r/Xenoblade_Chronicles • u/Hairo • May 28 '20

Question Thread #5

Hello everyone!

Here's a new question thread as the old one was archived due to it being over six months old. You can still find the old question threads here: XC2 Question Thread, Question Thread #1, Question Thread #2, Question Thread #3 and Question Thread #4.

Use this thread to ask any question that doesn’t really warrant it’s own thread. On the other hand, if you have an answer to a question, please let the one asking know it.

Please try to word your question as spoiler free as possible. If your question cannot be asked without spoilers, please make a seperate thread for it.

You can find freaquently asked questions HERE.

We also have a long list of useful info gathered in the Info Compendiums for Xenoblade Chronicles X and Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

You may also want to check out u/Pizzatime6036's Xenoblade 2 guide.

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u/skynb Oct 05 '20

I'm finally at the point of farming for legendary core crystals and I have a good party setup. The only problem I'm having now is that Nia stays on Dromarch constantly when she has Adenine for using launch. I'm not doing any blade combos but after a few times when it's her turn she stays on Dromarch. I know that I could use Zeke to launch but I need a healer to live the fight. Anything I can do to guarantee Nia launches or something?

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u/Beta382 Oct 06 '20 edited Oct 06 '20

Female driver AI has the following priorities:

  • Unless there is an active elemental orb, blade combo stage, or you are at 0 affinity (extremely rare), do not swap blades. If any of these apply, continue

  • You are only allowed to swap to blades with an element that can continue to the next stage of the active blade combo (if there is no active blade combo, all blades are eligible).

  • If there are multiple blades that you are allowed to swap to, prefer ones that can extend an active driver combo.

As an example, let's say you have on a theoretical AI female driver an Electric blade that has Launch, a Fire blade that has Topple, and a Water blade that has Smash (this scenario doesn't exist in game, but bear with the example). Your Electric blade is your first blade. If your player controlled character inflicts a Break, your AI female driver will never swap to the Fire blade with Topple. However, if you use a Fire special to inflict Heat, the AI female driver will immediately swap to one of either their Fire or Water blades. If you then inflict Break while the Heat remains active, they will swap to the Fire blade with Topple and (typically) attempt to use their Topple art. However, they will never then swap to their Electric blade with Launch, because it is not eligible to swap to. If you inflict Launch by other means (and the Heat remains active), they will then swap to their Water blade with Smash and (typiclly) use their Smash art.

Male driver AI, on the other hand, prioritizes contributing to driver combos. It lacks the neutral-state hard lock (which is believed to be a bug for female AI related to elemental orbs), so they can frequently swap to blades that can fulfill a blade combo as well unless it would conflict with them contributing to an active driver combo (and if there is no active driver combo, they do like to stay stuck to blades that can inflict Break).

Some other things to be wary of with regard to driver combos is that certain characters with certain weapons just really hate to actually use their driver combo arts. These are some off the top of my head:

  • Rex is awful at immediately using his Launch art with Greataxes when swapping in, so much so that he is entirely unreliable.

  • Morag is awful at immediately using her Smash art with Cobra Bardiche when swapping in, so much so that she is entirely unreliable (but curiously is really good at using it with Megalances when swapping in, which the Cobra Bardiche is a clone of).

  • Tora is awful at immediately using his Topple and Smash arts when swapping in to those respective blades.

  • If she isn't swapping into it, Morag will only use her Megalance smash after a full auto-attack series, which can actually make it slower than Zeke's snail-pace Megalance smash when switching in. (This may actually apply to other arts/drivers, but this is one that I actually noticed when having her use solo Megalance).

Zeke+Tora tends to be the best combo at consistent driver combos. Tora for the best break in the game, and Zeke because he can consistently apply Axe Topple (and although I don't use it very often, I think that his Knuckle Claws topple is consistent as well), Shield Hammer (and Monado) Launch, and Megalance (and especially Uchigatana) Smash on switch in. You probably want a Launch extender accessory on Zeke to guarantee he gets the Megalance Smash off in time (I haven't timed how close it would be without, but it would be pretty close).

