Squad Mission

Squad Missions were an online gameplay mechanic in Xenoblade Chronicles X. They were one of the two components of BLADE Missions. By completing them, players could earn Credits, Experience Points, Reward Tickets, and Battle Points. The mechanic was discontinued following the shutdown of Wii U online services.

During normal gameplay, a BLADE Mission could be randomly assigned to the player's Squad. A Squad Task panel appeared in the lower right of the screen, and the player could decide whether or not to participate in the BLADE Mission. For each Squad Task completed by the Squad, one or two Squad Missions became available at the Network Console in the BLADE Barracks. Additional missions could be unlocked by completing optional objectives during certain Squad Missions.

Except for in Hunting the Headless, The Wrothian Four, and The Awakening, enemies fought in Squad Missions were not given individual names to distinguish them from their subcategory.

Accepting a Squad Mission[]

An Omnivore's Use — A typical Squad Mission

Selecting a Squad Mission displayed an infobox containing the details of the mission, including:

Required Level is the minimum level required to take the mission.
Sync Level is the maximum level allowed. Players who were higher than the Sync Level would have their level temporarily reduced to the Sync Level for the duration of the mission.
Destination is the Region in which the mission would take place.
Whether Skells were allowed or prohibited.
The Time Limit for the mission.
The Base Rewards and Reward Ticket Share that would be awarded upon completion of the mission.

All Squad Missions had Eleonora as the client, a maximum party size of 4 members, and a limit of 3 Retries which allowed the players to be revived and continue the mission if incapacitated. A Squad Mission remained available at the Network Console until someone in the Squad completed it, allowing two or more parties to take the same mission independently.

When accepting a Squad Mission, the player could choose to recruit other Squad members for online multiplayer co-op, or take the mission with their current party of NPC companions.

Multiplayer[]

If a player opted to recruit other Squad members for the mission, an invitation was sent to all available members of the Squad. Players who received the invitation could accept it immediately by pressing the (-) button, or join via the Active Missions menu at the Network Console.

Players who joined the co-op mission were placed together in a shared room, with icons over their heads. The players who were recruited could approach the yellow departure door and press (A), and their icons would blink to indicate that they were ready. The recruiter usually waited for all players to be ready, then approached the door and press (A) to begin the mission.

Solo[]

If a player opted to take the mission with a party of NPCs, the mission could be started by approaching the yellow departure door and pressing (A).

Squad Mission Gameplay[]

Upon starting the Squad Mission, the party was transported to the destination. The party's Skells would appear nearby if Skells were allowed on the mission. An invisible barrier prevented the players from leaving the area of the mission.

The mission's objectives appeared on the right side of the screen. Sometimes the objective was to break a specific appendage of the enemy; in these cases the enemy would respawn if it was killed without breaking the correct appendage. If an objective required several enemies to be killed, any enemies that were killed would respawn after a certain amount of time until the objective had been completed.

Some Squad Mission objectives required a Mechanical, Biological, or Archaeological Field Action, such as examining a wrecked Skell. These were always level 1 field actions, which all players start with, ensuring that the objective was always attainable. Objects requiring higher field skill levels were always optional.

Enemies[]

The enemies in Squad Missions had random levels within a small range. Most of them had generic names, such as "Qmoeva", "Prone A", "Grex Leader", or "Femina Suid". There are just a handful of exceptions:

Hunting the Headless featured a unique enemy known as the Greedy Millesaur at level 17. Much like Gradivus, the Headless Emperor, its primary head appendage was absent.
The Unknown Threat featured level 14-15 versions of Neilnail Albus and Neilnail Furvus, whose only other appearance is at level 50 in the Time Attack Mission Twin Dolls of Mystery.
The Warlord's Challenge featured the Vasara at level 37.
The Wrothian Four featured four uniquely named Wrothians at level 38-39.
Corporate Espionage featured the Rexoskell at level 40.
The Awakening featured Phanatos, the Netherlord, a level 53-54 Yggralith exclusive to this mission and the only Tyrant in any Squad Mission.

Many players considered the most difficult Squad Mission to be Unnatural Disaster, which featured a generically named Colubrim accompanied by three Scintimures, all at level 57-60, which had to be fought on foot.

Optional Objectives[]

Some squad missions had a secret optional objective which, if completed, caused another Squad Mission to become available. The optional objective was not listed on the right side of the screen, but was hinted at by a message in the middle of the screen:

"A suspicious object is in the vicinity" indicated that performing a field action on the right object would unlock another mission. This often required a field skill level higher than 1.
"A suspicious foe is in the vicinity" indicated that there was an optional enemy nearby which could be defeated to unlock another mission.
"Enemy with the required materials has been detected" indicated that breaking a specific appendage of an enemy would unlock another mission.

If the optional objective was completed, a message would appear informing the player that another mission was now available to all squad members. The optional objective would not be available if it had already been completed by another team in the squad doing the same mission, as the new mission had already been made available for everyone in the squad.

Rewards[]

When a party completed a Squad Mission, each player in the party received the Base Rewards as well as items dropped by the enemies. In addition, each member of the Squad received the Reward Ticket Share for that mission, regardless of their participation in Squad Tasks or Missions.

If all of the Squad Tasks and available Squad Missions were completed within the BLADE Mission's time limit, a "Complete" notice appeared on the Squad Task panel and each member of the Squad received a bonus of 54-66 Reward Tickets, depending on the BLADE Mission.

If all of the optional objectives and the resulting secondary missions were completed within the time limit, the notice would read "Special Complete" and the reward was 150-165 Reward Tickets for each Squad member.

Expiration[]

All Squad Missions ceased to be available when the BLADE Mission's time limit expired. Any players who had already started a Squad Mission were allowed to continue until they completed or failed the Squad Mission. Any players who had accepted but not yet started a Squad Mission were disconnected and not allowed to do the mission.