Chain Attack (XC3)

For other articles titled "Chain Attack", see Chain Attack (disambiguation).

A Chain Attack starts.

Chain Attacks are a battle mechanic in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and Future Redeemed. When the Chain Attack Gauge is full, a Chain Attack may be performed by pressing +. Chain Attacks allow for many Battle Arts and other attacks to be performed in succession with higher damage and other bonuses without the enemy attacking. Additionally, a unique music track, also called Chain Attack, will play throughout the attack in most situations. 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, though enemies will continue whatever art was in progress during non-menu time until it has fully concluded. Party members cannot be brought below 1 HP by any means while the Chain Attack is in progress, and activating one will clear participants of reactions such as Topple, so using one to survive an otherwise-fatal attack is a valid strategy.

To begin the Chain Attack, three random Chain Orders are offered, any of which may be selected. The player may then attack using any Art (besides Talent Arts) of a character of their choice, including the active Hero if there is one. When this happens, an amount of Tactical Points (TP) 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's effects are applied, and the Chain Order's matching character unleashes a powerful Chain Art. 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 decreases by a third. 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 Ouroboros Order. Otherwise, the Chain Attack ends.

Once a character uses an Art in a Chain Attack, they become "inactive", and cannot be used again. Completing an Order "reactivates" a number of inactive characters, allowing them to be chosen again. If the previous Order was completed with 100-149 TP ("Cool"), only one character is reactivated; if it was completed with 150-199 TP ("Bravo"), two are reactivated; and if it was completed with 200 TP or more ("Amazing"), three are reactivated. Certain circumstances, such as Ouroboros Orders or specific Hero Orders, may allow for more characters to be reactivated. Who is reactivated is chosen at random.

If a character is Incapacitated when a Chain Attack initiates, they cannot participate; this also applies to debuffs that prevent them from being controlled, such as Sword Bind or Eclipse Soul. 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.

The Chain Art used is specific to the character's current class, and generally simply deals damage without special effects.

Time is stopped while the player is selecting from any of the menus in a Chain Attack. Otherwise, time flows normally - damage-over-time effects will tick, buffs and fields will expire, drops will vanish, and uninvolved enemies will wander around. This includes not only during attacks, but during time spent doing nothing as the interface shows TP being added, a Chain Art's splash screen, or who is being reactivated. The exception is the Art Combo timer, which remains frozen for the Chain Attack's full duration. As the power of combos depends on the remaining duration of the previous step, this can lead to very powerful attacks.

Ending Chain Attacks

The following conditions will cause the Chain Attack to end:

• 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 unless it's the starting order.
• The enemy being fought automatically ends the battle once their HP reaches a certain amount.
• The chain attack is ended manually when selecting a Chain Order.

In all of the above situations, the Chain Attack Gauge fully depletes upon a Chain Attack ending.

Arts in Chain Attacks

During a Chain Attack, all regular arts are always available, and all positioning requirements are considered as met. Therefore:

• If an art can be a Fusion Art, it always is, as if both the Class Art and Master Art are always ready.
• If an art has a positional bonus effect, it is always triggered, no matter the actual position of the user and enemy.
• If an art affects any allies in range, it affects all allies, no matter the actual position of the user and allies.

TP

TP, as explained above, is added to a running total whenever a character uses a Battle Art in a Chain Attack. If this total exceeds 100, the effect of the current Chain Order and a Chain Art are both executed.

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.

A character's base TP is based on the extent to which the character fights tactically in-universe, with tactically-minded characters (e.g. Taion) having higher base TP. Accessories and Skills can increase the starting amount when a Chain Attack begins.

List of base TP for each character Character TP Noah 30 Mio 25 Eunie 25 Taion 35 Lanz 15 Sena 15 Ethel 25 Valdi 20 Zeon 25 Teach 30 Riku & Manana 15 Gray 35 Isurd 40 Juniper 25 Ashera 15 Alexandria 30 Monica 30 Fiona 15 Triton 10 Ghondor 35 Miyabi 15 Cammuravi 15 Segiri 20 Nia 15 Melia 35 Ino 25 Masha 35 Shulk 25 Rex 20

List of base TP for each character (Future Redeemed) Character TP Matthew 15 A 25 Nikol 25 Glimmer 20 Shulk 20 Rex 15 Na'el 20

List of conditions which grant TP

Name	TP	Notes
Role Match TP	10	User shares the same role with the order's character
Force Match TP	5	User shares the same affiliation (Keves, Agnus, etc.) with the order's character
Critical Hit TP	1	User dealt critical damage with a hit; triggered again at 5, 10, and 15 crits
Combo TP	1	User applied Break, Topple, Launch, Smash, Daze, or Burst
Reaction TP	1	User applied Knockback or Blowdown
Combo Follow-Up TP	1	User inflicted damage on a target with Topple, Launch, or Daze.
Increased Effect TP	1	Art conditional (positional, combo state, etc.) was satisfied
No Block TP	1	When the attack would have been blocked by the enemy, but some effect overrode it
Damage TP	1	The hit brought the enemy's health to or below 50%; triggered again at 25%, 10%, and 0%
Full Health TP	1	User has full HP
Field TP	1	User cast a field
Field Disperse TP	1	A field effect was dispersed for having reached the limit with a newly summoned field
Battle Affinity TP	1	User shares affiliation with, or makes a key pair with, the order's character
Teamwork TP	1	Triggers for consecutive characters if they make a key pair, or are both non-heroes of the same affiliation
Role Type TP	1	User is the second or third unique role used this round
Role Consistency TP	1	The user, the previous user, and the order's character share the same role
Force Consistency TP	1	The user, the previous user, and the order's character share the same affiliation
Buff TP	1	User applied a buff
Debuff TP	1	User inflicted a debuff on the enemy
Heal TP	1	User healed allies
Taunt TP	1	User used a Taunt art to draw aggro
Hit TP	1	Triggered at 5, 10, and 15 hits
Empower TP	1	2 buffs are on the user
Enfeeble TP	1	2 debuffs are on the enemy
Fusion TP	1	User used a Fusion Art
Last Act TP	1	User was the last character available
Highest TP	1	User had the highest TP
Lowest TP	1	User had the lowest TP
Bonus TP	1	User triggered 4 or more other TP conditions; triggered again at 8, 12, 16, and 20 other conditions
Hero TP	1	User is a Hero

Chain Orders

Chain Orders start with 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 strength of this effect typically increases every 20 levels.

