Guide Zelda Social: But also the FE Heroes Internet Cafe

[EODM07]

Got into the state that Tr4sh doesn't do anything for me again ;_;

Might just go Fox tomorrow LMAO

Stay DETERMINED! *Insert Undertale gif/sprite here*

 

[Ffamran]

Just use Jigglypuff and have your opponents stare into her giant anime eyes.

Seriously they take up like a third of her face. And her face is her entire body. So Jigglypuff is ⅓ eye.

Also go rest on everyone.

Meanwhile, Waddle Doo.

 

[McKnightlíght]

Alright evmaxy54 I'll listen to the Ramones just for you.

 

[evmaxy54]

Stay DETERMINED! *Insert Undertale gif/sprite here*

Oh yea Undertale is now a thing lol

I shall buy it... Probably never LMAO

Alright evmaxy54 I'll listen to the Ramones just for you.

After that get onto some mother****ing Descendents yo

 

[McKnightlíght]

After that get onto some mother****ing Descendents yo

Woah man, one step at a time.

 

[evmaxy54]

Woah man, one step at a time.

Don't ya know I like to take things fast ;P

 

[Rizen]

i'm a koala now

What's red and blue and shiny all over? Seriously, what the heck? Someone made a koala Mario balloon?

@KuroganeHammer are you redoing all the frame data after the patches?

 

[McKnightlíght]

Don't ya know I like to take things fast ;P

I can't link it, but l want you to list to "Mahoney and the Pliers" I personally don't like it, but THAT is the punk rock I wanna do.

 

[EODM07]

Anyone up for some matches today?

 

[evmaxy54]

Anyone up for some matches today?

What the hell, sure I guess

I can't link it, but l want you to list to "Mahoney and the Pliers" I personally don't like it, but THAT is the punk rock I wanna do.

They seem quite fun

 

[EODM07]

What the hell, sure I guess

Right-o. Room is up.

GGs evmaxy54 . Those were some fun games, I could improve on facing against Ness and Fox. Didn't know what to do against Zelda. And that DAir KO was awesome, just felt like that was enough of Ganon.

What kind of improvements do you think I've done or can do to get better? Since I did notice I am still throwing Smashes out a bit too much again, and that I'm rolling onto stage a bit too much.

 

[Cress!]

omg Gamer in a tournament. The only thing that would make this better is if it wasn't in 144p :/

 

[Ffamran]

omg Gamer in a tournament. The only thing that would make this better is if it wasn't in 144p :/

If Keitaro's involved, then all manner of shenanigans are involved. Such as this grand finals with The Great Cave Offensive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecoTxZbLhqQ.

 

[Cress!]

I was playing with customs with a friend today and custom is REALLY FUN.
And of course, I found some dumb combos because that's always what happens when I play with items/customs.
I present to you...
ROBIN WITH SHEIK'S FORWARD AIR (IF HE HAS SPEED EQUIPMENT)

 

[Rizen]

Here's my Zelda elevatoring Lucina 3 times in one game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m2d5PpNqG4

And my Link's coming along pretty well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF5aLM4Scz8

I got Xenoblade CX, it's fun

 

[Lil Puddin]

Since it's video sharing time. Here's some more sass to throw on the sasspile.

 

[Rizen]

Since it's video sharing time. Here's some more sass to throw on the sasspile.

The rage is real.

 

[Antonykun]

so like the robin boards are being a salt pile right now so imma just lurk there and BAN*ZELDA here

 

[Rickster]

Since it's video sharing time. Here's some more sass to throw on the sasspile.

That Falcon totally had that coming.

That was also probably the worst DI I've ever seen for the Elevator, lol.

 

[Trieste SP]

I got Xenoblade CX, it's fun

I still haven't touched the multiplayer in that game but I agree.

 

[ZombieBran]

Wow, the 'new PMDT' stuff got axed too. Some companies are apparently going around with heavy threats and the entire Brawl modding community is at stake??

Konami, is that you?

 

[Lil Puddin]

The rage is real.

Sass mechanics.

I still haven't touched the multiplayer in that game but I agree.

Pls gib update, what's the multiplayer like or supposed to be like?

 

[Trieste SP]

Pls gib update, what's the multiplayer like or supposed to be like?

There's quite a lot to it actually. So bear with me.

----------Squads----------

Squads are the "passive" multiplayer feature of Xenoblade X. At any moment as long as your Wii U is actively connected to the internet, you will be loosely connected with 31 other players also adventuring on Mira, making a 32 person squad that is actively connected to one another in a handful of ways. First thing of note, this does not mean you can see their actual avatars adventuring around the world a'la an actual MMORPG, but what it does mean is the following...

• You can't see the actual players, but you can see NPC versions of their avatars adventuring around the world. When you see them, you can interact with them, and even invite them to your party. They will earn experience (for the actual player), and you gain a temporary, and possibly quite valuable (depending on their level) ally. I believe their membership in your party expires after a couple of hours so do as much as you can with them to get the most out of their help (assuming their character is equipped lvl/gear-wise to help you).
  
  
• You can send messages out for your entire squad to see. You might do this for a few reasons, to give some advice about something you've found, or in general just send out a message because you're feeling social. Everyone in your squad has the ability to "+1" your messages, and messages that receive a lot of +1's will be broadcast to the entire playerbase.
  
  
• You can hold a "Treasure Deal" that anyone in your squad can opt-in to participate in. This is sort of like trading but less direct. When you find an item you don't need but feel it would be a waste to just throw away, you can put the item up for a Treasure Deal to your squad. People will opt-in and basically it's a dice roll for the item between everyone who opted in.
  
  
• You can also choose to see the achievement spam of everyone in your squad but this is a really spammy feature that many people actually turn off. Me personally I wouldn't recommend it but some people get a sense of "liveliness" seeing that other people are earning things in their midst, so to speak. Sometimes you can see people earn an achievement and be like "Oh, how do I get that one?", or "Wow they have an achievement for that?!". Achievements are novelty by definition so this function isn't really helpful for anything other than trying to promote that "community" feeling of the world being alive.
  

