Indeed!   It's all good, I am OBSESSED with this game. If anyone needs any information, please feel free to rely on my verbose and extremely long winded and obsessive, overly caffeinated tendencies for any assistance lmao.

 

Let's register each other's usernames so we can connect with one another. Go to the Friend List on the Wii U's Home menu.

Nintendo ID name: ParaChomp

If anyone wants to use my avatar as part of their squad, this is what you look up...
in game name: Ignacia
level: 26
class: Psycorruptor

 

Can you actually search by name at the Scouting terminal? I didn't see that search option. If you can that changes everything because until now it seemed next to impossible to connect to a specific user.

 

your friends that play can always be looked up once you get the squad join option. you just choose to join a friends squad and boom there you go, pretty simple.

to download their npc, you need to catch it within like 5 minutes of them uploading at the terminal. uploads are usually quite a few so it only holds the most recent for so long.

if anyone does want to chat while they play though, we use private voice chat on pc (ventrilo) while we play. pm me for more info if interested.

 

Ah, you mean squads and scouting. Yeah, those are cool features. I like being able to scout my friend into my party. I was thinking/hoping you meant you could look up a specific name at the scouting terminal before taking on a co-op mission, though. Because so far it seems next to impossible to actually invite my friends into those. Is there an easier way of accomplishing that?

It seems like you have to be in the same squad, then complete a squad task, then start a mission and just... get lucky that they'll receive the invite?

 

Havent played a game that has taken majority of my free time like this game in a long time lol.

Been doing missions a lot but about to start Story Mission 5.

I also realized i should level up the other characters, im been using the main three and Doug most of the time. And so happy (kinda) about easy mode after dying like 3x on the mission bosses.

 

Updated "Making Xenoblade Chronicles Comprehensible" blog with the following sections Meaningless Gaming Rambles — Making Xenoblade Chronicles X Comprehensible

 

I think I got a good idea on how to balance Skell and ground combat. Against a boss as opposed to a large enemy? I think it worked well due to their large amount of health compared to the power of their attacks. It was very climactic. My entire party had no health and my Skell had broke (again) but I managed to do it with a sliver of health left.

I'm hoping for a Skell statue or figurine in the near future. We haven't seen one of a character from the original Xenoblade but robots sell in Japan.

 

Too bad you cant set it before fights. Gotta make an attack, hope the "B" thing doesn't show up and set the command (cause you cant do it while that pops up)

Been using "Assemble" a lot due to aggroing others.

Gotta remember to use "Emergency Escape". Been just running away while my guys get killed hoping i get far enough away myself.

 

^ Yeah, while I love the game, there are A LOT of bothersome design quirks like that. Just some baffling decisions made. Things that are inconvenient or needlessly complicated.

Tip: recruit three level 60 characters at the Scout terminal and take them to areas filled with tough but easily beatable mobs (level 50 spiders and crabs, etc.) And watch your level and class ranks rise almost every fight.   Repeat with other characters once you're high level enough yourself to carry some of the load.

 

When a Level 24 monster can kill a group of level 23s...sometimes with half health left. yup...happens to me a lot :/

Might need to buy up some better gear while i get my R&D levels higher...

 

Has anyone had their game lock up or system shut down while they were playing? Mine just did. I haven't saved all day, either, so everything I did is just gone. I have never had this happen with a Nintendo game, before. Bethesda? Definitely. Bioware? Occasionally. Nintendo? Never.

I'll probably still go back and redo everything I lost in a few days, but for the time being my excitement for the game has been severely dampened.
Meantime, remember to save often, everybody.

 

Damn that SUCKS. Always the bane of any gamer's existence to lose massive progress. Just remember: the game doesn't autosave whatsoever. (Even when it tries to after missions, you have to confirm it.) Save OFTEN and repeatedly.

The game is extremely stable and there are people who have 100%-ed and encountered zero issues, but that doesn't mean there might not be a crash bug or two nestled somewhere in a game this complex and enormous. It's remarkable it's as stable as it is imo.

I HAVE had my Wii U crash before. But it was an early symptom of a hardware error, so keep an eye on it just in case. If it keeps happening, you may need to consider servicing. (Which is atrocious, because then you lose ALL save progress in ALL games under certain circumstances - one of my biggest criticisms of Wii U. You can back up saves... but there's no point, because you can't restore them to a new system, or a serviced system that had its CPU replaced.)

 

Seriously? That makes no sense whatsoever.