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

The effects of the Order apply before the subsequent Chain Art. While this is mostly beneficial, any decrease in current aggro may be immediately won back, and any Power Charge will be immediately consumed by the Chain Art (and so can't be saved for something else).

In the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 main game, each character is associated with a specific Chain Order. In Future Redeemed, each character has a default Chain Order, but this may be overridden with Battle or Strategy Manuals.

Ouroboros Orders

Ordinarily, Ouroboros forms do not appear in Chain Attacks; any active Ouroboros forms are cancelled when the Chain Attack begins. However, two situations may result in Ouroboros forms being used in the attack at the end of a Chain Order. This is unlocked after the battle against the Lambda Ferronis.

The first situation is if two characters in an Interlink pair (Noah and Mio, Eunie and Taion, or Lanz and Sena) 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 the Order is completed) 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, allowing for an extra round. However, the Chain Attack ends after such an Ouroboros Order, regardless of whether any Chain Attack Gauge remains 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, if the Ouroboros Order is chosen, all characters are reactivated for that round, regardless of how much TP the previous round was ended with. Additionally, Ouroboros Orders will always satisfy the "Role Match TP" and "Force Match TP" bonus conditions.

Ouroboros Orders are, logically, not available in situations where the party's ability to Interlink is restricted. There is no indication of this; they will simply not appear for selection, and if one would be the only legal option (due to the chain attack gauge being empty), the chain attack ends.

In Future Redeemed, Ouroboros Orders are replaced by Unity Orders. These are broadly functionally identical, albeit customisable: each Unity Pair is associated with a Unity Order, and when both members of the Unity Pair have their Chain Order completed, the next round will have the Unity Order as an available Chain Order. Like the equivalent Ouroboros Orders, these can be initiated even if the Chain Attack Gauge is empty, and reactivate all party members when chosen. However, there is no equivalent of the two-Ouroboros-Order Chain Attacks initiated at Interlink level 3. The Chain Art associated with a Unity Order is that Unity Pair's Special (including the Unity Combo if the enemy is Launched).

List of Chain Orders

Character	Order name	Order effect	Lv. 1-20	21-40	41-60	61-80	81-99
Noah	Brave Assault	Attacks during Chain Attack gain {value}% chance to bypass defense.	60	70	80	90	100
Mio	Lightning Quick	Reduces Attacker and Healer aggro by {value}%.	60	70	80	90	100
Eunie	Pinion Primed	Reduces enemy ether defense by {value} percentage points during Chain Attack.	30	35	40	45	50
Taion	Art of Subjugation	Reduces enemy physical defense by {value} percentage points during Chain Attack.	30	35	40	45	50
Lanz	Tyrant Wave	Increases Defender aggro by {value}% and grants Attack Up to all allies.	30	35	40	45	50
Sena	Bombshell Blitz	Attacks during Chain Attack gain {value}% chance to be unblockable.	60	70	80	90	100
Ethel	Wintry End	Increases damage ratio by {value} percentage points and grants Critical Rate Up to all allies.	100	125	150	175	200
Valdi	Bullet Hail	Heals all allies for {value}% HP and grants them Regenerate.	30	35	40	45	50
Zeon	Deflector Form	Increases Defender aggro by {value}% and grants Armor Veil to all allies.	30	35	40	45	50
Teach	Dragon Unbound	During Chain Attack, heals {value}% of damage dealt as HP, up to 200% of Healing Power.	4	5.5	7	8.5	10
Riku & Manana	Noogie Storm	Increases everyone's TP by {value}.	6	7	8	9	10
Gray	Ruthless Persecution	During Chain Attack, boosts damage dealt to low HP enemies by {value}%.	60	70	80	90	100
Isurd	War of Attrition	Reduces enemy physical and ether defense by {value}% during Chain Attack.	10	15	20	25	30
Juniper	Radiant Cascade	During Chain Attack, boosts damage dealt to low HP enemies by {value}%.	60	70	80	90	100
Ashera	Saber Siege	Increases damage ratio by {value} percentage points and grants Power Charge to all allies.	100	125	150	175	200
Alexandria	Whistling Blades	During Chain Attack, increases Critical Rate by {value} percentage points.	20	22	25	27	30
Monica	Lost Advent	One additional character is reactivated, with {value}% chance for 1 more.	10	15	20	25	30
Fiona	Galactic Flight	Charges Chain Attack gauge and grants Power Charge to all allies.	—	—	—	—	—
Triton	Barbarous Rage	Randomly increases all characters' TP by between {value 1} and {value 2}.	2, 10	3, 12	4, 14	5, 16	6, 18
Ghondor	Avalanche Onslaught	During Chain Attack, increases critical hit damage bonus by {value} percentage points.	50	75	100	125	150
Miyabi	Elegant Maelstrom	One additional character is reactivated, with {value}% chance for 1 more.	10	15	20	25	30
Cammuravi	The Indomitable	Increases damage ratio by {value} percentage points and grants Attack Up to all allies.	100	125	150	175	200
Segiri	Viscous Venom	Reduces enemy physical and ether defense by {value}% during Chain Attack.	10	15	20	25	30
Nia	Salvation's Ripple	{value}% chance to revive all downed party members, allowing them to participate in the Chain Attack.	60	70	80	90	100
Melia	Ether Absolute	Reduces enemy ether defense by {value} percentage points during Chain Attack.	30	35	40	45	50
Ino	Ino Unlimited	Increases damage ratio by {value} percentage points.	150	190	225	265	300
Masha	Radiant Artificer	During Chain Attack, increases Critical Rate by {value} percentage points.	20	22	25	27	30
Shulk	Liberation Edge	Increases damage ratio by {value} percentage points and grants Power Charge to all allies.	50	63	75	88	100
Rex	Deliverance Hew	Reduces enemy physical defense by {value} percentage points during Chain Attack.	45	53	60	68	75
Noah & Mio	Limits Unbound	Greatly increases damage ratio and deals defense-bypassing damage.	—	—	—	—	—
Mio & Noah	Death of 1,000 Cuts	Greatly increases damage ratio and reduces Attacker and Healer aggro.	—	—	—	—	—
Eunie & Taion	Brilliant Ascension	Greatly increases damage ratio and fully heals all allies.	—	—	—	—	—
Taion & Eunie	Grand Design	Greatly increases damage ratio and fully heals all allies.	—	—	—	—	—
Lanz & Sena	Demon Punisher	Greatly increases damage ratio and and reduces Attacker and Healer aggro.	—	—	—	—	—
Sena & Lanz	Big Bang Implosion	Greatly increases damage ratio and deals defense-bypassing damage.	—	—	—	—	—
Matthew	Avalanche Onslaught	Attacks during Chain Attack gain {value}% chance to be unblockable.	60
A	Lightspeed	One additional character is reactivated, with {value}% chance for 1 more.	10
Nikol	Cyclone Form	Reduces Attacker and Healer aggro by {value}%.	60
Glimmer	Red-Hot Paean	Heals all allies for {value}% HP and grants them Regenerate.	30
Shulk	Liberation Edge	Increases damage ratio by {value} percentage points and grants Power Charge to all allies.	100
Rex	Deliverance Hew	Reduces enemy physical defense by {value} percentage points during Chain Attack.	45
Na'el	Ether Calamity	Attacks during Chain Attack gain {value}% chance to bypass defense.	60
Matthew - A	Light Avalanche	Reduces enemy physical and ether defense by {value}% during Chain Attack	30
Matthew - Nikol	Cyclone Onslaught
Matthew - Glimmer	Red-Hot Furyfist
Matthew - Shulk	Liberation Onslaught
Matthew - Rex	Deliverance Boomfist
A - Nikol	Light Cyclone
A - Glimmer	Red-Hot Bladeflash
A - Shulk	Liberation Blade
A - Rex	Deliverance Flash
Nikol - Glimmer	Red-Hot Cyclone
Nikol - Shulk	Liberation Link
Nikol - Rex	Deliverance Engine
Glimmer - Shulk	Red-Hot Horizon
Glimmer - Rex	Red-Hot Aegislight
Shulk - Rex	Sword of Liberation

