History GameBreaker / XenobladeChronicles2

* Ursula is flat out the best healer Blade: one of her Battle Skills, "Beary Healing" at level 5, restores the party's {{Hit Point}}s by 40% upon ''being switched into combat'', making this exceptionally efficient whenever her Driver or the rest of the party is low on health, easily recuperating over 3,000 {{Hit Point}}s. Even her Blade Specials are useful, such as Level 2 "Beary Helpful", an AreaOfEffect attack that, upon landing a hit, restores 50% of damage dealt to the party. Just about the only downside is the last tier of her Affinity Chart's unlock requirements, which is to take many, ''many'' music lessons via Merc Missions, [[ThatOneSidequest considered one of the worst for of all Blades in the game]].

* Elma, the third {{Crossover}} Blade via Challenge Mode, is similar to Fiora, but with a lower CriticalHit damage-per-second ratio: at level 5 on her Affinity Chart, her Battle Skill "Crisis Catalyst" increases damage dealt by 150% and CriticalHit rate by 40% upon hitting max affinity during combat. Coupled with her level 5 Blade Special "Sliding Slinger", which increases damage dealt to higher-level enemies by 100%, Elma won't have trouble against {{Elite Mook}}s and Superbosses. What's different about her compared to any other Blade in the game is she brings the "Overdrive" mechanic from ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'', a SuperMode where additional bonuses (damage dealt, damage resistance, {{Cooldown}} effectiveness, reducing enemy resistances) are granted to the entire party the more they attack enemies throughout its duration upon activation at a full Party Gauge. While it lasts 50 seconds by default, reaching level 5 of Elma's same-named Battle Skill increases it to 90 seconds, more than enough time to defeat Superbosses. Furthermore, Overdrive can be activated even when Elma isn't the active Blade in the party. Just about the only downside to Overdrive's potency is using it negates Chain Attack.

* Corvin is the best offensive tank in the game, having incredibly high damage-per-second for a tanking Blade, and possesses incredibly strong Blade Specials much higher than anyone else except for his Level 4. One of his Battle Skills, "Ensis Lucis" at Level 5 has the ability to give a 150% increase of damage at max affinity, and makes you have an evade rate of 25%. His other Battle Skills are very strong such as "Alae Custodiae" which increases the Party Gauge by 16 every time you deliver a Critical Hit, and he has a max CriticalHit rate of 60% with a Moon Matter Chip, which is higher than Mythra. This means it is easier to revive someone, or make getting the Chain Attack very quickly. His last one is very situational, but can make high Level Mob fights a complete joke with Zeke, as his "Ictus" battle skill boosts the recharge for Driver Arts by 2.5 whenever you evade an attack. On the art "Galactic Strike" for Zeke it has Evasion, AOE and Smash on it, and in Mob Fights with Pouch Item recharge you can spam the art endlessly, making it alongside Screw Edge the easiest art to recharge in the game and makes you unable to be hit while using it. This art by itself makes Mob Fights a complete joke, and puts him into TierInducedScrappy for being too good by default. Oddly, Corvin's weapon provides Smash for ''all'' drivers, which provides Zeke with a faster means of Smash, or a means of Smash ''at all'' for Nia, making him all the more versatile.

* Even though Fiora is a healing Blade, she focuses on CriticalHit damage-per-second, making her far more viable than Mythra, despite the latter having Lightspeed Flurry. With a 15% Strength mod by default, while giving her the "Tachyon Chip" as her Core Chip and "Critical Up VI" as an Aux Core, Fiora can earn a 50% CriticalHit rate (which reaches a whopping ''90%'' when her Affinity Chart is filled out) with a 25% increased CriticalHit damage, with Driver Arts for each party member (sans Tora) that recharges Arts every time a CriticalHit occurs. Her Battle Skills "Warrior Valkyrie" and "Explosion of Energy" respectively increases the party's CriticalHit rate by 40% at max Affinity during combat and damage dealt by 15% each time a CriticalHit lands (upwards to ''300%''), the latter of which means her damage output keeps going higher the longer she stays in combat. In Challenge Mode's Horde Battles, Explosion of Energy comes in handy as Fiora's Blade Specials are heavy on AreaOfEffect and restore {{Hit Point}}s, too. Combined all this with the Crit Heal strategy, her Driver can outlast Challenge Mode for a long time; even if a OneHitKO is present, it's incredibly hard to knock her Driver out since they'll simply regenerate from all the {{Critical Hit}}s they're dealing from Fiora's Battle Skills.

* Corvin is the best offensive tank in the game, having incredibly high damage-per-second for a tanking Blade, and possesses incredibly strong Blade Specials much higher than anyone else except for his Level 4. One of his Battle Skills, "Ensis Lucis" at Level 5 has the ability to give a 150% increase of damage at max affinity, and makes you have an evade rate of 25%. His other Battle Skills are very strong such as "Alae Custodiae" which increases the Party Gauge by 16 every time you deliver a Critical Hit, and he has a max CriticalHit rate of 60% with a Moon Matter Chip, which is higher than Mythra. This means it is easier to revive someone, or make getting the Chain Attack very quickly. His last one is very situational, but can make high Level Mob fights a complete joke with Zeke, as his "Ictus" battle skill boosts the recharge for Driver Arts by 2.5 whenever you evade an attack. On the art "Galactic Strike" for Zeke it has Evasion, AOE and Smash on it, and in Mob Fights with Pouch Item recharge you can spam the art endlessly, making it alongside Screw Edge the easiest art to recharge in the game and makes you unable to be hit while using it. This art by itself makes Mob Fights a complete joke, and puts him into TierInducedScrappy for being too good by default.

With more than 40+ Blades available in the game, many range from either [[TierInducedScrappy being incredibly strong or performing poorly]]. These are the best in the DamagerHealerTank categories.

* The best Greataxe Blade is undoubtedly Zenobia: while not quite as effective as Mythra when it comes to CriticalHit rate due to not possessing Lightspeed Flurry, she also has Recharge Boost and Critical Up as Blade Arts. However, Zenobia can deal more damage than Mythra to make up for her lower CriticalHit ratio because of her Battle Skills "Carnage", "The Indomitable" and "Greatest Warrior", which rely on increasing damage dealt upon fighting bosses/Unique Monsters/Superbosses, higher-level enemies and more than one enemy during combat, respectively. Her Affinity Chart is also easy to complete, since it requires simply hunting down Unique Monsters and completing [[{{Sidequest}} Merc Missions]] based on her; completing it means Zenobia further offsets the damage difference between Mythra by a wide margin. Furthermore, if Rex is her Driver, he'll gain the Driver Art "Power Swipe" with Launch properties, perfect for Driver Combos, and Zenobia's Level 2 Blade Special "Adamantine Axe" deals more damage to Toppled enemies by 100%, which can be increased to 150% at level 5 on her Affinity Chart. While most Greataxe Blades are really good, Zenobia stands out as the best due to her insane attack power and passive abilities that takes advantage by fighting the toughest enemies in the game. Even with the PowerCreep of the DownloadableContent Blades, Zenobia is easily a top 15, if not, top 10 Blade. Her main weakness is that her Level 1 and Level 2 Blade Specials aren't effective for Chain Attacks when the aim of the latter is to maximize damage by hitting the opponent as many times as possible.
* Poppi QTπ has the highest attack power out of all Blades in the game, made possible by maxing out her Poppiswap slots, acquiring Master Mods and reaching S+ ranked Trust with Tora, something neither Zenobia or any other Blade has; made further possible since she has six Aux Core slots spread out through Poppi's three forms, and QTπ's Battle Skill "Overclock" (a weaker version of KOS-MOS' "Hyperclock") increases damage dealt by 100% when Affinity is at maximum during combat at level 5 on her Affinity Chart. As the most heavily customizable Blade, Poppi can be of any element, including light, and gives Tora the only party member in the game access to the entire Break-Topple-Launch-Smash Driver Combo sequence via Poppi's forms, while possessing the Driver Art "Speedy Sword" from QTπ, which has the best Break properties of all Driver Arts in the game since it hits three times, ensuring Break is dealt each time. Furthermore, Poppi QTπ's other level 5 Battle Skills of "Nanomachine Repair", where 1.4% of total {{Hit Point}}s are restored per second if HP is 30% or less, and "Reflection", which adds a 15% chance to reflect enemy attacks, means Tora can easily get out of sticky situations by himself without help. The only difficulty with QTπ is her [[ThatOneSidequest level 5 Affinity Chart requirements are extremely hard to complete]], which includes dealing 9,999,999 damage in a Chain Attack and finishing enemies with a Driver Combo 250 times. However, put in the effort and Poppi QTπ can also solo Superbosses, some of whom can be beaten in less than ''three minutes''. It's little wonder she's considered the best damage dealing-Blade in the game, since "Eye of Shining Justice"-Pandoria needs support due to her low CriticalHit rate and only lasts 90 seconds.

Due to the result of PowerCreep, the DLC Blades get their own section.

* Corvin is the best offensive tank in the game, having incredibly high DPS for a tank Blade, and possesses incredibly strong Blade Specials much higher than anyone else except for his Level 4. One of his Battle Skills, "Ensis Lucis" at Level 5 has the ability to give a 150% increase of damage at max affinity, and makes you have an evade rate of 25%. His other Battle Skills are very strong such as "Alae Custodiae" which increases the Party Gauge by 16 every time you deliver a Critical Hit, and he has a max CriticalHit rate of 60% with a Moon Matter Chip, which is higher than Mythra. This means it is easier to revive someone, or make getting the Chain Attack very quickly. His last one is very situational, but can make high Level Mob fights a complete joke with Zeke, as his "Ictus" battle skill boosts the recharge for Driver Arts by 2.5 whenever you evade an attack. On the art "Galactic Strike" for Zeke it has Evasion, AOE and Smash on it, and in Mob Fights with Pouch Item recharge you can spam the art endlessly, making it alongside Screw Edge the easiest art to recharge in the game and makes you unable to be hit while using it. This art by itself makes Mob Fights a complete joke, and puts him into TierInducedScrappy for being too good by default.

* In NewGamePlus bards appear in every city and offer to trade valuable items in exchange for for stocked experience, including Master Mods and Ether Crystals for Poppi, which makes the normally onerous task of maxing her out via "Tiger, Tiger" child's play, in addition to things like Legendary Core Crystals, Accessory Expander Kits and Overdrive Protocols (used for switching Blades between Drivers).
* NG+ also unlocks a feature at inns where you can reduce a character's level, all the way down to 1, restocking all the accumulated experience. Since experience is scaled based on character level compared to enemy level, this makes it incredibly easy to generate enough experience to pay off the bards and have enough left over to put your characters back to level 99.

