Xenoverse 2 Hidden Mechanics and Noteworthy Quirks (Ultra Instinct Update)

This is a work-in-progress guide dedicated to sharing information about Xenoverse 2 mechanics that the game just simply doesn't explain. Some of these are commonly known, while others are either a result of poor translation or cryptic descriptions. Some are only known by viewing the game files using modder tools, as is often the case with super soul effects.

I will add more to this list over time. Please feel free to contribute anything you have found in the comments below, and I will be sure to add it to the list along with a credit to you for the info.

I organised this guide to range from more general information that can apply to any character in the game, to general CaC information, to specific character moveset or cast character specific information. Basically, the further on you read into the guide, the more circumstantial or specific the information will get.

Super Attacks/Reinforcement Skills with Unique Features or Oddities

Evil Explosive Wave- will teleport with Super Saiyan when changed to level 3 (similar to Kamehameha or Galick Gun). This is noteworthy as it is unclear what does or does not teleport outside of Galick Gun or Kamehameha.

Emperor's Blast- is a move that hits backwards (kind of like a back hit attack when you are being flanked). The thing that distinguishes this move from something like Paralyse Beam (which also fires backwards) is that Emperor's blast has super armor. It is by far the most effective backwards firing move in the game for this reason.

Lovely Cyclone- will reset any reinforcement skill duration when used, and can be stacked with other reinforcement effects. Useful for extending skills such as Meditation for slowing the ki drain of SSB/SSBE.

Do or Die- this reinforcement skill has super armor and can be deployed fairly quickly. This makes it very effective for repelling opponents who snap vanish behind you while also applying a 10% damage reduction. However, you can be stamina broken from a super dash similarly to when you are using an ultimate. Even so, it can serve as a ki-based evasive provided that you use it before your opponent starts their next combo.

Fighting Pose K- it says "you do not lean" when you are attacked while using this skill, but this actually means yo do not flinch. Basically it grants you super armor for the duration of it use (about 10 seconds I believe).

Dust Attack- A quicker variant of Solar Flare that only costs 100 ki, but the downside is that it is unreliable. It only stuns the opponent outside of a combo, but will knock them away if implemented with combo inputs. Does a little bit of damage (approximately 1000).
Note: I have found that Fu's Energy Minefield attack used point blank can reliably reset a combo, thus enabling the stun effect of Dust Attack instead of the knockback. This can be done in a sequence to make slower moves such as God of Destruction's Anger actually viable in a combo.

Charged Ki Wave- a more effective way to recover stamina than Rise to Action, which has regrettably been nerfed into obscurity. I wouldn't recommend wasting a move slot on this ability though, especially when you have SSB/SSBE, Future SSJ, or newer super souls that can buff stamina recovery much more substantially.

Justice Blade- will chain into (almost) any ultimate attack without needing a stamina break. Nearly any beam attack, or strike that moves you towards your opponent, is capable of this. While others such as Meteor Burst or Hell Flash are less reliable, the absolute worst for this is Jaco's Super Elite Combo. There are very few methods outside of a hard stamina break that can make this move land.

Phantom Fist- is compatible with: Dabura's Super Soul "The real fight starts now", Kid Goku's super soul "Behind that one, and that one, and that one!". This is noteworthy, as the super soul specifies that is triggered by any Afterimage-type move, which means Phantom Fist is considered a variant of Afterimage.

Ultimate Attacks with Unique Features or Oddities

Full Power Energy Volley- ki blasts will track if it is used at the end of a combo. Using this ult. without comboing will otherwise result in a random scatter.

Destructive Fission- will cancel out any ki attack (including ultimates) in its path and continue tracking your opponent. It stays active until either 20 seconds pass or until your opponent hits you (due to a huge nerf).

S.S. Deadly Bomber- will continue to chase your opponent even if they break your stamina using a super dash. Most ultimate attacks are cancelled on a stamina break, but this one is a rare exception.

Kaioken Kamehameha x4- fastest startup time of any ultimate, easy to combo into. The downside is that it leaves you vulnerable after it finishes, and it needs additional ki to have any worthwhile damage.

Death Meteor- an excellent strike super that can stand in as a ranged ultimate for strike builds. It tracks extremely well, has a fairly quick start up, and deals a pretty decent chunk of damage.

Warp Kamehameha- easy for saiyans to combo into. Just do light attacks until your opponent gets sent flying, then input this move immediately. Lands most of the time rather reliably.

Hell Flash- does the most damage if you hit them with it point blank. It has a tendency of missing or dealing partial damage if you use it any other way, despite the massive area it covers.

Super Ki Explosion-> high damage output, reliable to hit with, and fairly fast startup that can take an opponent off guard. Excellent for countering an opponent if you anticipate them vanishing behind you. The only reliable way out is burning an evasive or limit bursting. Just make sure you have 8 bars of ki to put into it (800 ki) so you can maximize its damage potential. This move stops at 8 bars regardless of whether you have more ki or not.

Blue Hurricane- one of the best ways of defeating Giant Ape form enemies in Xenoverse 1, it is not nearly as useful of a move in Xenoverse 2. Its hard to control and does not register as many hits as it used to. Very unreliable as a means of dealing damage.

Burning Spin- similar to Blue Hurricane, except even harder to control and covers a fraction of the map area. You do have a wider range of movement, but its pretty useless otherwise.

Transformation Oddities

Potential Unleashed- the description claims you recover ki faster, but in reality your ki recovery is only boosted by about 6.67%. I suspect it claims faster ki recovery because this skill is intended to be the equivalent to SSJ3 for other races. By that logic, Potential Unleashed would have a 96.67% faster ki recovery than SSJ3.

Future Super Saiyan- the description claims you recover ki faster than any other form, but this is actually true for stamina recovery. Stamina recovery is boosted by 15%, but ki recovery is the same as standard super Saiyan (-33%).