Role effects

When an Art is used in a Chain Attack, the user's role can alter its effect on the TP cycle.

• First Blood: If an Attacker uses the first Art in any particular round, the amount of TP gained from their Art is multiplied by 1.25x.
• 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. As a result, Healers can never complete an Order under normal circumstances. The exception is if the TP has already passed 100, but the order has been prevented from completing by some other effect - in this case, a Healer's art will keep the TP at its current value and complete the order.

In Future Redeemed, each character uses the relevant above Role effect by default, but this can be overridden with Strategy or Tactics Manuals.

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

List of Hero Chain Attack effects

Hero	Heroic Chain effect text	Notes
Ethel	Multiplies TP by 150% when first in line to attack.
Valdi	When chosen, increases TP by 50 if the enemy is a machine-type.
Zeon	Adds 15 TP upon own reactivation.
Teach	When chosen, grants 10 TP to all active characters except self.
Riku & Manana	When chosen, multiplies TP from next character to act by 125%. (Valid only for this order.)
Gray	Multiplies damage ratio increase by 1.5x upon completing an order that Hero participates in.
Isurd	Guarantees a "Bravo" rating when Hero completes an order.	The order's final TP value is set to 150, even if it would have been higher.
Juniper	When chosen, increases damage ratio by 50 percentage points.
Ashera	Guarantees an "Amazing" rating when Hero completes an order, but they won't reactivate in this Chain Attack.	The order's final TP value is set to 200, even if it would have been higher.
Alexandria	Multiplies TP by 125% when first in line to attack, and makes all attacks critical.
Monica	When Hero completes an order, adds 15 to TP of the character with the most TP, and reactivates them.	This behaves like the Defender role effect, taking the place of one normal reactivation.
Fiona	When chosen, multiplies the TP of all active characters except self by 120%.
Triton	Either adds 50 or removes 50 TP upon own reactivation.	TP cannot be negative, and will stop at 0.
Ghondor	When chosen, assures self-reactivation in addition to the standard no. of reactivations.
Miyabi	When chosen, Mio gains TP equal to 100% of Hero's TP (maximum of 99; only applied if Mio can still act).
Cammuravi	Multiplies TP by 200% when first in line to attack, but TP returns to pre-action state upon reactivation.
Segiri	Multiplies TP by 150% when Hero completes an order.
Nia	Reactivates all characters except self when Hero completes an order.
Melia	Prevents order from completing if it reaches 100% through Hero's action, letting you select another character.	Therefore, Melia can never complete an order, much like a Healer class. This effect is the only way for a healer to complete an order.
Ino	When Hero completes an order, adds 30 to TP of the character with the least TP, and reactivates them.	This behaves like the Defender role effect, taking the place of one normal reactivation.
Masha	When chosen, adds 15 to TP of all active characters, and removes 10 from own TP.
Shulk	When character completes an order, adds 20 to TP of the character with the most TP, and reactivates them.	This behaves like the Defender role effect, taking the place of one normal reactivation.
Rex	Multiplies TP by 130% when first in line to attack, and makes all attacks critical.

