Xenoblade Chronicles Guide- Walkthrough Part 66: Tread Carefully Near Windy Cave Denizens

The Windy Cave is a neat large area that isn’t so much a cave as a huge valley with a lot of land bridges across the top.  There are a lot of high-level creatures here that you can actually pass by despite the fact that many of them are aggressive.  A huge Electric Ether deposit is in here too in a side cave, guarded by Tirkin that you can handle (or if your level is high enough ignore- haven’t you beat up enough spear-wielding puffins yet?).  If that weren’t enough, the far end is the Crevasse Waterfall.

Windy Cave Monsters
Monster Levels: 14-19, 71-76

Arachno- More Arachno lurk here, reinforcing what is swiftly becoming a trend- Antol in the open, Arachno in caves.  Again things are slightly backwards, as ants dig tunnels and most spiders don’t live in tunnels, but whatever.  The Arachno here are very dangerous, traveling in groups of three usually and possessing levels in the 70's.  Fortunately, Arachno are sound-aggressive monsters, so if you’re willing to take your slow time to walk most of the cave, you’re pretty much immune to danger here.  Whatever you do, don’t run.  Don’t.  Run.  As a side note, Arachno are pack-aggressors, so if you get one mad do not under any condition run anywhere near any others- if the sound doesn’t trigger them, the pack effect will.

Varieties: Admiral Arachno (Level 71-73), General Arachno (Level 71-73), Mysterious Barnaby (Level 73)

Pods- Most of the pods in here are standard size, and will likely spit out more Admiral and General Arachno if you run near them.  So don’t run near them.  Far more terrifyingly, the side-cave that holds Mysterious Barnaby also has four titanic Pods in it.  Barnaby is dangerous enough, being a named Level 73, but you do -not- under -any- circumstances want to trigger those pods.  At level 74, it doesn’t matter if they hold one giant Arachno or dozens of smaller ones- any one of them is fatal.

Varieties: Pandora Pod (Level 74), Pandora Pod (Giant Level 74)

Vang- It’s a bat.  It’s also level 75, so whatever you do, don’t attack it.  At least these are passive, though they are pack fighters.

Varieties: Tempest Vang (Level 75)

Caterpile- The Caterpile make their triumphant return as.... well, decoration really.  The Caterpile found here are roughly the size of a regular Antol and are nonaggressive- though they are pack fighters.  They are also level 74.  So don’t touch.

Varieties: Royal Caterpile (Level 74)

Flier- These butterfly-esque creatures remain nonthreatening and don’t really seem to have much to do here- there’s not even any grass in the cave.

Varieties: Clowd Flier

Wisp- As with most Wisp so far, these things can power up their Ether... and then not use it for anything.  They remain mildly annoying at worst.

Varieties: Flash Wisp, Light Wisp

Tirkin- There are a number of Tirkin down here, particularly the cluster mining and guarding the Electric Ether Deposit.  The question is begged as to how they survive down here when they constantly run and chirp near the sound-aggression Arachno, but there’s nothing present to explain.  Of the four kinds of Tirkin here, all four are sight-aggression.  Fortunately, if you’re level 21 or so, they will ignore you as being too dangerous to perturb, so you can just waltz in and take some Ether Crystals if you feel like it.  They’re also all melee Tirkin, which simplifies things a lot.

Varieties: Trainer Tirkin, Brave Tirkin, Guard Tirkin, Lancer Tirkin