Xenoblade Chronicles X: Survival Guide 4 (Frontiernav)

In Xenoblade Chronicles X, you will have to explore vast continents, and use data probes in order to get plenty of information about the various areas. They also allow you to earn money, get materials, and more.

Using the touchscreen of the Wii U GamePad, you can scroll the map and find plenty of useful information. If you tap the icon on the top left corner of the touscreen, you can select maps: Planet Mira, continents, New Los Angeles, etc.. You can zoom in and out, focus on a specific area, and much more. At the bottom right corner of the touchscreen, you can see the survey rate, which shows how much of Planet Mira you’ve explored.

Finally, the green icon in the top right corner will allow you to change the display mode.

Segment view

Planet Mira is divided in many segments. Each segment has data about a particular area, but before you can access that data, you first need to find the corresponding Frontiernav field and place a probe there. To find it, you can use the red laser beams, which indicate the position of a Frontiernav field.

When you’ve installed a data probe, you get information about the area you placed it in. The icons and the colours of each segment shows the type of misions and the danger level of monsters you will find there. Of course, you can fast travel to any segment with a data probe, which will be pretty useful given how vast Planet Mira is!

The different types of missions are:

• Tyrant extermination
• Treasure boxes
• Normal missions
• Affinity missions

However, even if you placed a data probe, you might not have all the necessary information in order to tackle some quests. You need to go talk to the residents of New Los Angeles in order to get more details about them. When you receive new information, the corresponding segment will be marked with a new icon. Once you’ve read it, a checkmark will be displayed.

When you complete the missions, a gold shield will be displayed. To increase the survey rate, you need to complete the various activities (installation of data probes, completion of missions, etc.).

Frontiernav view

If you tap the green icon in the top right corner of the touchscreen, you can access the Frontiernav view. There, you will find information about the various data probes installed, but also change the type of probes used for each segment, and more.

Here’s the various types of probes to be found in the game:

• Mining probe: offers higher production capability, increases the amount of miranium you can mine in a given area;
• Research probe: allows you to get tourism revenue based on the number of secret or scenic spots in a given area;
• Battle probe: offers various stats boosts during battle within a given area;
• Storage probes: increase max. storage of Miranium in a given area;
• Booster probes: boosts the primary functions of nearby probes;
• Duplicator probes: duplicates the effects of nearby probes.

If you have several high performance probes of the same type, the Frontiernav will be more efficient. For example, if you have three high performance probes of the same type connected, their effects will get a +30% boost. And as mentioned previously, you can change the type of probe used for a given area at any time, and as often as you want.

That way, you can strategically place your probes in order to maximise revenue and resources mining. However, there’s catch: you need to pay a fee for high performance probes… but it’s certainly worth it!

FN Site info

This allows you to get details about each Frontiernav site. Each aspect of the FN site is rated, and the grade indicates how good it is in a particular field (from F to S):

• Production power: this influences how much Miranium you can mine;
• Revenue: this influences how much revenue the segment generates;
• Combat support: this influences how effective a battle probe will be in the site;

But that’s not all: the number of scenic vistas and unexplored regions, as well as the mineable ressources, are also displayed. You really need to take a close look at this information, and place the right probes at the right place in order to maximise your revenue and resources mining.

Map view

This mode allows you to see the name of areas, the location of rest spots, and more. It’s the mode to use when you want to find a particular area on Planet Mira.

Arms manufacturers

If you visit Armory Alley, you can use AM Terminals in order to invest in companies. You can do so using Miranium, or by using Commercial Points (that you get by using their gear in battle). This allows you to strengthen the gear they produce. As a company level’s increases, they will be able to develop new products.

At the AM Terminals, there’s four options you can chose:

• the first one allows you to invest in companies;
• the second one upgrades battle traits: you can strengthen additional effects of gear or skell gear, but you need materials for that;
• the third one allows you to equip Engineer Augments: those add additional abilities to your gear, but you need resources to craft them;
• the fourth one allows you to develop new gear: you can craft special pieces of gear, skells, or pieces of equipment. Bad news: it requires some rare materials, but the gear crafted is really powerful!

Here’s the fourth episode of the Xenoblade Chronicles X Survival Guide:

The next and final episode of the Survival Guide will focus on the network features of Xenoblade Chronicles X.

Xenoblade Chronicles X (Wii U) comes out on December 4th in Europe and North America.

Source: Nintendo