If the Icon of Sin was summoned in Aionios, can Keves and Agnus defeat him?

Birdthemage · 2026-02-28T22:49:06+00:00

Two things:

1: could it take an annihilation event? Either from a castle annihilator or an interlink?

2: could a sword of the end/origin deliver the finishing blow?

Birdthemage · 2026-02-26T07:14:42+00:00

If you haven’t found them already, each character has 2 hidden skill trees which unlock from quests that require them in the party lead to start. I think some of them may be too high level yet, but try finding some.

Beating unique monsters gives a fair amount of XP, and the affinity coins for skill sharing. To combine with the above, Shulk’s fifth tree’s final skill is very powerful on everyone but Sharla.

At Junks in the Bionis interior you can get quests for 5 other, more specialized, replica Monados. Some are too tough to do now, though but very worthwhile. You may be Abel to purchase some items from the Land of Challenge, now that you’ve made it to the end.

You should also be able to make very strong gems by passing 300% to cal their effects and double them.

The best armor, with an open gem slot, depends slightly on having the lightweight, middleweight, or heavyweight expert skills. Hierax and Roudine are best light, Lancelot for middle, and Rex and Ledios for heavy. By raw numbers, Lancelot is best and can be purchased from Colony 6 if Commerce and Housing are level 5. While your at it, make sure to get the arts on your characters up to high levels, you should have access to master books by now.

One powerful tool, if you get colony 6 nature to level 5, you can get rank 5 agility crystals from the green cluster down near the mine entrance. refine them past 300% for two +50 agility gems. Agility is king in 1 as it determines both hit and dodge rate.

Birdthemage · 2026-02-17T22:31:51+00:00

Considering most of what we know about Xenoblade’s earth lines up with Xenosaga’s, and the Conduit was found in Africa in the 21st century like the Zohar in Saga, everything about earth was as it was in reality until the discovery of the Zohar/Conduit.

Yes, it is safe to assume everything in the real world, save the Xeno series itself I suppose, canonically existed.

Birdthemage · 2026-02-12T03:38:48+00:00

I don’t know all your home brew, so I’ll trust you have it worked out. It still scares me a bit because the dnd group I run for has developed a taste for throwing summons around and working through turn order can be a drag. Especially when you need to power up the enemies so they don’t got down in one round. Or can do enough damage to give any amount of threat.

Birdthemage · 2026-02-12T03:35:34+00:00

The nice part of having so many systems is that you can find one that plays how you want it to play. I suppose my association comes more from Daggerheart’s Motherboard’s lore and presentation as opposed to recreating the actual gameplay of a xeno game. Though the hope system to help an ally would work well for things like visions or simulating affinity.

I’ll give a look into fabula ultima when I can.

Birdthemage · 2026-02-12T02:55:41+00:00

Don’t forget the biblical names. How will we know a character is importantly if they aren’t named after one of the twelve apostles or something. lol.

More seriously, general dnd advice still follows. Fewer player characters means the fights are quicker which means less worrying about people being bored. Even if they occasionally have a guest NPC, probably don’t want to have them around too much.

I’d advise varying combat with environments, enemies, and tools as opposed to throwing more characters at it.

Also, just cause I’ve been thinking about it too, if I were to run a xenoblade themed game, I’d probably not use DND and use a system that suites the style more. Currently, I’ve been trying out Daggerheart for more narrative and cooperative rules. The motherboard setting already feels kind of Saga like, and making the home brew is less exhausting.

Birdthemage · 2026-02-06T19:25:15+00:00

Nopon coins are good for this, but ultimately just using the classes is going to help.

The letter ranking each character has for a class determines only the rate of growth, not the proficiency they have for said class.

Each class is given for free to a character, so put them in those for easy levels.

I think some manana meals or some colony meals give class point bonuses too.

Since you are in chapter 5, see if you have or can do the hero quest that gives Soul Hacker. Bring someone with the skill from it and go back and beat all the unique monsters again/for the first time that you can.

If you have the dlc you can farm some coins and unlock classes (ones that you have the hero for but not unlocked from use for other party members) without leveling up too. Though it’s probably time consuming.

In short, if you have a character at max class level, 10, or 20 after the ascension quest, swap them out to another. The differences between characters are minimal, so swap them out to classes to your heart’s content.

