[AlphaDragoon]

You wanna know what's annoying as all hell? Getting Advanced books for Summon Ice and Steel Strike. I've fought Moonlight Paimon/Vague Barbas and Wandering Amon like fifty billion times and come up goose eggs.

[InfiniDragon]

I usually don't have a problem with 7th picking up aggro off Dunban, and aside from monsters way over my level that character tanks well enough and dodges a most attacks anyway. I don't really choose between them, I use both. I'd probably go with Dunban if I was only using one, but it's pretty situational.

I only have issues with 7th yanking aggro if I'm playing 7th, which is the only time I'd be worried about them taking hits (because most of the time I'm Dunban). And I wholeheartedly agree with you on using both, those two along with Shulk = my group 99% of the time.

Because come on, you can't just separate a dude from his baby sister, gotta keep them together. XD

[chaosblade]

You wanna know what's annoying as all hell? Getting Advanced books for Summon Ice and Steel Strike. I've fought Moonlight Paimon/Vague Barbas and Wandering Amon like fifty billion times and come up goose eggs.

You can cheese it since the contents of a chest are randomized when you open it and not when it's dropped. Kill the enemy, save, then open the chest. Don't get what you want, just reload and try again. If they respawn on you, just kill them and save again, now you get two chests to try. Etc.

[AlphaDragoon]

You can cheese it since the contents of a chest are randomized when you open it and not when it's dropped. Kill the enemy, save, then open the chest. Don't get what you want, just reload and try again. If they respawn on you, just kill them and save again, now you get two chests to try. Etc.

Nice, didn't think about that. I'll try that next time I play.

[Starwolf_UK]

Final boss dead. Ended at level 75 (the morsels of EXP from the guardians pushed me over)

As for how it went. Following from last time
Second form is the hardest by far. Nearly won with Shulk, Dunban, 7th (the guardians had appeared and were just about dead, main boss must have been 40% health) but AOE attack wiped out party. The slowdown was bad for this fight.
So I whipped out the cheap party (Riki, Shulk, Sharla) and won with ease.
Third form is too easy, I switched back to my first party. Also I forgot to put any gems on Monado III :P Won with a Max chain Sword Drones II.
But going back. The third form is too easy. Half the health of the second one, the attacks are somewhat weaker and the guardians have a third of their health (so die before they can do anything useful...).

[chaosblade]

Same spoilers as all the other links I've had. And a sort-of-kind-of Colony 6 related spoiler.

This thing can rot in the depths of whatever Hell may or may not exist in Xenoblade. He was accurate, hard to hit, and since his attacks aren't really that strong (i.e., rarely 1KHOs), I often didn't get vision tags and he would take a big chunk of my health away, especially with some of his AoE attacks.

[Exeunt]

Advanced arts are a matter of gold chest enemies and uniques (as these always are Gold Chest) from Fallen Arm (also uniques in Valak and high level stuff in earlier areas) and persistence. Also looking up what they contain so you don't spend hours on an art that isn't there (Summon Wind was the only one I spent quite a bit on). I don't think it works as stronger enemies have better ones, they might have better drop rates though. It basically seems like everything above level so and so has 4. For the record, I did not bother grinding enemies for gold chest drops, I just made (almost) the most of the gold chests thrown at me.

I actually received two Art books from a regular enemy during my last session, but they weren't anything to write home about (as you might expect). I'm not really planning on grinding for Art books at this point but I might try to get some of the better ones for the characters I use frequently. Now that I've beaten the game, I might look up some of the unique drops in that spreadsheet I was linked to ages ago; the unique enemy names tend to be stuff like "Disgruntled Understudy" so I don't think anything too spoilery will appear.

You can cheese it since the contents of a chest are randomized when you open it and not when it's dropped. Kill the enemy, save, then open the chest. Don't get what you want, just reload and try again. If they respawn on you, just kill them and save again, now you get two chests to try. Etc.

I suspected there was some generation going on when the game noticeably loads when you open a treasure chest but I didn't know you could manipulate it like that. I suspect this will come in handy if I do decide to chase after some rare Art books.

Hill Fireflies were a PITA. If you have trouble finding them, go to the last landmark on Bionis Leg where it meets up with Colony 6, and get the blue orbs in the water at night. Got like 2-3 of them that way.

I picked up on the "collectibles are more common in certain spots under certain conditions" idea but had yet to find the best spawn points for the Hill Fireflies. Thanks for that; collectables don't seem to be too hard to find when you determine their spawn points, but it can be really tough to figure out where those are sometimes. I actually had a lot less trouble with them than I thought I would, but that might be a result of all that time spent exploring the maps and picking up everything along the way. I actually stumbled upon a random unique monster in the rain while searching for Fireflies, so I don't feel like I wasted too much time on them.

Final boss dead. Ended at level 75 (the morsels of EXP from the guardians pushed me over) As for how it went. Following from last time Second form is the hardest by far. Nearly won with Shulk, Dunban, 7th (the guardians had appeared and were just about dead, main boss must have been 40% health) but AOE attack wiped out party. The slowdown was bad for this fight. So I whipped out the cheap party (Riki, Shulk, Sharla) and won with ease. Third form is too easy, I switched back to my first party. Also I forgot to put any gems on Monado III :P Won with a Max chain Sword Drones II. But going back. The third form is too easy. Half the health of the second one, the attacks are somewhat weaker and the guardians have a third of their health (so die before they can do anything useful...).

