Xenoblade Chronicles Guide- Walkthrough Part 12.5: Unique Monster Quests for Colony 9

Challenge Quests

Challenge Quests are more difficult than Hunt Quests- not because they’re longer, but they each involve a particular named version of a given monster, and that named version is invariably much harder to handle than a regular monster of the type.  While they may be easy or difficult to find, they are always difficult to fight at the level of the challenge- I recommend working on your level and other quests in an area for a while before engaging in a Challenge Quest.

There are three Challenge Quests in Colony 9 that you are going to have an interest in immediately.


Kill Verdant Bluchel.
Rewards: 1800G
Probably the simplest Challenge Quest, Verdant Bluchel is an especially large Caterpile that can be found near the lakeshore across Colony 9's main bridge.  This thing, like most Caterpile, is a big fat sack of hit points with a few slow but dangerous attacks.  While it still has the poison-spitting ability of a standard Caterpile, Verdant Bluchel fortunately lacks the high-speed rolling charge attack, so escaping it if things get too dangerous is a bit easier- but it moves faster, making escape a bit harder as well.  It does still knock you down- but it only does it as a special melee attack.  Don’t even consider trying this one without Reyn accompanying you unless you’re already level 12, and even then it’s still dangerous.


Kill Lake Magdalena.
Rewards: 3000G
Lake Magdalena is located in a confusing place, and you are given confusing instructions.  The quest says to go to Lookout Park, but there’s no water in Lookout Park.  Instead, you need to go down to the coastline below Lookout Park and jump in the water- then swim around the cliff face until you find the little tunnel.  Inside this tunnel is a chamber with a small bit of shore you can fight from- and a whole school of Piranhax as well as Lake Magdalena.  Because Piranhax are ‘herd fighters’ and Lake Magdalena is an aggressive monster, you shouldn’t try this quest without Reyn no matter what- otherwise you’ll get killed far too quickly to even take out a few of the Piranhax that lurk around Lake Magdalena.  You’re probably going to need to use Shulk’s healing power a lot here, if you’re piloting him.  If you’re piloting Reyn, focus on grabbing attention with your aura and area attacks, and your aggro-grabbing Arts so that your companion or companions can fillet the fish.


Defeat Evil Rhangrot near Tephra Hill
Rewards: 1800G
Nearly as simple as Verdant Bluchel, the only thing that makes this named monster harder really is that it is lingering about the path to Tephra Hill, and in order to find it you need to do a bit of switch-back running on strange hillocks that lurk along the edges of the path.  A standard Bunnit in all but its level and power, Evil Rhangrot is really rather unremarkable, and could probably be handled by Shulk and Fiona without Reyn, or possibly even with just Shulk or just Fiona if your level is high enough.  Keep an eye out, though- if you use any area attacks, you’re likely to aggro extra bunnits, and that can be dangerous even if they aren’t terribly hazardous on their own.