Blade

Blades (Japanese: ブレイド, Bureido) are characters in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. They are weaponized life forms linked to a Driver who creates and summons them by resonating with a Core Crystal. Blades endow their Driver with powers and a weapon. Each Blade plays a different role, owning different stats and an elemental type, such as fire for Pyra, and providing a distinct set of Blade Arts and support abilities depending on its weapon. By searching for and collecting Blades, the player chooses to attach and selects Blade companions and the kind of role desired.

They are several classifications of Blades depending on the Drivers and Blades relationship and their type. Blades can be recruited into the party through different means, depending on their rarity: Common, Rare and Legendary. The uniquely named Legendary Blades, such as Pyra and Dromarch, are mainly recruited through the story progression and are linked to a unique Driver. Rare Blades, such as Finch, are created from Common, Rare, Legendary or specific Core Crystals and can be linked to any Driver in the party. The randomized Common Blades are created from Common, Rare or Legendary Core Crystals through resonance. The Special Blades have story importance, are the signature Blades of their respective Drivers, and have a unique weapon. Most of them are Legendary Blades, except those of Torna who are Rare Blades. There are artificial Blades, who are not awakened from a Core Crystal like natural Blades but built using an Ether Furnace to give them Blade-like abilities; Examples include Poppi α and Lila. They are controlled by characters who are not real Drivers, but the resultant duos function very similarly to normal Blade/Driver groups. Some Blades are powerful enough to function as independent enemies in the absence of their Drivers.

Elements
Each Blade is associated with an element, and any Blade Arts they use are of that element. In battle, some enemies may exhibit a weakness to a particular element, evidenced by an icon of that element displayed in their target frame. Elements and their opposite counterparts play a key role in Blade Combos and Chain Attacks. The eight elements, paired by opposites, are:

Blade Roles
Different Blade roles enable different fighting styles. The combination of currently equipped Blades' roles determines a Driver's class.



Special Blades

 * ※1 Tora is not a Driver but he controls Poppi α, Poppi QT, Poppi QTπ as artificial Blades.
 * ※2 Poppi's element, role, and stat modifier can be changed by upgrading it.
 * ※3 All of these Blades are identified as Rare Blades.

Rare Blades
Some can be obtained through the main quests or by doing side quests, but most rare blades are random rewards of Common, Rare or Legendary Core Crystals.


 * ※1 Dagas's Affinity Chart and stats change after his Blade quest.
 * ※2 Poppibuster can be obtained after installing Patch (Ver.1.4.0) and completing the Blade Quest Shiny New Power.
 * ※3 T-elos can be obtained after installing Patch (Ver.1.4.0) and having cleared the game's main story, from a Core Crystal at random but with a higher probability rate.
 * ※4 Shulk and Fiora can be obtained after installing Patch (Ver.1.5.0) and doing Challenge Battle Mode. They are initially restricted to the Land of Challenge but can be taken into Alrest once the Alrest Linkring is obtained.

New Game Plus
After finishing the game and installing Patch (Ver.1.3.0), the New Game Plus will be available. This will allow to recruit seven new Blades from the Torna organization.

Common Blades
Common Blades are created from Core Crystals. Their name, weapon and element are determined randomly. Stats are determined semi-randomly, with the base auto-attack, guard rate, and critical rate determined purely from the Blade's weapon and appearance (see below). Their preferred Pouch Items are also chosen at random, and may consist of one category, two categories, or two categories and a specific item. Common Blades also have certain exclusive abilities that Rare Blades cannot obtain, such as "Orb Master", Luck modifiers, modifiers reaching between 21% and 24%, and certain Field Skills.

The Unnamed Core Crystal received from Gramps is a special case: it is guaranteed to produce a common Blade with Knuckle Claws and Wind element.

Appearance
They have a similar global appearance, dark gray skin with blue glowing eyes and lines on the body, and a crystal on the chest with the elemental coloration. Common Blades come in one of four basic models: "male humanoid", "female humanoid", "brute" and "animal". Each basic model has several head variations, differing in the type of horns or ears; humanoid and brute models each have four head variants, while animal models have only two.



Competences
The Specials of a Common Blade depend on their model and weapon type. Each Common Blade has 1-3 skills chosen at random. Each Common Blade has the Element Mastery skill related to their own element, as well as 0-2 random gathering or Merc Group skills.

Releasing Blades
Player can release most of the Blades in their party (although it is not possible to release Special Blades, and several other Blades, like first random Blade Rex bonds with). Releasing yields certain resources to the player, usually boosters corresponding to the Blade's element. The quantity and type of items received upon release is determined by Strength of Blade. If player releases a Rare Blade, it is possible to get this Blade again randomly from a Core Crystal, even if said Blade was initially obtained through a unique Core Crystal (e.g. Vess or Wulfric).

Aside of items, releasing can also be used as a way to free unused or weak Blades, as there is limit to how many the party can bond with in total.

Button Challenge
When a Blade draws a special move, the "Button Challenge" (Japanese: ボタンチャレンジ, Botan charenji) will be displayed on the screen. By pressing the button with good timing, the damage will rise. If it succeeds, a narrator (actor: Kentarō Tone) will compliment the player.

Poppiswap
Poppi is an Artificial Blade and has her own mechanics related to her Poppiswap ability. As such, she has customizable features including adjusting her elemental affinity, role, and skills.

Core Crystal state
Blades come either lying in a dormant state inside a Core Crystal or awakened in their personified form. By holding a Core Crystal, it resonates with the person and tries to take shape. If this person has a certain aptitude, the Blade awakens and makes the person a Driver. Those who do not have the aptitude are simply knocked unconscious and are incapable of forming a Blade. Drivers for the most part are bound to one Blade for their entire life, however it is possible for Drivers to awaken more than one Blade at a time. Blades fight alongside their Drivers and lends their weapon for them to use in battle. Blades can be attacked, but any injury they sustain are healed quickly.

They are dependent on their Driver to retain their form. If their Driver dies under any circumstance, the Blades instantly revert back into their Core Crystal in a dormant state, shown by the Core taking on a dull black color rather than the normal blue glow. After some time, the Core will glow again and can be reawakened. Upon reawakening the Blade loses all memories of their past lives but retains their personality. Additionally, their Core Crystal, which appears normally on their chest, are another vulnerable point. If they are attacked there and their core crystal shatters, they permanently die and cannot be reawakened. However, a Driver of a Blade that has been killed is not affected.

Trivia

 * In the English localization of Xenoblade Chronicles 2, nearly all Blades speak with North American accents, the only exception being Nia who speaks with a Welsh accent. By contrast, most of the game's non-Blade cultures (the Indoline and Urayans being noticeable exceptions) speak with accents of English native to the British Isles.