101 xenoblade - colony 6 restoration begins!

Dear Readers,

We found ourselves at the new landmark of Reconstruction HQ at Colony 6. I wanted to see what the refugee camp was like now that everyone had left, so we warped there.

At the refugee camp, everyone was gone except for the shopkeeper. Beds, lights and boxes were still here, so it still looked like a place that was ready to be used for accommodation. The Heart-to-Hearts were still here too but I still couldn't access them.

We warped back to Reconstruction HQ and spoke to Juju. He was in charge of the restoration and we got a tutorial about this new gameplay feature. There were attributes called Housing, Commerce, Nature and Special that could be levelled up.

More tutorials appeared. It encouraged finding people who were thinking of moving to come to Colony 6 for more quests. The other tutorial talked about Ether Planters and how monsters try to attack them to slow things down. We had to keep monsters away.

That's it for now. This is only the beginning. On reflection, I'm glad we only had to clear the way here rather than do an escort mission. How fitting as well, that we begin this new chapter in the triple digits of posts!

100 xenoblade - defeating the hoxes on raguel bridge

Dear Readers,

I wasn't confident in dealing with the Black Smoke Hoxes on the bridge so I tried picking them off one by one. This seemed to work, but I wanted to see if I could find Juju first, so I headed back to the refugee camp.

I learned that Gorman and Arda were divorced. We also met Juju! How did we miss him before?

Juju said he was waiting for word from Otharon and not to let Sharla get hurt and to avenge Gadolt and the others for him.

I thought there might've been another timed event but now I know there isn't. I felt better about going to face the hoxes. I even checked Colony 6 in more detail, but it was blocked off for now.

We went back to Raguel Bridge to take care of the Hoxes. When we beat them there were more to deal with. They were White Smoke Hoxes this time. We carried out the same strategy of luring them one by one and picking them off individually.

I learned the Battle Soul Art, which halves my HP and fills the talent gauge. Sounds extreme... maybe for emergencies.

We beat all the Hoxes, so now we had to head back to Juju. He thanked us and then asked if we should leave the refugee camp now or go in a little while. He said going back to Colony 6 would solve all the problems they had here, so I assume he meant all the time based missions that were based here. As far as I can tell, we've done all the missions here so I checked and said let's go now.

In the very next scene we found ourselves... in Colony 6! Woo! New missions and the grand restoration project were ahead!

99 xenoblade - the black smoke hox gang

Dear Readers,

It rained, so we tried to finish the rest of Daza's quest. The enemy didn't show up though so we still couldn't finish it.

We met Otharon at the entrance to Colony 6. He asked us to defeat the monsters on Raguel Bridge so the refugees could have a safe passage. We agreed to do it.

Otharon said to tell Juju at the refugee camp once we had defeated the monsters at the bridge. I tried looking for him there but couldn't find him...

We checked out the monsters at the bridge. They were Black Smoke Hoxes and they were LV30! We were LV31, but there were six of them! We decided not to mess with them for now.

98 xenoblade - recovering daza's coin

Dear Readers,

We continued exploring on the Bionis Leg area but couldn't find any heart-to-hearts we could do, so we continued to Colony 6.

We took the regular route this time instead of going through the mines.

We met some Nopon near the entrance of Colony 6. The one named Daza had a quest for us. Some hoxes stole his proof of Nopon Merchant status because it was shiny. We agreed to recover his Nopon Coin in the splintered path area.

The hoxes on the splintered path were very easy and quick to defeat now that we had gotten stronger. They didn't drop the coin either as it was tucked away at a dead end near some of them. Daza was extremely happy to get his coin back.

Daza had another quest for us. He wanted us to defeat monsters so his coin wouldn't get stolen again. We agreed to defeat 4 yellow antols, 6 soft hoxes and 3 water upas(during rain or thunderstorm).

It wasn't raining so we could only do the antols and hoxes. We looked around for more heart-to-hearts but couldn't do any more.

97 xenoblade - gentle rodriguez still too strong for us

Dear Readers,

Another old quest involved Agora Shore. The Gentle Rodriguez was LV40 and surrounding enemies were in their 30s, so we were still a good 10 levels too early for this place. We shied away.

We found the Heart-to-heart here was for Sharla and Reyn, but their affinities weren't high enough yet.

We looked at other Heart-to-heart points in Colony 9 as well as Tephra Cave, but we still couldn't access them with our characters. We moved on to Gaur Plains and found one for Dunban and Sharla at Rho Oasis, but they needed really high affinity. Found another for Reyn and Dunban at the refugee camp, but again, affinity not high enough yet.

