Xenoblade Chronicles 3 All Status Effects Explained

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is the newest entry in the Xenoblade Chronicles series. It has an all-new story and unique characters. But the combat is still similar to the previous entries. Status effects are an essential part of Xenoblade’s combat.

This guide will give you a full explanation of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 and All status effects in it. If you are interested in the game, do check out our “Do I need to play Xenoblade 2 before 3?” guide.

All Buffs

Buffs give characters and enemies advantages over each other. There are a total of 19 “Buff” status effects in the game. All of them are listed below. 

• Accuracy Up: Increases the accuracy of the attack. Meaning it increases the chances of attacks landing on enemies.
• Armor Veil: It lets the player armor, and it allows the characters to absorb a small amount of damage from the enemies.
• Attack Up: It increases the attack damage of the characters.
• Awakening: It improves attack, defense, and recharge rate all at once.
• Counter Heal: HP is healed whenever an enemy attacks the player. Extremely useful status effect whenever you are going against bosses.
• Critical Hit Plus: Boosts the damage dealt by Critical Hit attacks. 
• Critical Rate Up: Boosts the chance to deal with Critical Hit Attacks on enemies.
• Debuff Barrier: It nullifies a set number of debuffs. It is a good status effect and very useful in certain game areas. 
• Decoy: Let you evade a set number of attacks. 
• Defense Up: Your standard defense boost buff, which is always useful. 
• Delayed Healing: Automatically heals you when HP is low, which makes you conserve time during bosses
• Ether Anchor: It allows players to cancel attack chains which help in making bosses easier
• Evasion Up: Basically, it just enhances the evasion rate of the characters.
• Fast Recharge: It improves the recharge rate of arts of a character.
• Invincible: Your simple invincibility buff, which makes characters immune to all attacks.
• Pause Buff Timer: It pauses all other buff timers. Hence, giving you additional time to utilize the buffs.
• Power Charge: It increases the damage of the arts used after whenever buff applies. 
• Recovery Up: Basically, it boosts the amount of HP recovered.
• Regenerate: This allows characters to heal after fixed intervals. 

All Debuffs

Debuffs give characters and enemies disadvantages over each other. There are a total of 18 “Debuff” status effects in the game. All of them are listed below.

• Accuracy Down: Decreases the accuracy of the characters’ attacks which in turn decreases hit chance.
• Attack Down: Basically, it reduces the damage that a character deals to their enemies. 
• Bind: It makes it impossible for the characters to move, which stops all types of attacks as well.
• Blaze: Periodically deals fire damage to enemies. Hence, it is not effective on fire-resistant enemies.
• Bleed: Deals bleed damage to enemies at different intervals, which doesn’t work on mechanical enemies because of their resistance. 
• Damage Link: It relays damage to nearby allies of the character who is affected by it. 
• Ether Defense Down: Decreases the ether defense of enemies. Hence making it easier for Arts to deal with the damage.
• Evasion Down: Basically, it just reduces the character’s evasion chance.
• Heal Bind: Incapacitates healers, which then doesn’t allow them to heal other characters.
• Phys. Def. Down: Decreases Physical defense of a character. Hence dealing more physical damage to the character.
• Shackle Arts: Using the status effect makes it impossible for the affected character to perform Arts. Then enemies can easily damage you.
• Shackle Blocking: Completely renders block useless. Then the character can’t block at all.
• Shield Bind: Incapacitates the Defenders. During it, you can’t use Defenders at all.
• Shackle Healing: Renders healing useless. Hence, healers can’t heal during the debuff.
• Sleep: Puts the character to sleep. Then the character only wakes up when they are hit. 
• Slow Recharge: The status effect reduces recharge speed.
• Target Lock: Locks character to attack a certain enemy. You can’t hit anyone else during it.
• Toxin: Deals poison damage at regular intervals. 

Best Status Effects In Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Some Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Status effects are better than others. They are the most useful during combat. They make boss fights more fun. Some hard bosses can be made easier using them. Buffs and Debuffs both are very useful; hence both should be used in battle. 

The following are the best status effects in the game. Also, do consider checking out our other guides like Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Shards and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Colony Affinity.

Awakening (Buff)

It is a particularly useful buff. The buff enhances attack, defense, and recharge rate all at once. Hence, it allows you to attack faster and harder. During that time, you won’t mind your health because of higher defense, making this one of the best status effects in the game. 

Ether Anchor (Buff)

The buff allows you to cancel chain attacks. Hence, when an enemy tries to chain attacks, it is stopped. The buff is especially useful in boss fights. Bosses can’t chain attacks at all, making it easier for you to deal damage. It would help if you always had the buff on you. 

Pause Buff Timer (Buff)

It is an extremely useful status effect. It basically increases the duration of the effect. Technically speaking, it actually pauses all the buffs’ timers. Meaning you can use all the different status effects for a longer duration. The only drawback it has is that it increases the duration of the debuffs too. 

Damage Link (Debuff)

The debuff makes crowd control easy. It allows you to deal damage to a lot of enemies at once. The damage is transfered from one enemy to the other. This debuff is very good if the enemies are near each other. It makes farming very easy. But it isn’t that good against single bosses. 

Evasion Down (Debuff) 

It reduces evading chance for enemies. It makes damaging enemies easier and allows you to deal with fast-paced enemies easier. The debuff makes bosses easier too. You can make every attack count. It makes dealing with damage easier. 

Conclusion

That is it for this guide. It explains everything we know about all the different status effects in the game. Tell us in the comments what is your favorite status in the game. While you are at it, do consider checking out our Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Review.