Damage multiplier

Chain Attacks have an extra damage multiplier (sometimes called the "damage ratio") which can be seen next to the Chain Attack Gauge. The multiplier affects damage dealt both by the party and by enemies during the Chain Attack (although enemies cannot begin an attack once a Chain Attack is initiated, and party members cannot be incapacitated during one, so the latter is mostly irrelevant).

This multiplier increases whenever a Chain Order is successfully completed. The damage multiplier starts at 150% (125% on Hard difficulty) for regular Chain Attacks, and 300% (200% on Hard) for Interlink Lv. 3 Chain Attacks. In Future Redeemed, the initial damage multiplier can be increased by using Unity Combos. Each Unity Combo will increase it by 25% (12.5% on Hard).

At the end of each round, a damage multiplier increase is calculated, starting at 100 percentage points (or 200 if an Ouroboros order was completed). In Future Redeemed, this starting value is instead 50 for regular orders, and 100 for Unity orders.

The chances of getting the best possible ratio gain can be increased if the Order's character forms a "key pair" with any of the characters used in the round. A key pair is formed with either the two characters of an Ouroboros pairing, or both a Hero and their class inheritor. Thus, the possible key pairs are:

Key pairs

Character	Noah	Mio	Eunie	Taion	Lanz	Sena
Noah		✓
Mio	✓
Eunie				✓
Taion			✓
Lanz						✓
Sena					✓
Ethel	✓
Valdi					✓
Zeon	✓
Teach		✓
Riku & Manana						✓
Gray			✓
Isurd				✓
Juniper	✓
Ashera			✓
Alexandria				✓
Monica			✓
Fiona					✓
Triton					✓
Ghondor						✓
Miyabi		✓
Cammuravi				✓
Segiri						✓
Nia		✓
Melia	✓
Ino	✓
Masha		✓
Shulk	✓
Rex		✓

In Future Redeemed, the key pairs are different. Note that key pairs are the same regardless of currently-equipped manuals. Additionally, during Unity orders, only the two characters the order belongs to qualify for key pairs.

Key pairs (Future Redeemed)

Order Character	Matthew	A	Nikol	Glimmer	Shulk	Rex	Na'el
Matthew		✓					✓
A	✓				✓
Nikol				✓	✓
Glimmer			✓			✓
Shulk			✓			✓
Rex				✓	✓
Na'el	✓

The base increase then gets a special bonus as the player progresses through more rounds. This bonus is randomly calculated based on the table below. random(a, b) returns a random number between a and b, inclusive.

Round bonus

Round	Normal gain	Key pair gain	Max gain
1, or any Ouroboros round	0	0	0
2+	random(25, 50) * (round - 1)	random(35, 70) * (round - 1)	50

The round bonus is effectively capped at +50, so advancing further into the Chain Attack does not strictly increase the value, but it increases the chance to get the max value. More specifically, the maximum becomes guaranteed starting from the third round.

Then, the base increase also receives a boost depending on the round's result. It doesn't increase as rounds go on, but it has a higher cap for "Amazing" rounds. Furthermore, it doesn't depend on the exact number of TP gained during the round, but rather on meeting three thresholds.

Result bonus

Result	Normal gain	Key pair gain	Max gain
Cool (100 TP)	0	0	0
Bravo (150 TP)	random(25, 50)	random(35, 70)	50
Amazing (200 TP)	random(75, 150)	random(100, 200)	150

If Gray participated in the order, the increase is multiplied by 1.5x. In Future Redeemed, this effect is available on two different manuals. If this effect triggers multiple times in a round, the instances are calculated independently, meaning with two instances the total increase is 2.25x.

Finally, if the difficulty is set to Hard, the increase is halved. The increase is then added to the total damage multiplier, and a new round starts.

Additional gains

Some Heroes increase the damage ratio by a net amount when their order is completed. This occurs after the regular ratio gain described above. However, these gains are still affected by difficulty (i.e., they're halved in Hard difficulty).

Chain Attack gauge

A full Chain Attack gauge is worth 900 points. Once it is full, a Chain Attack can be started by pressing the Plus (+) button.

Several actions can fill or deplete the gauge. With the exception of Fiona's completion bonus, the gauge can't be filled during a Chain Attack. Additionally, all gains are multiplied by 0.75x on Hard Difficulty, and 1.5x on Easy Difficulty. As an interesting quirk, this makes Fiona's completion bonus restore 450 points (50% of the full gauge) on Easy Difficulty, thus making it possible to get 2 extra rounds if less than half the gauge is left.

Additionally, the gauge can also be filled by performing Role Actions (see Attacker, Defender, and Healer respectively for details).

Points gained/lost

Action	Points gained/lost		Points gained/lost (Future Redeemed)
Break	+15		+10
Topple	+30		+20
Daze / Launch	+60		+45
Burst / Smash	+100		+75
Cancel auto-attack into Art	+8		+6
Cancel Art into Art (includes Talent Art)	+4		+3
Completing Fiona's Chain Order	+300		+300
Selecting a non-Hero Chain Order	-300		-300
Silver Earrings	+X on critical hit	+3 (Common) +3.5 (Rare) +4 (Legendary)	+3 (Common) +3.5 (Rare) +4 (Legendary)
Crystal Earrings	+X on Art execution	+3 (Common) +4 (Rare) +5 (Legendary)	+3 (Common) +4 (Rare) +5 (Legendary)
Preppy-Preppy Link!	+X on Art execution	+3 (Yumsmith rank 1) +3.5 (Yumsmith rank 5) +4 (Yumsmith rank 10) +4.5 (Yumsmith rank 15) +5 (Yumsmith rank 20)	N/A
Chain Gauge Up (Art)	N/A		+3 on Art execution

Overkill

If the target enemy's HP is reduced to zero by a Chain Attack, Overkill begins. Continuing the Chain Attack on the enemy results in higher bonuses being obtained. Killing other enemies that aren't the Chain Attack's target simply kills them as normal.

