Time Attack (XC1)

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

The list of available Challenges.

Time Attack is a mode in Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition. Much like the Challenge Battle Mode in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, it consists of a set of unique battles that can be fought in order to obtain special rewards.

Time Attack is accessed via portals in the world, the first of which is pointed out to the player as they continue on from Kneecap Hill at the end of Tephra Cave. As the story progresses, more challenges become available. There are ten challenges in total, one of which requires Future Connected to be completed.

Overview

Each challenge has two variants: Free, where the player uses whichever party they currently have, and Restricted, where the player is given a party to use. Free challenges have a recommended minimum level. Restricted challenges set and lock almost everything: party levels, party order (including who the player must control), equipment, gems, equipped arts (only their placement on the palette can be altered), art levels, enabled skills, active skill branch, and affinity level.

During challenge battles, no EXP, AP, SP, or Affinity is gained, and achievements cannot be earned or progressed towards. Time progresses like normal. The effects of Casual Mode are disabled.

The timer keeps running even when the battlefield is frozen during chain attacks and visions. As a result, it is important to execute chain attacks quickly, and try and avoid situations where visions are more likely to occur.

Rank

Once a challenge is completed, the player is ranked in several categories, and given a number of points based on the rank. The threshold of each rank is specific to each challenge.

Category	Description	Score (C)	Score (B)	Score (A)	Score (S)
Time	How long it took to clear the challenge, measured in seconds.	10	100	300	600
Heals	How much HP was healed in total.	0	10	20	40
Chain Attacks	How many chain attacks were used.	0	20	40	80
Chain Attack Arts	How many arts were used within chain attacks.	0	30	50	100
Vision Tags Smashed	How many times any vision tag was broken.	0	30	50	100
Buffs/Debuffs	How many buffs and debuffs were applied.	0	10	20	40
Chance Arts	How many art bonus effects were triggered.	0	10	20	40
Topples Inflicted	How many times a topple art was successful.	0	30	50	100

When all the categories are added together, the final rank is based on the total points. It can be seen that time is the most important category - while a bad time can be compensated by a high score in all other categories, the total rank cannot be worse than the time rank. As a result, any strategy based on whittling down the enemy slowly and building up score in the lesser categories will be less rewarding than one that aims to kill the enemy quickly. This also means that being greatly overlevelled in a Free challenge is likely an easy S rank.

Rank	Score
C	0-99
B	100-299
A	300-599
S	600+

The rank determines the amount of Noponstone rewarded for completion. Some equipment pieces are also awarded for the first time the player reaches a certain rank. In addition, there is a small random chance of getting additional Noponstone: a 1% chance of having the S-rank amount added on, and (if that didn't happen) a 10% chance of having the A-rank amount added on.

List of challenges

Check the individual challenge articles for more detailed information, such as party formations, item rewards and additional rank thresholds.

Name	Waves	Map	Difficulty	Rec. level	Unlocked at	Target time			Type	Noponstone				Target rank for items
						S rank	A rank	B rank		S rank	A rank	B rank	C rank
Humble Beginnings	3	Colony 9		20	After Shulk and Reyn continue from Kneecap Hill	3m10s	3m30s	4m00s	Free	800	400	200	100	S
									Rest.	2,400	1,200	600	300	A
Fair Game	3	Bionis' Leg		25	After Shulk, Reyn, and Sharla first set out to rescue Juju	3m10s	3m30s	4m00s	Free	1,600	800	400	200	S
									Rest.	4,000	2,000	1,000	500	A
The Walls Have Eyes	3	Ether Mine		30	After Dickson directs the party to Satorl Marsh	3m50s	4m20s	5m00s	Free	2,400	1,200	600	300	S
									Rest.	5,600	2,800	1,400	700	A
Shaggy-dog Story	2	Makna Forest		35	After Riki first leave Frontier Village with sidekicks	4m00s	4m25s	4m50s	Free	3,200	1,600	800	400	S
									Rest.	7,200	3,600	1,800	900	A
Oh, Brother!	3	Eryth Sea		45	After the party goes to stop Sorean from going to Prison Island	3m40s	4m10s	5m00s	Free	4,000	2,000	1,000	500	S
									Rest.	8,800	4,400	2,200	1,100	A
Third Wheel	3	Fallen Arm		55	After Shulk and Fiora start looking for the others on the Fallen Arm	4m30s	5m00s	5m40s	Free	4,800	2,400	1,200	600	S
									Rest.	10,400	5,200	2,600	1,300	A
Sparks Fly, You Die	2	Mechonis Field		65	After the party enters Central Factory and Vanea points where to go	4m20s	4m45s	5m20s	Free	5,600	2,800	1,400	700	S
									Rest.	12,000	6,000	3,000	1,500	A
Lost in a Dark Dream	1	Bionis' Shoulder		80	After beating Future Connected	4m30s	5m00s	5m40s	Free	6,400	3,200	1,600	800	A
									Rest.	13,600	6,800	3,400	1,700	B
He of the Metal Face	2	Sword Valley		90	After Junks docks in the Bionis' Interior	5m00s	5m30s	6m00s	Free	7,200	3,600	1,800	900	A
									Rest.	15,200	7,600	3,800	1,900	B
Uniquely Disadvantaged	3	Prison Island II		99	After the party meets Dickson at the Arena on Prison Island	6m00s	6m40s	8m00s	Free	8,000	4,000	2,000	1,000	A
									Rest.	16,800	8,400	4,200	2,100	B

In other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
English	Time Attack	—
Japanese	タイムアタック	Time Attack
French	Contre-la-montre	Against-the-Watch
German	Tempo-Herausforderung	Speed challenge
Spanish	Contrarreloj
Italian	Contro il tempo
Chinese (simplified)	计时挑战
Chinese (traditional)	計時挑戰
Korean	타임 어택	Time Attack

See also

• Nopon Archsage (XC1DE) for items that Noponstone can be spent for
• Land of Challenge (XC1DE) for a list of portal locations

Gallery

• 

  The Time Attack menu

• 

  The restricted Challenge menu

• 

  A Challenge starts

• 

  Wave 2 starts

• 

  The Challenge is cleared

• 

  Summary of the cleared Challenge