Fanboy's Guide to Beginners

[Tigerram]

Very good guide fanboy. This will definitely help beginners out for sure.

The most common question I get asked by new players, when anyhow they play the game for a little while is...allow me to explain if I may

How/Where do I get PA Fragments?

PA Fragments
What are these you ask? It's pretty simple. You could easily look up the PAs (short for Photon Arts) on this website alone, and see what they all can do, depending what job class you are, as you can see, they are your heart and soul of your weapons. The PAs can easily be bought from NPC shops, and depending on what weapon you want the PA's for, are sold throughout Parum (their shop is called GRM), Neudaiz (theirs is Yohmei), and Moatoob (they're shop is Tenora Works.)

However, not all PA's, and even Technics/Spells can be purchased at the stores. So, you're going to need PA Fragments to get these extra goodies. In order to obtain Frags, you must do an S-rank or S2-rank mission, and you and/or your party must S-rank the mission. S-rank missions on S get you 1 fragment, S-rank on S2 gets you 2 fragments. Sometimes for example, you can find "Frag Run" parties from time to time. ( Holtes City East is usually a Frag Run Hot Spot for example. ) Not to mention, the usual Hot Spots where everyone hangs out at the time too are good places for these, unless of course, you solo

So, there you have it. I hope this helps your forum out fanboy

[RedX]

On 2007-09-22 23:52, imfanboy wrote:
Yes, Seth, but those guides SUCK because I haven't written them.

OK, I'll add those terms to the shorthand list in my next update, but question: Mission flow? I don't think I've bumped across the concept with THAT name before.


Oh, and Pillan: EVERYONE should be more biased towards female characters.

Mission flow as in, how missions work. I know that when I was first starting, i had no idea how the ranking system worked or what it meant. Because i played PSO i knew how you to kill the monsters to open doors, etc. but for some people it might be there first PS game, so they could be lost on how you get keys, etc.

[Feelmirath]

On 2007-09-22 06:19, PJ wrote:
Also, Hyuga Ryght is not Phoenix Wright's brother...

Damn, he loses 100 cool points then :<

[imfanboy]

On 2007-09-23 10:37, RedX wrote:

On 2007-09-22 23:52, imfanboy wrote:
Yes, Seth, but those guides SUCK because I haven't written them.

OK, I'll add those terms to the shorthand list in my next update, but question: Mission flow? I don't think I've bumped across the concept with THAT name before.


Oh, and Pillan: EVERYONE should be more biased towards female characters.

Mission flow as in, how missions work. I know that when I was first starting, i had no idea how the ranking system worked or what it meant. Because i played PSO i knew how you to kill the monsters to open doors, etc. but for some people it might be there first PS game, so they could be lost on how you get keys, etc.

Ah, excellent point. When I wake up a bit and get some food in me, I'll modify the guide straightaway.

[imfanboy]

Cleaned up a few spots, and added the following sections:

PHOTON ARTS

Photon Arts are skills that you can equip to your weapons to do special attacks, Bullet Arts are skills that you can equip to your guns to inflict more elemental damage and SEs on your enemy, and Technics are skills that you can equip to cast spells. You can buy them all from the stores on Parum, Neudaiz, and Moatoob. Saying Photon Art or PA can refer either to the strictly melee attacks, or two all three categories in one broad stroke.

PAs level up the more you use them, and when they reach 11 and 21, they get more abilities. Melee PAs add combos after you finish the first part of the attack, letting you deal more damage and doing other special effects. Single-handed melee weapons only get two-part combos, but double-handed weapons get three parts to a combo. Bullet Arts do more elemental damage and add a bit of range. Technics do more elemental damage, add a bit of range, AND add more area effect - but are slower to cast after 11 and 21.

A generally accepted way to level up PAs quickly is to buy many cheap copies of a weapon from the NPC and spamming it constantly.

Photon Arts
Generally speaking, there are knockback PAs, like Rising Strike, that focus on putting the enemy on the ground from the first part of the combo; AoE PAs like Tornado Break, and pure damage PAs like Dus Daggas.

