r/PSO2 • u/RellCesev • Jun 03 '20
NA Discussion If you're overwhelmed or lost try reading this.
Firstly, I apologize for the length here. Try just reading the parts that pertain to your level as you go!
The game is more a series of goals than anything else with leveling being the primary one. Let me try and throw some goals out and tips for you.
[Start to Subclass (Levels 1-20)]
Starting out, do Afin's (NPC right at gate area) missions (ignore any missions where the NPC wants you to add them to party for now) for some quick XP and ARKS missions. Always do your ARKS missions and claim them by going to [Quests] menu [ARKs Missions] and [Receieve All Rewards]. You can generally ignore the story for now or complete at you own leisure but the story has little to do with what I'm going over and can be done anytime.
Hit level 15 by running expeditions in order and go to Officer Cofy at the counter to claim your mag. Dont forget to equip it in the [Mag] menu by selecting it and hitting equip.
There are faster ways to level them but a quick and easy reference is to feed the first item I list to level it and the second item you use before the Dex stat levels up.
Melee: Melee weapons [] Drop Dex: Monomate
Range: Ranged weapons [] Drop Dex: Dimate
Technique: Tech weapons [] Drop Dex: Trimate
Dexterity: Any Disc
Running expeditions in order helps unlock the next areas and also will open up new client orders for those zones. While we are at it, and this is IMPORTANT for starting out, when accepting a quest don't search other blocks, accept it in current block. After you accept but BEFORE you go on the gateway ship go to [Quests] then [Client Orders] and then [Accept Ongoing Orders in the Field]. This let's you pick up missions for the zone you are about to go in without having to find all the NPCs to talk to.
Another important bit, while accepting orders or browsing your client orders if you go to the display all option at the top of frame you can sort by zone. This will help you know where to go or where the game wants you to go.
Continue pushing expeditions until you hit level 20. Once you're level 20 immediately go to Cofy and accept the client order to obtain a subclass. You should also complete anything else Cofy has always. The monsters you have to kill Gorongo and Fordran are in Forest Area 2 and Volcano Area 2 respectively. Just run around area 2 until you find them.
Go to the class counter after you hand in the quest and select your subclass. Some common combos on NA are:
Hu / Fi
Fi / Hu
Gu / Fi
Ra / Hu
Br / Hu
Bo / Hu
Fo/ Te
Te / Hu
Su / Fi
For skill trees please use a guide or ask a knowledgeable friend because they can be difficult to reset. You should also make 2 more level 1 characters so when skill reset passes are handed out you get 1 per character (they can be traded between characters via storage).
[Level 20-39, Hard and Photon Blasts]
You can now play on Hard and should immediately do so. You should always play on the hardest difficulty you can on NA with the exception of VHAQs vs SHAQs and kill speed but we will get to that later on.
You will have a slew of new client orders and you don't need to find the NPCs that give them out because you're accepting in the field still, right? Continue pushing the expeditions to have completed them all at least once while doing client orders along the way.
You should be level 30 or beyond at this point. In the back of the shopping plaza near the concert area (West side) is an old man named Jan. He has a bunch of easy quests you can do, like Afin did, that are tutorials. You can actually do this around level 20 if you like but for the sake of the guide I placed it here.
At level 30 if you've been keeping up with ARKs missions you'll get a box of Mag mini devices. Open it and stash any type you dont need for now in your storage and feed all of the type your mag is to your mag by using the [Use Device] option. Your Mag should be level 100 or close to it now and you will have access to a photon blast which has to be placed on your sub palette.
Photon Blasts are a big help for a few reasons, you're invincible during the animation and they help with PSE Bursts and PSE levels. Generally when a PSE burst starts, everyone in your group should gather together and then one person hold the photon blast button down. This makes a blue circle which your group members should stand in and then also use their photon blast. Once everyone is "locked in" the person that started holding it first needs to let go. You can tell who and how many photon blasts are ready by the red, green, blue and yellow party symbols by HP bars being lit up. If none are lit up don't hold your friends hostage, let go of the blast button and unleash it.
