Xenoblade 2: The 10 Best Blades For Rex

The Switch RPG Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is famous for its many interlocking mechanics and systems that allow for a satisfyingly crunchy gameplay experience, enabling the so-inclined to pore over stat bonuses and party comps for hours trying to maximize damage output and battle strength. But at the core of the character-building process is the question of which blades should be placed on the game’s main character — Rex.

Luckily, Rex functions as a sort of jack-of-all-trades character, so it’s hard to go wrong when equipping him. Furthermore, in Xenoblade the question is often not what makes an individual character the strongest, but what makes them synergize well with the rest of the team. Still, there are some excellent choices out there for blades that Rex can wield to great effect.

10 Agate

Agate is a greataxe wielding ATK blade who, when used properly, gets access to some truly insane damage bonuses through topple and launch skills. This, when coupled with some helpful party-wide damage buffs through her battle skills, make her a damage output machine to be reckoned with on Rex.

Leveling Agate’s blade specials can give her access to up to an 15o% damage bonus for attacks against toppled and launched enemies, meaning that players who can time those attacks properly in the heat of battle will consistently see big numbers flash across enemy HP bars with Agate in play.

9 Roc

Roc is a powerful blade that Rex awakens mandatorily on Uraya, making him one of the earlier rare blades that the player will have access to outside of the Aegis pair. He doesn’t hit quite as hard as Pyra typically will at this point in the story, and he also doesn’t scale with levels as well as she does, but there are a couple of advantages that make him a good choice.

Firstly, Roc’s element, wind, gives the player a lot of flexibility with blade combos at the early points in the story. This gives the player easier access to big damage, and is a good way to learn the basics of the combo system. Second, Roc’s skills are centered around reducing aggro, making it easier to avoid fatal damage during big fights.

8 Ursula

Although most party compositions have Rex as a dedicated ATK character, he’s still flexible enough to take on virtually any party role a player might want to spec him for. For those who want Rex to play as a healer, to have more control over the healing process, or for compositions without Nia, there aren’t many choices better than Ursula.

Ursula is an exceptionally powerful healing blade, with blade special that, when leveled, can heal enormous amounts of HP without a second thought. Her passive battle skills can also confer healing bonuses on blade switch, and damage barriers at high affinity levels. If that wasn’t enough, she can also cancel debuffs through her blade art, making her a top-tier healer.

7 Vale

Vale is an ATK megalance blade with access to a wide range of scaling damage bonuses that she gains access to as a battle goes on. Her specials allow her to occasionally ignore guards, confer damage buffs when her HP is low, and even give one of her specials a small chance to score an instant kill.

The real cornerstone of her damage output, however, is the battle skill Violence Machine. Aside from having an awesome edgy name, Violence Machine is extremely helpful because it confers mounting damage buffs on Vale each time she uses a special, making her stronger and stronger as a fight goes on.

6 T-elos

T-elos is an extremely rare blade only available in NG+, meaning that players who want access to her powers will have to complete the game first. It’s probably worth it, though, because she gets access to a lot of distinct and powerful bonuses to keep her damage output high.

Some of T-elos’ more interesting capabilities are the battle skills Heartbreaker and Heaven’s Tracker. Heaven’s Tracker increases a driver’s damage output each time they fall in battle, paradoxically making them stronger each time they die. Heartbreaker works in a similar but mirrored capacity, increasing damage dealt with each enemy defeated.

5 Corvin

Corvin is a TNK blade with a slant towards support skills as opposed to pure damage absorption, making him a good choice for Rex if players intend to use him as the party leader most of the time. With a spread of abilities that can benefit the entire party in a number of helpful ways, Corvin can easily be the blade that keeps the party alive in a difficult encounter.

Specifically, Corvin can confer heals on the party as a percentage of damage output, cancel enemy rage status, and fill the party gauge through critical hits. These skills, oriented towards helping the entire party, make him synergize incredibly well with most compositions, making him a reliable choice for Rex.

4 Adenine

Adenine is a good choice for players looking to spec into a more support-oriented Rex without sacrificing too much offensive potential. She doesn’t really have the HP recovery that more dedicated healers have access to, with the trade-off being that she can confer some extremely helpful party-wide elemental damage buffs.

Adenine’s battle skills, Elemental Wisdom and Battle Wisdom, increase blade combo damage and the damage bonus conferred when an enemy’s elemental weakness is exploited respectively, with the added bonus that Battle Wisdom affects the entire team. Those skills mean that players who learn to successfully link blade combos together reliably will definitely want to run Adenine.

3 KOS-MOS

KOS-MOS is an excellent all-around ATK blade which makes her an attractive pick for basically anybody who happens to roll her, Rex included. She specializes in lasering the enemy to death with a range of deadly blade specials, which when upgraded will have her outputting a reliable stream of heavy damage.

KOS-MOS’ battle skills confer damage buffs on top of her attacks, with the added bonus of certain skills and upgrades that can allow attacks to ignore defense. Couple that with an ability to effectively double the damage of her special attacks after a healthy amount of leveling, and she becomes a force to be reckoned with. Good luck getting her, though.

2 Zenobia

Zenobia is a straightforward ATK blade whose bonuses make her tailor-made for players that like to punch above their weight, so to speak. Struggling to take down a boss or a high-level enemy? Pop Zenobia on Rex and forget about level gaps altogether.

This is possible because of Zenobia’s skills that make her more powerful when the party is at a disadvantage. She gets damage buffs when her HP is low, when the party is fighting a large number of enemies, and when battling bosses or opponents of a higher level.

1 Pyra & Mythra

One of the reasons that many players like to keep Rex around in their party is because he’s the only one who gets access to Pyra and Mythra, who, despite being given to the player early in the game, are actually really excellent all-around blades that only get stronger as the story progresses.

Mythra is more tailored to damage output than Pyra is, with one of her battle skills giving her access to a pretty wild critical rate allowing her to critspam enemies to death. On the other hand, Pyra is an excellent choice in any composition on account of the damage bonuses she can confer on blade combos.

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