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It feels like something of an understatement to say that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a dense game. The JRPG is jam-packed full of systems and mechanics that give it a genuine depth and a level of customization that many fans of the series have grown accustomed to.
While some elements of the game’s systems are explained in-depth, others are brushed over and quickly forgotten about in the many hours of tutorials that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 hits the player with. One such mechanic is Aggro Value. While its explanation is pretty simplistic in the early hours of the game, it unsurprisingly has more depth than the game initially lets on. If you’re wondering how Aggro Values work in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, trust me, you’re not alone. Take a look at our guide below to learn everything you need to know about the system.
More Xenoblade Chronicles 3 guides:
| 6 Easy Combat Tips | How To Unlock All Characters & Classes | Collapsed Traderpon Quest Guide | How To Unlock All Traversal Abilities | Monster Types Explained | Tactics Guide | Chain Attack Guide | How to Attack Cancel | Heroes Explained | Ouroboros Form Explained | Fusion Arts Explained | What Do You Unlock With Amiibo? | Master Arts Explained | Interlink Level Explained | What Do Nopon Coins Do? | Ouroboros Chain Attack Guide |
What Are Aggro Values?
Understanding what exactly Aggro is in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 isn’t the vague part of the mechanic. Essentially, Aggro Values decide which characters in your party are going to be attacked by the enemy. Aggro is represented by arching red and blue lines that connect the enemy to a specific party member: whoever they’re connected to is who they’re going to be dealing damage to (with the obvious exception of AoE attacks that can hit multiple party members.)
Each character in your party is assigned an Aggro Value that goes up or down depending on what they do in battle. The higher the Aggro Value, the more likely it is that they’re going to be targeted by an enemy. Certain moves and character classes are able to mitigate Aggro Values as you can see below.
How to Use Aggro Values
While so many of Xenoblade Chronicles 3‘s systems are explicitly laid out and told to the player, Aggro is unfortunately pretty vague. Other than the colored lines that connect the player to the enemy in battle, there are no specific UI elements that help you understand what each character’s Aggro Value is. As mentioned above, a big part of mastering Xenoblade Chronicles 3‘s combat is managing the various Aggro Values of each character.
The general rule of thumb when it comes to managing Aggro Values is that you always want Defender classes (represented by blue shields) to have the highest Aggro Values. A large portion of their move sets are devoted to increasing their Aggro Values and their defenses so that the frailer attackers and healers can work on taking out the enemy without drawing fire from them. You’ll know that your defenders are doing their jobs correctly when the targeting lines are connecting them to the enemy. The game’s combat can get a little visually cramped, so a quick way to see if a defender is doing their job is by paying attention to the color of the line: blue means a Defender is being targeted while red means any other class is.
It’s the Defenders’ job to keep enemy Aggro on them as much as possible, but all other characters will be constantly doing things that raise their own Aggro Values such as dealing a lot of damage in a single attack, using healing moves, and buffing the party. It’s not uncommon then for enemy Aggro to be placed on non-Defending characters, but luckily there are a few different things that can be done to combat that.
The most obvious is to simply switch to a Defender and use a Class Art that draws Aggro back to you. Another move you can make depending on the Class Arts available to the non-Defender targeted character is use an Art that lowers your Aggro Value. For example, Attacker classes like the Full Metal Jaguar and Sword Fighter have Class Arts that reduce their Aggro Values. Not all Arts have the same effect, however, as the Sword Fighter’s Shadow Eye only halves their own Aggro Value while the Full Metal Jaguar’s Dead Set fully removes their entire Aggro Value.
