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For those who have not completed games in the Xenoblade Chronicles series, this page contains spoilers regarding the plot. Discretion is advised. |
Gem Crafting is a process in Xenoblade Chronicles. It can be done with different ether crystals found by killing monsters or harvesting from ether deposits and cylinders created as a byproduct when creating gems. Each of these components can have several different qualities with varying strength, such as Strength Up 80, Agility Up 15 or Night Vision 28%.
Creating gems
The process of gem crafting requires different components to be selected until one or more of the collective qualities of the components selected exceeds 100%, or it is also possible to start crafting with only two components which do not give a quality with a strength over 100%.
Two party members are chosen to operate the gem crafting furnace. They have different qualities depending on which position they take, as "Shooter" or "Engineer". Each character's Shooter and Engineer ability is unique.
Engineers' abilities affect the frequency of the different types of flame events that occur when the Shooter "shoots" into the furnace:
| Flame | Colour | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Strong Flame | Red | Raise one quality a lot |
| Medium Flame | Blue | Raise all qualities a bit |
| Gentle Flame | Green | Raise cylinder count |
The affinity between the characters affects how many cycles they spend crafting, giving better chances for higher level gems. High affinity characters not participating may give a party boost to the team. Crafters may go into a fever where they raise the strength even higher.
Heat and Mega Heat
When crafting, if a quality's strength exceeds 100% it will become a gem. If the strength exceeds 200% it receives "Heat" status and the resultant gem becomes one grade higher than its components. Furthermore, if the value of one quality goes about 300% it receives "Mega Heat" status, in which case two full-strength gems are acquired for that quality, instead of just one.
Any qualities with strengths below 100% can become a cylinder for crafting another time. The number of cylinders created after a successful crafting round is determined by the cylinder count (which is raised by gentle flames). When seeking to make the highest-strength gems possible, it is often desirable to fall just short of actually creating a gem — instead creating refined cylinders for the target property with strength as close to 99% as possible; in this way, it is much easier to achieve "Heat" and "Mega Heat" status.
Shooter and Engineer Abilities
Each character has an unique Shooter quality with a particular effect property. They have also an unique Engineer qualities combination for each Flame type. The choice of the Shooter and Engineer duo amongst the seven characters leads to different results. For example, the best choice to increase the purity of a single gem in order to reach the "Mega Heat" status is Shulk as the Shooter, raising the Fever probability rate, and Reyn as the Engineer, owning a Great ability for Strong Flame that raises one quality a lot.
Shooter properties
| Character | Quality | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Shulk | Fever Plus | Gets into a Fever easily when crafting. |
| Reyn | Strong Bonus | Qualities grow stronger with a strong flame. |
| Sharla | Gentle Bonus | Cylinder Gauge fills up more with gentle flame. |
| Dunban | Combo Master | Qualities grow stronger when flame is constant. |
| Melia | Medium Bonus | Qualities grow stronger with a medium flame. |
| Riki | Impatient Shooter | Gem crafting process happens twice in a row. |
| Fiora | Cylinder Plus | Crafting begins with 3 full cylinder gauges. |
Engineer properties
| Character | Strong Flame | Medium Flame | Gentle Flame |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shulk | Average | Average | Good |
| Reyn | Great | Poor | Poor |
| Sharla | Poor | Good | Average |
| Dunban | Good | Poor | Average |
| Melia | Poor | Great | Poor |
| Riki | Terrible | Terrible | Great |
| Fiora | Terrible | Great | Terrible |
Mobile Furnace
The Gem Man in Colony 9 will give the party a quest, The Gem Man's Invention, in which he asks them to get an Ultra Small Reactor from Colony 6. The reactor can be obtained by upgrading all of Colony 6's levels to one. The Gem Man will then make the Mobile Furnace so that the party can craft gems whenever they want.
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