Combat (XCX)

Combat or battle is a central gameplay mechanic in Xenoblade Chronicles X. The game uses a real-time battle system which takes place in the overworld.
Combat is initiated when the player deals damage to a targeted , an enemy is alerted to the player and is hostile, or when a story or quest initiates a battle. It ends if all enemies have their brought to 0 or are deaggroed, all party members are incapacitated, if the player-controlled character is incapacitated and "Return" is selected in the prompt that appears, or if the player-controlled character is incapacitated for 30 seconds. In the former two cases, the combat ends in a victory for the party and the game enters the regular out-of-combat state. In the latter cases, the combat ends in a loss for the party, and they are sent to the most recently-visited .
==Setup==
===Party composition===
The player controls a singular party member at a time, and the party must include the player created character (Cross). Up to 3 other party members can be active, bringing the maximum up to 4 party members. Party members not controlled by the player are usually controlled by .
Which party members are available to be included in combat is often restricted by the story. For example, and must be included in main story missions, and other characters are often required for Affinity missions.
Outside of these story requirements, other party members either come from the set of party members or, if one is playing online, from other players' Crosses (as Scouts). The game also has some player-vs-enemy multiplayer functionality: in Squad Missions, multiple players can join the same party, each controlling their own Cross.
===Equipment===
====Weapons====
Each character has a melee weapon and a ranged weapon they can equip, determined by their . While recruitable characters are fixed in their Class and cannot change their weapon types, Cross is able to swap between Classes and can therefore use any weapon in the game. Initially, Cross's weapons are also determined by their current Class, but after reaching rank 10 in a level 4 Class, that Class's weapons can be used in any situation.
Using the X button, the player can switch freely between the melee and ranged weapon while not in a animation, changing which weapon is used to . Using an Art automatically switches the weapon to that used in the Art, which remains as the active weapon after the Art's animation ends.
====Armor====
Armor is equipment which primarily increases the user's defense and elemental resistances, and often provides additional benefits to a player's stats. Each character can equip armor for the head, body, right and left arm, and the legs.
Armor also changes a character's appearance. The player can override the appearance of the armor they have equipped on any character by using "fashion gear", allowing them to use the appearance given by other armor they have.
====Skells====
Each character is assigned to at most one Skell (this can be changed in the Blade Barracks outside of combat). In combat, each active character can freely enter or exit their Skell. The Skell has a different set of customisable Battle Arts and several combat mechanics work differently for them; see for an overview.
Skells, weapons, and armor are all level-limited: each has a specific minimum level, and can only be worn by characters at or above that level.
====Augments====
Augments are additional pieces of equipment which can be added to other equipment in order to improve the character's stats or add additional effects. Specific augments can only be added to specific other kinds of equipment (weapons, armour, Skell frames, Skell weapons, and Skell armour). Weapons can have up to three slots for augments, and pieces of armor can have up to one. They may also have "battle traits", inherent augment effects that are fixed with the weapon and cannot be removed or exchanged (but which can be upgraded).
===Classes===
Each character has a Class. This determines the weapons (and therefore Battle Arts) they use and the s they learn. It also provides a multiplier on their s. Characters can increase their "Class rank" by earning Class EXP; doing so unlocks new Arts and Skills.
Cross can change their Class at will outside of combat: they have access to a Class tree, where reaching rank 10 in one Class allows them to proceed to the next Class(es), and reaching the rank 10 in the final "level 4" Classes allows them to use that Class's weapons in any other Class. Other playable characters are fixed to a Class; not all are strictly available to Cross (as some use combinations of weapons that are not offered by other Classes), but Cross is nevertheless able to learn all Arts and Skills usable by any other character.
==Actions==
===Movement===
During combat, the player can move and jump (and fly once the Skell has the Flight Module) around the enemy while performing auto-attacks, providing multiple benefits. First, it helps choose which appendage is targeted. Secondly, attacking behind, above, or below the enemy provides boosts to both accuracy and critical hit rate. Also, attacking from range can prevent the enemy from using close-range Arts.
===Auto-attacks===
Auto-attacks are the simplest, and often the weakest, form of attack. They are automatically performed by characters who are not performing Battle Arts. Each character has access to two different auto-attacks: one performed with the melee weapon, and one with the ranged weapon. is granted when an auto-attack lands.