Every melee weapon has two PAs available from the NPC shop, so if you prefer one type of weapon over any other you can specialize in it without impairing your combat effectiveness too much.

Bullet Arts
There are essentially two different kinds of Bullet Arts: Aimed and Unaimed.

Aimed BAs are with guns that you can go into first-person mode with to hit flying enemies with. These are Handguns, Twin Handguns, Rifles, Bows, Laser Cannons.

Unaimed BAs
Unaimed BAs... well, can't be aimed. But in exchange, they do a LOT more damage than the aimed ones. Crossbows, Shotguns, Cards, Grenade Launchers, and Mechguns are unaimed.

Laser Cannons & Grenade Launchers
Of special note are Laser Cannons and Grenade Launchers - you won't be able to use them until later, but laser cannons penetrate enemies, and Grenade Launchers send them flying, has an area of effect, and travels in a small arc - it won't ever hit right in front of you.

TECHNICS
To learn more about these, see my Fortetecher guide, linked above.

Ultimate Photon Arts
For each weapon, there's an Ultimate Photon Art. It doesn't matter too much when you're just starting, because you have to so S-rank missions to get PA Frags, and you have to have PA Frags to trade for the Ult PAs. By the time you can afford one, you'll probably have some friends you can ask for advice - or you can always PM me, or look elsewhere on the forum, or even post a new topic if you want to know more about them! We won't bite... honest.

MISSIONS

Missions are the bread and butter of this game - unlike other MMORPGs where you go wandering off into the woods and fight whatever you find, in PSU your character is taking on jobs to go out and kill monsters. In theory.

In reality, it works out to about the same thing, with one added benefit: You get Meseta and Mission Points for completing them successfully. The more monsters you kill, the better your score; dying and then fleeing to the lobby instead of letting your friends revive you reduces your score.

This is also important later on, because you can get PA Fragments from S and S2 missions. PA frags help you get the Ultimate PAs mentioned above.

One important thing to note: NPCs do not count against the final score, no matter how much they die. So if you're short on people, go ahead and let them be your meatshields!

[VanHalen]

Awesome guide fanboy. It definitley helps more than the instruction manual .

Also I saw you wrote that Newman's get a bonus as Fighgunner. I remember once when switching to fortefighter I got more HP in that class so I guess I wasn't crazy.

*recommends*

[imfanboy]

OK.

I'm looking at updating this; but I need to figure out HOW.

Obviously, I need to update the class weapon pictures (anyone got a source for that? I'm on PS2 so I can't take snapshots myself), and add an Acrotecher and Acrofighter section. I'll actually write a short section on Technics for this guide. Selling will be expanded to include the 'big moneh' items, or at least medium moneh items.

Something I'm not sure of: Is Sakura Blast C the best way to level up a low level char, or is there another stage that works better if you're solo? SB is quite a walk to get to, after all - and I've got no empty slots to create a new character in and check it out.

Perhaps I should recommend Valley of Carnage C, and urge the beginner to check the lobby right after it for Forest of Illusion C; FoI IS the most experience for the least risk available, after all, even if you can't do all the areas.

Then again, is it even that HARD to level up a character? I'm so tempted to erase my beast female and see how hard it is to level up from the ground up.

Obviously, a section on Voyoval Casino needs adding, and expanded discussion of the lobby traveling fees as well.


Any other thoughts?



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: imfanboy on 2008-02-26 14:49 ]</font>

[imfanboy]

Updated the guide with the following sections:

Hunters hit things. Hard. With melee weapons.
A required class for Fortefighter, Figunner, Wartecher, Acrofighter.

Forces use Technics, both to attack and to support through buffing and healing.
Required class for Fortetecher, Guntecher, Wartecher, Acrotecher.

Rangers use guns to shoot things. A valuable class because there are many flying monsters, and they are the class that inflicts Status Effects most easily.
Required for Fortegunner, Guntecher, Figunner, Acrotecher, Acrofighter.

And all three classes are required for Protranser.

