Battle of Sword Valley

Learn how to master the Battle of Sword Valley in Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition. This guide covers Monado Arts, enemy targeting, and combat basics.

Alright, welcome to the very beginning of your adventure in Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition! After the opening scenes, you'll take control of Dunban, and this section, the Battle of Sword Valley, is basically your combat tutorial. Don't worry, it's designed to ease you into the game's mechanics.

First things first, you need to learn how to target an enemy. Just press either the [L] or [R] button. Once an enemy is selected, you'll see the Battle Palette pop up at the bottom of your screen. The main icon you'll want to focus on is “Fight”, right in the center. Select that, and Dunban (and the rest of your party) will draw their weapons and get ready to rumble!

Once you're in range, your characters will start auto-attacking automatically. While they're busy doing that, you can start using your Arts, which are special abilities. Just make sure the Art's icon is lit up – if it's not, you might be too far away or haven't met the conditions to use it yet. For this tutorial battle, you'll have two key Arts available: Monado Enchant and Monado Buster. Monado Enchant is super useful because it allows your party members to deal damage to Mechon enemies, who are otherwise tough to hurt. Monado Buster, on the other hand, is your heavy hitter, dealing massive damage, especially to Mechon types. After you use an Art, it'll go into a cooldown period, shown by a circle refilling around the icon. You'll have to wait for it to be ready again before you can use it.

After you clear out the first group of Mechons, you'll get ambushed by more Mechon M63s. Don't forget to recast Monado Enchant to keep your party dealing damage, and then use Monado Buster whenever it's ready to finish them off quickly. Your next challenge will be a Mechon M82, which is basically a beefier version of the M63s. The strategy remains the same: keep Monado Enchant active and unleash Monado Buster as soon as you can. Just when it looks like you're totally outnumbered, Mumkhar will bail out, and the prologue will wrap up. You've got this!