The pink Nopon was very happy to see Juju again and said she loved him so much she wanted to marry him. Aw...

More exploring later!

96 xenoblade - beating up the dark murakmor

Dear Readers,

Not only were we solving old quests in Colony 9, but we were finding new ones as well.

One old quest we had related to the Dark Murakmor that rested on Anti-Air Battery 3 at night. It was LV18 so we decided to try again to defeat it. We were LV31 at this stage so it took next to no time at all!

We went to Sesame at the meeting place and he was happy we defeated that thing. He then told us to check the street lights at the entrance to the commercial district but didn't tell us what for?

We went to the street light and there was a message saying it was for nothing. The next part of the mission came up as stopping Sesame's devious plan, whatever it was.

We returned to him and he told us to look up at the sky. Three fireworks went off.

He said everyone was gloomy so they decided to do something nice. Betty's husband provided gunpowder, Kenny Rohan designed the fireworks and he provided everyone with a good festive time as a result. He then gave us a real reward. Yay!

That was funny, like he was some kind of villain or something but turned out good in the end. He and his group were delighted to make people happy and do something for the good of the Colony, even if they didn't have the best reputation. They particularly liked seeing Giorgio's expression as he looked at the fireworks.

95 xenoblade - returning to colony 9 to do old quests!

Dear Readers,

At the Sororal Statues there was a trial. At this point I wanted to go over everything in the game so far with regards to missions. I decided to head all the way back to Colony 9!

It took a small while because we had to go to the beginning of each area's map to reach maps of preceding areas.

Back in Colony 9 we caught up with Paola. She noticed the affinity between Reyn and myself had increased. However, she added another condition to the quest. She didn't think girls could be besties like us and asked us to prove they could by raising affinity between two female party members. We only had one so we'll have to come back again later.

The Gem Man had a quest for us! He wanted us to find an Ultra Small Reactor so he could make a mobile furnace. It's to be found in Colony 6. We agreed to find one for him. The condition said to reconstruct Colony 6 to level 1, which is interesting.

The general vibe at the commercial district was that they were in shock over what happened in Colony 6.

Giorgio had a quest for us. He wanted us to spend some time with Paola for him. She asked us to beat a Fiendish Bunnit for her so she could show her dad she was a good daughter. Aw... We agreed.

I still had to get a small scale. I looked up in past blog posts how to get one and I wrote about it a long time ago! Glad I had that to fall back on! All we had to do was defeat any old piranhax to get one and we defeated one really fast! I never bothered with them much until now.

We found The Fiendish Bunnit easily enough at Cliff Lake. Didn't take a second to defeat either. Paola was happy and so was Giorgio. He wanted to spend more time with her.

I noticed some enemies here were still stronger than us. We've got a bit to go yet!

94 xenoblade - the coming of age quest at sororal statues

Dear Readers,

Past the Mauk Floodgate were the Sororal Statues. At this point, some of us decided to turn back.

Dickson was one of them, but he pointed us in the direction we had to go. He wanted to be at Colony 9 for when the Mechon will attack again. Otharon wanted to see to the survivors of Colony 6 and apologised for the stuff he said to me in the mine. He thanked me for saving his life before parting. Juju wanted to take care of the Colony 6 survivors as well more than anything, so he decided to go back too. The three of them left us and turned back.

Dickson said something about lying to these kids and how it pained him, but kept it to himself. What could he be on about? We'll see no doubt...

I got a tutorial about the reconstruction of Colony 6. Juju wanted to restore it to its former glory and it encouraged visiting him there to help during breaks in the story. I'll definitely do that! We never actually went inside Colony 6! I should retrace steps in general and check on other missions and areas I may have missed.

There was a Nopon merchant here at the Sororal Statues and he was amazed to see us. We told him about where we were going and he said we had to do an ancient High Entia Coming-of-Age Ceremony. We had to collect these 4 special offerings around the swamp. We already had the Rainbow Radiant and the Dull Radiant, but now we had to find the Blue Radiant at Igna Territory and White Radiant at the Basin Cave, wherever that was. This came up as two missions with a little diamond around them, the first we've seen since the one about Fiora bringing food for Shulk.

There were symbols here to make this offering. I think I'd like to retrace our steps before going much further than this.

93 xenoblade - finding food for zazadan

Dear Readers,

We explored the area east of Igna Territory. We came across really high levelled enemies called Baelfael Gogols and Baelzeb Gogols, both groups well over LV80. We stayed away and discovered Soter Ruins, where there was a big bunch of those really strong baddies. We fast travelled someplace safer!