The requirements to level up to each Advanced Type are these:

(note: the FIRST FG is Figunner, the SECOND is Fortegunner. Forgot to fix that. )


The Weapons that each Type can use, as well as the class of the weapon, are:



Fortefighter (abbv. fF)
The ultimate version of Hunter, Fortefighter is heavily focused on melee. They have the second-widest spread of S-rank weapons and can use almost all of the melee weapons; however, they sacrifice ranged damage for it.

Recommendations: Dus Daggas (Spear PA) for pure damage, Rising Strike (Single Saber PA, which you get for free), and Tornado Break (Sword PA) or Renkai Buyou-zan (Twin Dagger PA) for AoE damage.

Fortegunner (abbv. fG)
The refined version of Ranger, Fortegunners use almost all the guns with awesome expertise. They're no slouches in the damage department either, with a good ATP modifier. Considered the strongest Forte class, because of the wide variety of enemies that are vulnerable to bullets and Status Effects. Have full Trap usage as well, aside from EX Traps.

Recommendations: Either Burning Shot or Dark Shot for rifle PAs. Dus Daggas for the enemies that are strong against bullets, and some bosses, or stick with Rising Strike to pair with your single-handed guns. Get Twin Handgun bullets for all the other elements.

Fortetecher (abbv. fT)
The ultimate version of Techers, Fortetechers have the most raw power when it comes to using Technics. A little-noted side of this Type is that they are also fairly decent ranged weapon users, with access to SE4 through their Bows, and OK damage-dealing with Cards.

Recommendations: Foie, Diga, Rabarta, Razonde at first... one of my guides is a Fortetecher guide; if you're interested in Fortetecher you should check it out for more information - it's old (because I don't play FT any more) but still has many good points in there. Get the fire or dark bow, and the ice and light cards at the least.

Fighgunner (abbv. FG)
A Hunter-type that can used ranged weapons as well, Figunners are the most popular hybrid class (and possibly the most popular class overall). With a versatile range of weaponry, including the Type-exclusive Double Saber. With limited trap usage as well, Figunners are a force to be reckoned with. Generally considered the strongest of the Hunter-Types because of the sheer versatility.

Recommendations: As a Hunter, get Tornado Break or Renkai Buyou-zan, Rising Strike, and Dus Daggas. As a Ranger, get all the Twin Handgun skills, and one or two Mechgun skills - you can also level those Mechgun skills while you level up Hunter.

Wartecher (abbv. WT)
The hybrid Type of Hunter and Force, right now it's bomb at both. It's fairly weak until about WT7, but well worth the climb, with HP that comes close to a FF's, a weapon spread that covers ranged and melee well, and high levels of Attack Technic usage (with OK, if not great, support levels).

Recommendations: Dus Daggas, Renkai Buyou-Zan, Rising Crush, Rising Strike, Gravity Strike as a Hunter. As a Force, Gizonde, Gidiga, Diga/Foie, and Bow usage.

Guntecher (abbv. GT)
Guntechers are the hybrid Ranger/Force Type. They are the second-best supporters in the game (and arguably could be equal to Acrotecher). Unlike Wartechers (who have to switch between wands and weapons in order to support) or Fortetechers (who sacrifice elemental strength on their rods/wands to include Resta), Guntechers have one-handed guns AND a wand with resta/reverser in the same palette slot, meaning they can attack AND support at the same time.

They have better trap access than Figunners, but not as good as Fortegunner or Protranser. The only real weakness of the class is a lack of melee strength, but in a party you've got all the big, dumb Hunter types for that...

Recommendations: Well, once again, I have an entire guide devoted to GTs. If it sounds good to you, go check it out!

Protranser (abbv. PT)
The ultimate hybrid Type. Protransers get the heaviest of the weapons: Swords, Spears, Grenade Launchers, Bows, Laser Cannons, Axes... which helps make up for their lack of ATP compared to other Hunter types.

However, they have very high HP and in the hands of a good player can fill any role that the party might need. Also, if you want to be an S-rank snob, this is the class for you - every weapon they use they get S-ranks in!

The other thing to note is that PT is the only class with access to EX traps, which work wonders. More on traps later, however.

The only race/Type combo I would recommend avoiding is Newman PT, however. The lack of ATP on both sides leaves the newman PT struggling to deal damage.