The last purpose of squads are Squad Tasks. Every so often you receive 5 objectives. If you've seen any footage of XBCX you'll often notice the UI for it in the bottom right. A selection of 5 monsters and/or gatherables and a counter under each one, showin the progress. Players within your squad must work together to clear these squad objectives by killing the according number of monsters or collecting materials that the counter dictates. Whenever you clear each of the 5 objectives, it will increase the number of Squad Missions you can run when you teleport back to NLA and check the mission counter. More on Squad Missions later.

Sometimes the objectives can be difficult to find, so even if you're being a lazy fart, if you happen upon the right objective mobs that people don't seem to be killing, send out a squad-wide message telling everyone where you found it! This happens a lot in the JP version and it's massively helpful in conducting a quick and easy objective clear.

Clearing Squad Tasks will net your entire squad goodies, so it's in your benefit to work with your squad to clear them.

To round out my explanation of squads, I'll have you know that when you launch the game, it gives you three options...

• Join a squad filled with solo-minded players.

You would join this squad if you simply want to reap the benefits of the social networking that being in a squad can provide you such as messages and occasional treasure deals, contribute at your own pace to your division, but not feel obligated to work on squad tasks. Choose this option if you're not interested in workings towards multiplayer squad missions and simply want to pick your own activities and play at your own pace without pressure. You can also ignore all of the above if you'd like.

• Join a squad with multiplayer-minded players.

Choose this option if you want to be in a squad with other players who will be putting effort in to completing the squad tasks with the intention of unlocking the multiplayer squad missions, along with all the above-stated benefits of being in a squad.

• Join a squad with your friends.

You can select this option to be grouped in to a squad with selected friends whom you have their NNID who are currently at the time, exploring Mira in a squad of their own. Do clarify which type of squad (1 or 2) your friend is in, because if you choose this option it completely skips your preference and simply groups you with your chosen friend/s. Make sure you decide together what kind of squad you want to be in.

----------Squad Missions----------

This is the main multiplayer-related component of Xenoblade Chronicles X. Once you pop any of the 5 squad tasks spoken about in the above text, it will unlock a number of missions at the blade mission board back at your BLADE HQ. These missions can be tackled in a party of up to 4 real players, which is formed through invites which can be sent out simply by scanning a list of your entire squad. You can observe all 31 of your squad mates' levels, class, gear, and make a decision whether you'd like to invite them or not. No matter where they are on planet mira, they can accept your invite, however they can also decline if they wish not to run a mission with you so try to invite as many friends as you can for maximum fun. If you are unable to fill your party, you may fill gaps in your party with any of your BLADE NPC characters such as Elma or Lin. It is possible to enter these missions by yourself, simply accompanied by 3 NPCs, and some of the easier missions are cleared easily in this way, but with higher level/more difficult missions you will want to bring as many actual human players as you can in your party for reasons I will explain later.

Clearing 1 out of 5 tasks will often unlock a low level mission or two at the mission table, this might discourage you to hear, but no fear! Monolith Soft was aware of this conundrum, so they've incorporated level scaling for every single multiplayer mission. That means if you're level 50, and you go in to a multiplayer mission that was designated as lvl 20 difficulty, you will be scaled down to something like lvl 25 or so. This means that while you will still reap the benefits of your earned arts, gear, and of course your practical experience, it isn't an utter and complete face-roll for you, which would make running these missions pointless. The rewards at the end of the mission will give you possibly rare loot, depending on the enemies you tackled within said mission, and squad vouchers which you can spend near the mission table on various special items like for your Collectapedia. I've also seen useful consumable items on that list.

That being said, as you clear the 2/5th task, the 3/5th task, and get closer and closer to clearing all 5 tasks, the amount of missions that begin to unlock at the mission table increases exponentially. Where popping the first task may net you 1-2 somewhat lower level/easy difficulty missions. Clearing a 2nd objective will get you 2-3 more missions of higher difficulty/rarer loots.

Logically, you can presume that in order to be qualified for the biggest, baddest monsters and the rarest, strongest loot, you need to unlock the missions that come with clearing all 5 tasks. This is how you will increase and maximize your chances of getting a "Nemesis" mission which is taking down a fearsome boss which is undoubtedly going to drop you some sick loot. If you join multiplayer-minded squads, aim for clearing the squad tasks! Monsters in Xenoblade X can range all the way up to lvl 99+, so you will never trivialize the content, only make it more manageable (the maximum character level is much less than 99, I'll be unspecific to avoid possible spoilers for people).

----------Time Attack Missions----------

There is also a list of various Time Attack Missions. These missions have a 15 minute time limit (most of the time as far as I've seen) and will net you nice rewards in the the form of funds and squad points.

Successfully completing Squad Missions will push progress on a Conquest meter bar of sorts. The higher you push this meter through the continuous completion of squad missions, the closer you get to initiating a "Nemesis" event (World Enemy in the JP version). There are various Nemesis at varying level ranges (and again, you are level scaled to them).

The manual will tell you that if you want the absolute best gear in the game for both your skells and your character/s...you want these missions as much as you can get them (and of course, to successfully complete them, which requires team work!).

----------Global Nemesis----------

This is what it all comes down to. The moment you've been waiting for.

Enacting a Global Nemesis mission will start an event that your entire squad participates in. A nemesis is a fearsome boss that will take a hefty amount of both skill and experience to conquer. Basically you need to fight this Nemesis as much as possible as a squad. Every time the Nemesis is attacked, it depletes a "RP Gauge" that is equivalent to how much HP he has lost in every single battle with every single person in your squad. For example let's say the RP gauge is at 30,000, and the boss has 5,000 HP. That means 6 parties need to clear him to deplete his RP gauge. These figures are extremely rough purely for example's sake. Completely depleting the RP gauge of a Global Nemesis will require effort from your entire squad as it will generally be quite a high amount of RP. If you succeed in this endeavor, your squad will reap all kinds of neat buffs (and of course, lewts)! Do the work! Play as a team. Communicate with your squad! Get awesome stuff! Easy, right? These bosses will require your full attention and effort, utilizing all the skills you've honed on Mira, so don't let your party down!