Overkill can be disabled in the game options, and it is always disabled when the final enemy is killed in Challenge Mode, as well as for certain enemies where their quest advances when they reach low HP. Without Overkill, the Chain Attack will simply end when the target enemy dies (the Chain Art will still go off if the order is completed), and no bonuses are earned.

Bonus rate

The bonus rate counter that starts during Overkill is based on the following formula:

rate = 200 + log(1.02, x) + (x / 3)

where:

x = 1 + 100 * (Overkill Damage / Enemy Max HP)
log(b, x) = log(x) / log(b)

Therefore, the more HP an enemy has, the more damage is needed during Overkill to get substantial rate gains. The maximum bonus is 1000%.

Affected parameters

The Overkill bonus rate multiplies the following resources gained at the end of the battle:

• EXP for all party members below level 99.
• CP for all party members equipped with a class that hasn't reached the maximum Rank.
• Class Succession Points for all party members.
• Gold gained from enemies.
• Enemy drop rate: that is, the chance for enemies to drop each of their items. This bonus is a multiplier, therefore it only works if the drop chance is not zero: for example, it won't make defeated unique monsters drop Gold Coins again (with the exception of Superbosses, who can still drop them after being defeated).
• Enemy drop amount: most enemies have a range of how many collectible items and accessories they can drop, with the exact value determined randomly. Overkill and relevant food effects boost the lower bound (rounded down, and can't exceed the upper bound). In Future Redeemed however, there is no amount bonus for accessories, and the one for collectibles works differently. In Future Redeemed, Overkill and food bonuses grant a (Rate - 100%) chance to drop one more collectible, in addition to the previously mentioned random amount, potentially ignoring the upper bound.

Manuals

Battle Manuals, Strategy Manuals, and Tactics Manuals are specific types of accessories exclusive to Future Redeemed. Each character has a slot for equipping one manual, which does not need to be unlocked via an Accessory Unlock Kit or otherwise. Manuals override a character's default Chain Attack attributes:

• Battle Manuals give characters new Role effect equivalents ("Heroic Chains").
• Tactics Manuals give characters new Chain Orders ("Completion Bonuses").
• Strategy Manuals do both, granting a specific Completion Bonus and Heroic Chain.

There are twenty of each type of manual, each with a specific effect (or pair of effects). Each manual can be equipped on any party member.

