Raid bosses are like the bread and butter of MMOs right? Especially in Xenoverse 2 you'll see almost all online activity in this periodic mode: Raid Quest. BIrd Studio keeps this game alive with enticing rewards for dealing assloads of total damage to supervillain of the weak, PvE people come for the vibe(or maybe to reach the top of the boards) PvP enjoyers come for the busted Super Souls.

But do you ever watch from afar and think: "This bot couldn't beat us even with 9001x the damage and defense! it has no soul, no astucity, and if they put a person in that position then no one would ever beat them! " Awfully specific and weird of you to think, but thanks to Fu that statement can be regularly tested with Crystal Raids. This is perhaps the only game mode where having variety in characters is actually efficient.

Though the methods in limited time raid quests are still useful here (except for items because they aren't usable), a good offense has no defense against an adaptable opponent with super armor. Save your ultimates for when the boss player has no protection and make sure you're thinking about the team when you make a build.

Speak to Fu in Conton City to create or enter into a Crystal Raid room, you must spend a Demon Realm Crystal to be the boss.

We have 2 ways of using our hard earned crystal.

1 v 5 - very oppressive.. for those 5

2 v 4 - If you feel like sharing some crystal with a pal, like a good dealer.

You need a Demon Realm Crystal to host a room, but hosting alone will not spend a crystal.

Supposedly, on PC the Raider will be whoever has the oldest Steam account.

Rewards

There are some 242 clothing items you can get randomly just by playing the mode, and Z rank is almost guaranteed. Stuff like Goku's Yardrat clothes, Zamasu Wig, Golden Great Ape Suit and Camo Bikini.

I'll be following the conventions established in this guide along with some of my own added in.
https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2868219782

E/N: I completely forgot about the LO, SLO, FLO, MLO terms. They're not in the other guide anymore, at least in this format. Seeing it again here is both cute and irritating to me.
• EB - enemy bot (red team, as far as you're concerned)
  
• TB - teammate bot (blue team)
  
• EP - enemy player (red)
  
• TP - teammate player (blue; TP can also mean you, specifically)
  
• MLO - mutual lock-on
  
• SLO - stubborn lock-on
  
• FLO - flexible lock-on
  
• LO - latency-obstructed (i.e. LO-MLO = latency-obstructed mutual lock-on)"
  
  
• HEA for health
  
• KI for ki gauge
  
• STM for stamina
  
• ATK for basic attack damage
  
• STR for strike super damage
  
• BLA for ki "blast" special damage
  
  
• CaC - "Create-a-Character." Your custom character(s).
  
  
• PQ - ""Parallel Quest." The standard missions/stages/levels that allow more than one player."
  
  
• Hit Stun - "When a character is hit by an attack, it causes them to flinch for a brief period, stopping them from taking action. Continuous attacks induce continuous hit stun."
  
  
• Blind Siding - doing a reverse burst dash(X + A, then A again by default) which will break stamina in the way a fully charged heavy attack can. Cost 100 STM.
  
• EDB - Emporer's Death Beam
  
  
  Particular to this guide:
  
  
• Smash Attack - a slow attack meant to break the stamina of the receiver (forward + X/Y by default)
  
  
• Assist(s) - a color coded power-up given actively by an ally
  
  
• reinforcement - A status effect that buffs a character in some way and is visually indicated by a
  solid orange, red, or white aura on the character and the red symbol seen in the image to the right.
  
  
• Attack String - a sequence of attack in a combination attack using only light and heavy inputs, X and Y respectively on Xbox.
  
  
• SA - super armor (diminishes stamina, subject to stamina breaking)
  
  
• HA - hyper armor (diminishes health, immune to stamina breaking)
  
  
• CA - crystal raid boss super armor(decrease stamina AND health, immune to everything else)
  
  
• RA - typical raid super armor(lose health, safe from hit stun when using skills)
  
  
• IA - evasive super armor (or fully invulnerable superarmor)
  
  
• NA - giant namekian super armor (diminishes stamina, safe from heavy attacks, grabs and smashes)
  
  
• Break Phase - the time span of when a character is recovering stamina in red, immediately
  after they reach 0 stamina points.
  
