Wondering how to use ziplines in Xenoblade Chronicles 3? Early into your adventure, you'll come across some mechanical contraptions on the edge of the odd cliff. Some of these are connected to other cliffs via thick steel cables, whereas others sit there without. These are ziplines, and knowing how to use them will greatly aid your efforts to get around the world.
Down below, we're going to give you want we've already promised: a primer on how to use ziplines in Xenoblade Chronicles 3. Like a few other parts of the game, they're not well explained. It likes its mystery, and you might be left frustrated if you keep trying something that's destined to fail.
For more on Monolith Soft's big new JRPG, you can learn how to climb the ivy-littered walls you'll come across on your tour, and how to walk up sand as well. All three tricks unlock new areas to explore, so you'll want to learn before you forget where you saw the little shortcuts.
How to Use Ziplines in Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Not long after you leave Colony 9 in the opening chapter of the game, you'll come across a curious chunk of metal on a cliff.
You can't interact with it, and it's not one of those portable ladder posts you can use to connect two faraway places together. Instead, it's a ziplines that can essentially become a bridge between two set points: generally a two cliffs separated by a chasm.
So how do you use these things? Not without a Party Skill, sadly. You need to unlock the ability to use ziplines in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, so be prepared to leave a few of these early points behind. Make a note of them, though, and you'll be able to come back to explore some new areas around familiar territory soon enough.
To unlock the ability to use ziplines, you need to progress far enough into the main story to meet a character called Juniper. Like a few other characters on your travels, they'll stop you in your tracks and attempt to defeat you, as instructed by the Consuls hell-bent on stopping the Ouroboros threat you apparently pose to their view of the world.
Carry on with the main story at this point and you'll soon end up helping Juniper out. Her colony has a slightly different approach to things than the rest, and they're in a particularly tough spot when you find them.
Help them out, and she'll cap off the quest by joining your cause, unlocking the ability to use ziplines like her squad did earlier on, grinding across the wire to retreat to their home, leaving you to chase after them through treacherous ruins, over canyons, and across large trees.
You'll save a lot of time by using her skill to travel the world, and you'll even be able to find some new areas in older regions by retracing your steps.
To use ziplines, though, requires courage. You can interact with an unused one to fire the ziplines across to another zone. But after that, you need to take a leap of faith. Rather than press A to ride a ziplines, you have to jump onto the wire itself. Stick the landing and you'll attach, grinding your way to the end. Miss, and you'll fall, potentially to your death.
For more Xenoblade content, consider checking out our Xenoblade Chronicles 3 preview if you want to hear our early thoughts. And while you're at it, consider the Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition review as well.