History GameBreaker / XenobladeChronicles2

* 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. In addition, most of her Blade Specials hit up to 14 times, making her ironically very good in Chain Attacks. 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 and you can continue to restart it without losing any progress just like in Xenoblade X. Furthermore, Overdrive can be activated even when not playing as Elma's Driver, as her Driver will just switch to her and activate Overdrive when the player requests it. This lets the player use Overdrive more conveniently and with other Blades whose Arts are easier to spam thn Elma's, such as Mythra's "Photon Edge". Just about the only downside to Overdrive's potency is using it negates Chain Attack. Then again, using Overdrive ''instead'' of Chain Attack can be very beneficial in some situations, such as when you've sealed a particularly nasty status effect on the opponent such as Affinity Down, Reinforcements or Blowdown, and adding a new orb to the enemy would let them trample all over you again. This is particularly notable in the Cloud King's Revenge Challenge Battle, where Cloud Sea King Ken uses particularly nasty blowdown and reinforcements effects, but has such an unfathomably large amount of HP on Bringer of Chaos that using a single Dark or Wind Blade Combo and abstaining from different element Blade Combos for the rest of the match won't allow you to defeat it in time. However, by using Overdrive, the player can simply seal off Ken's blowdown or reinforcements for the entire match and still be able to use the Party Gauge for a huge boost each time it fills up. Furthermore, Overdrive is particularly busted in mob battles (and can use the aforementioned reinforcements for the player's benefit), where multi-hit attacks will hit so many enemies so many times that the player can max out the gauge with 999 hits in no time.

* 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, "Glint" further boosts Mythra's CriticalHit ratio, "Lightspeed Flurry" means that upon landing a CriticalHit, a portion of the recharge for Rex's 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 a CriticalHit will work) and Aux Cores with similar effects, players will ''endlessly spam Rex's 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 and most notably allows her to spam her level 3 special "Lightning Buster" that pierces enemy defence and does extremely high damage output. However it's "Foresight" that really takes the cake of being strong, due to increasing accuracy and evasion at 50% to the entire party at Max Affinity, as it virtually allows Mythra and the entire party to be almost entirely unhittable with some Common Blades that increase agility each by 25%, especially when used with Shulk's "Monado Speed". It also means allies don't have to run Night Vision to hit red level enemies like in the first game. 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. Last but not least, with Lightspeed Flurry, Mythra allows Rex to spam his "Rolling Smash" Art (shared with Pyra), and if equipped with an aggro-reducing accessory like the Skeleton Hood, Rex can deal massive amounts of DPS while gradually getting enemy eyes off him.

* 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, "Glint" further boosts Mythra's CriticalHit ratio, "Lightspeed Flurry" means that upon landing a CriticalHit, a portion of the recharge for Rex's 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 a CriticalHit will work) and Aux Cores with similar effects, players will ''endlessly spam Rex's 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 and most notably allows her to spam her level 3 special "Lightning Buster" that pierces enemy defence and does extremely high damage output. However it's "Foresight" that really takes the cake of being strong, due to increasing accuracy and evasion at 50% to the entire party at Max Affinity, as it virtually allows Mythra and the entire party to be almost entirely unhittable with some Common Blades that increase agility each by 25%, especially when used with Shulk's "Monado Speed". It also means allies don't have to run Night Vision to hit red level enemies like in the first game. 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. Last but not least, with Lightspeed Flurry, Mythra allows Rex to spam his "Rolling Smash" Art (shared with Pyra), and if equipped with an aggro-reducing accessory like the Skeleton Hood, Rex can deal massive amounts of DPS while gradually getting enemy eyes off him, which makes it a good complement to Fiora's Screw Edge (below).

* Even though Fiora is a healing Blade, she focuses on CriticalHit damage-per-second, making her slightly better 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. With Rex there's access to "Screw Edge" which hits 4 times, has a very high damage output and recharges based on a CriticalHit, meaning it becomes the most spammable attack in the game, and Mòrag gets the very similar "Universe Flicker" which has been cited as being even better (and on top of that, putting Fiora on Mòrag also gives her access to a full party heal). Alongside Poppi QT Pi, she is considered the best Blade in the game, with almost no reason to not use her. Her main drawback compared to Mythra as a Blade for Rex is her lack of a manual aggro-reducing Art, which will cause him to attract a ton of aggro, so if Fiora's CycleOfHurting with Screw Edge somehow gets interrupted, Rex is in danger and one of his few outs is switching to Mythra herself and spamming Rolling Smash (ideally with a Skeleton Hood or Vanish Hood equipped).

