Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Masha Guide | How to Unlock, Ascension Quest, Accessory Crafting

Volume 3 of Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s Expansion Pass has just gone live. Alongside a fresh set of new Challenge Battles to undertake and new Throwback outfits to collect, the main appeal of this Wave of the introduction of another new Hero.

Masha the Lapidarist is the second Hero to join the game post-launch after Wave 2’s Ino the Artifical Blade. She is a dramatic, posh woman from the City who prides herself on her free spirit and her skill as a craftswoman. You can unlock Masha as a new Hero to aid you in battle, gaining her unique Healer class for your main 6 party members in the process. Masha also has some special tricks up her sleeve that any min-max ers will want to keep an eye on. 

Here’s everything you need to know about the new Expansion Pass Hero, Masha, in Xenoblade Chronicles 3. 

Want more Xenoblade Chronicles 3 articles and content? You can find more here on KeenGamer:

1. How to Unlock All New Throwback Outfits in Xenoblade Chronicles 3 | Expansion Pass Wave 3
2. The Importance of Accents in Xenoblade Chronicles
3. The Brilliance of Accents in Xenoblade Chronicles 3
4. Xenoblade Chronicles 3: How To Unlock All Heroes
5. Xenoblade Chronicles 3: How To Unlock All Hero Ascension Quests

How to Unlock Masha

Before we go any further, let’s first discuss how you can get Jewelwright Masha on your team.

Make sure that you have purchased the Expansion Pass for Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and also be sure to update to version 1.3.0. Once you log into the game, head over to the “Expansion Pass” section of the pause menu: if everything has gone right then there will be a present symbol. Then just click on it and claim the Wave 3 content.

Wave 3

To unlock Masha, you will need to reach about halfway through Chapter 5 of the main campaign. Masha’s Hero Quest, Lapidarist’s Extraordinaire, recommends that you be around level 48 to undertake it, and it can be started by travelling to Serene Square in the City. There’s a fast travel point you can take directly there where you’ll find a fancy-looking woman in yellow speaking to one of the Lost Number Pilots – simply approach and a cutscene will trigger.

This quest will introduce you to Masha, her very posh way of speaking and high-class demeanour, and her unique Accessory Crafting skills. Once you reach its conclusion, you can permanently add Masha to your party. 

Known Far and Wide

Her class is Lapidarist, a Kevesi Healer class focused on being aggressive to restore the health of their allies. Similar in many regards to the Blade iteration of Fiora from the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Expansion Pass, Lapidarist heals your party on critical hits and controls the battlefield with field effects that heal on art usage. Mio is Masha’s Class Inheritor, giving her instant access to the Lapidarist class with S-tier compatibility.

Masha herself has some very interesting skills and abilities. Star Treatment heals nearby allies for 70% of her Healing Power on every critical hit, while Beaming Edge grants a flat 20% Critical Rate and 50% crit damage bonus to the entire team. The Jewelwright Lapidarist is a great healer and will be a good fit in many different team compositions, especially for those wanting to tackle the new Archsage Gauntlet. 

Lapidarist the Healer

How to Unlock Masha’s Ascension Quest

Before you can raise Masha’s level or Ascend her class, you have two prerequisite requirements. 

First, you need to progress through the main story until the quest becomes available. Unlike most other Heroes, you won’t have to wait long after unlocking her thanks to her Ascension Quest being only 2 levels higher than her Hero Quest. Masha’s Ascension Quest should likely unlock at the beginning of Chapter 6. 

The next step is to make sure that Mio hits level 10 with the Lapidarist Class. As her inheritor, Masha’s Ascension Quest will not unlock unless Mio has reached her level. How you get to this point is up to you; you could farm high-level enemies at areas like the Malevolent Hollow if you’re at the endgame, just play the game normally with the class equipped if you’re still going through the story or simply spend Silver Nopon Coins to raise the level if you’re rich enough.

Only the Highest Quality

After you’ve completed both of the above tasks, return to the City with Masha. While she’s in your party, head to the City Camp Rest Spot and you’ll initiate a conversation with her. This begins For the Sake of Keepsakes, Masha’s Ascension Quest.

Completing this Ascension Quests raises the level of Masha to level 20, as well as allowing the core 6 party members to reach the maximum level of 20 with the Lapidarist Class. You’ll also unlock a few more options in Masha’s Accessory Crafting skill as a bit of a bonus reward. 

A Craftswoman’s Word

Crafting Accessories

Like Ino before her, Masha has a special skill not shared by any other Hero in Xenoblade Chronicles 3. That unique skill is the ability to craft accessories.

