dla tych co sie ucza ( jak ja ! mysle ze duzo wyjasni :
XC2: Battle Primer - Learn the Ins and Outs of Combat self.Xenoblade_Chronicles
Submitted 12 days ago * by Siam09
Let’s get started. This is going to be a long read depending on current understanding of XC2’s combat mechanics.
tl;dr: Check the Becoming an Expert section (best tl;dr I can do). Checking Terminologies help, too.
Terminologies
Driver Arts referring to the X, Y, and B buttons Special Arts referring to the A button Driver Combos referring to Break > Topple > Launch > Smash Blade Combos referring to chaining Rank I-III Special Arts to seal enemy art effects such as Blowdown Fusion Combos referring to inflicting Driver/Blade combos while an existing Driver/Blade combo is in effect Cancelling referring to using a Driver/Special Art as soon as an Auto-attack or Driver/Special Art lands Auto-attack String referring to the 3 sets of auto-attack your character does Recovery Cancelling referring to briefly moving your character to reset the character’s auto-attack string when the last hit of the auto-attack string lands
The Basics
Combat always starts with your team doing nothing but auto-attack strings until your Driver Arts are charged up, and once they are you can use them by pressing the appropriate buttons. All Driver Arts require a certain number of auto-attacks before it gets fully charged. Driver Arts are what charges up your Blade’s Special Arts. All Special Arts also require a certain number of Driver Arts used before it gets fully charged. Each Special Art has 4 Ranks, each rank requiring the previous rank to be fully charged before the next can be used. When you use a Special Art you will begin to attempt to complete a Blade Combos.
Blade Combos are your best means of doing damage. They are the bread-and-butter of XC2’s combat so make sure you always attempt to complete them.
Note: Missing Auto-attack Strings, Driver Arts, and Special Arts will not charge up anything.
One Step Forward
Now that you know what charges what, let’s talk about making them charge faster.
* Driver Arts can be charged faster by doing Recovery Cancelling. All weapons in XC2 has a short delay after it completes an Auto-attack String before it can start a new one. Driver Arts also get charged by different amounts incrementally from each step of your Auto-attack String. Each step after the first getting a bonus of how much the Driver Art gains.
* Special Arts can be charged faster by using Cancelling. This is very important to remember if you want to ever kill enemies quicker. Like Driver Arts, Special Arts also gain a bonus from each step of your Auto-attack string, doing your Cancelling at the last hit of your Auto-attack string giving the most amount gained.
Tip: You can use Cancelling even if you miss your auto-attacks and Driver Arts.
The Advance Stages - Driver Combos
To start a Driver Combo, you must always start with Break. Inflicting Break on your enemy will make it vulnerable to the Topple, which would then make it vulnerable to Launch and finally to Smash. Topple and Launch makes it so that your enemy cannot dodge your auto-attacks and Arts. Smash does a lot of damage to the enemy and may drop an additional Gold. This is your means of controlling the fight so try to inflict them as much as you can.
The Advance Stages – Blade Combos
When you initiate a Special Art, a guide will appear on the upper-right of your screen. This guide shows you which Special Art elements you should use to complete a Blade Combo. Each starting Special Art element has its own set of Special Arts you must follow to complete it which will then seal that specific enemy art effect until you overwrite it by completing a new Blade Combo. Starting with a Special Art element of Fire, for example, will only be able to seal Self-Destruct, Affinity Down, and Shackle Blade effects. For a full set of seal effects, /u/Raszero put this together.
To complete a Blade Combo each step needs a minimum rank of Special Art to be used. Starting a Blade Combo only needs a Rank I Special Art. To continue, you will need to use a Rank II-IV Special Art and to complete it you will have to use a Rank III-IV Special Art.
Note: You can only achieve a Rank IV Special Art on the character you’re controlling.
Trying to complete a Blade Combo on your own will be impossible at the beginning, that’s where party members come in. When their own Special Arts are ready, they will request you to initiate them yourself by pressing ZL or ZR. Their Special Attack ranks are shown by the number of orbs orbiting their portrait. Your party members are usually smart enough to request the appropriate element they have to complete a Blade Combo, as long as they have access to it.
The Advance Stages – Blade Swapping
Later on in the game you’ll unlock the ability to equip your 2nd and 3rd Blade and you’ll be able to swap between them after they’ve charged up. The Blades on your 2nd and 3rd slot slowly charges automatically during battle. Swapping to another Blade during battle fully charges all that Blade’s Driver Arts allowing you to use them immediately.
Tip: Blade swapping can also be used as a means of Cancelling. The amount gained is also based on the step of your Auto-attack String.
