The base game of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 leaves quite a few unanswered questions, many of which serve as the basis of the story DLC "Future Redeemed." The DLC takes place a considerable amount of time before the main story and features a wholly different playable party to the base game.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed has a number of changes, new features, and additions to the base game's gameplay, and this guide will explain all such changes and additions. This includes adjustments to the game's combat systems, exploration, and progression.
The Party & Combat Changes
The first and most obvious difference between Future Redeemed and the base game is the playable characters. Newcomers Matthew, A, Nikol, and Glimmer are joined by returning characters Shulk and Rexfrom Xenoblade Chronicles 1 & 2 to form the playable party. They each have a unique class with their own sets of Arts and Skills, and cannot change their class like the party of the main game could.
Glimmer and A serve as the party's healers, with Glimmer supplying attack and critical buffs while inflicting various debuffs on the enemy, while A places regeneration fields and heals the group by attacking with her Monado. Matthew and Rex take the Attacker role, with Mathew dishing out combos of arts with his gauntlets while Rex focuses on tremendous damage through critical strikes with the Firelight Swords. Finally, Nikol and Shulk take up Defender roles, with Nikol focusing on blocking and damage reduction using his Variable Backpack, whilst Shulk specializes in dodging attacks and purging enemy buffs with the Monado REX+.
While the whole party has Ouroboros Power, it hasn't yet reached its true potential, as seen in the main game, so the party is unable to interlink. Instead, they make use of Ouroboros Arts and Unity Combos. The former replace Master Arts and allow Fusion Arts, while the latter allows two party members to perform a powerful combined attack that can finish a Combo. On that note, the new combo chain is Break > Topple > Launch, followed by any Unity Attack, with none of the party able to inflict Daze and no non-unity arts available that inflict smash or burst. Using a Unity Attack will also put both party members into the awakened state and trigger that pairing's unity skill. Unity pairings can be changed from the menu.
Chain Attacks function similarly to the main game, though party members can now equip special accessories that alter their effects when chosen during a chain attack and when completing their attack orders. Ouroboros Arts are now replaced by Unity Arts, which share the same role and are accessed by completing an attack order from both members of the pairing.
Exploration, Affinity, and Weapon Upgrading
Players now gain Affinity Points from completing Affinity Goals, which range from collecting all treasure chests in a region to defeating unique enemies or completing sidequests. These Affinity Points can be spent to unlock upgrades for each of the party members via their Affinity Charts. Players are also able to see everything they've found and still need to find in each region via the map and view enemy item drops using the Collectopaedia.
After progressing a little ways into the story, players are also able to use items to construct useful devices at specific locations around the map, including towers that reveal collectibles and ladders to reach new areas. Players can also upgrade their weapons with some help from Riku after completing the quest "Forge Your Destiny." This is crucial in improving the party's capabilities in combat.
Players will also come across various unlock kits hidden throughout the game world and/or dropped by powerful foes. These are used to unlock additional Art, Accessory, and Gem slots for each character, along with unlocking new sections of their affinity charts.
Certain sidequests will add new functionality to Colony 9, the base of operations players will revisit throughout the story, and locating survivors from the City and sending them back to Colony 9 will also unlock new quests and interactions.
Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed is available for Nintendo Switch.