Dyspo’s Super Sonic mode- makes some of his skills teleport and connect more effectively

Beast- is by far the easiest transformation to stamina break in the game due to the lengthy animation. You can stamina break your opponent first, then initiate transforming and there's still a chance that your opponent might float over to you to break your guard.

Additional note: the hair and eye replacers inherent to the transformation means that your character gets those features of the transformation, no matter what. If your character has a scar on their eye, it miraculously heals upon transforming. If your character has no pupils, they will suddenly gain them. If your character is bald, poof! Beast Gohan wig appears. Beast has done wonders for male pattern baldness.

Super Souls- Effects and Mistranslations

S, M, L, XL, XXL boosts – are (usually) boosts of 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% respectively.
Any super soul that says “a bit of time after the battle begins”- this duration is typically about 30 seconds, regardless of whether it is a PvP, PvE, or Parallel quest scenario.

Any super soul that has health, ki, or auto recovery- this is entirely variable and has no consistency. Some effects are faster, others are slower. Some effects last 1 minute, others last about 15 seconds.

“I’ve been saving this one! Kaioken!!” – will make level 1 kaioken have slight stamina recovery instead of drain (even during combos and skills).

“I’ve cast everything aside for this!” – normally XXL boosts indicate 25%, but in this case the attack boosts are about 40%.

“You've awakened my my true power...” – claims to give XL boost to stamina recovery, but this is actually applied to ki recovery.

“Don’t go all out!” – when used on the mentor variant of Gotenks, the ki blast type is rapid shot rather than a single power blast. This is significant, as it differs from the CaC version and is far more effective at draining the stamina of a target. It is best deployed against opponents with super armor, as they soak up all the stamina damage directly and can be stamina broken quickly.

"That won't work on me!" (Ribrienne's super soul) – is the only super soul in the game that changes your basic ki blasts to hearts.

"There's more where that came from!" - says it occasionally "completely restores ki" but actually just refunds the initial ki cost of the move. The "occasionally" aspect means that it has a random chance to trigger, which seems to work fine on GT Vegeta. But for CaC's the ability does not seem to trigger whatsoever (this last comment is pending more testing, but the probability appears lower for certain).
-> Update: The ki refund effect for CaCs now seems to work more reliably since the Breakers update.

"I never knew this world existed"- is a popular super soul for raids, as it makes you stronger by (s) amount when an ally is K.O'd. It also works great for parallel quests if you bring custom Zamasu and Goku Black with you with low health stats and "I really do love being Immortal" equipped. They revive with 10% health, get knocked out instantly, and self-revive on repeat. This enables you to exploit the full potential of this super soul very rapidly at higher level parallel quests.

"Any taller would be unnatural"- gives an (S) attack boost always, and a bit of time after the battle starts give an (L) boost to all attacks. These boosts do not stack. Once the second boost triggers, the 5% boost is replaced with a 15% boost to all attacks. Some youtubers believe that it stacks to become an XL boost (20%), but this is not the case.

"Kind of human-like, don't you think?"- the XL damage reduction after using Energy Field now lasts around 10 seconds, so it is a much more useful super soul to run now. Stack this with SSJ3, SSBE, or Do or Die and you can be running a damage reduction as high as 55%. SSBE would be more recommendable than SSJ3, as it's stamina recovery can make using the evasive more reliable.

"Damn... Better go all out!"- gives an XXL boost to all damage and movement speed, with -10% all damage taken in exchange. I have tested this super soul vs. Toppo's "I've cast everything aside for this!" and determined that "XXL" to see which is stronger. In this case, XXL means 30% attack boost, whereas Toppo's super soul for some reason does around 42%.

"Stop trampling on Namek's peace!"- only activates if the partners are the same gender (Info provided courtesy of steam user Giving_litch).

Ideal (and unideal) Skills for Raids

Ideal skills:
- Fast supers in general are better than ultimates, as ultimates a) miss more, b) take longer, c) need more ki, and d) can take away hit priority so that either you're the only one hitting the raid boss or somebody else is taking away hit priority from you.
- Bomber XD-> spammable, very high damage, and quick. It doesn't knock them back for long, and it doesn't knock them back at all if they have super armor.
- Vanishing ball-> fast, high damage, decent tracking
- Bending Kamehameha-> no charge time, high damage, great tracking
- Perfect shot-> not as much damage as it used to have, but excellent tracking
- DIE DIE Missle Barrage-> decent damage, decent hit rate/tracking
- Trap shooter-> decent tracking, decent damage
- Focus flash-> high start up time, but good damage for 1 bar of ki
- Big Bang Kamehameha (must use with Super Saiyan)-> teleports to enemy and delivers a high payload of damage. Downside is charge time and high miss potential if the NPC moves.

Great Utility Moves:
- Kai Kai-> costs no ki, and gets you away from immediate danger when the NPC raid boss targets you. If you're far away from the battle, it can also get you back to the battle sooner provided that an ally is near by.
- Super block-> protects you from raid boss skills that deal mass damage, such as Marbling drop and that one that looks like purple spirals that i forget off the top of my head
- Ultimate Charge-> fastest way to charge large amounts of ki at once

"Meh" (can be either good or bad, depending on super armor NPC or connection issues):
- Emperor's death beam-> sometimes it either won't register if others are dealing damage, or hog the NPC damage registry so that nobody else can hit him while this skill lands. Can be a hindrance for all parties involved.
- Final Explosion-> while excellent for dealing damage, it fills up the screen with visual spam so that nobody can see what is going on. Also it sometimes glitches and the animation keeps going even after its over.
- Spirit bomb-> takes a long time to charge, and sometimes stops registering damage after the first hit
- Super Vanishing ball-> if you must use ultimates, this one is fast with decent tracking
- Special Beam cannon-> fast and unblockable, but hard to hit with if the NPC moves a lot
- Prominence or Final Flash-> fast to hit with, but beams will miss if they move
- Elegant blaster-> great for evading the NPC, but not useful for damage as they tend to move from the blast zone. Also just not very strong.

