This is a guide for the Queen of Keves boss fight in Chapter 4 of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, taking place in the Keves Castle region.

How to Beat the Queen of Keves¶

Well, that was rather unexpected, no sooner do you discover that the Queen of Keves is none other than Melia from the first Xenoblade Chronicles game, then you’re thrust into a boss battle against her. The Queen of Keves is a dangerous foe and one that gets deadlier as the battle progresses. A lot of how this battle goes down will be dependent on which Arts she decides to use against you.

As mentioned above, the Queen of Keves will has several tricky Arts up her sleeve and you can find out more about them below:

• Elemental Wind: The Queen of Keves will conjure a lethal gust of wind that deals moderate damage to a single target. There is also a chance this will inflict Break on the target.

• Elemental Earth: The Queen of Keves will cause the ground to tremble below a single target, dealing moderate damage and inflicting the Toxin debuff which deals damage over time. This has a small impact and will cause the effect to any other targets close by.

• Elemental Flare: The Queen of Keves will conjure three fireballs that fire off one after the other, dealing moderate damage per each fireball. These fireballs also have the chance to inflict the Blaze debuff.

• Mind Blast: Once Enraged, the Queen of Keves shoots beams of light out of her staff dealing moderate damage to targets in front of her and inflicting Shackle Arts, preventing the use of Arts for a time.

• Ether Protection: Once you’ve nearly defeated the Queen of Keves, she will conjure a dome that will nullify all damage, ending the battle in the process.

Just the four main Arts for the Queen of Keves but all of them can cause problems. Elemental Wind appears to be her go-to Art, and this can inflict Break along with the moderate damage it will deal. Elemental Earth, on the other hand, is a lot more problematic as it will inflict the Toxin debuff to anyone that stands around the impact. This is a damage over time debuff much like Blaze so be quick to remove it.

Elemental Flare is by far the deadliest Art that you need to be concerned with as it can not only hit three times, but each hit will deal moderate damage for around 1000 HP depending on the target. To make matters worse, it also has a chance to inflict Blaze so if a character gets his by all three blasts and suffers Blaze, odds are you’ll be needing to revive them shortly.

Once you Enrage the Queen of Keves, it grants her the use of another new Art, Mind Blast, which brings with it a new debuff you’ve most likely not seen yet. It’s a frontward AoE that deals moderate damage but, more crucially, will also inflict Shackle Arts on anyone it strikes (including Interlinks). This will prevent you from using any Arts at all until it is removed via Cure Bullet or just over time. This is a big problem if your Healers are hit with it and you’re suffering Toxin or Blaze.

She’s more deadly in general during Enrage (as expected), as she’ll generally chain the Elemental Arts back-to-back, really increasing her damage output. It becomes important, then, to make use of Burst Combos if you have them available to you to knock her out of Enrage for a time or make use of a Chain Attack. You cannot score an Overkill on the Queen of Keves as you can’t fully deplete her HP so don’t worry about saving it for that reason.

Once you do bring her HP down to its last little segment, the Queen of Keves will cast Ether Protection, this will cause all of your attacks to miss as she’ll become Invincible to everything. This is not a concern though, as the battle will end shortly after, heralding your victory and the end of Chapter 4.