* By combining Driver Combos like Topple with Blade Combos, both can be stacked to create Fusion Combos, which increases the damage of everything dealt, including any damage-over-time mechanic. As an example, by using Nim to achieve a Blade Combo that leads to "Volcano" via a fire element-based Poppi QT, it's possible to hit for 300,000 damage over time, increasing every time Tora uses Smash from Poppi QT's Driver Art "Dented Shield"; hitting the damage cap for every second in an attack isn't out of the question. Mastering Fusion Combos and their affects means killing Superbosses and Challenge Mode enemies on "[[HarderThanHard Bringer of Chaos]]" difficulty in less than four minutes are viable, particularly the latter, given that Chain Attacks and earning the Party Gauge on Challenge Mode has been {{Nerf}}ed with the mode's release.

!Blades

With more than 40+ Blades available in the game (including ones via DownloadableContent), many range from either [[TierInducedScrappy being incredibly strong or performing poorly]]. These are the best in the DamagerHealerTank categories.

* Not only does T-elos have the same damage multiplier and weapon type as Zenobia, she possesses incredibly powerful Battle Skills that also rely on increasing damage. Like KOS-MOS, she too has Phase Transition Tech, meaning she can hit the damage cap in combat very quickly, and Critical Up and "Arts Plus" (boost the power of the next Driver Art) for Blade Arts, but its her exclusive Battle Skills "Heaven's Tracker" and "Heartbreaker" that take the cake: at level 5 on her Affinity Chart, the former increases damage her Driver deals by ''200%'' each time a party member falls in combat (upwards to '''500%'''), while the latter increases damage dealt for every enemy defeated by 100% (upwards to 300%). With the Crit Heal strategy in use, it's easy for T-elos' Driver to regenerate from damage dealt by enemies other than a OneHitKO, and unlike KOS-MOS, she's one of the easiest Blades to get in the game by simply finishing the story and continue play via PostEndGameContent, without the need to enter NewGamePlus.
* While he's only (initially) available in the game's [[DownloadableContent Challenge Mode]], Shulk turns out to be one of the best Blades following Poppi QTπ, Eye of Shining Justice-Pandoria and Fiora, possessing the highest auto-attack value at ''1974'' with S+ ranked Trust, more damage than what normal Pandoria can do. His Battle Skills, at level 5 on his Affinity Chart, include "Monado Speed", a slightly weaker version of Foresight, yet affects the entire party during combat, and "Monado Enchant", which increases damage dealt by the party by 40%; furthermore, he's also of the light element like Mythra and KOS-MOS (and Poppi QTπ upon customized by players). However, it's his "Vision" Battle Skill that makes him broken: if an on-coming enemy attack, one that's likely to be a OneHitKO occurs, the attack will be ''negated'' against the party so long as players successfully complete a button challenge (alongside a 60-second {{Cooldown}}); it even works against defensive enemy Arts that can cause "Shackle Blade" or "Doom". Meanwhile, Shulk's Level 1 Blade Special "Monado Purge" at level 5 on his Affinity Chart has a 100% chance of getting rid of the "[[SuperMode Awakening]]" status in Challenge Mode, turning fights into a cakewalk, while Level 2 Blade Special "Monado Cyclone" increases CriticalHit damage by 85%; since the latter Blade Special is an AreaOfEffect that hits a lot of times, it ensures maximum damage is inflicted as much as possible. While Shulk isn't as good at dealing {{Critical Hit}}s like Mythra, Zenobia or Fiora, nor does he recharge Driver Arts as quickly, his damage passives are so high and the effects of Vision are so powerful, his pros outweigh his cons, making him another character who can solo Superbosses.

* Corvin is the best offensive tank in the game, having incredibly high DPS for a tank Blade, and possesses incredibly strong Blade Specials much higher than anyone else except for his Level 4. One of his Battle Skills, "Ensis Lucis" at Level 5 has the ability to give a 150% increase of damage at max affinity, and makes you have an evade rate of 25%. His other Battle Skills are very strong such as "Alae Custodiae" which increases the Party Gauge by 16 every time you deliver a Critical Hit, and he has a max CriticalHit rate of 60% with a Moon Matter Chip, which is higher than Mythra. This means it is easier to revive someone, or make getting the Chain Attack very quickly. His last one is very situational, but can make high Level Mob fights a complete joke with Zeke, as his "Ictus" battle skill boosts the recharge for Driver Arts by 2.5 whenever you evade an attack. On the art "Galactic Strike" for Zeke it has Evasion, AOE and Smash on it, and in Mob Fights with Pouch Item recharge you can spam the art endlessly, making it alongside Screw Edge the easiest art to recharge in the game and makes you unable to be hit while using it. This art by itself makes Mob Fights a complete joke, and puts him into TierInducedScrappy for being too good by default.

* Even though Fiora is a healing Blade, she focuses on CriticalHit damage-per-second, making her far more viable than Mythra, despite the latter having Lightspeed Flurry. With a 15% Strength mod by default, while giving her the "Tachyon Chip" as her Core Chip and "Critical Up VI" as an Aux Core, Fiora can earn a 50% CriticalHit rate (which reaches a whopping ''90%'' when her Affinity Chart is filled out) with a 25% increased CriticalHit damage, with Driver Arts for each party member (sans Tora) that recharges Arts every time a CriticalHit occurs. Her Battle Skills "Warrior Valkyrie" and "Explosion of Energy" respectively increases the party's CriticalHit rate by 40% at max Affinity during combat and damage dealt by 15% each time a CriticalHit lands (upwards to ''300%''), the latter of which means her damage output keeps going higher the longer she stays in combat. In Challenge Mode's Horde Battles, Explosion of Energy comes in handy as Fiora's Blade Specials are heavy on AreaOfEffect and restore {{Hit Point}}s, too. Combined all this with the Crit Heal strategy, her Driver can outlast Challenge Mode for a long time; even if a OneHitKO is present, it's incredibly hard to knock her Driver out since they'll simply regenerate from all the {{Critical Hit}}s they're dealing from Fiora's Battle Skills.

* Elma, the third {{Crossover}} Blade via Challenge Mode, is similar to Fiora, but with a lower CriticalHit damage-per-second ratio: at level 5 on her Affinity Chart, her Battle Skill "Crisis Catalyst" increases damage dealt by 150% and CriticalHit rate by 40% upon hitting max affinity during combat. Coupled with her level 5 Blade Special "Sliding Slinger", which increases damage dealt to higher-level enemies by 100%, Elma won't have trouble against {{Elite Mook}}s and Superbosses. What's different about her compared to any other Blade in the game is she brings the "Overdrive" mechanic from ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'', a SuperMode where additional bonuses (damage dealt, damage resistance, {{Cooldown}} effectiveness, reducing enemy resistances) are granted to the entire party the more they attack enemies throughout its duration upon activation at a full Party Gauge. While it lasts 50 seconds by default, reaching level 5 of Elma's same-named Battle Skill increases it to 90 seconds, more than enough time to defeat Superbosses. Furthermore, Overdrive can be activated even when Elma isn't the active Blade in the party. Just about the only downside to Overdrive's potency is using it negates Chain Attack.

* The "Avant-Garde Medal" has created an infamous strategy known as "Crit Heal": this accessory absorbs 20% of CriticalHit damage as {{Hit Point}}s; by giving it to Drivers who are using the CriticalHit-based Blades noted on this page, Drivers can soak up a ton of damage, only to instantly regenerate it in an instant. Not only is it better to use Crit Heal for Drivers who are dedicated fighters, the need to have healing Blades becomes unnecessary.

* There's no denying Zenobia is the best Greataxe Blade in the game, but fellow Greataxe Blade Dagas comes the closest for a different reason: at level 5 on his Affinity Chart, "Kaiser Zone" increases damage dealt and AreaOfEffect attacks by 120% at max Affinity for the entire party, a perfect combination alongside high damage-dealers such as Fiora, Poppi QTπ, KOS-MOS and Zenobia. This makes Dagas the best offensive support Blade in the game with the single most useful Battle Skill; only [[spoiler:Pneuma]] and Shulk has him beat due to their respective Battle Skill sets. Dagas is no slouch either, having the same Greataxe Driver Arts T-elos and Zenobia have, with three Aux Core slots to further increase his own damage potential, next to his Arts Plus and Critical Up Blade Arts. To put Kaiser Zone into perspective, players must reach 200% with Elma's Overdrive to even match its damage capabilities, no easy feat to do within the latter's 90 second-duration. Dagas' downside is he's the only Blade in the game who has two Affinity Charts - Kaiser Zone's 120% effectiveness requires players unlock the second Chart after completing his personal {{Sidequest}}.

* Upon unlocking [[spoiler:Pnuema]], the game explicitly details how utterly broken this Blade is: sure, it's only available upon reaching a full Party Gauge, can only be used once per battle and has a duration, this Blade can activate any element on the Blade Combo chain and shatter all elemental orbs during a Chain Attack. Inevitably, this Blade will deal more damage than Mythra can, particularly upon achieving a "Full Burst"; even without triggering a Chain Attack leading to a Full Burst, this Blade has all of Mythra's Battle Skills, including Foresight. Also worth noting is throughout this Blade's activation, [[spoiler:Rex cannot be knocked out no matter what]], perfectly viable against a OneHitKO from the FinalBoss and certain Superbosses. This is before mentioning this Blade's effects on the party, which includes raising CriticalHit rate to 100%, decreasing enemy Break resistance by 50% (the same function as a legendary-tier "Master Scope" accessory), a 50% increase to accuracy and evasion and doubling the chances of enemies dropping items.

* Upon unlocking [[spoiler:Pnuema]], the game explicitly details how utterly broken this Blade is: sure, it's only available upon reaching a full Party Gauge, can only be used once per battle and has a duration, this Blade can activate any element on the Blade Combo chain and shatter all elemental orbs during a Chain Attack. Inevitably, this Blade will deal more damage than Mythra can, particularly upon achieving a "Full Burst"; even without triggering a Chain Attack leading to a Full Burst, this Blade has all of Mythra's Battle Skills, including Foresight. Also worth noting is throughout this Blade's activation, [[spoiler:Rex cannot be knocked out no matter what]], perfectly viable against a OneHitKO from the FinalBoss and certain Superbosses and she can support the party by decreasing enemy Break resistance by 50%, the same function that a legendary-tier "Master Scope" accessory can do.

