It blows my mind that so many people go through large portions of this game without even knowing basic shit like time travel, gifting, etc.

Like Rodimus said the books aren't dropped until way later in the game. I think it starts after you get the final (7th, I believe) character in your party. After that, when enemies drop a gold chest it has the chance to drop a book.

Riki has skill that can give +3% chance of finding a gold chest. Try to max out that skill tree for him (it's the final skill on the tree), and raise affinity between him and the characters you use in your main battle party to the required level to link that skill. If you do that, you'll be rolling in the best loot (gear, books, weapons) before you know it.

Also, when you get a gold chest to drop, you can save before you open it. If you open and get something you don't want/need, reload and open it again. The contents will be different on each reload.

On more tip, named enemies always drop a gold chest. You can defeat them, save, reload that save a few times (sometimes up to 3-5 times in my experience) and they will eventually reappear. If you need some better stuff or just more money from selling decent stuff, this should help.

Originally Posted by Dead of Knight It blows my mind that so many people go through large portions of this game without even knowing basic shit like time travel, gifting, etc.

I can't remember but I don't think the game explained those things. I remember seeing guides for all the combat stuff and the quick travel, but not for changing the time or gifting.

Blindinglights knows his shit. Listen to this guy.

I really need to get back to mopping up those super bosses. I lost a little steam once I beat the game. Grinding location affinity for skill trees doesn't make me a happy camper.

Originally Posted by Dead of Knight It blows my mind that so many people go through large portions of this game without even knowing basic shit like time travel, gifting, etc.

Time travel is right there on the main menu so I figured that one out pretty early. "Gifting" is only available when you select an item in one particular panel of the inventory screen so you probably wouldn't even notice it without being told about it. And that is a screen where you don't need to manipulate the items at all so it would be rare to stumble upon that option - all you ever do is sell them and in that interface it doesn't mention the gifting.

But otherwise, thanks for another useful post .

Or, you could RTFM.

Originally Posted by Dead of Knight Or, you could RTFM.

I don't think I've ever read a video game manual and I'm not about to start. I just assume games don't even come with them any more. The disc is in the Wii and the case for the game is put away somewhere anyway.

But whatever - why are you even reading this thread any more as you seem to be done with the game and don't want to contribute in any meaningful way?

I thought this was the thread for the game so if discussing stuff that is apparently in the manual is against your wishes - well, then tough shit .

I've played the game for 25 hours and still have no idea how Affinity Coins are used or Links between my party members go up.

Originally Posted by KingBroly I've played the game for 25 hours and still have no idea how Affinity Coins are used or Links between my party members go up.

I'm not sure of all the ways affinity goes up, but I know you use the coins in the skill link part. When you are in the skill menu, press '-' to bring up the skill linkage chart and you can assign skills from one character to another depending on their affinity (higher affinity unlocks more options and gives you more coins to spend on skills).

This has forced me to mix up my party a bit because I was only getting high affinity between Shulk and everyone else but I didn't have much going on between any other pairs of characters. You can raise that by gifting (as discussed earlier), or, I think, by controlling whoever's affinity you want to raise and having 2 others you want to raise them with in the party - then just do quests and fight stuff and it goes up automatically. It seems you get affinity coins automatically when fighting "special" monsters (the oddly named ones) - or at least you get them frequently that way.

I'm sure the manual goes in depth into all the ways you can raise affinity and how to use it .

I think this is most of the ways affinity is affected:

- During successful chain attacks
- When you hit the burst at the right time (when the B button comes up on the screen and the circle around it shrinks, hit it exactly when the circle around the button and the one that is shrinking overlaps)
- When you encourage a teammate in battle
- When you give gifts from one teammate to another in the inventory screen
- During dialog between the 3 active party members that occurs when you accept or complete a side quest
- During heart to hearts (most of which require certain amounts of affinity between characters to view though)

Max Out Affinity, The Easy Way:

Once you get to the mountain , there is a nebula in the lava cave section, it's red that has a spike attack meaning every time you attack it, it does damage back. This ends up lowering the teammate's confidence (or whatever it's called) in battle meaning you have the opportunity to encourage them.

