Xenoblade Chronicles X Guide A Primer for Prospective Citizens of Mira
Skells: Take It Up a Notch
Upon completing Chapter 6 of the main story you’ll be able to take the Skell license test. Pass the series of missions, and you’ll receive a Skell of your very own.
Skells are awesome mobile battle mechs with myriad applications—the most obvious of which is to be able to take on the indigens of Mira on a massive scale. You and your party members can even fight side by side with Skells while on the ground.
Vehicle Mode
The Skell’s version of sprinting! Click the left stick to convert from walking mode to vehicle mode. Roll around the countryside at high speed!
Flight Mode
Once you beat Chapter 9 of the main story, a mission opens up. If you complete it, your Skells will be able to fly and reach places on Mira you’ve only dreamed of exploring.
Skell Garage
The Skell Garage is located at the BLADE Barracks. Approach the BLADE Barracks main console and select BLADE Barracks Hangar. Functions of the Hangar include:
| Register Skell | Associate a Skell with a party member. This is the only way a party member can ride a Skell. Note that the party member must be at least the same level as the Skell; if the Skell frame is level 30 and the party member is level 27, you’ll need to buff the party member up first. |
| Change Gear | Manage the selected Skell’s gear. You can also do this from the Skell Gear menu. |
| Refuel Skell | Use miranium to refuel the selected Skell. It takes 5,000 units of miranium to refuel 3,000 units of Skell fuel. Heavy-type Skells can guzzle miranium like crazy when refueling. |
| Rename | Change the Skell’s name. |
| Customize Colors | Change the color scheme of various parts of the Skell. |
| Sell | Sell the selected Skell and/or its gear. |
The Power of the Skell
Skell Stats and Armor
Skells contain some extra stats along with the ones sported by party members on the ground.
| Frame Lv. | The level of the Skell’s performance. Most analogous to levels of party members. Skells with a higher frame level can wield more powerful weapons. |
| Skell Insurance | How much insurance the Skell has left. See the Skell Insurance section for a rundown on this mechanic. |
| Armor | The sum defensive quotient of all armor, base and equipped. |
| Fuel | The maximum amount of fuel that the Skell can hold. |
Skell Types
There are three types of Skells:
| Light-type | Cheap cost, low HP, low armor, low fuel (but easier to refill with miranium). |
| Mid-type | Average cost, HP, armor, and fuel count. |
| Heavy-type | Expensive, high HP and armor, high fuel. Can take a while to refill fuel with miranium alone. |
Light-Type Skells are speedier and more maneuverable both while driving and flying. Heavy-Type Skells are slower on both land and air, while Mid-Type Skells offer average speed and maneuverability. Each type of Skell can be equipped with armor of the same grade or lower, meaning heavy-type Skells can equip all armor but light-type Skells can only equip light-type armor.
Skell Weaponry
Skells have access to a massive number of equipable options, but in the end, they amount to the same number of attack venues as a ground-based character has, minus the Skills.
One Skell can equip:
- Two auto-attack weapons. These can be any mix of ranged and melee weaponry, meaning you can dual-wield two of the same type if you so wish.
- Two back weapons, which count as Arts.
- Two shoulder weapons, which count as Arts.
- Two arm weapons, which count as Arts.
- Two spare weapons, which count as Arts.
- Five pieces of armor.
When managing a Skell’s gear, you can check the Arts available to a given Skell weapon by highlighting that weapon and pressing (R).
Skells in Battle
This is how the battlefield looks to a Skell:
| Frame HP | Analogous to a person’s HP. If this reaches zero, the Skell is destroyed. |
| GP (Gear Points) | Analogous to a person’s TP. These accumulate as the Skell lands auto-attacks. Once GP reaches 3,000 or higher, Skell Overdrive can be activated. |
| Skell Defense | This is a cool feature of Skells that makes sure ground-based party members aren’t instantly obsolete. When at least one party member is in a Skell, the total defense of characters not currently in Skells increases. This depends on how many characters are and aren’t in Skells. With one Skell in play, the other three characters receive a 20 percent defense boost. With two around, the other two characters receive a 40 percent defense boost, and with three Skells, the lone ground-bound party member will receive a whopping 60 percent extra defense. |
| Skell Fuel | Skells use fuel every time they auto-attack, use an Art, or fly. If fuel reaches zero, the Skell will be unusable until it is refueled. Skells can be refueled at the Skell Garage, or they gradually refuel over time if no one is riding them. |
Binding Enemies
The effect of a Skell achieving a Bind on enemies is similar to a ground-bound character’s Topple. A bound enemy can’t move, and it will take extra damage from attack. Binding also restores some fuel to the Skell that pulls it off.
To bind an enemy, get close to a staggered enemy and press (ZL) and (ZR) simultaneously when the prompt appears.
Continuous Soul Challenges will appear. Press (B) when the orange circle either overlaps or is inside the white circle to keep the Bind going until the timer runs out. If you fail a Soul Challenge, the Bind will be broken.
