InXenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition, each character will be able to equip between three and five skills at any given time. The number of slots varies by character, and as for the player character themselves, it will vary instead by their current class.
There are a fair number of skills, and you’ll likely find yourself feeling limited by the number of slots. This is by design, of course, as it makes for more meaningful decisions regarding which skills to spend Battle Points upgrading in order to eat up one of those precious slots. Most skills are perfectly serviceable, but the following are especially worthy of consideration!
10Inner Search
Find Your Full Potential
Inner Searchraises a character’smaximum Potential. Potential can seem kind of nebulous when you’re first starting out in Xenoblade Chronicles X, but it’s actually fairly important;
Higher Potential achieves two key things. First,it increases healing, which is mainly accomplished viaSoul Voices(the quick-time events which pop up periodically) and a slim handful ofBattle Arts.
What’s more, Potential affects theamount of damage dealt by Tension Point (TP) Arts. As TP Arts are among the most powerful single attacks in Xenoblade Chronicles X, this is a major source of offensive output.
9Trauma Tension
Find Even Further Potential… By Being Smacked Around
WithTrauma Tension, a character is granted a15 percent chance of gaining TP whenever they are attacked. Since this stacks with other sources of TP-boosting, including specific Battle Arts,it can be a prime source of extra Tension Points.
Trauma Tension provides extra TP per each rank;maximizing this Skill will provide a whopping 150 TP every time it’s successful.
8Iron Knuckle
Cruel Melee
Iron Knuckleis a straightforward Skill:it increases Physical-based damage. As Physical is arather common attack type, Iron Knuckle can slot in nicely with a multitude of damage-dealing builds.
The increase range per rank starts at30 percentand maxes out at50 percent. While the range itself isn’t too spectacular, a 1.5x modifier on every single Physical attack canreallylay on the pain.
7Tactical Analyst
Resistance Is Futile
Tactical Analystoffers the wielder anincreased chance of successfully debuffing targets. This applies to every form of debuff, so it’s perfect for debilitation-centric builds.
The only party member who can use Tactical Analyst isMia, although much like every other Skill, Cross can also acquire it. The rank range is12 percent to 24 percent, which - again - doesn’t sound so hot on paper, but it pans out to considerable effect.
6Conductive Strike
Conducive To Electric Builds
As forConductive Strike, any enemy inflicted with theShockdebuff willsustain more damage from your team’s Electric attacks.
What makes this so good?Electric-based builds are quite effective with it, as Conductive Strike synchronizes terrifically withKnock ‘n’ Shock, Melee: Shock,and several other sources of Shock infliction.
It’s further bolstered by the sheer number of ways with which toincrease the damage dealt by your Electric attacks.
Once you’ve gotLaoin your party, you will begin to see how cool this can be, but there are two other characters who can excel at Electric builds (besides the player character):Boze and Liesel.
5Shield Screen
Hold The Line
If a character is equipped with aShield, and paired with theShield ScreenSkill, they will sustain less damage from attacks. The game’s inherent Shield wielders includeLin, L, and H.B., each of whom is broadly best-served withdefensively-minded buildsin the first place.
These characters excel atsoaking up as much of the enemy’s damage as possible, making them Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition’s natural “tanks”. Thus, it’s naturally a good idea to lay into this all the more so with Shield Screen!
4Fortified Flesh
More Hits To Drain Your Hit Points
There are two Skills which increase the wielder’s HP: Steel Flesh andFortified Flesh. The latter is abetter version of the former, which, in a list that seeks to highlight the very best Skills in Xenoblade Chronicles X, puts it a major cut above its competition.
Fortified Flesh, like Shield Screen, isideal for tank characters. It’s about as simple as they come, since more HP means more durability. The rank range here is30 percent to 50 percent, and for a character whose HP is alreadly innately high, this can lead to rather immense numbers.
You might be tempted to equip both Fortified FleshandSteel Flesh, and to be sure, that’s a viable approach. WIth thelimited number of Skill slotsin Xenoblade Chronicles X, however,we generally don’t recommend it, as the combined max-rank 80-percent HP boost - while undeniably impressive! - doesn’t quite justify itself in our opinion when you’re better served supplementing Fortified Flesh with things like Shield Screen instead.
3Conflagrant Edge
Thermonuclear
At max rank,Conflagrant Edgeincreases the damage you’ll deal fromThermal attacksby a substantial50 percent. That’s obviously fantastic, but what makes Thermal-based attacks so important as to earn a spot on our list?
The answer here is easy:Thermal builds are pretty great. Find aLongswordwith a linked Augment to amp up Thermal damage, useBurning Slashand the damage from that Battle Art will already be nice enough.
ButBurning Slash doesn’t just deal Thermal damage; it simultaneously lowers Thermal Resistance. You’ll then combo that into the TP ArtIncendiary Edge, which deals massive Thermal-based damage ramped up by Conflagrant Edge’s added 50 percent.Ouch.
2Synchrony
Needs More Skell Belles
Synchronyreally ought to have been given to Liesel and a certain very-late-game spoiler party member, as they’re both canonically excellent Skell pilots. Alas, neither of them has it, but c’est la vie. Instead, you’re limited toAlexa and Yelvfor Synchrony.
Make no mistake, however;both Alexa and Yelv are worthy of spots in your lineup if you intend to pilot Skells often, as it makes them the best Skell pilots in Xenoblade Chronicles X byboosting their Skell’s Melee Attack and Accuracy, Ranged Attack and Accuracy, Potential,andEvasion.
Should you find yourself spending the bulk of your player character’s time in a Skell as well,be sure to slot in Synchronyonce it’s been learned. No sense not taking advantage of it!
1Core Crusher
Core To Your Swift Success
Ah,Core Crusher. Probably the best Skill in the game. First, the setback:if Core Crusher is equipped, the wielder will be unable to damage appendages with Ether attacks. As appendage-targeting can play a vital role in Xenoblade Chronicles X, that might not sound so good at all.
In exchange, however,Etherdamage is increased against non-appendages, which usually means the “body” target, though it may include other names at times. At max rank, this is a150 percent boost from Ether attacks,
Pivotally,Core Crusher’s damage-upping effect is calculatedafterall other damage-upping effects from Skills, Battle Arts, and such. In practice, this essentially means thatWeapon damage modifiers (and Ether damage modifiers) do 2.5x as much in conjunction with whatever else is added.
The result is an absurdly broken Skill that’s hard not to recommend.