We found some Bunnia north of the Glowing Obelisk and fought some of them. Much more manageable. We climbed the hill up to a cave and found a Nopon Refuge! There was one Nopon here named Zazadan. He said some monsters attacked him at the obelisk. He was able to escape to here but because of his injuries he wasn't able to find food. We agreed to help him.

We already had the 5 Lemon Stones he wanted but we still needed 2 Twin Flamii Eggs. He came up on the affinity chart as a Nopon with layers. I think I heard about him before... I might need to retrace my steps. It'd be nice to unite him with the others from the camp maybe. He's got a lot of stuff in this cave!

Couldn't find the Twin Flamii anywhere in the swamp so we continued on the path up to the Mauk Floodgate. We had to wade through this wide stream of water flowing towards us. There was a path going upwards to something called the Place of Judgement, but this was Gogol territory, so we didn't hang around. We just continued upstream through the Mauk Floodgate.

92 xenoblade - exploring crown tree and dark swamp

Dear Readers,

We explored yet more of the Satori Marsh. We discovered the Crown Tree landmark.

The big tree here had a Heart-to-Heart we couldn't access and one of its upper branches reached onto the cliff above so we could continue that way. It was pretty nice.

We got into a fight with Coppice Quadwing but it was joined by one of those huge birds and we got wiped out.

We picked a fight with the Ignas and one of the really strong ones with a weird name joined the fight. We won but it was close. Interesting how the battle music changed over and back.

We came across the Dark Swamp and picked a fight with a poison brog, but one of those big birds joined again and we were in a fair amount of trouble. I was able to land finishing attacks just in time. Teammates go into the poison water unfortunately and I don't know how to tell them to stay out of it.

Remembering the big birds I referred to earlier in the post are called Mist Rhoguls.

We found a red item called a Dull Radiant. For a later quest I suppose.

We found Cheryl's son's knife at a secret area called the Shining Pond. This was above the Dark Swamp and there was a path branching off and going all the way up to a cave where we found it.

I had another look at Cheryl's list. We found the armour and the knife but not the gun, which was the second item. Did we miss it on our way here?

We then waded out of the Dark Swamp, discovered the Silent Obelisk nearby, and explored the small bit of area to the south. Exploring Satori Marsh continues...

91 xenoblade - exploring the poison swamp, reaching lv30

Dear Readers,

We wandered around the swamp, filling in the map and beating up baddies for materials. We found the Zaldania Waterfall and tried to get to the heart-to-heart, but a big gang of quadwings kept beating us up. We couldn't handle all of them at once.

We explored other parts. We got a White Brog Liver, which made me have a vision of Sharla talking about collecting three of them for someone.

We toured the Poison Swamp, hazardous to wade around in. There were poison brogs on small islands around here. We had to lure them to bigger safer islands so we could fight them.

We found another area called the Altar of Fate which had a red rainbow item thingy here. It was on a mound and it seemed like a significant area. Nearby was a very big enemy called a Satori Torta, kind of like the Torta we saw earlier. It was LV85.

After all our exploring we got to LV30, so that's a bit of progress.

90 xenoblade - saving kacha the nopon

 Dear Readers,

I decided to do the quest to save Kacha the Nopon from Exile Fortress, which just happened to be to the southwest of here. The front indeed seemed to be troublesome with lots of big enemies, including the huge Rhogul that killed us earlier.

We explored the perimeter of the fortress and found the rear entrance at the end of a path along a ledge going around the place. The key was the glowing item below on another ledge. I tried exploring more but found many Ignas lined up like guards.

I thought, to heck with it and just went back to the rear entrance and dropped down to pick up the key, then warp to the Glowing Obelisk and come back to open the door.

We went inside the fortress and immediately found Kacha. This was a big throne room with Ignas all standing around a leader Ignas. She said she already told the secret to the Ignas but she was happy to go back to the Nopon camp now that we rescued her.

Bokoko then wanted us to find materials for their camp. He was feeling old and ill and asked for our help to gather stuff for bedding. We agreed to find 4 glowing upa seeds from upas, 3 fancy volff hides from volff, 4 feather leaves, and 3 wool rocks for him.

Kacha had a quest for us. We really had to press her for details though. The ignas made her tell them where to find the key in the Dark Swamp to the giants' treasure in the Exile Fortress. She wanted us to follow them to the Dark Swamp and defeat 5 of those deluded ignas. We agreed.

