Earlier today, Xenoblade Chronicles X finally showed us what we’ve all been waiting for—details on Dolls. In addition, the latest livestream also shared information on how the game’s Networking system works.
While in Network mode, you’ll get to find other BLADE members out there to recruit. You’ll then get to use these AI recruits of other players in combat, similar to the way you’d get Elma or Lyn in your party. Your character may perhaps be used as part of another player’s Network.
Your character can also be part of a 32-man “Squad”. Squads consist of 32 players in the same network that are out exploring Mira, and they’ll be there to help each other out.
For example, a character from your Squad may share reports on certain findings, like quest objectives, and everyone in the group will be able to check it out. Reports can be rated, and if they receive a high enough rating, they will become visible to all players even outside the Squad.
The “Treasure Deal” is a special feature that allows you to give and receive equipment from within the Squad. The way it works is, a player can mark a certain piece of equipment they’re willing to give away and put it up for notice in the Squad board. Any member that wants it can join for a chance to get it, but if multiple players do, it will select one at random.
Squad Missions are subjugation missions that require you and other Squad members to take out various types of enemies. This gives you a feeling of cooperating with other faraway players, as the number indicated under the monster types will diminish whenever a player takes one down.
When any of the five objectives of a Squad Mission is met, you can participate in a Squad Quest. These are special missions that allow you and four members team up together for a quest, starting at a network terminal located at the BLADE home.
This is where you can recruit or sign up for different Squad Quests. These can also be done with AI characters. Clearing Squad Quests advance your research in Planet Mira, and increase your conquest development.
Additionally, by increasing your conquest development enough, you’ll eventually find “World Enemies”. These are powerful giant enemies that are much stronger than Overed. They’ll be difficult to fight, but they’ll surely have nice rewards for doing so.
As previously reported, players are split into eight different factions as a member of BLADE. These determine different types of missions they get, but as an extra bit of fun, they also compete against one another to see who contributes the most, and you can check it out in Network Mode as part of the “Uniongram”.
For example, Path Finders may get points for setting Data Probes, while Interceptors might get them for taking out certain monsters. As seen in the above image, the contributions of each Union faction is indicated, with the top having a “Fever” marker.
There are all kinds of different personal rankings. These range from most kills to most Union points, and there are even Time Attack rankings. You can aim to get the top spot of certain rankings that nobody might seem to go for, or compete with the large crowd for some of the greater rankings. You might even find yourself as the top without realizing it.
Xenoblade Chronicles X will release in Japan on April 29, 2015 for Wii U, and later this year in the West.
