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.