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[3.4] Leveling the X-Men
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[3.4.1] Introduction
--------------------
Each X-Man has a "level" that indicates how much experience and how much
power the X-Man has. This level can be seen on the character screens, the
character sheet of each X-Man and next to the X-Man's health and energy
meters during game play. As you play the game, the X-Men earn experience
points (XP). At specific totals of XP, each X-Man increases in level and
can "level up".
Here is the list of total experience points required to reach each level:
Level Total XP Required
----- -----------------
1 0
2 100
3 265
4 505
5 830
6 1,320
7 2,070
8 3,190
9 4,720
10 6.880
11 10,015
12 14,415
13 20,610
14 29,190
15 41,265
16 58,065
17 81,440
18 113,810
19 158.630
20 220,650
21 306,345
22 424.545
23 587,450
24 811,610
25 1,119,830
26 1,543,300
27 2,124,650
28 2,921,870
29 4,014,295
30 5,510,355
31 7,557,660
32 10,357,460
33 14,183,785
34 19,410,055
35 26,544,400
36 36,278,080
37 49,551,280
38 67,642,160
39 92,287,785
40 125,847,705
41 171,526,730
42 233,674,980
43 318,196,770
44 433,102,210
45 589,255,845
Each time you defeat an enemy or fulfill your objectives in a mission, you
earn experience. Each active X-Man on your current team receives the full
amount of XP; inactive X-Men ("dead", not on the team or not unlocked)
receive a percentage of the XP. The percentage received by inactive X-Men
is sufficient to keep them about three to four levels behind active X-Men
even if you never use them on any team.
For example, if you defeat an enemy worth 499 XP, each active X-Man on your
team will receive 499 XP. All inactive X-Men will receive a percentage of
499 XP. The percentage varies based on level, type of XP earned, etc. If
you use Cyclops on every team and never use Beast at all, by the end of the
game, Cyclops will be about 38th level and Beast will be about 34th level--
even though Beast was never an active X-Man.
Whenever an X-Man on your team has increased in level, you will get a
notice on screen (it's kind of hard to miss). You may also see a smaller
notice on screen if you start using an X-Man who has increased in level,
but has not yet been leveled up. This notice shows bottom center and says
"Level Up" with a small gray circle to the left of it. The small gray
circle represents the Start button. Additionally, any X-Man that needs to
level up will have a gold double-helix rotating around his or her feet.
Every time an X-Man increases in level, he or she receives one point to add
to stats (stat point) and one point to add to powers/skills (skill point).
At every fifth level (5, 10, 15, 20, etc.), the X-Man receives two stat
points and two skill points. If you play the game normally--i.e. without
power leveling--the X-Men will end the game around 38th level, which means
you will be able to spend a total of 44 stat points and 44 skill points.
If you power-level using the Danger Room, you can get your X-Men to level
45, which is the maximum. At 45th level, you will have earned 53 stat
points and 53 skill points. Purchasing all levels of all powers and skills
for each X-Man varies, but is usually around 65 or 66 points. It is
impossible, no matter how much power-leveling you do, to max out all powers
and skills. The descriptions of each X-Man in section 4 will list those
powers and skills you can most easily do without.
You are not required to level up the X-Men every time they increase in
level. You can wait as long as you wish, saving the skill points in order
to buy more expensive powers or skills; i.e. those costing 2 points rather
than 1.
[3.4.2] Character Screen
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To level up an X-Man, you must bring them up on the character screen. You
can get to the character screen through the game menu (Start button) and
choosing the option Characters. At the beginning of each mission and when
you select Change Team at an Xtraction point, you get the team select
character screen. The team select character screen allows access to all
available X-Men. The character screen accessed from the game menu only
allows access to the members of the current team (including "dead" X-Men).
The character screen shows four X-pads, typically with a mutant on each
pad. The pads are in the same configuration as the X-Men on the D-pad icon
on your game screen. To the right are each X-Man's vital statistics, in
order from top to bottom of top, right, left and bottom X-pad. The stats
show each X-Man's level and current and maximum health and energy. If the
X-Man needs to be leveled up, a gold double-helix will be rotating next to
his or her name. To select an X-Man on the screen, use the control stick or
D-pad to highlight an X-pad.
Below the character stats are your current number of tech bits, health
packs and energy packs. Along the bottom of the screen is the menu.
B - Back: cancels everything you've done and returns to the game; do not
press this unless you want to go back and start over from the point
where you first opened the character screen. At the team select
character screen, this button also selects the team that appeared when
you first opened the screen.
X - Skin: changes the current X-Man's costume (not all X-Men have alternate
costumes); available only after you have beat the game and unlocked
extra costumes and only useable on the team select character screen.
A - Replace: changes the X-Man at the currently selected X-pad; only
available on the team select character screen.
Y - Details: opens the currently selected X-Man's character sheet
Start - Accept: commits all changes to memory and returns to the game; once
you accept changes made to the X-Men's stats, powers and skills you
cannot undo them. On the team select screen, this selects the
current team with changes made since you opened the screen.