Unideal skills:
- Gigantic Roar-> hogs hit priority so that other players can't deal damage/ interrupts ongoing damage
- Grab move such as Gigantic Raid, raid blast-> nobody else can do damage while you do these, and they aren't even good
divine lasso-> hogs hit priority
- Innocence bullet-> while great for your own personal stats, the debuff can actually trigger an effect where the NPC gets an even bigger damage buff, resulting in a higher chance of your allies being 1-shot KO'd

Ideal Super Souls for Raids

Super Souls
Damage:
- "Irritating little pests"-> XL buff to all supers (not ultimates)
- "I've cast aside everything for this..." XXL (40%) damage boost to all attacks
- "I said don't go easy on me"-> XXXL damage boost to all ultimates in exchange for high ki drain
- "I've become everything I hate" -> temporary debuff in exchange for restoring then large buff to all attacks
- "Before creation comes destruction"-> XL buff to all ki supers
- "You honestly thought you could beat me?!" [When health is above 75%] Boosts all attacks. (XL) (20%) Boosts amount of Ki restored. (XL) (20%)
-"Enjoy watching the bloodbath!" [When health is above 50%] Boosts all attacks. (L) (15%)
- "Damn.... I guess I'd better go all out"-> 1 minute after the battle starts, recieve XXL (30%) boost to all damage and movement speed.


Ki charging:
- "My Back's getting all tingly"-> fastest ki charge time, small buff that lasts like 5 seconds and is useless
-"HAAAAAH"- faster ki charge time, temporary medium ki blast buff

Move Specific:
- "Time to dole out some vengeance"-> buffs and reduces cost of Emperor's Death beam
- "This is a real Kamehameha"- buffs special kamehameha moves (i.e. x10, kaioken)
- "Oops! I think I got carried away! Heh heh!" -> buffs kamehameha and basic attack the more you use it
- "You and this entire planet are as good as space dust!"-> XL boost to Galick Gun or Earth Splitting Galick gun, with additional small bonuses that stack with each use
- Don't tell me you think you can beat me! when any Reinforcement Skill is activated, Boosts all attacks. (XL) (20%)
-"This thing carries hopes of everyone on Earth!"-> activates auto health recovery, large boost to spirit bomb damage

Other Interesting hidden tech to try:
"Don't go all-out" - Gotenks's Super Soul (specifically on Custom Gotenks)
*Note: This super soul is available to CaCs, however CaC's get bomb ki blasts instead of rush. Equipping this super soul to Gotenks makes his rush (a.k.a. rapid) ki blasts far more damaging to an enemy's stamina than the CaC version. This makes Custom Gotenks extremely effective against enemies with super armor such as raid bosses.*

[When a charged ki blast hits]
Boosts stamina damage. (XL)

Limit Burst Description:
ATK Up! Ki Auto-Recovery! Stamina Rec. SPD Down.

Ki blast type: Rush (for Gotenks' variation specifically, will be set to bomb for CaCs which is far less useful)

Player Race traits and character size (and how they affect gameplay)

Character size works like this:

->The wider you are, you get a bonus to strike super damage. The thinner you are, the more bonuses you get to ki blasts.
-> The taller you are, the greater bonuses you get to your character's health bar. The smaller you are, the greater the bonus you get for movement speed.
-> I would estimate these differences to be no more than 10% bonus at best.The numbers on these are far from clear, however.

Basic Racial traits

Earthlings
Pros:
- well balanced in all damage types
- ki auto regeneration (stacks with ki gained from combos, as well as super soul effects)
- arguably the best combo strings in the game
- average health pool
-[Male] bonus to strike supers
-[Female] bonus to ki supers
- Arguably the most noob-friendly race out of all the characters

Cons:
- not really much to say here, they are well rounded at just about everything. They might not be the best at any one purpose in terms of stats, but they can work with pretty much any character build you want to try with them.
- Power pole pro is not a particularly useful transformation, its pretty much the worst in the game

Saiyans:
Pros
-High basic attack damage
-[Male] bonus to strike supers
-[Female] bonus to ki supers (comparable to that of Frieza race)
-most transformations of any race
-Zenkai boost-> 10% damage boost when revived after being knocked out

Cons:
-[Female] worst health pool in the game
-[Male] on the lower spectrum of health

Majins
Pros:
- [Female] fastest stamina break recovery in the game
-[Male] one of the highest health bonuses in the game
-high defence-> reduced stamina damage taken from attacks, reduced damage taken when stamina is high
- versatile in ki or strike supers, fairly balanced stats
-purification is a pretty powerful transformation -> high damage bonuses, and you regenerate stamina at all times (even during combos or charging ki)
- stretchy arms with somewhat increased hit range

Cons:
- the lower your stamina, the more damage you take ( I think this can be as high as 30% damage but I need confirmation on that)
- Purification is just a clone of Kid Buu, including his move set which you cannot change
- Male majins just kind of suck, they are extremely slow in their combos with not amazing damage output

Namekians
Pros:
- high stamina regen rate -> 15% higher than other races by default (might need confirmation on that)
- regen health when at critical (10%)
- high health bonus
- increased benefits from item and capsule use
- versatile in skills -> strike or ki supers, doesn't seem to matter too much
- Giant form is one of the most unique play styles in the game
- stretchy arms with substantially increased hit range

Cons:
- lowest all-around damage output in the game
- combos on the slower side, low hit priority in PvP

Frieza Race
Pros:
- one of the highest ki damage outputs in the game
- regens stamina during combos
- golden transformation has high ki blast damage buff and cool unique normal ki blast beams
- fastest race in the game

Cons:
- second lowest health pool in the game
- basic attack damage is on the low end of average
- this race is optimised for ki blast builds only, strike supers not well supported

Player Race Stat Rankings (as compared to one another)

Below are rankings of each race in terms of their proficiency in each stat area. While I cannot give exact numbers or percentiles as to what the differences are, I can at least tell you which character is strongest and weakest in each area. I have ranked them from 1st (being strong) to 8th (weakest) accounting for gender differences between characters as well (5 races with 2 genders for 3 of them).