You can take advantage of that to raise the affinity between characters. Basically, strip your party of all armor, give them each the crappiest weapon you can get (buy at the first store), remove all of their attack arts, and let the two melee oriented party members attack this nebula over and over. Since nebula are resistant to physical attacks (especially the weaker auto-attacks) it will take forever to kill even if you are much higher in level. It's spike attack will make them need constant encouragement, so you spam the encourage button and watch the affinity build quickly.


The skill tree links allow you to give skills from one party member to another. io explained where to find that menu. Basically affinity coins are currency you use to purchase the ability to link a skill. Better skills cost significantly more. Don't worry about what you pick as you can un-link a skill and get your coins back. The game allows you to constantly reconfigure the links so you can make your party prepared for various scenarios, so try whatever combo you want.

If I remember correctly, there is a small bar underneath your character's HP info an all that stuff on the party status screen. It's very thin, and I didn't notice it for the longest time. I believe it might be yellow. Once it fills, you get a new affinity coin. Also, you get one coin for each named monster you kill; however, you only get it the first time you kill it. Never again after that.


Also, there are additional skill trees. After a while, I got bored with side quests and started moving through the game only completing side quests that just came naturally. This kind of screwed me over because I had all 3 basic skill trees maxed out for about 10 hours before I found out that 2 additional trees can be opened for each character through completing specific side quests. That's 10 hours of killing various monsters that could have been filling up a new skill tree. The points used to fill skill trees do not get held if you max out the 3, meaning whatever I had earned towards filling a skill tree (which is pretty slow) was just lost.

So if you find yourself getting close to maxing out the 3 basic trees, look up online where to find the specific quests to gain access to the additional skill trees for each character. If you save them to the end and decide you want to max them out, get ready for a lot of grinding. It's best to just do it along the way.

Originally Posted by blindinglights So if you find yourself getting close to maxing out the 3 basic trees, look up online where to find the specific quests to gain access to the additional skill trees for each character. If you save them to the end and decide you want to max them out, get ready for a lot of grinding. It's best to just do it along the way.

I'm nowhere near maxing out my skill trees (about half way I guess - and only on some of the characters). Do these quests come much later in the game?

I'm spending a hell of a lot of time trying to complete Alcamoth quests since they start off with the stopwatch. I keep finishing them and then getting more - it is never ending!

I do not think I've gotten to the place you mention for buffing affinity yet.

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120 hours in...... still haven't beat this.

Originally Posted by blindinglights Max Out Affinity, The Easy Way: Once you get to the mountain , there is a nebula in the lava cave section, it's red that has a spike attack meaning every time you attack it, it does damage back. This ends up lowering the teammate's confidence (or whatever it's called) in battle meaning you have the opportunity to encourage them.

That's sick. Might do that for my remaining guys when I get back. With the exception of Sharla and Riki, of course. Someone has to make my high level cylinders.

Also, yaaay, more Dead of Knight posts.

There's a similar trick in the Eryth Sea but it's mostly reserved for higher level characters. It's a mini-boss type that puts an attacker to sleep instead of spike damage. Spammed that guy for a long time and got everyone to max.

Dammit, I really wanted to stay clear of guides, but I'm going to have to find some of the quests I'm missing. It really bothers me that I have Challenge 1, 3, and 4 in Alcamoth but not 2. And I have Collection Quests 3 and 4, but not 1 and 2. I ran all over that damn place both day and night and can't find the other ones. So I'll have to peek at a gamefaqs guide to find them.

I also have a new quest that requires that I go to a part of the tomb that I can't seem to access yet. And yet that quest has imminent expiration. I need to figure that one out too.

Gamefaqs, this is literally all you need, and it's as spoiler free as you can get:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...&f=true&gid=16

I used Xenoblade wiki if I was having trouble finding things.

cam you play with a classic controller for this game ? ive watched some trailers im def interested in it

Originally Posted by officerrickyross222 cam you play with a classic controller for this game ? ive watched some trailers im def interested in it

Yes, it's better than using the remote/nunchuck.

Originally Posted by Vinny Yes, it's better than using the remote/nunchuck.

thx ! may have to grab this after class tomorow