Scouting BLADEs

Once the online features activate after you finish Chapter 3, you’ll start to notice some new faces hanging around the BLADE Barracks and Administrative District, as well as out on the field. These eager BLADE operatives are other players’ avatars, eager to enlist and serve you on your adventure. Doing so gives you access to some solid perks.

As you adventure with scouted BLADEs, a bar on their portrait gradually fills as you gather experience. When the bar fills, you become eligible for rewards in the form of division points, reward tickets, resources, and even personal greetings, if you’re lucky.

The process of “scouting” these characters is simple. If you encounter one in New LA or on the field, simply walk up to them and request their service. If you have more specific needs, though, you can hit up the BLADE Scout Console in the Administrative District.

Field Scouting

Sometimes help appears just when you need it most! As you ramble through Mira’s continents, you encounter BLADEs at the oddest places, from far-flung base camps to deep within hostile territory. BLADEs recruited in the field will hang out with you for 30 minutes, which might be just enough time to get over whatever hump was bedeviling you to begin with. Plus, you get access to whatever division buffs the given avatar benefits from due to their allegiance.

Scouting via BLADE Scout Console

Compared to the serendipity of an encounter on the field, scouting for recruits via the BLADE Scout Console in New LA’s Administrative District lets you get down to brass tacks. You can specify level ranges, classes, and weapon types, and you’ll get back a list of matching BLADE operatives. The bigger the level difference between you and them, the more it’ll cost you to hire them, and you’ll know at a glance exactly how long they’ll be in your service.

Going on the Market

You can, of course, put your own character out there to serve your fellow BLADEs via the console. Doing so will register them in their current state, which means they’ll go out in the field with whatever gear, Arts, Skills, and Soul Voices you had set at the time of their registration. The rewards for service include experience, collectibles, and resources. There’s no real reason not to, and if for any reason you’d rather keep your character to yourself, you can deregister at any time.

Division Support

When you’re playing in a squad, you have a chance of benefitting from some powerful buffs if there are other players hanging out in the same zone. This is division support in action. The same way that the division you belong to grants you a buff, so too do other players’ divisions, and if you’re in their vicinity, you reap the benefits. And if you happen upon a BLADE on the field, you can request their division buff instead of scouting them.

Division Support Buffs

Division Rewards

It’s good to be part of the club! Once per day, you’re eligible for a special reward from your division in the form of consumable items. The precise selection depends on how doggedly you pursued your division’s recommended activities. If you want to see how your gang is doing, check out the divisogram in the BLADE Scout Console. Here is a full list of possible division rewards.