Name	Heroic Chain	Completion Bonus
Battle Manual, vol. 1	Multiplies TP by 150% when first in line to attack.	None
Battle Manual, vol. 2	When chosen, multiplies TP from next character to act by 125%. (Valid only for this order.)	None
Battle Manual, vol. 3	Guarantees a "Bravo" rating when character completes an order.	None
Battle Manual, vol. 4	Multiplies TP by 200% when first in line to attack, but TP returns to pre-action state upon reactivation.	None
Battle Manual, vol. 5	When character completes an order, adds 15 to TP of the character with the most TP, and reactivates them.	None
Battle Manual, vol. 6	Reactivates all characters except self when character completes an order.	None
Battle Manual, vol. 7	Prevents order from completing if it reaches 100% through character's action, letting you select another.	None
Battle Manual, vol. 8	When chosen, increases TP by 50 if the enemy is a machine-type.	None
Battle Manual, vol. 9	Adds 15 TP upon own reactivation.	None
Battle Manual, vol. 10	When chosen, grants 10 TP to all active characters except self.	None
Battle Manual, vol. 11	Multiplies TP by 125% when first in line to attack, and makes all attacks critical.	None
Battle Manual, vol. 12	When chosen, increases damage ratio by 50 percentage points.	None
Battle Manual, vol. 13	Guarantees an "Amazing" rating when character finishes an order, but they won't reactivate in this Chain Attack.	None
Battle Manual, vol. 14	Either adds 50 or removes 50 TP upon own reactivation.	None
Battle Manual, vol. 15	When chosen, multiplies the TP of all active characters except self by 120%.	None
Battle Manual, vol. 16	Multiplies TP by 150% when character completes an order.	None
Battle Manual, vol. 17	When chosen, assures self- reactivation in addition to the standard no. of reactivations.	None
Battle Manual, vol. 18	Multiplies damage ratio increase by 1.5x upon completing an order that character participates in.	None
Battle Manual, vol. 19	When character completes an order, adds 30 to TP of the character with the least TP, and reactivates them.	None
Battle Manual, vol. 20	When chosen, adds 15 to TP of all active characters, and removes 10 from own TP.	None
Strategy Manual, vol. 1	Guarantees a "Bravo" rating when character completes an order.	Increases Defender aggro by 50% and grants Armor Veil to all allies.
Strategy Manual, vol. 2	Guarantees a "Bravo" rating when character completes an order.	Increases Defender aggro by 50% and grants Attack Up to all allies.
Strategy Manual, vol. 3	Guarantees an "Amazing" rating when character finishes an order, but they won't reactivate in this Chain Attack.	Randomly increases all characters' TP by between 6 and 18.
Strategy Manual, vol. 4	Multiplies TP by 150% when character completes an order.	Increases everyone's TP by 10.
Strategy Manual, vol. 5	Multiplies TP by 150% when first in line to attack.	During Chain Attack, boosts damage dealt to low HP enemies by 100%.
Strategy Manual, vol. 6	Prevents order from completing if it reaches 100% through character's action, letting you select another.	Increases damage ratio by 100 percentage points and grants Critical Rate Up to all allies.
Strategy Manual, vol. 7	When chosen, assures self- reactivation in addition to the standard no. of reactivations.	Increases damage ratio by 100 percentage points and grants Critical Rate Up to all allies.
Strategy Manual, vol. 8	When character completes an order, adds 15 to TP of the character with the most TP, and reactivates them.	Increases damage ratio by 100 percentage points and grants Attack Up to all allies.
Strategy Manual, vol. 9	Multiplies TP by 125% when first in line to attack, and makes all attacks critical.	Increases damage ratio by 100 percentage points and grants Power Charge to all allies.
Strategy Manual, vol. 10	Multiplies damage ratio increase by 1.5x upon completing an order that character participates in.	During Chain Attack, increases Critical Rate by 30 percentage points.
Strategy Manual, vol. 11	When chosen, grants 10 TP to all active characters except self.	During Chain Attack, heals 10% of damage dealt as HP, up to 200% of Healing Power.
Strategy Manual, vol. 12	When chosen, multiplies the TP of all active characters except self by 120%.	Reduces Attacker and Healer aggro by 100%.
Strategy Manual, vol. 13	When chosen, adds 15 to TP of all active characters, and removes 10 from own TP.	Attacks during Chain Attack gain 100% chance to be unblockable.
Strategy Manual, vol. 14	When chosen, increases damage ratio by 50 percentage points.	One additional character is reactivated, with 30% chance for 1 more.
Strategy Manual, vol. 15	When chosen, increases TP by 50 if the enemy is a machine-type.	Heals all allies for 50% HP and grants them Regenerate.
Strategy Manual, vol. 16	When character completes an order, adds 30 to TP of the character with the least TP, and reactivates them.	Reduces enemy ether defense by 50 percentage points during Chain Attack.
Strategy Manual, vol. 17	Either adds 50 or removes 50 TP upon own reactivation.	Reduces enemy physical defense by 75 percentage points during Chain Attack.
Strategy Manual, vol. 18	Adds 15 TP upon own reactivation.	Attacks during Chain Attack gain 100% chance to bypass defense.
Strategy Manual, vol. 19	When chosen, multiplies TP from next character to act by 125%. (Valid only for this order.)	Attacks during Chain Attack gain 100% chance to bypass defense.
Strategy Manual, vol. 20	Multiplies TP by 200% when first in line to attack, but TP returns to pre-action state upon reactivation.	100% chance to revive all downed party members, allowing them to participate in the Chain Attack.
Tactics Manual, vol. 1	None	Attacks during Chain Attack gain 100% chance to bypass defense.
Tactics Manual, vol. 2	None	Reduces Attacker and Healer aggro by 100%.
Tactics Manual, vol. 3	None	Reduces enemy physical defense by 75 percentage points during Chain Attack.
Tactics Manual, vol. 4	None	Reduces enemy ether defense by 50 percentage points during Chain Attack.
Tactics Manual, vol. 5	None	Attacks during Chain Attack gain 100% chance to be unblockable.
Tactics Manual, vol. 6	None	One additional character is reactivated, with 30% chance for 1 more.
Tactics Manual, vol. 7	None	100% chance to revive all downed party members, allowing them to participate in the Chain Attack.
Tactics Manual, vol. 8	None	Heals all allies for 50% HP and grants them Regenerate.
Tactics Manual, vol. 9	None	Increases Defender aggro by 50% and grants Attack Up to all allies.
Tactics Manual, vol. 10	None	Increases Defender aggro by 50% and grants Armor Veil to all allies.
Tactics Manual, vol. 11	None	During Chain Attack, heals 10% of damage dealt as HP, up to 200% of Healing Power.
Tactics Manual, vol. 12	None	During Chain Attack, increases Critical Rate by 30 percentage points.
Tactics Manual, vol. 13	None	During Chain Attack, boosts damage dealt to low HP enemies by 100%.
Tactics Manual, vol. 14	None	Charges Chain Attack gauge and grants Power Charge to all allies.
Tactics Manual, vol. 15	None	During Chain Attack, increases critical hit damage bonus by 150 percentage points.
Tactics Manual, vol. 16	None	Increases damage ratio by 100 percentage points and grants Critical Rate Up to all allies.
Tactics Manual, vol. 17	None	Increases damage ratio by 100 percentage points and grants Attack Up to all allies.
Tactics Manual, vol. 18	None	Increases damage ratio by 100 percentage points and grants Power Charge to all allies.
Tactics Manual, vol. 19	None	Increases everyone's TP by 10.
Tactics Manual, vol. 20	None	Randomly increases all characters' TP by between 6 and 18.

Strategy

In Xenoblade Chronicles 3

The initiation of the Chain Attack itself can be an important part of the strategy of using them, as timing is very important. Since Chain Attacks will prevent characters from dying by leaving them with at least 1 HP, they can function as a panic button to block a dangerous attack or recuperate if party members are close to incapacitation. Timing is also relevant if a player wishes to make use of Overkill, as setups with less damage may wish to wait until an enemy is at low HP to maximize the gains from it.

Completing Chain Orders

During a Chain Attack, the main concern within a round is reaching enough TP to continue the Chain Attack. This is where role effects come into play, as these will help to increase TP gain and decrease the random element of character reactivations. Reaching 200 TP will achieve an "Amazing!" rating, reactivating 3 characters and increasing the damage ratio by more than a "Cool!" or "Bravo!" would. As such, this is the most desirable outcome, and role effects will help reach this threshold.

The "First Blood" effect granted to Attackers will multiply their TP by 1.25x after they are used if they are the first character selected during an Order. This makes them ideal choices to start the round with, as this can easily snowball to very high numbers in later rounds. The "Back in Action" effect granted to Defenders will ensure that the character with the most TP is reactivated if they are the last character selected during an Order, priming them to finish a round to reactivate an Attacker with a high amount of TP. Healers, meanwhile, have the "Point Limit" effect, which caps the TP meter at 99 if their Art would have surpassed it. This makes them useful for reaching this limit, before using another character with high TP to fill the meter as much as possible afterwards.

It is worth mentioning that these effects do not apply to Heroes, so they should be used accordingly. Additionally, the fact that different characters start with different amount of TP, will make them better suited for some purposes rather than others. For example, Noah starting with 30 TP makes him a great fit for an Attacker, as he will get a lot out of the First Blood effect. Meanwhile, Lanz has strengths as a Defender, as the Back in Action effect is useful for reactivating high TP characters and Lanz starting with 15 TP means his TP will likely not eclipse another character's, guaranteeing they will be reactivated instead. This is just an example: it isn't universally the case that Defenders should always have low TP and Attackers should always have high TP, and there are many different possibilities that players should experiment with. There are many party setups that can work to great effect, and players will likely want to consider which party members have which roles, depending on their Chain Attack strategy.