I think Zanza's third form is supposed to be easy. The second form is the "real" battle before you unlock the power of your "True Monado" and at that point the fight becomes a foregone conclusion; that it plays out like a lesser version of the second form rather than something new is a bit of a tip-off in that regard. Maybe not the most satisfying conclusion, but I think that's what they were going for. At least that's how I interpreted it.

[chaosblade]

I suspected there was some generation going on when the game noticeably loads when you open a treasure chest but I didn't know you could manipulate it like that. I suspect this will come in handy if I do decide to chase after some rare Art books.

I've probably done it as much for weapons and armor as I have for art books on this playthrough. Getting better and better equipment really helps. Had Dunban's best weapon ages ago, got Shulks a while back (well, sort of...), and 7th's earlier.

Loaded up on lots of artbooks too though since I've been killing so many unique enemies. Leveling up the arts I use a lot makes a big difference. I think Dunban has just about every art I use maxed, just one left that's still limited from the Intermediate book I think.


And I have 3 skill trees left to get now - Sharla, Riki, Reyn. First one will be easy, just need to do quests. Other two will require me to kill some tough enemies, but they shouldn't be any worse than what I've gone through so far.

When I started this playthrough I had the intention of killing every unique enemy in the game. What I didn't plan to do was to do it all at without going over level 80. It's really made the post-game content a lot more interesting, and fighting enemies my level, even unique ones, is just mind-numbingly easy. I can win with auto-attacks.

(14/157 UMs remain, all over level 90)

[Luigi87]

I just finished this last night at 123h 34m, no where near 100% it (but I did at least clear ever sidequest I could find), and... Wow, what a great experience. I'm so glad that NoA finally brought it over, and major kudos to NoE for taking the initiative.

Such a great game.

[Exeunt]

I've probably done it as much for weapons and armor as I have for art books on this playthrough. Getting better and better equipment really helps. Had Dunban's best weapon ages ago, got Shulks a while back (well, sort of...), and 7th's earlier. Loaded up on lots of artbooks too though since I've been killing so many unique enemies. Leveling up the arts I use a lot makes a big difference. I think Dunban has just about every art I use maxed, just one left that's still limited from the Intermediate book I think. And I have 3 skill trees left to get now - Sharla, Riki, Reyn. First one will be easy, just need to do quests. Other two will require me to kill some tough enemies, but they shouldn't be any worse than what I've gone through so far. When I started this playthrough I had the intention of killing every unique enemy in the game. What I didn't plan to do was to do it all at without going over level 80. It's really made the post-game content a lot more interesting, and fighting enemies my level, even unique ones, is just mind-numbingly easy. I can win with auto-attacks. (14/157 UMs remain, all over level 90)

I might have to look at that spreadsheet soon as I have no idea what the best weapons/armour are yet. I got really good ones for both Melia and Sharla but I don't know if they're "the best" so much as they come with really nice gems attached. I've levelled up the Monado Shield and Armour to the max as well as Summon Bolt and You Can Do It! with Final Cross and Light Heal probably next in line. I didn't bother buying any of the Intermediate Art books in the game so any Arts for which I don't have the Advanced drop are at their beginner limits (if I use them at all). I'll probably have to upgrade before fighting the really tough monsters I suppose.

In terms of skill trees, I still need to unlock the last for Reyn, Melia, Riki, and Fiora. If Reyn's and Riki's are from the quests for which you have to kill high-level monsters in Tephra Cave and for the Nopon Sage respectively, then I already have the quests for those but haven't completed them yet.

As for unique monsters, I don't know how many I've killed at this point aside from the "Master Hunter" achievement a while ago but I suppose I can deduce that from the amount of Affinity Coins I have minus the ones I earned from levelling up (unless you get them from something else like Secret Areas which I may be forgetting). I've thinned their numbers but probably have a large amount left.

I have to say, you're making a low-level playthough sound really intriguing. I will probably put the game down for a while after I complete everything, but it sounds pretty interesting from the different stories you post (and that I can actually highlight now as well).

I just finished this last night at 123h 34m, no where near 100% it (but I did at least clear ever sidequest I could find), and... Wow, what a great experience. I'm so glad that NoA finally brought it over, and major kudos to NoE for taking the initiative. Such a great game.

I played a lot like you did and beat the game at roughly the same amount of time; I'm guessing you finished at around level 80? I definitely echo the sentiments in your post.

[AniHawk]

122.5 hours. party's at 94-96.

all replica monados, collectapedia filled, colony 6 up to 100%. yep, time for the final boss, finally.

[Elfforkusu]

122.5 hours. party's at 94-96. all replica monados, collectapedia filled, colony 6 up to 100%. yep, time for the final boss, finally.

:lol, the final boss is going to be so anti-climactic at that level.

[chaosblade]

Unreliable Renzo is daytime only?

.....Damn. This is really going to be tricky.

