Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Part 23: Introducing the Land of Challenge DLC (Time Attack & Gauntlet)
0Time to show off some more DLC that came with this game's Expansion Pass.
The Expansion Pass was divided up into 4 Volumes, with Volume 1 having an emphasis on color variants for each of Ouroboros' base outfits.
However, Volume 2 of this pass is when things REALLY pick up for this game's DLC.
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With Volume 2 unlocked, go to Ribbi Flats to Llyn Nyddwr. It's near a small Nopon campfire.
There's a particular sparkling light nearby, one that's both red and blue. Get close to it to trigger a cutscene...
Lanz gets a bit too close to the light, and it ends up transporting the whole group someplace else.
Ouroboros were no longer on Aionios. They were warped to a different dimension where they were greeted by a very special Nopon: The Nopon Archsage!
The Nopon Archsage was anticipating Ouroboros' arrival, as he wanted to both them through special trails to observe their techniques and powers, and he will also reward them well if they perform well in their trials: The Challenge Battles!
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Uhhh... Mind some of the material that the tutorial show that I have actually yet to reach in this playthrough. Heh-heh...
The first of these Challenges is Time Attack, where you fight through a select number of enemy waves. The faster you beat this, the higher your Rank and the more Red Noponstone you win.
In Time Attack, you can use the current party that you have on you now, including your current Hero. However, some restrictions will be applied, such as capping your party's Levels.
Outfit rewards you can get out of Time Attack includes Swimsuits for Ouroboros. Sounds cute!
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Just as Volume 2 of the Expansion Pass adds Time Attack to the Land of Challenge, Volume 3 also adds the Archsage's Gauntlet.
This style of Challenge is more Rougelike and has much different rules of battle compared to anywhere else in this whole game.
You can only select 1 member of Ouroboros to start this challenge by himself or herself. As you go through each battle, you will get to choose to spent points to add things to that person's roster, such as special stat buffs (and debuffs), and even more party members.
The catch is that the only party members you can add are from your Heroes roster. As of this point of my playthrough, this would sadly mean that I could only have Noah or Mio be joined later on by Zeon and Teach. I'm gonna need to find more heroes. There are several perks that can be enhanced based on how many party members come from the same nation between Keves or Agnus, or even a third-party.
You can't be too lax on other things here, though. As you fight, a Nopwatch meter will go down. If it runs empty, your party will suffer negative penalties. A Shop option to refill this meter is one of the many random things that can show up in a Shop between matches.
There are many other things that to describe about this Challenge in the tutorials, so I'll let them speak for me here.
The further you get through a Gauntlet without a full party wipeout, the higher your rank will be and the more Blue Noponstones you get.
Gaining Blue Noponstone from the Gauntlet allows you to use it for other purchases, such as giving Ouroboros "Throwback" outfits based on characters from Xenoblade 1 & 2. For example, Sena can dress like XC2's Brigid, while Lanz can dress like XC1's Reyn. Naturally, Noah's reward will give him XC1's Shulk's outfit, but that's one of the harder Gauntlet rewards to reach.
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Again, you earn Red Noponstone through Time Attack and Blue Noponstone in Gauntlet.
Red Noponstone can be used to quickly give random Ouroboros members new classes. You can't really control which ones to give them in particular, though. So you just gotta keep spending.
But I don't have a lot of Heroes and Hero Classes to teach to Ouroboros, I need to start looking for more, which is why I can't really spend to much time in the Land of Challenge.
I may return to this later after I do gain more Heroes. Time to finally explore a bigger chunk of Ribbi Flats!