This is a guide for the “Natural Selection” Hero quest in Xenoblade Chronicles 3. It’ll navigate you through the necessary steps to starting the Quest and unlocking a new Hero, Juniper.

How to Unlock ‘Natural Selection’¶

This is another Hero Quest that is part of the main story and you cannot miss. As you progress through Chapter 4, you’ll begin your journey through the High Maktha Wildwood you’ll unlock the Vista of Rhonnar Landmark. Head down the slope here and you’ll be stopped in your tracks by a group of Agnian soldiers that look like they’re up for a fight, starting the Natural Selection Hero Quest in the process.

How to Defeat the Agnus Fighters/Juniper¶

You won’t have much time to react as you’ll be ambushed by a group of Mystery Agnus Ninjas, five in total. The main threat is Juniper, named as Agnus Fighter A (Juniper’s a Level higher than the others, at Level 32) so you’ll want to focus on taking down the other fighters first.

There are no Healers to worry about here, although some of the Fighters wield a different weapon. Pick a target, tell your party to focus on it and burn them down one by own, they’re nothing more than a common Agnus soldier that you’ve fought plenty of at the moment. Junpier, on the other hand, has a list of Arts for you to pay attention to and you can learn all about these below:

• Downdraft: Juniper leaps into the air and shoots an arrow dealing light damage and inflicting the Bleed debuff.

• Landslide: Juniper will slide forward and deal moderate damage to a single target while evading Arts directed at her in the process.

• Refreshing Rain: Juniper will shoot in the air and rain down fire in the entire area, dealing constant light damage throughout the attack and dealing more to anyone who is on low HP.

• Liberation Arrow: Juniper will spin around in a circle and then fire in front, dealing moderate damage to targets in front.

Juniper, with their bow, is a slow attacker, so you’ll have plenty of time to deal damage to Juniper between their Arts. Of these Arts, Liberation Arrow and Refreshing Rain are the ones to watch out for. Liberation Arrow will cause Juniper to spin around slowly before unleashing an AoE in front of them while Refreshing Rain will see Juniper rain arrows down on the entire battlefield dealing constant damage.

Juniper is by far more of a threat while the rest of their squad is alive and using more powerful Arts than what Juniper has available. Once Juniper’s alone, use a Level 3 Ouroboros Chain Attack if you have it available and finish them off.

Follow the Trail¶

Following the scenes, the party will conclude that it appears that the Agnian soldiers you just fought off may be desperate due to their Flame Clock running out. Examine the nearby tracks and follow them down and you’ll notice that they stop at a zipline, implying that your targets may have used it in their escape. From here, it’s just a short trek to the objective marker where you’ll trigger a scene as you reach Colony Tau.

Head inside Colony Tau, take a look around for any treasures on offer and then head on over to speak to Juniper to learn more about Colony Tau and their way of life. During the conversation, you’ll be interrupted due to an attack at outside the Colony, prepare yourself and go to meet the threat head on.

Defeat the Tau-Raiding Monsters¶

You’re up against three Level 33 Annon Rhinons and make no mistake, these are no pushovers. They hit hard and they can also perform Target Lock on your characters, making it tough to focus down any one target. You should, then, look to make use of a Chain Attack as soon as it’s available to try and get the first Annon Rhinon down as once you thin the herd a little, the battle becomes much easier.

Juniper will fight alongside you in this battle and has an interesting Art, Force of Nature, which will place an Art Follow-Up field on the battlefield. When standing in this circle and using an Art, it will fire off a shot at the targeted enemy dealing additional damage. Should Juniper place this in a position where multiple characters are standing, this can really start to add up.

Watch the scenes that follow after dispatching the Annon Rhinons and the Quest will come to an end, with Juniper joining you as a new Hero and handing over The Art of Flow, this will allow you to cancel all of your Arts, regardless of whether they’re Master or regular Arts. You’ll also gain the ability of Rope Sliding, allowing you to finally make use of all of those ziplines you’ve been encountering along your journey.