89 xenoblade - resting at the big glowing obelisk

Dear Readers,

We reached a big Glowing Obelisk and stayed to rest for the night. Dickson said the High Entia had something to do with these. I wasn't able to sleep and was troubled by the visions of everything, of what happened to Fiora, of what was yet to come. Dickson came by and talked to me. He said it was like yesterday he found me with the Monado and apologised for not being able to save my parents. He also said he was thinking the sword and myself were destined for some kind of higher purpose. I told him I was very interested in this, in finding a way to defeat the Mechon.

The next day we continued the journey. This area was taking on a new shape now. The wind was starting to sound like breathing... a very large being breathing. Possibly the Bionis.

88 xenoblade - beating up monsters in satori marsh

Dear Readers,

We set to daytime in Satori Marsh and fought some Coppice Quadwings for a quest. It was too dangerous at night with the LV80+ enemies.

Then we saw a cave to the south of the Nopon camp, so we explored it. It was a small passage that looped back out but it had some Satori Vangs within.

On the other side of the passage was a lemon stone. I got a vision of myself saying five should be enough and we had to take them to someone named Zazadan.

It turns out Ignas were a type of lizard humanoid-shaped monster and we fought some. I thought it was the name of a person. It wasn't clear because it was a Nopon who said it. They were pretty easy to deal with.

The Rhoguls were big winged bird thingies. We were well able for them though. On picking up a Rhogul Axe Crest I got a vision of Reyn talking about collecting three of them for a quest about fixing a bridge so the ruins could be explored. All ahead of us.

We beat up all the Volff we needed to finish that particular quest, but then a much bigger Rhogul with a weird name joined the battle and wiped us out. Yikes. It was only one level ahead of us too.

We missed the rare chest the Volff dropped, so we went back to collect it when we revived. We pressed further to the next story point when the huge Rhogul attacked again, so this time I ordered everyone to make a run for it, ignoring Dunban's line to steel ourselves.

87 xenoblade - satori nopon quests

Dear Readers,

It was time to mingle with the Nopon merchants in Satori Marsh.

Bokoko needed help. He said someone named Ignas took his friend Kacha and was going to eat her if no one saved her. He said Kacha was knowledgeable about legends in this area and said she was taken to Exile Fortress. We agreed to save her. He thanked us and advised us to use the back door if we could find a key for it. He himself was a veteran Nopon merchant. He then told us he saw Ignas put the key next to the tree near the back door.

The Nopon merchant next to him said this place was always foggy and advised us not to wander around at night. He said Detox Brogs nearly gobbled him up once. We agreed to kill 2 of them for him. He also had a quest to defeat 3 Coppice Quadwings and 2 Mist Rhoguls in Barren Moor during the day, and finally 1 Officer Volff. We agreed to kill all of them for him. He also told us about Sororal Statues, about the Khatori one on the right and the Soltnar one on the left. He also told us about this place's connection with High Entia with its many ruins.

There was a shopkeeper as well. That was it for the camp. I had to fight the enemies again for these quests. Detox Brogs were nearby so I got them ok.

I started seeing enemies over LV80 so I decided to make it daytime.

86 xenoblade - exploring the atmospheric satori marsh

Dear Readers,

We explored further in the Pod Depot. We found a Heart-to-Heart for Dunban and Reyn but their affinity bond wasn't high enough yet.

We got an Amblygon Turtle, which gave me a vision of Sharla collecting them for a quest. We mined a little, then headed back southeast.

We continued to the Misty Path and got a Seasoned Traveller achievement for discovering 40 landmarks. Nice.

We continued through to the Satori Marsh and the first landmark at Kelsher Wetland. It had lovely music.

It looked really nice here too, this mysterious misty place with glowy trees. I was amazed. Dickson said this was why he kept telling me I should get out of the lab every now and again. 

In this cool new area, there were lots of enemies in the LV20s. Some Flammi, some Aqua Nebulae that take ages to beat, some cool new enemies called Coppice Quadwings. They can inflict sleep and they hang out in the trees all spooky-like.

We kept going until we found a Nopon Merchant camp. We decided to chat with them. Looks like they have quests for us too!

This area really is nice. I'm getting more comfortable and enjoying this game more now. Let's chat with some Nopon!

85 xenoblade - dunban joins the party

Dear Readers,

After the Mechon left, we chatted with Dunban and Dickson. Dickson and Otharon knew each other from way back when. I shared my vision of the future with everyone. Dickson recognised some landmarks I described such as the tower from a place on his travels called Prison Island on the Bionis' head. He also made a very nice new weapon for Dunban out of scrapped Mechon parts. They joined us and I could now choose Dunban if I wanted.

We got a little conversation tutorial on Dunban's fighting style as well, which is about dealing heavy damage while avoiding hits.

