Xenoblade Chronicles 3 brings together the best of both worlds, with the game sharing similar mechanics to both its predecessors (sorry Xenoblade X). Although there are no Blades in this game, you still have your choice of a unique cast of characters to mix up your party. Alongside your main six party members, you’ll be able to recruit Heroes from all over the game’s world, all with their own classes to mix up your party.
When you use these Heroes, you’ll be able to unlock their classes for your main party, so if you want as diverse a set-up as possible, you’ll want to find them all. Not to mention, all of them are great characters with their own stories, so getting as many as possible will significantly enrich the narrative.
You’ll unlock several throughout the story, but to find the rest you’ll need to explore the world to find them and their quests, so we’ve collected this list so you can easily find them all and learn a bit about how to use each of these Xenoblade 3 Heroes in battle.
If you want to find the best set-up for your party, then check out our Xenoblade Chronicles 3 classes guide.
Silvercoat Ethel - Flash Fencer (Attacker)
Ethel serves as your introduction to Heroes in the game, and will always be the first one you unlock during Chapter 3 of the main story. They’re very powerful, but you’ll lose access to them quite quickly. Fortunately, later on in the game, you’ll be able to pick them back up again once you’ve unlocked Cammuravi. Make sure Cammuravi is in your party and head to Colony Omega to get her back.
If you like fast and furious attackers, then Flash Fencer is the class for you. The dual swords swing with incredible speed and the Combat Arts charge quickly too. You’ll be able to deal a lot of auto-attack damage while inflicting statuses like Bleed continually.
Artificer Valdi - War Medic (Healer)
Later in Chapter 3, once you’ve moved on from Colony 4 (and lost access to Ethel), you’ll come across Valdi, the commander of Colony 30. After completing a few main quests for him and killing the Colony 30 Consul, you’ll unlock him for your roster.
This mechanical-obsessed Machina is great at dishing out AOE healing, providing great backup to any Medic Gunner or Tactician.
Dutiful Zeon - Guardian Commander (Defender)
Zeon is the first option Hero in the story, and his quest unlocks after you’ve finished with Colony 30 and have Valdi unlocked. Travel back to the rest spot closest to Colony 9, and listen to some of the Nopon talking about Colony 9. Discuss it at the rest spot and unlock the quest “Where The Heart Is”. This quest will also allow you to access Colony 9 again, as it is locked off early on in the story.
The Guardian Commander class is a decent defending class. They power up their biggest Arts by absorbing damage from enemies, and they’re able to protect low-health party members very effectively.
Inscrutable Teach - Thaumaturge (Healer)
Teach is gound back in Colony Gamma, the Agnian party members were originally from at the start of the game. You won’t be able to go back there until late into Chapter 3 when a story mission sends you to the rough area. If you go a little out of your way in that area to a question mark you’ll be escorted back to Colony Gamma and do a quest to unlock Teach.
Despite being a healer, Thaumaturge is a bit of an all-round class. They can heal effectively, have moderate attacking power, and can cast defensive buffs like Armor Veil. They’re not the kind of class you can build your whole team around, but they can cap off a well-rounded party very nicely.
Peerless Riku & Manana - Yumsmith (Attacker)
Despite accompanying the party on the travels from the very start, these two Nopon don’t pick up their sword and start fighting until quite a way into the story. These are the only Nopon party members in the whole game, and you’ll have to wait until the end of the very long Chapter 3 to unlock them as part of the story.
Yumsmith is another all-rounder that focuses more on attacking than support. They can throw down constant AOE damage while casting buffs on the party members around them.
Ashenpelt Gray - Full Metal Jaguar (Attacker)
All your teenage edgy fantasies rolled into one, Gray is the “lone wolf” type to a comical degree. To unlock Gray you’ll need to head to the question mark in the Aetia region, at the top of a cliff with climbable vines up the sides You’ll get the ability to climb these vines during Chapter 3, once you’ve unlocked Valdi.
Full Metal Jaguar lives up to its awesome name, as it’s easily one of the most powerful attacking classes in the game if you know how to use it. The attacks get more powerful with successive hits, the Combat Arts are deadly AOE attacks, and you get a significant damage boost if you interrupt an enemy attack.
Dawnhero Isurd - Strategos (Healer)
Isurd will be unlocked as part of the story in Chapter 4. You’ll need to free Colony Lambda by killing their Consul and destroying their Flame Clock.
Strategos is a brilliant healer class that can restore your party while dealing out debuffs to enemies. Although they don’t have any direct healing arts, they can ensure a Regeneration ring is on the field almost constantly.
Ghostbow Juniper - Stalker (Attacker)
Isolated from the rest of the world, you’ll find the curious bunch at Colony Tau as part of the main story. Their commander, Juniper will join you after you destroy their Flame Clock, and they’ll kindly teach you how to slide along ziplines too.
Stalker is a bit of an attacking/defending hybrid class. They draw a lot of aggro and inflict a lot of debuffs onto enemies, but they deal huge damage to enemies that are near-death, making them perfect finishers.
Undying Blade Ashera - Lone Exile (Defender)
Although Ashera is technically an optional Hero, it’s almost impossible to miss her as you’ll directly pass her question mark during Chapter 4. As soon as you enter the Keves Castle region, the question mark will be on your left, just in front of some heavy fortifications. Start a quest that involves a lot of fighting, and you’ll unlock Ashera at the end.
Lone Exile is a very aggressive class for a defender. It absorbs tonnes of aggro and deals out counterattack damage automatically for both themselves and nearby allies.
