Overdrive (XC2)

Overdrive
Blade	Elma
Level I effect	With Elma in battle, press R and - to engage. Uses P.Gauge, lasts 50 secs.
Level II effect	With Elma in battle, press R and - to engage. Uses P.Gauge, lasts 60 secs.
Level III effect	With Elma in battle, press R and - to engage. Uses P.Gauge, lasts 70 secs.
Level IV effect	With Elma in battle, press R and - to engage. Uses P.Gauge, lasts 80 secs.
Level V effect	With Elma in battle, press R and - to engage. Uses P.Gauge, lasts 90 secs.

This article is about the Battle Skill in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. For the mechanic in Xenoblade Chronicles X, see Overdrive.

Additionally, see Overdrive Protocol for the effects of "Use Overdrive" in the "Manage Blades" menu.

Overdrive is one of Elma's Battle Skills in Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

Mechanics

Activation and reactivation

Overdrive can be activated when Elma is one of the active party's Blades by pressing R and -. This requires the Party Gauge to be full, and consumes it. If Elma is a Blade of the player-controlled Driver, she must be the active Blade to initiate Overdrive. If she is equipped to a non-player-controlled Driver, they will switch to her as soon as possible to initiate Overdrive.

Elma can be switched off of while Overdrive is active. It is possible to reactivate Overdrive using the same command while it is still active, again consuming a full Party Gauge; this adds approximately 45 seconds to its duration when the Battle Skill is at maximum level. Unlike with its initial activation, Elma need not be active to continue Overdrive.

This page or section is incomplete. In other words, yes we know it's unfinished; we just didn't want to leave it blank in the meantime. You can help complete it. The editor who added this tag elaborates: Is the duration granted upon reactivation constant, or does it scale with the Skill level?

Beneficial effects

Overdrive's beneficial effects are determined by its "count": a counter that increases as Overdrive continues. The count starts at 0; it increases by 1 for each hit of any Driver Art on any enemy, and by 5 for each hit of any Special on any enemy. This counts attacks which hit multiple targets; for example, if Violent Streak is used when there are two enemies in the fight (and all hits land on both enemies), the count will increase by 160 (5 per hit, times 16 hits, times 2 enemies due to Violent Streak hitting both enemies). It also counts "hitframes" that do not deal damage; for example, Photon Edge's teleportation frames also increase the count, so this attack increases count by 65 per enemy (5 count times 13 "hits") despite only actually dealing damage 6 times. The count can increase to a maximum of 999.

Overdrive provides the following effects:

• All party members receive an additive damage bonus, equal to (25 + 0.475 * count)%: +25% at zero count, +500% at max. (The damage is displayed as a multiplier, starting at "x125%", but it is not multiplicative; the displayed multiplier may be incorrect if other additive sources of damage exist. It should be read as an additive contribution to damage of the displayed value minus 100%.)
• The recharge rate for all party members is multiplied by (150 + 0.15 * count)% (150% at zero count, 300% at max).
• The infliction rate of party member reactions on enemies is increased by a flat (20 + 0.05 * count)% (20% at zero count, 70% at max).

Other effects

During Overdrive, Chain Attacks cannot be initiated. Overdrive cannot be initiated during the animation for a Driver Art or Special.

Visually, Overdrive is represented by a gear symbol below the centre of the screen, displaying the count (or "MAX" if it is at 999). The music track Wir fliegen plays for the duration (the loop is the same as that which plays in-game in Xenoblade Chronicles X, omitting the "Wir schlagen den Himmel wie ein Mattglas ein" section.)

When Overdrive finishes (due to it expiring or combat concluding), the total damage dealt by the player-controlled Driver and by the party are displayed. This is bugged to not always display the correct amount of damage; it is suspected that it does not take into account damage over time when applied by AI-controlled party members.

Strategy

Overdrive is to be considered an alternative to Chain Attacks, as the two are mutually exclusive and both provide means of dealing great damage. Its main use case is in Bringer of Chaos and harder custom difficulties, due to the Chain Attack bug making Chain Attacks very weak in these situations.

Overdrive is extremely strong in conjunction with Driver Combo locking strategies: the resistance reduction makes it much easier to consistently inflict Break, the repeated Driver Combos quickly fill up the Party Gauge for Overdrive reactivation, and the increased damage and recharge rate makes the damage-per-second of repeatedly using Driver Arts very high. With good setup and execution, it is even possible to outstrip the damage offered by a damage-over-time Blade Combo which damage caps every tick. This is the most effective way to speedkill high-HP opponents in Bringer of Chaos, especially in Challenge Battle Mode.

As the bonuses scale with Overdrive count, it is recommended to use fast Specials with high hit counts early on to raise the count as quickly as possible, even if the Specials do not continue a Blade Combo. If multiple enemies are in the fight, using Specials with an area of effect is extremely effective, as the count increases for each hit on each enemy. Violent Streak is an excellent option, possessing the maximum hit count of 16 and an area of effect (and it will necessarily be available if Overdrive is being used). When the hit count is high, using Driver Arts quickly may result in faster damage due to animation speed and damage cap limitations. Using Arts quickly can be done with crit recharging effects such as Lightspeed Flurry, but the cooldown reduction enables other Arts to be used for this too. For example, once the count reaches around 170, it is possible to cancel a max-level Pulverizing Dunk into itself when using sufficient Arts recharge effects from Pouch Items (mainly Desserts).

It is much more desirable to reactivate Overdrive while it is still active than to wait for it to expire, because only the former prevents the count from resetting.

Due to the requirement of using the Party Gauge, it is recommended to use Party Gauge-increasing Pouch Items (chiefly Drinks) when using Overdrive, especially on harder difficulty settings. As Overdrive gives a high additive damage bonus, other sources of additive damage increase are often proportionally weaker than independent damage increases when using Overdrive, such as bonuses to critical hit damage.

Affinity Chart

Level	Requirements	Reward text
I	(unlocked)	—
II	Complete the Challenge Battle "Grazing Flock". (x1)	I don't care if you call it natural selection, I still feel bad about killing gentle herbivore indigens...
III	Complete the Challenge Battle "Darkening Skies". (x1)	When you're fighting flying indigens, that's when guns really shine... But you really like your melee weapons, huh.
IV	Complete the Challenge Battle "Dread Contagion". (x1)	Phew, if those things attacked NLA... I'll have to revamp our defenses the next time I'm back.
V	Complete the Challenge Battle "Humanoid Alliance". (x1)	If I had my Skell, that would've been no contest... But as things stand, at least it made for a nice workout.

In other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
English	Overdrive	—
Japanese	オーバークロックギア	Overclock Gear
French	Métamode
German	Übertakten
Spanish	Turbo
Italian	Turbo
Chinese (simplified)	超频齿轮
Chinese (traditional)	超頻齒輪
Korean	오버 클록 기어

Gallery

Tutorials

• 

  Overdrive Tutorial, part 1

• 

  Overdrive Tutorial, part 2

• 

  Overdrive Tutorial, part 3

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  Overdrive Tutorial, part 4

• 

  Overdrive Tutorial, part 5

Screenshots

• 

  Engaging Overdrive

• 

  Overdrive during combat

• 

  The result screen