Dickson told us the way to get where we wanted was through Satori Marsh so we set off.

I switched from Sharla to Dunban to try him out and because I was getting a bit tired of her going on about showers and her rifle getting hotter. Dunno, might switch back later.

We went backwards a bit and (re)discovered the Freight Elevator. Then we went up the hill fighting baddies.

Dunban's voice is like that of a more experienced warrior in the tribe and has fairly standard but decent lines of dialogue in battle.

We fought a huge Hox called a Drifter Jutard and it felt challenging, but we were still well able to shatter all the doomsday visions I was getting of it using its super knockback move. This was in the Pod Depot area.

84 xenoblade - dunban and dickson show up to help

Dear Readers,

We got out of the mine and Juju came to, apologising to all of us for running off and getting in trouble. We forgave him of course. Sharla embraced him into her chest. All was well.

That was until a whole group of masked Mechon showed up! They gloated about the moment they got Fiora with their claws. In a rage I rushed in to attack but they mocked me, saying the Monado had no effect on them.

Just then, Dunban and Dickson made a dramatic entrance and joined the battle. I got a little tutorial about switching characters but I didn't really need to, as we fought off a bunch of the smaller Mechon on our own.

The next scene played with Dunban and Dickson attacking the big clawed one in a dramatic way but they didn't have any effect. It charged up a big blue light in order to finish us off, but in the nick of time something swooped from the sky and blocked it. The clawed one recognised who it was and said a name that was unfamiliar to us. I don't remember what it said, sorry. At that point it decided to retreat and told us we were lucky.

I did get one last swing in and got a big vision of a lot of weird stuff with characters I haven't met yet. Dunban told us to fall back for now. Probably for the best.

Meanwhile, the winged figure in the skies that saved our bacon had a person with it, briefly mentioning "the boy". The plot thickens.

83 xenoblade - xord's last words

Dear Readers,

Miraculously, the freight elevator was working! We left Xord swimming in the ether gunk and headed there to get out of the mine.

However, the elevator stopped dead some of the way upwards. A very burnt looking Xord then appeared in front of us!

It was much easier and more satisfying to fight him this time. We whittled his health down to nothing.

Xord was about to die. He commended me for defeating him without unlocking the Monado's true power. I asked him what he meant and he said I had to find out on my own. When he realised the power himself he had turned into what he was now. What did he mean though? He gave up the ghost and fell down the elevator shaft before exploding. The elevator worked again.

82 xenoblade - changing otharon's future

Dear Readers,

After the battle condition with Xord was met, we triggered the next cutscene. It was a very dramatic one where Otharon drove Xord into the ether with a mech, just like in my vision. Juju was released as well and Sharla rushed to his aid.

I wondered if I could change the future somehow. I spotted a vehicle on the edge of the area with a grabby arm thing and ran over to commandeer it. I used it to grab Otharon's mech just in the nick of time. He had already dedicated his last moment to Gadolt and was sacrificing himself to push Xord into the ether.

Xord desperately tried to strike back and cling onto anything. Otharon shot him with Gadolt's rifle and once again went for broke. This time Reyn grabbed his arm, saving him in the nick of time. Xord plunged into the ether, screaming.

Afterwards, Otharon acknowledged my ability to see the future, telling me he stood corrected. He wasn't calling me insolent anymore! He asked about Gadolt and I didn't have anything to say, bowing my head. 

Otharon gave Sharla Gadolt's rifle. It was the first time I went into the menu to equip something in the game!

Sharla said we could take the freight elevator out of here now. We had to head back to camp with Juju so he could recover.

81 xenoblade - finally getting past xord!

Dear Readers,

I tried again and again to take on Xord but we kept getting killed. In desperation I looked up how to kill him on YouTube and got a video from GameZone that showed all I needed to do was to break and topple him during the chain attack and he'll get so mad that he just gives up after we do a certain amount of damage!

After watching the video, it still took me many tries to get anywhere near a chain attack. I was losing my patience and getting frustrated with the chaos of battle. Everyone talking over each other and baddies clumping together so much I can't even see what's going on or what I'm targeting. It takes a steady menu-selecting hand to get going with the options we needed to beat the thing. We ended up doing two chain attacks to get enough damage going to trigger the next scene.

It felt satisfying to proceed but at the same time I felt dependent on luck to even survive this long. That part didn't feel so satisfying and made me think I was doing everything wrong. I won't question it. I'll just go ahead for now.

The video was very helpful though. At least now I know I only had to get a little bit of Xord's health down!

80 xenoblade - brief break on xord, more research needed

Dear Readers,

Xord seems impassible for now and I'm not sure what else to do, so we're gonna explore the parts of this area we haven't covered yet.