Edit: Night vision really makes an noticeable difference. I had to struggle for 2 in-game hours to stay alive until night before my night vision gems kicked in. Managed to get something like a quarter or so of his health down, but fighting to stay alive was the biggest challenge. Probably one of the only times I've actually felt the need to take advantage of the "warn" mechanic (usually it just gets in the way), since I could make Dunban use Jaws of Life when he was at low HP and got a vision.

When night came around things slowly but surely turned in my favor. Was able to hit frequently enough to throw the occasional armor up to heavily reduce his damage, and just in general someone other than Dunban was chipping away at his HP. Not as bad as I expected considering I managed it on my first attempt, but still pretty rough.

[Javier]

Woah. Played 15 hours and didn't advance the plot at all. This game is flippin' PACKED.

[HeresSomeWeapons]

What's the name of that awesome music that usually plays right before a boss battle? I've been digging up all the OST tracks in my search but I can't find it. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

[AniHawk]

and at 123 hours, i'm done.

i don't know of any other single player game i've poured 123 hours into. my pokemon red says 150 hours, but that was aided by the triple-time thing from pokemon stadium. this may be the longest single-player game i've ever played. i think the only other ones near this are gta iii (80 hours), dragon quest viii (76 hours), and xenogears (72 hours). \

but it deserves it. everything is done so well. the cast was great throughout, aside from some obvious things (this guy does old wise man voice. this guy does evil villain voice!), the music is fantastic, and there's just so much shit to do. from questing to building affinity between characters, to creating gems, and how all of it played into exploration.

stepping onto bionis' leg for the first time gave me flashbacks to hyrule field in 1998. it's been such a long time a video game has shocked me due to its scale. and what was particularly exciting was knowing i could go to those far off distant places, see where i'd been, and discover hidden locations all throughout this world. it's also been a long time since it's taken me close to two months to beat just one video game.

xenoblade was a firm reminder that i love exploration in games. i was one of the few who liked the planets of the original mass effect, as it played into the whole space explorer man thing. wanting to go to someplace, and having that curiosity rewarded is so much stronger than being told to go someplace to advance the plot.

i don't think the story is that great. i actually liked the initial revenge plot a lot, but then it entered crazyville at about the 1/3 (40 hour) mark. the game did steadily raise the stakes until the crazy finale, but i preferred the blunt and simple motivation for shulk and friends at the beginning versus the broader goal towards the end. i think the voice cast saves an otherwise boring latter part of the game. they did a great job in bringing the characters to life.

that said, the plot twists were actually pretty crazy at the very end, in a good way. the final revelations, and the final area right before the final boss was actually a great 'oh shit!' moment when it happened. i think that post-final boss, the final conversation was too reminiscent of xenosaga's, but i'm glad the relationships between the characters worked until the end.

the battle system was pretty cool. i'm a fan of final fantasy xii, so the mmorpg style of it wasn't that bad. later in the game, it was pretty great taking down extremely high-leveled monsters when you had to have extra gems equipped if you wanted a chance to strike them down.

and again, the music is great. not so much the battle music (which i think comes out of nowhere), but satorl marsh at night, colony 6 at night, and especially mechonis fields are absolutely fantastic.

overall, i feel extremely satisfied with this game. i'm not in love with it like a lot of people, but if something can hold my attention for 123 hours, then i guess it's doing something right.

[chaosblade]

What's the name of that awesome music that usually plays right before a boss battle? I've been digging up all the OST tracks in my search but I can't find it. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

I assume you mean Engage the Enemy?




Been doing some gem farming and UM hunting. Not many left, and only a few more art books to collect.

Clamorous Dablon (92)
Deadly Medorlo (93)
Musical Vanflare (93)
Judicious Bunnitzol (94)
Wicked Sallos (95)
Furious Jozan (96)
Exposure Wolfol (97)
Wandering Amon (98)

Plan to hit up Ancient Daedala a second time for another night vision crystal and craft up some VI ones for Shulk and 7th, then go after Abaasy again with no topple. Not sure if I can do it, but hey, I've managed my other goals pretty well, so we'll see.

[Luap]

So I did a little experimenting on my previous "which tank has priority" inquiry, and here are my findings so far:

I put Sharla on my team and had the AI control her. She always throws her shield buff on the tank at the start of a battle so I figured that would show who the AI thought the main tank was. Reyn is seen as the #1 priority tank. Dunban is #2, and 7th is #3. I haven't tested who has priority between 7th and Riki yet, though.

I've been really liking the team of Dunban, 7th and Sharla. With Sharla there I can forgo some defensive gems, skills and arts and just focus on attacking with reckless abandon. The AI does a pretty good job with 7th so I've been controlling Dunban. Even though Sharla has proved that the AI sees Dunban as the main tank, when the AI controls him it still acts wonky. He rarely uses his auras and there was one fight where I noticed that he just auto attacked the entire time. WTF?

Plus, it's fun using Dunban and battling it out with 7th for aggro priority. When I'm controlling 7th there's no contest and Dunban won't pull aggro off me. Not even Reyn could do it, which surprised me. Poor Reyn, I never use him anymore.