----------Multiplayer Mission Gameplay----------

There are a few things you need to know about actually playing in multiplayer missions before you jump in guns blazing so you can get the most out of your experience before you wind up getting owned like some kind of n00b. You are generally put in to a slightly corded off area, unable to venture too far off the beaten path, and you are guided along the mission objectives by means of enemy spawn waves in the direction you should be going. Don't get me wrong, the beautiful world of Mira is still all around you, they just limit your freedom of exploration a bit during these missions. As an example, there's a really easy, low level mission that has you moving through a path up a mountain in Primordia. You will clear a handful of waves of different Primordian indigens before being confronted by a very large and threatening boss monster at the peak of the hill. This mission can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes depending on how efficient your party is. As you tackle missions of harder difficulty, this can vary wildly, as you might expect. There are varying missions types as well, not all in this specific format.

• You are allowed a maximum of 3 deaths. This means 3 times that your HP can deplete to 0. After your third death, you are RIP permanently for the rest of the mission, and the likelihood of your party mates clearing the mission decreases exponentially without your help. This means that playing intelligently is in your benefit. Don't be a Leeroy.
  
  
• Soul Voice mechanics are in full effect in multiplayer missions. Since there is no dedicated healing class in Xenoblade Chronicles X, it is absolutely in your interest for you to execute the Soul Voice skills you've been harnessing while out exploring the planet Mira. Successfully nailing Soul Voice nets you valuable group healing that can be crucial to your ability to clear these missions without too much casualty. Really good parties can keep a Soul Voice combo going for long stretches, so practice up and try to work out combos with your party mates' setup.
  
  
• If you play a class that is better suited to be taking damage, do try to take aggro. This goes mostly for "Striker" tier classes. Other classes aren't nearly as good at soaking damage as you are, so do your best to maximize your damage and keep the monster focusing on you!
  
  
• If you are running with AI partners, they do not have a 3 death limit, however they do not count as a living human player if you die. That means game over still if you hit the limit. Even dying once in this situation is pretty damning, however, because your AI team mates will rarely have the TP to resurrect you and they will just die without your help.
  

You are able to chat and emote to your party through the Wii Gamepad, so do your best to be as social as you can to avoid making it boring if it's your zillionth time through a quest due to bad RNG for the drops you want. The game is also compatible with a USB keyboard, if you so desire. Try to be nice! We're all in this together, you know?

----------Divisions----------

You pick a division early on in the game, and you may have read about them a bit, but these are essentially organizations that you align yourself with in order to receive various organization-specific buffs, while also receiving a bonus to the rewards of completing your organizations's favored activities.

For example, Interceptors and Harriers both benefit more from killing monsters than other divisions, but Interceptors provide a bonus to Ranged damage, while Harriers gain a bonus to melee damage. It is important to pick a division that supports your style of play not just in combat, but based on activities outside of combat that interest you too. Pathfinders gain extra points by exploring uncharted territory, Outfitters get a boost to how quickly they gain commercial points with gear companies, allowing them to craft higher quality gear quicker, for example.

Each division has both a combat benefit, and an out-of-combat benefit that will net you division points by doing. A player of any division is not limited to only their divisions' preferred activity. A Mediator can do Pathfinder activities, and a Pathfinder can do Mediator activities, but you only boost your division score by doing activities preferred by your division. Essentially, picking a division doesn't lock you out of content, it just decides which content rewards you. So it's very important that you pick the division that aligns with your play style and the way you like to play! It is debated to the end of Mira itself which combat benefit is the "best" so just go with your gut!

"How is this related to network functions?"

Glad you asked! In the BLADE HQ there is a rankings board that tallies daily. You can see which divisions have done the most work towards their conquest of Mira. A new tally is taken every day, so every day is a new chance for you to work towards boosting your division to the top. Divisions that reach the top at the end of a tally will experience being "boosted". Being boosted means possibly better drops and other surprises while exploring Mira!

You might initially be thinking that people can bandwagon hop to the best performing division, and you wouldn't be so witty to suggest the idea, as it's already been thought of by players in Japan already playing the game! To combat the notion of switching simply to reap the benefits of a boost you didn't earn, they have balanced the point gain among the divisions in a way where every single division has a chance to reach the top, it just depends on how much effort you want to put in to it on a given day, as every new day is a new chance for your division to be high on the list. They also added a hefty price to switching too many times/to higher ranks, so switching constantly is just not feasible. It's not just the #1 ranking division that wins a boost by the way! Sometimes it can even be the top 3! So do your best and keep your division high on the rankings! This is why it's all the more important you pick a division that suits you on every front, so that you're earning points for doing what you enjoy, so you don't get tired of it .

----------Rankings----------

Finally, but not to be forgotten, is a rankings board. A lot of people can get in to these because it can be fun to set uber-high records that nobody can reach, putting your name out there for everyone to see. There are rankings for tons of different categories where you might even end up #1 in one accidentally. It can drive competitive types to attempt to beat the top ranked players in categories they care about. All in all, this game supports and urges you to do what you like doing in a completely open space where freedom is the name of the game. You pick your own objectives and interests. It's all a part of the immersion.

All of these these network features are seamlessly integrated with the "single-player" experience. That means you take your own character, un-changed, exactly as they are in to these multiplayer missions, with the exception of the effects of level scaling depending on the mission you're doing, as I explained earlier. The whole point of these features are to make you feel as though this isn't really a single player experience. That you are not alone on Mira, and that you are one of many BLADE missionaries doing your part to conquer and discover the planet of Mira, carving a niche for the human race in to their new home of which they've been forced to grow accustomed to.

That's basically everything you need to know about the multiplayer. There are some little details that I didn't mention because they are mostly unimportant.

 

[Deleted member]

tfw someone posts an essay

 

[Baskerville]

tfw someone posts an essay

somethingsomethingffamransomethingsomething

 

[Furret]

There's quite a lot to it actually. So bear with me.

