Overdrives are battle mechanics in Xenoblade Chronicles X. They are also known as OC Gears or Over Clocking Gears in the Japanese version. They are powerful tools for the party, allowing characters to greatly increase their fighting ability. Overdrive battle mechanics are comparable to Chain Attacks in Xenoblade Chronicles, although there is no time break involved, nor blue lines connecting the party members shown on the screen. During Skell battles, Overdrive can also be activated.
Activating an Overdrive consumes 3000 TP, the same as the reanimation of an ally. The initial time upon activation is 10 seconds. The gauge is filled by multiplying the attacks in a limited time, both to reduce the cooldown of the arts, but also to trigger Tertiary Cooldown, greatly augmenting effects from Arts that increase damage at higher cooldowns. They increase the arts' power by 400%, being more efficient than the Secondary Cooldown which increase arts' power by 250%.
Some Soul Voice types are allocated to Overdrives, in white, and can be attributed to allies.
When an Overdrive is activated, the track "Wir fliegen" plays until Overdrive is finished.
Overdrive usage[]
Once Chapter 5 of the main story is completed, the party will learn the Overdrive. This powerful technique can greatly improve the combat capabilities during a short period by spending 3000 TP.
When enabled, the art cooldown time (required between each use) is significantly reduced, making possible to use them one after the other. In addition, it is possible to charge for a third time to activate the powerful Tertiary Cooldown, which is specific to the Overdrive. As the accumulated TP can be carried over to the next battle, if the party has trouble against a Boss or a Tyrant , it is a good alternative to accumulate 3000 TP in preparation.
- Overdrive Counter: The color changes depending on the arts used.
- Overdrive Time: The gauge, to the right of the counter, is reduced little by little, and the Overdrive will end when it comes to zero. It can be extended with combinations or by accumulating 3000 TP while in Overdrive and initiating it again from the Overdrive counter.
Overdrive mechanics during battle[]
- Count Effect: By using same type arts one after the other, for example two Ranged Arts (yellow twice) or two Melee Arts (orange twice), each hit increases the counter by 1. Some particular effects can be obtained such as "Overdrive Time Extension", "Extra Damage", and "TP Gained During Attack" depending on the counter number.
- Color Combo: By changing the Overdrive Counter color in a certain order (for example from yellow (ranged) to green (support)), some particular effects can be obtained such as "Double Count", "Appendage Damage Increase", "HP Recover" and "Experience Bonus".
- Color bonuses: These occur when an art of a certain color/type is used regardless of the color of the counter
- ◉ Green (buff): Overdrive extended by .05 s x counter value
- ◉ Blue (aura): Overdrive extended by .1 s x counter value
- ◉ Purple (debuff): Gain 10 tp x counter value per hit
- Color combinations: These occur when the counter is a certain color and an art of a specific color is used. The effect is applied to the art used.
- Colorless: When a Reflect, Spike, or DoT effect is triggered before entering Overdrive, when Overdrive is activated, each tick will contribute to the counter until a normal art is used.
- ◉ Yellow (ranged) → ◉ Orange (melee) and ◉ Orange → ◉ Yellow:
Bad: Overdrive counter does not increase and the damage bonus of the Overdrive is negated. - ◉ Blue (aura) → ◉ Green (buff):
10% HP recovered - ◉ Blue (aura) → ◉ Purple (debuff):
Debuff effect duration increased by 25% - ◉ Green (buff) → ◉ Orange (melee), ◉ Yellow (ranged), or ◉ Purple (debuff):
Overdrive counter increases by 2x the number of hits - ◉ Purple (debuff) → ◉ Orange (melee) or ◉ Yellow (ranged):
Appendage damage increased by 50% - ◉ Orange (melee) → ◉ Orange → ◉ Orange:
+10% EXP, up to a max of +200% - ◉ Yellow (ranged) → ◉ Yellow → ◉ Yellow:
+10% class EXP, also maxed at +200%
- Color bonuses: These occur when an art of a certain color/type is used regardless of the color of the counter
- Party Chain: If the allies accumulate 3000 TP while the playable character's Overdrive is activated, their own Overdrives can also be activated. By simultaneously using multiple characters' Overdrive, some special effects can be obtained. These effects are:
- 2 party members in Overdrive: +50% of Soul Voices' activation rate.
- 3 party members in Overdrive: Gain 50 TP per hit of an art.
- 4 party members in Overdrive: The whole party gets a special buff called "Super Armor" which cuts all damage in half and grants immunity to mobility debuffs such as Stagger, Topple, Knockback, Launch, and Flinch.
- Restart: By reaching 3000 TP while using Overdrive, it is possible to reactivate it in order to extend the Overdrive Time.
- Cooldown: Cooldown during Overdrive = Cooldown / (2.5 + 0.025*counter value) = Cooldown / 5.0 at MAX counter value.
Skell Overdrive[]
Skells are also capable of using Overdrive. Similarly to ground battle, it can be activated when the Skell has 3000 GP. During a Skell Overdrive, no Skell Fuel is consumed, and various effects are temporarily granted depending on the Skell Frame, such as HP Regeneration, Damage Reflection, Evasion Up, or Damage Up.
Skell Overdrive is divided into several "rounds”, Upon activating Overdrive, the first round begins immediately, lasting for 15 seconds. All subsequent rounds only last for 13 seconds. Skell overdrive can last for a maximum of 6 rounds.
The first two rounds have a 100% chance to be extended to the next. The third round has a base 50% chance to continue into the fourth round. After that, the base chance to extend is 0%.
The chance of a round being extended is affected by the total number of Cockpits that have occurred during the current activation of Overdrive, and by Overdrive.EXTEND augments.
Each Cockpit mode that has occurred during the Overdrive increases the chance for extensions by 20%, which accumulates throughout the Overdrive (i.e. if you have had two Cockpit modes during the first two rounds, the base 50% chance to continue into round three is increased to 90%). Overdrive.EXTEND augments/traits act in the same way, increasing the base chance of extension by their given percentage.
The chances of activating Cockpit mode on each art usage vary between each round, alternating between 30% and 20% per round, starting with 30% on round one.
Trivia[]
- While Overdrive is brought up as something specific to Mimeosomes, there is no explanation as to why L and Celica are able to use it.