Note: some of these might rank in the same placement, as I consider them to be roughly equivalent. The ones that stand out the most are in 1st or 8th place, as those are the clearest strengths and weaknesses.

For example:
-> only earthlings stand out in terms of ki recovery, so everybody else is 2nd place
-> Namekians are the only ones with a buffed stamina recovery, but Majin females get a faster stamina break recovery. These are 1st places for the same stat, just for different reasons. The only 2nd place ranking is Frieza race, as they are the only race that recovers stamina during combos.
-> most races deal damage at a fairly comparable rate, with exceptions being a) gender variations, or b) namekians. They just deal the least damage all around, but they make up for it with exceptional resiliency.

Regarding gender variation, the common themes are:
-> Males have more health and better strike damage, but with a bit less movement speed
-> Females have less health and better ki damage, but with a bit more movement speed

Earthlings
Male:
Stat Rankings:
1. Health-> 3rd
2. Ki-> 1st (because ki regeneration)
3. Stamina-> 3rd (average)
4. Basic Attack-> 2nd
5. Ki supers -> 4th
6. Strike Supers-> 2nd
7. Movement speed-> 4th (average)

Female:
Stat Rankings:
1. Health-> 4th
2. Ki-> 1st (because ki regeneration)
3. Stamina-> 3rd (average)
4. Basic Attack -> 4th
5. Ki supers -. 3rd
6. Strike Supers -> 4th
7. Movement speed-> 3rd-4th (slightly above average)

Saiyans
Male:
Stat Rankings:
1. Health-> 6th
2. Ki-> 2nd (average, no particular bonuses)
3. Stamina-> 3rd (average)
4. Basic Attack-> 1st (this is one area they excel in)
5. Ki supers-> 3rd
6. Strike Supers-> 1st (definitely build to be melee optimized)
7. Movement speed-> 4th (average)

Female:
Stat Rankings:
1. Health-> 7th (barely better than Frieza race)
2. Ki-> 2nd (average, no particular bonuses)
3. Stamina-> 3rd (average, no particular bonuses)
4. Basic Attack-> 3rd- 4th (this is one area they supposedly excel in, but male earthlings are slightly better and female earthlings/ Majins are only slightly worse, if not the same)
5. Ki supers-> 2nd (pretty comparable to Frieza race)
6. Strike Supers-> 4th (average)
7. Movement speed-> 3rd (above average)

Namekians
Stat Rankings:
1. Health (2nd in terms of health bar size, but 1st due to last 10% having fairly strong regeneration)
2. Ki-> 2nd (average, no particular bonuses)
3. Stamina-> 1st (fastest default stamina recovery)
4. Basic Attack-> 8th (lowest in the game)
5. Ki supers-> 8th (not bad, just lowest on the list)
6. Strike Supers-> 8th (not bad, just lowest on the list)
7. Movement speed-> 6th-7th (slow)

Frieza Race
Stat Rankings:
1. Health-> 8th (lowest in the game)
2. Ki-> 2nd (average, no particular bonuses)
3. Stamina-> 2nd (stamina regenerates while they fight)
4. Basic Attack-> 7th
5. Ki supers-> 1st
6. Strike Supers-> 7th (definitely a race for ki based builds)
7. Movement speed-> 1st

Majins
Male:
Stat Rankings:
1. Health-> 1st in terms of raw health, damage resistance (but debuffed when stamina is low)
2. Ki-> 2nd (average, no particular bonuses)
3. Stamina-> 8th (slowest stamina recovery)
4. Basic Attack-> 4th (average)
5. Ki supers-> 4th (average)
6. Strike Supers-> 3rd (above average)
7. Movement speed-> 8th (slow af)

Female:
Stat Rankings:
1. Health-> Somewhere between 4th and 5th (definitely the most resilient of the female race variants)
2. Ki-> 2nd (average, no particular bonuses)
3. Stamina-> 1st in stamina break recovery, 3rd in terms of passive regeneration (average)
4. Basic Attack-> somewhere between 3rd and 4th place, pretty good for female race variant
5. Ki supers-> 3rd, average or above
6. Strike Supers-> 3rd, average or above
7. Movement speed-> 2nd- 3rd ish (slightly faster than other female variants).

Overall:
-> Saiyan males have best combo damage output
-> Both Earthling variants have ki advantage as well as versatility
-> Namekians are resilient af, but worst damage output and speed as a tradeoff
-> Male Majins are not very good to be honest, they are simply too slow and their low stamina recovery paired with losing their damage resistance when at low stamina is just a bad combination
-> Frieza Race is the glass canon of all glass canons. Excellent ki damage output, but low health makes PvP matches fast one way or the other
-> Majin Females are the best female variant-> fairly versatile, balanced damage output, and insane stamina break recovery.
-> Female saiyans are one of the worst CaC types. While their ki blast output is pretty strong, their low health just makes them a worse version of the Frieza race. Their combos are surprisingly average in damage. They simply don't do anything particularly special compared to other character builds.

Interesting Play Styles to Try Out for CaCs

All:
- Potential unleashed combined with the super soul "You've awakened my true power..." creates a well-rounded play style with minimal downsides. You get an XL boost in ki recovery and good all-around bonuses. Note that the super soul says "boosts all abilities (s)" when transformed. From what I have been able to gather, this super soul gives a 5% bonus to everything, from movement speed to damage reduction, damage bonuses, ki/stamina recovery, movement speed. This may not seem huge, but consider that potential unleashed already gives bonuses to all damage types, movement speed, and a slight bonus to ki recovery and damage reduction.