===Battle Arts===
Each weapon has a selection of Arts tied to it, which are learned as characters level up their Class Ranks. Arts are the main player-controlled action during combat: they are selectable abilities that result in an effect that benefits the player during battle, either by dealing large amounts of damage, supporting party members, or hindering enemies. When an Art is used, it has a cooldown that refills over time before the Art can be used again. When an Art is ready to be used, a "secondary cooldown" gauge can be filled up over time by using the Art's corresponding weapon, and once this is filled it can power up the Art by having it deal additional damage, have a secondary effect, or allow it to not require the cooldown time period before using the Art again. Some Arts, known as TP Arts, require a number of Tension Points to be used, indicated with a TP symbol on the Arts icon.
There are 5 types of Arts in Xenoblade Chronicles X. 
* Yellow: Arts that deal damage based on ranged attack (excluding TP arts).
* Orange: Arts that deal damage based on melee attack (excluding TP arts).
* Green: Buff Arts. Used for supporting teammates.
* Purple: Debuff Arts. Can inflict a debuff effect on enemies.
* Blue: Aura arts. These are similar to buffs but are active for a certain period of time once the Art is used. All Auras require 1000 TP to use.
===Overdrive===
Overdrive is one of the main features of the combat of Xenoblade Chronicles X. After , a character can use 3000 TP to activate Overdrive. This massively increases their damage, the rate at which their Battle Arts recharge, and the success rate of their inflicted debuffs. It also unlocks a "tertiary cooldown" for all their Arts, among a great number of other beneficial effects.
During Overdrive, any hit on an enemy increases the "count" from 0 to a maximum of 100. At higher counts, the strength of the beneficial effects are increased. Overdrive lasts for 15 seconds by default, but its timer can be extended — potentially indefinitely, depending on setup and execution.
===Battle menu===
====Consumable items====
====Party commands====
===Soul Challenges===
Soul Challenges are quick-time events that appear during combat when the player-controlled character executes the condition for a Soul Voice (see below). They appear as two concentric circles forming a white annulus, with a third concentric circle that shrinks in size. The player must press the B button with good timing to complete the Soul Challenge: pressing while the shrinking circle is in the white region results in a "Perfect", and pressing while the circle is smaller than the region (but before it has shrunk to nothing) results in a "Good". The speed at which the shrinking circle shrinks is dependent upon party Morale. Successfully completed Soul Challenges activate Soul Voices, increase Morale, and grant other beneficial effects depending upon whether it was completed with a Good or a Perfect.
==Skell combat==
===Weapons and Arts===
In Skell combat, weapons determine the Arts used. Each Skell can have up to ten weapons, and at least two per location. The sidearm slots are used for the auto-attacks, and the back, shoulder, arm, and spare slots are used for the Skell Arts. Back and shoulder weapons tend to have stronger Arts, while the arm weapons are typically more for support and the spare weapons are meant for faster attacks.
Like with normal Battle Arts, Skell Arts can be selected from a palette and used once the cooldown is filled. However, Skell Arts do not have secondary cooldowns. Additionally, they have a cost: if the Skell does not have enough fuel, the Art can not be used.
Certain Skell weapons will take up both shoulder slots or both back slots, or even all four slots. While this means the Skell uses fewer arts, the arts gained from those weapons typically have stronger effects.
===Cockpit Time===
When a Skell uses a Skell Art, the screen may sometimes pause for a few moments before showing the pilot from inside the cockpit. This is known as Cockpit Time. When this activates, all Skell Arts fully recharge. The Skell is also invincible during this state.
Cockpit Time has a 10% chance to activate normally, but during Overdrive, its chance increases to 30% during odd rounds and 20% during even rounds.
===Overdrive===
When a Skell gains 3000 GP, it is able to use its own form of Overdrive. When used, a Skell will gain multiple benefits, which change depending on the Skell model used. For example, the Urban Skell's Overdrive, named "Oboro", will allow it to deal more damage and take less ranged damage while regenerating its appendage health. The Lailah's "Nagi" Overdrive will allow it to restore its health while taking less damage and being fully immune to s.
