Xenoblade Chronicles X: Chapter 13 - Act 1 Walkthrough

One of the biggest treats contained within the smorgasbord of RPG excellence that is Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition, is undoubtedly its brand new story content, which takes the form of some new character missions and, more excitingly, an all-new chapter added to the end of the adventure.

Chapter 13 covers a lot of ground, rapidly raising new questions and creating all sorts of fresh and exciting possibilities for this franchise going forward. In this guide, we cover not only how to beat every enemy, but also give a Chapter 13 story overview detailing plot points and narrative threads revealed in this new mission.

So, let's jump in and take a look at everything that happens, as we guide all three acts of this latest chapter.

Xenoblade Chronicles X: Chapter 13 - Act 1 Walkthrough & Story Guide

First things first, as soon as this new chapter begins, you are gonna be severely tested.

Head to the dematerialisation area — y'know, where that big energy ball appeared at the end of the last chapter — yeah, go there.

Defeat The Ghosts

As soon as we rock up to our location, the game's all-new enemy, Ghosts, arrive on the scene. It's time to put your skills to the test.

The key to this tough battle is to aim at individual appendages. You should be doing this already to cut off any that have weapons on big bosses and the like, but now your hand is forced to learn.

As you switch limbs, look at the indicators telling you that the Ghost is impervious to your attacks, then keep toggling ('R'+'Y' or 'A') until you attack a limb that takes score damage. Now focus on this until you wreck it.

Of course, any augments you have to hand that upgrade your appendage damage are gonna help here, so have a look in your inventory or hit NLA to craft/buy some.

Once the Ghosts are dealt with, you'll face a second, bigger wave.

Once this fight is done and dusted, you'll feel like you know this particularly tough enemy quite well. We recommend taking the time to hit level 50 before going in here, too, because it can be frustrating if you're even a little under-leveled.

The Ghosts and a Hero (Story)

As you battle the remaining ghosts, you'll eventually hit a cutscene where we see a mysterious figure in a Skell swoop in to save our team's bacon. Who was dat?!

As the team return to base, Elma opens up about her past, informing the team that the Skell is the Ares Prime, deducing that the pilot must be Alois Bernholt, a hero who saved everyone during the initial alien attacks on Earth.

The Ghosts, according to Elma, are harbingers of doom, with both Earth and Elma's home planet succumbing to the chaos that the fight between Ghosts, Samaar, and the Ganglion has previously caused across multiple universes. It's at this point that Elma discloses her planet was home to descendants of the Samaarians, just like Earth.

The Ares Prime is revealed to be the creation of the team's forebearers, the Samaar, as too are the Ganglion, who are actually an AI lifeform. Elma was sent aboard the Ares Prime to warn and help rescue Earth, the home of the only other Samaarian descendants. The Ares Prime is now key to the team's new struggle, to get off Mira, as it's the next planet in line to be destroyed.

The squad is interrupted by a disturbance on the navigation screen, two large Skells have engaged in combat. The Ares and the Vita. We head for the location on our map now and are treated to an action-packed cutscene before it's time to engage the Vita!

Defeat Vita

The key to this scrap is to target the two Megiddo Eagle Seidr enemies that the Vita materialises.

You can make very short work of these two bothersome extras if you:

• enter the fight on foot as Elma with your TP primed for an Overdrive party, or
• blast in with a well-equipped Skell

Just make sure to target the extras first, then you have huge window to focus on Vita with your entire party.

Stick to any tried and trusted tactics you have developed at this stage. Overdrive makes fairly short work of Vita's health bar, and once you've done enough damage, you'll see two more Eagle Seidr show up. Rinse and repeat with these two, and then back to the Vita.

At some point, the Ares Prime will rock up and save you from any more fighting. However, the Vita now has the Ares Prime's all-important energy cores, and the Ghosts have given chase (but why?) Oh, and we're about to be introduced to someone new and exciting.

AB Joins the Team (Story)

Alois Bernholt is a bit of a well-known hero, as it turns out, after he jumped into the Ares Prime and drove right into the heart of the enemy during the final stages of the battle for Earth. For the rest of humanity, he is a legend who gave his life to ensure the White Whale and its precious cargo survived. And, as it turns out, he has survived too!

Back at base, Elma gets biblical, quoting old verses about how the Ghosts are essentially angels of the apocalypse, or perhaps even a natural corrective process of universes. At the Blade Barracks, we get a flashback sequence detailing AB's heroic escape during Earth's final moments.

The Void Is Revealed (Story)

Alois now reveals that the Prime was guiding him all along, that it rescued him and took him to safety. He also reveals that only a warm body can control the Prime, so no Mim pilots!

A second event now shows up on the base screens, and it's time to meet The Void. The Void is now revealed as the Ares Prime's architect, the being otherwise known as The Great One, as referred to by Luxaar at the end of the original version of the game.

The Ganglion are the Void's spawn, we learn, and the Void means to rally them to continue its destruction of planets. The Void takes over comms in the base to announce that it will commence a contest. "The bested will cease to be." This guy has got literally got zero chill.

Alois tells us that the key to getting off Mira before the Void destroys it, is to get the cores from the Vita. Without the cores, humanity is finished. To finish this fairly revelatory new chapter, we need to head to the Restricted Hangar in NLA.

It's time to learn that parallel universes are a thing and that's where Alois has been all this time, in a space, as he puts it, between universes. Mira and Earth belong to different universes, and the team now understand that they can actually survive the Void's cataclysmic event, if they can produce the amount of energy required to destroy a universe. Seems difficult, tbh.

So we need the Ares cores, essentially. And we are gonna need the help of all the other sentient races on Mira in order to do it. This completes Act 1 of Chapter 13. You have now unlocked Alois for use in your team.

This, of course, comes with the very tasty bonus of granting you access to the Ares Prime Skell, too. Quite a sweet whip, we think you'll agree. Just make sure to note that only Alois can pilot this special Skell.