----------Squads----------

Squads are the "passive" multiplayer feature of Xenoblade X. At any moment as long as your Wii U is actively connected to the internet, you will be loosely connected with 31 other players also adventuring on Mira, making a 32 person squad that is actively connected to one another in a handful of ways. First thing of note, this does not mean you can see their actual avatars adventuring around the world a'la an actual MMORPG, but what it does mean is the following...

• You can't see the actual players, but you can see NPC versions of their avatars adventuring around the world. When you see them, you can interact with them, and even invite them to your party. They will earn experience (for the actual player), and you gain a temporary, and possibly quite valuable (depending on their level) ally. I believe their membership in your party expires after a couple of hours so do as much as you can with them to get the most out of their help (assuming their character is equipped lvl/gear-wise to help you).
  
  
• You can send messages out for your entire squad to see. You might do this for a few reasons, to give some advice about something you've found, or in general just send out a message because you're feeling social. Everyone in your squad has the ability to "+1" your messages, and messages that receive a lot of +1's will be broadcast to the entire playerbase.
  
  
• You can hold a "Treasure Deal" that anyone in your squad can opt-in to participate in. This is sort of like trading but less direct. When you find an item you don't need but feel it would be a waste to just throw away, you can put the item up for a Treasure Deal to your squad. People will opt-in and basically it's a dice roll for the item between everyone who opted in.
  
  
• You can also choose to see the achievement spam of everyone in your squad but this is a really spammy feature that many people actually turn off. Me personally I wouldn't recommend it but some people get a sense of "liveliness" seeing that other people are earning things in their midst, so to speak. Sometimes you can see people earn an achievement and be like "Oh, how do I get that one?", or "Wow they have an achievement for that?!". Achievements are novelty by definition so this function isn't really helpful for anything other than trying to promote that "community" feeling of the world being alive.

The last purpose of squads are Squad Tasks. Every so often you receive 5 objectives. If you've seen any footage of XBCX you'll often notice the UI for it in the bottom right. A selection of 5 monsters and/or gatherables and a counter under each one, showin the progress. Players within your squad must work together to clear these squad objectives by killing the according number of monsters or collecting materials that the counter dictates. Whenever you clear each of the 5 objectives, it will increase the number of Squad Missions you can run when you teleport back to NLA and check the mission counter. More on Squad Missions later.

Sometimes the objectives can be difficult to find, so even if you're being a lazy fart, if you happen upon the right objective mobs that people don't seem to be killing, send out a squad-wide message telling everyone where you found it! This happens a lot in the JP version and it's massively helpful in conducting a quick and easy objective clear.

Clearing Squad Tasks will net your entire squad goodies, so it's in your benefit to work with your squad to clear them.

To round out my explanation of squads, I'll have you know that when you launch the game, it gives you three options...

• Join a squad filled with solo-minded players.

You would join this squad if you simply want to reap the benefits of the social networking that being in a squad can provide you such as messages and occasional treasure deals, contribute at your own pace to your division, but not feel obligated to work on squad tasks. Choose this option if you're not interested in workings towards multiplayer squad missions and simply want to pick your own activities and play at your own pace without pressure. You can also ignore all of the above if you'd like.

• Join a squad with multiplayer-minded players.

Choose this option if you want to be in a squad with other players who will be putting effort in to completing the squad tasks with the intention of unlocking the multiplayer squad missions, along with all the above-stated benefits of being in a squad.

• Join a squad with your friends.

You can select this option to be grouped in to a squad with selected friends whom you have their NNID who are currently at the time, exploring Mira in a squad of their own. Do clarify which type of squad (1 or 2) your friend is in, because if you choose this option it completely skips your preference and simply groups you with your chosen friend/s. Make sure you decide together what kind of squad you want to be in.

----------Squad Missions----------

This is the main multiplayer-related component of Xenoblade Chronicles X. Once you pop any of the 5 squad tasks spoken about in the above text, it will unlock a number of missions at the blade mission board back at your BLADE HQ. These missions can be tackled in a party of up to 4 real players, which is formed through invites which can be sent out simply by scanning a list of your entire squad. You can observe all 31 of your squad mates' levels, class, gear, and make a decision whether you'd like to invite them or not. No matter where they are on planet mira, they can accept your invite, however they can also decline if they wish not to run a mission with you so try to invite as many friends as you can for maximum fun. If you are unable to fill your party, you may fill gaps in your party with any of your BLADE NPC characters such as Elma or Lin. It is possible to enter these missions by yourself, simply accompanied by 3 NPCs, and some of the easier missions are cleared easily in this way, but with higher level/more difficult missions you will want to bring as many actual human players as you can in your party for reasons I will explain later.

Clearing 1 out of 5 tasks will often unlock a low level mission or two at the mission table, this might discourage you to hear, but no fear! Monolith Soft was aware of this conundrum, so they've incorporated level scaling for every single multiplayer mission. That means if you're level 50, and you go in to a multiplayer mission that was designated as lvl 20 difficulty, you will be scaled down to something like lvl 25 or so. This means that while you will still reap the benefits of your earned arts, gear, and of course your practical experience, it isn't an utter and complete face-roll for you, which would make running these missions pointless. The rewards at the end of the mission will give you possibly rare loot, depending on the enemies you tackled within said mission, and squad vouchers which you can spend near the mission table on various special items like for your Collectapedia. I've also seen useful consumable items on that list.

That being said, as you clear the 2/5th task, the 3/5th task, and get closer and closer to clearing all 5 tasks, the amount of missions that begin to unlock at the mission table increases exponentially. Where popping the first task may net you 1-2 somewhat lower level/easy difficulty missions. Clearing a 2nd objective will get you 2-3 more missions of higher difficulty/rarer loots.

Logically, you can presume that in order to be qualified for the biggest, baddest monsters and the rarest, strongest loot, you need to unlock the missions that come with clearing all 5 tasks. This is how you will increase and maximize your chances of getting a "Nemesis" mission which is taking down a fearsome boss which is undoubtedly going to drop you some sick loot. If you join multiplayer-minded squads, aim for clearing the squad tasks! Monsters in Xenoblade X can range all the way up to lvl 99+, so you will never trivialize the content, only make it more manageable (the maximum character level is much less than 99, I'll be unspecific to avoid possible spoilers for people).

