Xenoblade Chronicles Guide- Walkthrough Part 40: Warning System

Shulk has gained a new Monado Art as of the beginning of the Queen Arachno fight- the Monado Shield.  This barrier will stop the Talent Arts of enemies from affecting the shielded individual for a time, making it invaluable in this fight already- the Arachno Queen has a very dangerous Crush attack that will incapacitate a party member in a single blow, pretty much no matter what you’ve been doing up to now.

You also gain access to the Monado flashes in combat- first of all, you will get a single brief preview of what a special attack that your opponent has will do if you don’t react properly.  Second of all, and far more importantly, you now get Raid Boss Warnings.

...what?

Well, from here on when you’re in combat with a major enemy and it has a powerful attack- either in terms of status it inflicts or damage it does- you will get a warning bar in the upper part of your screen indicating what attack is being used and who against- and what kind of attack it is, so you know what to do about it.  White text indicates a Talent Art, red text a Physical Art, and blue text an Ether Art.  If the character you’re currently controlling doesn’t have the appropriate counter, but your Party Gauge has at least one full bar in it, you can use the B trigger while this warning bar is showing to trigger the appropriate Art from the character who ought to be using one.  This gives you a handy response/interrupt system, much like is found in MMORPGs during large group boss fights.

While different Arts will be called on for different situations, you need to be carefully aware of the enemy’s Talent Art usage- there is only one Art that can block Talent Arts, and that’s Shulk’s Monado Shield.  What’s more, the Monado Shield is limited- it can only block a Talent Art of the same level or lower compared to itself.  This means you’re going to want to make sure that that Art is at a high level compared to your other Arts- otherwise, you may find yourself suffering crushing defeats as crippling Art use goes unhindered by the Monado Shield at critical points in later boss fights.

You should also keep alert to the Arts of your other party members and what they can remedy or prevent as well- a warning system is no good if you have nothing useful to react to it with, and while you can probably muddle through most fights without using your newfound response capability, why make things harder on yourself?