Just finished the story quests and saw the credits. Took me 100 hours and I still have a lot to do.
I don't want to spoil anything, so I'll just say that I'm really enjoying the game a lot.

A quick tip: Duplicator probes duplicate every single probe connected to it. That also counts for storage probes. If you have 4 storage probes connected to a duplicator probe, the duplicator probe adds 4x3000 to storage.

Okay, wow.

After 30 hours of waiting, I wasn't sure Skells would live up to the hype, especially since they can't fly when you first get them.

Boy, was I wrong. Stomping, leaping, and racing across Primordia in my first Skell is one of the most purely enjoyable gaming experiences I've had in ages. The feeling of empowerment from dwarfing my old foes, reaching new places, and traversing distances in seconds that used to take me minutes was just incredible.

The wait was worth it, and in fact restricted the player to being on foot for the first 30 hours or so makes finally getting a Skell all the more impactful. I suspect that when I get the flight module, I'll be similarly glad it wasn't unlocked from the moment I got my Skell, for the same reasons.

Bravo, Monolith. Bravo.

Only one bad thing about the flying Dolls: Mira became incredibly small. After hours inside the mech I decided to go on foot again.

Hehe, I was just flying around for hours when I got the flight module and turned the HUD off.

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=7662768

It was one of those "gaming moments" that you only have every few years for me.

The good thing is that you have so many movement options and can explore at your preferred pace.

While I like the ground combat better than the one of the first game (you can do crazy shit with keeping the overdrive momentum), Skell combat doesn't feel that dynamic.

Is there a good wiki for this game? I was thinking of the buying the guide, but I have heard it is not worth it. I am not looking for information on where to find everything or how to defeat every boss. I am just looking for detailed explanations for how everything works. I am only into chapter 4, and I have the basics down, but I know I am missing some of the deeper options for the game. I am trying to avoid what happened to me when I played XC. Some of the cooler stuff I did not figure out or stumble across until very late in the game, such as some of the gem crafting strategies.

The same exact feeling happened with me. Though it's not really that Mira got small, but that the Skells travel way too fast my comparison to your on foot running speed. I ended up doing the same as you. On foot I go.

The manuel in the options menu is 50 pages deep. Us that.

Any tips for fast leveling at around lvl 30? My squad is level 29 at the moment.

I leveled quite fast waiting to get a mecha for each member of my party and taking down small monsters at level 50 or so. This will give you  an extra push in EXP. That's what I did, maybe there is a better way of leveling up.

EDIT: Oh, well, I didn't have to grind a lot to reach level 30. Just doing affinity quests and normal missions was enough.

The course of the game's combat is pretty interesting. Obviously you start fighting exclusively on the ground, and once you get the Skells most people switch over almost exclusively to those. But the end/post game goes back primarily to ground fighting, sometimes by necessity (caves), but usually because as you said you end up stronger on foot. I only use skells now to fight tyrants who can't be reached otherwise.

Use skells to pick of individual and small groups of level 50 prones in Primordia/Oblivia. You don't even have to start battle: just literally keep stomping them outside of combat, and they'll never be able to attack back.

We are your wiki! Any specific questions for now?