This is a guide for the Silvercoat Ethel boss fight in Chapter 2 of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, taking place in Racine’s Platter in the Fornis region.

How to Beat Silvercoat Ethel¶

This is a hectic battle and a true test of handling your entire party while managing Aggro across multiple enemies. As you’ll see from the outset, your battle is not only against Silvercoat Ethel, but the three Keves soldiers that accompany her. You should be using a split of two Tanks, Healers, and Attackers at this stage of the game as it becomes vital for battles such as this one.

Ensure that one of your Tanks has Ethel on them and then turn your attention to the Keves Soldiers. To start with, there will be one of every role, an Attacker, Healer, and Defender and you’ll want to follow the same pattern as the Agnus Soldiers boss battle. Deal with the Healer as quickly as possible, then the Defender to prevent chaining you to him and then finally the Attacker. Only once all of these are defeated should you then turn your attention to Ethel.

Silvercoat Ethel has some truly damaging Arts at her disposable, and you can find out more about them below:

• Swallowtail: This is a three-hit physical Art on a single target dealing moderate to major damage depending on the target (a Tank can take around 500 HP when blocking).

• Cross Impact: Silvercoat Ethel will lunge forward and perform a two-hit attack on a single target, knocking them back a little and dealing moderate damage. This will also give Ethel the Power Charge buff, this will increase the damage of her next Art.

• Million Flash: Ethel leaps backwards and then performs multiple slashes that deals moderate damage and inflicts the Bleed debuff. This will cause the target to take damage over time.

• Silver Cyclone: Ethel launches into a flurry of sword strikes that deal moderate damage to a single target.

• Saber Strike: Once Enraged, Ethel will start using this Art which will cause her to leap in the air and come crashing down on a single target, inflicting moderate damage and Topple.

Ethel is a truly devastating opponent, so make sure you’ve dealt with her fellow soldiers before you start concentrating on her or you’ll be defeated before long. Wielding dual swords, she auto-attacks quickly and will use her Arts at moderate phase before Enraged.

Ethel’s Arts hit hard, so you’ll want to make sure one of your two Tanks has her attention at all times, considering changing control to a Healer from time to time to help manually keep their HP up. What makes Ethel a troublesome encounter is her ability to inflict the Bleed status on you with the Million Flash Art.

This, like the Blaze status from your previous boss encounter, will cause a character to take damage over time and coupled with the facts that most of her Arts deal moderate damage even to Tanks, it’s not uncommon to have your Tank become incapacitated. This is the main reason for two Tanks, because you’ll often find you need to trade who the main Tank is throughout this encounter.

Once Ethel becomes Enraged, the battle takes on a whole other level of difficulty, as she will step up the pace in which she performs her Arts, often chaining them together. This includes the new Saber Strike which will not only deal moderate damage but also Topple the target, leaving them open to more strikes without the ability to Block or Evade. Should you have Bleed on you at the same time, it’s most likely you’ll be switching Tanks shortly.

With that in mind, save your Chain Attack gauge for when you put Ethel in Enrage as you’ll want to take her down as quickly as possible to avoid her overpowering your party. There is another boss that follows this, but you’ll have more than enough time to build the gauge back up when you use it here. Ethel is a tough battle, remember to dispatch her soldiers first and get used to switching around who you control to manually take care of healing when Ethel becomes a bit more aggressive later in the battle.