[chaosblade]

So I did a little experimenting on my previous "which tank has priority" inquiry, and here are my findings so far: I put Sharla on my team and had the AI control her. She always throws her shield buff on the tank at the start of a battle so I figured that would show who the AI thought the main tank was. Reyn is seen as the #1 priority tank. Dunban is #2, and 7th is #3. I haven't tested who has priority between 7th and Riki yet, though. I've been really liking the team of Dunban, 7th and Sharla. With Sharla there I can forgo some defensive gems, skills and arts and just focus on attacking with reckless abandon. The AI does a pretty good job with 7th so I've been controlling Dunban. Even though Sharla has proved that the AI sees Dunban as the main tank, when the AI controls him it still acts wonky. He rarely uses his auras and there was one fight where I noticed that he just auto attacked the entire time. WTF? Plus, it's fun using Dunban and battling it out with 7th for aggro priority. When I'm controlling 7th there's no contest and Dunban won't pull aggro off me. Not even Reyn could do it, which surprised me. Poor Reyn, I never use him anymore.

Reyn is probably the best topple character in the game since he can topple and daze, and both arts have short cooldowns. That's about all he has going for him other than being a decent tank as far as I can tell. Reyn+7th+Shulk is probably the best party for it since they all have topple+daze arts, but Shulk and 7th both have kind of gimped topples (one requires max tension, the other requires a full talent gauage) so switching in Dunban/Steel Strike for one of them isn't a bad choice. Starlight Kick unfortunately requires Spear Break to do anything, it doesn't re-topple enemies or work on enemies with break, so that kind of balances it's usefulness.

And as far as attacking with reckless abandon and taking advantage of Sharla (that sounds terrible...) I've gotten good enough gems that I don't even need Sharla to do that. For anything I can hit with reasonable accuracy on autoattacks, 7th is currently healing somewhere around 500HP per second. I noticed how ridiculous it was while killing Feris's (Ferii?) for back attack crystals. Constantly had green numbers popping up everywhere, though not as much as gray numbers for my damage! Hoping things like that will come in handy in my rematch against Abaasy.



Speaking of back attack, those gems are amazing. Still haven't seen just what I can do with it yet, but I've hit for 60k+ in chain attacks with Back Slash so far, and that's not even the best I can do since it was without Shadow Eye. Means I could have potentially hit for 90k. At level 79.

Though, I'd still like to see what Reyn could do with a maxed Sword Drive. What I want to try:

1. Character slot one being someone with a red and blue art, probably 7th (see below), slot 2 being Reyn with 100% back attack, slot 3 probably being Melia. You could switch the 1st and 3rd slot potentially, if 7th can pick up aggro even under AI control, which could allow for even more interesting things (2x fire summons?) but it would be tough to make sure Reyn ends up behind the enemy.

2. Let someone else take aggro - good reason to have 7th in slot 1 to pick up aggro and has the red+blue arts - and maneuver so Reyn is behind the enemy.

3. Do a chain attack. 7th uses the blue art power drain.

4. Reyn uses maxed out Magnum Charge.

5. Melia unleashes a summon with the talent art allowing 7th to change the color to red without losing the multiplier.

6. Reyn uses Sword Drive and destroys the world.

Plus there are all sorts of variables involved. Strength buffs via skills, and even via Melia's fire element that could make it even stronger. Also strength up gems. You could do something similar with Dunban's talent art, but he doesn't have a 4.2x multiplier with Magnum Charge.

[Luap]

And as far as attacking with reckless abandon and taking advantage of Sharla (that sounds terrible...) I've gotten good enough gems that I don't even need Sharla to do that. For anything I can hit with reasonable accuracy on autoattacks, 7th is currently healing somewhere around 500HP per second. I noticed how ridiculous it was while killing Feris's (Ferii?) for back attack crystals. Constantly had green numbers popping up everywhere, though not as much as gray numbers for my damage! Hoping things like that will come in handy in my rematch against Abaasy.

What exactly are you doing that lets you pull this off? I gave 7th Dunban's heal 2% on crit skill link, because I saw you mention that was part of it. What else did you do? Although that sounds really broken and I might wait until I beat the game to do it. I'm currently at the part where Egil's sister joins your party and you're finding a way to get to the capital.

[chaosblade]

Aura Heal VI and HP Steal VI since I have an "open" weapon slot due to haste being in the armor.

Aura Heal does 150HP per two seconds, and the character pretty much always has an aura active between Speed Shift and Healing Energy. Not to mention both of those auras are also good for healing since Speed Shift makes you attack faster and increases your double attack rate, meaning more crits more frequently, meaning more healing. The other is rather obvious I think.

HP Steal has a 25% chance of healing 200HP with every attack, so basically 1 in 4 attacks heal 200HP. And as fast as the character attacks, well, I'm not sure there's much to add. I don't think it would be worth it for a character that doesn't regularly have a good haste buff, but in this case it works well.

Edit: Also gave Dunban a 100% Bleed Damage gem. I've seen bleed go as high as 8000 after being used at Chain 5 in a chain attack. Craziness.

[Luap]

Thanks for the info. I have not yet come across an HP Steal gem. I think I have an Aura Heal one though, but I'm pretty sure it's a low level one.