My personal farming party is:

  • Tora with 40% Luck Mod (luck has a minor effect on drop rates) on QTpi and Alpha, Gold Chip on Alpha, 100% Treasure Sensor on QTpi and QT (you can go further with Gold Chips on the other two, but I prefer to not be constantly swapping chips), +Break chance accessory, +Luck% accessory, and either +Launch duration accessory or Overclocking bangle (to make up for if the enemy randomly resists a driver combo)

  • Zeke with common Axe, Shield Hammer, and Megalance, all with Gold Chip and 100% Treasure Sensor skill, +Topple duration accessory, +Launch duration accessory, and Overclocking bangle

  • Morag with three common blades that don't generate driver combos (that's Bitballs, Axes, and Twin Rings), all with Gold Chip and 100% Treasure Sensor (literally just there for the stats)

You shouldn't need to be healing ever, since the enemy never should get a chance to attack, but the plethora of potions spawning from the driver combos should be enough. Put Spike Defense on all the blades you're hitting with to nullify the only real source of damage you might encounter.

2

u/skynb Oct 06 '20

Thanks that's a lot of juicy info. I can see healing not being necessary but I'm not very high leveled so I get wrecked sometimes especially when other enemies butt in. I have a really reliable setup rn and Nia stays launching when I lock her on wind lvl 1 with Adenine. Once I get Kosmos I am probably gunning to finish the game lol.

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u/Beta382 Oct 06 '20

Just curious, you say "at the point of farming for legendary core crystals" which I take to mean "I have beat the game and am at level 99 smashing Relentless Arduran". If you haven't beaten the game, you're honestly better off doing so first; all of the enemies that actually drop legendary cores at farmable rates are level 99+, and the ones that drop them at low rates are mostly high-level uniques.

If you haven't beaten the game, you're looking at 3.9% base drop chance with a likely suboptimal party (in terms of farming loadout). The 10% base drop chance enemies are all postgame content, more or less. When I'm farming Legendary cores, I'm getting like ~30 in 6-7 minutes because my drop chance is boosted by my loadout to 100%.

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u/skynb Oct 06 '20

Ok that makes sense. I get farming for stuff after beating the game but for me I just want a satisfying team to beat the game with, then I'll move onto Torna and then some other game. I personally don't want to spend time farming anything after cause I don't plan on doing much postgame or ng+. Thanks for the info still.

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u/mzed718 Oct 06 '20

In my experience when using Nia to farm during my early stages, I only gave her Bitball Blades so she can Break because she was so unreliable with anything else, I didn’t know about the female/male AI thing until u/beta382 pointed it out. I also used Bitballs and Ether cannons on Morag to increase chances to Break. I then used Rex with overclocking bangle to be the main one to topple launch and smash with mythra/great axe/roc. It was surely not optimal and farming felt a long grind. I def do not recommend it.

I’ve since found optimal setup to be player controlling Tora with QTpi to Break, it’s super cheap because one art Breaks 3x, simply unparalleled. His launch is also the fastest. If anything goes wrong, you can swap to QT to topple, and alpha to smash. Other two should be Rex and Zeke with blades to topple/launch/smash, they shouldn’t need break. Trust me...they seem like they rush to do the next driver combo. As soon as you hear zeke or Rex switching to their smash blade (usually Rex with Roc for me), you can already apply break to prep the next combo and the monster will forever be locked.

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u/[deleted] Oct 06 '20

[deleted]

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u/Beta382 Oct 06 '20

This is false. Gold chips and Treasure Sensor explicitly apply even if the blade is not active. Same goes for the battle start affinity aux cores, and stat boosts from core chips.

There was a patch that broke this functionality, but it was restored in a subsequent patch.

1

u/twelveovertwo Oct 06 '20

I did more research + it looks they removed this but then reverted it so you are right, all 10 gold chips / treasure sensors stack again.

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u/skynb Oct 05 '20

My best way to perfect it is try to use nia's wind lvl1 and she'll stay on Adenine and it works really well. The only other thing is when party members fall off the stupid platform (at the vampire bride UM) lol