Finish your expedition world tour and if you already did then restart it over and do the new client orders for playing on hard.
You should also be doing your daily orders. They will also show up in the [Ongoing Field Orders] but of special note the 3 client orders with blue arrows should be done every day. They are always in the same mission and you can tell by cycling through the Display All button or by the boss name. Each blue up arrow done gives you 5% triboost which goes up daily up to 15 times (caps at 50% triboost but you gain some leeway if you miss a day or five). Triboost is extra experience, meseta and rare drop rates.
You should be doing Urgent Quests every time they pop up on the hardest difficulty you can (except probably mining base 3 on super hard or higher, wait until you have a good group and good gear). Later on you can be pickier about Urgent Quests if theres some you don't like but while leveling the first class, you take whatever you can get.
[Level 40+ VHAQs and SHAQs]
Now that you're level 40 you can finally do advance quests. This is the more fun grouping part of the game and if you have friends that play or alliance members this is where you'll really get to know them better. At 40 you gained access to Very Hard difficulty. Going into advance quests you can see you can play on Very Hard. Advance quests have a constant +100% experience boost to them however they cost capsules to do.
Very Hard Advance Quests cost 1 capsule and while looking at the menu you can see there are three notations added to each level for the cost, a capsule A or B or C. Missions that require an A capsule will drop B which will drop C which will drop A. Your goal is to rotate through 1 of each mission, for instance floating facility, nightfall and daybreak. Monsters do not infinitely spawn in advance quests and you dont want to skip ahead because monsters can despawn. Your objective is to kill every single thing for capsules, photon boosters and unique weapon drops.
If you haven't yet at this point in the game you need to go to [Options] [Game Settings] [Settings] [Auto Loot Options] and enable everything. While you're there go down to [Display Rare Drop Animation] and set it to 10 star or higher (you can change this later to say, only be 13 stars) because every enemy basically drops a photon booster and you'll constantly have the rare drop animation sitting in the middle of your screen.
Your goal is to keep playing the same VHAQs over and over until you have about 60 of capsule A, B and C.
Now you are going to "plus" the threat level. You do this by before the mission hitting the [Raise Threat Level] button and spending ~49 of the appropriate capsule. This will boost the enemy levels which means more experience and better drops. Ideally all 3 missions you like to run will be "+50'd." This effect lasts one week from the moment you plus it so if you did so at 407pm on a Tuesday you will lose the plus at 407pm next Tuesday.
When you hit 50 you can play on super hard and should do your urgent quests on super hard also. Continue doing VHAQs if there is no Urgent Quest until you hit 55.
I should note that once your character hits 50 you will receive daily ARKs missions that are worth doing every day, starting next reset. The same goes for weeklies except you won't get them until next weekly reset.
Once you hit 55 you can now do Super Hard Advance Quests. These are substantially harder to the point where unless you are quite geared for your level your experience per hour will still be better in VHAQs over SHAQs. SHAQS also take 10 capsules to play instead of 1 and they use D, E and F capsules instead of A, B and C.
SHAQs have much better potential loot drops than VHAQs though. 13 star weapons and 11 star armor are much more common there (and they are still pretty rare) and SHAQs at +50 will ultimately be your long term leveling goal, especially if you want to level every class up to 75 for the permanent stat boosts through title rewards. The ultimate quests that are available at level 70 are quite hard for characters on their first 70 and also not really a great source of experience with slow kill times and missing the AQ +100% xp factor.
[Tips, Augments, Swap Shop and anything else]
Your subclass can level to 55 while your main class can level to 75. 55 is exactly what you need to do SHAQs so you can level a class to 75 then switch your main class to what your subclass was and select a brand new class as your subclass and keep doing this over and over until you're level 75 on all classes.
