Xenoblade Chronicles Guide- Walkthrough Part 82: Mine? You Mean Yours!

The first thing you find in the Ether Mine is the drainage ditch.  This is probably because it’s how you got in here.  There are a number of Upa and an occasional Drunk Vang in here, but nothing to worry about.  When you reach the stairs, you want to head right on up them- you’ll enter a little ‘flow control’ room, which contains two Nopon.  Neither of them has a quest for you, but one of them is a Trader who’s operating a little shop in here- if you didn’t use the shop at the entrance to Colony 6 to clear out your inventory, here is where you can do it.  He also has stuff for sale, though most of it is things you’ve either already got from quests, or from killing monsters.

When you exit that room is when the adventure really begins in here.

The party starts walking down the scaffolding- and then Sharla pauses, abruptly telling Shulk and Reyn to ‘kill the noise’.  As the group watches, the tunnel that branches off into the Drainage Channel proves to have a Mechon in it- one of the tall walkers.  It looks to be on patrol, pausing to turn slowly about one way and then the other- and then it walks off.  Sharla is stunned by this revelation- after all, if the Mechon are patrolling, then they’ve captured the mine.  And if they’ve captured the mine, it means very bad things for the Defence Force and the colonists who stayed behind.  Reyn attempts to reassure Sharla, telling her to ‘keep it together’, and pointing out that this is not the time to panic.

He also reminds the medic that she said they couldn’t have taken the entire mine, not that they couldn’t have taken any.  He suggests that the others are ‘holed up’ somewhere, and declares that Juju is still alive to boot.  Shulk pipes in that that is, after all, why the two friends are present- to deal with any Mechon that are here.

Taking a brief breather, Sharla calms herself down and tries making a confident declaration.  She then thanks Reyn and Shulk, and the trio proceed onwards into the mines.

The mines are, quite frankly, a mess of tunnels, so a description simply won’t do any good.  Fortunately, about a quarter of the tunnels fit on the minimap at any moment, so it isn’t too hard to avoid getting lost.  Virtually every end of a tunnel is an Ether Deposit as well, including Earth, Wind, Fire, Electricity, and Ice.  If you happen to want to get right on crafting Rank II and III Ether Gems, then go ahead and lurk around here gathering Ether Crystals for a while- there’s really nothing to punish you, and it’s an excellent area to level up in.  There are two things you want to be cautious of, though- first of all, there are some fairly high level (22-25) Krabble in here that can be dangerous if you manage to draw the attention of more than one of them at a time.  Second of all, there is a long off-passage that leads to an underground lake- this is Moss Lake, the third Secret Area in the game, and home to a number of high level Krabble and the dangerous Elegant Marin, which can inflict Ether Break status, cutting your Ether attack.  It also happens to be a named Level 29 Krabble, so expect a long fight even if you manage to get it away from the five other Krabble in the lake.

You need it out of that lake, too- the Rumble Coal Collection item is only found there- so take your time until you’re strong enough to get rid of the Krabble there.  It’s a small bit of a grind, but there’s plenty of Ether there to brighten your day (and sharpen your equipment).