Nintendo UK: 'Welcome to Mira – a Xenoblade Chronicles X Beginners Guide'

To think I’m nearly 100 hours in and yet I didn’t even know about “Fashion Gear.”

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Welcome to Mira – a Xenoblade Chronicles X Beginners Guide

Check out our Xenoblade Chronicles X beginners guide — five key notes about life on this alien planet to ensure you begin your BLADE career on the right foot.

22/12/2015

Earth has been destroyed. Caught in the crossfire of two warring alien races, humanity was forced to flee its home planet before it was too late. Aboard the White Whale you were one of the lucky few to survive the escape, but now find yourself marooned alongside your crew on the alien planet of Mira…

In Xenoblade Chronicles X on Wii U, surviving on Mira will not be an easy task and many potential BLADE soldiers will likely find themselves in over their head within their first hours of duty. With this in mind the following five pieces of advice have been put together as an essential Mira guide – five key notes about life on this alien planet to ensure you begin your BLADE career on the right foot.

1. How to… Find Missions

The most important tool to get your head around as a member of BLADE is your FrontierNav, located on the Wii U GamePad’s touch screen. This tool functions as your map, lets you fast–travel between landmarks, and generally helps direct your adventures around Mira.

The bulk of your time with FrontierNav will be spent scouting out where to plant data probes to further exploration of Mira, but it’s also a vital tool to easily find citizens in distress around New Los Angeles (NLA). You’ll find that helping the residents of NLA can often be an essential task before you’re allowed to move on to the next chapter of your exploits on Mira.

First, tap the icon in the top left of the GamePad touch screen to get an overview of the world, and then tap on any NLA district on the right. In certain segments you’ll see a grey rectangular icon showing a pair of hands shaking.

Tap a segment containing this icon and you’ll be able to see the information of the mission contained within that part of NLA. Simply head to the area and find the resident with a green exclamation mark above their head to begin that mission.

Aside from these jobs there is the Mission Control board just outside the BLADE Barracks in NLA. This terminal will give you non–essential missions, but they are often tasks that help in your exploration of Mira with objectives focused around collecting items, eliminating ferocious tyrants, or using experimental weaponry.

2. How to… Heal your Team

One of the biggest questions new BLADE recruits have is how to keep themselves and their allies active during combat, and the answer lies in responding to the ‘Soul Challenge’ prompt. During a combat encounter it’s crucial that you’re aware of all the information presented to you, and while Soul Voices are important (see the next section for information on those) nothing is more important than reacting to a Soul Challenge, as seen here:

To respond to a Soul Challenge simply tap the B Button as the shrinking ring overlaps the bright, outer area to show that your soul is strong and your entire team will feel the effects through a surge of HP! Tapping the B Button as the ring touches the inner circle will have an effect, but it won’t be as strong. A Soul Challenge has the potential to occur whenever your character takes an action listed in their Soul Voice list, accessible by pressing the + Button, selecting ‘Party’, and then selecting ‘Soul Voices’.

As you improve as a BLADE there will be additional ways to heal, but the Soul Challenge is the primary method of administering first aid to your entire team.

3. How to… Maximise Damage

When you’re fighting against hostiles on Mira you need to be aware of what your team-mates are saying. During combat you will see speech bubbles appear above the heads of your allies, these are known as ‘Soul Voices’. You can see a Soul Voice in action here:

Each Soul Voice prompt has a corresponding ‘Art’, the special moves you perform during combat, that you need to activate in response to the Soul Voice. An appropriate Art will pulse after a team–mate’s Soul Voice is heard, and activating an Art at this time will give the skill bonus effects while also healing both you and the character you’re answering.

Due to the way Arts need time to recharge after each use, it can be tempting to use your combat Arts the moment they’re ready. However, it’s often better to save them specifically to respond to Soul Voice prompts in order maximise combat effectiveness.

4. How to… Upgrade Yourself

Knowing how to maximise damage is one thing, but there are many other ways to upgrade your fighting prowess while on Mira. Making sure that you stay on top of your upgrade options is essential if you want to stay ahead of the opposition waiting in the wilds of Mira.

To see these upgrade options simply press the + Button and select ‘Party’. Here there are three key sub–menus that allow you to improve your fighting tenacity.

Ground Gear lets you change your armour and weapons, giving boosts in attack and defence. You’ll find plenty of gear during missions, so check this menu often! You can also buy gear from the weapons terminal in NLA’s Administrative District. It’s recommended that BLADE operatives check this terminal after key missions.

Arts is where you can assign your eight special moves, but you shouldn’t forget that you can also spend Battle Points to upgrade Arts by selecting the skill and pressing the X Button.

Skills, often forgotten by less studious BLADEs, are abilities that are always active while you explore Mira. As with Arts, you can spend Battle Points to improve the potency of Skills.

It should be standard practice to check these upgrade options after key missions and when you find yourself confronted with a particularly challenging foe to ensure you’re always fighting at your maximum potential.

5. How to… Be Yourself

While your mission on Mira to rebuild humanity is of top priority, all operatives should be aware of their flexibility in all aspects of their role as a member of BLADE.

On a serious note, the division you choose can be changed at any time, as can your combat class. Variety is the spice of life and, given that the longevity of humanity’s future is in question, BLADE encourages you to experiment frequently and enjoy your time on Mira!

On a less serious note, BLADE operatives are able to wear ‘Fashion Gear’ over their normal armour, giving you the freedom to express yourself without forfeiting combat ability. Simply select the Ground Gear option in the Main Menu, press the X Button, and then select Change Fashion Gear to customise your look.

This brings us to the end of our Beginners Guide to Mira. Hopefully these five points will be of use to you and put you on the right track to becoming one of BLADE’s brightest and best. Good luck out there, humanity is counting on you…

— Nintendo UK News
Source: Nintendo UK.