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gideon
Mar 8, 2001, 05:32 AM
MechDan writes, "Getting started as a force character is tougher than any of the other classes. You need all the help you can get! That's what this guide is for. "Why is it tough starting as a Force?
First, you have an extremely poor weapon, so you'll depend almost entirely upon your (still pretty weak) spells to attack.
Second, those spells cost TP so you'll be constantly spending all your spare money on monofluids (at the expense of feeding your mag).
Third, you have low HP, so you'll die a lot--and it will take you longer to get ready to fight the bosses.
Here's how to deal with those disadvantages:
1. You badly need a handgun ASAP. Finding the gun is no problem, building up enough ATA to use it is. This is what you need:
1A. Level up. Play the "Battle Training" mission several times by accepting the Hunters Guild mission but cancelling at the Hunters Guild desk before talking to the client at the end of the mission. Use one fireball on each enemy, and let Kireek finish them off while you go looting crates. Unfortunately, this will not increase your ATA fast enough to get your handgun--but it helps you in general. Keep an eye out to see if you can arm a sabre. A sabre is a major upgrade from a cane. Somewhere around the time you get sick of Kireek's constant advice and can equip a sabre, you can level up faster on your own (alternate going through the forest normally and going on a Hunters Guild quest).
If you've never played PSO before, be sure to practice combos. A combo is a series of 3 attacks in a row--you can mix and match normal and heavy attacks. The best combos are normal-normal-heavy and normal-heavy-heavy. Do NOT press the button as fast as you can. Instead, use deliberate timing and wait for one attack to finish before pressing the button for the next attack.
One big tip for levelling up fast--learn to sell stuff really fast. If you're a newbie, selling stuff can be a very time consuming operation as you carefully compare the stats of each and every item. Instead, use Item Pack->Items->Sort->Automatically to organize your items before selling. Then sell your stuff. You can quickly compare the price of your current best sabre/handgun/armor/barrier to whatever you're selling. You can very quickly sell off anything with a much lower price than your current sabre/handgun/armor/barrier with full confidence that that stuff wasn't worth even looking at carefully. This is also helpful online, so the rest of your party won't have to wait around for you.
1B. Build up DEX on your Mag. Feed it a constant stream of Antidotes and Antiparalysis. These are pretty cheap and boost DEX. If you're playing offline, this is the most important thing to get you closer to your Handgun.
1C. Get a multi-slot frame and equip it with Marksman/Arm. Depending on your section ID, you might actually find the multi-slot frame by yourself. But you won't find or be able to buy the Marksman/Arm. Go online to beg for them or buy them (they cost 2000 Meseta each). If you can find a kindly person at level 10+, they should be able to buy Marksman/Arm at the armor shop for you.
Keep at it until you can equip a handgun. In the meantime, you will have looted enough crates to have a couple good sabres and handguns (look for high bonuses to Native and A. Beast), as well as a decent frame and barrier. Hold on to any multi-slot frames you find even if you have nothing to put in the slots yet. Hold onto any disks you don't already have, and any utility items. Sell everything else to build up Meseta and buy antidotes/antiparalysis to feed your Mag.
You'll still probably be very poor. There are a couple ways to conserve money, though. One way is to use a telepipe or make the long trek back to use the hospital to replenish HP and TP. If you're out of telepipes, you can save half the time and 10 Meseta by simply unequipping your weapon and letting yourself die!
2. The constant TP problem is actually solved by getting the handgun. Once you get the handgun, it will be your primary offensive weapon until you get better spells. You'll want to level up enough to take on the Dragon offline. You can change what you feed the Mag now--change to mates if you want more attack power or fluids if you want to learn better spells sooner.
Depending on how many telepipes you've got and how much Meseta you're willing to spend, you can go after the Dragon even if you're pretty low level. He retains any damage you've done unless you quit the game, so a perfectly reasonable strategy is to open a telepipe near the boss entrance, attack the Dragon until you die, and repeat. Refer to various other FAQs on how to defeat the Dragon. You'll want to shoot the head and/or use ice spells. Remember to talk to the principal afterward to save your progress.
After defeating the Dragon, you can go to the Caves, where you get much cooler stuff than in the Forest and where there are lots of fluids to find. Don't be too discouraged by how long it takes to slog through CAVE 1. CAVE 2 and CAVE 3 are much smaller and shorter.
3. Even after you've leveled up to 10+, you'll still tend to die a lot just because you have so little HP. Learning "Resta" helps (it heals HP), and makes up for the relative scarcity of mates in the caves. However, your greatest priority now is learning "Ryuker". Ryuker is the telepipe spell. With it, you can afford to drop a pipe every few rooms. That way, if you die then you can quickly return and get revenge! In fact, if you're still having money problems you can drop a pipe and then let yourself die to replenish TP. Ryuker won't make you die any less often, but it makes death only a minor inconvenience. You'll be able to buy/find Priest/Mind units and a Wand to help you learn the spells. Feed the Mag fluids to boost its mind bonus too. Note that you only need to boost your MST at the time of learning the spell. You can revert to another weapon and other reinforcing units and you'll still be able to use the spell.

