shulk at Level 58 still had to hold out long enough for it to count as a victory.  You'd be surprised to learn that Egil could somehow disable the Monado III's cooldown with his Apocrypha technology.  Even though the Monado III was NOT made by Zanza.  Light Heal was still good enough to outlast Gold Face's attacks, especially since Shulk had equipped Humanity to increase his Ether a while ago.


Mechon Fiora is treated as a different character in the code, since her level "floor" is 40 in Expert Mode.  Fiora at the beginning of the game had a 13 cap based on my save file, assuming I'm not mistaken.  Chapter 12 is irrelevant from a Realms Beyond variant perspective, since it's about Shulk reuniting with Fiora and discovering the Machina people.  The battles that exist here are trivial.


Chapter 13, however, is another "gameplay" segment.  Shulk completed a few sidequests for the Machina and was rewarded with the ultimate Monado Art:  Armour.  Monado Armour uses the entire cooldown bar to decrease Physical and Ether damage by a percentage based on how much it's been upgraded with AP.  The minimum percentage is 30, and with all the AP I had saved, I increased  it to level VII for 60%.  If you can raise Armour to X, 75% of enemy damage disappears.  Armour lasts for 15 seconds, and spreads over the whole party if you care about non-variant playthroughs. 


For comparison, Speed lasts for 12.5 seconds at level X, affects a single character, and only works on dodging Physical attacks.  And I did NOT have Speed at X when fighting all those bosses and unique enemies.  


Neither Speed nor Armour stop Talent Arts, so Shield will still see some use if Shulk bothers to use his vision powers again.


Double Attack gems will probably remain on the Monado III for the rest of the game to speed up the cooldown bar for Armour.

[Boro]

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