Recommendations: Dus Daggas, Tornado Break, Bogga Danga, Rising Strike as a Hunter. Rangers should use Shotguns and Handguns exclusively. Forces should use Bows exclusively. Those first few PT levels are a pain, but hang in there!

Acrotecher (abbv. AT)
Acrotecher IS the support class. While they have decent Attack Technic access, can use melee weapons (including the S-rank Whips and the marvelous Vish Adac) and have a decent spread of guns, the class really shines with level 40 Support Technics and improved casting speed - an AT can whip out a Giresta in the same time as it takes an FT to cast regular Resta. They have high EVP as well. If you loved FOmarl in PSO, you'll love AT.

The only downside to AT is the... odd... trap spread. Without access to any of the DoT traps, most ATs neglect their traps.

Acrofighter (abbv. AF)
Acrofighters are THE kings of single-handed weapons, and have increased attack speed as well. While their spread of two-handed weapons may be lacking, they more than make up for it with their speed and power using those single-handed weapons. Also have access to the best Shadoogs, the S-ranks, which inflict excellent SEs, and have decent trap access as well.

The only downside is their high EVP - when you're trying to finish a melee weapon combo the last thing you want is for it to be interrupted by a blocking animation. Usually you'd rather just take the damage and kill the monster.


A generally accepted way to level up PAs quickly is to buy many cheap copies of a weapon from the NPC and spamming it constantly on enemies; this works especially well with Yohmei brand weapons because they have the largest PP pool and the lowest ATP.

The Photon Arts levels for each Type are:



Aimed BAs are with guns that you can go into first-person mode with to hit flying enemies with. These are Handguns, Twin Handguns, Rifles, Bows, Laser Cannons. EVERY PLAYER SHOULD HAVE AT LEAST ONE AIMED BA OF EVERY ELEMENT. This cannot be emphasized enough for beginners. Too many of the bosses fly out of reach of melee weapons to not have something to shoot at them.


PA Frag Photon Arts
For each weapon, there's a number of Photon Arts that cannot be purchased in the stores, only in special missions in the various GUARDIANS Branches on each planet. It doesn't matter too much when you're just starting, because you have to so S-rank missions to get PA Frags, and you have to have PA Frags to trade for the special PAs. By the time you can afford one, you'll probably have some friends you can ask for advice - or you can always PM me, or look elsewhere on the forum, or even post a new topic if you want to know more about them! We won't bite... honest.

You can buy Melee Photon Arts in the GUARDIANS Dagora Branch (from Tonnio), Bullet Arts in the GUARDIANS Holtes City Branch (from Lou), and TECHNICS in the GUARDIANS Ohtoku Branch (from Maya).


Fortunately, with AotI it's easier to synth a higher % weapon - the average is about 20-30% now, but if your luck isn't decent you can still be stuck with nothing. Search player shops for cheap weapons that you can use until you get your own synthing machine up and running.

TRAPS

"It's a trap!"
-Admiral Akbar

Traps are a quick, convenient way for Rangers to slap
an SE on enemies. There are three kinds of traps. Basic traps trigger when an enemy steps on them, and only affect one enemy at a time. G traps trigger when you hit the trigger button, affect up to 5 enemies, and last longer. EX Traps trigger like G traps, but last for lots longer, going off over and over again to deal more damage and keep the enemy frozen/stunned for a lot longer.

The chart showing the spread of traps is:


For solo and small parties, traps are invaluable. Use Burn G and Virus G traps to deal damage to Large-sized enemies like Kog Nadds, Bil De Vears, Jarbas, or the like. Use Confuse G or Freeze G to muddle dangerous medium-small enemies and get them off your case.

Of the non-DoT SEs, I personally believe that Confuse is superior. It doesn't go away if you hit the enemy (like Freeze or Sleep), and completely nullifies their attacks instead of just half their attacks (like Silence or Shock). Not only that, the enemies will attack each other; nothing shows lovin' like a Gazoran foie killing a Delsaban.


Unless you really need the money, save any 2-3* weapons for your first Striking PM, rather than selling them (as described below). EX Traps are the fastest way to get a Ranged PM. Sadly, there's still no cheap way to raise a Technic PM.