We went up a level and found the freight elevator. We couldn't activate it though.

Then we went further up and fought some baddies until the Party Gauge filled to the brim.

With that filled, I tried to take on Xord again. We did manage to inflict break but it only lasted a short while and he was back on his feet again, leaving the party gauge empty. 

I'm not sure what to do now so I'm going to go do some research and come back to this later.

79 xenoblade - xord seems invincible

Dear Readers,

We rode the elevator all the way down to the bottom of the Central Pit. We didn't see anyone down here but we found traces of blood.

Metal Face appeared! He taunted us and waved a big hammer, joined by smaller cohorts. Sharla demanded to know where Juju and the others were. Metal Face introduced himself as Xord and showed Juju held inside a prism thing, still alive but taken prisoner. He then said he ate everyone else.

Sharla fell to her knees in despair. I tried attacking Xord but the Monado didn't effect him. He was LV25 and he was going to be a tough fight. We were LV27.

Otharon watched us from a ledge nearby, seeing all this play out in front of him.

The fight began. I got a tutorial about enemies resistant to Break, how it can work during chain attacks. It encouraged using an Art's bonus effects and using the timed "b" burst affinity in order to fill up the party gauge.

We got into battle and lost. We just couldn't put any damage on Xord and I couldn't fill the party gauge during the battle like the tutorial suggested. I tried again a number of times but I couldn't do anything to him. It looks like we'll have to come back more prepared.

As a matter of interest, I loaded up my older save file from 12 years ago. We were in the mine but at the start of it! I've officially progressed further than that point! I'm pretty glad to make progress, even though I'm stuck on this boss!

78 xenoblade - riding the steel beams to proceed through the central pit

Dear Readers,

We continued descending into the Central Pit. On Level 3 we crossed a bridge to the side of the mine and fought a tough M82 Mechon. This one was able to knock me down and make me dazed. In the first attempt we lost because Reyn and Sharla ran off to fight other Mechon further along the platform for some reason and they all got involved in the fight. No wonder we lost.

On the second attempt I lured it away on its own so that wouldn't happen again. It was LV23 and although we were LV26 it was still quite tough! We took our time and we were able to defeat it.

Mining was a good thing to do here and got us experience points and achievements like Titan's Generosity and Medium Rare. We didn't mine them all though. At least not now anyway.

We followed the path to another elevator going down, making a landmark down at B3F. The only way forward from here was going on top of the revolving beams coming from the steel pillar. We rode one to another platform on the side of the mine.

Then something branched out from the pillar, slamming down near us. From this dropped a Mechon M84 that was LV24. We were LV27. We picked a fight with it. We won handily enough.

Then we got on the beam again and rode it to another platform further ahead. The arm came out again, dropping two Mechon M84 this time. One was LV24 and the other LV23. This battle was eventful and a bit difficult! I got several visions where I had to warn the others and do heals and buffs before disaster could strike. Our health got very low but we were able to pull off a hard fought victory.

There was another platform ahead reachable by the steel beam method but instead we went through a passage that led to another elevator, this one being one of the type that goes up and down a hill. We rode it all the way down.

77 xenoblade - descending into the central pit

Dear Readers,

We went through the newly opened big door and found ourselves at the Central Pit, located somewhere near the Bionis' hip.

There was a massive central metal pillar with a revolving mechanism and there were spinning fans overhead.

We took the elevator down and there was a bridge to the central metal pillar. We fought Mechon and gathered materials along the way.

On the platform around the metal pillar there were these massive steel beams coming out of the revolving mechanism. It meant we had to take cover in the dips of the platform while we were passing through. We fought more Mechon here.

I got a vision when we collected an item of Reyn finding more of the item in a cave somewhere. This item was called a Ready Coil and he said it was more my thing.

We came to another bridge on the opposite side of the metal pillar and crossed it. There were more Mechon to fight and another elevator to take down to the next level.

Some Mechon were flying and walking around and some were guarding the ether deposits. We fought and bashed them all without any trouble, getting stronger along the way.

We crossed another bridge back to the steel pillar but it was a bit safer without that revolving obstacle from earlier. Many Mechon stood guard here though.

We tore through them. Then we came across paths back to the sides of the mine and other elevators at the central steel pillar that didn't stop. It got a little confusing to navigate.

76 xenoblade - getting into tough fights in the colony 6 mine

Dear Readers,

Otharon pushed ahead with us to where the Homs were captured. I hesitated because I got a vision of him falling into an Ether River yelling "Gadolt, Juju, this is for you!" but what did it mean? I wasn't open to sharing this troubling vision, seeing how it meant people were going to die. Or did it? What did it mean exactly?