* Dagas is one of the strongest Greataxe Blades, and while at first he isn't anything too special, when you max out his affinity chart he gets his "Kaiser Zone" ability maxed out which gives a 120% increase to everyone's damage and raises AOE range. This can make Fiora, Poppi QT Pi, KOS-MOS and Zenobia do even more damage than normal and he comes standard with the same Greataxe moveset that makes T-Elos and Zenobia naturally good. He becomes one of the best support characters in the entire game because of this ability alone, only being beaten by [[spoiler:Pneuma]] and Shulk. He also has 3 Aux Core slots, which can make him do even more damage and even better at support. To put it into perspective on how good Kaiser Zone is, the Overdrive ability from Elma has to reach 200% to match it which is hard to do.

* So long as players don't mind grinding, the salvage mechanic can make increasing each town's Development Level, as well as obtaining lots of cash, extremely easy. Sure, it'll take a while, but investing into the town as early as possible unlocks more items for every shop players come across in short order. Notably, having enough cash means players can also purchase the ever-expensive "Inherited Core Crystal", and its unique Blade, at Torigoth [[DiscOneNuke in as early as Chapter 4]].

* In NewGamePlus, every party member gains access to a hidden Affinity Chart on top of their preexisting one. Zeke's Affinity Chart features "Unleash Shining Justice", essentially the equivalent of [[spoiler:Pneuma for Rex]]: by having Pandoria as his current Blade and at maximum Affinity during combat, Zeke can enter a SuperMode (the aforementioned Eye of Shining Justice-Pandoria) where he earns multiple {{Status Buff}}s, immunity to reactions and de-buffs (for instance, Topple and Breakdown), increased auto-attack and movement speed, and reduced Driver Art and Blade Special {{Cooldown}}s, on top of a large damage multiplier. Like [[spoiler:Pneuma]], this can only be used once during combat, yet [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZFEmEpkTA0 it's possible to sweep the floor against Superbosses with little effort]]. The only thing preventing this from being an instant "I Win" button is it requires a ridiculous 30,000 skill points to unlock and Zeke cannot switch Blades while this is active.

* By combining Driver Combos like Topple with Blade Combos, both can be stacked to create Fusion Combos, which increases the damage of everything dealt, including any damage-over-time mechanic. As an example, by using Nim to achieve a Blade Combo that leads to "Volcano" via a fire element-based Poppi QT, it's possible to hit for 300,000 damage over time, increasing every time Poppi QT uses Smash from her Driver Art "Dented Shield"; hitting the damage cap for every second in an attack isn't out of the question. Mastering Fusion Combos and their affects means killing Superbosses and Challenge Mode enemies on "[[HarderThanHard Bringer of Chaos]]" difficulty in less than four minutes are viable, particularly the latter, given that Chain Attacks and earning the Party Gauge on Challenge Mode has been {{Nerf}}ed with the mode's release.

Blades can either be super strong, or very bad. These are the best of the bunch for Attacking, Tanking and Healing.
* Mythra is, bar none, one of the best Blades in the ''entire game'', befitting [[spoiler:the Aegis's "true" form]] and a mandatory one at that. On top of her semi-unique [[InfinityPlusOneElement element of light]] (since KOS-MOS and several DownloadableContent Blades also have it, while Poppi can be customized to have it), her Blade Art and Battle Skills make her ''ridiculously'' powerful: the ever-useful "Recharge Boost" allows Driver Arts to recharge faster, "[[CriticalHit Critical Up]]" is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, "Foresight" increases accuracy and evasion by up to 50% while at maximum Affinity, making her surprisingly survivable for an offensive-focused Blade, and "Glint" further boosts Mythra's CriticalHit ratio. However, it's her final passive ability, "Lightspeed Flurry", is where her real power lies - upon landing a CriticalHit, a portion of the recharge for Driver Arts or Blade Specials is shortened from 20% at level 1 of her Affinity Chart to ''100%'' at level 5. Combined with a Core Chip boosting {{Critical Hit}}s (the "Moon Matter Chip" being the best choice, but basically any that increases the chance of scoring criticals will work) and Aux Core with similiar effects, players will ''endlessly spam Driver Arts and Blade Specials'' whenever Mythra is in play, making her not only capable of dealing the most damage-per-second, she'll be out-damaging the rest of the party's Blade Specials just with Driver Arts alone. She's also the only Blade in the game who can reliably pull off a solo Blade Combo in the early-mid game[[note]]Technically, so can Pyra, and later Brighid, by mid-game, but their Blade Arts and Battle Skills are inferior to Mythra's[[/note]]; in the PostEndGameContent, with the right load-out (such as a few accessories that heal or charge the Party Gauge upon a CriticalHit), it's possible to ''solo [[BonusBoss Superbosses]]'' with her and Rex.
* The best Greataxe Blade is undoubtedly Zenobia: while not quite as effective as Mythra when it comes to CriticalHit rate due to not possessing Lightspeed Flurry, she also has Recharge Boost and Critical Up as Blade Arts. However, Zenobia can deal more damage than Mythra to make up for her lower CriticalHit ratio because of her Battle Skills "Carnage", "The Indomitable" and "Greatest Warrior", which rely on increasing damage dealt upon fighting bosses/Unique Monsters/Superbosses, higher-level enemies and more than one enemy during combat, respectively. Her Affinity Chart is also easy to complete, since it requires simply hunting down Unique Monsters and completing [[{{Sidequest}} Merc Missions]] based on her; completing it means Zenobia further offsets the damage difference between Mythra by a wide margin. Furthermore, if Rex is her Driver, he'll gain the Driver Art "Power Swipe" with Launch properties, perfect for Driver Combos, and Zenobia's Level 2 Blade Special "Adamantine Axe" deals more damage to Toppled enemies by 100%, which can be increased to 150% at level 5 on her Affinity Chart. While most Greataxe Blades are really good, Zenobia stands out as the best due to her insane attack power and passive abilities that takes advantage by fighting the toughest enemies in the game. Even with the PowerCreep of the DownloadableContent Blades, Zenobia is easily a top 15, if not top 10 Blade. Her main weakness is that her Level 1 and Level 2 specials are not good for Chain Attacks, which are high sources of damage.
* Poppi QTπ has the highest attack power out of all Blades in the game, made possible by maxing out her Poppiswap slots, acquiring Master Mods and reaching S+ ranked Trust with Tora, something neither Zenobia or any other Blade has; made further possible since she has six Aux Core slots spread out through Poppi's three forms, and QTπ's Battle Skill "Overclock" (a weaker version of KOS-MOS' "Hyperclock") increases damage dealt by 100% when Affinity is at maximum during combat at level 5 on her Affinity Chart. As the most heavily customizable Blade, Poppi can be of any element, including light, and gives Tora the only party member in the game access to the entire Break-Topple-Launch-Smash Driver Combo sequence via Poppi's forms, while possessing the best Break art in the game due to Speedy Sword hitting 3 times, and getting break each time. Furthermore, Poppi QTπ's other level 5 Battle Skills of "Nanomachine Repair", where 1.4% of total {{Hit Point}}s are restored per second if HP is 30% or less, and "Reflection", which adds a 15% chance to reflect enemy attacks, means Tora can easily get out of sticky situations by himself without help. The only difficulty with QTπ is her [[ThatOneSidequest level 5 Affinity Chart requirements are extremely hard to complete]], which includes dealing 9,999,999 damage in a Chain Attack and finishing enemies with a Driver Combo 250 times. However, put in the effort and Poppi QTπ can also solo Superbosses, some of whom can be beaten in less than ''3 minutes''. It's little wonder she's considered the best damage dealing-Blade in the game, since "Eye of Shining Justice"-Pandoria needs support due to her low CriticalHit rate and only lasts 90 seconds.
* KOS-MOS, by default, has the light element, and while slightly OvershadowedByAwesome if she becomes Rex's Blade (since he already has Mythra through story-related events)[[note]]Yet can easily be remedied with the "Overdrive Protocol" item, switching ownership of KOS-MOS to another party member[[/note]], she possesses Hyperclock, one of the strongest Battle Skills in the game: at level 5 on her Affinity Chart, whenever KOS-MOS reaches max Affinity in combat, her Driver takes 30% less damage from enemies, while simultaneously deal double the amount. Combined with the "Crit Heal" strategy (see the next section), the need for a healing-based Blade becomes almost unnecessary (except for healers like Ursula below). Also, KOS-MOS' "Encephalon" Battle Skill at level 5 reduces the amount of Aggro build-up from Driver Arts and auto-attacks by 40%, ensuring her Driver won't always be the enemy's target, although this is her weakest ability due to her making the Driver rather bulky. Thanks to her naturally high damage output that's boosted via Hyperclock, despite Ether Cannon Drivers having the lowest CriticalHit chance of any weapon, their Driver Arts hit multiple times, thus giving them the chance to score a CriticalHit, regardless; additionally, she has Critical Up as a Blade Skill, too. Finally, the Battle Skill "Phase Transition Tech" at level 5 nullifies enemy defense and increases the damage of her Blade Specials by 100%, with her Level 2 Blade Special "H-Effect R" capable of restoring {{Hit Point}}s to the entire party upwards to 50% of damage dealt to enemies. KOS-MOS's only flaw is [[InfinityPlusOneSword being the rarest Blade to acquire in the game]].
* Not only does T-Elos have the same damage multiplier and weapon type as Zenobia, she possesses incredibly powerful Battle Skills that also rely on increasing damage. Like KOS-MOS, she too has Phase Transition Tech, meaning she can hit the damage cap in combat very quickly, and Critical Up and "Arts Plus" (boost the power of the next Driver Art) for Blade Arts, but its her exclusive Battle Skills "Heaven's Tracker" and "Heartbreaker" that take the cake: at level 5 on her Affinity Chart, the former increases damage her Driver deals by ''200%'' each time a party member falls in combat (upwards to '''500%'''), while the latter increases damage dealt for every enemy defeated by 100% (upwards to 300%). With the Crit Heal strategy in use, it's easy for T-elos' Driver to regenerate from damage dealt by enemies other than a OneHitKO, and unlike KOS-MOS, she's one of the easiest Blades to get in the game by simply finishing the story and continue play via PostEndGameContent, without the need to enter NewGamePlus.
* While he's only (initially) available in the game's [[DownloadableContent Challenge Mode]], Shulk turns out to be one of the best Blades following Poppi QTπ, Eye of Shining Justice-Pandoria and Fiora, possessing the highest auto-attack value at ''1974'' with S+ ranked Trust, more damage than what normal Pandoria can do. His Battle Skills, at level 5 on his Affinity Chart, include "Monado Speed", a slightly weaker version of Foresight, yet affects the entire party during combat, and "Monado Enchant", which increases damage dealt by the party by 40%; furthermore, he's also of the light element like Mythra and KOS-MOS (and Poppi QTπ upon customized by players). However, it's his "Vision" Battle Skill that makes him broken: if an on-coming enemy attack, one that's likely to be a OneHitKO occurs, the attack will be ''negated'' against the party so long as players successfully complete a button challenge (alongside a 60-second {{Cooldown}}); it even works against defensive Arts that can cause "Shackle Blade" or "Doom". Meanwhile, Shulk's Level 1 Blade Special "Monado Purge" at level 5 on the Affinity Chart has a 100% chance of getting rid of the "[[SuperMode Awakening]]" status in Challenge Mode, turning fights into a cakewalk, while Level 2 Blade Special "Monado Cyclone" increases CriticalHit damage by 85%; since the latter Blade Special is an AreaOfEffect that hits a lot of times, it ensures maximum damage is inflicted as much as possible. While Shulk isn't as good at dealing {{Critical Hit}}s like Mythra, Zenobia or Fiora, nor does he recharge Driver Arts as quickly, his damage passives are so high and the effects of Vision are so powerful, his pros outweight his cons, making him another character who can solo Superbosses.
* The best defensive tank in the game by far is Poppi α: not only does she draw Aggro easier with certain Poppiswap items, with a "Dilation Chip" as her Core Chip and "Block Rate V" as an Aux Core, she can reach the highest block rate in the game at ''94%''! When maxed out with a Master Tank Mod via Poppiswap, she has a 50% physical defence and 45% ether defence, meaning even un-blocked enemy hits will do jack against her. Alongside "Ultimate Shield" (either via Aux Core or through Poppiswap), there's a 50% chance to [[NoSell negate damage entirely]]. Auto-attacks from Superbosses can only do up to 800 points of damage to Tora; even the most powerful attack in the game, "Falak Buster", often a OneHitKo on most Drivers, can be blocked and will only do roughly 5000 points of damage, more than enough for Tora to take since he already has a naturally high pool of {{Hit Point}}s. Finally, Poppi α's Driver Art "Big Boost" for Tora has the Topple effect, which will be advantageous since Poppi QTπ's Driver Art "Speedy Sword" has Break, starting the Driver Combo sequence for Tora.
* Ursula is one of the best healer Blades. One of her Battle Skills, "Beary Healing" at level 5, restores the party's {{Hit Point}}s by 40% upon being switched into combat, this is good whenever you get low on health, you can just switch back in and heal over 3,000 HP. Even her Blade Specials are useful, such as Level 2 "Beary Helpful", an AreaOfEffect attack that, upon landing a hit, restores 50% of damage dealt to the party. Just about the only downside is the last tier of her Affinity Chart's unlock requirements, which is to take many, ''many'' music lessons via Merc Missions, [[ThatOneSidequest considered one of the worst for of all Blades in the game]]. Also, she isn't good on the AI due to ArtificialStupidity.
* Even though Fiora is a healing Blade, she focuses on CriticalHit damage-per-second, making her far more viable than Mythra, despite the latter having Lightspeed Flurry. With a 15% Strength mod by default, while giving her the Tachyon Chip as her Core Chip and "Critical Up VI" as an Aux Core, Fiora can earn a 50% CriticalHit rate (Which hits the 90% with her affinity chart) with a 25% increased critical hit damage, with Driver Arts for each party member (sans Tora) that recharges Arts every time a CriticalHit occurs. Her Battle Skills "Warrior Valkyrie" and "Explosion of Energy" respectively increases the party's CriticalHit rate by 40% at max Affinity and damage dealt by 15% each time a CriticalHit lands (upwards to ''300%''), the latter of which means her damage output keeps going higher the longer she stays in combat. In Challenge Mode's Horde Battles, Explosion of Energy comes in handy as Fiora's Blade Specials are heavy on AreaOfEffect and restore {{Hit Point}}s, too. Combined all this with the Crit Heal strategy, her Driver can outlast Challenge Mode for a long time; even if a OneHitKO is present, it's incredibly hard to knock her Driver out since they'll simply regenerate from all the {{Critical Hit}}s they're dealing from Fiora's Battle Skills.
* Upon unlocking [[spoiler:Pnuema]], the game explicitly details how utterly broken this Blade is: sure, it's only available upon reaching a full Party Gauge, can only be used once per battle and has a duration, this Blade can activate any element on the Blade Combo chain and shatter all elemental orbs during a Chain Attack. Inevitably, this Blade will deal more damage than Mythra can, particularly upon achieving a "Full Burst"; even without triggering a Chain Attack leading to a Full Burst, this Blade has all of Mythra's Battle Skills, including Foresight. Also worth noting is throughout this Blade's activation, [[spoiler:Rex cannot be knocked out no matter what]], perfectly viable against a OneHitKO from the FinalBoss and certain Superbosses and she can support the party by increasing the Break resistance by 50%, the same as a Legendary Master Scope.
* Elma, the third {{Crossover}} Blade via Challenge Mode, is similar to Fiora, but with a lower CriticalHit damage-per-second ratio: at level 5 on her Affinity Chart, her Battle Skill "Crisis Catalyst" increases damage dealt by 150% and CriticalHit rate by 40% upon hitting max affinity during combat. Coupled with her level 5 Blade Special "Sliding Slinger", which increases damage dealt to higher-level enemies by 100%, Elma won't have trouble against {{Elite Mook}}s and Superbosses. What's different about her compared to any other Blade in the game is she brings the "Overdrive" mechanic from ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'', a SuperMode where additional bonuses (damage dealt, damage resistance, {{Cooldown}} effectiveness, reducing enemy resistances) are granted to the entire party the more they attack enemies throughout its duration upon activation at a full Party Gauge. While it lasts 50 seconds by default, reaching level 5 of Elma's same-named Battle Skill increases it to 90 seconds, more than enough time to defeat Superbosses. Furthermore, Overdrive can be activated even when Elma isn't the active Blade. Just about the only downside to Overdrive's potency is using it negates Chain Attack.

