There are all kinds of Arts to learn in Xenoblade Chronicles X, but you’ll need to learn them through different character classes. The official website shares a look at some of the starter classes, in addition to details on the buffs and debuffs of the game.
The very first class is the “Drifter” and once it hits rank 10, it branches out to three different classes: “Assault,” “Command,” and “Forcer”.
Drifter: the start of all classes. They learn a good balance arts.
Equipment: Knives, Assault Rifles
Assault: excel at both offensive and defensive Arts. They have higher stats when it comes to HP and Fighting power.
Equipment: Long Swords, Assault Rifles
Command: uses various Arts to damage enemies. Their stats focus more on Fighting, Shooting, and Evasion.
Equipment: Dual Swords, Dual Guns
Forces: a remote support-type that has many Shooting Arts. Their stats are higher on Shooting power and Latent Abilities.
Equipment: Knives, Ray Guns.
While it’s important to have your offensive and defensive Arts down, buffs and debuffs are something that players will also need to keep in mind. Here’s a look at some of the beneficial effects, or buffs, of Xenoblade Chronicles X:
Fighting Accuracy Up: increases the accuracy of Fighting attacks.
Shooting Power Up: increases the damage done with Shooting attacks.
Beam Resistance Up: reduces the damage taken by beam attribute attacks.
Damage Armor: creates a barrier that absorbs a fixed amount of damage.
Bullet Charge: multiplies the damage done with your next shot.
Fake Body: allows you to avoid enemy attacks for a certain number of times.
Next, is a look at buffs from weather effects and Battle Probes:
All Attribute Resistance up: reduces the damage taken.
Critical Rate Up: increases critical hit rate.
Ether Attack Enhancement: increases damage of Ether attribute attacks.
Resist Down: reduces enemy debuff resistance, giving you a better chance to get them in “Break” and “Topple” statuses.
Now that we got a look at all the buffs and positive effects you can get for your character and allies, here’s a look at some of the debuffs:
Break: breaks target’s balance. Makes it possible for a Topple.
Knockback: pushes target backwards.
Stun: stuns the target.
Sleep: when a target is in sleep status, they can’t perform actions. They wake up upon taking a hit.
Black Sight: reduces target’s accuracy and evasion rate, along with their Shooting damage.
Burn: target takes Heat attribute damage for a fixed amount of time.
Similar to the buffs, debuffs can also come from weather and Battle Probes:
Shooting Accuracy Down: reduces the accuracy of Shooting attacks.
Fighting Power Down: reduces the damage done by Fighting attacks.
Weather Damage – Heat: target takes Heat attribute damage for a fixed amount of time.
Weather Damage – Bolt: target takes Bolt attribute damage for a fixed amount of time.
Xenoblade Chronicles X is slated for release in Japan on April 29, 2015 for Wii U, and later this year for North America and Europe.