One thing of note: With the new PM EX Devices, you aren't stuck with, say, a 430 if you want to have a Ranged Synthing PM. You can change to whatever PM you want, once you get the Battle Stat of the PM up to a certain level. Battle Stat is raised by it being in Missions with you; if you're rasing B. Stat you'll want to Srank as many missions as possible.

LEVELING UP

"But you said we'd level together!"
"I just played a little while you were at work."
"What level are you ON, now?!"
"I'm afraid that I've moved beyond your terrestrial numbers..."

Um. I honestly have little idea what to say here. I would LIKE to say Valley of Carnage C, once you get some decent equipment (a fire Perpaline, a couple of cheap Dark % spears, a decent Ice and Fire sword/twin daggers) would be a good place to go for character levels - you can rack up about 5k experience each run, and it's not too long. Also, there's the chance of getting Forest of Illusion in the next lobby, which is about the best experience you can get at any point in the game. It isn't hard to get to either, like Sakura Blast, because it's right there from the Dagora lobby.

Lightning Beasts is another good possibility; because the enemies are all Lightning element all you have to do is buy a Lightning armor, some Earth weapons, and get an Earth bullet for the Jarbas and Shagreece.

Unfortunately, I have no real way of testing how dangerous these ideas are because I don't have any characters of that level. If any player on here could offer more wisdom in this regard it would be appreciated.


Having a shop means that you can sell the items you find, and many of them command decent prices. Right now some of the hot stuff a low-level character can get their hands on are the Truffles (Mad/Moatoob/Rotten/Balji) people trade for Mushroom Lights in the Trade Mission (more on that mission later), Spicia (not Burning Spicia mind), and Omega Acids.

Also, you can trade any Copernia or Olpads you get for Grinder Base S's - which sell decently. Most of the holiday enemy stuff sells nicely as well.

For equitable prices, try 50% of what the NPC sells. If the item isn't listed in the NPC shop, use the Search By Condition and try to price it lower than the lowest price - not much lower, but lower.


Trade Mission
In the Parum West district, behind the Juice Counter, is a woman who's looking for all sorts of weird items that are pretty much just junk in your PM. The upshot of this is that you can get some stuff to sell quickly, transfer your room to another planet, or even get a Garment Aura!

A quick link to the current trades available from The Collector is:
http://psupedia.info/The_Collector

Traveling Quickly
You may not know it, but you can warp to most spots on a Planet immediately. All you have to do is visit every area on the Planet at least once, and then whenever you select that planet you can warp to the Shop of the planet and the Guardian Center, without ever having to walk there again! Nifty, eh?

Also, the woman standing next to the Flyer Bases can warp you to any lobby you've previously been to, for a small meseta fee. If you're in a party and you've got a member already in that lobby, you can use Special Flight to get there for free!


Casino Voyoval
In the farthest reaches of Moatoob lies hidden a marvelous place... a place of legalized gambling!

Every day at 4 PM PST (7 PM EST) you can go there to pick up 1 Silver coin. You can trade the Silver Coins for various Room decorations, Music Disks for My Room, outfits, special weapons, and even an SUV (but it's mostly a joke one XD).

Now, you could just play it safe, save your silver coin each day, and wait patiently to have enough to buy whatever you want... but where's the fun in that? Also, a lot of items are seasonal; if you don't get them fast you might not be able to get them for another year!

The Slot machines work like Slots anywhere: you put your coin in and take your chances. If you get the three highest-payout items in a row, you trigger a Fever where every spin of the slot will result in a reward. If you get three Rappies while in a Fever, you win the Jackpot and you're set for coins for a while... unless someone won a Jackpot just before you did!

The Roulette's a bit trickier; there are guides around on how to maximize the chance of winning though.

Casino Voyoval is the lobby AFTER the Awakened Serpent mission; to get there you have to get to Galiganare Lake, take the Tunnel Recovery mission, take the Caves of Ice Mission, and then finish Awakened Serpent. A long trip, but you only have to do it once...