Craftmaiden Alexandria - Incursor (Attacker)
Fancy guns and fast swords are all well and good, but sometimes it’s most satisfying to slice an enemy in half with a slow and massive sword. Despite technically being available quite early on in Chapter 3, you’ll be far too low a level to do Alexandria’s quest until the mid-game, ideally late Chapter 4/early Chapter 5. After encountering the question mark down the path you’re told not to go down in Chapter 3, you’ll have a cutscene where you fight Alexandria and her lieutenants.
After this cutscene, you have two choices. Either you can go around the world and encounter those lieutenants in fights one at a time (all at level 40), or you can charge into Colony Iota and take them all on at once. The second option is quicker, but it’s a far more difficult fight as you’ll be facing five powerful opponents at once, instead of just Alexandria on her own.
Incursor is a slow but powerful class that sees its damage increase with every critical hit, making it especially useful in Chain Attacks.
City’s Bulwark Monica - Lost Vanguard (Defender)
Monica is another Hero you encounter during the story, shortly after you mount your assault on Keves Castle to end Chapter 4. You’ll need to wander around City and gather a few rumours to unlock her Hero quest, but you’d have to go out of your way to miss it.
Lost Vanguard is a great defender, keeping their allies heavily protected with all their arts. The downside is their not as good at drawing aggro as most other defenders, but they can give allies enough armor so that it doesn’t matter.
Proudbanner Fiona - Signifer (Healer)
When you first set out into the Erythia Sea in the Candensia region during Chapter 5, you’ll immediately see loads of question marks dotted around the islands. It’s worth exploring each of them because there are a couple of Heroes along the way, one of which is Fiona, who you’ll find on Chronchrok Beach.
A true support class, Signifer has solid healing abilities and can apply random buffs to your party members, keeping you strong in any fight.
Defiant Triton - Soulhacker (Attacker)
Another question mark in the Erythia Sea (specifically, the one at Hargan Point Camp) will lead you to Colony 15 and the “Doing It My Way” quest, where you’ll meet Defiant Triton and recruit him when all is said and done.
Soulhacker is a class like no other. Rather than having a fixed set of Arts that gives it utility, the Soulhacker instead steals the Arts and Skills of unique monsters that you fight and defeat. This means that, although they are labelled an attacker, they can be whatever you want them to be.
Wrathfist Ghondor - Martial Artist (Attacker)
Ghondor is an unmissable Hero you’ll find during the main story. They’ll first join you during Chapter 5 after you infiltrate the prison, however, you won’t be able to freely select them until the start of Chapter 6.
The Martial Artist will get their Arts charged quicker and quicker to unleash devastating combos, not to mention, taking down huge monsters by simply punching them is exceptionally cool.
Glorysong Myabi - Troubadour (Healer)
Another story Hero, you’ll meet her and one other Hero during the “Side Story: Mio” quest, which is mandatory to move the story forward in Chapter 6.
This class accelerates the recharge rate of your whole party’s Arts, making it invaluable. There are some great healing options on display too, making this easily one of the best healer classes in the game.
Smoldering Cammuravi - Seraph (Attacker)
Cammuravi will have quite the legend built up around him by the time you finally get the chance to recruit him. After you’ve completed “Side Story: Mio”, you need to go to Colony Omega, where you can get “A Twist Of Fate”, which will unlock Cammuravi upon completion.
Seraph takes the enemy’s strength and turns it into their own. With each hit taken a Seraph will grow increasingly more powerful, and they can even hurt themselves to increase their damage output. It’s an incredibly fun class to play around with.
No.7 Segiri - Machine Assassin (Attacker)
When the “Heroes” tab first unlocks in the menu and you see Segiri’s outline, you’re sure to want a piece of this powerful-looking Hero, but you’re going to have to put some effort in, as there are a lot of pre-requisite quests.
You’ll want to take and finish as many Colony 4 quests as possible until you unlock “Severed Connections”. Complete that, then go to City and find the “Writer’s Block” quest, which will see you traveling the world and encountering strange enemies along the way. Once that’s done, go to Colony Omega and you’ll be able to get the “Inhumanity” quest, which will let you unlock Segri upon completion.
Machine Assassin is easily one of the most intense classes in the game, and it relies on heavily debuffing foes before unleashing an assault. You have to be quite careful to use it effectively, but you’ll also get the Hazard Neutralisation traversal skill for your trouble.
Nia, Queen of Agnus - Lifesage (Healer)
As many were hoping when the first trailer revealed Melia and Nia, both are available as Heroes in Xenoblade Chronicles 3, however, they are both exclusive to the post-game. Once you’ve seen the credits roll and mopped up your pool of tears, go back to the Hall of the Serene, and you’ll start a quest that unlocks Nia.
Nia’s Blade Form in Xenoblade 2 made her an extraordinarily powerful healer, and she’s no different in Xenoblade 3. She can dish out huge healing to the entire party at once and has offensive skills that completely ignore enemy defence.
Melia, Queen of Keves - Royal Summoner (Attacker)
Melia is back too, and like her Agnus counterpart, you must see the story through to the end before she can join you. Once you’re in the post-game, go to Keves Castle and you’ll start a recruitment quest for her.
Melia’s role has shifted slightly from the original Xenoblade. Where before she used status conditions and buffs/debuffs to help her party, she now commands the elements for all-out power with her Ether attacks.
Written by Ryan Woodrow on behalf of GLHF.