Cockpit Time
Cockpit Time has a 10 percent chance of occurring whenever a Skell uses an Art. If this happens, you’re in luck—all cooldown timers on your Arts are reset, and you become temporarily invincible! GP will also increase when this takes place—usually by 500.
Also, when you’re in Skell Overdrive, if Cockpit Time is activated, the chance of Overdrive being extended raises as well.
Skell Overdrive
Here’s where the ultra-fun starts. When you have 3,000 GP or more, you can initiate Skell Overdrive, which enhances the base capabilities and performance of the Skell along with its fighting capacity. The types of enhancements vary depending on the Skell, as can be seen by this table.
Overdrive Types
| Skell Frame(s) | Overdrive Designate | Bonus Effects |
|---|---|---|
| Formula (Light-type) | Type 1: JINRAI | Zero Fuel Use Accuracy & Evasion Up Critical Chance Up Cooldown Boost |
| Lailah (Mid-type) | Type 2: NAGI | Zero Fuel Use Timed Regen Appendage RegenTake Less Damage Debuff Immunity |
| Verus (Light-type) | Type 3: HAGANE | Zero Fuel Use Melee Weapon Attack Up Appendage Regen2x Damage Reflect: Physical |
| Mastema (Heavy-type) | Type 4: GEKITETU | Zero Fuel Use Ranged Weapon Attack Up 2x Damage Reflect: Beam Take Less Damage |
| Urban (Light-type) US0232 Police | Type 5: OBORO | Zero Fuel Use Deal More Damage Take Less Ranged Damage Appendage Regen |
| Amdusias (Heavy-type) | Type 6: KURENAI | Zero Fuel Use Absorb Fuel with Melee Double Crush (2x damage to appendages) Melee Weapon Attack Up |
| Inferno (Mid-type) | Type 7: HIBANA | Zero Fuel Use Appendage Regen Ranged Weapon Attack Up 2x Damage Reflect: Thermal |
| Urban (Heavy-type) US0860 Excavator US0830 Dozer | Type 8: KAMIKAZE | Zero Fuel Use Accuracy & Evasion Up Deal More Damage Reverse Damage |
| Ares | Type 9: LEGION | Zero Fuel Use Accuracy & Evasion Up Cooldown Boost Deal More Damage Appendage Regen |
Extending Skell Overdrive
Once the Skell Overdrive timer expires, there’s a chance for it to be reset so you can keep the pain going.
Set 1: 15 seconds, 100 percent chance to extend to Set 2, 30 percent chance of activating Cockpit Time with each Art used.
Set 2: 13 seconds, 100 percent chance to extend to Set 3, 20 percent chance of activating Cockpit Time with each Art used.
Set 3: 13 seconds, (50 + 20 per Cockpit Time activation) percent chance to extend to Set 4, 30 percent chance of activating Cockpit Time with each Art used.
Set 4: 13 seconds, (0 + 20 per Cockpit Time activation) percent chance to extend to Set 5, 20 percent chance of activating Cockpit Time with each Art used.
Set 5: 13 seconds, (0 + 20 per Cockpit Time activation) percent chance to extend to Set 6, 30 percent chance of activating Cockpit Time with each Art used.
Set 6: 13 seconds, 20 percent chance of activating Cockpit Time with each Art used.
Skell Overdrive can be extended up to five times—after six rounds, that’s all she wrote.
Skell Battle Damage
While Skell HP and fuel can be recovered using consumable items obtained as division rewards (see the Social section for details), they have other hazards to worry about.
Appendage Loss
If a Skell takes too much damage, it will lose appendages. A loss of an appendage means the loss of any weapons or arts attached to it, as well as a reduction in GP. It will be fixed once the battle ends, however.
Wrecking a Skell
If a Skell’s frame HP drops to zero, it will be destroyed. Just before the fated explosion, however, a Soul Challenge will appear. Try to get a perfect rating for this Challenge! It decides what happens next.
| Perfect Rating | You will evacuate the Skell safely, with no loss of HP. Meanwhile, your Skell will be towed in for repairs absolutely for free—no Skell insurance will be used. Finally, you’ll automatically have secondary cooldown reached on all of your personal Arts, so you can come out swinging. |
| Good Rating | You will evacuate the Skell safely, with no loss of HP. However, you lose one unit of Skell insurance as a Skell repair fee. |
| Failed | You just barely make it out of the wreck alive, with 1 HP. You also lose two units of Skell insurance as a Skell repair fee. |
Skell Insurance
So you just wrecked your Skell! First off, don’t fret, it happens to everyone. Second, you have three options from here:
Get a Perfect rating on the Soul Challenge that happens when your Skell explodes. If you do, there’s nothing to do but to go to the Skell Garage and grab it back, free of charge.
If you’re out of Skell insurance units, you can use a salvage ticket—one of the consumable items that are given out as division rewards. See the Social chapter for more info on this.
If you have no more insurance and no salvage tickets, then you can spend your own money to repair your Skell. Use this only as a last resort because the expenses for repairing a giant robot can come to 70 percent of the original cost of the Skell plus its equipment!