Up-to-date Casino prize information lurks here:
http://psupedia.info/Casino



Rare Enemies
In the game there are spawns of enemies that only occur when certain conditions are right. Often, they give a ton more EXP than normal enemies, as well as dropping rare items which can be sold or kept.

The way it works is that there are (usually) 3 different map setups for each mission, and each map setup has 4 different patterns of enemy spawns. Out of those 4 patterns, one has rare monsters lurking in it somewhere. You can manipulate this by going to psupedia and looking for the rare spawns of a given map, if you want to find the rare enemies.

Also, during Valentine's Day, White Day (a Japanese holiday that takes place on March 14th, where men give chocolate to women), Easter, Sonic's Anniversary (in early-mid June), Halloween, and Christmas there are rare versions of Rappies or Jaggos which drop EXTREMELY valuable items (well, not so much Love Bows any more, but...) as well as holiday-oriented room decorations such as a Christmas Tree or a Easter Egg.

PSUpedia has info on all the various rare spawns and charts. If you have patience, it can be rewarding. If you don't, well then, just ignore it and wait for the enemies to show up on their own.



Anything else I should add?

[imfanboy]

Changed, revised, and added the following sections:

every time "Bullet Art" appeared replaced with "Bullet", every time "Photon Art" appeared replaced with "Skill", every time "class" appeared replaced with "Type" to fall in line with the in-game usage of the words.

AotI or AoI: Ambition of the Illuminus, the first expansion of PSU.
Area of Effect (AoE): A Photon Art or Technic that affects a circular area, either around the caster (Gi-technics, Tornado Break), or around another given area (Ra-technics).
Bullet: The Photon Arts you learn to use with your gun. Some of them allow you to go into first-person perspective, while others do not.
Damage over Time (DoT): An SE that deals damage based on the HP of the monster it's inflicted on.
Damage Per Second (DPS): How much damage your character can inflict, on average, per second; many players stupidly obsess over this number.
GUARDIAN: Us, the players, working as sort of a roving, mercenary police force.
Just Attack: Timing melee attack combinations perfectly after one another, allowing each successive one to deal critical damage. Accompanied by a small animation and a 'power-up' sound familiar to anyone who's used a PSO Heavy Attack.
Just Counter: After performing a blocking animation, moving into a melee attack that performs exactly like a Just Attack. Can be used with regular attacks and Skills.
Partner Machinery (PM): Your helpful little buddy next to your bed. Can make items, weapons, and armor via synthing. You can feed items to them and eventually they grow up into little helper bots that can fight alongside you as an NPC - but unlike other NPCs, the more you use the PM in battle, the stronger it becomes.
Photon Arts (PA): Used as a general term encompassing all of the abilities you learn from disks: Skills, Bullets, and TECHNICS.
Planet Abbreviations: Neu=Neudaiz, Moa=Moatoob, Par=Parum.
PSOW: PSO-World (www.pso-world.com), the other big PSU forum, though it was originally for Phantasy Star Online (hence the name). Source of as much LOLDRAMA as the official forums, but usually with a more crotchety-old-guy bent. "You call thish a game! Why, in my day, all we needed were Charge Mechguns with 50% hit, an' we were GLAD ta shee 'em becaushe it meant that the cheater with the duped TJS never got exp!"
Skill: The Photon Arts one uses with melee weapons.
Status Effect (SE): a negative or positive extra effect other than damage inflicted by some Technics, a few melee weapons, and almost every Bullet Art. See the Status Effect section later on for more information.
TECHNIC: the PSU version of spells; operates via Clarke's Law ("Any sufficiently advanced technology will be indistinguishable from magic.")
Type: The PSU word for class. It can be changed on the 5th floor of Clyez Station, in the GUARDIANS HQ.

TECHNICS
Technics are, like Bullets, divided up by element. Unlike Bullets, they can be divided into 6 categories. Also, not every element has a Technic for each category; for example, there's no Damzonde.
Line Technics move in a straight line. They can hit multiple enemies, like Barta, Zonde, and Megid, or stop at the first enemy hit, such as Foie and Diga.

Ra-Technics target an enemy within a certain distance and hits up to three targets. Can be frustrating to use, especially early when the radius is small, because sometimes it seems as though there's a minimum distance necessary for it to target an enemy.