With hesitation I shared my concerns and Otharon called me insolent, telling me he studied the Mechon for ages.

We continued, coming across some more Heart-to-Hearts we couldn't do yet. One involved Sharla and me, but our affinity needed to be higher.

We continued through the maze caves, getting into a fight with an enemy that didn't seem like much, but it was a level slightly below par with us. It was a tough fight and I was getting visions of me getting my butt kicked, so things were definitely getting tougher! We managed to defeat it, but I'm sorry to say I don't remember its name. It might come up in a quest later.

We came across the Storage Depot Gate but it was closed. We had to open it with a switch found at the end of Test Pit 4.

Then we got into a fight with a Dark Kisling and its gang and got our butts kicked.

We respawned at the point where we met Otharon. I decided not to run past enemies without fighting them anymore. The Drunk Vang was easy to beat.

We wandered through the caves, beating baddies and mining ether, taking a different approach. It was hard to target them with all of us on top of each other in this dark cave. We beat them handily enough though. We found an opening to an Observation point, so I was glad to see a new area.

I collected an item at the end of a ledge when I got another vision. It was of Sharla coming across something called the third love crane or something? She said it should make Pepa happy. What I collected was the first one. I wasn't at all sure what she meant but she seemed to be standing at the gap in the path. We went to the gap and there was nothing there... Unless it was a different gap. I just don't have my bearings yet.

In this observation point area we found the switch that opened the big door so yay! Some progress!

75 xenoblade - fighting mechon with otharon

Dear Readers,

We headed through the mine and followed the glow on the walls. We saw some small Mechon and some Krabbles, one of which was a shiny materia kind. The areas had names like "Test Pit 1". We arrived at the next story marker.

Sharla heard an ether rifle go off and rushed towards it, thinking it was a sign of Gadolt. We caught up to her in a room where there was a fight between Mechon and Otharon.

This fight seemed threatening and drained a lot of health. I tried to be as coordinated as I could and we managed to beat all the Mechon attacking us.

After the fight, Otharon was surprised to see Sharla. She asked about Gadolt and he hesitated before telling us we should come with him as we had a lot to discuss.

We told him Juju was captured. He told us Gadolt was gone. He said he and Gadolt planned a surprised attack to free the Homs but it failed miserably, making him lose consciousness. When he woke, Gadolt was gone but his ether rifle remained. He had a very strong belief that Gadolt was alive though. Sharla was emotional but hopeful.

Otharon told us to go with him to the Central Pit, where the Homs were being held captive.

74 xenoblade - entering colony 6's underground mine

Dear Readers,

We headed into the Colony 6 area and towards an elevator we took down to the Splintered Path. We followed this path that was a cool landbridge over a big bottomless gap away from the cliff. We found some Wind Ether Crystal and mined some.

We saw many Antols, Hoxes and a cool gaseous enemy called a Graceful Holand. It was like the blue aqua ones from earlier but this was golden. This was during the night. We eventually arrived at the Drainage Outlet.

We went inside and found ourselves in the Drainage Tunnel of the Ether mine. I checked the map and found this place had 5 floors and we were at the top! I was surprised as we were deep underneath Colony 6 as it was.

This tunnel was narrow and made up of metal walkways and staircases. We saw a slow moving bat called a Drunk Vang, which was amusing. We came across a cabin housing two Nopon Merchants. We had a chat with them.

They said this mine was very complicated and easy to get lost in. The one on the right said to follow glowmoss on the wall as a guide. That's all they had to say but they were happy to reinforce the point as it was important. The one on the left was just a merchant. Again I've never bought or sold anything yet. Maybe I should. Haven't felt the need yet though.

This cabin was the Drainage Control Room and the path continued out the other side. We heard a Mechon so we stayed still for a moment. Sharla was dismayed at the mine being taken over but I gave her some encouragement.

The music was pretty good here and captured the feeling of exploring a hostile cave very well.

73 xenoblade - batubatu's flower quest

Dear Readers,

Batubatu went missing again! Gerugu said he ran off by himself to get a flower to thank us for what we did earlier. Gerugu was now worried so we accepted the quest to go find Batubatu again.

Gerugu said Batubatu went to a high place at the top of a waterfall east of Zax Guidepost.

We found Batubatu on the path we took earlier when we found Believer's Paradise. He asked us to go get the flower for him because of all the baddies in the way.

With this, the Ether Wisdom flower appeared in Believer's Paradise and after we collected it, Batubatu went back to Gerugu.

