The BEST Method For Grinding SP and Affinity in Xenoblade: Definitive Edition 

I guess with Reyn being the key to easy grinding... It's grind time.

This is much more efficient than my "make melia the leader and suffer until shulk loves her"

the sheer amount of chests littering the beach makes the area light up like Valak Mountain

I cant wait for your Reyn time run (controling Reyn in every possible battle)

Me seeing Shulk and Fiora: Hhhmmm I think these characters make a wonderful couple. Game: I'm gonna do what's called a pro story building move.

I cannot wait for my RU-vid feed to show me: "Xenoblade Chronicles DE Speedrun 4:20:00 World Record using only Melia spam"

great video! just a couple notes and things you didn't mention: yellow tagged enemies don't actully necessarily give you more sp. You normally get 10 sp for each kill (doubled if you kill them in a chain). For enemies leveled 4-6 levels above you, you'll get 15 sp. For enemies 7+ levels above you, you'll get 20. enemies 3 levels above you (within 3 levels of you in general) while yellow tagged, will only give 10 sp. the krabble and flamii on the beach is actually a pretty decent spot for grinding. back in the og you more or less had to stick with either the slobos at three sage summit or the gogols in tephra cave once you hit max level, and you would only gain 10 sp per kill. now that you can change your level whenever you want to whatever you want options become a lot more flexible. off the top of my head some other decent grinding places might be the showdown cliff with the hodes and orlugas in eryth, or maybe the group of dorsiar lizards and vangs in tephra, or even tirkin hq. There's probably a lot more options so exploring those will be pretty interesting. also, keep in mind that filling out the first 3 skill branches takes longer than filling out the 4th or 5th skill branch (300/700/1000/2000/3500 sp for each consecutive skill vs 200/500/800/1000/1500 sp) If you haven't developed any affinity at all, encouraging or helping a party member via stormy belagon will take 250 procs in order to get to pink, or max, affinity. with reyn's friends forever skill (which btw requires a boatload of c9 affinity plus killing a bunch of 90s monsters, so it's not a complete breeze), it'll take 100 procs to get to max affinity. so it's really really useful. not quite sure what you meant when you said saving and reloading doesn't respawn his adds. unless there's something new in de, reloading will spawn the adds grouped together, either with belagon or not if you killed him before and he didn't respawn. but i could be wrong and they might have changed something. also dude update your equipment you have shit from valak mountain lmfao overall though this is a pretty great guide and about a topic that not many people have covered in-depth, it's really useful. thanks enel a bunch -nyar

Sir, you read my mind. This was exactly the guide I wanted. Thank you!

This have been really useful videos. I really had no idea how many of the systems in Xenoblade worked when I first played it, but revisiting the game with better techniques has been fun.

Recent sub but I’m watching all your xeno 2 vids and now this and you make great content man. Keep it up, looking forward to character guides!

Thanks for the vid man, this has made stuff so much easier.

I actually discovered a MUCH easier way to grind SP with Expert mode. Each member of the active party will always gain the same SP from a battle, even if they're at drastically different levels. After a lot of testing, I've determined that SP from kills is calculated off of Average Active Party Level (as opposed to EXP and AP, which are calculated by an individual character's level). I tested on level 17 monsters outside colony 6, with Sharla at level 28 and Reyn+Shulk at level 1 (Sum Party Level 30, average level 10). Since the Average Active Party Level was 7 below the monster, it gave 20 SP to each character. If you can combine this with chain attacks, that's a 40 SP gain from an enemy that you are MASSIVELY over-levelled against. Additionally, benched characters' levels do not factor into this equation. In that above scenario, you could have Dunban on the bench at level 50, and he would still get 18 SP (the same as the others, minus a 10% "bench-warmer" penalty). But benched character's levels ARE important when a new character joins the party: that's determined by Average TOTAL Party Level. If you have Shulk/Reyn/Dunban at level 30 and Sharla at level 10 when you find Melia, she will join at level 25 (even if Sharla was benched).

Can't wait for the seven character guide in 2 weeks. They are a blast to play.

Ah so this is the guide i've been looking for, perfect! Another great content from you sir! 👏

Thanks for the upload! I was just looking for this tutorial

Thanks Enel for the guide, can't wait to see how you break this game!

I can't wait for the future guides! Best Xenoblade content creator ever! 👌

Thanks for the guide! I’ll be sure to reference this when I get to post game!

I CANT WAIT FOR MORE OF YOUR XENOBLADE CONTENT!