If you are at the team select character screen and you press A to change an
X-Man, a filmstrip of available X-Men portraits opens on the bottom of the
screen. You can scroll left and right on this filmstrip with the control
stick. Fallen X-Men's portraits are darkened with "Revive" overlaid and the
cost (in tech bits) to revive him or her. The cost increases as the X-Men
increase in level.
From this filmstrip, highlight an X-Man and press A to revive (if the X-Man
has fallen and you have enough tech bits). Press A to place that X-Man at
the currently selected X-pad. Press Y to access that X-Man's character
sheet.
[3.4.3] Character Sheet
-----------------------
You level up the X-Men, change their equipment, change the AI that governs
them and view all their information from the character sheet. At the top
left of the character sheet is the character's portrait. To the left of the
portrait, you can see the L and R button icons; press L or R to switch to
the character sheets of the other X-Men on your current team. If you are
accessing the character sheet from the team select filmstrip, you can
switch to any unlocked X-Man.
To the right of the portrait are three icons representing three pages that
you can access. Underneath these page icons is the character's current
level and the number of points (stat or skill) available for the selected
page. The three pages are:
Stats/AI
--------
Shows the character's Strike, Agility, Body and Focus scores; the AI level;
the AI heal rule and the character's AI mutant power.
Powers/Skills
-------------
Shows the character's mutant powers and skills and current level in each.
Equipment
---------
Shows the character's equipped backpack, belt and armor and the available
inventory for each slot.
To the right of the main window are the character's statistics including
current attack and defense ratings, current and maximum health and energy,
current experience points and points needed to reach the next level.
Underneath the editable region of the window is an information window
showing details about the selected stat, power, skill or piece of
equipment. At the bottom is the menu:
B - Back: returns you to the character screen; changes you have made are
kept, but have not yet been committed to memory, you can still come
back to the character sheet and re-do the level up.
X - Subtract/Unequip: reduces the currently selected stat, power or skill
by one point; this is only available if you have, in this session,
added points to the score. On the equipment screen, X unequips the
currently selected item.
A - Add/Equip: increases the currently selected stat, power or skill by one
step or allows you to change the currently selected piece of equipment.
Y - Auto: automatically levels up the X-Man. Auto-leveling tends to spread
stat and skill points evenly and produces mediocre X-Men. It is not
recommended that you auto-level the X-Men.
Z - Drop: on the equipment screen, drops the currently selected item from
the team's inventory.
Start - Accept: commits changes to memory and returns to the game; all
changes are committed to memory and cannot be undone.
[3.4.4] Stats/AI
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Each X-Man has four ability statistics (stats): Strike, Agility, Body and
Focus. Strike adjusts attack rating, Agility adjusts defense rating, Body
adjusts your health and Focus adjusts both the amount of mutant energy you
have and the rate at which it regenerates. The stats shown on this screen
represent your "modified" stats; i.e. any bonuses from skills, equipment or
other items are included.
In general, each X-Man needs lots of Focus because generous use of mutant
powers is the way to win this game. Putting all your level-up points into
Strike, Agility and Body and just punching and kicking your opponents is a
recipe for disaster. Mutants need their mutant powers; thus, they need lots
of mutant energy. Melee characters need at from one-third to one-half of
all level up points placed in Focus. Ranged characters should have from
one-half to two-thirds of all points in Focus.
Of the other three stats, Body is the most important as it determines the
X-Man's health. Early in the game, Agility can be important as it keeps
your X-Men from being hit so often; however, late in the game, you should
have party-wide shields that absorb most damage so Agility becomes almost
irrelevant. Strike is important for melee-oriented characters, especially
those who do not have any type of mutant damage bonus to melee attacks--
e.g. Iceman's Cold Crush or Emma Frost's Psionic Strike.
In general, you can be very successful putting almost all stat points into
Focus for all X-Men. Put a few points into Body, for health, and add some
Strike points for melee-oriented characters. Once you get about half-way
through the game, you will be relying almost totally on mutant attacks and
will want lots of Focus.
Below the Focus score is the character's AI level. The AI level controls
how the X-Man should react in combat, especially when you call for help.
There are three levels of AI for each X-Man.
Aggressive: the X-Man responds immediately to attack
Normal: the X-Man waits for an opportunity before attacking
Defensive: the X-Man only attacks if he or she is attacked
There's little use in this game for Defensive AI. Melee characters should
be set to Aggressive, the remaining X-Men can be set to Normal.