* Even though Fiora is a healing Blade, she focuses on CriticalHit damage-per-second, making her slightly better 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. With Rex there's access to "Screw Edge" which hits 4 times, has a very high damage output and recharges based on a CriticalHit, meaning it becomes the most spammable attack in the game, and Mòrag gets the very similar "Universe Flicker" which has been cited as being even better (and on top of that, putting Fiora on Mòrag also gives her access to a full party heal). Alongside Poppi QT Pi, she is considered the best Blade in the game, with almost no reason to not use her. Her main drawback compared to Mythra as a Blade for Rex is her lack of a manual aggro-reducing Art, which will cause him to attract a ton of aggro, so if Fiora's CycleOfHurting with Screw Edge somehow gets interrupted, Rex is in danger and one of his few outs is switching to Mythra herself and spamming Rolling Smash (ideally with a Skeleton Hood equipped).
* 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. In addition, most of her Blade Specials hit up to 14 times, making her ironically very good in Chain Attacks. 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 and you can continue to restart it without losing any progress just like in Xenoblade X. Furthermore, Overdrive can be activated even when not playing as Elma's Driver, as her Driver will just switch to her and activate Overdrive when the player requests it. Just about the only downside to Overdrive's potency is using it negates Chain Attack. Then again, using Overdrive ''instead'' of Chain Attack can be very beneficial in some situations, such as when you've sealed a particularly nasty status effect on the opponent such as Affinity Down, Reinforcements or Blowdown, and adding a new orb to the enemy would let them trample all over you again. This is particularly notable in the Cloud King's Revenge Challenge Battle, where Cloud Sea King Ken uses particularly nasty blowdown and reinforcements effects, but has such an unfathomably large amount of HP on Bringer of Chaos that using a single Dark or Wind Blade Combo and abstaining from different element Blade Combos for the rest of the match won't allow you to defeat it in time. However, by using Overdrive, the player can simply seal off Ken's blowdown or reinforcements for the entire match and still be able to use the Party Gauge for a huge boost each time it fills up. Furthermore, Overdrive is particularly busted in mob battles (and can use the aforementioned reinforcements for the player's benefit), where multi-hit attacks will hit so many enemies so many times that the player can max out the gauge with 999 hits in no time.

* 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. In addition, most of her Blade Specials hit up to 14 times, making her ironically very good in Chain Attacks. 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 and you can continue to restart it without losing any progress just like in Xenoblade X. 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. Then again, using Overdrive ''instead'' of Chain Attack can be very beneficial in some situations, such as when you've sealed a particularly nasty status effect on the opponent such as Affinity Down, Reinforcements or Blowdown, and adding a new orb to the enemy would let them trample all over you again. This is particularly notable in the Cloud King's Revenge Challenge Battle, where Cloud Sea King Ken uses particularly nasty blowdown and reinforcements effects, but has such an unfathomably large amount of HP on Bringer of Chaos that using a single Dark or Wind Blade Combo and abstaining from different element Blade Combos for the rest of the match won't allow you to defeat it in time. However, by using Overdrive, the player can simply seal off Ken's blowdown or reinforcements for the entire match and still be able to use the Party Gauge for a huge boost each time it fills up.

* Even though Fiora is a healing Blade, she focuses on CriticalHit damage-per-second, making her slightly better 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, and with Rex there's access to "Screw Edge" which hits 4 times, has a very high damage output and recharges based on a CriticalHit, meaning it becomes the most spammable attack in the game. Alongside Poppi QT Pi, she is considered the best Blade in the game, with almost no reason to not use her. Her main drawback compared to Mythra as a Blade for Rex is her lack of a manual aggro-reducing Art, which will cause him to attract a ton of aggro, so if Fiora's CycleOfHurting with Screw Edge somehow gets interrupted, Rex is in danger and one of his few outs is switching to Mythra herself and spamming Rolling Smash (ideally with a Skeleton Hood equipped).

* 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. In addition, most of her Blade Specials hit up to 14 times, making her ironically very good in Chain Attacks. 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 and you can continue to restart it without losing any progress just like in Xenoblade X. 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; then again, using Overdrive ''instead'' of Chain Attack can be very beneficial in some situations, such as when you've sealed a particularly nasty status effect on the opponent such as Affinity Down, Reinforcements or Blowdown, and adding a new orb to the enemy would let them trample all over you again. This is particularly notable in the Cloud King's Revenge Challenge Battle, where Cloud Sea King Ken uses particularly nasty blowdown and reinforcements effects, but has such an unfathomably large amount of HP on Bringer of Chaos that using a single Dark or Wind Blade Combo and abstaining from different element Blade Combos for the rest of the match won't allow you to defeat it in time.

* 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. In addition, most of her Blade Specials hit up to 14 times, making her ironically very good in Chain Attacks. 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 and you can continue to restart it without losing any progress just like in Xenoblade X. 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.

* Upon unlocking [[spoiler:Pneuma]], 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.

* 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, Mythra/[[spoiler:Pneuma]] 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 and his Level 3 Blade Special "Monado Buster" breaks through defenses so it will always do max damage no matter what. 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.

