I died about five times doing that welcome back conner quest every time they would lock on a fraction of a second before pickup  . I ended  up succeeding by doing the usual come up over the cliff,  but then I walked slowly at a slight angle to keep as far away as possible whilst still nearing the red target and managed to pick it up a fraction of a second before I was spotted then simply jumped to safety over the cliff , it was night time so that may have had some effect but exactly what I'm not to sure since the success was my second attempt at night.

The thing that puzzles me is why ? they obviously set it up to be like that , maybe it was there to remind people to try different tactics to achieve your goal other than combat , if  that was the point it did a poor job of teaching us ,then again considering how much of the game design  is counter intuative it shouldn't be a surprise, dissapointing yes because  you cannot but notice how much better the  game flow would be with a few simplifications , but surprising no.

There are multiple "stealth" missions in the game, including at least one recruitment mission. I'm guessing the developers just wanted to utilize the enemy detection system more, but it's pretty clear that Metal Gear Xenoblade isn't a good idea and should never happen again.

Just finished chapter 5.

The final cutscenes after the battle in the desert, (both the Mimeosome revelation and the Ma'non ship arriving over NLA) are the first time so far where the story (and music) really feel like a Xenoblade game. Up to this point, I'd taken great pleasure in the scenic environments, bizarre creatures, and the feeling of conquering uncharted territory, but something felt missing compared to the first game; it felt like a game that took two steps forward, three steps back from its predecessor.

Now it feels like a true successor. The story is finally going somewhere interesting, and the music has come into its own. I'm excited to see where it goes from here.

I don't know... There are probably a pretty good amount of xenoblades sitting under Christmas trees right now...

Yeah, I've got it. Which collectible do you want?