Yeah, much faster than xenoblade 2 blade trust. I still have nightmares with Ursula's quest hehe

This was super informative. Just got to Machina Village last night. I’ll definitely be using this method once I get everyone’s 5th skill tree.

Thansk for making these guides really appreciate it

Thanks, I don't understand the game a lot so this is really helpful.

So far I only played XC2, watched XC cutscenes last year. Yes the 10h all cutscenes in one movie video. I was invested in the story even with the lower graphics. I can't wait until I can get myself to buy and play this remastered version, just need time to play... Being busy makes everything hard you know? I've put your guide videos in my watch later list such as this one, I thank you a lot for making these :)

Thank you Enel!!

I like that when you’re taking, you make some small mistakes, you pause for a second or two, you say “umm”, etc... all the youtubers just always cut and edit their videos in a way that the flow of words is constant, and they never do any mistakes because they would just film that part again and edit it in. I hate this. With you I feel like it’s just a friend of mine explaining something to me and we’re almost having a conversation. I’m not just watching your content, I feel like I’m part of it, thanks for the amazing content!

Blunz finally made the thumbnail lol

Thank you so much! I was fed up looking for villagers to exchange ad nauseum for gifts... Your video is straightforward, detailed, concise and clear. Hard to do a better video on the matter...

Your fast! I’mma wait here for the armor and weapon guide.

One big thing you didn't mention is that you can drop all characters in the reserve slots to minimum, for even more sp gain, due to them being 7+ levels below the enemies. While they only get 90% sp in reserve (iirc), 90% of 20 base is 18, which is still more than the 15 sp you get from having them in the main team (or similarly, 36 vs 30 in a chain attack). Then, if you have a main team whose skills are all maxed out, you can set them to higher levels than the enemies to speed up how quickly you kill. You may kill a few more outside of a chain attack this way but I think the overall speed improvement should be worth it.

I've been having issues with grinding affinity between Sharla and most other party members (and Melia to a lesser degree), so this guide helps me a LOT. I'm also doing New Game Plus to do every sidequest the second time around, because i missed a lot of timed quests in my initial run

If only there was a low level equivalent to the Affinity Grind method used here... if only

Wowwww The way you are consistently raising affinity!!

I'm in chapter 11 now, so I can't wait to complete the story and begin the grind to max, and this video helps me so much! Thank you! And the "spoiler" wasn't a spoiler if you have completet like chapter 10 so

Haven't played this for about 7 years, and I must say Expert Mode is a godsend. So many sidequest I skipped in the original due to how fast I overleveled, but now I'm actually exploring, and doing a ton of quests without making the game too easy.

thanks man this is so useful

3:30 Aaah the saves before an area becomes unavailable...a classic !

I was just desperately searching for ways to get affinity, and here you are. You're a legend

I'm a year late but I believe there's also a lower level Quest boss in the Spider Queen's nest that has a status counter, it's at a much lower level which makes the affinity griding available earlier on, provided you run away from the fight everytime because that one boss won't respwn.

First of all, I'm really looking forward to your videos on this game, you made Xenoblade 2 so much more fun for me by showing how to absolutely break that game wide open and I really appreciate all the content you made on that game and XCX. Do you have any tips for grinding Exp in this game?

Looking forward to finish the game and beeing able to watch all these videos spoiler free ^^

My OCD popped when I saw the incomplete Eryth Sea.

Great guide thx you sir

I knew expert mode would be useful somehow. What an amazing mechanic

Firework Geldesia in Tephra Cave has a daze counter spike, but she's level 98 and exclusive to a quest, so her usefulness is minimal compared to Belagon. But she does have 1.5x the HP and almost twice the range on her spike, so there are some pros to using her.

You're the GOAT!

Exactly what I needed

This is a pretty great guide, also could you maybe consider making a gem crafting guide? Nevermind I just checked out the channel, thanks a lot man

Thanks, saved me hundreds os hours getting affinity up

If Galahad Fortress is still available for you during the story or NG+ you can use the opening area of the fortress to grind with the three rooms of 8 enemies

another UM that's really good to grind affinity on is Moonlight Paimon in the lava cave in Valak Mountain. Its a nebula with a strength down spike effect, the only problem with grinding on it is that riki can't get strength down with one of his skills but you can just use riki as the party leader in that scenario. This enemy is level 46 so you could probably go grind against it as soon as you get the last party member to max affinity, but I don't know how long it would take vs this method and there's also the actual environment that it's located in being home to a level 97 unique monster and full of lava that your other party members won't hesitate to jump into. Its simple enough to avoid these issues and I would assume that grinding against it would take about as much time as Stormy Belagon. EDIT: I tried it out and Moonlight Paimon does not work because Strength down does not put your party members immediately into a state where you can help them. However there's another UM in valak, Vague Barbas, who has a bind spike, which I believe does immediately put allies into a state where you can help them, so you could get 100% bind resist, set yourself to like level 52 and grind it for affinity if you want to grind affinity before level 83+. Unless I'm wrong again.