Next on the list is the AI heal rule that governs how the AI uses health
packs. A change on any one character's sheet affects all X-Men, not just
the individual character. There are four rules:
Never: the AI never uses health packs
< 20%: the AI uses a health pack if the character's health falls below
20 per cent of maximum and there are more than two health packs
in inventory
< 40%: the AI uses a health pack when the character's health falls below
40 per cent of maximum and there are more than two health packs
in inventory
< 80%: the AI uses a health pack when the character's health falls below
80 per cent of maximum and there are more than two health packs
in inventory
The recommended settings are 40% and 80%. Never is not a good idea unless
you intend to rapidly switch X-Men while in combat in order to use health
packs. Less than 20% can cause an X-Man to die from massive damage before
getting low enough to use a health pack. Less than 40% is a good all-around
rule that will keep your teammates alive while saving on your store of
health packs. Less than 80% will cause the AI to use health packs far too
rapidly in the early game; but, you can switch to it once you are able to
hold 15 or more health packs.
Last on the list is the AI power. This is the mutant power the AI will use
when you call for an attack using the L button. Recommended settings for AI
power are listed in the description of each X-Man in Section 4.
To increase a stat or change an AI rule, use the control stick to highlight
the item and press A. If you have added points to a stat in this session,
highlight the stat and press X to subtract a point. You cannot subtract
points added to stats previously and committed to memory.
[3.4.5] Powers/Skills
---------------------
Each X-Man has three standard mutant powers, one Xtreme power and several
skills as outlined in Section 4. The first power on the list is the A-
button power and all X-Men start with one level of this power. Next on the
list is the B-power, then the X-power and then the Xtreme (Y-button) power
followed by the skills.
Each of the first three powers is a "tree" with three "branches". You must
fill up each level of an upper branch before you can fill up levels in the
next branch. The A and B powers have two branches of five levels each,
followed by a "Legend" branch with just one level. Initially, you will not
see the Legend branch, it does not show on the character sheet until your
X-Men have reached 25th level. The X power has three branches of three
levels each. All three branches are visible from the start, though it will
take you a while to fill them. The Xtreme power is a single level.
The powers, the cost to buy a level, the character level requirement for
each level and the energy cost to use each power are standard for all
characters. Here's the basic chart:
Char Level
Power & Level Point cost Requirement Energy Used
A-1.1 - - 10
A-1.2 1 3 15
A-1.3 1 5 20
A-1.4 1 7 25
A-1.5 1 9 30
A-2.1 2 15 40
A-2.2 1 17 45
A-2.3 1 19 50
A-2.4 1 21 55
A-2.5 1 23 60
A-3.1 2 30 70
B-1.1 2 5 25
B-1.2 1 7 30
B-1.3 1 9 35
B-1.4 1 11 40
B-1.5 1 13 45
B-2.1 2 20 55
B-2.2 1 22 60
B-2.3 1 24 65
B-2.4 1 26 70
B-2.5 1 28 75
B-3.1 2 30 85
X-1.1 2 5 60
X-1.2 1 7 70
X-1.3 1 9 80
X-2.1 2 14 100
X-2.2 1 16 110
X-2.3 1 18 120
X-3.1 2 23 140
X-3.2 1 25 150
X-3.3 1 27 160
Y-1.1 2 15 1 Xtreme icon
There are two exceptions to this standard progression. Nightcrawler's B
power (Teleport Flurry) uses almost double the energy of other X-Men's B
powers. Jean Grey's TK (A power) requires an additional expenditure of
energy each second it is in use; this is over the initial cost of using the
power.
Listed underneath the powers are the skills. All skill levels cost one
point to fill. Most skills have either three or five levels. A few skills
have six levels and are shown as two three-level branches. Some skills also
have level requirements; for example, Level 1 Toughness cannot be purchased
until the X-Man is 10th level. Some of the skills, such as Flying, are
additional mutant powers requiring an expenditure of mutant energy.
The complete layout looks something like this (using Wolverine as an
example); X is a filled level, . is an empty level:
Brutal Slash X X X X X
Eviscerate X X X X X
Legend Slash X
Claw Flurry . . . . .
Claw Frenzy . . . . .
Legend Frenzy .
Feral Rage X X X
Berserker Rage X X .
Unstoppable Rage . . .
SAVAGE RAMPAGE X
Health Factor X X X X X
Sharpness X X X X X
Toughness . . .
Mutant Mastery X . .
Critical Strike X X X . .
Expertise X X X X X
Powers and skills that can be leveled up display in white. Powers and
skills you cannot currently level up show in gray. Using the control stick,
highlight the power or skill you want to level up and press A to add a
level. Press X to subtract any levels you have added in this session.
Levels added in a previous session and committed to memory cannot be
subtracted.
[3.4.6] Equipment
-----------------
The third screen shows the character's current equipment in, from top to
bottom, the backpack slot, the belt slot and the armor slot. Highlight a
slot and a list of equipment for that slot that is in inventory will show
below. Press A to access the inventory list, highlight the equipment you
want to place in the slot and press A again to equip it. Press B while in
the inventory list to keep the currently equipped item. Press Z while in
the inventory list to drop an item out of the team's inventory and leave it
on the ground. If you want to empty the character's equipment slot, press X
while the slot is highlighted.
Information about each piece of equipment will show in the information
window at the bottom of the screen when that piece of equipment is
highlighted. You can also get an overview of all the equipment in sections
7.6, 7.7 and 7.8 below.
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