When Skell Overdrive is activated, a timer shows indicating how much time is left in the current round. There will be at least three rounds of Overdrive, with the fourth round having a 50% base chance to happen and the next two rounds having a base chance of 0%. Each Cockpit Time activation during Overdrive will increase the chance of Overdrive extension each round by 20%. In order to increase the chance of extension, Cockpit Time chances increase to 30% during odd rounds and 20% during even rounds.
==Other in-combat effects and techniques==
===Evasion===
Attacks are not guaranteed to land. Each hit of each attack has a chance of being dodged by the target, inflicting no damage and no additional effects. For most attacks, this depends on the Melee Accuracy/Ranged Accuracy of the attacker and the of the target, but many additional circumstances and effects can impact hit chance.
Certain Art animations and other situations can force incoming attacks to miss.
===Incapacitation===
When a character's HP is reduced to 0 (typically through enemy attacks), they are incapacitated and cannot act nor be healed. Other party members can revive them by consuming 3000 .
If the player-controlled character is incapacitated, they can choose to forcibly end combat with a loss. Combat also ends in a loss if the player-controlled character is incapacitated for 30 seconds, or if all party members are incapacitated (except for in certain Missions).
===Aggro===
Which party member an enemy chooses to attack is determined by who has the highest aggro, a measure of the enemy's aggression towards each character. Aggro is generally increased by dealing damage to an enemy.
Aggro can be overridden by the debuff, forcing the target to attack the character who inflicted the debuff.
===Healing===
Non-incapacitated characters can restore their HP in combat by healing (also called "regen"). A relatively small number of s do this, and Soul Voices heal both relevant characters upon activation. Other sources of healing exist, such as from s and Skell .
===Tension===
Each character has an amount of TP, short for Tension Points, which are granted and consumed by performing certain actions in battle: many Arts (nicknamed "TP Arts") consume 1000 TP on use, reviving a character from Incapacitation consumes 3000 TP, and activating Overdrive consumes 3000 TP.
Characters can usually hold a maximum of 3000 TP, but this can be increased. TP resets to 0 on incapacitation, combat loss and game load; it is otherwise conserved between battles.
===Soul Voices===
During battles, party members can call out for an ally to use a specific type of Art. When another party member responds by using an Art of the called out type within the time limit, this activates a Soul Voice which heals both relevant party members and activates an additional beneficial effect.
===Morale===
===Appendages===
Each enemy has one or more appendages, and these can be targetted by characters individually. Each appendage has its own HP; attacking an appendage reduces the HP of the enemy and the specific appendage which was targetted. Appendages are indicated by a circle icon, and their current HP is indicated by how much of the circle is filled.
Appendages each have a certain "hardness", which multiplicatively modifies the damage dealt (both to the appendage and to the enemy as a whole when targetting the appendage). Destroying appendages prevents enemies from using certain attacks, and may provide other benefits.
===Buffs===
Buffs are temporary beneficial effects applied to specific characters, typically indicated by blue square icons near a character's HP bar. They commonly raise one of a character's s, although some grant more specific effects such as forcibly dodging attacks or increasing the damage of the next attack. They are granted by certain Arts, conditions, and Data Probes.
s are a special kind of buff which provide multiple effects at once, not all of which need be beneficial. Party-member auras are granted by using blue-coloured Arts, and each require 1000 TP to activate. Many different auras exist, but only one can be on a character at any one time.
Division Support is another category of buff, granted in single-player mode by squad members and s. Each Division has a special type of buff their members grant.
===Debuffs===
Debuffs are the opposite of buffs: temporary detrimental effects applied to a specific character. They are indicated by red square icons next to a character's HP bar. They range from decreasing stats to dealing damage over time to disabling certain attacks. Debuffs are inflicted with certain Arts (the main purpose of purple Battle Arts) and certain weather conditions.
A special category of debuffs called "mobility debuffs" are indicated with purple icons. Each prevents the afflicted character from acting temporarily, and may forcibly reposition them (similar to the reactions of other games).
===Stats===
A character's stats are mostly relevant in combat. Stats depend upon the of a character and their , and many s and Augments modify them. When a character is in a Skell, they use a different set of stats depending upon their Skell and its equipment.
==Interface==
===Display===
===Controls===
==Strategy==
==Gallery==
XCX Target and Draw tutorial.png|The only combat tutorial for the beginning of the game.
XCX Overdrive tutorial.png|The Overdrive tutorial, unlocked after completing .
Category:Xenoblade Chronicles X*