The stats of your character (transformed + super soul) are as follows:

Benefits:
Increase all Attack Damage | +15% + 5% = 20%
Decrease all Damage Taken | -5% (+ additional 5% reduction) = 10%
Increase ki recovery from combos | +6.67% + 20% XL recovery + 5% small bonus when transformed = 31.67%
Increase Ground Speed | +11% + 5% = 16%
Increase Air Speed | +7% + 5% = 12%
Increase Boost Speed | +11% + 5% = 16%
Increase Dash Speed | +7% + 5% = 12%

Drawbacks:
Virtually none. You need 500 ki to activate Potential unleashed to also get the small boost to all stats, but even then you get the XL boost to ki recovery at all times, so getting there is easy enough anyway.

Essentially, this super soul creates Potential Unleashed 2 (if there were a follow up transformation to this form).



Saiyans:
- Future Super Saiyan when combined with Toppo's super soul "I've cast everything aside for this", you get a 40% attack boost to all attacks as well as the stamina recovery benefit of FSSJ. What you get is essentially a new playstyle with a mix of benefits and drawbacks from all SSJ forms-> the damage output of SSBE, the sustainability and appearance of regular SSJ, increased damage received of SSB, teleporting attacks. All around balanced tradeoffs for a huuuuge increase in power. Notably, ki recovery suffers the most with an overall 43% decrease (SSJ 33% reduction plus the super soul drawbacks), but this is easily compensated for with Divinity Unleashed.

The stats of your character (transformed + super soul) are as follows:

Benefits:
Increase Stamina Restoration Rate | +15% - 10% = 5% (still a small boost in the end)
Increase Basic Melee Damage | +10% + 40% = 50%
Increase Basic Ki Blast Damage | +5% + 40% = 45%
Increase Strike Skill Damage | +10% + 40% = 50%

Drawbacks:
Ki Skill Damage | +5% + 40% = 45%
Ground Speed | +3% - 10% = -7%
Air Speed | +1% - 10% = -9%
Boost Speed | +3% - 10% = -7%
Dash Speed | +1% - 10% = -9%
Ki Restoration Rate | -35% -10% = -45%

I like to think of this form as a more sustainable alternative to SSBE, but it is not without its down sides. Your movement speeds are slower, and you don't get the mad stamina that SSB/SSBE forms give. But ki depletion is removed from the equation, and skills such as Divinity Unleashed easily counter the reduced ki restoration. Definitely fun to play around with if you like the look of regular super saiyan.



Namekians:
-Invest 125 points in health, 125 points in basic attack, and 125 points in stamina. You've made a tanky boi that a) is optimal for giant form, or alternatively:
b) a hard to kill build when used with super souls such as "I'm neither Kami nor Piccolo". Add super armor moves such as "Evil Whirlwind", "Emperor's Blast", and "Do or Die", and avoid using stamina if you can. You will have a health regenerating BEAST that is very difficult to put down. Just conserve your stamina to keep the health regen of your super soul going, and you'll be one heck of a mammoth to put down.

- Use the super soul "You need to be more careful." from the new DBS Super Hero pack 1. The first time Giant Namekian runs out of stamina, it immediately goes back to full with this super soul on. You do un-transform, but you can immediately go back into it if you have 300 ki.



Male Majins:
- This build is intended to be optimised for Purification and its damage potential. Invest 125 points in all 3 damage areas (strike, basic, ki), then make your CaC as tall as possible. This will max our your character's health potential, which will carry over to your Purification form. Combined with the super soul "Eehee hee hee heee!" and you get a) ki auto regeneration, b) reduced damage taken from all attacks, c) a massive buff to normal attacks, and d) the stamina auto-recovery this form gets during any action, combos included. If you are low and health (and not in PvP), you can use quick sleep to regenerate.

Skill Points and QQ Bangs

Skill Points

Regarding how skill points alter character stats, it is not altogether clear on what the proportions are. Would 125 points mean 125% increase in damage for basic attack, for example? No. How are these bonuses calculated? No idea. Here's the problem:

- racial traits alter how significant skill point allotments are-> for example, Frieza race has some of the highest ki blast damage by default, but also the lowest health. This means that putting 125 points into health has far less of an impact than putting 125 points in ki blast supers.

- Points seem to count differently for each skill area as well. For example, 42 points invested in either ki or stamina will give you exactly 1 full additional bar in the category you spent them in. This is regardless of racial traits or character size.

- There seems to be some sort of law of 'diminishing returns' for skill point allocation in the areas of damage and health. This means the more you invest in a given skill, the smaller your bonus gets with each level of allocation. This is likely to help you build up your character at earlier levels, while not letting you get too overpowered at level 99. That's not to say you shouldn't min-max, though- its certainly still worth it for certain races (i.e. health for Namekians, basic attack for Saiyans, ki blast attacks for Frieza race).

- investing points in health seems to make the smallest difference for most races. Min-maxing the health stat is only a good idea for Majins or Namekians, as they are the tankiest as it is. Health bars are determined for CaCs by a) race type, b) body type, and c) skill point allocation. Note that skill points in health give the least benefit out of all the other skill areas. I don't think any race gets more than 1 additional bar of health for 125 skill points, which isn't amazing considering 1 Kaioken Kamehameha super (not even an ultimate) can wipe out a full health bar. For namekians and maybe majins I would consider heavy investment for a tank build, but for other races I would not allocate a tonne of points to it. 42 would be good for most other races, maybe 84 for Frieza race.