  
• Self Break - when you reach break phase through your own causes.
  
  
• Perfect Block - the fundamental game mechanic known officially as Just Guard.
  
  
• Raider - the boss character who typically is shrouded in a dark aura and fighting alone against a squad of characters.
  
• DPS - Damage Per Second. This term comes from the general role playing game genre and refers to the literal metric rate and to a character build focused on dealing high amounts of damage.

You'll only need 2 roles in a match: DPS and Targeting Zoner. When diving in with random players you can assume they will fill the DPS role, with no insight into the Crystal Raids. Then lose while trying PvE tactics. Hence, all the other roles are designed as insurance for the main 2 and meddle in the natural flow.

DPS- Focus on contributing the most to damage to the raider
*The role taken straight from normal raids, see other guides for details.

Support- Focus on the resources and overall well being of your comrades
*Healing, Reviving, periodically getting your hands dirty.

Stamina Agent- The agent of the break phase, suited for the person who can outplay everyone in fundamentals.
*Have some way to deal large stamina damage, accuracy, good self defense.

Targeting Zoner- Essentially you'll want to force the boss to focus on you while your allies recover or charge up. There are respectable ways to do it and a gross way to do it. See the tools section.

Stamina Tank- Fight fire with fire by maintaining some SA. Greatest prerequisite to being a Build a Boss.

Build a Boss- Technically this role only comes into play when all 3-4 of your allies are giving you Assist power-ups/buffs(TB's never do this). It requires some planning, and you'll save time by checking out my OTHER guide on this game for how and what assist buffs you receive. https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3107385172
The intent is that you (as a last survivor) become powerful enough to fight the raid boss as if you are a boss character too. But not in the same way, you're strength follows different rules.

Since stunning the raider in order to keep them from beating a partner is 95% of the time not possible. Your only alternatives for making a difference in physical battle are: slowing down the opponent with a barrage of hit ticks, and forcing them to target you.

Taunt -skill- 100 KI and you force the victim into MLO with you for a few seconds. During this time you can still switch targets/unlock.

Super Guard -skill- Spend a small amount of KI per second to wrap yourself in IA

The Savior Has Come -skill- 300 ki to force all opponents to lock onto you for a few seconds. Just for Double Crystal Raids.

Counter Impact -skill- A counter skill that reacts to basic attacks for 100 KI, very quick and safe. Hold the input to follow up with a fast ki blast from behind the target, deals good stamina damage. Alternatively run Sudden Death Beam it works similarly but reacts to all attacks and is a bit slower. Teleport if nothing hits you.

"I really do love being immortal." -super soul- Makes it so your revive gauge is always self filling, you can always get back up on your own. Not useful for Targeting Zoners, they need to stay alive.


Being a good DPS in Crystal Raids is very similar to normal raids. Except the most basic tactic is the most dangerous and sabotaging. That being:

Emporer's Death Beam -DON'T USE THIS COSTLY MOVE- You will be easily shut down by Crystal Raiders. Breaking stamina and knocking you out. Only use it if you have team mates such as the Targeting Zoner.


"Hmm hmm hmmm! hm hmm hmmm!" -super soul- Pair it with a reinforcement skill of your choice (any skill that activates a reinforcement really), the most reliable way of healing even if you are the only standing player left for the raider to defeat.

"This is as far as you go." -super soul- Allows you the utility of Taunt without sacrificing a skill slot, you also get 50 more KI off of perfect blocks. Keep your KI close to max capacity and then cap it off if you need to steal lock-on quickly.

Emporer's Sign -skill- Give an assist buff to all of your team mates at once, useful for resource augmentation(i.e. KI and STM) ONLY if your character is an earthling time patroller or majin time patroller.