Also, I keep hearing talk about a 4th skill tree. I think 5 out of my 7 characters have all of their skill trees maxed out, so I've been eagerly awaiting this new tree. Is it possible for me to get it right now, or is it post-game/a spoiler?

[woahjeez]

I am 43 hours in and just reached the capital on Mechonis. Am I doing it wrong?

[AniHawk]

I am 43 hours in and just reached the capital on Mechonis. Am I doing it wrong?

moving kinda fast. at this rate you might beat the game before the 50 hour mark.

what's your level?

[DragonGirl]

I am 43 hours in and just reached the capital on Mechonis. Am I doing it wrong?

If you're blazing along that fast, then I'd say you're probably skipping the bulk of the game's content. Which is a shame.

[Rebel Leader]

If you're blazing along that fast, then I'd say you're probably skipping the bulk of the game's content. Which is a shame.

I think I reached it around 60ish hours

[AlphaDragoon]

Edit: Also gave Dunban a 100% Bleed Damage gem. I've seen bleed go as high as 8000 after being used at Chain 5 in a chain attack. Craziness.

Yeah, Dunban does good with Bleed Plus, especially since he uses Gale Slash to set up several of his other moves. Riki's does a metric ton of damage as well. The highest DoT I've ever seen though belongs to Melia, I got a 20,000 HP Poison DoT without doing a Chain Attack.

Back Attack 100% + Poison Plus 100% gems, then released an Earth summon behind the mob (IIRC it was a Deinos Saurus) after using Burst End. Needless to say he wasn't standing up for very long, especially since he had Chill/Flame DoTs from Melia and Bleed from Dunban.

Also, I keep hearing talk about a 4th skill tree. I think 5 out of my 7 characters have all of their skill trees maxed out, so I've been eagerly awaiting this new tree. Is it possible for me to get it right now, or is it post-game/a spoiler?

Yeah, all the characters have a fourth (and a fifth) Skill Tree. You have to do certain quests to get them to unlock.

Oh, and chaosblade, thanks for the tip on saving and loading chests to get the drops instead of killing the mob for it. Finally got my Summon Ice and Steel Strike, now I just have to get a Fascia Bunniv to drop a gold one so I can farm it for Mind Blast, since I didn't get it off the one-time Unique Monster that had it. :/

[nintendoman58]

Well I'm almost at the capital of Mechonis and-

If you're blazing along that fast, then I'd say you're probably skipping the bulk of the game's content. Which is a shame.

That makes me sad as I'm practically only 30 hours in. What sort of things am I missing? Quests? Items? Collectables? I know that you can go back to Colony 6 to help it out but what rewards do you exactly get for that?

[AlphaDragoon]

Well I'm almost at the capital of Mechonis and- That makes me sad as I'm practically only 30 hours in. What sort of things am I missing? Quests? Items? Collectables? I know that you can go back to Colony 6 to help it out but what rewards do you exactly get for that?

You get two of the characters' fourth skill trees, a boatload of quests, and several items.

[DragonGirl]

There's no right or wrong way to enjoy the game of course. It's just that there is a ton of world building content in the form of side quests from NPCs, Colony 6, Heart to Hearts, and the pure joy of exploration, particularly the places that don't become accessible until late game. I just advise taking it slowly and ignoring the plot from time to time in favor of the innumerable other things to do. I actually beat the game at 159 hours (at level 81), and did so deliberately leaving side quests undone, unique monsters unchallenged, and areas unexplored so that I'd have new things to do on my new game plus (in addition to all of the things I no doubt missed on round one).

Xenoblade invests a lot into its environments, creatures, and characters (not just the playable ones) and it's fun and rewarding to indulge in its world. I'd go so far as to say that just following the plot while ignoring all of the distractions (or at least mostly ignoring) diminishes the impact of the plot on the world. There are hundreds of tiny stories, from tragedies, to triumphs, to simple asides in Xenoblade, and I thought they enriched the entire experience.

[nintendoman58]

I just advise taking it slowly and ignoring the plot from time to time in favor of the innumerable other things to do.

That's not going to be easy for me since I am loving this game's story so far. About New game+ however...what can I expect from it? Does it have a system like in Tales of Graces where you spend grade based on how much you've done in the game? Or do you just keep your levels/skills/arts, etc?

[DragonGirl]

That's not going to be easy for me since I am loving this game's story so far. About New game+ however...what can I expect from it? Does it have a system like in Tales of Graces where you spend grade based on how much you've done in the game? Or do you just keep your levels/skills/arts, etc?

I understand what you mean, I also have a hard time with plots that scream "World in Crisis, Hurry!" at me while the game itself invites me to stop, smell the roses, play a game of cards while the base is invaded, compete in some blitzball, never mind the monster of unrelenting DOOM, etc.

As to the NG+, almost everything carries over (other than plot related items). You even get to select a ton of inventory stuff to keep. Level carries, I don't think Affinity does though.

[chaosblade]

I understand what you mean, I also have a hard time with plots that scream "World in Crisis, Hurry!" at me while the game itself invites me to stop, smell the roses, play a game of cards while the base is invaded, compete in some blitzball, never mind the monster of unrelenting DOOM, etc. As to the NG+, almost everything carries over (other than plot related items). You even get to select a ton of inventory stuff to keep. Level carries, I don't think Affinity does though.