* Ursula is one of the best healer Blades. One of her Battle Skills, "Beary Healing" at level 5, restores the party's {{Hit Point}}s by 40% upon being switched into combat, this is good whenever you get low on health, you can just switch back in and heal over 3,000 HP. Even her Blade Specials are useful, such as Level 2 "Beary Helpful", an AreaOfEffect attack that, upon landing a hit, restores 50% of damage dealt to the party. Just about the only downside is the last tier of her Affinity Chart's unlock requirements, which is to take many, ''many'' music lessons via Merc Missions, [[ThatOneSidequest considered one of the worst for of all Blades in the game]]. Also, she isn't good on the AI due to ArtificalStupidity.

* Dagas is one of the strongest Greataxe Blades, and while at first he isn't anything too special, when you max out his affinity chart he gets his "Kaiser Zone" ability maxed out which gives a 120% increase to everyone's damage and raises AoE range. This can make Fiora, Poppi QT Pi, KOS-MOS and Zenobia do even more damage than normal and he comes standard with the same Greataxe moveset that makes T-Elos and Zenobia naturally good. He becomes one of the best support characters in the entire game because of this ability alone, only being beaten by [[spoiler:Pneuma]]. He also has 3 Aux Core slots, which can make him do even more damage and even better at support. To put it into perspective on how good Kaiser Zone is, the Overdrive ability from Elma has to reach 200% to match it which is hard to do.

* Poppi QTπ has the highest attack power out of all Blades in the game, made possible by maxing out her Poppiswap slots, acquiring Master Mods and reaching S+ ranked Trust with Tora, something neither Zenobia or any other Blade has; made further possible since she has six Aux Core slots spread out through Poppi's three forms, and QTπ's Battle Skill "Overclock" (a weaker version of KOS-MOS' "Hyperclock") increases damage dealt by 100% when Affinity is at maximum during combat at level 5 on her Affinity Chart. As the most heavily customizable Blade, Poppi can be of any element, including light, and gives Tora the only party member in the game access to the entire Break-Topple-Launch-Smash Driver Combo sequence via Poppi's forms, while possessing the best Break art in the game due to Speedy Sword hitting 3 times, and getting break each time. Furthermore, Poppi QTπ's other level 5 Battle Skills of "Nanomachine Repair", where 1.4% of total {{Hit Point}}s are restored per second if HP is 30% or less, and "Reflection", which adds a 15% chance to reflect enemy attacks, means Tora can easily get out of sticky situations by himself without help. The only difficulty with QTπ is her [[ThatOneSidequest level 5 Affinity Chart requirements are extremely hard to complete]], which includes dealing 9,999,999 damage in a Chain Attack and finishing enemies with a Driver Combo 250 times. However, put in the effort and Poppi QTπ can also solo Superbosses, some of whom can be beaten in less than ''3 minutes''. It's little wonder she's considered the best damage dealing-Blade in the game, since "Eye of Shining Justice"-Pandoria needs support due to her low CriticalHit rate.
* KOS-MOS, by default, has the light element, and while slightly OvershadowedByAwesome if she becomes Rex's Blade (since he already has Mythra through story-related events)[[note]]Yet can easily be remedied with the "Overdrive Protocol" item, switching ownership of KOS-MOS to another party member[[/note]], she possesses Hyperclock, one of the strongest Battle Skills in the game: at level 5 on her Affinity Chart, whenever KOS-MOS reaches max Affinity in combat, her Driver takes 30% less damage from enemies, while simultaneously deal double the amount. Combined with the "Crit Heal" strategy (see the next section), the need for a healing-based Blade becomes almost unnecessary (except for healers like Boreas and Ursula below). Also, KOS-MOS' "Encephalon" Battle Skill at level 5 reduces the amount of Aggro build-up from Driver Arts and auto-attacks by 40%, ensuring her Driver won't always be the enemy's target. Thanks to her naturally high damage output that's boosted via Hyperclock, despite Ether Cannon Drivers having the lowest CriticalHit chance of any weapon, their Driver Arts hit multiple times, thus giving them the chance to score a CriticalHit, regardless; additionally, she has Critical Up as a Blade Skill, too. Finally, the Battle Skill "Phase Transition Tech" at level 5 nullifies enemy defense and increases the damage of her Blade Specials by 100%, with her Level 2 Blade Special "H-Effect R" capable of restoring {{Hit Point}}s to the entire party upwards to 50% of damage dealt to enemies. KOS-MOS's only flaw is [[InfinityPlusOneSword being the rarest Blade to acquire in the game]].