----------Time Attack Missions----------

There is also a list of various Time Attack Missions. These missions have a 15 minute time limit (most of the time as far as I've seen) and will net you nice rewards in the the form of funds and squad points.

Successfully completing Squad Missions will push progress on a Conquest meter bar of sorts. The higher you push this meter through the continuous completion of squad missions, the closer you get to initiating a "Nemesis" event (World Enemy in the JP version). There are various Nemesis at varying level ranges (and again, you are level scaled to them).

The manual will tell you that if you want the absolute best gear in the game for both your skells and your character/s...you want these missions as much as you can get them (and of course, to successfully complete them, which requires team work!).

----------Global Nemesis----------

This is what it all comes down to. The moment you've been waiting for.

Enacting a Global Nemesis mission will start an event that your entire squad participates in. A nemesis is a fearsome boss that will take a hefty amount of both skill and experience to conquer. Basically you need to fight this Nemesis as much as possible as a squad. Every time the Nemesis is attacked, it depletes a "RP Gauge" that is equivalent to how much HP he has lost in every single battle with every single person in your squad. For example let's say the RP gauge is at 30,000, and the boss has 5,000 HP. That means 6 parties need to clear him to deplete his RP gauge. These figures are extremely rough purely for example's sake. Completely depleting the RP gauge of a Global Nemesis will require effort from your entire squad as it will generally be quite a high amount of RP. If you succeed in this endeavor, your squad will reap all kinds of neat buffs (and of course, lewts)! Do the work! Play as a team. Communicate with your squad! Get awesome stuff! Easy, right? These bosses will require your full attention and effort, utilizing all the skills you've honed on Mira, so don't let your party down!

----------Multiplayer Mission Gameplay----------

There are a few things you need to know about actually playing in multiplayer missions before you jump in guns blazing so you can get the most out of your experience before you wind up getting owned like some kind of n00b. You are generally put in to a slightly corded off area, unable to venture too far off the beaten path, and you are guided along the mission objectives by means of enemy spawn waves in the direction you should be going. Don't get me wrong, the beautiful world of Mira is still all around you, they just limit your freedom of exploration a bit during these missions. As an example, there's a really easy, low level mission that has you moving through a path up a mountain in Primordia. You will clear a handful of waves of different Primordian indigens before being confronted by a very large and threatening boss monster at the peak of the hill. This mission can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes depending on how efficient your party is. As you tackle missions of harder difficulty, this can vary wildly, as you might expect. There are varying missions types as well, not all in this specific format.

• You are allowed a maximum of 3 deaths. This means 3 times that your HP can deplete to 0. After your third death, you are RIP permanently for the rest of the mission, and the likelihood of your party mates clearing the mission decreases exponentially without your help. This means that playing intelligently is in your benefit. Don't be a Leeroy.
  
  
• Soul Voice mechanics are in full effect in multiplayer missions. Since there is no dedicated healing class in Xenoblade Chronicles X, it is absolutely in your interest for you to execute the Soul Voice skills you've been harnessing while out exploring the planet Mira. Successfully nailing Soul Voice nets you valuable group healing that can be crucial to your ability to clear these missions without too much casualty. Really good parties can keep a Soul Voice combo going for long stretches, so practice up and try to work out combos with your party mates' setup.
  
  
• If you play a class that is better suited to be taking damage, do try to take aggro. This goes mostly for "Striker" tier classes. Other classes aren't nearly as good at soaking damage as you are, so do your best to maximize your damage and keep the monster focusing on you!
  
  
• If you are running with AI partners, they do not have a 3 death limit, however they do not count as a living human player if you die. That means game over still if you hit the limit. Even dying once in this situation is pretty damning, however, because your AI team mates will rarely have the TP to resurrect you and they will just die without your help.

You are able to chat and emote to your party through the Wii Gamepad, so do your best to be as social as you can to avoid making it boring if it's your zillionth time through a quest due to bad RNG for the drops you want. The game is also compatible with a USB keyboard, if you so desire. Try to be nice! We're all in this together, you know?

----------Divisions----------

You pick a division early on in the game, and you may have read about them a bit, but these are essentially organizations that you align yourself with in order to receive various organization-specific buffs, while also receiving a bonus to the rewards of completing your organizations's favored activities.

For example, Interceptors and Harriers both benefit more from killing monsters than other divisions, but Interceptors provide a bonus to Ranged damage, while Harriers gain a bonus to melee damage. It is important to pick a division that supports your style of play not just in combat, but based on activities outside of combat that interest you too. Pathfinders gain extra points by exploring uncharted territory, Outfitters get a boost to how quickly they gain commercial points with gear companies, allowing them to craft higher quality gear quicker, for example.

Each division has both a combat benefit, and an out-of-combat benefit that will net you division points by doing. A player of any division is not limited to only their divisions' preferred activity. A Mediator can do Pathfinder activities, and a Pathfinder can do Mediator activities, but you only boost your division score by doing activities preferred by your division. Essentially, picking a division doesn't lock you out of content, it just decides which content rewards you. So it's very important that you pick the division that aligns with your play style and the way you like to play! It is debated to the end of Mira itself which combat benefit is the "best" so just go with your gut!

"How is this related to network functions?"

Glad you asked! In the BLADE HQ there is a rankings board that tallies daily. You can see which divisions have done the most work towards their conquest of Mira. A new tally is taken every day, so every day is a new chance for you to work towards boosting your division to the top. Divisions that reach the top at the end of a tally will experience being "boosted". Being boosted means possibly better drops and other surprises while exploring Mira!

You might initially be thinking that people can bandwagon hop to the best performing division, and you wouldn't be so witty to suggest the idea, as it's already been thought of by players in Japan already playing the game! To combat the notion of switching simply to reap the benefits of a boost you didn't earn, they have balanced the point gain among the divisions in a way where every single division has a chance to reach the top, it just depends on how much effort you want to put in to it on a given day, as every new day is a new chance for your division to be high on the list. They also added a hefty price to switching too many times/to higher ranks, so switching constantly is just not feasible. It's not just the #1 ranking division that wins a boost by the way! Sometimes it can even be the top 3! So do your best and keep your division high on the rankings! This is why it's all the more important you pick a division that suits you on every front, so that you're earning points for doing what you enjoy, so you don't get tired of it .