Almost positive it does. I could be mistaken though. Edit: Just party affinity I mean. Area affinity should reset, since that goes along with quests.

Affinity coins carry over, which is cool since it gives even more options for skill links. Can get up to 999 by repeatedly going through NG+ and killing unique enemies.

Yeah, Dunban does good with Bleed Plus, especially since he uses Gale Slash to set up several of his other moves. Riki's does a metric ton of damage as well. The highest DoT I've ever seen though belongs to Melia, I got a 20,000 HP Poison DoT without doing a Chain Attack. Back Attack 100% + Poison Plus 100% gems, then released an Earth summon behind the mob (IIRC it was a Deinos Saurus) after using Burst End. Needless to say he wasn't standing up for very long, especially since he had Chill/Flame DoTs from Melia and Bleed from Dunban. Yeah, all the characters have a fourth (and a fifth) Skill Tree. You have to do certain quests to get them to unlock. Oh, and chaosblade, thanks for the tip on saving and loading chests to get the drops instead of killing the mob for it. Finally got my Summon Ice and Steel Strike, now I just have to get a Fascia Bunniv to drop a gold one so I can farm it for Mind Blast, since I didn't get it off the one-time Unique Monster that had it. :/

I'm not totally sure on this, but one thing I've found is that you seem to get a higher drop rate for silver/gold chests when fighting enemies in groups rather than just single enemies.

Separate enemies who drop their own chests won't help (like the ones by Heavenly Window) but there are some other bunnivs running around in a circle in one area that I think are all part of the same mob (haven't checked, but since they all have the same movement pattern they probably are). If they are, you would probably have the best luck with those.

Determined this ages ago while trying to farm an item for a quest. Kept killing a group of 3 enemies and they would ALWAYS drop silver and gold chests, but I needed the brown chest item. I looked around and came across a single enemy of that type and was easily able to get the brown chests.

[nintendoman58]

Alright. Thanks for the clarification. I think I'll stay away from this thread for now untill I beat the game.

[Croc]

Once again I'm looking for a few tips for late game stuff. This time regarding advanced art books and training places.

First off, I'm wanting to get an advanced art book for Summon Copy. One of the uniques I can get it off of was in Agniratha which is gone now. The other is too high leveled for me with current stuff, and the last one is in a room on Prison Island. I was in this room once earlier, but now I can't figure out how to get back. It's in either the First or Second Sanctum. Either way, I can't figure out how to get back there.

Next question is for good places to train at level 83. I trained a bit in Alcamoth with the Telethia who are about 85-87, but I was just wondering if there was somewhere even better.

[chaosblade]

Once again I'm looking for a few tips for late game stuff. This time regarding advanced art books and training places. First off, I'm wanting to get an advanced art book for Summon Copy. One of the uniques I can get it off of was in Agniratha which is gone now. The other is too high leveled for me with current stuff, and the last one is in a room on Prison Island. I was in this room once earlier, but now I can't figure out how to get back. It's in either the First or Second Sanctum. Either way, I can't figure out how to get back there. Next question is for good places to train at level 83. I trained a bit in Alcamoth with the Telethia who are about 85-87, but I was just wondering if there was somewhere even better.

You can get there from the kitchen. Go down that walkway to the place where you raised the arena back up. Should be able to figure it out from there.

And regarding leveling up, Telethia are probably the best bet. They go higher than the levels you listed, up to 90 or 91 in the capital building. You should be good there until you're high enough level for Tephra Cave.

[Croc]

You can get there from the kitchen. Go down that walkway to the place where you raised the arena back up. Should be able to figure it out from there. And regarding leveling up, Telethia are probably the best bet. They go higher than the levels you listed, up to 90 or 91 in the capital building. You should be good there until you're high enough level for Tephra Cave.

All right, thanks a bunch. I didn't even realize until I read your post that I never checked out the upstairs section hahahah.

[woahjeez]

moving kinda fast. at this rate you might beat the game before the 50 hour mark. what's your level?

59. I use Shulk, Reyn, and Sharla

[AniHawk]

59. I use Shulk, Reyn, and Sharla

yeah you might have some trouble later on, especially against one boss in particular. i think you're roughly ten levels behind the average.

[Esura]

I'm lv. 50 at Galahad Fortress and all the enemies seem to be above 51. Why is the levels increasing so fast? I've been doing a few quests on the side and they only seem to give me money.

At this point I just want to rush through so I can see the rest of the story.

[chaosblade]

I'm lv. 50 at Galahad Fortress and all the enemies seem to be above 51. Why is the levels increasing so fast? I've been doing a few quests on the side and they only seem to give me money. At this point I just want to rush through so I can see the rest of the story.

You only have one more "quest hub" area, and aside from that the other areas are very linear with little to no side quests. So rushing from that point should be easy.

I would recommend doing some quests in that hub area though, since one gives you an awesome reward Monado Armor.

yeah you might have some trouble later on, especially against one boss in particular. i think you're roughly ten levels behind the average.

Probably 7-8 levels, but he's definitely going to have to do some leveling either way, because he's got level 70 bosses coming up and while that's doable at that level or just a bit higher, he's probably not set up for it (especially given the party he's using).