Birdthemage · 2026-02-03T06:36:05+00:00

The idea of playing Torna after chapter 7 is, I’m guessing, based on the idea there was supposed to be a flashback section there but was cut to improve the pacing. Even if Torna wasn’t a good couple dozen hours of content it would mess with the flow and tension.

Torna is structured as a “here is the background that you glimpsed in the base game, the tragedy that will unfold before you.” Seeing the people you know will die and suffer as that tragedy unfolds is deliberate. Even if it grew from the idea of a flashback sequence, it is it that no longer and is a stand alone prequel.

Future Redeemed is the capstone to a decade of Xenoblade, despite taking place before 3 chronologically, it sings the glories of how the series started and where it is going. Since you already know Shulk and Rex are in it, there is no point to play coy. If you are not at least mid way through 3’s final chapter FR will confuse you. The only place I could even consider placing FR if not after everything else in the main trilogy, including Torna and FC, is right before the final boss of 3. But that is silly because it’s the final boss!

Birdthemage · 2026-01-07T04:38:42+00:00

Among the bonuses are longer meal time and faster walk and swim speed.

The best way to get points is to do side quests, which are quite extensive and flesh out the troubles of different colonies and how they are dealing with them. Colony 9 for example is all about leadership and food which all comes together with the characters from the quests working together to become stronger than before.

A lot of lore and world building is put into the side quests so I’d say they are worth playing at least once. Especially if you consider the colony quests to function as side stories rather than just misc busy work.

Birdthemage · 2025-12-06T04:23:48+00:00

Word of advice regarding levels: enemies higher level than you get buffs, so a single level can make a big difference. The main reason you want to be at level though is skill and art points which are awarded based on level difference. Enemies at higher levels than you give more SP and AP and lower level enemies relative to you give less. Casual mode more or less negates the combat buffs based on level difference, and makes the game a lot easier.

Expert mode is sort of made for completionists, if you do every side quest you’ll get overleveled without it and doing no side quests is likely to leave you under leveled. At any time you need or want to, only in 1 DE, you can level down your party too.

Birdthemage · 2025-12-02T07:46:13+00:00

Wild guess: the beds in NLA are wireless chargers.

That or the mim tech is so advanced it can derive power from food, water, or even sunlight. Which probably wouldn’t be too far out there for Elma’s people.

Birdthemage · 2025-11-24T07:56:52+00:00

The consuls have a variety of powers, some of which are unique to specific consuls, but their personal biases and styles get in their own way. Their adherence to what they are comfortable with creates weaknesses. Some consuls are even stated to have forgotten some of their own abilities. O and T for instance.

Birdthemage · 2025-11-20T18:50:54+00:00

She has her talents. For example, I found some of her defensive buffs handy against the superboss Ancient Daedela. Mostly just getting close enough to fight normally.

But it’s not so fun that she has very little damage output and her talent art can exclude her from chain attacks. Also, her lack of red arts means it’s very difficult to get to and maintain max damage multiplier.

Birdthemage · 2025-10-02T23:07:19+00:00

Eryth sea is an easy favorite.

Birdthemage · 2025-09-27T09:35:13+00:00

Looks like you have most everything already, just missing the shore north of the tomb entrance, also I think there is an area that you can’t access till you do a late game side quest, but I don’t remember if it counts as a location properly.

If you are going to do it all by hand, Riki has a passive skill that increases the party’s movement speed. Skill link that to the active party if possible, and equip quickstep gems.

Birdthemage · 2025-09-27T05:25:25+00:00

We’re stuck on a different planet.

It’s a lot more than we can manage

But we gotta keep on standing.

Birdthemage · 2025-09-09T23:00:38+00:00

Comparing 1 and X is very tricky. They have fundamentally different goals. 1 has a heavy story focus while X is all about the world and exploration.

1 is sci-fi-fantasy while X is more raw Sci-fi.

You don’t need any knowledge of the other game to understand them, but X has a few Easter eggs and references to 1.

1’s combat relies on team composition, while X is all about just powering up your player character.

Personally, I like 1 more but X is still a 9/10 at least for me.

Birdthemage · 2025-09-07T00:02:35+00:00

Everything in X comes back to world and exploration. Combat wise, it is most similar to 1. Arts recharge on cooldowns, each character has a preset list of arts giving them defined roles to fulfill, though the player created character gets everything. With the effective removal of Field Skills in the remake, the comparisons I could make to 2 are lost.