Thanks Enel.

i will add to this, i also recommend getting the weakest weapons you can get for the characters you want to raise affinity with as well, to maximize the amount of helping you can do before either killing or running away from the unique monster Oh, also unequip nearly all arts as well from them to minimize damage dealt from them (if they have healing ones, that's fine though)

You are the best!

Damn this feels hella nostalgic

As far as affinity grinding goes for the first 6 characters the best way to get affinity is to go up and down the region in bionis leg where mechon roam about and get dozens of affinity cries. For Seven use the dozens of gift items you saved and then go to Galahad Fortress while you can. The firs room has those three alcoves with 8 mechon each. Get the Rashness skill branch at least three nodes for Vital Force and use lock on gun drones. Your party gauge will fill and you will have the chance of talent refill. This also is the fastest way to get SP if you do speed kill runs every Time.

thank u bro 💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻

Nice video. Can you make a video to grind affinity for settlements, colonies, etc. And how to unlock the additional skill trees?

Ayyy Enel I see you :]

When fighting Stormy you can force the NPCs to attack him then have the leader target an add. You'll never attack the unique monster yourself, thus you don't need debuff resist.

You are so good, Enel! I’m not sure we are playing the same game. You are way better than I am 😂

And so begins the awakening of Xenoblade 1 guides in the great Enel.

an important note is that, with encouraging sharla, you have to put aggro gems on her because otherwise she will be out of range of the sleep attacks. otherwise you'll have to raise her affinity to lvl 2 with reyn in order to use his skill which means you will have to be the one controlling her.

Could we get a guide for people around the time you get Melia and Riki? As there is a decent time between getting them, and Seven, especially if you are doing sidquests in all areas (Doubly important in this part because optional Monado Arts start here)

For the party meter altough it’s slower you can use rikis skill that fills the meter and then cancel the battle before it even starts and just spam that

Now I can max out my affinity with Dunban!! Also can you make a guide for gem crafting and good places/enemies to get gems??

It's been many years, so my apologies if my memory is hazy, but as for affinity grinding I do believe there was a method you could use much earlier that involved (a similar method of) spamming debuff recovery. I haven't gotten to this point in the game yet, but I believe it involved using Riki somehow and fighting an enemy in the snowy area (where the monado tower is.) I can't remember the specifics, so if anyone can fill in the blanks that'd be great. I think the enemy was one of those ether cloud monsters in a lava cave or something. Sorry for being so vague, it's been, what, ten years?

There's a unique monster in makna forest that I fought to get max affinity with all the paper members. He has a topple spike and that can give you affinity if you lift up your party members

You're my savior, I'm usually using a forbidden technique: soulless grinding and get tired and no fun aquired

Wait?! Mashing the gift system (which I didn't even know existed until I played DE) button wasn't the most effective trick? Thanks Enel, now I can finally view more than one Heart to Heart

You can also get a 30% debuff resist gem for completing the Agniritha collectopeadia. Did that earlier. :)

I honestly thought the answer to affinity would have been Love Source trading, but considering you only get that occasionally when fighting superbosses due to needing the Veritas Glyph it makes sense why this is better.

Affinity between Shulk and other party members is easy. It's when it comes to raising it between the others members that is a pain.

Thanks for your awesome and detailed videos! I have one question on the side tho, is there any incentive to play new game + other than the redoable quests? Is there some bonus content like in XC2?

I use the first room in galahad fortress. There are two side rooms with about 8 level 52 mechon hanging upside down. Less travel from fast travel too.

Thanks for the guide man. Are you going to make guides on each of the characters out of curiosity? I'm currently level 38 with all my characters, but so far, I've really enjoyed using Dunban the most; he has some dope-ass combos.

There's another Unique Monster that can be used for Affinity grinding - Firework Geldesia, who has a Daze spike. It is level 98, quest exclusive to Battling Brutes (the quest that gives Seven's last Skill Tree, so very late game), and in a small room with another lvl 98 Unique Monster, so it's sort of a really bad way to do it, but... it's there.