The Tirkins were no threat to us but the huge bird that attacked us at Windy Cave was flying around the bridge above it. If I knew Batubatu went back I would've just fast travelled and saved a bit of grief.

Sometimes in this area with the narrow bridges, other party members fall off. It can be amusing to see their icon recovering HP.

Batubatu was delighted with the flower and gave us another present for helping him. He realised he was unreliable and promised never to wander off by himself without telling anyone again. Hooray!

His quests were a good way to discover new areas around here. Funny how the second one wasn't as dangerous as the first.

72 xenoblade - batubatu's extremely dangerous quest

Dear Readers,

We returned to Raguel Lake to find Batubatu. We found him in the northwest part of the area. I'm thankful for the "!" indicator on the minimap because those Nopons are tiny.

Batubatu was exploring in a carefree way on his own. With his glasses and hat he looked like one of Captain Toad's teammates. We told him about Gerugu being worried about him and he returned. We did too and Gerugu was happy. He was also thinking about his daughter who was missing him.

Batubatu then had a quest for us. He wanted to make a Nopon secret present which involved getting a Tokilos Egg and a Pandora Mushroom. We agreed to the quest. He suggested getting the egg in Tokilos nest near Zax Guidepost and the mushroom in Windy Cave.

He was referring to those huge birds I saw near the outpost earlier that were LV79! Yikes!

We climbed down towards them while wondering how to get their eggs. Suddenly it was nighttime and they disappeared! Just in time! We were able to take the egg without any trouble!

We continued exploring this treacherous cliff ledge area. We found a wind ether deposit and a path we didn't notice earlier going back up to the guidepost.

We continued exploring east along the cliffside and found some strong Tirkins. We kept going and discovered Crevasse Waterfall and Windy Cave! That was a nice surprise!

What wasn't nice were all the really strong enemies here. One was a bird that knocked me out before I even saw it but I got a chance to get up and run away. There were Arachnos and Caterples that were of a very high level too.

We found some regular Tirkins hanging out in a cave that had electric ether deposits. We mined and they didn't seem to mind so we paid them no mind!

We continued through the Windy Cave and met Vamps that were over LV70 and got chased by a few Arachnos as well. 

We found the mushroom in passage that was chock full of enormous spider pods and there was one very high levelled spider just sitting around where the mushroom was! We snuck in, grabbed it and ran like heck out the other side of the passage before it could catch us! We had no real business with these spiders!

We returned to Batubatu and learned he was making the gift for us! It was hard to tell because of the way the Nopons speak and their use of the third person.

71 xenoblade - exploring the rest of upper bionis' leg

Dear Readers,

We took the warp to Spiral Valley where Juju got kidnapped. Right there on the platform in front of us was an enormous mandrill-like creature! It was a LV90 Immovable Gonzalez. What a sight! We had no business going anywhere near it of course, so we went in the opposite direction.

We explored this area to the north and found the Zax Guidepost. There were Tirkins and many marsh dwelling enemies around here like brogs. To the east on their own cliff platforms were gigantic blue birds called Leg Tokilos. We didn't bother with these LV79 creatures.

We went southwest and discovered Traveller's Rest. We met a Nopon there named Gerugu who lost his friend Batubatu, who went to look for ingredients for dinner. We agreed to help look for him.

For a place called Traveller's Rest it was pretty treacherous. Big holes everywhere so you gotta be careful where you step. We didn't explore anywhere below in these holes yet.

Near here was a small blue water ether deposit. We mined some.

We explored north and found the Trainer Harmelon. This was a Tirkin that had two bigger creatures to fight alongside it. We were able to defeat them all without too much trouble. Another quest done! Yay!

We went further north a bit and found a narrow path along a ledge. It led all the way to a cave with Tirkin standing guard in front of it. They didn't take much notice of us and didn't mind us going past them into the cave.

The cave was a long passage with an upward slope that led outside to an area called the Believer's Paradise. We got an all new fanfare I never heard before and we got an achievement called "Explorer" for discovering a secret area for the first time! Nice!

There was a heart-to-heart here as well but it wasn't available yet.

This area was right next to one of the waterfalls so we jumped right down into the water. It was fun. We explored the remainder of this mapped area by heading down towards the other waterfall, which had the marker for Kasharpa Falls. We swam towards this waterfall and found a red item called Kasharpa Water. We didn't have a quest for this but there might be one soon.

We left the area south through the big gateway and got to the Colony 6 area. It looked like a big fortress to us. Sharla said she'd lead us there through the mines underneath the colony so we could be discreet.