Xenoblade Chronicles Guide- Walkthrough Part 12.1: Local Hazards

The creatures in the Colony 9 area that are safe for you to fight range from level 1 to level 10- there are areas you could reach from here that hold higher level monsters, but most of those are level 24 and above, making them exceptionally hazardous and not something you want to try your luck against.  Most of the creatures you find here, being both low-level and very basic monsters (giant caterpillar, bunny-with-arm-for-tail, giant frog, flamingo, armadillohippo, giant mosquito, spitting piranha, giant ant, giant bat) tend not to have a large number of strange combat abilities.

Generally speaking, this is an excellent area in which to learn the battle system and get a lot of practice in fights where there’s very little chance of anything going wrong.  You won’t want to go out at night until you’re level 7 or so, because the Cute Brog that appear on the beach are all level 7+, and the Skeeters and Antol are all much lower level.  This means that you’re better off practicing and hunting during the day until you reach a level where a Cute Brog suddenly noticing you isn’t going to result in you faceplanting.

That said, you’re going to want to stick to the area immediately next to the bridge until about that time as well, as the Armus and Flamii further to the West are also level 7 or higher- and both of those are pack-fighting creatures, as are the piranhax that lurk in the water.

You also are going to want to stick to that area for as long as you don’t have a tank with you.  Unfortunately, neither Fiona nor Shulk are tough enough (even if Shulk wears Medium equipment) to handle the harder fights- though once you’ve got Reyn back, they’ll prove excellent practice for commanding your team in the middle of combat.

Once you’ve got Shulk again, you’ll be ready, thanks to his aggro-grabbing capability, to start facing off with the pack fighting monsters and taking down the rest of your quests in the area.  Shulk also leaves you prepared to handle the especially nasty named monsters- there are only two of them immediately available, but Verdant Bluchel is a very bulky opponent you need endurance to deal with, and Lake Magdalena is part of a higher-level group of Piranhax that you need some form of aggro-grab in order to survive the fight with.