Would love to see a video about how to level up fast

Freaking brilliant

Hi! First of all, I’d like to thank you for your videos. They’re great and help me have a better understanding of the combat system, which is always welcome. I do have to ask though, how exactly did you level down? Sorry if it sounds dumb, I haven’t finished the game yet.

A bit late to the party, but you can make Riki the controlled character and use his art that makes the party gauge raise, then leave the battle before you engage the enemy. Rinse and repeat until you get the party gauge to full, then switch to the characters you want. Just use gems and skills that make Riki's Tension raise to the necessary level before doing this trick.

Nice video man! Did you find a farming spot for arts point too? For now i just found the two Deinos sauros in Makna forest to be quite good (using both expert mode and casual to win without too much trouble while being underleveled). With a chain attack and some ap gem it gives 2k per deinos but i wonder if there is better spot ^^

Just beat the game, even though it was on causal mode I still really enjoyed it, I ended up beating the final boss playing as a level 69 riki, It was very fun

If you use casual mode, you’re able to just as easily defeat the flamii on the fallen arm at a lower level (so they’re red,) and you’ll get double the skill points per kill in a chain attack.

You can get 20 sp per enemy without chain attack bonus by having two characters at level 1 with the other character at a higher level to kill the enemies with. I sp grinded early in the game just by having Dunban at level 20 killing level 18ish monsters while Shulk and Reyn were level 1 and got 20 sp per enemy (40 with a chain attack),(Dunban also got this despite being at a higher level) it would drop to 15 when Shulk and Reyn hit around level 7 so I would just de level them again. Also the reserve members seem to get a percentage of what the active party is getting regardless of their level. BTW your method is still probably quicker because of the amount of enemies. You could try testing having Reyn at a higher level killing everything on his own while de leveling your other characters even lower

For the SP grinding I always used Riki, Reyn, and Dunban in that order. Dunbans soaring tempest would kill everyone 100% of the time and I didn't have to hope for RNG to get another round of chain attacking. Playing Riki also allowed me to get max party gauge so could kill all the enemys in the chain attack and i didn't have to potenitally kill a few lowering the SP earned. Not directly related but while grinding Sloted Ledios arms from Demon King Dragonia I got Rikis affinity maxed with everyone aside from Sharla who only got to green by the time i got the last Ledios arm.

Bit late to the party but - if you use expert mode to level down to 20 on Dunban and 1 on others you can farm bunnias in marsh for 20-40 sp a pop - great if you for example don’t have seventh player or max gear but some of the aoe spells Also because there about up to 12 bunnias even if your other party members kill one before chain attack it’s no biggie - by far the fastest place I’ve encountered yet to farm sp without completing the story - love your video tho it inspired me ( also through. The comment section ideas) 🤩

I love your vids. I have never done enough justice to this game eventhough I consider it my favourite game of all time. So I will play XC DE 100 %! Just 3 questions: 1. Sharlas healing skills are aether based. Does this mean the healing can also be improved by boostig up her eather damage? 2. Melias lightning orb will boost all allies + herself with eather damage. When you fire up this orb...will it get the boost from itself or do you need another lightning orb in reserve to boost this one? 3. Is there any use for your bonus exp besides leveling up? (Like in XC2)

Due to them being higher level it'll sometimes end war swing early because they block it

I'm gonna have to spiders for sp instead in tephra because deadala be trolling this grind spott like crazy

Personally I was level 69 and found a bird monster on the bionis leg that had much higher level than me but never seemed to kill my part members, got a similar effect from that.

For the flamis I find myself dying when I set my level to 48 and try to build up the gauge. But when I set it to casual mode the strat is working perfectly fine but I hate using causal mode so is there anything I’m doing wrong or may not have that I need?

the love source DLC on xenoblade 2 made blade affinity so easy.

Is there a Pre-obtaining Party member seven spot for this strategy with Reyn and Dunban? Like where theres a ton of enemies close together like this?

I was grinding affinity against Stormy Belagon with Reyn and Dunban and they started topple locking him

I like to always keep a pair of characters at low affinity towards each other for cylinder crafting but this is a great guide

You fixed the thumbnail quickly lol

i think there was a lower level enemy that also had the sleep effect in sword valley.

Doing the affinity trick and my game just bugs out and freezes sticking me in a constant loop -_- thankfully it was saved beforehand so I can try again later.

I didn't know there was more than just the spider in tephra cave with sleep spikes