* Ursula, once her Affinity Chart is filled out, has enough power to rival Boreas as the best healer Blade. One of her Battle Skills, "Beary Healing" at level 5, restores the party's {{Hit Point}}s by 40% upon being switched into combat. Even her Blade Specials are useful, such as Level 2 "Beary Helpful", an AreaOfEffect attack that, upon landing a hit, restores 50% of damage dealt to the party. Just about the only downside is the last tier of her Affinity Chart's unlock requirements, which is to take many, ''many'' music lessons via Merc Missions, [[ThatOneSidequest considered one of the worst for of all Blades in the game]].

* Upon unlocking [[spoiler:Pnuema]], the game explicitly details how utterly broken this Blade is: sure, it's only available upon reaching a full Party Gauge, can only be used once per battle and has a duration, this Blade can activate any element on the Blade Combo chain and shatter all elemental orbs during a Chain Attack. Inevitably, this Blade will deal more damage than Mythra can, particularly upon achieving a "Full Burst"; even without triggering a Chain Attack leading to a Full Burst, this Blade has all of Mythra's Battle Skills, including Lightspeed Flurry and Foresight. Also worth noting is throughout this Blade's activation, [[spoiler:Rex cannot be knocked out no matter what]], perfectly viable against a OneHitKO from the FinalBoss and certain Superbosses.

* The "Avant-Garde Medal" has created an infamous strategy known as "Crit Heal": this accessory absorbs 20% of CriticalHit damage as {{Hit Point}}s; by giving it to Drivers who are using the CriticalHit-based Blades noted on this page, Drivers can soak up a ton of damage, only to instantly regenerate it in an instant. Not only is it better to use Crit Heal for Drivers who are dedicated fighters, the need to have healing Blades becomes unnecessary, even when Boreas and Ursula are considered.

* The best Greataxe Blade is undoubtedly Zenobia: while not quite as effective as Mythra when it comes to CriticalHit rate due to not possessing Lightspeed Flurry, she also has Recharge Boost and Critical Up as Blade Arts. However, Zenobia can deal more damage than Mythra to make up for her lower CriticalHit ratio because of her Battle Skills "Carnage", "The Indomitable" and "Greatest Warrior", which rely on increasing damage dealt upon fighting bosses/Unique Monsters/Superbosses, higher-level enemies and more than one enemy during combat, respectively. Her Affinity Chart is also easy to complete, since it requires simply hunting down Unique Monsters and completing [[{{Sidequest}} Merc Missions]] based on her; completing it means Zenobia further offsets the damage difference between Mythra by a wide margin. Furthermore, if Rex is her Driver, he'll gain the Driver Art "Power Swipe" with Launch properties, perfect for Driver Combos, and Zenobia's Level 2 Blade Special "Adamantine Axe" deals more damage to Toppled enemies by 100%, which can be increased to 150% at level 5 on her Affinity Chart. While most Greataxe Blades are really good, Zenobia stands out as the best due to her insane attack power and passive abilities that takes advantage by fighting the toughest enemies in the game.
* Poppi QTπ has the highest attack power out of all Blades in the game, made possible by maxing out her Poppiswap slots, acquiring Master Mods and reaching S+ ranked Trust with Tora, something neither Zenobia or [[spoiler:Pneuma]] have; made further possible since she has six Aux Core slots spread out through Poppi's three forms, and QTπ's Battle Skill "Overclock" (a weaker version of KOS-MOS' "Hyperclock") increases damage dealt by 100% when Affinity is at maximum during combat at level 5 on her Affinity Chart. As the most heavily customizable Blade, Poppi can be of any element, including light, and gives Tora the only party member in the game access to the entire Break-Topple-Launch-Smash Driver Combo sequence via Poppi's forms. Furthermore, Poppi QTπ's other level 5 Battle Skills of "Nanomachine Repair", where 1.4% of total {{Hit Point}}s are restored per second if HP is 30% or less, and "Reflection", which adds a 15% chance to reflect enemy attacks, means Tora can easily get out of sticky situations by himself without help. The only difficulty with QTπ is her [[ThatOneSidequest level 5 Affinity Chart requirements are extremely hard to complete]], which includes dealing 9,999,999 damage in a Chain Attack and finishing enemies with a Driver Combo 250 times. However, put in the effort and Poppi QTπ can also solo Superbosses, some of whom can be beaten in less than ''3 minutes''. It's little wonder she's considered the best damage dealing-Blade in the game, since "Eye of Shining Justice"-Pandoria needs support due to her low CriticalHit rate.

* The best defensive tank in the game by far is Poppi α: not only does she draw Aggro easily, with a "Dilation Chip" as her Core Chip and "Block Rate V" as an Aux Core, she can reach the highest block rate in the game at ''94%''! When maxed out with a Master Tank Mod via Poppiswap, she has a 50% physical defence and 45% ether defence, meaning even un-blocked enemy hits will do jack against her. Alongside "Ultimate Shield" (either via Aux Core or through Poppiswap), there's a 50% chance to [[NoSell negate damage entirely]]. Auto-attacks from Superbosses can only do up to 800 points of damage to Tora; even the most powerful attack in the game, "Falak Buster", often a OneHitKo on most Drivers, can be blocked and will only do roughly 5000 points of damage, more than enough for Tora to take since he already has a naturally high pool of {{Hit Point}}s. Finally, Poppi α's Driver Art "Big Boost" for Tora has the Topple effect, which will be advantageous since Poppi QTπ's Driver Art "Speedy Sword" has Break, starting the Driver Combo sequence for Tora.
* Boreas is considered by many players to be one of the best, if not, the flat-out best healing Blade in the game. With a defense rate rivaling Blades meant to be tanks, his own Battle Skills have similar tank-like attributes: at level 5 on his Affinity Chart, "Look Out!" increases his Driver's evasion rate by 45% at max Affinity during combat, with "Twang!" adding a 50% chance of {{Knockback}} when an enemy hit lands. In addition, Boreas' Level 3 Blade Special "Gobble 'em Up" at level 5 Affinity restores 50% of damage dealt to the party. Similar to Zenobia, his Affinity Chart depends on the amount of food stored at the Goldmouth Warehouse, which has the potential to be completed immediately upon access (the vast majority of the Chart also relies on simply using food pouch items). The cherry on top is one of Boreas' Field Skills is "Salvaging Mastery", making the salvaging mechanic (see below in the next section) far more profitable in an early-playthrough (provided, of course, he's acquired early).

* Even though Fiora is a healing Blade, she focuses on CriticalHit damage-per-second, making her far more viable than Mythra, despite the latter having Lightspeed Flurry. With a 15% Strength mod by default, while giving her the Moon Matter Chip as her Core Chip and "Critical Up VI" as an Aux Core, Fiora can earn a 72% CriticalHit rate, with Driver Arts for each party member (sans Tora) that recharges Arts every time a CriticalHit occurs. Her Battle Skills "Warrior Valkyrie" and "Explosion of Energy" respectively increases the party's CriticalHit rate by 40% at max Affinity and damage dealt by 15% each time a CriticalHit lands (upwards to ''300%''), the latter of which means her damage output keeps going higher the longer she stays in combat. In Challenge Mode's Horde Battles, Explosion of Energy comes in handy as Fiora's Blade Specials are heavy on AreaOfEffect and restore {{Hit Point}}s, too. Combined all this with the Crit Heal strategy, her Driver can outlast Challenge Mode for a long time; even if a OneHitKO is present, it's incredibly hard to knock her Driver out since they'll simply regenerate from all the {{Critical Hit}}s they're dealing from Fiora's Battle Skills.

* The best tank in the game by far is Poppi α: not only does she draw Aggro easily, with a "Dilation Chip" as her Core Chip and "Block Rate V" as an Aux Core, she can reach the highest block rate in the game at ''94%''! When maxed out with a Master Tank Mod via Poppiswap, she has a 50% physical defence and 45% ether defence, meaning even un-blocked enemy hits will do jack against her. Alongside "Ultimate Shield" (either via Aux Core or through Poppiswap), there's a 50% chance to [[NoSell negate damage entirely]]. Auto-attacks from Superbosses can only do up to 800 points of damage to Tora; even the most powerful attack in the game, "Falak Buster", often a OneHitKo on most Drivers, can be blocked and will only do roughly 5000 points of damage, more than enough for Tora to take since he already has a naturally high pool of {{Hit Point}}s. Finally, Poppi α's Driver Art "Big Boost" for Tora has the Topple effect, which will be advantageous since Poppi QTπ's Driver Art "Speedy Sword" has Break, starting the Driver Combo sequence for Tora.

** Elma, the third crossover Blade from the Challenge Mode, acts much like Fiora would in terms of Twin Rings Expy firepower. Differentiating her is the Overdrive mechanic from [[VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX home game]], which steadily increases damage output, damage resistance, and cooldown effectiveness as more and more arts are used. Like before, there's nothing stopping the player from spamming Overdrive provided the party gauge is full. Her Level 2 and 4 Special arts spam many attacks, dealing loads of damage from a full burst. It helps that she deals much more damage at max affinity and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking having 5 ranks in Focus, Lockpicking, and Keen Eye]].

* In NewGamePlus, every party member gains access to a hidden Affinity Chart on top of their preexisting one. Zeke's Affinity Chart features "Unleash Shining Justice", essentially the equivalent of [[spoiler:Pneuma for Rex]]: by having Pandoria as his current Blade and at maximum Affinity during combat, Zeke can enter a SuperMode (the aforementioned Eye of Shining Justice-Pandoria) where he earns multiple {{Status Buff}}s, immunity to reactions and de-buffs (for instance, Topple and Breakdown), increased auto-attack and movement speed, and reduced Driver Art and Blade Special {{Cooldown}}s, on top of a large damage multiplier. Like [[spoiler:Pneuma]], this can only be used once during combat, yet [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZFEmEpkTA0 it's possible to sweep the floor against Superbosses with little effort]]. The only thing preventing this from being an instant "I Win" button is it requires a ridiculous 30,000 skill points to unlock and that Zeke cannot switch blades while this is active.