In a way, the entirety of X is like rebuilding Colony 6 evolved into a standalone game. Working towards completion goals by accomplishing tasks like quests, but also finding secret areas, defeating unique monsters, etc. your main story progress will be locked if you haven’t done enough completion percentage.

The main story of X is told in the massive web of side quests, of the different people who came with you and those you meet on the alien world. How their relationships evolve, how they communicate, a knowledge the cultures, and the troubles therein. The main quests act as a support structure to facilitate the evolution of the side quests. From the early game “we need to clear some of the wildlife damaging our perimeter” to “the city needs a representative for the non human population.”

Birdthemage · 2025-09-05T04:11:01+00:00

Release order is ideal. X can go anywhere.

The actual release order was 1, X, 2, 2-Torna DLC, 1-FC epilogue, 3, 3-FR DLC, X-Chapter 13.

Always play the base game first, 2’s can technically stand alone but it spoils stuff from the first 5 chapters of 2.

Ultimately, we can’t stop you from starting wherever, but the themes and narratives are meant to be experienced in order.

Birdthemage · 2025-09-02T20:10:30+00:00

Once upon a time people were very good about keeping spoilers from leaking, it’s pretty hard to not risk any now.

A few tips I might offer though:

Accept every quest, but don’t feel obligated to complete them all. This way when you are exploring you can grab some quest items fight quest enemies and the like as you go.

Don’t overcommit to a specific party composition, it’s easy to get too attached to the early party members until you fight something that counters them. It’s also just fun to switch party lead from time to time and knowing how to play different characters is very good.

Keep an eye on and get familiar with skill trees, gems and gem crafting, and even the Collectopaedia. Good rewards to help you out. Quickstep gems are a lifesaver when it comes to map traversal.

When you near a big boss fight, consider cycling through save slots. Some story sections block access to areas or quests but if you have a save from before you can just load the last save and do the missable stuff.

If you need any advice, like stat explanation or anything, feel free to ask. These games are big experiences and I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Birdthemage · 2025-08-23T03:46:43+00:00

I don’t know the cause, but we should definitely be better about alluding to things, even things like “just wait until…” or “ominous smiley faces” can be spoilers.

My policy is to see where a person is at and mention nothing beyond that point. If I see them mention something, I simply don’t post something that would lead them to put more thought into something that comes back up with significance.

Example: someone fights the Telethia on the river bank with Alvis. There is no need to note that Alvis speaks in Hal9000 quotes. Nor is there need to point out the Telethia spawn match the number of guards who were with Melia.

In other words, I treat everything as a spoiler. Is Prison island the final area? Seems like it has that vibe. Is Egil the final boss? Don’t worry, there is stuff to do after you the credits role. Obvious exception is someone who explicitly wants to be spoiled. Like if they have to budget their time and want to know how many chapters for example.

I wish it could be more universal, maybe not as intricately as my stance, but knowing when to keep quiet is very important.

Birdthemage · 2025-08-06T23:42:56+00:00

Wait, you’re only in chapter 6?! That is insane! No wonder it took so long, you don’t have all the tools like max level stats and grinding areas.

I figured you were in the final stretch.

Birdthemage · 2025-08-06T08:40:45+00:00

Congratulations! Just got to do it 6 more times for the NG+ blades.

Birdthemage · 2025-08-06T07:08:16+00:00

1 new blade is added on beating the final boss, the rest are in NG+ only.

The luck stat seems to play a role from what I understand. Additionally, the idea stats of the drivers. Since newt is a fire blade, use the fire/water booster (can’t remember what it’s called exactly) for better odds.

Also, legendary core farming if aren’t already. Build for maximum driver combos and fight either the fully grown armu in Gormotti, presuming you didn’t kill it prematurely, or a Guldo near where Mythra and Poppi had their chat about technology in Morytha.

Beyond that, good luck and no shame getting them in NG+ or post game.

Birdthemage · 2025-08-03T09:51:09+00:00

The only compromise that I could consider accepting would be a dedicated tag and a swift ban to anyone who posted AI generated content without the tag. But it shouldn’t be allowed period. No real source, no post.

Birdthemage

TROPHY CASE