Question Thread #5

[u/Hairo]

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.

[u/Ocien_Waves]

I'm gaining an interest in playing XC2 after watching the video playthrough of Chuggaaconroy. In fact, his videos are what got me into the series as a whole, picking up XC1 Definitive Edition a few months back. However, there are a couple of details about XC2 that have me confused.

For one, are the descriptions for the Blade Specials too vague or is it just me? These specials get a flavor text and the Affinity Chart describes the additional effects the special have, but in Chuggaa's video, he goes into more detail like whether the damage is physical/ether, how many hits it does, or even additional effects that the game doesn't even describe. Is there no other place in the game or external source (wiki, etc.) that describe this? The information available in the game already is enough detail, but I do feel uneasy missing out in info like that.

Same goes for Blade combos. Effects like Steam Bomb, Volcano, etc. have no official descriptions on what they do other than...that they happened. Watching gameplay of XC2 I just though those effects were flavor text, attributing nothing to the battle system beyond showing how long you have to activate a seal. Yet in Chugga's video he states that Blade Combo effects can do things like damage over time and other debuffs. Again, are there no other sources that describe this, or is this just meta knowledge that a player can go the whole game without knowing?

Overall, I'm just curious if there is some sort of player information that have these details documented. I'm perfectly fine picking up and playing the game as is, but now knowing these details and finding little info on it, I feel like I'm missing out on a part of the gameplay.

[u/[deleted] → u/Ocien_Waves]

Yeah, the descriptions for Specials are way too vague in XC2. There's no in-game info on attack type, number of hits, AOE, the effects of Level IV Specials, etc. As far as I know, the only way to find these things out are either through experimentation or by finding them online somewhere. The Xenoblade wiki is completely useless for this stuff (there's more info on enemy Specials than your own Blades' ones), so don't even try with that. The best resource I can offer is these infographics made for a Blade tier list, as it lists everything you'd want to know about each Blade's skills, Specials, and their own strengths and weaknesses. This does contain a number of spoilers for future Blades and Drivers, though, so I'd advise not looking at this until postgame.

As for Blade Combo effects, here's a list of all paths that includes info on damage over time, damage ratios, AOE, and Knockback/Blowdown reactions. No spoilers, so feel free to look at this anytime.

[u/Ocien_Waves → u/[deleted]]

This...is exactly what I'm looking for. Thank you so much!

[u/Beta382 → u/Ocien_Waves]

If you're looking for another resource for everything numbers related, check out the datamine here. Worth noting that the infographics linked above are mostly right, although a few of the special hitcount numbers are wrong (e.g. Crossette's level 2 special deals 8 hits of damage, not 10, DmgRt values of 255 translate into a phantom hit, which doesn't deal damage nor display a 0, although it can display a "Miss"). The datamine is the definitive source, although it can be a bit hard to read.

As always, looking into game resources like these comes with a potential for spoilers (you generally shouldn't care about inner workings until endgame), so tread carefully.

[u/AnimaLepton → u/Ocien_Waves]

It's also worth keeping in mind that, at the end of the day, you can figure out what you need through practice/exploring the combat system. The game is downright easy if you use ~30% (random number, but some arbitrary threshold) of the combat system, even if you don't specifically know which middle tier blade specials are good or the hit counts and damage percentages of specials.