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For those who have not completed games in the Xenoblade Chronicles series, this page contains spoilers regarding the plot. Discretion is advised. |
Blade Switch Interface. Pyra is currently engaged, while Kuko is on cooldown.
Blade Switch is a game battle mechanic in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Torna ~ The Golden Country. During combat, Drivers can have up to three Blades at their disposal in order to fight, however only one can be active at a time. In order to use different Blades, the Driver can perform a Blade Switch, replacing the current Blade with another that is engaged. This action can be performed in battle by pressing the 
, 
or 
D-Pad buttons corresponding to the respective Blade's face icon in the bottom left corner of the screen.
Effects[]
Switching the Blade changes the weapon the Driver wields to the one owned by the selected Blade. This replaces the available set of usable Driver Arts on the Battle Palette to the ones belonging to that weapon class, all fully recharged and ready to use. This also grants the Driver the Block Rate and Critical Rate stats that are tied to the weapon.
The Driver gains the Blade's Element, as well as their Physical and Ether Defense stats. Additionally, at the moment of the switch all of the Affinity Chart skills and Aux Cores that the Blade possesses become active.
The switch will also give the Driver access to that Blade's Specials, without any changes to the current recharge value of the Special Gauge, which is a resource shared between all equipped Blades. This allows the Driver to charge the Special level with one Blade and then switch to another to make use of it.
After performing a Blade Switch, the Blade that was switched out goes into cooldown, preventing them from being switched back into combat until a certain amount of time has passed.
Blade Cooldown[]
Each Blade in the game has a unique Cooldown stat. This stat represents how fast the Blade becomes available after performing a Blade Switch. The value in the Blade's stat details shows their level of cooldown, which is higher for shorter cooldown durations and roughly increases by 1 for each 3.3s of time reduction.
| Level | Cooldown Range |
|---|---|
| 1 | 23.3s or more |
| 2 | 20s to 23.3s |
| 3 | 16.6s to 20s |
| 4 | 13.3s to 16.6s |
| 5 | Less than 13.3s |
The actual time each Blade takes to cooldown by default is the following:
| Blade | Cooldown |
|---|---|
| Pyra | 20s |
| Mythra | 20s |
| Dromarch | 20s |
| Poppi α | 25s |
| Poppi QT | 20s |
| Poppi QTπ | 15s |
| Roc | 15s |
| Brighid | 20s |
| Pandoria | 15s |
| 20s | |
| Aegaeon | 20s |
| Godfrey | 25s |
| Wulfric | 20s |
| Perceval | 20s |
| Gorg | 20s |
| Dagas | 33.3s |
| Dagas (after Blade Quest) |
23.3s |
| Boreas | 12.5s |
| Floren | 20s |
| Kasandra | 20s |
| Praxis | 20s |
| Theory | 15s |
| Perun | 15s |
| Kora | 15s |
| Azami | 15s |
| Ursula | 25s |
| Newt | 25s |
| Nim | 20s |
| Sheba | 20s |
| Vess | 25s |
| Adenine | 15s |
| Electra | 20s |
| Zenobia | 15s |
| Finch | 25s |
| KOS-MOS | 15s |
| Herald | 15s |
| Dahlia | 20s |
| Vale | 15s |
| Agate | 20s |
| Sever | 20s |
| Akhos | 20s |
| Patroka | 20s |
| Mikhail | 15s |
| Obrona | 15s |
| Perdido | 20s |
| Cressidus | 25s |
| Jin | 15s |
| Haze | 20s |
| Minoth | 15s |
| Aegaeon (Torna) |
15s |
| T-elos | 20s |
| Poppibuster | 15s |
| Shulk | 20s |
| Fiora | 15s |
| Corvin | 12.5s |
| Crossette | 15s |
| Elma | 12.5s |
| Common Blade | 25s |
- When Dagas obtains his second Affinity Chart through his Blade Quest, his Cooldown is cut down by 10 seconds.
