Xenoblade Chronicles 2 – Best Blades

One of the primary things that you’ll want to work on collecting in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 are Blades. These “weaponized life forms” are linked directly to the Drivers that can summon them, and if you want to be the most powerful Driver in the game, you’re going to need to have a good arsenal of Blades to fall back on. To help you sort through all the different Blades in the game, we’ve created this simple guide which will outline some of the “best” Blades in the game.

Best Blades

One of the easiest ways to tell which Blades are better is to look at their Crown rating. This rating basically will tell you whether you have received a good Blade, a bad Blade, or an exceptional Blade. While Crowns often dictate how good a Blade is, it’s not the only thing to look at when deciding if a Blade is the best for a character.

For example, some Blades, like Sazami don’t offer as many Crowns as others, but they still work better for more offensive characters like Rex than Blades like Ursula might. While Crowns are a good way to gauge the overall strength of a Blade, it isn’t the only thing to take into account when figuring out which Blades work best for your party and your playstyle.

As we said above, you’ll always want to try to situate Blades so that they work best with the character that you are trying to equip them to. This will not only make things much smoother in combat, but it will also even out your party, making it harder for the enemy to beat you in any specific way. You’ll always want to play to your character’s weaknesses and strengths when choosing their Blades, otherwise you’ll simply be causing imbalance in your group.

How to Upgrade Blades

Just like the main characters in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Blades can also be upgraded through their own Affinity Charts, which are basically like perk charts, where you can select different perks and abilities. To check on a Blade’s Affinity chart, head to the Manage Blades section of your Blades Menu and then select the desired Blade that you want to upgrade. From here you’ll be given the option to customize that Blade.

Once you’ve found that Affinity that you want to upgrade your Blade with, select it and then choose to unlock it. As you can see, there are several different levels for Blade Affinities, so you’ll need to upgrade them along the way if you want to acquire the most powerful perks and abilities.

At the end of the day, finding the best Blade is all about looking at the character that you are planning to set them up with, and then seeing which Blade will work best with their character type. For example, pairing up a Healer with an Offensive character might not be the best move, as their abilities won’t fit together and coincide well. Instead, try situating characters with Blades that befit their strengths and weaknesses to create an unstoppable force.

For more help be sure to check out our guide on how to level up quickly in Xenoblade Chronicles 2.