* 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, "Glint" further boosts Mythra's CriticalHit ratio, "Lightspeed Flurry" means that upon landing a CriticalHit, a portion of the recharge for Rex's 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 a CriticalHit will work) and Aux Cores with similar effects, players will ''endlessly spam Rex's 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 and most notably allows her to spam her level 3 special "Lightning Buster" that pierces enemy defence and does extremely high damage output. However it's "Foresight" that really takes the cake of being strong, due to increasing accuracy and evasion at 50% to the entire party at Max Affinity, as it virtually allows Mythra and the entire party to be almost entirely unhittable with some Common Blades that increase agility each by 25%, especially when used with Shulk's "Monado Speed". It also means allies don't have to run Night Vision to hit red level enemies like in the first game. 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.

* 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 and his Level 3 Blade Special "Monado Buster" breaks through defenses so it will always do max damage no matter what. 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.

* 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, and with Rex there's access to "Screw Edge" which hits 4 times, has a very high damage output and recharges based on a CriticalHit, meaning it becomes the most spammable attack in the game. Alongside Poppi QT Pi, she is considered the best Blade in the game, with almost no reason to not use her.

* 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, , "Glint" further boosts Mythra's CriticalHit ratio, "Lightspeed Flurry" means that upon landing a CriticalHit, a portion of the recharge for Rex's 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 a CriticalHit will work) and Aux Cores with similar effects, players will ''endlessly spam Rex's 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 and most notably allows her to spam her level 3 special "Lightning Buster" that pierces enemy defence and does extremely high damage output. However it's "Foresight" that really takes the cake of being strong, due to increasing accuracy and evasion at 50% to the entire party at Max Affinity, as it virtually allows Mythra and the entire party to be almost entirely unhittable with some Common Blades that increase agility each by 25%, especially when used with Shulk's "Monado Speed". It also means allies don't have to run Night Vision to hit red level enemies like in the first game. 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.

* 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 during combat, 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 Rex's 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 a CriticalHit will work) and Aux Cores with similar effects, players will ''endlessly spam Rex's 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.

* Playing in NewGamePlus and bards will appear in every town, who will offer to trade valuable items in exchange for stocked {{Experience Point}}s: these items include Master Mods and Ether Crystals for Poppi, making the normally onerous task of maxing her out via "Tiger, Tiger" child's play, Legendary Core Crystals, Accessory Expander Kits and Overdrive Protocols. Furthermore, NewGamePlus unlocks a new feature at inns where players can reduce {{Character Level}}s all the way down to level 1, thereby restocking accumulated {{Experience Point}}s. Since experience is scaled based on CharacterLevel rather than the enemy's, it becomes incredibly easy to generate enough points to trade for the bards' items, while having enough left over to put the party back to players' desired levels.

* 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 this SuperMode only lasts 90 seconds and Pandoria isn't as useful in Challenge Mode due to the enemies having very high health pools..

* 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 dealing double the amount. Combined with the "Crit Heal" strategy (see the next section), the need for a healing-based Blade becomes almost unnecessary. 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 when moving around the battlefield. 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]].

* The best Greataxe Blade is undoubtedly Zenobia: while not quite as effective as Mythra when it comes to CriticalHit rate nor 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.

* 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. Of course, when it comes to fighting Superbosses or various challenge fights for Nopondemonioum, Mòrag is by far the best choice. Her already incredible agility ''skyrockets'' with Corvin, making her hard to hit even on Bringer of Chaos, and all his passive abilities come well together to make Mòrag unstoppable. Combined with other evasion blades like Theory or Aegaeon, Mòrag becomes an unstoppable tank. And even better, among all the 'evasion tank blades,' Corvin actually has pretty spectacular defenses and an adequate block rate, meaning the few times an attack slips through the cracks, Mòrag will be just fine.

* 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. In addition, most of her Blade Specials hit up to 14 enemies, making her ironically very good in Chain Attacks. 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 and you can continue to restart it without losing any progress just like in Xenoblade X. 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.

* 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 this SuperMode only lasts 90 seconds.

* 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.

* 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 and you can continue to restart it without losing any progress just like in Xenoblade X. 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.

* Wulfric is only subpar compared to the other blades above, but what makes him grand is his support abilities. SuperStrength, Focus and Earth Mastery are some of the most useful abilities in the game, and Wulfric takes those skills and allows them to go up to level 5 as opposed to other blades Level 3. He is a fierce critical blade in combat, but his utilities just cannot be matched by anyone.

* Wulfric is only subpar compared to the other blades above, but what makes him grand is his support abilities. SuperStength, Focus and Earth Mastery are some of the most useful abilities in the game, and Wulfric takes those skills and allows them to go up to level 5 as opposed to other blades Level 3. He is a fierce critical blade in combat, but his utilities just cannot be matched by anyone.

* 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.

* 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 dealing 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 when moving around the battlefield. 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]].

* 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. Alongside Poppi QT Pi, she is considered the best Blade in the game, with almost no reason to not use her.