- All Common Blades share the same default Cooldown time.
Reducing cooldown[]
The Cooldown of a Blade is affected by its Trust rank. As the rank increases, the Blade's base Cooldown duration gets reduced by a certain amount of time.
| Cooldown change per Trust Rank | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E | D | C | B | A | S | S1 | S2 | S3 | S4 | S5 | S6 | S7 | S8 | S9 | S+ |
| +3s | +1.5s | +0s | -1.5s | -3s | -4s | -4.3s | -4.3s | -4.6s | -4.6s | -5s | -5s | -5.3s | -5.3s | -5.6s | -6s |
Cooldown can be further reduced by using Fast Blade Switch Aux Cores. These lower cooldown by a percentage of time, after accounting for any Trust related changes. Common Blade's "High-Speed Preparation", Poppi QT's "Flash Boot" and Obrona's "Quick Prep" Affinity Chart Skills have the same effect and stack additively with any equipped Aux Cores.
Overclocking Bangle accessories can also drastically reduce the time that is necessary for a Blade to be available again after a switch. These accessories make Blades that are switched out start their cooldown timer with a percentage of the Cooldown Gauge already filled up, depending on the number of Driver Arts that were fully recharged just before triggering the Blade Switch. The value of cooldown reduction percentage per art recharged is determined by the rarity of the accessory:
- Overclocking Bangle (Common) : 25% per art (max. 75% reduction)
- Overclocking Bangle (Rare) : 27% per art (max. 81% reduction)
- Overclocking Bangle (Legendary) : 30% per art (max. 90% reduction)
Pyra / Mythra Switch[]
At the start of Chapter 5, Rex gains the ability to swap between Pyra and Mythra in battle, by selecting their icon with the D-Pad while one is currently active in the battle field. This mechanic functions similarly to a Blade Switch, however the action has no cooldown. For the purposes of Affinity Chart skill unlocking conditions, it is not treated as being a Blade Switch.
Every time Rex is dealt a crippling amount of damage or inflicted with Topple while Pyra is engaged on the battle field, Mythra has a chance to forcefully switch places with her out of concern for his well-being, without player action. Upon switching in, she applies the Absorb Damage buff in order to temporarily protect him. This action locks the option to switch back to Pyra for 15 seconds, however the ability to switch to other Blades will remain available. If this forced switch occurs at the moment another action is used, it can cancel it.
In Torna ~ The Golden Country[]
Blade Switch
Blade Switching is also available in Torna ~ The Golden Country, but the interface is changed slightly to accommodate the new Driver and Blade mechanics of the expansion. It is now triggered by pressing the 
D-Pad button and each Driver only has two switchable Blades at their disposal. Cooldown works in the same way as in Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
However, Blade Switches will not cause the weapon of the Driver to be changed, as each character including Drivers now wield their own unique weapons. Additionally, Physical Defense, Ether Defense and Elements are unique to the character that is controlled. Affinity Chart skills and Aux Core effects will still activate for both Driver and Blade after the Blade switches in.
A new mechanic called Vanguard Switch was also added to the combat. It functions similarly to a Blade Switch but instead of altering the Blade that supports the Driver, it swaps the positions and roles of the Driver and the Blade in battle, allowing both to be controlled directly. While the Blade is in the vanguard, using Blade Switch will change the controlled character to the other backup Blade without the need to return them to the rear guard, though doing it like this will not activate their Switch Art or recover any red Hit Points.
Trivia[]
- The shortest possible Blade Switch cooldown in the game belongs to Obrona, at 0.18 seconds. The second fastest cooldown time is shared between Boreas, Corvin and Elma at 0.42 seconds. This requires S+ rank with Fast Blade Switch VI and Overclocking Bangle equipped, while switching with all arts recharged.
- The longest possible Blade Switch cooldown belongs to Dagas while he is at rank E and before awakening to his second Affinity Chart, requiring 36.3 seconds.