- basic attack is worth investing in for any race (less so for Frieza races, most indispensably for Saiyans and Earthlings)

- Between ki and strike supers, you are better off choosing one or the other rather than investing in both. However, I do build characters to min-max all damage areas just for the sake of a fun all-around damage dealer build. Namely for Earthlings, as they are already the jack-of-all-trades type.

- I have no idea how much investing points in damage types actually increases them. Again, bear in mind that its variable by a) how many points you spent, b) your character race, and c) your character's body type. And this isn't even factoring in QQ bangs or super souls.

Speaking of which...

QQ Bangs/ Super Soul skill point increases

- QQ Bang points appear to be equivalent to skill point expenditures. For example, 5 QQ Bang points in one skill area is = to 5 points spent in the skill from leveling up.
- Each clothing slot has the potential to invest 5 additional skill points (or even subtract skill points)
- QQ Bangs replace all of your clothing stats. Therefore, it stands to reason that a QQ Bang is applied to each of the 4 stat boosting clothing areas (Shirt, Pants, Shoes, and Gloves). Essentially, that QQ Bang stat is applied x4 to your character (once for each clothing slot).
- The point of QQ Bangs is to make it so that your clothes don't matter for your stats. You can style your character how you want without having to consider how it impacts your stats.

Health Bar Colors Guide

Below are the tiers of health that a character in the game can have. Each color is associated with a bar or layer of health. When you're reaching your last bar of health (critical levels of damage for level 99 characters), that is the yellow-orange ish color bar.

Health bars are determined for CaCs by a) race type, b) body type, and c) skill point allocation. Note that skill points in health give the least benefit out of all the other skill areas. I don't think any race gets more than 1 additional bar of health for 125 skill points, which isn't amazing considering 1 Kaioken Kamehameha super (not even an ultimate) can wipe out a full health bar. For namekians and maybe majins I would consider heavy investment for a tank build, but for other races I would not allocate a tonne of points to it. 42 would be good for most other races, maybe 84 for Frieza race.

CaC and Most normal Characters Health Bar Levels and Colors:
Grey = Full Health, regardless of max hit points

Last bar- goldish orange-> every character, indicator of
2 bars- Light Yellow -> every character past 20-30 ish
3 bars- Light Green-> every character past level 40 ish and beyond
4 bars- Dark Green-> Tanky characters (Namekians, Majins, Health type A, B, C stats for custom mentors such as DBZ/Super Broly, Lord Slug, Nappa, Piccolo)

NPC characters
5 bars-> Blue -> Parallel quest bosses (i.e. SSB Goku, Jiren, or otherwise high level PQ boss character), some expert missions
6 bars or more-> Purple -> Raid bosses, expert missions

Parallel Quests- Things I Found To Be Noteworthy

General note: sometimes time patrollers spawn after you travel through a gate to progress a parallel quest. If you see the gate you just came through is still green like an objective waypoint, check back on the other side to see if time patrollers have spawned. Your scouter button will help identify them quickly. Defeating these guys will drop costumes, materials for crafting, Hercule Badges, or ideally Dragon Balls. Fighting these guys is optional, but also contributes to your overall performance ranking in the Parallel quest.

With regards to item or skill farming- TlDr: the more mission conditions you fulfill, the greater likelihood of skill or item drops become.
Some skills or items are dropped from defeating specific characters that might appear as a result of fulfilling certain conditions (i.e. as a non specific example, defeating Goku before Vegeta in a higher tier mission might fulfill a condition that will spawn Gogeta). The higher your performance ranking is, the better rewards you will get. You will get an ultimate finish for fulfilling all of a parallel quests' conditions, as well as for defeating any time patrollers that spawn as optional battles.

Noteworthy quests:
Parallel Quest 34- Right at the start of this quest, time patrollers are guaranteed spawn in the proximity of the player's starting position. This is useful for dragon ball farming, as if you do not see a "key item obtained" message after defeating them you can simply retry the mission and immediately reset the encounter.

Reliable NPCs to bring on Parallel Quests

If you're farming a parallel quest at higher levels (especially for the DLCs), you want backup that actually helps you out. They are scripted to not deal much damage, so you're best bet is to make use of them in other creative ways. Here's some ideas for you:

- Piccolo-> especially with Health Type C stats for custom variants, combined with the super soul "I'm neither Kami nor Piccolo now..." he is virtually unkillable. NPC's don't tend to burn much stamina, so he will have his health buff for a lot of the time. Have 2 Piccolo's in your party like this, and you pretty much can't lose. Support him with All-regen capsules and you're team is essentially invincible.

- Goku Black, SS Rose Goku Black, Zamasu-> equip them with "I do love being immortal" super soul and low health stats so that they die easily and auto resurrect themselves. Now give yourself a super soul that buffs you when your allies die, i..e "I never knew this world existed" buffs all attacks (s) amount to a max of 10 times. That's a 50% damage boost potential on top of your transformation buffs.

- Pan or Videl with "Hercule! Hercule!" super soul-> all allies get buffed when an ally knocks out an enemy. Have 2 Pans, and they buff you each time one of them knocks an NPC out. This is especially effective, as you do not need to alter your own super soul for this to work.

- Hercule (as your mentor)-> if you hate having your mentor interrupt your fights, but sometimes need an extra hand to bail you out of a sticky situation- Hercule is a perfect choice. He'll spam his "The Savior Is Here" super to draw enemy attention as soon as he arrives, them promptly get killed so that he's out of your way. This is great for catching a breather to pop a quick capsule then get back to the fight without your NPC constantly kicking enemies out of your ultimates.

- Broly (DBZ or Super Variant)-> these boys are tanky, and still hit like trucks despite NPCs being programmed to deal less damage.

- Gotenks (any version) -> he spams his crappy Kamikaze Ghosts (both as supers and as ultimates) and they track really well. He's not bad for chipping in spam damage as far as NPCs go.