Hero's Flute -skill- Another way to assist buff all your allies, spending 100 KI and creating a barrier that protects you from normal attacks and ki blasts. The duration is shorter than Emporer's Sign but is less committing.

"Earth is in your hands now." -super soul- This soul is specifically made for Hero's Flute,
it adds healing and defense to the assists from the Flute.


Pearl Flash -skill- This skill supposedly deals a hefty amount of STM and HEA damage to Crystal Raiders while being safe to use. Breaks guard and SA when fully charged.

"Now you understand, surrender." -super soul- Lengthen the break phase of an opponent whenever you hit them with a smash attack, It will extend break phase even if hitting someone who's already broke, reduce KI too. Alternatively you can run "Now it's me turn..." which extends the time even longer but without KI reduction.

"Don't go all out!" -super soul- Makes your charged ki blasts reduce the stamina of an opponent on hit by a good chunk. This can compound with any stamina damage that would be taken normally.

"It's a bit of a long story." -super soul- Does the same thing as the above super soul but with a different type of charged ki blast, and slightly less stamina reduction.

Phantom Fist -skill- Spend 100 KI to enter a pose that can react to anything, you can slip away from harm with i-frames and restore 200 STM by doing so.

"I won't forgive those who best my comrades!" -super soul- Any time an ally is ko'd you get STM and KI auto recovery for a good moment.

Purification -awoken skill- Become a crummy Kid Buu recolor. Changes your skills to a certain set(including Pearl Flash and the vanishing balls) but only when in the form. Allowing for more overall skill utility and gives STM auto recovery. Guarding is replaced by a spot dodge with generous I-frames.


If you don't feel like respecting the opponent then welcome to the dark(er) side, and here's what you use: Super Guard, Taunt, and the Super Soul "I have an unlimited energy supply".

Otherwise just be yourself but with Taunt and/or "This is as far as you go."


Unlike other role tools, these are not intended as must haves but rather fun suggestions. Save maybe for superarmor of your own, you can be your own boss(pun intended).

Final Explosion -skill- can be continued as long as your STM stays above 0, STM assist buffs will prevent it from reaching 0. Break Phase recover slows nearly to a halt when getting blasted by this move, combine that with unlimited explosion time and you could get an easy win.

"Give me the power to take this guy down!" -super soul- This will give you a huge boost to all damage for every instance of an assist buff that you have at the moment. Up to 4 stacked damage boost of 25% each. But the total theoretical damage boosts is 8 stacks (4 soul damage buffs + 4 damage type assists excluding any ally's souls that buff your own damage)

Sword of Hope -skill- This ultimate attack functions like a transformation with HA. You need at least 300 KI to activate it, 2 KI type assist buffs will allow it to go on endlessly.


This build style is passed it's prime, if by prime we mean you basically cheat without technically cheating.

Fighting Pose F -skill- Strike a pose and get SA that last 12 seconds, this can make you nearly indestructible when the boost to Break Phase recovery is supercharged by the 2 underlined super souls above. the armor comes back as soon as your STM is usable again. STM could be fully recovered within less than a second. even if you have 1000 total STM.

The duration of Fighting Pose F can be reset/extended by using any reinforcement effect.

Ultra Instinct ~skill~ 500 KI to use, gives you autododge which consumes 100 STM and that's it. The dodge can prevent Break Phase when using SA.

Mach Dash -skill- This evasive skill only cost 200 STM. It gives a speed boost reinforcement effect to non-dashing movement on top of being quick and safe. Use this reinforcement to reset Fighting Pose F in a pinch.

Lovely Cyclone -skill- This is a strike skill with a long reinforcement effect, a spin attack that covers all your body at melee range. Safe against blind siding. The reinforcement effect is increased stamina damage to your attacks but the reinforcement doesn't remove the armor of Fighting Pose F and makes Fighting Pose F last much longer.

Become Giant -skill- The Namekian exclusive awoken skill, you sacrifice some utility to become a giant Namekian with good KI generation. This can replace Fighting Pose F and Lovely Cyclone.