The tips so far basically apply to Hunters as well as Forces--but they can do it all faster and easier. So far, the Forces are still behind the curve. But have no fear! You're at the verge of the "hump". The "hump" is the worm at the end of the caves. You defeat the "hump" with either of the two following spells--Rafoie or Razonde. With either of these, you will chew him up since they hit all 7 segments each time. Just make sure you're well supplied with monofluids and difluids. Remember to talk to the Principal after you defeat him to save your progress.
So now you're around level 13-17 and you've learned Razonde lvl 1. You finally slogged your way through the caves and killed the worm. What now?
Welcome to the Mines, the Force's playground. You will now slaughter robots en masse, gaining experience at a rate you've never seen before and levelling up in overdrive. The key is Razonde. Just go in, zap, and just before the Gilchics get up again zap again (if you do it too early, they won't be damaged when they're still lying on the ground). Two zaps will destroy a whole wave of 6+ robots. You'll salivate at the sight of those canadine formations--two quick zaps and you've got over a hundred EXP all at once! As a side-effect, the crates will get slaughtered along with the robots. Often, you'll just enter a room--ZAP--ZAP--and then pick up the pieces.
Unfortunately, the Mines aren't ALL fun and games. You'll burn up TP like lighter fluid, so unless you have a TP stealing gun prepare for frequent trips to Pioneer 2. You'll also need a decent autogun or mechgun to deal with those annoying Beats. The big missile launching robots are also initially a pain. Tactics against them are pretty straightforward--arm a handgun type weapon and shoot it from outside it's missiles's range (or if it's near the door use straightforward pop in and out tactics). However, if you're only level 14, it can take a real long time to destroy them.
Once you get to the Mines with Razonde, Ryuker, and Resta, your troubles starting as a Force are essentially over. Don't get too confident, though--you'll be in for a rude awakening in the Ruins...
Isaac Kuo (Mechdan)

astralpop
Mar 8, 2001, 01:04 PM
I disagree!
First I would like say is that "This game is so much like Diablo!" If you played you know! If not oh well.
In PSO it is conter productive if you try to fight with a weapon and your a "fo", use a gun if your a "hu", and fight with spells if your a "ra", but i see people do it all the time. Your half-arsing it. Play the class or pick another one. If you play the class then you will be alot more powerful and won't die as much even if your a "fo"
Trying to use weapons other than a cane/wand type ever is a waste with a "fo" and fighting with any weapon hand to hand is a complete waste.
The only exception is getting a varista at some point. The para ability comes in handy, but then again youll have ice magic at that time. So? Just last night I saw a "fo try and fight monsters on hard in ruins with a brand he did 12 points of damage with each hit and I had to raise him everytime he tried it.
I do agree however with raising other stats on your mag besides mind. Once you become lvl 50+ too much mind on your mag will be a waste, as the excess points will be lost. Your tp will not go past 999 much even if you equip all mind/units and have a mag with alot of mind. In point my first fonewm had a mag with 120 mind and my tp was 1096 at lvl 67 with no mind/units and equipping mind/units did nothing for me.
The "fo"s idea is support magic. That is why it says advanced oriented. In multiplayer hit the enemies few times with a spell that hurts them this reduces there hp alot, it won't kill them you get exp and it makes it easier for the "hu" to cut through them just don't foleech the exp and do nothing. Cast shifta/deband and resta alot! So no one dies!
In single player prepare to run alot in circles. Hit and run, hide in doors and die some! Get use to it.
Tips: for "fo"
1.Always carry antiparalyze with you!
2.You probaly won't need to carry more than 5 trifluids with you in vhard ruins. You will load up quickly and find some on the way.
Tips: for anyone
1.Always carry antiparalyze with you!
2. Garanz! What a joke. If you have trouble killing them. Then just run around them in circles. They will kill themselves.
3.In vhard ruins when collecting specials. They have certain ata/atp needs learn them it will save you from carrying back db sabers(265 atp) and varistas(110 ata).

