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The combat system of every Xenoblade game is a bit complicated with how many systems you have to account for at once.Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition, for the most part, takes from its predecessor for its combat, though has more than a few unique systems of its one. It’s still a learning process to understand it all.
One of the biggest new combat additions to X is Overdrive. Taking the place of the Chain Attack system from other games, Overdrive can be performed completely independently or with your party, though doesn’t really play by the rules of the rest of the combat. Let’s break down this system so you may understand exactly how it works.
How To Unlock Overdrive
As with many things in the game,Overdrive is not available to you immediately. This is so you’re able to actually learn the core combat system before overloading you with one of the game’s most complex systems. Thankfully, it’s not a missable system, unlocked as part of the story.
To unlock Overdrive,you must first complete Chapter Five, Ma-non Maneuvers. Upon completion, alongside a bevy of other systems, Overdrive will be unlocked. At this point, you have the entire system to play with, with no more aspects of it to be unlocked. And it is wonderfully, terrifyingly complex.
If you want a safe place to practice using Overdrive,you can do practice battles from the Customisation Centerin the Blade Barracks.
How To Use Overdrive
So, you’ve unlocked Overdrive. Unlike other games in the series that pause the game to let you take your time to tactically plan through what your next action will be, X never stops time.Overdrive runs in real-time, and ends by itself after a few seconds. So you need to be fast, and that means knowing exactly where all of your Arts are placed on the palette.
Once you have 3,000 Tension Points (TP), you can activate Overdriveby pressing on the big button in the middle of your Arts Palette. This will blur the rest of the screen and put a focus on your Arts Palette. A countdown will begin, and you have until it runs out to use your Arts to the best of your ability.
There area few unique benefitsthat present themselves from the moment you activate Overdrive, such as:
Many of these bonuses can be increased even further through tactical usage of Overdrive. The goal when in Overdrive is totry to make it last as long as possible. Let’s cover the fundamentals of the system before we get into that, though.
Colour Combinations
Every Art in the gameas a colour associated with it,indicating what type of Art it is. These are as follows:
These are needed for Soul Voices, but become incredibly important in Overdrive for a few different purposes.Performing a Art of a certain colour will trigger unique effects, such as giving you extra TP or increasing Overdrive time, though the most powerful effects come in the colour combination effects. Performing certain Arts of certain colours in a specific order will trigger these effects.
Here isevery effect, how to achieve it, and what it does:
Green - Any Colour
Double Overdrive Count
The ‘Any Colour’ Art will increase the counter by double the hits performed.
Orange - Orange - Orange
EXP Up
Increases EXP earned by 10%. This can be stacked by up to 200% for as long as Overdrive lasts.
Yellow - Yellow - Yellow
Class EXP Up
Increases Class EXP earned by 10%. This can be stacked by up to 200% for as long as Overdrive lasts.
These bonuses are allin addition to the standard effects of the Arts you use, so they are a purely beneficial bonus. It is primarily important to defeat the enemies you are using Overdrive against, but if you may naturally incorporate these bonuses into your Overdrive combos, they will only make the fight easier, and the rewards greater.
Building The Counter
Once you activate Overdrive, that central button will turn orange and display two new pieces of information. These are the timer that shows how long Overdrive will last underneath, andthe Hits Counter right in the centre. The Hits Counter is one of the most important tools to keep track of in Overdrive as it makes the mode so much more powerful the higher it is.
The Hits Counter rises with every hit you land. This doesn’t mean using one Art will give you one hit, though.If an art deals five hits, it will raise the Hits Counter by the five points. This makes it incredibly beneficial to have Arts that hit multiple times as it will be much easier to build up the Hits Counter.
You can check the number of hits an Art performsfrom the Arts screen in the menu.
Every Art counts as a Hit, butonly performing the same type of attack Art in a row keeps the Hits Counter building up. For example, you could perform three Orange Arts in a row, but if you swapped to a Yellow Art, the Hits Counter would reset. To prevent this, you must use a Blue, Green, or Purple Art in between. These will count as a hit too, but can’t be used in a row to build up the Hits Counter.
In short, the Hits Counter grows from performing the same attacks Arts in a Row. If you want to swap from Orange Arts to Yellow Arts,use any other coloured Art in between to preserve the combo.
As the Hits Counter grows,which maxes out at 100 hits, it provides multiple bonuses shown above the hits counter. These are as follows:
These multipliers can grow to a ridiculously high amount. As such,it is worth delaying some of your more powerful Arts for laterwhen you have a much higher Hits Counter so that the effects they cause will be dramaticlaly improved.
Refreshing Overdrive
While increasing the Hits Counter is the most critical goal when using Overdrive, it is not the only goal you should have in mind. WhileOverdrive can be extended through the Hits Counter, this will only ever add a few seconds. This is great, but it’s not game-changing. That’s why there is an even more powerful way of renewing Overdrive.
It takes 3,000 TP to activate Overdrive. If you earn 3,000 TP again while in Overdrive,you’re able to press the button in the centre again to expend it and increase the length of Overdrive. This grants another 20 seconds to the timer on top of whatever you already had remaining.
Because the renewed Overdrive time stacks,you should activate it as soon as you have 3,000 TP availableagain rather than waiting for it to get low.
Even better, this doesn’t reset Overdrive.All of your various colour combo and Hits Counter bonuses remain. It is hilariously broken if you can time it right.
Party Overdrive
In previous games, Chain Attacks were a party-wide system. With them being more individual this time around, it means each party member can activate them individually.Party members typically won’t do this unless you ask them to, but it is possible. However, despite the system being more individual, there are still bonuses for the whole party activating Overdrive at the same time.
Commands your party to keep their Tension upso they don’t spend their points on Tension Arts instead.
Overdrive still functions the same as normaleven if the whole party is using it, but it does provide some extra bonuses. These are as follows:
These effects apply to every party member in Overdrive, and will also be activated if more party members join later. If every party member has 3,000 TP ready to go, use the Activate Overdrive command to get the whole party into Overdrive to stack those bonuses.
Using Overdrive In A Skell
Overdrive in a Skell is mostly the same as it is for while on-foot, though there are some differences. For one,every series of Skell comes with a unique modifier when it activates Overdrive, though there are a series of benefits that apply to every Skell as well. These are:
All other bonuses are relative to the Skell you are using.Overdrive also cannot be done infinitely in Skells, and is instead divided into rounds, which arecapped at six. Ineach round, you have a few seconds to perform your Arts and build up the Hits Counter. Once the timer ends, you proceed to the next round. The first two rounds are guaranteed, though the chance of entering the next round is somewhat random.
This is influenced by the number of times Cockpit Mode is triggered. While this is also random, it has a much higher chance to occur.Each appearance of Cockpit Mode increases the chance of gaining another round by 20%, and this is not expended throughout turns. Therefore, three appearances of Cockpit mode would give you a 60% chance of entering the next round.