TP gain will also fluctuate, having many factors that can influence the amount gained. The most significant of these are the Role Match and Force Match TP bonuses, which will grant 10 TP if the selected character shares a role with the Order's character, and 5 TP if they share the affiliation respectively. This will influence which Orders are best to choose first, as if a player wishes to build a character's TP as much as possible, they should select an Order that will align with that character for these bonuses (e.g. Noah or Sena's order for an Attacker).

To illustrate a scenario for gaining TP in the first round of a Chain Attack, let's go through an example with the six main characters in their default roles and Noah's Order has been chosen:

• Noah starts, getting the First Blood bonus and increasing his TP from 30 to around 60
• Taion follows, pushing the TP meter to, at most, 99
• Lanz finishes, ensuring Noah's reactivation

Here, Noah will start the next round with a lot of TP, allowing him to increase it even further with another First Blood bonus (where Mio could then reactivate him for the third round) or allowing him to finish the round and achieve a "Bravo!" rating, reactivating a second character. Generally, the former of these is more consistent, and will allow for "Bravo!" and "Amazing!" ratings in later rounds while using fewer characters. This means Chain Attacks will be longer, as the player is less likely to run out of characters to use.

Selecting Chain Orders

Since Chain Attacks always have a finite amount of rounds, there is a strategy for consistently getting the max number of rounds every time, mitigated only slightly by luck. The Chain Attack gauge is depleted by one-third whenever a non-Hero Order is selected, meaning the minimum number of rounds in a Chain Attack is 3. This can be extended in a couple ways. For one, Hero Orders don't reduce the Chain Attack gauge, meaning a player can always use a Hero Order for free. This extends the number of rounds to 4, so long as the Hero Order shows up within this time. Additionally, an Ouroboros Order will always end the Chain Attack after its completion, but they can also be selected even when the Chain Attack gauge is empty, meaning if a player chooses an Order that belongs to an Ouroboros pair of which the other member's Order has already been used in the fourth round, they will get a fifth and final round with the Ouroboros Order.

Again, let's go through an example of this:

• For the first round, the player chooses Taion's Order
• For the second round, the player chooses the Hero's Order
• For the third round, the player chooses Sena's Order
• For the fourth round, the player chooses Eunie's Order
• The player is granted a fifth round, that being one of Eunie and Taion's Ouroboros Orders

In this example, the player could have chosen either Eunie or Lanz on the fourth round to ensure an Ouroboros Order. Additionally, by not choosing Eunie's Order earlier, an Ouroboros Order does not appear until it is the only remaining option. Since an Ouroboros Order will always end the Chain Attack after it concludes, it is optimal to always chose them last, and this frees up the Order slots in earlier rounds, reducing the chance of the game presenting 3 Orders that would result in a fifth round being unattainable. For example, if the 3 options were Noah, the Ouroboros Order and Mio, the Chain Attack would end one round earlier. If this is kept in mind, it is almost always possible to get a Chain Attack with five rounds.

The randomness of Chain Orders in five-round Chain Attacks can be drastically reduced by having the least-useful non-Hero party member be incapacitated at the beginning of the chain (a strategy nicknamed "Early Chapter 5"). This reduces the pool of available orders, increasing the probability that the Hero's order will be available by the 3rd round and that the desired Interlink partner's order will be available in the 4th. Such a strategy obviously comes with its own risks: ensuring that exactly one specific character is incapacitated is not easy, and the smaller pool of characters may make it more difficult to reach 100 TP in each round if the party is not prepared accordingly.

The Orders used during Chain Attacks may vary depending on which bonus effects are desired. Party formations that mainly utilize ether damage will want to prioritize Eunie's Order, whilst physical-oriented damage dealers will prefer to give Taion's Order primacy. Generally speaking, these two effects increase damage the most out of the main six party members' Chain Orders; they also have the benefit that their Ouroboros Chain Arts are often the most powerful, primarily due to Shared Blessing. In absence of more specific tactics, aiming for a Eunie-and-Taion Ouroboros Order at the end of a Chain Attack is often a good strategy.

Hero selection

Heroes will also play an important role in the Chain Attack's effectiveness: the base TP they provide, plus their Chain Order and Heroic Chain effects, will have substantially different impacts. The most notable of these is probably Fiona, since her unique effect of refilling the Chain Attack gauge can allow for Chain Attacks that are 6 rounds long (or 7 on Easy difficulty), which is a very powerful effect. Another strong example is Ashera, whose Heroic Chain guarantees an "Amazing!" rating at the cost of her being unable to be reactivated, making her very good for getting the ball rolling in a Chain Attack; a player can use 3 other characters before her and ensure they are all reactivated, making consistent "Amazing!" ratings very achievable. Ghondor's Chain Order will be invaluable for Classes with high critical hit rates and Nia's is a nice safety net if a fight is going downhill. Meanwhile, Melia's Heroic Chain is a potent method for getting easy "Bravo!" and "Amazing!" ratings. There are a plethora of effects to consider.

Miscellaneous

There are also Level 3 Interlink Chain Attacks, initiated when a Chain Attack is started during player control of a Level 3 Ouroboros Interlink. These are generally less powerful than normal Chain Attacks, owing to them only being 2 rounds long. However, they may be preferred in less optimized environments, as they rely on the 2 Ouroboros Orders for damage and reactivate all characters, making them much simpler to use effectively. Moreover, they deal a decent fraction of the damage of an ordinary Chain Attack in a small fraction of the time; this may be beneficial in time-sensitive scenarios, or simply convenient if the resulting chain will defeat the enemy anyway.