Unique Cast Character Abilities

I found a youtube video that went over some unique character gimmicks in Xenoverse 2, and it occurred to me that these gimmicks might not all be common knowledge. So I figured I would add a section to this guide that goes over these things (and is vetted by the community if I get something wrong).

Source: CGvideos "10+ Xenoverse 2 Gimmicks and Abilities You Should Know About"
- (Some information in this video was inaccurate, i.e. Ribbrienne's buffs she receives at the end of her combos were incorrectly attributed, though I fear that I may have also gotten them wrong).

1) Combo extentions-> DLC charaters such as Vados and Dyspo can extend their light combos with additional rapid inputs. Why is this a feature? Why not make it just a normal part of the combo? This is because it leaves the option of keeping your light combos shorter if you want to optimise a stamina break and combo your opponent into an ultimate.

2) Ribbrienne's combos apply temporary buffs at the end of their combo string. Her heavy combo string gives ki regen, her light string gives her a basic attack buff, and her 5 light 3 heavy string gives her a damage reduction -> *Please confirm in the comments if I got this right

-> *Gamma 2 from the DBS Super Hero Pack 1 has similar buffs applied in some of his combos, but I do not know their effects as of yet.

3) Hercule's dodge movements in his combos are actually real dodges. If you happen to be in this animation when your opponent attacks with combos or supers, they will miss.

4) Android 21 is the only character in the game that gets a unique charged normal ki blast that looks like Frieza's death waves. She launches these ki blasts with kick animations.

-> This is unlike Ribbrienne's heart ki blasts, which can be applied to CaCs if you use her super soul. CaCs do not get this same benefit with 21's super souls.

5) Base Gogeta (DBS) can turn super saiyan instantly if you activate it in the middle of his combos. He is the only character who has this ability.

6) SSG Vegeta and SSG for CaCs get a damage boost to their combos when inputs are correctly timed. You will hear a sharp sound effect that confirms when the damage boost is applied. SSG Goku has not been updated to have this same effect (and likely never will be sadly).

7) Nova and Eis Shenron get their respective elemental effects applied at the end of their combos. This effect briefly stuns your opponent.

8) GoD Toppo is immune to normal ki blasts. They simply disintegrate against his hakai aura with no negative effects against him.

9) Full Power Jiren's grab depletes stamina (though the effect moreso negates the stamina recovery you would have had during his grab animation. By the time your character is out of the grab and recovered, the stamina you lost will have been regained).

10) Some characters have different grabs depending on whether they are in the air or on the ground. 2 examples of these characters are Kefla and 1st Form Cell.

Cast Character Exclusive Super Souls (WIP)

This section is specifically for super souls that are not available to CaCs. The problem with these super souls is their descriptions are not available to the player in-game, so I used DemonBoy's Super Soul Editor to find out what they actually do. So far I have only found the "Ultra Instinct" Super Soul is unavailable to players. Please add a super soul in the comments if I do not have it on here :)

If you are interested in learning about super souls generally, here is a (somewhat dated) stat sheet. If anybody knows the author, please leave their name in the comments so that I can properly credit them.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1y9B3MMQIV38fw0qfBLUEUIX1ciA-GkBH5hVQeeltVMI/edit?pli=1#gid=0

Here's a link to a steam discussion about super souls for those who are further interested: https://steamcommunity.com/app/454650/discussions/0/2872668209261697866/

Cast Character Exclusive Super Souls

"Ultra Instinct!" - UI Goku's Super Soul
[Once only, when 10% of health is remaining]

Universally agreed upon/ Confirmed effects:
Increases all attacks (XL)

Effects claimed in the super soul text viewed in the editor (and supported in my own testing, to my surprise):
Increases movement speed (XL)
Increases ki recovery (XL)
Increases stamina recovery (XXL) -> specifically 40%, according to the raw numbers of the super soul editor. UI Goku has slower stamina recovery, but with this effect is comparable to SSB.
Reduces all damage taken (XL)

Limit Burst Description:
ATK Up! Ki Auto-Recovery! Stamina Rec. SPD Down.

Ki blast type: Race Default (this is literally what the super soul stats say, as it is not intended for CaC use)

*Note: The information stated above is the raw stat effects stated in the super soul editor that reads these files. I am frankly surprised at all the effects, as I never felt this super soul is actually this powerful until I did my own testing. See the "What does the ''Ultra Instinct'' super soul do?" steam discussion thread for other user's experience with this super soul.*

Link to discussion thread: https://steamcommunity.com/app/454650/discussions/0/1694914735997045542/

Cast Character Exclusive Moves

Please comment if I have missed any :)

Base Game

Supers
Android 17- Smile Charge

Ultimates
Zetsumi Bullet- Cell

Evasives
Warp- Whis
Science Vanhsh- Towa

DLC

Supers
Smile Charge- Custom Android 17 (DBS)
Final Flash (Variant)- SSBE Vegeta -> Can be equipped to Custom SSJ4 Gogeta
Final Blow (Variant)- SSBE Vegeta, largely just reworked animations and boosted damage
Atomic Blast (Variant)- SSBE Vegeta, largely just reworked animations and boosted damage
Full Power Energy Wave (Variant from existing ultimate Attack)- Jiren (Full Power)
Special Beam Cannon (Variant from existing ultimate attack) - Piccolo (Awakened)
Masenko (Variant) - Gohan (DBS), largely just reworked animations and boosted damage
Burst Rush (Variant) - Gohan (DBS), largely just reworked animations and boosted damage
Hawk Charge (Variant) - Gohan (DBS), largely just reworked animations and boosted damage

Ultimates
Final Explosion (Variant)- SSBE Vegeta
Galick Rush - SSBE Vegeta
Appetising Rush- Android 21
Super Kamehamema (Variant)- Base Gogeta (DBS), can cancel into a temporary Power Up
Super Kamehameha (Variant) - Gohan (DBS), can be an evasive at extra ki cost
Super Dragon Flight- DBS Gohan
Evil Explosion (Variant)- Piccolo (Awakened)
Light Grenade (Variant)- Piccolo (Awakened)

Evasives
Warp- Vados (from Whis's moveset)
Flash Strike (Variant from existing super attack)- SSBE Vegeta
Total Evasion- Android 21
Mighty Explosive Wave (Variant from existing super attack)- Jiren (Full Power)
Spirit Slash (Variant)- DBS Gohan
Evil Flight Strike (Variant)- Piccolo (Awakened)

Charge Moves
Final Charge- SSBE Vegeta
Surging Spirit- UI Goku

Ultra Instinct Update

New Max Level for CaCs- What Does This Mean?

