In Xenoblade Chronicles 2, trust is one of the more important qualities in the dynamic between you and your Blades. That’s because almost every rare Blade’s affinity chart has a trust section, and you’ll obviously need to fill it out to complete the chart, but also to unlock certain abilities or Blade quests.
Trust is also one of the most tiresome stats to increase in the game, but our guide for how to increase trust in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 has some handy ways to make it easier.
Xenoblade Chronicles 2: How to Increase Trust
There are a few ways you can increase trust in Xenoblade Chronicles 2.
Combat
The first way to increase trust is just fighting with your Blade. This is the most time consuming and least effective method, however. You get a small trust increase for each encounter, and if you max out your affinity with that Blade — when the link between you turns gold and solid — it grants an extra +10 in trust.
Since later ranks in affinity charts require trust numbers in the thousands, this is really more of a convenient complement to trust grinding.
Merc Missions
You’ll unlock Merc Missions in Chapter 3, and Blades you send on these Merc errands get a small trust boost once they complete the mission. While repeating short missions is definitely a viable method of raising trust, these still take at least 10 or 15 minutes of real time to complete.
Raising trust this way is best for Blades whose affinity charts you aren’t trying to max out at that moment. Raising your rank and completing Merc requests unlock a number of helpful extras, so it’s worth doing even though there’s another, even better way of raising trust.
Pouch Items
The fastest and most effective way to raise trust in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is spamming pouch items. Pouch items grant specific stat bonuses for that Driver’s Blades, but they also increase trust by a set amount.
Don’t waste time or money trying to figure out a Blade’s favorite item or category either. Using a favorite item or category only increases the item’s effect and has no bearing on trust.
The best items to raise trust in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 are from Fonsett in the Leftherian Archipelago, which you’ll visit as part of the story in Chapter 5. The vegetable and meat stalls there have inexpensive items that raise trust by 18 points, though you’ll need to do some Merc Missions to unlock a few.
Best Pouch Items for Raising Trust in Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Here’s what you should buy on Fonsett to increase trust in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Note the costs might be slightly higher or lower depending on how developed Leftheria is when you do your shopping at a given point, but these are a decent frame of reference.
- Fragrant Samod Stralu
- Cost: 324G
- Trust: +18
- Unlocked: by completing the Nopon Cooking Merc Mission (available as soon as you reach the Leftherian Archipelago, takes 30-40 minutes to complete)
- Veg and Oyster Aspic
- Cost: 324G
- Trust: +18
- Unlocked: by completing the Nopon Cooking Merc Mission (see above)
- Pipestraw Smoothie
- Cost: 300G
- Trust: +18
- Unlocked: by completing the Merchant Ship Merc Mission (available once the Archipelago is at two stars)
Other items with higher rarity, including Glarna Stir-Fry, might cost more than these, but they don’t offer any additional trust bonuses.
Less expensive and less rare items such as Braised Cloud Sea Shark and Zaproast Power Bowl offer +15 trust if you’re cash strapped or for some reason don’t complete the Merc Missions.
Don’t bother with the other fish dishes. The trust boost is still +18, but they’re much more expensive.
After using any of these items in the item pouch, you can immediately use another one to start spamming the trust bonuses. You don’t have to wait until the item expires to get the trust benefit.
Finally, it’s worth noting that you can still get +10 to +12 for other items found before Fonsett, including meat and vegetable items from Torigoth. Using these takes a bit longer to increase trust, but it’s definitely still viable earlier in the game.
That’s all you need to know about how to raise trust in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Make sure to check out our other Xenoblade Chronicles 2 guides for more tips, and consider giving this the ol’ like and share treatment if you found it helpful!
