Prompto:Hah! Good Cross Chain, you guys!
Gladiolus:Ugh. I almost forgot about that awful name...
Performing a cross chain in Chapter 14
Cross chain is a team technique in Final Fantasy XV triggered when Noctis warp-strikes an enemy that has been incapacitated, but not killed. It triggers a quick time event where the player has to press the "Attack" button within a timer, and can be repeated up to nine times for a total of ten attacks. As the animation uses the Sword of the Wise and the Axe of the Conqueror, cross chains cannot be performed until they have been acquired.
Cross chain has a chance of triggering when the player is controlling Noctis with the full player party alive and present. Cross chains are unavailable in chapters 7 and 10–13 and will never trigger when Aranea is in the party as a guest.
When a cross chain chance is available on a vulnerable enemy, a red meter at the top of the screen drains to show the window of opportunity, and the downed enemy has a red arrow pointing at it. Cross chains seem to most commonly trigger against magitek soldiers, but also trigger against magitek armor, menace dungeon bosses, giant- and spider-type daemons, coeurl and garula-type enemies, bandersnatches, horse-type enemies and reaperkings. Melusine (tied to a parryable move rather than putting her in vulnerable state) and the superboss Omega have unique cross chain sequences.
Cross chain first appeared in the second version of Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae. It was not in the launch version of the full game, but was later patched in.
Executing a complete cross chain sometimes triggers incidental dialogue. Prompto suggests they call the technique "synchrobeat", but Ignis refines it to "cross chain". Prompto and Noctis like it, but Gladiolus doesn't, and his distaste for the term becomes a running joke.