Overdrive

Overdrive is a special play ability in Xenoblade Chronicles X that greatly enhances the user's combat abilities for a limited time. It is unlocked after is completed.

It costs 3000 TP to activate an Overdrive, equal to the user's base maximum TP. Activating Overdrive adds a base 15 seconds to a timer meter on the right side of the Overdrive Counter, which increases with chained orange or yellow arts.

Additionally, Skells get their own version of Overdrive, which costs 3000 GP to activate. These Overdrives increase the chance of Cockpit Time to activate (to a value alternating between 30% and 20% per Cockpit activation) every time a Skell Art is used. Each Overdrive has its own set of additional bonuses as well, depending on the Skell model.

When the player uses Overdrive, the song Wir fliegen plays until the Overdrive is finished.

Plot
After the events of, it's revealed in a tutorial that Overdrive is a new method of attack that was granted by the technology used to create mimeosomes. Little else is known about Overdrive.

Despite the text implying that it was created for mimeosome use, the characters L and Celica, who are presumably in organic bodies, can use Overdrive as well.

On Foot Overdrive
When Overdrive starts, a counter will appear in the bottom middle of the screen, showing a counter that increases based on the last Art used. On its right is a meter that indicates the amount of time remaining in the Overdrive (15 seconds at base). When the meter runs low, the song Wir fliegen fades out to the normal battle music in order to let the user know that Overdrive is ending so they can try to extend Overdrive.

There are three values that appear pointing towards the counter:
 * Damage multiplier (×): Indicates the damage multiplier. Starts at 1.00 and increases by 0.05 for each count, maxing out at 6.00.
 * Cooldown multiplier (×): Lowers the time it takes for arts to cool down. Starts at 2.50 and increases by 0.025 for each count, maxing out at 5.00.
 * Resistance reduction (-): Lowers the enemy's resistance to debuffs. Starts at 0.00 and increases by 1 for each count, maxing out at 100.00.

All Arts will be able to enter a tertiary cooldown which further enhances Arts in various ways. Additionally, secondary and tertiary cooldowns will still work even if the weapon they're associated with isn't currently in use.

Overdrive Counter
Each successful hit from an orange, yellow, or damaging purple Art during Overdrive increases the Overdrive counter. Additionally, green arts that heal players increase the counter as well. This means that attacks that hit a large number of times, and attacks that hit multiple enemies at once, can greatly increase this counter.

However, orange and yellow arts used back-to-back won't increase the counter. Additionally, the damage bonus is negated for the second art. Therefore, green/purple/blue arts should be used first before switching between orange and yellow arts.

The counter usually increases by 1 per hit, but if the user uses a green Art right before using an orange, yellow, or purple art, the counter will increase by 2 per hit.

The counter maxes out at 100, which maximizes all the bonuses of Overdrive.

The counter can be boosted on activation using the Augment Overdrive Count Up. Additionally, Overdrive Blue Bonus allows blue Arts to add 10 to the counter, and Overdrive Green Bonus allows green Arts to add 3 to the counter.

Additionally, the skill Phantom Counter can boost the counter on Overdrive activation as well.

Color Combinations
Going from one Art color to another Art color can cause extra effects.

Party Overdrive Bonuses
When multiple party members are in Overdrive, bonuses happen:
 * 2 Members: Soul Voices occur 50% more often.
 * 3 Members: Gain 50 additional TP per hit when using an Art.
 * 4 Members: All party members gain Super Armor, which reduces all damage taken by 50% and also prevents Stagger,, , , and Flinch.

Extending Overdrive
Overdrive's base duration of 15 seconds can be extended using the Augment Extend Overdrive as well as the skill Hellhound.

The player can extend Overdrive by having 3000 TP during the Overdrive and reactivating it. This preserves the Overdrive counter as well.

Additionally, blue arts will extend Overdrive by .1 seconds per count (at max: 10 seconds) and green arts will extend Overdrive by .05 seconds per count per party member targeted (at max: 5 seconds per party member). This means that green arts that target all allies will extend Overdrive four times more than green arts that target just one ally, as long as all party members are alive.

Gaining HP during Overdrive
The augment Overdrive: Recover HP grants health to users when activating Overdrive.

Using a blue art followed by a green art heals the user by 10% of their max HP.

Gaining TP during Overdrive
The augment Overdrive: Gain TP grants extra TP to users when activating Overdrive. Additionally, the skill Grand Procession grants TP to all party members when activating Overdrive.

The skill TP Overdrive boosts TP when Arts are used during Overdrive.

When purple arts are used during Overdrive, the user's TP increases by 10 per count per hit (max. 1000 per hit).

When 3 party members use Overdrive at the same time, the Overdrive users gain 50 additional TP per hit when using their Arts.

Other Boosts
These skills give extra effects to Overdrive:
 * Red Zone: Boosts critical rate
 * Stellar Entry: Entering a Skell during Overdrive gives a large amount of GP.

Dying during Overdrive
Unfortunately, unlike with Chain Attacks in the other Xenoblade games, Overdrive does not grant any form of invincibility.

Damage reduction is only possible if all 4 party members are in Overdrive, and even so, a 50% damage reduction may not be enough against some of the more powerful arts in the game.