>>For Xenoverse 2 version 1.22.01 or older. You can skip the Break Phase of multiplayer matches with 4+ people if you have "GAAAGH" or "I like you better when you're mad!", They can't hurt you if you have SA that comes back instantly along with your maximum stamina after you get broke for whatever reason.<<

Landing an ultimate attack with grab property will often result in a 1 hit KO(like Darkness Rush), so using these moves can have out-sized results. You can use single hit high damage moves the same way i.e. Gigantic Roar, Death Slash and Giant Storm.

Brainwash Attack -skill- 100 KI to summon a chaotic assortment of dark explosions, they ignore all forms of superarmor and trap characters in a bubble. You must wait 1 minute before re-use. They will break free on their own after some time but you can punish them before that. The skill comes with IA.

Super Drain -skill- 100 KI to grab someone and steal 200 STM

Phantom Fist -skill- 100 KI to slip away from all harm when in the reaction window and gain 200 STM, can follow up with another skill. Fight fire with fire if you must.

Any super soul you equip is useless, no limit burst either

Perfect blocking is not available for boss players


As the boss, you have access to exclusive skills. Majority of which are useful even when your lock-on system is abused. On top of that switching targets is do-able mid attack(when your lock is not manipulated). Personally I like surprising players by switching targets during Trap Shooter and Kaioken Assault.

Area of effect raid skills can have altered patterns by holding a directional input. Like the case with Aura Slide and Ginyu Force Special Combo.

There are several forms of super armor and i-frames in the game. Knowing the italicized entries is necessary for the Stamina Master and Support roles.

What is super armor? Hit stun resistance - the person using super armor doesn't flinch when you hit them. There are ways around this depending on which form of super armor you're looking at. Rapid hits taken with any armor will freeze the armor user for a fraction of a second per hit. As for i-frames, it simply means intangibility or invincibility frames - you're not just blocking damage, you're completely ignoring and immune to it.

Perfect Block/Just Guard
A fundamental game mechanic that rewards timing. Guarding an attack 1 frame before it hits(maybe 3 frames) will restore 100 KI and give you enough i-frames to safely land a grab. Suffering no damage on guard either.

Back Hit
Yeah, they have a few I-frames. It often pays off to wait for an enemy to try and hit you with a normal attack JUST before you use a back-hit.

Standard Super Armor
The basic and most common form of super armor. Its user cannot be grappled. All damage sustained impacts the user's stamina, and stamina regain is typically disabled (as with most attacks). Nearly every ultimate in the game includes standard super armor. It's also accessible via Fighting Pose F. It's susceptible to two out of three manual stamina breaks, so try not to be too willy-nilly with it.

Hyper Armor
Hyper armor is essentially super armor with its non-hit stun principles flipped. When sustaining damage, its user loses health rather than stamina. The user is subject to grapples rather than stamina breaks. It mostly comes from Fighting Pose K and the limit bursts of some super souls. It can take priority over standard super armor when using an ultimate attack - which does mean stamina break immunity.

Evasive Skills
The strong point with evasive skills is their use of i-frames. No matter which evasive skill you choose, you'll be intangible throughout the duration of the skill. That does mean grappling immunity as well.

Evasive Skill Super Armor
"Evasive armor" for short. Super armor and hyper armor vary from one game to another but are very general terms. Since the technical properties of this armor are presented in more than one category, we'll just label it for where it usually is: Evasive Skills.

Some evasive skills include periods that make the user seem vulnerable, and you can technically hit them, but you're not gonna deal damage to the user's stamina or health. It's like a true neutral zone where neither party can progress until the evasive armor ends. While this can seem like a drag, the user's opponent can use the brief moment to regain some resources or time an attack too quickly or perfectly for the user to respond. It sounds useful in principle, but it's typically best to avoid wasting your stamina on that kind of vulnerability.

