Best Party Members in Xenoblade Chronicles X

Elma might be the first party member you can recruit, but that doesn’t make her the weakest. Full Metal Jaguar is one of Xenoblade X‘s best classes, and Elma’s AI uses it to perfection in almost every situation. Elma’s most useful skills are Ghostwalker, which creates a decoy, and Ghost Factory, which boosts the party’s evasion. Level those up first. However, she also has a selection of strong, position-based attacks.

The downside to these is that she’ll often have some downtime where she’s moving before she attacks, but Full Metal Jaguar is meant to be a hybrid tank, support, and offense class – not a full-on DPS class. Still, with access to a wide selection of self-buffs, including several that increase her critical hit potential, and a method of instantly acquiring 1,000 TP to power some of her stronger skills, Elma has no shortage of ways to aid your party. Which is nice, seeing as she’s mandatory for most story missions.

Irina

Irina is the game’s best supporter, full stop, even when you recruit other heroes who specialize in support, such as Hope. She can heal the party and remove debuffs and even boost everyone’s evasion, useful if Elma isn’t using, or can’t use, Ghost Factory. She’s a constant source of TP as well, assuming she can keep her own up. Energy Source and Last Stand both boost the party’s TP at the cost of Irina’s own.

She certainly won’t be winning any fights alone or taking down Tyrants, but that’s not why she’s part of the group. Make sure Irina goes in a party with at least one, ideally two, powerful attackers to avoid getting stuck in long, drawn-out fights.

Nagi

If you don’t want to be a Duelist, then add Nagi to your team. Aside from being one of the only characters in this class in Xenoblade X, he’s an excellent source of damage who can take care of himself. Duelists are self-sufficient and capable of handling foes up close and at range, and they even get access to area-of-effect abilities. One of those is Blossom Dance, Nagi’s best and most useful tool. It’s powerful on its own, but it ignores enemy resistances and can bring down some of the toughest enemies in one or two hits.

Nagi needs a supporter or someone who can debuff enemy targets to really shine, though, so consider putting him in a party with Irina or, if your team’s slots are full, use some Mastermind skills to debuff foes.

Mia

Mia might be a Psycorruptor, but she’s got the spirit – and skill selection – of a Drifter. Mia can do a little bit of everything, and she does it well. If you want debuffs, she can inflict them and an effect that reduces debuff resistance. Her Beam Barrage and Myopic Screen attacks deal heavy damage, with the latter possibly inflicting blackout as well. Most of her attacks power up when an aura is active, and if that weren’t enough, she can even topple enemies. The only things Mia can’t do are defend herself and heal, so make sure she’s in a party with someone who can do either.

H.B.

H.B. is a solid replacement for Lin anytime you need a bit of extra defense and can change Lin out for someone else. He’s essentially an improved version of her, one who can do everything Lin does – but better. That’s probably what you’d expect from someone with “Shield Trooper+” as his class, but H.B.’s usefulness goes beyond just being a good defender. He’s more efficient at attracting enemy attention – exceptionally useful if you’re playing a more aggressive class or have someone like Elma or Nagi in your party – and he can generate TP with his taunt attack as well.

H.B. also raises debuff resistance and can increase ranged attack power, topple enemies and inflict debuffs of his own, and generate a sturdy shield. He’s easily one of the best defenders in the game, so if you’re struggling to stay alive outside the main storyline, make sure to complete his affinity mission and recruit him.