This is a guide for the Moebius M boss fight in Chapter 5 of Xenoblade Chronicles 3, taking place in the Cadensia region.

How to Beat Moebius M¶

The battle against Moebius M is a two-phase battle, and although there’s not much difference between both phases, there’s a new major mechanic in that second battle which can be easy to miss if you’re not paying attention in the scenes beforehand. As a Moebius, and one that looks like Mio, you can expect her to be an agile opponent.

Moebius M, then, is the complete opposite to the boss from a moment ago, instead focusing on her speed to deal sustained DPS through her auto-attacks before she even starts using her Arts. Still, her Arts are well worth paying attention to and you can learn more about them below:

Phase 1 Arts¶

• Aerial Fang: Moebius M swings her chakrams upwards towards a single target, dealing moderate damage.

• Universal Vortex: A multi-hit attack that will deal moderate damage to a single target.

• Mirage Slash: A quick two-hit strike that deals moderate damage to a single target should they both land.

• Eclipse Soul: Moebius M will appear to stand still, taking only 1 HP of damage for every strike you make. You will learn before phase 2 that she’s switched places with another party member, switch to them and damage them to break this Art.

Phase 2 Arts¶

• Ether Rampage: Moebius M will leap backwards into the air and rain down Ether in her AoE in front of her, dealing moderate damage to all targets it hits.

• Dominion Flower: When Enraged, Moebius M will swing her chakrams around her, dealing moderate AoE damage with a chance to inflict Bind.

Moebius M, as you may expect, attacks a lot like Mio does, relying on quick auto-attacks and then comboing her three regular Arts. Aerial Fang, Universal Vortex, and Mirage Slash may seem like trivial Arts, but Moebius M often chains them together and should a single target suffer the brunt of all three Arts, they’ll often be left seriously hurting.

Outside of this, you’ll notice that Moebius M has no Enrage marker which should tell you that there’s more to this battle than you may expect. Still, unlike other instances like this, the first phase of this battle does involve depleting all of her HP, not just half like other bosses without an Enrage. The first phase itself is rather simple, just keep your HP up as you deal with her quick attacks and Art combo.

You will, however, see Eclipse Soul at least once in this phase and at this point, there’s nothing you can do to counter it. You may be confused at first, as it appears that Moebius M is standing stationary but only take 1 HP from every attack you do. In reality, she’s swapped places with one of your party members and attacking you that way while you deal damage to the person she swapped with. Ignore this for now, you can’t deal with it and you’ll have to wait until the Art has finished before resuming your assault on her.

After the scenes that follow the first battle, you’ll be thrust into the second phase of the battle and Moebius M will have all of her HP back and with an Enrage marker to boot. She’ll still mainly focus on using her Art combo to deal damage but this time around, you’ll be able to deal with Eclipse Soul. You’ll notice that when Eclipse Soul is active, that you can now target the party member that she swapped with (usually Mio herself). This is your queue to target that person, tell the rest of the group to focus attacks and attack them until you break them out of it.

On top of this, she gains two new Arts during the second phase of this boss. Ether Rampage will see her leap out of harm’s way and shoot energy blasts at the characters in front of her, this can deal moderate damage to anyone unfortunate enough to be standing there.

The second new Art to deal with is once she is Enraged, Dominion Flower, her most powerful Art. This will see her spin her chakrams around her dealing moderate-major damage to anyone standing close to her. With this in mind, try to have a Chain Attack ready for when you Enrage her, if you’re effective with them then you’ll be able to defeat her outright here, otherwise you’ll be able to cause a significant amount of damage, needing you to only finish her off.

Despite that gruelling battle, you’re still not out of the woods as there’s one more foe standing in your way, Moebius N!