Xenoblade Chronicles X Guide: Beginner tips and tricks

Xenoblade Chronicles X is a massive game with so much to do. It is an action role-playing game with several classes, skills weapons, and mechas called Skells. There is a lot to take in, luckily most of it unfolds over time so you can get used to the game.

There will be plenty of guides for anything you could want for this game, but this guide will get you started. I’ll explain all the important systems to give you everything you need to better understand the world of Mira.

This guide will go over all the basics of Xenoblade Chronicles X including:

• Main Menu, HUD, and Player Character – Main Menu features, what everything on the heads-up display means, and the player character.
• Equipment – Weapons, armor, and Skells.
• Battle Mechanics – How the real-time battle system works.
• Classes, Arts, and Skills – The different classes available to your player character, as well as an explanation of Arts and Skills.
• New Los Angeles and Missions – The main city and different missions you can get.

Main Menu, HUD, and Player Character

The main menu has several functions: Party, Missions, Ability Chart, Intel, Social, Save, Settings, and Manual.

• Party has several features that let you check on everyone in the party.
• Status – Check a character’s stats.
• Ground Gear – Check or change the equipment of a character when they aren’t in a Skell.
• Skell Gear – Check or change a character’s equipment when in a Skell.
• Arts – Check, upgrade, or change a character’s Arts.
• Skills – Check or change a character’s Skills.
• Classes – Check or change the player character’s class.
• Soul Voices – Check a character’s Soul Voices. You can customize the player character’s Soul Voices.
• Active Members – View, move, and remove members from your active party.
• Return to Skell – Warps to your Skell, wherever you left it.
• Missions – View your missions and their requirements, or set a navigation point for a mission.
• Affinity – Check the relationships of all the game’s characters.
• Intel – Check your inventory, info on the planet Mira, achievements you earned or can earn, stats of defeated enemies, and all of the items you’ve collected in the Collectopedia.
• Social – This shows online information on players you’ve met, squads, and more.
• Save – Save your game.
• Settings – Change several settings of the game including camera and online notifications.
• Manual – Check the game’s manual.

HUD

The game’s HUD shows helpful information, including:

• Weather, Location, and in-game time
• Mini-map
• Enemy Level

It also shows controls, like sprinting and jumping, and information on your active party.

Player Character

The player character is the character you create at the beginning of the game. This is the character you control during battle. Your character can change classes, equipment, and join Divisions. This is also the character you use when playing online with other players.

Divisions 

There are 8 divisions you can choose from in the game and they all give support bonuses that you can give to other players. You can change your division by going to the Network Console in the Blade Barracks when online.

• Pathfinders – Recover HP over time with HP Support bonus. Deals with exploration by planting data probes and finding new locations.

• Interceptors – Increases damage of ranged weapons with Ranged Master bonus. Deals with defeating enemies and completing missions.

• Harriers – Increases melee damage with Melee Master bonus. Deals with defeating enemies and Tyrants.

• Reclaimers – Increases the chance of getting items from enemies with Drop Sensor bonus. Deals with planting data probes and finding white whale wreckage.

• Curators – Increases the chance of getting a critical hit with Critical Master support. Deals with defeating Tyrants and gathering collectibles.

• Prospectors – Decreases the amount of damage you take with Defense Support. Deals with discovering locations and mining resources.

• Outfitters – Increases the amount of R&D points you get with R&D Support. Deals with leveling up arms manufacturers and earning R&D points.

• Mediators – Gives you extra TP when using Arts to attack with TP Support. Deals with training scouted BLADEs and completing missions.

Equipment

Characters can equip weapons, armor, and skells. You don’t get access to your own Skell until after Chapter 6 of the story.

Weapons have 6 attributes, which is the type of damage they deal. Physical, Ether, Beam, Thermal, Electric, and Gravity.

They all have a Cooldown stat, which shows the time between auto-attacks. Other stats include:

• Manufacturer – Who made the weapon.
• Ammo Count – How many shots per attack.
• TP Increase – How much TP you get from each attack.
• Upgrades – How many upgrades you can do and how many you already have.

