Xenoblade Chronicles

The entire place? I thought it was only the Central Pit region. O.o

Good thing I got the entire place mapped out beforehand. Having a few missing squares on the map would've bugged me to no end.

Yup. But it's also very pretty at night.

satorl marsh's collection quests were the first instance of the game screwing me over with the blue balls. OTL

still havent gotten that 3rd wool rock. well, thats what trading is there for. eventually.

that quest where you go to the top of the ruins and place a thingy at an altar and suddenly 3 gigantic fuck off spiders show up was very cruel ;_; but fuck you game i survived!

No, it's just the central pit that becomes unavailable.

And yes, Satorl Marsh totally throws video game swamp conventions out of the water. Word of advice: Hold on to any Wool Rock you find. The first time playing I couldn't for the life of me find the stupid things for that Nopon's quest. I found them pretty quickly for my current playthrough though, so that was nice.

Also a little warning: Though the game's wiki has plenty of information about a lot of stuff in the game like trading and item locations, it also has zero concerns about spoilers.

edited 27th Jul '14 2:40:22 PM by Elbruno

The Rainbow Slugs are worse.

I think I still have one, and already put another in the Collectopedia.

I take it they're the rarest collectables in the area, huh?

That answers that question.

Thanks for the header. I'll avoid it at all costs.

edited 27th Jul '14 2:41:11 PM by NesClassic

im not so sure about that. i dont remember the wiki saying they're uncommon, but its just so damn hard to get some.

there are other items in later areas like that too- not exactly rare but they'll cause you so much grief because they just dont seem to drop.

ironically, the items for the colony 6 lvl1 special, the one the nebula drops on stormy days thats a rare drop? first kill gave it to me =O

...which is probably why i have so much trouble with the not rare stuff, really.

edited 27th Jul '14 2:43:48 PM by Tarsen

No problem.

I'm not overblowing this. There are indexes and information about seemingly harmless items that hold massive spoilers.

edited 27th Jul '14 2:48:22 PM by Elbruno

Rainbow Slugs aren't from Satorl Marsh, they're from a later area. And they are absolute monsters to find.

Speaking of hard-to-find collectables, I'm missing one Flower from Colony 6 and it's bugging the heck out of me. Any idea on who trades it, or which item orb typically hands it out? It's the second Flower in the list, from either direction.

a durian?

when i was having trouble with a colony 6 collectible, i wasnt able to trade it for a good long while because my star rating wasnt high enough for it to show up.

I think I have Red Durians... that was Bionis Leg, though. Wasn't it?

I'm guessing that's the Sirius Anemone. It is a pain to find, but once the reconstruction of Colony 6 starts you can get it from Nikita via overtrade. Get two of them, as you need one for a quest in the colony.

edited 27th Jul '14 6:03:19 PM by Elbruno

Good thing I'm about ready to begin that whole side of the game, thanks.

In return; I'll note that if anyone needs Chewy Radishes ever, there's one blue item orb that always gives one out in Colony 9, atop one of the anti-air batteries.

FYI, the cave in the southwest area of Eryth Sea, at night, is an absolute godsend for finding stuff. Especially the damned marine marble.

edited 30th Jul '14 10:18:41 PM by TheAirman

I've had pretty good luck with Wool Rocks outside of the Nopon refuge.

Also, I can confirm that the spawn rate for Fossil Monkeys will exponentially increase after you spend hours searching in vain before finally trading to get one for Colony 6.

edited 28th Jul '14 10:47:06 AM by TheAirman

The Law of Inverse Wants says that you won't get it when you need it, and then get it when you don't need it.

In other news-

• All of Colony 6 is at Level 1. I forgot to trade for the Light Rain Element, but thankfully the game was lenient on how much I had to mess with the clock for rain to appear. And it only took three Aqua Nebulae as well! Which I think also appear in Satorl Marsh... whoops.
• Nikita's a cheapskate, you have to give him something ridiculously pricey for it to count as an overtrade. Thankfully I had a nice amount of Happy Carnivals.
• You guys were right on the Wool Rocks. I'll make your bed later, son.

Holy crap, the pieces are falling into place. Haven't finished Satorl Marsh, but revisiting Colony 9 I talked to Désirée...

She says her father was a blacksmith named Xord, who died in the Battle of Sword Valley. And she also mentioned how he had a heck of an arm to swing his hammer. I think even if the achievements hadn't spoiled it I'd of starting theorizing Fiora wasn't dead by now... I also have a feeling that every minor detail of this game is well-crafted.

imo the earliest reasonable time to figure it out is after seeing metal face speak for the first time. his voice is not enough removed from mumkhar to make me not recognize it, and that cutscene he spends a good amount of time flourishing his claws making me take note of them much more as a pair of weapons instead of just part of the mechon body. in addition to that, thanks to the camera lingering on dunban during the "losers" statement- and this is what really made me realise i recognized that voice- makes it seem like theres some past animosity between them despite dunban supposedly not knowing him. and finally, the visions kick in, showing a mechon being cut open and a figure inside being revealed.

It was a combination of that scene, Xord's dialogue, and what Desiree says that made me figure it out. Thinking about it there was even more foreshadowing before Metal Face even appeared. "The Monado can't cut people."

I'm a bit sorry to say that I didn't figure out smack until the key scene came up. Back when I first played the game I was way too slow on the uptake when it came to foreshadowing (read: Was barely discovering TV Tropes).

Playing through a second time made me truly admire how much foreshadowing there's in the game. Near end game spoilers: The scene where Shulk mentions to Reyn how he feels there are two voices in his head, and one is telling him to destroy all Mechon, comes to mind.

BTW, those are also spoilers of the game's second half.

edited 28th Jul '14 2:37:05 PM by Elbruno

I was the same as you. In fact, this game is how I got into Tv Tropes. I was looking up a guide to beat Gadolt, and for whatever reason, the Trope page for this game came up.

And I'm out of the giant woods! Of Makna, that is.

Beat the Leone Telethia on my first try, hehe. I had a minor issue since no one was dedicated to absorbing aggro, so it kept being bounced between Shulk and Riki while Melia stood there and did her status-buffing thing.

Still probably the second hardest boss I've fought yet, and easily the most tedious. (The hardest boss so far was Mechon M71, for reasons unknown.)

Story bosses on the whole aren't that tricky.

There's a real nasty one near the end of the game, but most of the difficulty there comes from arena hazards and AI stupidity.

You're talking about the one that takes place on an island surrounded by ether aren't you? I hate that asshole so much!