Pouch Item

Pouch Items are a type of consumable item in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country. They can be used to temporarily strengthen a Driver and Blade in combat.

Mechanics
Up to 10, or in some cases 3, of a given pouch item may be held at any time. This amount can be increased by 30 by purchasing the Nopox Deeds, Placks Deeds, and Praximo Deeds.

Pouch Items can be used from the Pouch Setup menu. Initially only one pouch item can be used at a time per Driver, however through the use of a Pouch Expansion Kit, a second pouch item slot can be acquired on the Driver which the Pouch Expansion Kit is used on. This allows said Driver to use two pouch items at the same time; these two items must be different, although they may have the same effects. Having two pouch items on the same Driver with the same effect simultaneously results in the effects stacking.

When an item is put into a character's pouch it will provide up to three buffs for a certain amount of time, as well as increasing the Trust of all Blades currently engaged by the Driver. The amount of time a pouch item lasts for will only decrease while the player is outside of menus. Upon expiring, if the player has another copy of the expired item, it will be automatically used to refill the pouch.

In Xenoblade Chronicles 2

 * Purchasing them from s
 * Completing s
 * Completing Merc Missions

In Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country

 * Purchasing them from s
 * Completing s
 * Crafting at a Campsite

In Xenoblade Chronicles 2

 * Art
 * Board Games
 * Cosmetics
 * Drinks
 * Desserts
 * Instruments
 * Literature
 * Meats
 * Seafood
 * Staple Foods
 * Textiles
 * Veggies

In Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna ~ The Golden Country

 * Charms
 * Desserts
 * Fragrances
 * Meats
 * Scripts
 * Seafood
 * Staple Foods
 * Talismans
 * Veggies

Pouch Item Effects
There are 12 different types of passive effects granted from Pouch Items, each corresponding to a different category of pouch item. While a single pouch item can grant up to three different effects, it will always provide the primary effect of its item type.


 * Art: Boosts the amount of Affinity gained by any means. (Max: +50%)
 * Board Games: Boosts the power of Blade Arts. Has no effect on Nullify Reaction or Debuff Cancel. (Max: +100%)
 * Cosmetics/Fragrances: Boosts Affinity at the start of battle. (Max: +300)
 * Drinks/Charms: Boosts the amount of Party Gauge gained by any means. (Max: +50%)
 * Desserts: Passively recharges all Arts every second. (Max: +1 per second)
 * Instruments/Talismans: Passively recharges the Special Gauge every second. (Max: +8 per second)
 * Literature/Scripts: Boosts the damage dealt by Specials. (Max: +100%)
 * Meats: Boosts the Driver's physical defense. (Max: +30%)
 * Seafood: Boosts the Driver's ether defense. (Max: +30%)
 * Staple Foods: Grants the Driver a temporary Damage Barrier, nullifying a certain amount of damage based on a percentage of the Driver's maximum HP. (Max: 50% Max HP)
 * Textiles: Reduces the Affinity lost by any means. (Max: -50%)
 * Veggies: Boosts HP restored to the Driver by any means. (Max: +50%)

Favorite Pouch Items
Every Driver and Blade has up to two favorite types of pouch items, as well as two specific favorite items. All Drivers, Rare Blades, and Legendary Blades will have two predetermined favorite pouch item types, and two predetermined favorite items. Common Blades will have at least one favorite item type, but may not have any favorite items.

Favorite Items are hidden, and only revealed upon using a favorite pouch item, or an item belonging to a favorite type, for the first time.

Favorite Pouch Item Bonuses
Depending on how much a Driver or Blade likes a Pouch Item, its effect may be enhanced.
 * If a pouch item belongs to a character's favorite category, then its effects are boosted by 20%.
 * If a pouch item is one of a character's favorites, then its effects are boosted by 50%.

If a character's favorite item belongs to a favorite category, then only the favorite item bonus is applied.

If a pouch item is liked by both a Driver and Blade, then the bonus will stack multiplicatively.

Strategy
Pouch items are often overlooked by new players, but when used properly, they are one of if not the most critical part of out-of-combat setup in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Torna ~ The Golden Country, and the best ones are essentially always worth any money needed to acquire them.

The most important (and, in many setups, necessary) use for pouch items is to speed up the rate at which Driver Arts and s can be used, allowing for more Driver Combos, Blade Combos, and higher combat elements such as s and Fusion Combos. Driver Arts are made more available with effects which passively recharge Arts a certain amount every second (the main effect of Desserts). Specials can be directly made more available through effects that passively recharge the Special gauge every second (the main effect of Instruments), but in practice (usually — see below) it is more effective to stack as much Arts recharge as possible and build up the Special gauge faster through using more Driver Arts.

Early-game strategy
In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, the dessert Narcipear Jelly is available for purchase at Honeycomb Sweets in Argentum from the start of the game. It provides 0.4 Arts recharge per second (as strong as the effect gets among easily-obtainable items) alongside substantial defensive bonuses, making it one of the best pouch items in the game. A simple but very effective strategy early on is to buy as many of these as possible and use them on every Driver; doing so makes all Drivers much more capable and speeds up combat substantially in the early game.