Armor gives resistances and other stats, like attack and defense. You can equip them to 5 slots: Head, Left Arm, Right Arm, Legs, and Torso. Some armor has Augment Slots that you can put Augments in.

Skells have several things you can change including: color, auto-attack weapons, back weapons, shoulder weapons, arms weapons, spare weapons, and 5 pieces of armor.

The back, shoulder, arms, and spare weapons are like arts.

Battle Mechanics

Battles are all real time, meaning you don’t have to take turns. Your character has 2 weapons, melee and ranged, which you can switch between using the “X” button. To start battle, you must lock on to a target, then press A to ready your weapon.

When you start battle, your character will continue to auto attack with whichever weapon you have currently equipped. You can check this on the screen during battle. It shows your position, as well as how effective it is.

You can switch between different Arts during battle. They have cooldowns, so you’ll have to wait until an Art is finished charging to use it again.

The Morale Level shows a bar of how well your characters work together. The higher the bar, the more you can activate Soul Voices.

You can move around at any time during battle. This is great for positioning or going to different ranges for certain weapons.

Classes, Arts, and Skills

Your character become one of many classes to earn different Arts and Skills. You start as a Drifter and can branch into 3 main classes. Each of these classes have 2 class options that go even deeper.

You rank up classes by using them in battle. At Rank 10 you can move on to the next stage of your class.

• Drifter – Uses Assault Rifle and Knife with no special benefits

• Striker – Uses Long Sword and Assault Rifle, or Gatling Gun and Shield. Focus on Melee attacks and HP.
• Branches into either Samurai Gunner for more damage, or Shield Trooper for tanking.

• Commando – Uses Dual Swords and Dual Guns, or Sniper Rifle and Javelin. Focuses on positioning in combat with bonuses to accuracy and evasion.
• Branches into either Winged Viper for precise combat or Partisan Eagle for ranged combat.

• Enforcer – Uses Raygun and Knife, or Psycho Launcher and Photon Blade. Focuses on supporting allies and debuffing enemies.
• Branches into either Psycorruptor for controlling battle, or Blast Fencer for using energy weapons.

Arts

Arts are the abilities you use during combat. Each Art has 1 of 5 types, which has a specific color:

• Melee – Orange
• Ranged – Yellow
• Debuff – Purple
• Buff – Green
• Aura – Blue

This is also important when it comes to Soul Voices. These are things party members shout during combat that have 1 of the 5 types listed above. If you use an Art with the same color, you get special effects that depend on the type of Soul Voice.

A Soul Challenge can also appear during battle for the player character. When you see “B” surrounded by circles, press B at the right time to complete it. If you get it in the blue, you get “Good”. If you get it in the white, you get “Perfect”. Perfect gives a TP bonus.

Skills

These are passive abilities that do things like increase damage to a certain enemy type or increase certain stats. Each class has their own Skills, just like Arts.

New Los Angeles and Missions

This is where you’ll do all your planning before going out to battle. You can freely roam the city to visit many districts.

Industrial District

Home to Repenta Diner and the Outfitter Test Hangar. The factories are also located here.

Commercial District

Places like cafes and malls are found here. As more aliens arrive, this place gets bigger.

Administrative District

This is where you’ll shop, check the Divisions, get missions, and home to the Blade Barracks.

Residential District

Home and other places to make Mira feel more like our old home, Earth.

Missions

There are 4 types of missions: Story, Basic, Normal, and Affinity.

• Story Missions progress the story. There are multiple chapters and story missions have requirements before you can start them.
• Basic and Normal Missions are side missions. Both give experience, money, and other rewards. Basic are simpler missions and normal missions require more effort.
• Affinity Missions show stories between your party members. They can unlock things like new abilities and party members.

That’s all for my Beginner Tips and Tricks for Xenoblade Chronicles X. Let me know if you have any questions!