[Javier]

For those having trouble to detach themselves from the main story, I think that a great place to do so is after 7th joins, and after a whole series of events, the whole team gets reunited. Then 7th and another team member will leave for a short while, but you get them both back soon. At that point the story "calms down" for a bit so it's a good moment to take a break and start doing all those pending sidequests, raise affinities, go for the Heart-to-Hearts, and start the whole Colony 6 stuff.

I've been doing nothing but side stuff for the past 20 hours. It's amazing how much stuff was packed into this game. Collectathons done RIGHT.

[chaosblade]

Got the rest of the skill trees, as well as a few other misc things. Got the Sedna Drones for 7th which is awesome, hate that is has no slot though. Also got a couple art books I was missing.

Got another Night Vision V gem from Ancient Daedala, Dolphin must have screwed me in the first attempt since he was just 1HKOing everyone with normal attacks and using arts without visions, also 1HKOing people. But I gave him hell when I tried again.

Tomorrow I guess I'll finish off the remaining unique enemes, then Avalanche Abaasy II: Now With 100% Less Topple.


And regarding that item for 7th, it actually makes the battle for the best talent art closer than I thought. Total damage between the two for me is within 300 points, well within a "margin of error" during the attacks. Around 14000 base damage, can't complain about that. Not sure if Blossom Dance can crit, I know Sword Drones can which can further boost damage. Honestly I'm just glad to be rid of Cannon Drones, that was useless against high level enemies.


Edit: Beaten every unique monster in the game. But Abaasy won't respawn :(


Edit2: Finally got him to respawn. Beat Abaasy again. No topple. No chain attacks. Level 79. Got really intense toward the end since it took a while and night ended. Also failed to prevent his crazed AND awakening auras which really hurt, but I managed to survive it. I got a video, but my attempts to fix the framerate problems while recording didn't do any good.

[Luap]

I am 43 hours in and just reached the capital on Mechonis. Am I doing it wrong?

Lol, I'm at the exact same point as you and I'm at ~93 hours. Doing it right or wrong is pretty subjective. It's your game; play it how you want. Plus, it isn't going anywhere so you can always do another playthrough where you go slower.

Yeah, all the characters have a fourth (and a fifth) Skill Tree. You have to do certain quests to get them to unlock.

Certain quests, eh? Are they all available during the main game? I guess I'll go back and look for some more quests. Any hints on where to find them?

[Exeunt]

Certain quests eh? Are they all available during the main game? I guess I'll go back and look for some more quests. Any hints on where to find them?

I think that you still have to complete the area you are in plus one more in order for the fifth skill trees to become available. These mostly require you to fight high-level monsters, so you should probably beat the final boss before trying them unless you want to be massively overlevelled. The skill trees you're after should all be available to you at this point I believe; generally if you get a quest that requires a certain character to accept it, you unlock a skill tree revealing one of their qualities. There might be an area affinity requirement or story progression point to unlock the quests, but you should definitely be fine for the latter. As for hints/general locations, the skill trees are generally unlocked in an area that is somehow significant to the character. The exceptions are Reyn, whose skill tree is unlocked in Colony 6 after you move some people there from Alcamoth and Frontier Village, Dunban's, which is given by an NPC in Valak Mountain, and Sharla's, which is given near the Sacred Altar in Frontier Village. If you want more substantial locations: Shulk's is in Colony 9 at night, Melia's is in Eryth Sea (not Alcamoth and I don't know time of day but there are few NPCs there), Riki's is in Frontier Village at night, and Fiora's is in the Hidden Machina Village (don't remember if it's day or night but the area is pretty small). You might have to raise your affinity in some of those areas to unlock the quests though, so they might not be accessible right away.

"Post-game" spoilers past this point.

As for me, I unlocked the fifth skill trees for everyone except for Fiora and Riki, but I have the quest for the latter at least. I'm at level 90 right now after killing a whole bunch of unique monsters and wiping out a whole bunch of Telethia in Alcamoth. I'm getting near the quest which allows me to find the third Giants' Treasure as I have discovered Shura and the tomb in Tephra Cave. I've found a fair few Art books at this point as well, and I'm not finding a whole bunch of new quests to do. It looks right now like I'll be fighting some level 90+ uniques. The strongest one I've toppled was 93 at this point; I'm no chaosblade by any means. Luckily I've found some better weapons and armour for the characters I actually use, so that's really helpful. I suppose I'll have to start crafting some more gems soon, but I still need to up my affinity with Reyn and Sharla before the entire party's relations are improved.

And regarding that item for 7th, it actually makes the battle for the best talent art closer than I thought. Total damage between the two for me is within 300 points, well within a "margin of error" during the attacks. Around 14000 base damage, can't complain about that. Not sure if Blossom Dance can crit, I know Sword Drones can which can further boost damage. Honestly I'm just glad to be rid of Cannon Drones, that was useless against high level enemies.

I got that item a little while ago as well, and Sword Drones X seems pretty amazing. I always preferred Sword Drones to Cannon Drones but the better equipment I came across always gave me the latter, and Fiora seems like a pretty great attacker in her own right so I just went with it.