%%** Some Knuckle Claws Commons can also have similar abilities as Ursula due to RNG, and take less to upgrade them to their maximum potential. That said however, [[OvershadowedByAwesome they generally aren't as good despite this]].

* In NewGamePlus, every party member gains access to a hidden Affinity Chart on top of their preexisting one. Zeke's Affinity Chart features "Unleash Shining Justice", essentially the equivalent of [[spoiler:Pneuma for Rex]]: by having Pandoria as his current Blade and at maximum Affinity during combat, Zeke can enter a SuperMode (the aforementioned Eye of Shining Justice-Pandoria) where he earns multiple {{Status Buff}}s, immunity to reactions and de-buffs (for instance, Topple and Breakdown), increased auto-attack and movement speed, and reduced Driver Art and Blade Special {{Cooldown}}s, on top of a large damage multiplier. Like [[spoiler:Pneuma]], this can only be used once during combat, yet [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZFEmEpkTA0 it's possible to sweep the floor against Superbosses with little effort]]. The only thing preventing this from being an instant "I Win" button is it requires a ridiculous 30,000 skill points to unlock.

* Common Blades may have a chance at acquiring the exclusive Battle Skill "Orb Master", which Rare Blades do not have. At level 5 on their Affinity Chart, Orb Master grants a 100% chance of placing an elemental orb following a Blade Combo path. Since duplicate orbs of the same element are invalid, that means if a player triggers a Blade Combo using three different elements, all three elemental orbs will appear after a single Blade Combo. This makes earning all eight elemental orbs faster than normal, in as little as three minutes, giving players the chance to destroy high-level enemies much quicker via Chain Attacks and the subsequent Full Burst

* Mythra is, bar none, one of the best Blades in the ''entire game'', befitting [[spoiler:the Aegis's "true" form]] and a mandatory one at that. On top of her semi-unique [[InfinityPlusOneElement element of light]] (since KOS-MOS also has it and Poppi can be customized to have it and there are several DLC Blades that have it), her Blade Art and Battle Skills make her ''ridiculously'' powerful: the ever-useful "Recharge Boost" allows Driver Arts to recharge faster, "[[CriticalHit Critical Up]]" is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, "Foresight" increases accuracy and evasion by up to 50% while at maximum Affinity, making her surprisingly survivable for an offensive-focused Blade, and "Glint" further boosts Mythra's CriticalHit ratio. However, it's her final passive ability, "Lightspeed Flurry", is where her real power lies - upon landing a CriticalHit, a portion of the recharge for Driver Arts or Blade Specials is shortened from 20% at level 1 of her Affinity Chart to ''100%'' at level 5. Combined with a Core Chip boosting {{Critical Hit}}s (the "Moon Matter Chip" being the best choice, but basically any that increases the chance of scoring criticals will work) and Aux Core with similiar effects, players will ''endlessly spam Driver Arts and Blade Specials'' whenever Mythra is in play, making her not only capable of dealing the most damage-per-second, she'll be out-damaging the rest of the party's Blade Specials just with Driver Arts alone. She's also the only Blade in the game who can reliably pull off a solo Blade Combo in the early-mid game[[note]]Technically, so can Pyra, and later Brighid, but their Blade Arts and Battle Skills are inferior to Mythra's[[/note]]; in the PostEndGameContent, with the right load-out (such as a few accessories that heal or charge the Party Gauge upon a CriticalHit), it's possible to ''solo [[BonusBoss Superbosses]]'' with her and Rex.
* The best Greataxe Blade is undoubtedly Zenobia: while not quite as effective as Mythra when it comes to CriticalHit rate due to not possessing Lightspeed Flurry, she also has Recharge Boost and Critical Up as Blade Arts. However, Zenobia can deal more damage than Mythra to make up for her lower CriticalHit ratio because of her Battle Skills "Carnage", "The Indomitable" and "Greatest Warrior", which rely on increasing damage dealt upon fighting bosses/Unique Monsters/Superbosses, higher-level enemies and more than one enemy during combat, respectively. Her Affinity Chart is also easy to complete, since it requires simply hunting down Unique Monsters and completing [[{{Sidequest}} Merc Missions]] based on her; completing it means Zenobia further offsets the damage difference between Mythra by a wide margin. Furthermore, if Rex is her Driver, he'll gain the Blade Art "Power Swipe" with Launch properties, perfect for Driver Combos, and Zenobia's Level 2 Blade Special "Adamantine Axe" deals more damage to Toppled enemies by 100%, which can be increased to 150% at level 5 on her Affinity Chart. While most Greataxe Blades are really good, Zenobia stands out as the best due to her insane attack power and passive abilities that takes advantage by fighting the toughest enemies in the game.
* Poppi QTπ has the highest attack power out of all Blades in the game, made possible by maxing out her Poppiswap slots, acquiring Master Mods and reaching S+ ranked Trust with Tora, something neither Zenobia or [[spoiler:Pneuma]] have; made further possible since she has six Aux Core slots and her Battle Skill "Overclock" (a weaker version of KOS-MOS' "Hyperclock") increases damage dealt by 100% when Affinity is at maximum during combat at level 5 on her Affinity Chart. As the most heavily customizable Blade, Poppi can be of any element, including light, and gives Tora the only party member in the game access to the entire Break-Topple-Launch-Smash Driver Combo sequence. Furthermore, Poppi QTπ's other level 5 Battle Skills of "Nanomachine Repair", where 1.4% of total {{Hit Point}}s are restored per second if HP is 30% or less, and "Reflection", which adds a 15% chance to reflect enemy attacks, means Tora can easily get out of sticky situations by himself without help. The only difficulty with QTπ is her [[ThatOneSidequest level 5 Affinity Chart requirements are extremely hard to complete]], which includes dealing 9,999,999 damage in a Chain Attack and finishing enemies with a Driver Combo 250 times. However, put in the effort and Poppi QTπ can also solo Superbosses, some of whom can be beaten in less than ''3 minutes''. It's little wonder she's considered the best damage dealing-Blade in the game, since "Eye of Shining Justice"-Pandoria needs support due to her low CriticalHit rate.
* KOS-MOS, by default, has the light element, and while slightly OvershadowedByAwesome if she becomes Rex's Blade (since he already has Mythra through story-related events)[[note]]Yet can easily be remedied with the "Overdrive Protocol" item, switching ownership of KOS-MOS to another party member[[/note]], she possesses Hyperclock, one of the strongest Battle Skills in the game: at level 5 on her Affinity Chart, whenever KOS-MOS reaches max Affinity in combat, her Driver takes 30% less damage from enemies, while simultaneously deal double the amount. Combined with the "Crit Heal" strategy (see the next section), the need for a healing-based Blade becomes almost unnecessary (except for the healers like Boreas and Ursula below). Also, KOS-MOS' "Encephalon" Battle Skill at level 5 reduces the amount of Aggro build-up from Driver Arts and auto-attacks by 40%, ensuring her Driver won't always be the enemy's target. Thanks to her naturally high damage output that's boosted via Hyperclock, despite Ether Cannon Drivers having the lowest CriticalHit chance of any weapon, their Driver Arts hit multiple times, thus giving them the chance to score a CriticalHit, regardless; additionally, she has Critical Up as a Blade Skill, too. Finally, the Battle Skill "Phase Transition Tech" at level 5 nullifies enemy defense and increases the damage of her Blade Specials by 100%, with her Level 2 Blade Special "H-Effect R" capable of restoring {{Hit Point}}s to the entire party upwards to 50% of damage dealt to enemies. KOS-MOS's only flaw is [[InfinityPlusOneSword being the rarest Blade to acquire in the game]].

* While he's only (initially) available in the game's [[DownloadableContent Challenge Mode]], Shulk turns out to be one of the best Blades following Poppi QTπ, Eye of Shining Justice-Pandoria and Fiora (also Challenge Mode-exclusive), possessing the highest auto-attack value at ''1974'' with S+ ranked Trust, more damage than what normal Pandoria can do. His Battle Skills, at level 5 on his Affinity Chart, include "Monado Speed", a slightly weaker version of Foresight, yet affects the entire party during combat, and "Monado Enchant", which increases damage dealt by the party by 40%; furthermore, he's also of the light element like Mythra and KOS-MOS (and Poppi QTπ upon customized by players). However, it's his "Vision" Battle Skill that makes him broken: if an on-coming enemy attack, one that's likely to be a OneHitKO occurs, the attack will be ''negated'' against the party so long as players successfully complete a button challenge (alongside a 60-second {{Cooldown}}); it even works against defensive Arts that can cause "Shackle Blade" or "Doom". Meanwhile, Shulk's Level 1 Blade Special "Monado Purge" at level 5 on the Affinity Chart has a 100% chance of getting rid of the "[[SuperMode Awakening]]" status in Challenge Mode, turning fights into a cakewalk, while Level 2 Blade Special "Monado Cyclone" increases CriticalHit damage by 85%; since the latter Blade Special is an AreaOfEffect that hits a lot of times, it ensures maximum damage is inflicted as much as possible. While Shulk isn't as good at dealing {{Critical Hit}}s like Mythra, Zenobia or Fiora, nor does he recharge Driver Arts as quickly, his damage passives are so high and the effects of Vision are so powerful, his pros outweight his cons, making him another character who can solo Superbosses.
* The best tank in the game by far is Poppi α: not only does she draw Aggro easily, with a "Dilation Chip" as her Core Chip and "Block Rate V" as an Aux Core, she can reach the highest block rate in the game at ''94%''! When maxed out with a Master Tank Mod via Poppiswap, she has a 50% physical defence and 45% ether defence, meaning even un-blocked enemy hits will do jack against her. Alongside "Ultimate Shield" (either via Aux Core or through Poppiswap), there's a 50% chance to [[NoSell negate damage entirely]]. Auto-attacks from Superbosses can only do up to 800 points of damage to her; even the most powerful attack in the game, "Falak Buster", often a OneHitKo on most Drivers, can be blocked and will only do roughly 5000 points of damage, more than enough for Tora to take since he already has a naturally high pool of {{Hit Point}}s. Finally, Poppi α's Driver Art "Big Boost" for Tora has the Topple effect, which will be advantageous since Poppi QTπ's Driver Art "Speedy Sword" has Break, starting the Driver Combo sequence for Tora.