The most obvious examples of this are with Freeza's and Gogeta's unique evasive skills. Some super attacks - like Brainwash Attack - utilize this form of super armor. Evasive Armor can also be utilized with the activation of super soul, "There was actually five of me" (which lasts for 4 hit ticks; grabs do not hit and therefore never reduce the count).

Raid Super Armor
Enemy Bot raid bosses get a constant, unique spin on the basic super armor. They are immune to stamina breaks and grappling. However is it effected by Candy/Cookie Beam.
*When they do not have this, you can expect them to have Evasive Armor(IA) on all their skills.

Crystal Raid Boss Super Armor
A little different. Damage sustained reduces the user's health and stamina, and stamina recovery is next to 0. Your usual means of breaking stamina are ineffective(nothing bypasses it), but once the boss' stamina runs out, so does their armor.

Giant Namekian Super Armor
The armor that occupies the Become Giant Awoken Skill for Namekians. Stamina will drain like in Kaioken(therefore you are subject to self breaking) and all damage will go to the same resource. But Heavy attacks and "blind siding" will not break stamina, nor will grappling do anything.

Auto Dodge
This... "buff," I guess... appears on any character using Ultra Instinct, costing stamina and reacting only to basic ki blasts and normal attacks. Charged ki blasts and super/ultimate skills will hit. Instead of resisting hit stun, it will substitute hit stun with a spot dodge that allows some counterattacking but only when stationary.

Expert Auto Dodge
Specific expert mission bosses and UIS/MUI Goku in certain PQs will all have this skew of auto dodge. It expands the reaction to all attacks except supers and ultimates and in any battle condition. Cost zero stamina, So when the user activates a skill, they can be interrupted by any attack, don't be afraid to quickly attack them with a super or ultimate at any point.
Unless it's MUI Goku with Expert Auto Dodge AND Evasive Armor on all his skills.

There are 7 stun states in which there are no options of escape:

Grabs ~ Yeah, any grab

Freeze, last about 3 seconds with Ice Cannon and Freezing Beam, via Absolute Zero it's 1 second.

Shock, last about 1.5 seconds with the paralysis ki type, 4-5 seconds with the super soul "GOTCHA!", or 3.5 seconds via the Dragon Burn evasive skill. Other options are Saturday Crash, and Vacation Delete.

Petrify, last about 3 seconds, only way is through Petrifying Spit

Pyschic stop, 3 seconds long with Psycho Escape and Time Control. 1 Second if you don't hold the input for Time Control.

Brainwash, last about 6 seconds. Will ignore all armor types and undo transformations. The PvE version of this raid skill will force victims to fight an EB clone of themselves.

Position Shift, on hit the ki blast will swap the positions of target and user. 3 seconds of vulnerability for team mates to do something to the victim. Blockable but ignores HA

While frozen or petrified you would normally leave those states knocked back in a specific rotating way, taking a sliver of damage. But some moves can keep their own designated stun effects i.e. Gravity Impact, all grabs, and Ice Cannon. Keeping a superior damage and combo.

• Gigantic Explosion: Usable in hit-stun, IA when costing stamina.
  
  
• Evil Whirlwind: Can be used when guarding, has full I-frames on guard.
  
  
• Evil Flight Strike: I-frames on startup.
  
  
• Super Dragon Fist: Has HA when doing the strikes. so the armor is actually in the later half of the move.
  
  
• Explosive Buu Buu Punch: Has SA from start to finish
  
  
• Gigantic Rage: Usable in hit stun, has HA when costing STM. On Broly it has HA anyway.
  
  
• Powered Shell: Usable in hit stun, has I-frames and a barrier when costing STM. On Broly it has HA normally.
  
  
• Gigantic Charge: Usable in hit stun, for time patrollers it has HA only when costing STM, otherwise on Broly always has HA.
  
  
• Demon Ray: Usable in hit stun, has HA when costing STM.
  
  
• Orin Combo: I-frames at the start.
  
  
• Ill Bomber: SA when blowing yourself up. The explosion is not guardable. Vanish while disengaging enemy lock-on for a few seconds..
  