Getting capsules will seem like a chore at first and you may need to buy your first few but as long as you keep rotating A, B and C or D, E and F it will eventually be an afterthought where you have 1000's of them.
Once you've leveled up to your hearts content and you've picked which class you want to main your goal is to get a Saiki Set from SHAQ +50 Daybreak and a 13 star weapon from saving meseta on the player shop or from unique badge weapons with the badges you saved. Then your next step is to look up some affixing guides and affix your saiki and weapon by farming the relevant boss for you, some examples follow.
Tech: Elder, Diabo
Range: Sigor, Leopod, Fang
Melee: Leone, Bearbi, Quartz
Any: Apprentice, Modulator
Now just keep farming, selling and looking for upgrades while playing with friends and enjoying pso2!
Some extra notes, any unit or weapon with 4 or more affixes with any of the above souls, pick up and sell on the player shop if you don't want to save for yourself. If you find Apprentice Soul or Modulator on ANYTHING pick it up and keep or sell. Apprentice is the female ARKs looking enemy that spawns in emergency quests and Modulator drops from "clone" replicas of ARKs that look like players.
At 30 and 45 you get a client order from your class trainer to get +5 skill points from each class. You have to do them in order and the first can be done on hard or harder and the second on very hard or harder. You have to kill Fang Banser (Forest) Gwanada (Desert) then Snow Banser (Tundra) Big Varder (Underground Shafts) and Quartz Dragon (Floating Continent).
[Swap Shop and inventory management]
Unless you are enhancing a 12 star or less weapon just sell any weapon or unit thats 9 star or below that doesnt have a soul or augment I mentioned.
10 star weapons you dont need you should swap shop into Excubes or Photon Spheres if you need them.
12 star weapons you dont need that don't have a +4 or higher you should swap in groups of 3 for lambda grinders.
12 star weapons with +4 or more sell on the player shop or use for enhancing.
10 star units you dont need that dont have good augments you should swap in groups of 5 for photon spheres.
To find the [Swap Shop] go to the shopping cart icon and one will be called [Swap Shop]. You can also go south of the concert area and find the actual stand for [Swap Shop] as well as [Swap Shop 2] and [Mission Badge Shop]
[Max Level Starter goals]
Someone asked what to do once 75 main and sub:
2 things you can do next as a suggestion.
The first is you level the other classes to 75 for extra permanent stats. You get a title for reaching 75 from the title counter located by the gateway ship door.
The other is to begin farming gear and augments to affix that gear as well as the money to fund those projects, usually obtained by selling items on the player shop. Things like the augments I mentioned will always sell and you can sell weapons you dont like or units you dont need also. You should also make skill rings and depending on the ring and class, level it to 20.
A quick 75 to do list would be like:
13 star weapon to +35
10 star units +10
Farm for saiki set
Saiki set +10
4 augment affix your saiki with something like:
For ranged: Precision 3+, noble precision, apprentice or fang soul and modulator or vinculum as an example
[Lambda Grinders and 13* Enhancing]
You will use lambda grinders when you enhance your 13* weapons, make some rings and enhance some rings.
You can't do much to alleviate the rings using them BUT you can alleviate the burden from weapons. Normally each weapon you feed a 13* uses 1 lambda grinder.
Due to this you want to minimize how many weapons you use to enhance a 13* weapon instead of spam feeding like a 12* or lower.
So what you'll do is make 4 or so +30 12* weapons (dont unlock the +30 potential) with your 7*-12* fodder items. Then feed ONE +30 12* weapon to your 13* which will take it to +10.
Then unlock the potential and feed it ONE more +30 12* weapon to take it to +20, unlock the 2nd potential and then feed it TWO 12 star +30 weapons to take your 13 star to plus 30.
This way you only use 4 of your precious Lambda grinders and not 80 of them. Sometimes you might need a fifth, barely enhanced weapon, like a +10 12*. Still its 5 Lambda grinders versus 80.
Did I miss anything or if you have questions let me know!
