Everything in Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition is built around the hub of NLA. Everything flows back to there, and it’s like your base of operations that you set out from with each mission. It’s the heart of the game, and also its many systems. Shops, for example, are almost exclusively found within NLA, and the systems of upgrading them.
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This comes from Arms Manufacturers, the companies that actually make the armor you wear and the weapons you use. Sure, equipment can drop from random enemies but these are hardly a dependable source of upgrades. No, for that you’ll have to upgrade the various Arms Manufacturers. Now let’s figure out how to do that.
What Are Arms Manufacturers?
In NLA, there are two major kiosks to keep an eye out for, both of them located in Armory Alley in the upper level of the Administrative District. These are the Shop Terminal, and the AM Terminal. The Shop Terminal is self-explanatory, letting you purchase new weapons and armor, as well as sell the ones you already have.
The more important one is the AM Terminal. This stands for Arms Manufacturers, the ones who make all the gear that you can buy from the shop. You have a few more specific options with them, such as crafting gear from schematics you’ve found, upgrading the traits intrinsic to the equipment, and making new Augments you can put into open slots in your gear.
Unlike many other games, other Xenoblade games included, stock doesn’t just get added as you progress through the game, outside of a few exceptions. This is where the ‘Manage AMs’ options comes into play. Upgrading AMs increases the stock on offer, though each Am offers different things, so make sur to read them carefully before investing in them.
How To Upgrade Arms Manufacturers
Upgrading Arms Manufacturers is a simple process, though can be done in two different ways. You either use their gear in combat, or you invest in them directly. Every AM also has multiple levels to upgrade, starting at level one and growing to level five.
For the first two upgrades, you will unlock new gear to purchase. For the subsequent levels four and five, this existing gear is instead upgraded in rarity and given more Battle Traits. These are the skills that add extra effects to your gear, such as gaining TP when using Arts and so on.
Let’s look at each option below in more detail.
Using Their Gear
Every piece of gear in the game comes from a specific AM, though much of the gear you pick up in the early game will come from either Sakuraba Industries, or Grenana Galactic Group. Every company thrives off marketing, and that’s effectively what you’re doing when you use their gear in combat. The more people see you with their gear, the more people invest in them, the more they can make.
The actual process of this is easy, and one you don’t have to do actively. As long as you complete battles while wearing any AM’s gear, then you will gain points for the respective AM. This means you can wear pieces from multiple different AMs and gain points towards each of them. However, the more pieces you wear from a single AM, the more points you will get towards them.
Mind you, this is still quite a slow process, and not one that should be used as the main means of gaining points for an AM. Instead, treat it like a helpful bonus to boost an AM without you having to actively do anything.
Investing Miranium
The next, and much faster method to upgrading Arms Manufacturers, is to invest in them directly. This requires Miranium, which you get from FrontierNet. Every AM has its own upgrading threshold, with later AMs typically requiring more points to reach the same level as earlier ones. For example, it takes more points for Grenana Galactic Group to reach level three than it does for Sakuraba Industries.
In the early game, it may take a while for you to gain enough Miranium to invest a good amount into AMs, though with a bit of time, it is easy to be getting 1000’s of Miranium every time it is acquired, which in turns makes it much faster to upgrade AMs than by just using their gear and slowly gathering points.
There is a limit to how much Miranium you can hold without extra Storage Probes, so make sure you’re investing your Miranium into AMs as soon as it’s full so it doesn’t go to waste, as any excess is simply discarded.
How Many Arms Manufacturers Are There?
The game opens with two Arms Manufacturers, though this number increases as the game goes on. Some are as unlocked as the story advances, while some can only be unlocked through side quests. There are eight Arms Manufacturers in total, each dealing in a special attribute or type of content. Here are each of them, what they sell, and how to unlock them in the first place:
|
Arms Manufacturer |
Specialty |
When They Unlock |
|---|---|---|
|
Sakuraba Industries |
Physical weapons and armor |
Unlocked by default. |
|
Grenada Galactic Group |
Beam weapons and armor |
Unlocked by default. |
|
Meredith and Co. |
Ether armor and Gravity weapons |
Complete Chapter Four. |
|
Candid & Credible |
High defense armor and Electric and Gravity weapons |
Complete Chapter Five. |
|
Six Stars |
Thermal armor and Thermal and Physical weapons |
Complete A Challenger Approaches Affinity Mission (Chapter Ten). |
|
Orphean Technologies |
High evasion armor, Gravity and Skell weapons |
Complete Rescue At The Ensconced Citadel Normal Mission (Chapter Six). |
|
Nopon Commerce Guild |
Mainly weapons with larger magazines and Thermal |
Complete BFFs Affinity Mission (Chapter Five). |
|
Factory 1.21 |
Mainly weapons with Gravity |
Complete Professor B’s Return Normal Mission (Chapter Seven). |
As you can see from the above table, not all AMs are built equal. Not only are just four of them unlocked as part of the story, some of them focus mainly on armor, and others instead on weapons. You will often need to acquire gear from multiple different AMs to make a strong build, rather than relying on just one of them. As such, it is worth investing in all of them equally, unless you are looking to find a specific type of equipment.
For example, many Galactic Knight Arts are boosted when using the Beam attribute, and so you would acquire weapons from Grenada Galactic Group. However, you may instead want to invest in a specific form of defense, or play more of a tank role. In this scenario, you could then get your armor from Candid & Credible to make a sturdy but highly damaging build. It is this freedom that makes each AM stand out, rather than just being different shops with the same stock but different elements
There are also some AMs, such as Candid & Credible, that will only sell heavy armor, with lighter gear relegated to other AMs.
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