The Advance Stages – Chain Attacks
On the upper-left of your screen is the Party Gauge. This gauge automatically fills up as you fight, doing Cancelling and Blade Combos makes this fill up faster. Once it is full you can then initiate a Chain Attack by pressing +. Let’s see what comprises a Chain Attack.
* It’s a continuous chain of Special Arts from each of your party members.
* It consists of rounds. Each round ending after all your party members have done their Special Art.
* To increase your Chain Attack beyond 1 round you must burst an Elemental Orb. Elemental Orbs are rewarded from completing Blade Combos. The element of the orb being the last element to complete the Blade Combo. Bursting 1 orb extends the Chain Attack for 1 round. You can burst multiple orbs in 1 round and that would extend the Chain Attack to the number of orbs burst.
* To burst an Elemental Orb, you must hit it 3 times by Special Arts. * Max number of orbs you can have is 8, 1 for each element (big kudos to you if you ever get to that, but it’s a total overkill).
* When you extend your Chain Attack, you will be given a QTE to perform which gives you a chance to increase the rank of Special Arts you can use by 1. Failing this QTE will decrease it instead. Rank III Special Arts is the max.
* Killing an enemy with a Chain Attack will double the rewards you’ll get.
Tip: The order of orbs getting hit always starts from left to right. If you use a Special Art that is strong against an orb, it will target that instead (ignoring the left to right rule) and do 2 damage to the orb instead of just 1. Always remember: Fire/Water, Earth/Lightning, Wind/Ice, and Light/Dark.
Tip from /u/The_Composer: I just discovered -- if you're breaking one orb per "round" of the chain attack, that's enough to keep the chain attack going, but it won't fill up the gauge much.
The key is to break multiple orbs in a single round, as this gets you a lot more gauge per orb in exchange of "wasting" the opportunity to get more rounds by saving them for the next one.
This took me two chain attacks. One to just damage some orbs, and another to break them all.
The Advance Stages – Full Burst
During a Chain Attack, your Party Gauge will be replaced by the Full Burst gauge. This gauge fills up when you complete QTEs during the Chain Attack and bursting orbs. Filling this gauge will immediately finish your Chain Attack with everyone doing their Special Arts starting from Rank I-III, regardless if you have remaining orbs to burst or not. If you want to see what a Full Burst look like, I have a video showcasing it here (early Ch. 5 mild spoilers).
Tip: The Blades that will perform the Full Burst attack will be last the Blades that you’ve used in the Chain Attack prior to filling up the gauge. Plan accordingly.
Becoming an Expert
Now that we’re at this level it’s time to share with you some tips/strategies I do to consistently dish out Blade Combos consecutively.
* Set up your party so that to that you can complete at least 2-3 Blade Combos. This would allow you to have a strong burst of damage to kill your enemy, if not, at least do significant damage.
* Know when you can use Cancelling and Recovery Cancelling across all the Blades that you will be using.
* Have the Affinity Skill that allows you to chain Driver Arts unlocked. This is required.
* Use all your Driver Arts before doing a Special Art /and or Blade Swapping so their charge is not wasted, unless…
* You have the accessory Overclocking Bangle, it shortens the cooldown time of the Blade you swapped from depending on the number of Driver Arts you have ready, then only use the Driver Arts you need until you have the necessary Special Art rank for your Blade Combo.
* Do Special Arts one after another if you’re not going to contribute to the Blade Combo being done. It’s good damage.
* Use the time during your Special Art QTE to reposition and pick-up HP pots.
* Seal specific enemy art effects when you can, but ramping up damage as fast as possible is usually the best.
* Make sure that you can burst at least 1 orb during the first round of your Chain Attack. I usually run with Tora/Nia having both earth elemental Blades and having a lightning orb during my Chain Attacks to extend the round.
* Time (or save them if you have Overclocking Bangle) your Driver Combos with Blade Combos so you can do Fusion Combos when you can so you can do even more damage.
* Play as Rex. Why? Because you can blade swap Pyra and Mythra without any cooldown while doing Cancelling.
The Master – Fusion Combos
Last thing is to talk about is Fusion Combos. As I said on the Terminologies section, Fusion Combos happens when you do a Driver/Blade Combo while another Driver/Blade Combo is happening. Example: Inflicting Topple during a Rank II Blade Combo can reset the timers for those combos, do significantly higher damage, or significantly boost your Party Gauge. If you can do Fusion Combos consistently, or in every Blade Combo and not just with Topple, then you have mastered XC2’s combat.
Hope this helps someone at least. And if you read everything here…Thanks.
