Xenoblade Chronicles

So, after being horribly slaughtered by the hostile level 85 enemies in the Chansagh Wastes at least once, I found the Lucky Core Crystal. I'll figure out what to do with it later.

/ Good to know. I've been doing some salvaging and sort of stumbled across the one monster on accident, so I have a lot of money. I guess my next objective is to get some shop deeds.

If you're curious about the Lucky Core Crystal's contents, it's a Dark-element Shield Hammer Blade. Make of that what you will, if that effects how you distribute your Blades.

I'll use the crystal on Mórag, then, so that she can get another defender Blade.

I got Mor Ardain up to rank 5, and the only deed I was able to get was the one that lets me carry more boosters. I'm guessing that I need to do more Merc Missions before I can get the other deeds.

Anyway, thank you all for helping me figure this game out! If I have more questions, I'll ask them, but I think I've got this for now.

Pretty much do this. Morag's probably the "best" Shield Hammer user.

I'm guessing from the quotes you used there that Shield Hammers are one of the weaker weapon types. That's unfortunate, since I just used some rare crystals on Mòrag and got Godfrey from one of them. I don't think I'll actually use him, though, since I like having Boreas as a backup healer and I like Kasandra's skills (both in and out of battle) more.

It's more that Evasion Tanking (Katana Blades) is overall better than standard Tanking, which is what Shield Hammers focus on. You're not going to go wrong with using them (I personally love the weapon type and most of its associated Blades), but Morag's the best character for em.

Edited by Customer on Nov 15th 2018 at 4:10:42 AM

The main issue with shield hammers is that in general, they don't fill any unique niche. They're meant to function as an HP/Defense tank, but every character has other roles that function better. The only tanky characters are Tora and Morag. Morag is an agility based tank, and Tora can't equip any blades other than Poppi. The good news is that Kasandra is one of the decent Shield Hammers due to her abilities. For the record, the other is Finch, who boosts agility rather than HP, and thus works well on Morag.

Shield hammers are somewhat dubious in that they're designed for HP-tanking, Reyn-style, but the only playable character designed around that strategy is Tora, who... can't use them anyway.

They can still function fine on your other four Drivers if you want to use a mixed-role set or get crazy-experimental, they just don't fit well into any "optimal" endgame loadout.

It's also because only Morag has a unique driver combo art from Shield Hammers; Zeke gets one but it's Launch, something he already does with his Purple Lightning Dreamsmasher. Rex and Nia get bupkuss. It doesn't help that the drop rates for the three random Shield Hammer blades are incredibly high, compared to that of the other weapon types, which more often than not leads to said two drivers getting them by accident.

Edited by RainingMetal on Nov 15th 2018 at 5:12:52 AM

Oh, I didn't even notice that the three Blades equipped to a Driver affect their stats. I did notice the agility tanking thing, though. Maybe at some point I'll get a rare katana for her to use.

In other news, I opened Vale on Mòrag, and I stumbled across a sidequest that gave me the (currently inert) core crystal for Praxis. Her weapon is a lance, right? If that's the case, I'll give her to Rex.

Morag actually gets a rare Katana Blade handed to her during the story, that only she can use.

Praxis is a Water Megalance, yes. You may want to consider hanging onto her core for the final party member, though.

By now you should have used the Beastly Core Crystal on Rex, which gives him an Earth Megalance. So use Praxis' core crystal on your next driver.

Morag's good with Vale as her Megalance, as I prefer to use Perceval the Dark Katana on Rex. Though Morag will be an ideal Driver for Theory when you can get her.

Okay, I'll save Praxis for later, then. Besides, it's not like I can do anything with her crystal now — it's still inert. And yeah, having all of my good Blades on one character isn't a good idea.

I continued with the story a bit, and I entered Fonsett Village, another place for me to fully develop. And on that note, I have a salvaging question. I stumbled across a Nopon in Argentum who ranked my salvaging skill and gave me some Premium Cylinders. Is it possible for me to get more of them?

More premium cylinders? Yes. Occasionally, salvage stores stock them (this is random), and there's a DLC quest that lets you craft them.

You don't really need a lot of them unless you do a lot of salvaging, though if I'm not mistaken there is one sidequest item that explicitly requires you use a premium cylinder to acquire it, it has a 0% chance of showing up with anything less.

I'm pretty sure I only ever used premium cylinders for that one quest, and just used gold otherwise. Could never be bothered to get the premium ones to appear at the shops.

Appearing at a shop is a random chance when you take a long rest at an inn. Once it appears, it will stay in that shop until the next time you do a long rest on that titan.

Edited by justinkal on Nov 15th 2018 at 12:15:30 PM

Oh... I didn't know I would need them for a sidequest, and so I used all of them on normal salvaging. They don't seem too hard to acquire, though. And I'm guessing they can only show up in the places where you can take long rests (i.e. not in Uraya).

I have the sidequest to upgrade my merc level to 3, but Yew and Zuo keep kicking my ass. I'll come back to them later, but for now, do the points I'm getting from missions I'm running in the mean time carry over to the next level?

Points carry, yes.

It's possible to wind up doing all the rank-up missions in one go if you put them off long enough.

And that's Bringer of Chaos no main-blades complete. Amalthus surprisingly wasn't that bad, but Malos was mean. For most stuff he actually wasn't that bad, but Siren Buster is just an ass to constantly deal with. Morag kept on dodge tanking well while Nia kept us healthy. Rex with Shulk endgame MVP. With Vision and timing the level IV special and chain attack perfectly, Malos went down. I'm happy to report Zeke finally found a shirt on the escape pod.

Bringer of Chaos certainly doesn't mess around, even with maxed out Blades. Specials are slow, and the party gauge is often worthless. But good use of Elma, Fiora, Shulk, KOS-MOS, and Corvin in particular saw me through. With that, I think I'm done with Xenoblade 2 for now.

So, I'm off to Temperantia, and I recruited the mighty Zekenator. I put Praxis on him right away, and I think someone said I should move Zenobia over to him too. Is there anything else he needs right now?

Also, I hope I'm not annoying you all by asking too many questions.

Nothing off the top of my head. Just pull some cores on him and see what the RNG gods bequeath unto him.

Praxis is useful on Zeke (he's probably her most optimal Driver in fact) but mostly I just like it for their shared eyepatches. I actually sorta regret not giving him Theory as well when I got her.

Edited by Anomalocaris20 on Nov 16th 2018 at 3:01:34 PM

Theory's better off on Morag anyway. That way Praxis and Theory can still fight along side each other simultaneously.

You said you also have Zenobia? Put her on Zeke. That's an order.

Finally got the whole roster of the Torna DLC filled out.

Um, ok, yessir. Zenobia was quite helpful during the fight against the titan robot thing in Temperantia. Her wind element allowed me to, for the first time, break two element orbs during a chain attack without having to do another chain attack to weaken them first.

I've since acquired Agate on Zeke, and I'm guessing Aegaeon is the katana for Mòrag that the story hands her. His crystal should be ready to use soon. And now, I'm off to Tantal.

When you reach Theosoir, you may notice a shrine behind some breakable wall. You'll need to offer a shitload of certain items to obtain the core crystal hidden within it. I would suggest using it on Morag.