Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Part 6: Playing Around in the Garanti Plain
3Usually, you can't control a Blade directly in this game. Only Drivers, but there is one specific exception.
If you play as Nia, and Dromarch is her current Blade, Nia will ride on Dromarch back, and you can use the white tiger directly from there, including his unique lines for jumping and checking a Collection Point. He'll even climb vines.
But this is just on the field, in battle, you'll direct Nia again, and don't expect her to ride on any other Blade once you give some to her!
Some Treasure Chest can be opened normally, but others will require the fight Field Skills.
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After some more climbing, the team finally reached the open Garanti Plain of the Gormotti Providence.
Their next point of interest is to reach Gormott's local town, Torigoth, but this video is mainly focused on getting into all sorts of shenanigans in the plains and whet my usage of this game's mechanics.
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Be aware of Unique Monsters. They are truly one-of-a-kind, and are tougher to take down than the monsters that may surround them. They will often have an ominous symbol being their current level, and when you start fighting them, the battle music will be more epic and urgent. Also, it was patched that the game now has a clock to show you how long you take to kill the Unique Monster.
Once the Unique Monster is slain, it leave behind a gravestone in its starting point. You can revive it from there if you wanna have a rematch.
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Let me thoroughly explain Blade Combos:
Blade Combo, you must strike the target with rising levels of three Specials in a row. To build up Specials, you have to use your Driver Arts, and to build up your Driver Arts, you have to use your Auto-Attacks. It's a whole sequences of weakest to strongest moves.
A Blade Combo would go like this for what Special you need to use to complete it:
Level 1 (or 2/3/4) to Level 2 (or 3/4) to Level 3 (or 4)
The end of a Blade Combo of specified combinations of elements will unleash an elemental orb of the final Special of that Blade Combo, which will seal off a debuff technique the target could've done on you. If you complete a different Blade Combo, the seal will be replaced.
Each completed Blade Combo will install an Elemental Orb on the target. That can be used for Chain Attacks, but I can't use them, yet. In the meantime, using a Blade Combo that at least involves, or finishes off with the same element of that orb will do less damage to the target than usual.
The most basic Blade Combo is a Fire-Fire-Fire combo that you can just use with Pyra's Specials. Or you can have Nia use a Water-Water-Water special with her Dromarch. Or you can mix it up by using both Pyra and Dromarch for a Fire-Water-Fire combo.
Level 4 Specials can only be used when your current blade has MAX/Gold Affinity towards your current Driver in a battle. Then, when the Special is charged to Level 3, you must wait longer for it to automatically charge to Level 4 without any interruptions. Pyra's Level 4 Special is Burning Sword!
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As of this point, Chain Attacks can't be used yet, but the Party Gauge can still be used to revive fallen teammates. If an ally was slain, you can go over and help them back on their feet with one Party bar. Or, if your own Driver was slain, you'll have to wait until one of your allies runs over to help you up.
This keeps happening until you either run out of Party Gauge bars, or if all Drivers are incapacitated. If they are revived, their Blade's Affinity and their own Arts will be reset back to base level or charge.
If you get killed, you'll respawn at the last Landmark you found. Landmarks can also be used to Skip Travel.
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Lastly, there's the matter of the Cloud Sea. From time to time, it can shift from high tide to low tide, and this can affect some of the places you can access in the game. Check where the clouds are in the top-right indicator's dotted median line to see which tide is present.
Now after a lot of kills and deaths, onwards to Torigoth!