Usually, you’ll pick up accessories from shops, chests or monsters as you progress throughout the game, with each accessory usually only having one core skill. This can be bonus damage at low health, a flat boost to a stat like Critical Rate or Attack, or something more out there like a 10% to keep an Art Charge after use. Knowing what accessory goes with which class can make endgame fights way easier and help round out your builds. 

Now, Masha makes that process a bit simpler. Her accessory crafting, while it still has an element of luck to it, is a straightforward way to fine-tune your builds for the toughest fights in Xenoblade Chronicles 3. 

Chilling at a Rest Spot

How Do You Craft Accessories?

Once Masha has permanently joined your squad at the end of her Hero Quest, you can start crafting. Head to any Rest Spot and the option will be available between Cooking and Saving. 

There are three parts to crafting: Craft, Enhance and Dismantle. 

Craft is the most simple to go over. Using a special material called Enigmatter, Masha can create one accessory with a completely random ability. While this is a very broad list that you can obtain abilities from, there is a way to focus on a certain subset of abilities. You can choose from a Bangle, Ring, Collar or Tiara, with your choice weighing the odds in favour of a specific Class: 

• Enigmatic Bangle is more likely to roll Defender abilities (Aggro increase, HP increases, etc.)
• Enigmatic Ring is more likely to roll Attacker abilities (Topple Damage increase, Attack increases, etc.)
• Enigmatic Collar is more likely to roll Healer abilities (Boosts HP healed from Arts, Healing Power increases, etc.)
• Enigmatic Tiara is a completely random effect, not biased towards any of the classes.

Once you’ve chosen your accessory and have spent the Enigmatter to create it, you’ll be allowed to Enhance it. By spending more Enigmatter (alongside some Gold and other materials) you can enhance an accessory, improving its existing effects. You will also unlock additional benefits and stats the more you upgrade these accessories (which can be enhanced to a maximum of 5 times).

For example, my Pro Tiara accessory has been upgraded once, increasing the skill percentage from 17% to 18%. This also unlocked a small 9-point stat bonus to Agility, with additional bonuses to Critical Rate and Healing Power should I continue to enhance it. No other accessories besides Masha’s can grant stat bonuses alongside their main effects. 

Enhancing Accessories

Lastly, you cannot sell these special Masha-made accessories. Instead, you can Dismantle them to get rid of them. Doing this refunds some of the materials you spent to create the item, but not the whole thing: a newly made accessory costs 3 Enigmatter to make, but only refunds 1 on a Dismantle. 

All together, Masha’s accessory crafting certainly takes some time to learn and requires even more investment if you want to truly take advantage of it. However, if you’re willing to spend the time (and resources) to get some of these powerful accessories, they’ll be well worth your while in endgame activities like the Archsage’s Gauntlet or when battling Aionios’ Strongest super bosses.

Masha and her Anvil

Enigmatter and Noponic Gold

So now you know how to make the accessories, how do you get your hands on the materials to make them? This can be a bit confusing, especially compared to how clear Ether Sphere collecting was in Wave 2.

Enigmatter is the most important material and is required if you want to either craft or enhance any accessory, with no exceptions. You can’t just find it around the world, though. Instead, you need to purchase it. Specifically, you need to purchase it from the Land of Challenge where the Nopon Archsage and his Challenge Battles await. The quests which unlock this area (as well as the endgame Challenge Battles) come from Wave 2 of the Expansion Pass. Wave 3 adds a round of new content in the form of the Archsage’s Gauntlet, as well as an update to all the shops in the Land of Challenge so that they will now sell Enigmatter.

Precious Enigmatter

You can buy a single piece of Enigmatter for 300 Blue (or 1500 Red) Noponstones, which are special currencies obtained through completing Challenge Battles. They sell an unlimited amount of these, meaning that you can theoretically farm out as many of these as you want by simply playing the Challenge Battle mode over and over again. 

Another currency you can buy here for Noponstones is Noponic Gold. This is another new currency for crafting accessories, but you’ll only require it once you begin going all-out on enhancing. The first upgrade for crafted accessories only costs one additional Enigmatter, but further levels require more Enigmatter and Noponic Gold together. 

Considering that you will be spending the same type of currency on both resources, it’s recommended to focus on getting a steady stream of Enigmatter first. This way, you can craft a decent batch of accessories and see if you want to keep and enhance any (while dismantling any you don’t need to save on resources). Once you have a good handful that you want to keep, then begin spending on Noponic Gold.

If you want to see a quick and easy way to get a lot of Noponstones in a short space of time, you check out our Enigmatter Farming Guide here.

And that was everything you needed to know about the new Hero, Masha, from Wave 3 of the Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Expansion Pass.