  
• Brainwash Attack: Usable in hit stun, IA in all cases, can't use it again for a while.
  
  
• One-Handed Kamehameha: Usable in hit stun when costing STM, mk II version can extend by spending KI.
  
  
• Eagle Kick: I-frames at the start.
  
  
• Rebellion Spear: Dash around wrapped in SA, only moves horizontally.

• Burst Stinger: Auto dodge activates if attacked during the first part of the skill. Acting as a pseudo counter attack.

Devs must have known how rough this mode would be, so they made it very easy to get a Z rank, just doing stuff will suffice. You will keep rewards, win or lose. DLC skills can drop and are more likely to drop compared to PQs.

If a skill can be used in hit-stun, then by extension it can be used to cancel sleeping(sleep damage officially).














As of update 1.22.02 stamina recovery in the Break Phase has been changed in a very fair way. "You need to be more careful" and "I'll surpass you as I am, with my OWN power!" have effects that only activate when having an interaction with an opponent when you enter Break Phase. They are no longer grossly exploitable in multiplayer. But they have created interesting new perks for the Kaioken play style, due to it's enabling of Self Breaking grabs.

Candy Beam -evasive and/or super skill- A sort of hex move that turns characters into very nonhazardous jawbreaker candy for a few seconds, ignores almost all superarmor types and can occupy 2 slots: evasive skill and/or super attack. Ironically, Cookie Beam(A similar skill) can't do anything against IA or Evasive Skills.

Destructive Fission Is a ki orb that follows the enemy while you fight them and explodes on contact, but it only goes away if the user suffers Hit Stun.

Guarding with super armor active will make no difference as without it. On top of that Perfect Blocking is disabled.

In moments of a combo when Z-vanish is an option you can use burst dash instead by doing forward + X + A (I cannot attest to keybaord users but I'me sure the same concept applies on Playstation and Switch)

Special Beam Cannon(Beast) is a hybrid grab ultimate, the beam its self is unguardable. Yet when you go for the kick version(the grab version), the kick IS guardable but can ignore HA.

Limit Bursts are one use per quest/match and per team, so you'll see a maximum of 2 bursts.

You can equip a functional Darkness Mixer on your CaC with save file editing(no other modification needed).

With infinite ki, some skills can endure forever: Like Energy Field and Blaster Ball

In 1 on 1 player matches a character may get stuck in a loop of panting hit stun when hit with a heavy smash and then grabbed continuously. Image to the right being panting hit stun















A Super Soul must be equipped to use a limit burst, but even if a boss has a Super Soul it is inactive so they still cannot Limit Burst. But the choice as a boss still effects your charged ki blast type.

Some moves that compliment freezing/petrifying: Super Dragon Flight, Burst Kamehamha, Gravity Impact, Kaoken Assault, Darkness Rush, Timeskip/Molotov, Dragon Fist, Justice Blade

If SA returns to a character when frozen or petrified, they will remain stunned like normal and have protection through SA.

Undoing a transformation in an attack string will allow you to cancel the attack string and do any action immediately. Like dashing, guarding, or even starting a new attack string. The combo counter will not reset. This tech is known in the community as the unawoken cancel.

A case for Stamina Master ~ https://www.reddit.com/r/dbxv/comments/191ynis/pretty_sure_this_counts_as_bullying/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
^The better Break Phase exploit starts at 1:18^

https://youtu.be/DgXnyAqtr2k?si=CcTRYpLsul6gcCSt
^cool dude, showing character specific stuff^

One perk of Build a Boss ~ https://youtu.be/74RgkhxPoKk

The power of Stamina Tanks ~ https://youtu.be/NaMDoB81dw0?si=Mvxzp277f1i9LZNH

Why I bring up Pearl Flash and Purification ~ https://youtu.be/axlO9GXbuXY?si=HLZXrfj8pGDFE74J also includes great use of limit bursts.

Very comprehensive overview of defensive elements in this game ~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgd-q206e74