Chain Attacks provide some passive bonuses that will help with maximizing damage. For one, all positional effects will land no matter what and, for two, all combo timers will be paused. This is beneficial for Art bonus effects, but also for the 1.25x damage multiplier to Launched enemies and the high amount of damage Smash can inflict, due to both the damage ratio a Chain Attack provides and the huge bonus to Smash damage relative to the remaining duration of the Launch - something that is much easier to take advantage of when the duration is frozen. Because of this, it may be preferable to wait until an enemy is inflicted with Break before initiating the Chain Attack, especially for enemies with high Break resist; the Break will carry over, and the player can go straight to inflicting further combo stages without having to Break during the Chain Attack.

Other aspects of general combat are important to consider. Arts that apply buffs in an AOE around the user will have universal range during a Chain Attack, meaning they can always be used to maximum effect, but field effects are still position based, making them harder to use if not planned for. The durations of these effects will also tick down when not selecting Arts, meaning they may need to be reapplied as necessary. Power Charge will be used by Chain Arts so this should also be taken into account if one would rather it be saved for a strong Fusion Art at the end of a Chain Attack instead.

The increase to the damage ratio between rounds is affected mostly by the rating achieved, but another factor is key pairs. Utilizing key pairs will allow a player to increase the damage ratio as much as possible.

As the Arts used in Chain Attacks are always Fusion Arts when possible, it is useful to organise the characters' Arts with this in mind. In particular, offense-focused characters may want to have their strongest Class Art fused to their strongest Master Art. When using Eunie and Taion's Ouroboros Order, fusing two Arts which provide buffs in an AOE immediately before the Order will grant 14 total buffs across a party of seven, drastically increasing the effect of Shared Blessing.

It is also worth noting that, on Hard difficulty, Chain Attacks are nerfed significantly. While still usable, they will be far less potent, due to the decreased damage ratio.

Overkill in Chain Attacks may be satisfying, but it also comes with the pernicious effect of overlevelling the party. While being at a higher level than the enemies may temporarily make fights easier, it will often balance itself out as enemies grant reduced EXP if the party is overlevelled. In the meantime, overlevelling leads to significantly reduced CP gains and greatly reduced Class Succession Point gains, which can be more harmful in the long run, and which is not in general balanced out by the Overkill bonus to CP and CSP. Unless the player is repeatedly finding themselves at a substantially lower level than the enemies they need to fight, turning off Overkill in the settings may be beneficial in the long run.

In Future Redeemed

The principles of Chain Attacks remain much the same in Future Redeemed but with some addendums. Firstly, the majority of the game will have the player only using six characters instead of seven, meaning options are slightly more limited, but Chain Order RNG is reduced. Additionally, there are no Hero Orders and Unity Orders replace Ouroboros Orders, meaning the maximum number of rounds possible is now 4, discounting the use of Tactics Manual, vol. 14 (which accordingly becomes one of if not the most powerful manuals). Since Heroic Chain and Chain Order effects are very customizable, there is a lot to consider when setting up characters for Chain Attacks.

Another consideration is that the six main party members start with lower TP when compared to the base game, so Chain Attacks can be harder to make full use of. As such, the Affinity Growth skills that increase TP may be of interest, and various Manual effects can also increase TP gain, which may prove useful early on. The Unity pairings chosen should also be considered, as this will determine which pairs of character Orders need to be used to ensure the fourth round.

Another unique feature is that the starting damage ratio of a Chain Attack will increase for every successful Unity Combo performed prior to its use, so performing as many of them as possible will be a benefit. Enemy positional weaknesses are also worth taking into account; unlike with positional bonus effects from Arts, these are dependent on character positioning, so, where possible, it may be desired to reposition before initiating a Chain Attack. This is especially important when using Matthew and Rex's Unity pairing, due to its large, party-wide damage bonus for fulfilling this condition.

Because the damage dealt by the Unity Combo final hit can easily be the majority of a Special's damage, and because a Unity Order necessarily comes at the end of a Chain Attack when the damage multiplier is at its highest, increasing Unity Combo damage is a major aspect of increasing Chain Attack damage in Future Redeemed. Whether the final Special is performed on a Launched enemy typically makes a very big difference; it is often desirable to wait for the enemy to be broken before initiating the Chain Attack, so one does not need to fight Break RNG while going through the initial rounds.

In other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
English	Chain Attack	—
Japanese	チェインアタック	Chain Attack
French	Enchaînement
German	Angriffskette	Attack chain
Spanish	Ataque en cadena
Italian	Assalto di gruppo
Chinese (simplified)	连锁攻击	Chain Attack
Chinese (traditional)	連鎖攻擊	Chain Attack
Korean	체인 어택	Chain Attack

Gallery

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  Chain Attack starting cutscene

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  Chain Attack starting cutscene

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  Chain Attack starting cutscene

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  Order selection

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  The Chain Attack UI

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  Example of TP gains

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  Example of TP gains

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  An order is completed

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  Splashscreen at the beginning of an order

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  A character is reactivated

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  An Attacker class's effect during a Chain Attack

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  A Healer class's effect during a Chain Attack

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  An Heroic Chain effect

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  Graphic effect hinting that an Ouroboros order will be available

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  An Ouroboros order is one of the choices in the middle of the Chain Attack

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  An Ouroboros order is the only choice at the end of a Chain Attack

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  An Ouroboros order is selected

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  The Ouroboros order reactivates everyone, with the exception of special effects like Ashera's

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  Splashscreen at the beginning of an Ouroboros order

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  Overkill starts

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  Chain Attack result screen

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  Starting a Chain Attack as a level 3 Interlink makes the player go through both Ouroboros orders back to back

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  Starting a Chain Attack as a level 3 Interlink makes the player go through both Ouroboros orders back to back

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  Result of such a Chain Attack

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  Slot for Battle Manuals

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  Can Bob lock Chain Attacks? Yes, he can!