[Luap]

Awesome, thanks for the info man. Looks like I got some sidequesting to do! I'm at a good stopping point in the story (I'm at the entrance to the capital but I haven't walked in yet) so this is the perfect time to do it.

[chaosblade]

Regarding those, a few of them can be obtained before you beat the final boss without too much trouble.

You can get Shulk's very early on (before the final boss, easily) since it doesn't require you to kill any strong monsters or anything. Dunban's as well, it just requires you to beat some upper 70s enemies I think? Sharla's can also be done really easily IIRC, but I think Colony 6 needs to be very close to completion and affinity needs to be somewhere between 4 and 5 stars.

Some are more difficult to get and will probably have to wait until you're in the 90s.

Riki's requires you to kill a level 96 unique, Reyn requires you to kill a variety of normal enemies in the mid-90s to collect items, Melia's actual quest for it doesn't require much work at all, but to get an item you need to do the quest you have to fight an enemy in the upper 80s or lower 90s. And Fiora requires you to kill two level 98 uniques.

[aceface]

Is there anywhere on the internet that has a good summary of the plot for this game? I'm playing it again now for the first time since last November (got busy) and I've forgotten some of the finer points about what happened. I'm 30 hours in, just reached that high Entia capital.

[McNum]

Is there anywhere on the internet that has a good summary of the plot for this game? I'm playing it again now for the first time since last November (got busy) and I've forgotten some of the finer points about what happened. I'm 30 hours in, just reached that high Entia capital.

Let me handle that for you.

(Spoilers up to what he said.)
Shulk lived in Colony 9 with his friends Reyn and Fiora. Until the night where the mechon attack, Shulk picked up the Monado, and Fiora got killed by a mechon with a Face. Shulk swears revenge and sets off with Ryen to hunt down the Faced Mechon.

Shulk learns he can see into the future and beats up a giant spider. They meet Sharla whose bother Juju has gone missing. They help her find him, and battle a giant mechon, where Shulk learns for to use the Monado to move really fast. Another faced mechon appears.

Shulk and the group go to Colony 6, which has been taken over by the mechon. After a dungeon crawl, they fight the new faced mechon and kill it. The Monado apparently has a weakness as it cannot easily cut faced mechon.

As they exit the area, they get ambushed, but Dunban bails them out. You recruit Dunban and start to head off to the jungle. Here you find a wounded young woman, who is in need of an ether infusion. Telethia attack Shulk, but Alvis teaches Shulk a new trick with the Monado. The young woman is saved, and she presents herself as Melia, who is out to kill a Telethia. Didn't go well for her.

They head to the Nopon village, where they seek passage to the Eyryth Sea. But Melia's Telethia problem is still there, so the Nopon assign Heropon Riki to help the team slay the Dino-Beast.

The Telethia is downed, and the team, including Riki, is granted passage to the Eyryth Sea, where they find their way to Alcamoth, home of the High Entia.

And that's about where you are, I think. Depending on how much you've done in the area you are in.

[chaosblade]

Is there anywhere on the internet that has a good summary of the plot for this game? I'm playing it again now for the first time since last November (got busy) and I've forgotten some of the finer points about what happened. I'm 30 hours in, just reached that high Entia capital.

Not sure of anything detailed, unless the Wikia site has a lot of story info, but chances are you'll run into spoilers reading details there.

A quick rundown:

Dunban kicks Mechon ass with the Monado with his war buddies, his right arm ends up paralyzed.

Mechon attack Colony 9 while Shulk, Reyn and Fiora are getting the ether cylinders. "Metal Face" kills Fiora, Shulk and Reyn set out for revenge.

Shulk learns Monado Shield against the spider and saves Reyn.

You meet Juju on Bionis Leg, save him, meet Sharla. Juju runs away to try to save Colony 6 residents. Your party follows and Shulk sees Juju and Sharla dying. They meet Xord, who kidnaps Juju, and follow him to Colony 6.

You go through the ether mines and find Xord, beat him, save Juju and Otharon.

Metal Face shows up afterward with a hoard of Xord-like faced mechon. Dunban and Dickson arrive and help fight off Mechon until a Telethia appears and saves you. It then returns to Alvis and communicates with him somehow.

Not a lot happens in the Marsh, and at the end your party guests leave and Dickson mumbles something about hating to "lead these kids on like this."

You go to Makna Forest and find Melia passed out due to ether deficiency. Shulk goes to get the necessary ether crystal and meets Alvis, who teaches him how to use Purge against the Telethia to counter Soul Read (that's the thing they do that makes you miss them constantly).

Shulk returns and they revive Melia, then go to Frontier Village and meet Riki, then you hunt the Telethia down. After beating it you go to Eryth Sea, then Alcamoth.

Tons of stuff happens there, but I'm not sure how much further I can go without spoiling anything. If you want anymore details about something you can ask and somebody will probably respond.





Unrelated: Beat Abaasy again without chain attacks or intentional toppling (damn Final Cross insta-topple, should have removed that art). Still level 79 of course. Got a good video though without framerate or sound issues. Also shorter, didn't run into problems with night ending. Didn't even bother trying to purge his auras, just outlived them.

Will link it once it's transcoded and uploaded.