MechDan
Mar 8, 2001, 05:10 PM
Sad as it may be, a low level force wielding a sabre will have a much better time of things than a low level force wielding a cane. Remember, a cane has no MST bonus at all, so what advantage does it have over a sabre? Absolutely nothing.
Similarly, what advantage does a cane have over a handgun? Absolutely nothing.
When you're low level even a measly Foie takes a lot out of you. It costs a lot of time and/or meseta keeping yourself supplied with TP. If you're a low level Force going after EXP by tagging along with a party of stronger characters, a handgun is MUCH better than techniques. A handgun has better range and rate-of-fire than your simple techniques, and doesn't consume all your TP like normal/hard techniques. (You get maybe 5 Ra- shots off before you run out of TP.)
At medium levels, the absolute best Force weapon for cruising through stages is easily a Mind-type handgun. Only at high levels when your Rabarta can reliably freeze opponents do you dare switch to a powerful TP stealing melee weapon. But this is getting off-topic. My guide is meant for low level advice STARTING a Force.
You're right that no Force should be wielding a brand. Forces lack the defense and HP for a melee weapon against unfrozen opponents, and a brand lacks the multi-hit TP stealing ability to make it worthwhile. Again I digress...this doesn't apply to low level players. When the only two things you can equip are a cane or a sabre, take the sabre!
In the midlevel range, the SLIGHT boost in MST a Wand provides is useful for learning spells only. Carrying around a TP stealing handgun is much, much better. (Never need to resupply except to sell off inventory or buy stuff for the Mags). A TP stealing handgun isn't nearly so useful for a low level Force, because 3% of 150TP just isn't a whole lot.

astralpop
Mar 8, 2001, 09:52 PM
Now that i think about it i never looked at a canes mst bonus because i never attack with weapons to care about which is better saber vs cane hmm...Even at low levels the items you find to sell and the monfluids you find will keep you in tp the whole time.
I think it is worth mentioning that a fonewm has higher and faster tp gain than the other two "fo" which does make difference

TheSpecials
Mar 8, 2001, 11:13 PM
I didn't use any of these tactics while I started out with my force and I turned out great. It did in fact take me longer to be able to hold my own but all it takes is time. You simply have to play alot, and online most of the time if you can. Playing online with people you know is a far better way to level up out of those awkward beginning levels. Just stick with your magic, I'm at level 32 now and I have never once used a gun or sabre. The reason you pick a Force is to use cool magic spells, theres plenty of time at higher levels in the game to use guns and such. The only weapon I could really see myself using besides a cane of some kind is a Double Saber. Why you ask? Because 1. It looks way too cool. And 2. It steals TP. Maybe I'll use some other neet rare guns but we'll see. TO sum it up, if you want to use guns , go pick a hunter or something. Suck it up, you'll earn the respect from people that a force deserves simply because it's the hardest character to use. GO MAGIC OR GO. HOME

MechDan
Mar 9, 2001, 12:44 AM
You want to earn respect? Build up your Force character entirely OFFLINE. I've made two Forces this way so far, and it's a heck of a lot tougher than just tagging along with a party online to nab experience and items.
Anyone can build up a character online. It's easy with 1-3 higher level characters looking out for you. Going it alone from the start is what gets my respect. My guide is meant to help out people who are up for that challenge.
I've leveled up further and faster than my friends (who play various classes). They play mostly online. When I go online, I get hardly any EXP since I'm constantly waiting around for my friends to shoot enemies before I fry them with magic. While I'm waiting, I'll plink with my beloved Soul Railgun to replenish TP.
Go play a HUmar? Been there, done that. I didn't like getting lost in the croud, so I essentially ditched by lvl36 HUmar to start up characters of less common classes. The least common by far was FOmarl, so that was the logical choice for my next "primary" character. I built him up mostly offline also, but it was a piece of cake compared to my later Force experiences (I have a FOmarl, FOnewearl, and a FOnewm).

MechDan
Mar 9, 2001, 12:45 AM
I found the struggle to afford enough monofluids and monomates to be more or less as tough for the FOnewm early on as the others. I'm talking about pure offline play, though. The items you get in the forest just going it alone simply aren't worth much money, and you find very few monofluids!
A sabre is good for conserving TP in offline play. You can do two Foie and then hit with the sabre to finish an enemy off. That takes up only 2/3 as much TP as using 3 Foie and is just as fast (by the time you're launching the third, the enemy is right on top of you anyway).

astralpop
Mar 9, 2001, 02:14 AM
Force are not as hard as people make them out to be. I play mostly offline. As a matter of fact i beat Dark Falz today on normal at lvl 22. Now Im to the ruins on hard at lvl 33.
I think there is no wrong way to build a character because in the end you will be the same anyways.

Mar 26, 2001, 08:33 AM
I have found your comments very insightful. I think that the Force is the best character in the game but it takes a while for them to reach their potential. I am a level 33 Fornewal and I gained most of my experience from playing online. I have only killed the dragon offline but now I feel that I have sufficient skill and experience to take on the other levels offline. I think that i have benefitted from playing online with others as I have seen the potential that I can reach and that has kept me going with my character even though there were times when I really wanted to delete her and start again.
The good thing is that I don't die so much as I use to but i guess i still have a lot to learn. To any forces I would like to say perserve. You will have the coolest character in the game