* Upon unlocking [[spoiler:Pnuema]], the game explicitly details how utterly broken this Blade is: sure, it's only available upon reaching a full Party Gauge, can only be used once per battle and has a duration, this Blade can activate any element on the Blade Combo chain and shatter all elemental orbs during a Chain Attack. Inevitably, this Blade will deal more damage than Mythra can, particularly upon achieving a "Full Burst"; even without triggering a Chain Attack, leading to a Full Burst, this Blade has all of Mythra's Battle Skills, including Lightspeed Flurry and Foresight. Also worth noting is throughout this Blade's activation, [[spoiler:Rex cannot be knocked out no matter what]].

* So long as players don't mind grinding, the Salvage mechanic can make increasing each town's Development Level, as well as obtaining lots of cash, extremely easy. Sure, it'll take a while, but investing into the town as early as possible unlocks more items for every shop players come across in short order. Notably, having enough cash means players can purchase the ever-expensive "Inherited Core Crystal", and its unique Blade, [[DiscOneNuke in as early as Chapter 4]].
* Depending on the loadout, Chain Attacks: by setting up and breaking four or more elemental orbs acquired during Blade Combos, players can accomplish a Full Burst. Since damage for the latter increases depending on the number of intact orbs not broken during the Chain Attack, the damage ratio can go upwards to ''5500%'''; only the FinalBoss and Superbosses can survive it. Such a set up can be ridiculously easy if players learn to master Fusion Combos (see below), increasing Blade Combo time between one another, and Battle Skills that take advantage of switching Blades during combat.
* In NewGamePlus, every party member gains access to a hidden Affinity Chart on top of their pre-existing one. Zeke's Affinity Chart features "Unleash Shining Justice", essentially the equivalent of [[spoiler:Pneuma for Rex]]: by having Pandoria as his current Blade and at maximum Affinity during combat, Zeke can enter a SuperMode (the aforementioned Eye of Shining Justice-Pandoria) where he earns multiple {{Status Buff}}s, immunity to reactions and debuffs (for instance, Topple and Breakdown), increased auto-attack and movement speed, and reduced Driver Art and Blade Special {{Cooldown}}s, on top of a large damage multiplier. Like [[spoiler:Pneuma]], this can only be used once during combat, yet [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZFEmEpkTA0 it's possible to sweep the floor against Superbosses with little effort]]. The only thing preventing this from being an instant "I Win" button is it requires a ridiculous 30,000 skill points to unlock.

* Mythra is, bar none, one of the best Blades in the ''entire game'', befitting [[spoiler:the Aegis's "true" form]] and a mandatory one at that. On top of her semi-unique [[InfinityPlusOneElement element of light]] (since KOS-MOS also has it and Poppi can be customized to have it), her Blade Art and Battle Skills make her ''ridiculously'' powerful: the ever-useful "Recharge Boost" allows Driver Arts to recharge faster, "[[CriticalHit Critical Up]]" is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, "Foresight" increases accuracy and evasion by up to 50% while at maximum Affinity, making her surprisingly survivable for an offensive-focused Blade, and "Glint" further boosts Mythra's CriticalHit ratio. However, it's her final passive ability, "Lightspeed Flurry", is where her real power lies - upon landing a CriticalHit, a portion of the recharge for Driver Arts or Blade Specials is shortened from 20% at level 1 of her Affinity Chart to ''100%'' at level 5. Combined with a Core Chip boosting {{Critical Hit}}s (the "Moon Matter Chip" being the best choice, but basically any that increases the chance of scoring criticals will work) and Aux Core with similiar effects, players will ''endlessly spam Driver Arts and Blade Specials'' whenever Mythra is in play, making her not only capable of dealing the most damage-per-second, she'll be out-damaging the rest of the party's Blade Specials just with Driver Arts alone. She's also the only Blade in the game who can reliably pull off a solo Blade Combo in the early-mid game[[note]]Technically, so can Pyra, and later Brighid, but their Blade Arts and Battle Skills are inferior to Mythra's[[/note]]; in the PostEndGameContent, with the right load-out (such as a few accessories that heal or charge the Party Gauge upon a CriticalHit), it's possible to ''solo [[BonusBoss Superbosses]]'' with her and Rex.

* So long as you don't mind grinding, the Salvage mechanic can make increasing each town's Development Level, as well as obtaining lots of cash, extremely easy. Sure, it'll take a while, but you'll soon become the landlord for every shop you come across in short order (On top of having enough cash to get the expensive-as-crap Inherited Core Crystal, and its unique Blade, as early as Chapter 4).
* Depending on the loadout Chain Attacks can quickly become this. By setting up and breaking four or more orbs during Blade Combos the player can accomplish a Full Burst which can do so much damage that only the FinalBoss and superbosses can manage to survive it. Such a set up can be ridiculously easy if the player can master fusion combos, combos that combine reactions like Topple with Blade Combos which increases the Blade Combo time, even more so with skills like fast switching.
* In New Game Plus, you get access to [[spoiler:Zeke's "Unleash Shining Justice" in his Hidden affinity chart. This is Zeke's equivalant to Pnuema on Rex. Once unlocked, by holding R and pressing the + button with Pandoria as his current blade with max affinity, Zeke will go into a state where he will become immune to reactions and debuffs, gain increased damage, reduced art cooldowns and his arts are sped up to ridiculous speeds. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZFEmEpkTA0 It is possible to sweep the floor with most of the superbosses with little effort.]] The only thing is that it requires a ridiculous amount of skill points to obtain.]]
* The Overclocking Bangle is a must-have on any player-controlled Driver. What it does is accelerate the cooldown for switching Blades depending on how many Driver Arts could have been used before the switch. This can make the Driver combo incredibly spammable.
** The Fast Blade Switch VI you get from KOS-MOS quest can reach up to similar speeds by reducing the switch time of 35%, and is generally considered the best item for Ursula.
* Avant-Garde Medal has created an infamous strategy known as "Crit Heal" as it is an item that heals over 20% of the damage done if you get a critical hit. With the high damage Blades above, you can potentially take a lot of damage only to heal it back up again in an instant. It is generally considered the best healing in the game for Fighters, even better than Boreas and Ursula.
* There are some Common Blades that have the ability 'Orb Master'. This allows you build three elemental orbs in one simple combo, which can mean you can get 8 elements in about 3 minutes, and destroy the enemy in a full burst a lot quicker than usual.
* Blade Combos and Driver Combos can be stacked together to create Fusion Combos, which increase the damage of everything dealt, including the damage over time mechanic. If using Nim to get a Volcano with a Fire Element Poppi QT Pi, it is possibly to easily hit the 300,000 damage over time, eventually increasing every time you smash, meaning it is possible to hit damage cap every second in an attack, this allows you to kill the superbosses and Challenge Mode bosses on Bringer of Chaos mode in less than 4 minutes, due to not being nerfed unlike chain attacks.

