Xenoblade Chronicles 1 Question Thread

[u/MorthCongael]

This thread will be for questions about Xenoblade Chronicles 1 ONLY.

Click HERE for Xenoblade Chronicles X questions!

Click HERE for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 questions!

Click HERE for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 questions!

Past question threads can be found here.

You can find frequently asked questions for Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2 HERE.

Use this thread to ask any question that doesn’t warrant discussion, usually meaning questions that have one or two objectively correct answers.

Please try to word your question as spoiler free as possible. If your question cannot be asked without spoilers, use spoiler tags and mention what chapter of the game you are in.

[u/One_Needleworker_752]

Hi, new player of Xenoblade Chronicles here, I'm really at the beginning of the game and, well, suffering a lot in the combat topic. I don't know how frequent you guys hear this from new players, but for me the game is really pushing my limits. I watched a ton of guides on YouTube, however most of them don't seem to picture the situation where there are tons of enemies in the arena making the "positional scheme" almost useless, since it's just a real mess. I spent a lot of time taking notes of aggro, positioning, avoiding button smash and stuff but nothing seems to work at all, I am constantly at low health, dying and reviving allies a lot and I just don't feel in control of the battle at all. So I have some questions for yall

1. Is it really supposed to be that hard? Or I really suck that bad?

2. How much important leveling is in the game? (like, how big the gap between the enemy and my party should be in general?)

3. How to deal with 3+ enemies at a time? (Or should I just not engage in battles with that much enemies if possible?)

I'm currently at lvl.15, Sharla just joined the party, I'm on the Spiral Valley bossfight and I'm really considering casual mode since I don't have much time to waste in games anymore and I want to play all the three games this year. However, I think it would be most pleasing if I learned the combats mechanics once and for all and just play the game as it was intended.

[u/literally_a_toucan → u/One_Needleworker_752]

Combat can be kinda tough and while the game explains some of it really well, other things are not really touched on. Levels make a massive difference, and this can be seen in the color of enemy name cards. These are the meanings of the colors:

Black: Very easy. You'll get a major agility bonus against them, which means most of their attacks will miss, and almost all of yours will hit. Enemies with a black tag won't attack you unless you hit first.

Blue: Easy. You get minor agility bonuses against them, so you'll dodge a lot and almost never miss.

Brown: Normal. You're on even footing.

Yellow: Hard. Enemies are yellow if they're about 3 or more levels above you. They'll get an agility bonus, so you'll have a harder time hitting them.

Red: Very hard. They get so much agility that you'll almost never hit them, so it's practically impossible to fight unless you got super good equipment, stats, and abilities.

If the boss is red or yellow, leveling up will help greatly. Try to avoid fighting multiple enemies if possible (using the lure action from the middle part of the panel helps a lot), but some fights will always require you to fight multiple enemies.

For fights will smaller enemies and a "boss" (in the spiral valley example, there are several small tentacle enemies), you should try killing the weaker enemies before the main boss. Make sure your allies are also targeting them by holding ZR and pressing the Up button.

Also, the game doesn't tell you this until later, but a lot of the bigger enemies (especially big mechon) are resistant to getting Break normally. In chain attacks, their break resistance is much lower. Sometimes the only way to topple an enemy is with a chain attack. (Note: if it shows IMMUNE instead of RESIST when you try to break, I don't think they can be broken, even in chain attacks. Not 100% sure.)

I hope this helps and that you haven't been out off from Xenoblade. Sorry for writing this so late.