I remember delaying unlocking skells as long as possible so I could explore more on foot. Really absorb the world like I was playing BotW or something. I don't remember the details of "Frontier Nav" since I think it was something that eventually operated on it's own in the game? I know I had all the map areas unlocked that I possibly could before moving on to the next chapter of the story so I was never short on areas that could be resourced. I found unlocking map areas one of the most rewarding parts of the game and spent hours trying to reach ones meant for a skell to find.
I'm assuming that was the issue, that you hadn't unlocked map areas or hadn't resourced them? I don't remember how that function worked but I know I used it. Also spent a lot of time in tutorial area reading about game mechanics so my guess is I was utilizing Frontier Nav resources soon after my first couple area unlocks. Doing the whole boosting thing with adjacent areas and mining what I needed and later optimizing. I can't even remember what that did for me really, but I guess probably gave me plenty of money to play with. Not sure I'm talking about the right game function admittedly, but from what I'm hearing you're basically saying you weren't passively making money in the game and for some reason it was easier to start entirely over than to farm it up where you were in the game at the time of your roadblock. Wish I could say I remember more about the game's little side mechanics but it's been a surprisingly long time since I played anything not post game XCX. I know the bigger deal post game was making up a point currency that could be used to buy materials or add slots to armors... and of course farming rare materials or armor/weapon drops.
Anyways, for me the game never made me feel like I was missing something critical to move on to the next level/chapter of the game. Sure, there was always some avoidable boss that could wreck me, but that post game stuff was stuff I expected needed min/maxing and lots of grinding to deal with at a later point or whatever. Although, like I implied, I was kinda grinding unintentionally the whole game by just avoiding the next story chapter, for the most part, until after I'd done just about everything I could do before. And I think spending a lot of time reading the tutorial area helped me stay on top of whatever new little thing the game wanted me to manage. I can totally see how one might overlook spending time on one of XCX's many mechanics. Didn't realize how much neglecting Frontier Nav stuff could actually hurt though... but it makes sense since it's one of the best ways to accrue resources in the game and you usually need those eventually.
I don't remember my weapons either, but I think I had like 5 skells including my starter before the final chapter.. but again I was avoiding progressing story and played kinda unintentionally grindy. I made Lin and Doug their own since they loved them, and I had the rest for myself. Mostly kept Elma outside of one cuz I loved her moveset so much. Often I had Elma on the team on foot and two other teammates in skells. Can't remember for sure, but I think Ares was post game and not just post Lao, so I don't think I had one until after the final chapter.
Heh, just remembering that this is a Rex Pyra thread, but here we are talking about X.