* Poppi QTπ has the highest attack power out of all Blades in the game, made possible by maxing out her Poppiswap slots, acquiring Master Mods and reaching S+ ranked Affinity with Tora, something neither Zenobia or [[spoiler:Pneuma]] have; made further possible since she has a whopping ''6'' Aux Core slots and her Battle Skill "Overclock" (a weaker version of KOS-MOS' "Hyperclock") increases damage dealt by 100% when Affinity is at maximum during combat at level 5 on her Affinity Chart. As the most heavily customizable Blade, Poppi can be of any element, including light, and gives Tora the only party member in the game access to the entire Break-Topple-Launch-Smash Driver Combo sequence. Furthermore, Poppi QTπ's other level 5 Battle Skills of "Nanomachine Repair", where 1.4% of total {{Hit Point}}s are restored per second if HP is 30% or less, and "Reflection", which adds a 15% chance to reflect enemy attacks, means Tora can easily get out of sticky situations by himself without help. The only difficulty with QTπ is her [[ThatOneSidequest level 5 Affinity Chart requirements are extremely hard to complete]], which includes dealing 9,999,999 damage in a Chain Attack and finishing enemies with a Driver Combo 250 times. However, put in the effort Poppi QTπ can also solo Superbosses, some of whom can be beaten in less than ''3 minutes''. It's little wonder she's considered the best damage dealing-Blade in the game, since "Eye of Shining Justice"-Pandoria needs support due to her low CriticalHit rate.
* KOS-MOS, by default, has the light element, and while slightly OvershadowedByAwesome if she becomes Rex's Blade (since he already Mythra through story-related events[[note]]Which can easily be remedied with the "Overdrive Protocol" item[[/note]]), she possesses Hyperclock, one of the strongest Battle Skills in the game: at level 5 on her Affinity Chart, whenever KOS-MOS reaches max Affinity in combat, her Driver takes 30% less damage from enemies, while simultaneously deal double the amount they were previously doing. Combined with the "Crit Heal" strategy (see the next section), the need for a healing-based Blade becomes almost unnecessary (except for the healers like Boreas and Ursula below). Also, KOS-MOS' "Encephalon" Battle Skill at level 5 reduces the amount of Aggro build-up from Driver Arts and auto-attacks by 40%, ensuring her Driver won't always be the enemy's target. Thanks to her naturally high damage output that's boosted up via Hyperclock, despite Ether Cannon Drivers having the lowest CriticalHit chance of any weapon, their Driver Arts hit multiple times, thus giving them the chance to score a CriticalHit, regardless; additionally, she has Critical Up as a Blade Skill, too. Finally, the Battle Skill "Phase Transition Tech" at level 5 nullifies enemy defense and increases the damage of her Blade Specials by 100%, with her Level 2 Blade Special "H-Effect R" capable of restoring {{Hit Point}}s to the entire party upwards to 50% of damage dealt to enemies. KOS-MOS's only flaw is [[InfinityPlusOneSword being the rarest Blade to acquire in the game]].
* T-Elos is an amazing Greataxe user with the same damage multiplier as Zenobia, and has many incredibly powerful passive abilities. The first one is Phase Transition Tech which nullifies enemy defence and doubles the damage at Level 5 in specials. This means she can hit damage cap very quickly. She also possesses the same moves as Zenobia due to being the same weapon type (Including a move which gives a 100% crit recharge at Level 5). One of her abilities is doing more damage after killing more enemies when there's a larger fight and one ability gives a 500% boost every time a partner dies in battle. She also possesses a way to give a higher crit rate through her Blade Arts and a way to boost the power of the next art. Combine this with Crit Heal and it is very easy to heal up damage from anything other than a OneHitKO. She is also one of easiest Blades to get in the game, as long as you finish the story and besides from her Leaping Level 3 her affinity chart is easy to fill out.
* Shulk is one of the best Blades in the game below Poppi QT Pi, Eye of Shining Justice Pandoria and Fiora. He posseses the highest auto-attack value in the game which is 1974 at S+ trust, meaning he's capable of doing more damage than normal Pandoria. He also has many good passive abilities such as Monado Speed which is a slightly weaker Foresight, and Monado Enchant which gives a 40% strength bonus to the entire party when he is switched in. He also possesses the [[InfinityPlusOneElement Light element]] just like KOS-MOS, Mythra and if you're lucky Poppi QT Pi. However the real reason why he's so good is his ability Vision. When a dangerous attack is coming such as an OHKO attack, gaining a vision will allow you to NoSell it on ''the entire party'', and it even works on defensive arts that can cause Shackle Blade or Doom. He can also cure Debuffs through Debuff Cancel. Monado Purge can also get rid of the [[SuperMode Awakening status]] in Challenge Mode, which can make fights a lot easier and Monado Cyclone has a very high crit damage rate, and it hits lots of times in an AOE. While he isn't as good as critical hits as Mythra, Fiora or Zenobia and doesn't have a way to recharge his arts as quickly because of this, his damage passives are so high and his Vision ability is broken that it doesn't matter. It is very easy to solo Superbosses with him.
* The best tank in the game by far is Poppi α. With a Dilation Chip + Block Rate V she can reach the highest block rate in the game at 94%! When maxed out with a Master Tank Mod, she has a 50% physical defence and 45% ether defence, meaning even unblocked hits do jack to her. With Ultimate Shield there's a 50% to [[NoSell outright negate damage entirely]]. Poppi α can also draw aggro easily. Auto attacks from the superbosses can only do up to 800 damage on her, and even the most powerful attack in the game (Falak Buster) which is considered a OHKO attack on most Blades, can be blocked and will only do around 5000 damage to her. She also has the ability to Topple, which works well with Poppi QT Pi's Break art.
* Boreas is considered by many to be one of the best, if not the best, healers in the game. Being a healer with the defense rate to rival many tanks and has skills that give surprising tanking options such as increasing the block rate of the driver at max affinity and having a chance that whenever an enemy lands a hit it gets knocked back. In addition his level 3 special is essentially a full heal to the entire party. Progressing through his affinity chart depends on how much food is stored at the Goldmouth Warehouse, which has the potential to be completed immediately (and the vast majority of his unlockable skills also relies on simply using food pouch items). And the cherry on the top is that Boreas also has access to Salvaging Mastery, making the previously mentioned salvaging even more profitable.
* Ursula, once her affinity charts is filled out, has enough power to rival Boreas. One of her battle skills allows her to immediately heal the party once she's switched into battle. Her special arts are also devastating, her level 2 being an AOE attack that heals the party. Her affinity chart (minus the final tier) is also quite easy to fill out, as taking her many, ''many'' music lessons is pretty much guaranteed to fill out just about every node on her chart. Finally, she also has access to Fortitude, which is a rare field skill indeed.
** Some Knuckle Claws Commons can also have similar abilities as Ursula due to RNG, and take less to upgrade them to their maximum potential. That said however, [[OvershadowedByAwesome they generally aren't as good despite this]].
* Fiora is a healing Blade, but she focuses on Critical Hit DPS and is by far the best Critical Hit Blade in the game beating even Lightspeed Flurry Mythra. She hits 72% critical hit rate with Moon Matter Chip + Critical Up VI and has arts on every driver (Except Tora) that recharges arts every time a critical hit happens. Her passives all increase the damage of crits and increases the amount of critical hits on the party (This means her damage increases the longer she is battle), as well as increasing Fiora's damage in Horde Battles which can come in use due to most of Fiora's Blade Specials being heavy AoE. She also comes in a 15% strength mod. Her Blade Specials also allow healing, and combined with Crit Heal means any Driver can live for a long time. Unless there is a One Hit K.O attack it is very hard to knock the person using Fiora out as they will just heal too much of most hits.
* [[spoiler: Pnuema is the combined power of Mythra and Pyra]], and therefore is busted. While this form is only for a select amount of time and can only be used when the party gauge is full, [[spoiler:Pnuema has the power to abuse all elements]] in the game and does even more damage than Mythra. This means that Full Bursts can become even more dangerous than normal and she also has Lightspeed Fury and Foresight. Also worth noting, is that when [[spoiler:Pnuema is active, Rex can never die]].

* Mythra is one of the best Blades in the ''entire game,'' as befitting [[spoiler:the Aegis's 'true' form.]] On top of her semi-unique [[InfinityPlusOneElement element of Light]], her passive abilities and Blade Arts make her ''ridiculously'' powerful. Her Blade Arts are the ever-useful Recharge Boost letting you unleash Driver Arts faster, and the Critical Up art which does exactly that. The Foresight passive effect increases accuracy and evasion by up to 50% while at maximum affinity, making her surprisingly survivable for an offensively-focused Blade, and her Glint ability further boosts her critical hit ratio, but her final passive ability, Lightspeed Flurry, is where the real power is; on landing a critical hit, you regain a portion of the charge for the Art (be it Driver or Special) - from 20% at the start to ''100%'' at level 5. This, with a critical-boosting Core Chip (the Moon Matter Chip is the best choice, but basically anything will work) and Aux Core, lets you ''endlessly spam Arts'', making her not only deal so much damage that you're probably outdamaging the rest of the party's Specials just with Driver Arts, but also makes her the only Blade capable of reliably pulling off a solo Blade Combo in the early-mid game; in postgame, with the right loadout (such as a few accessories that heal or charge the party meter on a critical hit), it's possible to ''solo superbosses'' with her.
* The best Greataxe blade in the ''entire game'' is Zenobia. While not quite as effective as Mythra when it comes to critical hit rate due to not possessing Lightspeed Flurry, one of her arts has Critical Recharge where at Level 5 it restores 100% of her art if she lands a critical hit making it a weaker version. She also does more damage than Mythra to make up for her lower critical hit ratio. Her passive arts all increase the damage output she is doing onto dangerous enemies such as the [[BonusBoss Superbosses]], and her affinity chart is extremely easy to fill out, as all you need to do is hunt Unique Monsters and complete her Merc Missions. She can also use Launch and do more damage to Toppled enemies in a single moveslot. She also possesses a Blade Art that will increase her critical hit rate in battle and give Recharge Boosts similar to Mythra. While most Greataxe Blades are really good, Zenobia can be the best out of all of them due to her insane attack power and passive abilities.
* Poppi QTπ has the highest attack power out of all Blades possible when maxed out on Poppiswap with Master Mods and at S+ (Even more than [[spoiler:Pneuma]] and Zenobia) due to her having 6 aux core slots and a 100% increase passive at max affinity. She also possesses the most customization out of any Blade in the game and can be any element, including [[InfinityPlusOneElement the light element]]. She possesses the Overclock ability which is a weaker version of KOS-MOS' Hyperclock which means at max affinity Poppi QTπ can do double the damage amount in the game. She also possesses the power to force Break (And all three of her hits do so) and can do double damage to Toppled enemies and force Launch (Tora is the only character besides Jin to do all 4 combos due to Poppi QT's Dented Shield and Poppi alpha's Big Boost) and Poppi QTπ possesses the ability to heal when at 30% health or below and has a chance to reflect attacks. The only difficulty with her is that her [[ThatOneSidequest Level 5 affinity chart is extremely hard to fill out]], as some tasks are doing 9,999,999 damage in a chain attack, and finishing an enemy with a Driver Combo 250 times. Put in the effort though, and ''she can solo the Superbosses in less than 3 minutes!''. She's outright considered the best DPS Blade in the game, due to EOSJ Pandoria needing support because of Pandoria's low crit rate.
* KOS-MOS also wields the [[InfinityPlusOneElement Light Element]] and while slightly OvershadowedByAwesome if you're using KOS-MOS on Rex (Because you already possess Mythra), KOS-MOS possesses one of the most powerful passive abilities in the game, Hyperclock which whenever KOS-MOS is at max affinity, the user of KOS-MOS gets reduced damage by enemies and you can do up to double the amount you were previously doing. Combine with the Crit Heal status and Healers are almost entirely un-necessary (Except for the healers below). Also KOS-MOS contains the ability to reduce the amount of Aggro build up with arts and auto-attacks. She also has an extremely high damage output that is only boosted up with Hyperclock. While Ether Cannon users have the lowest Critical Hit chance of any weapon, some of her arts hit multiple times, meaning the chance to get a Critical Hit is very high still. KOS-MOS last passive ability goes through enemy defense and increases the damage of Blade Specials to the entire party, and her H-Effect R ability restores HP by 50% to the entire party at Level 5 whenever she lands a hit. She only has 1 big flaw, [[InfinityPlusOneSword she is the rarest Blade to get in the game]].

* The best tank in the game by far is Poppi alpha. With a Dilation Chip + Block Rate V she can reach the highest block rate in the game at 94%! When maxed out with a Master Tank Mod, she has a 50% physical defence and 45% ether defence, meaning even unblocked hits do jack to her. With Ultimate Shield there's a 50% to [[NoSell outright negate damage entirely]]. Poppi alpha can also draw aggro easily. Auto attacks from the superbosses can only do up to 800 damage on her, and even the most powerful attack in the game (Falak Buster) which is considered a OHKO attack on most Blades, can be blocked and will only do around 5000 damage to her. She also has the ability to Topple, which works well with Poppi QT Pi's Break art.

* So long as you don't mind grinding, the Salvage mechanic can make increasing each town's Development Level, as well as obtaining lots of cash, extremely easy. Sure, it'll take a while, but you'll soon become the landlord for every shop you come across in short order (On top of having enough cash to get the expensive-as-crap Inherited Core Crystal, and its unique Blade, as early as Chapter 4).

* Depending on the loadout Chain Attacks can quickly become this. By setting up and breaking four or more orbs during Blade Combos the player can accomplish a Full Burst which can do so much damage that only the FinalBoss and superbosses can manage to survive it. Such a set up can be ridiculously easy if the player can master fusion combos, combos that combine reactions like Topple with Blade Combos which increases the Blade Combo time, even more so with skills like fast switching.