Xenoblade Chronicles 2 [NS] - storyline spoiler-free please!

[kryss]

You should unlock mercenary quests soon then.

[Asura]

Also I unlocked a Blade called "Electra"? Unfortunately it was on Nia, and the Blade is a tank, which is a bit of a pain as I need Nia as a healer.

[kryss]

You'll get items called Overdrive Protocol which lets you move the blade to another character.

[briareos_kerensky]

Overdrive Protocols are limited in number, probably around 10 in the whole game without DLC passes. Use them wisely. Also Electra's not that bad on Nya, element-wise.

[Asura]

Out of interest, how far through the game am I?

I just got to the bit where...

->Open Spoiler<-

You chase Lila through the streets and fight her, then you do some investigation and go speak to Morag. I've literally just finished the conversation with Morag.

I was going to get Octopath but I've decided I need to either finish or at least wrap up this first.

[briareos_kerensky]

Surely in the first half of the game, somewhat after the first third, I'd say. Although my perception might be a bit skewed due to fighting all the endgame bosses and farming heavily for all the rare Blades.

[Asura]

Surely in the first half of the game, somewhat after the first third, I'd say. Although my perception might be a bit skewed due to fighting all the endgame bosses and farming heavily for all the rare Blades.

Yeah I'm literally just shooting for the end credits.

[briareos_kerensky]

Slightly before half of it then sounds right.

[briareos_kerensky]

Final batch of DLC quests and one new rare Blade out now, along with a new patch.

[briareos_kerensky]

I missed this from the last patch, but there's a new challenge mode that also unlocks character costumes. The problem? Costumes take on expansion chip slot.
Also, completing on of these challenges allow to use

->Open Spoiler<-

Fiora and Shulk from Xenoblade Chronicles as Blades on all party members.

[Asura]

Miiiight be jacking this in.

I've enjoyed some of it, but I'm finding the bosses are getting more and more difficult as I go, and looking online, I think it's because I'm doing what originally got me to stop FFXII (until I figured out a way to fast-level) - I'm scraping through even though I'm not quite levelled enough, but that has diminishing returns. I hate grinding, which has killed a lot of JRPGs in the past for me (I just hate doing the same boring, non-challenging combats over and over just to do the bits of the game I want to do).

I'm up to the second Lila boss fight and it's just not do-able with my current party. I backed out to fight some creatures in the area, but after spending 15 minutes and just seeing that XP bar inch to the right bit-by-bit... I'm not feeling it.

It's a shame as I like many things about it, but I just dunno if I can be pestered with the hassle.

[briareos_kerensky]

By this point you should have a good number of Blades to target elemental weaknesses and know how to build Elemental Orbs for chain attacks. No boss battle can be brute-forced without those, unless you have a disarming level advantage. Also you'll might want to give Tora (or whoever is acting as a tank) items to boost HP and aggro so that your attacker and healer (Rex and Nya in my case) are free to do their job.
If you want to get extra experience from battles you have to overkill monsters (start a chain attack and kill the monster during it). I power-levelled from level 80 to 99 in the endgame by doing so against some very large monsters in later areas in a jiffy,

[Asura]

Well I don’t know what it is, but I’m finding the boss battles mid-game to be infuriating. I keep missing the blade fusion deal limit break combos (or whatever the **** they are called) because the timing is too strict; the bar always runs out before I can charge the level 3 move. Right now I’m fighting a boss with fire aoe attacks and tora Nia are just content to stand in the attacks and die.

[briareos_kerensky]

The trick in building the special bar fast is to trigger special attacks (the one on the right activated with the face buttons) when an attack hits. If done correctly you'll see a blue circle around your character.
If you're having trouble with a boss just stick to Pyra and use the heal potion attack as much as you can. Giving Nya a Blade that has the same abilities (Blades with Knuckle Claws do have it and charge bars pretty fast) works well too. I'd suggest to double check if Nya's role is healer (Blade equip screen) is healer and she'll stick to that role, switching to whatever healing action she has available to keep the party alive.

[Asura]

The trick in building the special bar fast is to trigger special attacks (the one on the right activated with the face buttons) when an attack hits. If done correctly you'll see a blue circle around your character.

I already do this; however the problem is that I start off a chain and often have to switch blades to finish it, and I'll be charging from 0 to potentially III, which just takes too long, even if I get the AI to perform the level-II bit in between.

If you're having trouble with a boss just stick to Pyra and use the heal potion attack as much as you can. Giving Nya a Blade that has the same abilities (Blades with Knuckle Claws do have it and charge bars pretty fast) works well too. I'd suggest to double check if Nya's role is healer (Blade equip screen) is healer and she'll stick to that role, switching to whatever healing action she has available to keep the party alive.

You can change that? I thought that was inherent to the character, like my Rex is currently "Wild Cavalier" and Nia is an "all-rounder". I can see the blades have roles (tank, healer etc.) but I had no idea you could change the role of the characters.

EDIT: Also gotta say, I don't like the way that blades are "bonded" to a character and can only be moved with a consumable, of which the game has a limited quantity. It leads to redundancy. As part of the story, I was forced to bond Roc to Rex, so I already have a good blade with Wind on Rex. Later, I used a rare crystal on him and unlocked another rare Wind blade, and it's useless. I'm never going to use it more than Roc, so it's redundant. I get why it's the case in the story but that's just a "plot justification"; as a gameplay feature I really don't like it.

I found out that the role reflects the blades you have equipped, so I used up 20 core crystals to get two additional HLR blades onto Nia (she kept getting ATK/TNK, and she has like 6 water healers when she already has Dromarch), so I'll give this a go.