The Ozmid Expanse is one of the key locations to explore in Ys X: Nordics, featuring a gameplay element known as Island Recapture. From this point on, you’ll frequently encounter islands surrounded by a pink shield, which you can recapture for various advantages.
To start, your performance during the recapture will earn you valuable rewards. Recaptured islands can also be unlocked as travel points on your map. Additionally, once you free an island, Hugill gains the ability to highlight all nearby points of interest.
To begin recapturing an island, navigate closer to it when you spot it on the water. As you approach, a popup will appear, providing key details including:
After reviewing this information, you can opt for a standard recapture or deploy a Blitz Beacon to skip a portion of it. However, it’s advisable to complete it normally, as skipping makes it nearly impossible to achieve an S-tier rating.
If you use the beacon, the game will bypass the sea recapture and teleport you directly to the final area of the land recapture for the concluding battle.
As the battle commences, multiple ships will appear around the island, protected by three barrier pillars. Your primary objective is to eliminate all three pillars in each wave. Once you destroy them in one wave, the next wave will immediately commence. It’s essential to keep an eye on the bottom left of your screen.
This area displays various tasks that will boost your morale, indicated above your HP on the bottom right. Achieving new levels in morale will trigger one of your crew’s special abilities. This morale becomes crucial during the land portion of the recapture.
While it’s easy to quickly destroy the pillars and conclude the sea recapture, it’s wise to take your time and work on completing your tasks.
This strategy will not only boost your final score but also make the land battle much simpler.
Upon defeating all turrets in each wave, the shield surrounding the island will drop, allowing Adol and Karja to move onto the land portion for the next stage of the recapture.
Once you enter the land battle, a popup will display various buffs you’ve earned based on your morale level (up to level ten). These could include reductions in damage taken, increases in damage dealt, and even enhancements to your revenge gauge multiplier, among others.
During the land battle, you need to progress through a series of rooms and defeat all enemies in each before advancing. Some rooms may have hidden mechanisms you’ll need to uncover using Mana Sense. After vanquishing the foe in the final room, the recapture will be complete.
Your ultimate rewards will be based on your scores from both the sea and land capture phases, with the highest rewards given for achieving S tier.
If you finish a recapture but don’t achieve the top tier, you can always try again through the planning room on the Sandras.