Dam-Technics affect a cone in front of the caster, and last until you either stop holding the button down or the duration runs out. At level 21+, it hits 6 times and has a large range of effect. PROTIP: Autofire controllers and Dam-Technics don't mix; you'll keep restarting the casting animation.

Gi-Technics hit up to 6 enemies in a defined radius around the caster. Can be unsafe to use with a Fortetecher.

Nos-Technics are PA-Frag only. They home in on an enemy in range and hit hard.

Support Technics include healing (Resta, Giresta, Reverser), buffs (Shifta/Deband/Zodial/Retier), and debuffs (Jellen/Zalure/Zodeel). Debuffs are of marginal use at this point in the game (enemy stats are simply too low for them to be useful), but healing and buffs are always welcome. Also, it doesn't hurt to have debuffs handy if there are enemies around who cast buff spells on themselves...

Rangers have it easy, as far as exploiting elemental weaknesses; all a Ranger Type needs is one FP Bullet of every element (Rifle, Twin Handgun, Bow) and one NFP (Shotgun, Crossbow, Card, Mechgun). Realistically, that's only 12 slots.

Hunters that are middle of the road here. Unlike the other two basic Types, in order to get elemental weapons you have to synth them (except in a few cases where the NPC sells them), and it's very hard to get a decent % weapon - horror stories abound in the forum where people have dropped millions of meseta into synthing 9* weapons only to come out with terrible %s.

Fortunately, with AotI it's easier to synth a higher % weapon - the average is about 20-30% now, but if your luck isn't decent you can still be stuck with nothing. Search player shops for cheap weapons that you can use until you get your own synthing machine up and running.

It's Forces that get the short end of the elemental stick. Oh, sure, their individual Technics get hidden elemental % bonuses that increase along with their listed Tech. %, but in order to fully exploit an elemental bonus they have to fill every slot on a Wand/Rod/Tech-mag with spells of the same element, limiting their ability to cast Resta even to heal themselves. Still, what's a game without a little challenge, eh?

JUST ATTACK & JUST COUNTER
"In comedy, timing is everything."
-L. Ron Hubbard

Just Attack (JA) is a mechanic added in AotI where, if you time your melee combos correctly, the next part of the combo will come out as all critical.

Needless to say, this is a marvelously handy thing (50% more damage? Yeshplz) but it can be tricky to pick up, especially for some weapons. The rule of thumb is that you have to press the button for the next part of the combo at the last possible moment. Which weapons a person finds hard varies from player to player, so just find the weapons you're comfortable with and go from there!

Just Counter (JC) is like a Just Attack - but only after you perform a blocking animation. I'm still not very good at them, so I hesitate to offer advice.

PROTIP: Autofire controllers make it even harder to perform JA and JC than it usually is. Be aware.

All necessary sections, I think. And I laugh about the PSO-W dig. XD

[panzer_unit]

For leveling up in the early going? Noobs can't go wrong with ANY mission, really.

Two mission lists would help:
1. those with disproportionate MP rewards (Tunnel Recapture, Military Subway, Sakura Blast?)... good for job rank
2. those with the greatest gap between minimum level required and enemy level... these missions are great for driving up your character level if you've got a full team to help with the difficulty
... and you can farm materials/weapons appropriate for various classes by knowing a VARIETY of good places to go, as opposed to hitting a single win button until you burn out and quit.

I'd say Hunters have it easiest for exploiting elemental weaknesses... for a Beginner's Guide at least... they can buy or make a rainbow of 30% weapons and put a little effort into maintaining it at higher and higher ranks. Once you're looking for 50% 9*'s and S Ranks it's a different story, but that's for us to know and them to justify their switch to Protranser.

Rangers are in the middle. Rifles and Lasers I guess will start off with decent element levels soon but most start in the single-digits and only amount to a relatively poor melee weapon even at max level anyway. Later on, it's the opposite. You can stick the best elements and %'s you have on every weapon (of that type) you ever find.

Techers are the same as rangers, just more extreme. Their technics are even harder to level than most bullets, but they can link any skill they want to just ONE super-powerful weapon.