 

You're telling me lol. >_< Nintendo makes some incredibly idiosyncratic design decisions. One of the biggest barriers to them ever returning to true mainstream marketshare success imo.

My system had a hardware error of some sort, and they determined it was the CPU. They explicitly told me there was no way to save the save files. And I said, "Well that's okay, I backed them up." And they said, "You can't restore backed up save files to hardware that has been changed. The files are tied directly to the specific hardware." And sure enough... it can't be done.

So essentially the only function of save backups is to save space lol. I love Nintendo but... you have to grit your teeth sometimes.

 

Got this game today. So far it's really fun.

 

Some more hopefully helpful tips (posting as I learn them):

CRAFTING MATERIALS & "RECIPES"

You may notice certain craftable items at the AM Terminal show only ????? as their required materials/ingredients. To make these materials show up, you must have at least one of them in your inventory already. So, basically... get out there and kill stuff, or cash in reward tickets for at least one of everything available. (Since the materials can be acquired there, too... usually.)

AFFINITY and HEART TO HEARTs

To see your current affinity with different characters, go to the Affinity Chart menu, select Character Affinity, then select your player character. Here you can access a list of all the characters you have affinity with, and see what level your affinity with them has reached thus far.

Having a certain level of affinity for a given NPC or party member is often a prerequisite for access to missions. This should not be ignored. Focus on building affinity with as many party members as possible in particular.

If you encounter a mission requiring higher affinity than you have with a character, take them with you into the field. Help them in battle and complete several quests with them at your side, and their affinity should rise.

Heart to Hearts are special exchanges between specific characters. Finding and completing them can increase affinity between the characters in question. At certain times of day, NPCs may vanish from their usual locations. This means they are instead in a Heart to Heart location, and can be found and interacted with in this way. However, each “level” of Heart to Heart is limited by how many Affinity hearts you have with the character in question as well. E.g. the first Heart to Heart with a character requires one affinity heart. The second requires two, and so on. The Heart to Heart will not show up unless this requirement is met!

ACQUIRING SKELLS

After you’ve completed Chapter 6 of the story, Vandham will tell you to come see him if you’re ready to own and pilot your own Skell. You can find him in the BLADE Barracks, and accept the license exam quests that you must complete before finally gaining access to one.

There are eight of them in total. You may have already knocked some of them out by this point. If not, don’t fret. Most of them are extremely simple busywork you can complete in minutes.

The only nuisances of the bunch are the equipping of several trial weapons and killing of Grexes with them, the defeat of a specific Tyrant in Northpointe Cove, and the collecting of three very specific items.

For the trial weapons, you need party members who can equip those weapon types, and they need to be leveled up enough to allow them to do so. Pretty straightforward, but may require some grinding if you’ve neglected some characters. I used Gwin and Irina personally.

For the Tyrant in Northpointe cove, the only complicating factor is that it appears only rarely. Once it does, lock on and use the Assemble command to avoid drawing in a bunch of other enemies which, depending on your level and strength, may make the fight difficult. (Which is quite frustrating should you fall, given the rarity of this enemy’s appearance.)

For the collection quest (the one I had the most trouble with,) your best bet is to fast travel to northeastern Oblivia, specifically the Nopon caravan and surrounding area. The items are most likely to appear during rainy weather, and during early morning. Just keep picking up items until you get three of them.

The BLADE officers you can talk to (as Vandham will inform you should you ask) can give you tips to make all of these easier, but they can still feel overwrought. Anyhow, once you complete all of them, you can complete your exam and acquire your first Skell!

You must register a character (including your own) to a Skell before they/you can use it. Do this in the BLADE Barracks customization terminal's Hangar section.

If you get out of your Skell and leave it somewhere, it will still be there waiting for you. Use the “Return to Skell” menu option to fast travel to its last location. However, your Skell will also fast travel with you automatically, irrespective of where it is (provided it is not destroyed.)

If destroyed, your Skell will return to your Barracks hangar. Visit the customization terminal, select Hangar, and look at your Skell(s.) For some reason the game makes you do this to get your Skells back in action, even if they still have insurance and don’t need refueling. Exit the Barracks (provided one of your party members is registered to it,) and it will appear just outside the door, ready for you to hop back in.

 

Question on Affinity. Does it go down if you dont use them a while?

 

I don't believe so.

 

Nope. Only increases. And if you have trouble finding their Heart to Hearts (which is probable without a guide or Googling in many cases,) you can literally just take them out and grind affinity with them by fighting and doing random quests.