Chain Attack (XC3)

Chain Attacks are a battle mechanic in Xenoblade Chronicles 3. When the Chain Attack Gauge is full, a Chain Attack may be performed by pressing +. Chain Attacks allow for many s and other attacks to be performed in succession with higher damage and other bonuses without the enemy attacking. They are unlocked in Chapter 2 during the fight against the Gyanna Aspar.

Overview
When a Chain Attack is initiated, regular combat ceases temporarily: characters and enemies stop attacking and moving. An option of three are given, any of which may be selected.

The player may then attack using any Art (besides s) of a character of their choice, including the active Hero if there is one. When this happens, an amount of Tactical Points is added to a total for the current Chain Order. If the amount of TP added causes the total to reach or exceed 100, the Chain Order ends with a powerful attack by the character whose Chain Order was chosen. If not, the player may choose an Art of a different character to attack with and increase the TP of the Chain Order. This continues either until the Arts cause the total TP to exceed 100 or the player runs out of characters to use Arts with; in the latter case, the Chain Attack ends.

When a Chain Order is initiated, the Chain Attack Gauge visually decreases by 1/3. If any Chain Attack Gauge remains at the end of a successfully-completed Chain Order, the Chain Attack continues and a new Chain Order may be selected. The Chain Attack may also continue if the conditions are met for getting an. Otherwise, the Chain Attack ends.

Once a character uses an Art during a particular Chain Order, they cannot be used again in the same Chain Order. If the Order is successfully completed by reaching 100 TP, a number of characters who previously used Arts are 'reactivated' and may use Arts in the following Order; characters who previously used Arts but were not reactivated cannot use Arts in the following Order. If the previous Order was completed with 100-149 TP ('Cool'), only one character is reactivated; if it was completed with 150-199 TP ('Great'), two are reactivated; and if it was completed with 200 TP or more ('Amazing'), three are reactivated. (Certain circumstances, such as or specific, may allow for more characters to be reactivated.)

If a character is Incapacitated or suffering from Eclipse Soul when a Chain Attack initiates, their particular Chain Order will not appear as an option and they may not use Arts. With the exception of certain Hero Orders, characters cannot be revived from incapacitation during Chain Attacks.

Ending Chain Attacks
The following conditions will cause the Chain Attack to end: In all of the above situations, the Chain Attack Gauge fully depletes upon a Chain Attack ending.
 * The Chain Attack Gauge is fully depleted and no Ouroboros Order is available.
 * The player runs out of active characters to use Arts before 100 TP has been reached.
 * An Ouroboros Order is successfully completed.
 * The chain attack is ended manually when selecting a Chain Order.

Arts in Chain Attacks
Battle Arts function slightly differently when they are used in Chain Attacks. If a class Art on a certain character is paired with a Master Art to make a Fusion Art, then the Fusion Art (and all associated effects) will be used instead of either individual Art that composes it. Moreover, Arts with a positional requirement will always be fulfilled regardless of the actual position of the characters on the battlefield; that is, effects which ordinarily activate when attacking the enemy from the front/the side/behind will always have their effects activate, and Arts that ordinarily affect allies within a certain range will affect all allies.

TP
The amount of TP gained by using an Art in a Chain Attack depends upon several factors. Every playable character and Hero has a certain amount of base TP; the first time they use an Art in a Chain Attack, this amount will always be added. A host of other conditions add to the amount of TP gained from using the Art.

If the character is reactivated and used in a subsequent Order, they will start with the total amount of TP given in the previous attack — the sum of their base TP and the extra TP gained from conditional benefits of using Arts in previous Orders. In this way, the amount of TP a character adds broadly increases over time in a Chain Attack.

The amount of base TP a character has can be increased with Accessories or Now That's Tactics!. The default amount is likely a reference to the extent to which the character fights tactically in-universe, with tactically-minded characters (e.g. Taion) having higher base TP.

Chain Orders
Chain Orders start with the player choosing an Order from among a selection of three random active characters. Each character's Chain Order is associated with a certain beneficial effect; this effect occurs if the Order is successfully completed by reaching 100 TP, and its effects typically last throughout the remainder of the Chain Attack.

The currently active Hero may have their Chain Order appear in the selection. If chosen, the Chain Attack Gauge will not decrease, effectively allowing for a free round.

Ouroboros Orders
Ordinarily, Ouroboros forms do not appear in Chain Attacks. However, two situations may result in Ouroboros forms being used in the attack at the end of a Chain Order. (This cannot happen before the battle against Lambda Ferronis.)

The first situation is if two characters in an Interlink pair ( and, and , or  and ) both have their associated Chain Orders completed in a single Chain Attack. In this case, one of the Chain Orders available in the following round will be an Ouroboros Order (randomly selected from the two characters in the Interlink pair in question), and (if 100 TP is reached in the Order) the attack at the end features both Ouroboros forms of the character in question. An Ouroboros Order may be available in this way even if no Chain Attack Gauge remains, effectively allowing for an extra round. However, the Chain Attack ends after such an Ouroboros Order regardless of whether Chain Attack Gauge remained or not.

The second situation is if the Chain Attack is initiated while the player controls an Ouroboros at Interlink level 3. In this case, only the Ouroboros Order of one of the characters in the Interlink pair in question will be selectable. If this Ouroboros Order is successfully completed, the Ouroboros Order of the other character in the Interlink pair will be the only Chain Order option in the next round. The Chain Attack ends after these two rounds.

In either case, all characters are reactivated if the Ouroboros Order is chosen, regardless of how much TP the previous round was ended with.

Attackers, Defenders, and Healers
When an Art is used in a Chain Attack, the effect may be changed if the Art was used by an Attacker, Defender, or Healer.
 * First Blood: If an Attacker uses the first Art in any particular round, the amount of TP gained from their Art is multiplied by 1.25.
 * Back in Action: If a Defender completes a Chain Order by causing the TP to reach 100 and the Chain Attack continues for another round, one of the reactivated characters will be that with the greatest TP. (The other reactivated characters, if there are any, are random as per usual.)
 * Point Limit: If a Healer's Art would cause the TP to reach/exceed 100, the TP will instead be set to 99, allowing for another character to use an Art in the round.

Heroes do not have these special effects. Instead, they each have their own unique effect when one of their Arts is used in a Chain Attack.

Damage multiplier
Chain Attacks have an extra damage multiplier which can be seen in the lower right of the screen. This multiplier increases whenever a Chain Order is successfully completed. The amount by which it increases is dependent upon the amount of TP when the order is completed.

Overkill
If an enemy's is reduced to 0 by a Chain Attack, the Chain Attack may continue with an Overkill (whether or not this occurs is changeable in the options). Continuing to attack the enemy during the Chain Attack results in more and  being obtained.