Point Allocation
So, if you haven't yet heard the new max level for CaCs is 120. From what I have tested so far, here's what I've found:
- You can skills past 125 points up to 200.
- When you hit Max rank, you get an additional 47 skill points to spend in total.

Scaling for CaCs
Every level up does continue to boost all of your stats by just a smidge more even outside of skill point allocation. At level 99, my Saiyan CaC for example had 42 skill points allocated to stamina (the equivalent of 1 even bar of stamina). Adding another even bar of stamina just from being level 99, my total stamina was an even 8 bars. Now with an additional 42 points of stamina (reaching 84 points allocated in total), my Saiyan CaC has 9.25 bars of stamina- 1 extra from the added 42 points, plus a bit more from reaching level 120.

Scaling for Cast Characters
More importantly (and the reason I am writing this section to begin with), cast characters also get a stat boost correlating with your CaC level. For example, Toppo (GoD) gets nearly a whole bar of extra stamina at max rank 120. Previously he had only 6 full bars of stamina, now he has roughly 6.75 bars. I'm guessing every cast character has had similar all-around buffs correlating with your CaC level. So it's going to be a lot of fun figuring out how the game has changed in terms of balance.

The 5 Types of Ultra Instinct/Auto-dodge (as of the Ultra Instinct Update)

1. Data Input
Data Input gives the user a sort of Ultra Instinct-like auto dodge for a duration after the skill is activated (roughly 15 seconds). It dodges basic attacks at no additional cost to the user, but does little else and is only active for a short amount of time.

2. Goku (Ultra Instinct)
This is the most basic and well-known variant of auto-dodge, and costs roughly 1/2 bar of stamina per dodge. It evades basic attacks, basic ki blasts, and some strike skills. He is notably vulnerable to ki-based supers in this variation, and will have to use evasive skills to avoid the damage otherwise.

3. Goku (Ultra Instinct- Sign)
Arguably the more superior of Goku's UI dodges, this version does not activate until UI Sign Goku is below half health. It is the same as regular UI Goku's dodge, but does not cost stamina when it is active. He is notably vulnerable to ki-based supers in this variation, and will have to use evasive skills to avoid the damage otherwise.

4. CaC Ultra Instinct
Similarly to UI Goku, it costs about half a bar to dodge everything from basic ki blasts/attacks to a handful of strike skills. Like Goku, the user is still vulnerable to ki super attacks. This variant also comes with a charge ability and altered basic ki attacks utilizing Soaring Fist and Spirit Pulse.

5. Raid Boss
This one is the most powerful variant of all, and tends to be associated with Parallel Quest or Raid Boss variants of UI Goku. Not only can Goku dodge nearly all attacks, but he does so at a reduced stamina cost AND can teleport to saftey to launch ultimate attacks. He is still vulnerable to ki-based supers in this state.

Bonus: Whis
Whis's variant of the Auto-dodge skill in this game seems to be all over the place. There are some parallel quests where he is standing idly for the player to try to hit, but he is able to dodge all attacks. In other cases, whether Whis is an ally or an enemy he will have roughly a Data Input level of auto-dodge. The custom mentor version/player selectable version of Whis has no auto-dodge whatsoever.

[ObamaCare]

Correction of note: I had previously reported in the Ultra Instinct update that the 120 level cap increase did not allow you to increase skill beyond 125. I have since learned that you can indeed increase skill up to 200 points. Time to harvest some Dragon Balls, folks :)

[ObamaCare]

@diztortion You are most welcome friend :)

[diztortion]

Thank you for updates!

[ObamaCare]

@Giving_litch interesting. I've been meaning to test this out myself anyways, so I'll look into it as well. There's a few inconsistent super souls out there, like "Pathetic" for example. Sometimes it triggers like it's supposed to, other times you simply cannot get it to work for the life of you.

[Giving_litch]

@ObamaCare Well I'm still looking into it and now I believe there is no gender specification. But I can definitely declare that the super soul has an inconsistent activation at mission start. It may or may not form the white cloud and the blue symbol below the stamina bars when you have any same race allies.

[ObamaCare]

@Giving_litch thanks! I added it to the super souls sections with a shoutout to you :)

[Giving_litch]

the super soul: "Stop trampling on Namek's peace!" only activates if the partners are the same gender as well.

[ObamaCare]

@Bladed Vaults Yeah man, don't forget the super soul "I'm neither Kami or Piccolo now", its a key feature of his tankiness. The npc's that assist you don't use much stamina and tend to just tank hits, so the super soul should be pretty active. If you give Piccolo his dual ultimate as well, he can combo with his other self and deal out decent damage too.

[K.O.2]

Bringing two or more Piccolo's as you described, I need to try that. Virtually invincible sounds perfect for a solo player like myself.

[ObamaCare]

@ Fligglebleh Thanks! Done and done. I added my personal rankings, but again its hard to give any numbers that are concrete due to a) race variation, b) size variation, c) build variation/skill point allocation. I was able to give a reasonably reliable rankings list at least, but nothing too specific with damage numbers or percentiles.

I'm fairly convinced that Dimps doesn't even know how these numbers work, honestly :p