----------Rankings----------

Finally, but not to be forgotten, is a rankings board. A lot of people can get in to these because it can be fun to set uber-high records that nobody can reach, putting your name out there for everyone to see. There are rankings for tons of different categories where you might even end up #1 in one accidentally. It can drive competitive types to attempt to beat the top ranked players in categories they care about. All in all, this game supports and urges you to do what you like doing in a completely open space where freedom is the name of the game. You pick your own objectives and interests. It's all a part of the immersion.

All of these these network features are seamlessly integrated with the "single-player" experience. That means you take your own character, un-changed, exactly as they are in to these multiplayer missions, with the exception of the effects of level scaling depending on the mission you're doing, as I explained earlier. The whole point of these features are to make you feel as though this isn't really a single player experience. That you are not alone on Mira, and that you are one of many BLADE missionaries doing your part to conquer and discover the planet of Mira, carving a niche for the human race in to their new home of which they've been forced to grow accustomed to.

That's basically everything you need to know about the multiplayer. There are some little details that I didn't mention because they are mostly unimportant.

never gets old even if it is a weeb character

 

[McKnightlíght]

Since it's video sharing time. Here's some more sass to throw on the sasspile.

Dear Sakurai

Why does red lightning mean nothing?

 

[Flavius]

So I was uploading some replays and then I noticed this...

Goddamn, even when she loses she's still the ultimate sassT queen

 

[Furret]

Morning girls. How's everyone doing?

I watched some one punch man or something and liked it per usual I hope the next episode comes out sooner. I'm really hoping to hear your opinions on absolutely any anime.

I had breakfast per usual I wish it was more exciting today. The weather seems to be a bit odd in an undisclosed location. Been playing more pokemon picross some of the later levels seem to be really odd and difficult.

Spoiler: stupid random pic of two anime girls

 

[McKnightlíght]

I hope you woke up early to post this on time.

 

[EODM07]

Morning girls. How's every-

Morning girls. How's everyone doing?

I watched some one punch man or something and liked it per usual I hope the next episode comes out sooner. I'm really hoping to hear your opinions on absolutely any anime.

I had breakfast per usual I wish it was more exciting today. The weather seems to be a bit odd in an undisclosed location. Been playing more pokemon picross some of the later levels seem to be really odd and difficult.

Spoiler: stupid random pic of two anime girls

...Anyway, just preparing my lunch right now, and went out to do some rounds. And I'm thinking of whether to upload a match I had against evmaxy54 where he went Ness and I countered two of his PK Thunder recoveries and broke his shield. (Again, GGs for yesterday maXy.)

Spoiler: Yuri pic of the day~

 

[Trieste SP]

never gets old even if it is a weeb character

tfw someone posts an essay

 

[r_greening1]

Wow, the 'new PMDT' stuff got axed too. Some companies are apparently going around with heavy threats and the entire Brawl modding community is at stake??

Konami, is that you?

what happened?

 

[McKnightlíght]

I nearly broke my thumb scrolling past it on mobile.

Also, why are you all awake rn?

 

[Trieste SP]

I nearly broke my thumb scrolling past it on mobile.

Also, why are you all awake rn?

It's the evening for me.

 

[McKnightlíght]

It's the evening for me.

Well yeah, that makes sense.

I was talking about the non-Asian/non-Australians.

 

[EODM07]

Also, why are you all awake rn?

Because we can?

Also, randomly found this while browsing the Artwork section in the TF2 Community on Steam. :V

What is this BALLOOMINATION!?

Rest in peace Zelda Social. D:

 

[Sepia_Trace]

Wow, this thread is quiet right now. Usually you sisters are very chatty c:

 

[EODM07]

Wow, this thread is quiet right now. Usually you sisters are very chatty c:

I know. It just suddenly went quiet.

Don't scare us like that Zelda Social!

Also, how much do you think my Lucina has improved? Me and evmaxy54 did have plenty more matches (He went Fox and Zelda too. I mainly went Lucina.) This was one of them that I wanted to upload.

I should've uploaded and saved some of the others, so I could see what I'm doing wrong.

 

[Burgundy]

There's quite a lot to it actually. So bear with me.

----------Squads----------

Squads are the "passive" multiplayer feature of Xenoblade X. At any moment as long as your Wii U is actively connected to the internet, you will be loosely connected with 31 other players also adventuring on Mira, making a 32 person squad that is actively connected to one another in a handful of ways. First thing of note, this does not mean you can see their actual avatars adventuring around the world a'la an actual MMORPG, but what it does mean is the following...

• You can't see the actual players, but you can see NPC versions of their avatars adventuring around the world. When you see them, you can interact with them, and even invite them to your party. They will earn experience (for the actual player), and you gain a temporary, and possibly quite valuable (depending on their level) ally. I believe their membership in your party expires after a couple of hours so do as much as you can with them to get the most out of their help (assuming their character is equipped lvl/gear-wise to help you).
  
  
• You can send messages out for your entire squad to see. You might do this for a few reasons, to give some advice about something you've found, or in general just send out a message because you're feeling social. Everyone in your squad has the ability to "+1" your messages, and messages that receive a lot of +1's will be broadcast to the entire playerbase.
  
  
• You can hold a "Treasure Deal" that anyone in your squad can opt-in to participate in. This is sort of like trading but less direct. When you find an item you don't need but feel it would be a waste to just throw away, you can put the item up for a Treasure Deal to your squad. People will opt-in and basically it's a dice roll for the item between everyone who opted in.
  
