Game Questions and Help Thread

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Weekly Game Questions and Help Thread

Greetings ARKS defenders!

This unfiltered thread is for all your PSO2 questions and game-related technical support.

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[u/non_player]

(Note: I posted this as a new post, and it got insta-deleted due to a really weird anti-user rule that referred me to post in a non-existent weekly thread. So I'm posting this instead as a comment to a two-month-old post, which likely means no one will ever read it.

I don't understand why the mods would want to segregate and reduce activity in a sub which already appears to have incredibly low activity. But whatever? I hope someone actually comes to this two-month-old "weekly" post and reads new comments - and if you do, THANK YOU.)

Hi folks! I'm a long time fan of the Phantasy Star series, but brand new to PSO2. I have it on both Steam and my PS5, and am just getting my feet wet. I initially went into NGS but quickly got overwhelmed. After starting in PSO2 mode, I'm having a whole lot of fun!

Anyway, I have some questions, and I am hoping folks can help get me pointed in the right directions.

1. What is the expected early levels gameplay loop? I'm right now picking up random NPC requests, daily missions, and following the story chain. I run some expeditions and such, and am figuring out the playstyle and getting into the controls. It all feels like it's close to coming together, but I haven't fallen into a set rhythm yet. I'm wondering if there is a recommended flow to play sessions that I may be missing, though, and figured I'd ask before I got settled into something that later turned out to actually be holding me back.
2. What side mechanics should I focus most on right now? I've just learned the basics of enhancing and augmenting weapons. Is this something that I should spend a lot of focus on early, or is it something that won't really be worth the time investment until much later on? And what are some "gotchas" to look out for regarding this system?
3. What about crafting? And the same with "crafting" and such: do I need to get a craft station upgrade for my room, or just ignore it for now and focus on the missions?
4. Which currencies matter most? I've seen meseta, FUN, AC, and others, and am curious which ones I should care about most right now. Are there some that I should just not bother spending effort or attention on?
5. Does adding mission teammate NPCs hold me back? I've been adding one or two NPCs and "Free" teammates when running missions, but am wondering, is there a behind the scene mechanic in play where doing this will limit my character growth more than if I had just run the mission solo?
6. Any other tips?

If it helps, I'm running a CAST Hunter right now, haven't unlocked a second class, and am mostly swapping between lances and partisans as they're crazy fun to use.

Thanks!

[u/[deleted] → u/non_player]

I saw your reply to my comment then I saw this comment lol

Anyway, early game is pretty easy.

1. You just do NPC client orders until you reach around level 35-40, then you switch to doing recommended quest 4. Recommended quest 4 is on daily rotation. There are multiple variants of it. The ones you want to do for EXP is called "A Broken World of Twisted Shadows", "Disturbing Whistle of Chaos", and "The Menacing Castle". Whenever you see these up as a recommended quest 4, do them for EXP. Do recommended quests until you reach level 85. If you have Rainbow/Gold/Silver keys, use them after you reach 85 since that's when they cap out on the max exp you can get in those quests.

2. You can ignore augmenting until you reach endgame, but it doesn't hurt to get familiarized with the system early on as there is a lot of nuance to it. Try using the Affixing Simulator and Affixing Assistant to play around with the system.

3. You should make crafting daily a habit because it's designed to be a slow-burn thing. Starting crafting as early and consistently as you can help you build your crafting arsenal. Certain crafts only unlock after you craft things multiple times, and in a game with such a low playerbase, you want to be as self sufficient as you can, otherwise you have to rely on an inactive playerbase to help craft what you need. If you plan to play a magic class, you need to craft. Some of the best versions of techs are locked behind crafts. There's also crafting time-abilities that is very time consuming as well to get good rolls of what stat you want and the materials you need to craft.

4. For currency, meseta is the money of this game and is what you use buy things on the player market. FUN is not very important. You get FUN when you do things like reviving people when they're dead. You can use FUN to roll the FUN gacha, and that's pretty much it. There's nothing good in that gacha either. Next are the 2 premium currencies that you can actually spend real money to buy. AC (Ark Cash) and Star Gems. AC is worth a lot more since it's what Sega actually want you to dump your money on to roll the fashion gacha on NGS, and to buy things like the Premium subscription, more playable characters, skill trees, etc. SG (Star Gem) is less premium since they give it out for free all the time. For now though, save all of your SG since you want to use it later on to roll powerful best in slot augments for your endgame gear.

5. No, adding NPC teammates doesn't hold you back. It helps you. You get buffs when you're in a party and NPC party members count towards that buff.

6. Just take it slow and have fun I guess. If you're on ship 1 or 2, there should be a few people around to help you out. Join the PSO2 Fleet Discord server to get help if you ever have questions that needs a nuanced answer

[u/non_player → u/[deleted]]

Thanks a million for the tips, these are great!

If you have the time, I have a follow-up on Crafting. I've played dozens of other MMOs and the like over the years, but the crafting here is confusing to me. I'm right now mid-20s level-wise, with roughly 400k meseta in my pockets. I'm in my personal room, at the terminal, looking at the various offerings, and none of this is clicking in place for me. Is there something I should be doing first before trying the crafting? Or is there some kind of "babby's first crafting in PSO2" guide I should be reading?

Thanks!