  
• You can also choose to see the achievement spam of everyone in your squad but this is a really spammy feature that many people actually turn off. Me personally I wouldn't recommend it but some people get a sense of "liveliness" seeing that other people are earning things in their midst, so to speak. Sometimes you can see people earn an achievement and be like "Oh, how do I get that one?", or "Wow they have an achievement for that?!". Achievements are novelty by definition so this function isn't really helpful for anything other than trying to promote that "community" feeling of the world being alive.

The last purpose of squads are Squad Tasks. Every so often you receive 5 objectives. If you've seen any footage of XBCX you'll often notice the UI for it in the bottom right. A selection of 5 monsters and/or gatherables and a counter under each one, showin the progress. Players within your squad must work together to clear these squad objectives by killing the according number of monsters or collecting materials that the counter dictates. Whenever you clear each of the 5 objectives, it will increase the number of Squad Missions you can run when you teleport back to NLA and check the mission counter. More on Squad Missions later.

Sometimes the objectives can be difficult to find, so even if you're being a lazy fart, if you happen upon the right objective mobs that people don't seem to be killing, send out a squad-wide message telling everyone where you found it! This happens a lot in the JP version and it's massively helpful in conducting a quick and easy objective clear.

Clearing Squad Tasks will net your entire squad goodies, so it's in your benefit to work with your squad to clear them.

To round out my explanation of squads, I'll have you know that when you launch the game, it gives you three options...

• Join a squad filled with solo-minded players.

You would join this squad if you simply want to reap the benefits of the social networking that being in a squad can provide you such as messages and occasional treasure deals, contribute at your own pace to your division, but not feel obligated to work on squad tasks. Choose this option if you're not interested in workings towards multiplayer squad missions and simply want to pick your own activities and play at your own pace without pressure. You can also ignore all of the above if you'd like.

• Join a squad with multiplayer-minded players.

Choose this option if you want to be in a squad with other players who will be putting effort in to completing the squad tasks with the intention of unlocking the multiplayer squad missions, along with all the above-stated benefits of being in a squad.

• Join a squad with your friends.

You can select this option to be grouped in to a squad with selected friends whom you have their NNID who are currently at the time, exploring Mira in a squad of their own. Do clarify which type of squad (1 or 2) your friend is in, because if you choose this option it completely skips your preference and simply groups you with your chosen friend/s. Make sure you decide together what kind of squad you want to be in.

----------Squad Missions----------

This is the main multiplayer-related component of Xenoblade Chronicles X. Once you pop any of the 5 squad tasks spoken about in the above text, it will unlock a number of missions at the blade mission board back at your BLADE HQ. These missions can be tackled in a party of up to 4 real players, which is formed through invites which can be sent out simply by scanning a list of your entire squad. You can observe all 31 of your squad mates' levels, class, gear, and make a decision whether you'd like to invite them or not. No matter where they are on planet mira, they can accept your invite, however they can also decline if they wish not to run a mission with you so try to invite as many friends as you can for maximum fun. If you are unable to fill your party, you may fill gaps in your party with any of your BLADE NPC characters such as Elma or Lin. It is possible to enter these missions by yourself, simply accompanied by 3 NPCs, and some of the easier missions are cleared easily in this way, but with higher level/more difficult missions you will want to bring as many actual human players as you can in your party for reasons I will explain later.

Clearing 1 out of 5 tasks will often unlock a low level mission or two at the mission table, this might discourage you to hear, but no fear! Monolith Soft was aware of this conundrum, so they've incorporated level scaling for every single multiplayer mission. That means if you're level 50, and you go in to a multiplayer mission that was designated as lvl 20 difficulty, you will be scaled down to something like lvl 25 or so. This means that while you will still reap the benefits of your earned arts, gear, and of course your practical experience, it isn't an utter and complete face-roll for you, which would make running these missions pointless. The rewards at the end of the mission will give you possibly rare loot, depending on the enemies you tackled within said mission, and squad vouchers which you can spend near the mission table on various special items like for your Collectapedia. I've also seen useful consumable items on that list.

That being said, as you clear the 2/5th task, the 3/5th task, and get closer and closer to clearing all 5 tasks, the amount of missions that begin to unlock at the mission table increases exponentially. Where popping the first task may net you 1-2 somewhat lower level/easy difficulty missions. Clearing a 2nd objective will get you 2-3 more missions of higher difficulty/rarer loots.

Logically, you can presume that in order to be qualified for the biggest, baddest monsters and the rarest, strongest loot, you need to unlock the missions that come with clearing all 5 tasks. This is how you will increase and maximize your chances of getting a "Nemesis" mission which is taking down a fearsome boss which is undoubtedly going to drop you some sick loot. If you join multiplayer-minded squads, aim for clearing the squad tasks! Monsters in Xenoblade X can range all the way up to lvl 99+, so you will never trivialize the content, only make it more manageable (the maximum character level is much less than 99, I'll be unspecific to avoid possible spoilers for people).

----------Time Attack Missions----------

There is also a list of various Time Attack Missions. These missions have a 15 minute time limit (most of the time as far as I've seen) and will net you nice rewards in the the form of funds and squad points.

Successfully completing Squad Missions will push progress on a Conquest meter bar of sorts. The higher you push this meter through the continuous completion of squad missions, the closer you get to initiating a "Nemesis" event (World Enemy in the JP version). There are various Nemesis at varying level ranges (and again, you are level scaled to them).

The manual will tell you that if you want the absolute best gear in the game for both your skells and your character/s...you want these missions as much as you can get them (and of course, to successfully complete them, which requires team work!).

----------Global Nemesis----------

This is what it all comes down to. The moment you've been waiting for.

Enacting a Global Nemesis mission will start an event that your entire squad participates in. A nemesis is a fearsome boss that will take a hefty amount of both skill and experience to conquer. Basically you need to fight this Nemesis as much as possible as a squad. Every time the Nemesis is attacked, it depletes a "RP Gauge" that is equivalent to how much HP he has lost in every single battle with every single person in your squad. For example let's say the RP gauge is at 30,000, and the boss has 5,000 HP. That means 6 parties need to clear him to deplete his RP gauge. These figures are extremely rough purely for example's sake. Completely depleting the RP gauge of a Global Nemesis will require effort from your entire squad as it will generally be quite a high amount of RP. If you succeed in this endeavor, your squad will reap all kinds of neat buffs (and of course, lewts)! Do the work! Play as a team. Communicate with your squad! Get awesome stuff! Easy, right? These bosses will require your full attention and effort, utilizing all the skills you've honed on Mira, so don't let your party down!

----------Multiplayer Mission Gameplay----------

There are a few things you need to know about actually playing in multiplayer missions before you jump in guns blazing so you can get the most out of your experience before you wind up getting owned like some kind of n00b. You are generally put in to a slightly corded off area, unable to venture too far off the beaten path, and you are guided along the mission objectives by means of enemy spawn waves in the direction you should be going. Don't get me wrong, the beautiful world of Mira is still all around you, they just limit your freedom of exploration a bit during these missions. As an example, there's a really easy, low level mission that has you moving through a path up a mountain in Primordia. You will clear a handful of waves of different Primordian indigens before being confronted by a very large and threatening boss monster at the peak of the hill. This mission can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes depending on how efficient your party is. As you tackle missions of harder difficulty, this can vary wildly, as you might expect. There are varying missions types as well, not all in this specific format.

• You are allowed a maximum of 3 deaths. This means 3 times that your HP can deplete to 0. After your third death, you are RIP permanently for the rest of the mission, and the likelihood of your party mates clearing the mission decreases exponentially without your help. This means that playing intelligently is in your benefit. Don't be a Leeroy.
  
  
• Soul Voice mechanics are in full effect in multiplayer missions. Since there is no dedicated healing class in Xenoblade Chronicles X, it is absolutely in your interest for you to execute the Soul Voice skills you've been harnessing while out exploring the planet Mira. Successfully nailing Soul Voice nets you valuable group healing that can be crucial to your ability to clear these missions without too much casualty. Really good parties can keep a Soul Voice combo going for long stretches, so practice up and try to work out combos with your party mates' setup.
  
  
• If you play a class that is better suited to be taking damage, do try to take aggro. This goes mostly for "Striker" tier classes. Other classes aren't nearly as good at soaking damage as you are, so do your best to maximize your damage and keep the monster focusing on you!
  
  
• If you are running with AI partners, they do not have a 3 death limit, however they do not count as a living human player if you die. That means game over still if you hit the limit. Even dying once in this situation is pretty damning, however, because your AI team mates will rarely have the TP to resurrect you and they will just die without your help.

You are able to chat and emote to your party through the Wii Gamepad, so do your best to be as social as you can to avoid making it boring if it's your zillionth time through a quest due to bad RNG for the drops you want. The game is also compatible with a USB keyboard, if you so desire. Try to be nice! We're all in this together, you know?

----------Divisions----------

You pick a division early on in the game, and you may have read about them a bit, but these are essentially organizations that you align yourself with in order to receive various organization-specific buffs, while also receiving a bonus to the rewards of completing your organizations's favored activities.

For example, Interceptors and Harriers both benefit more from killing monsters than other divisions, but Interceptors provide a bonus to Ranged damage, while Harriers gain a bonus to melee damage. It is important to pick a division that supports your style of play not just in combat, but based on activities outside of combat that interest you too. Pathfinders gain extra points by exploring uncharted territory, Outfitters get a boost to how quickly they gain commercial points with gear companies, allowing them to craft higher quality gear quicker, for example.

Each division has both a combat benefit, and an out-of-combat benefit that will net you division points by doing. A player of any division is not limited to only their divisions' preferred activity. A Mediator can do Pathfinder activities, and a Pathfinder can do Mediator activities, but you only boost your division score by doing activities preferred by your division. Essentially, picking a division doesn't lock you out of content, it just decides which content rewards you. So it's very important that you pick the division that aligns with your play style and the way you like to play! It is debated to the end of Mira itself which combat benefit is the "best" so just go with your gut!

"How is this related to network functions?"

Glad you asked! In the BLADE HQ there is a rankings board that tallies daily. You can see which divisions have done the most work towards their conquest of Mira. A new tally is taken every day, so every day is a new chance for you to work towards boosting your division to the top. Divisions that reach the top at the end of a tally will experience being "boosted". Being boosted means possibly better drops and other surprises while exploring Mira!

You might initially be thinking that people can bandwagon hop to the best performing division, and you wouldn't be so witty to suggest the idea, as it's already been thought of by players in Japan already playing the game! To combat the notion of switching simply to reap the benefits of a boost you didn't earn, they have balanced the point gain among the divisions in a way where every single division has a chance to reach the top, it just depends on how much effort you want to put in to it on a given day, as every new day is a new chance for your division to be high on the list. They also added a hefty price to switching too many times/to higher ranks, so switching constantly is just not feasible. It's not just the #1 ranking division that wins a boost by the way! Sometimes it can even be the top 3! So do your best and keep your division high on the rankings! This is why it's all the more important you pick a division that suits you on every front, so that you're earning points for doing what you enjoy, so you don't get tired of it .

----------Rankings----------

Finally, but not to be forgotten, is a rankings board. A lot of people can get in to these because it can be fun to set uber-high records that nobody can reach, putting your name out there for everyone to see. There are rankings for tons of different categories where you might even end up #1 in one accidentally. It can drive competitive types to attempt to beat the top ranked players in categories they care about. All in all, this game supports and urges you to do what you like doing in a completely open space where freedom is the name of the game. You pick your own objectives and interests. It's all a part of the immersion.

All of these these network features are seamlessly integrated with the "single-player" experience. That means you take your own character, un-changed, exactly as they are in to these multiplayer missions, with the exception of the effects of level scaling depending on the mission you're doing, as I explained earlier. The whole point of these features are to make you feel as though this isn't really a single player experience. That you are not alone on Mira, and that you are one of many BLADE missionaries doing your part to conquer and discover the planet of Mira, carving a niche for the human race in to their new home of which they've been forced to grow accustomed to.

That's basically everything you need to know about the multiplayer. There are some little details that I didn't mention because they are mostly unimportant.

Don't worry I appreciate your essay All this multiplayer stuff sounds fun~