Coming from the most recent issue of Dengeki PlayStation, much more information on Ambition of the Illuminus has been uncovered.

• Two more new lobbies have been revealed: a bamboo village and a gravesite. (Players from PSO will likely recognize the second of those two.)
• A new item delivery system will allow players to transfer items from their nanotransformer back to their room while in the lobby.
• A new transport system will allow players to move from lobby to lobby (for a small fee) without needing a party member in the lobby they wish to go to.
• Players will be able to move their room to any of the three planets they wish!
• Shop search functions have been upgraded, now allowing players to search by price, rarity, category and other descriptors.
• PM storage capacity will be able to be increased through the use of a special item called a Nanotransformer EX.
• Item synthesis rates will go up on all items, but those that require extremely rare materials will see an even larger increase in success rates.

To see a full list of these new details, check out the Illuminus FAQ over at the forums.

The official JP 360 site has posted a preview of what to expect in this coming Friday's update.

New Story Mission
Chapter 9: Price of Genocide
A sudden burst in SEED-Form appearances has been reported in the outskirts of Dagora City. Of course, SEED have not fallen in a while, so it seems probable that this is a terrorist attack by the Illuminus. You and Laia hurry to Dagora City to check things out.

There you will witness the true shape of a SEED-Form you have seen before...

New S2 Missions

• Mizuraki Defense
• Demons Above
• Grove of Fanatics
• Moonlight Beast
• Desert Goliath

New S-Rank Weapon Boards
Numerous S-rank weapon boards will drop in the new missions.

Special thanks to Agnostic187 at the forums for pointing this out!

The Japanese Ambition of the Illuminus site was updated earlier today with a new layout as well as some new media. There are three video clips to watch, however, be warned that one of them (the promotional video) features some pretty big spoilers. Watch at your own risk! The other two are relatively safe, though. Hal Report vol.1 recaps the events of PSU: Episode 1 while the TV commercial shows very brief clips of some of the new areas and weapons in the expansion.

In other news, the site shows a new game subtitle, Phantom of Arkgald, which may be the title of Episode 3, slated to be released online following the release of the expansion. We'll have more information on this as it develops.

Thanks to the Japanese 360 PSU site and Allison_W at the forums, we now have a preview of what to expect with the next PC/PS2/360 update.

• The Holy Light Festival lobby will be in place on Ohtoku City from this update until August 10. The Light Festival Decor will become available for purchase during this event.
• The remaining Operation Firebreak rewards will be distributed. Those would be the Frying Pan (to those who qualified) and our week-long period of Super Holy Light.
• A new co-op mission, "Stolen Weapon" (name subject to change), will become available in the West Kugu Desert. Three or more people are recommended for this mission, but it can still be soloed.
• S2 ranks will be added to Mad Creatures, Sleeping Warriors and Plains Overlord.
• The following nine missions will be rebalanced: Valley of Carnage, Mine Defense, Tunnel Recapture, Desert Goliath, Lab Recovery, Demons Above, Moonlight Beast, Eastern Peril and Forest Infiltration.
• Two missions will see currently unspecified refinements: System Defense and Desert Terror.
• Numerous new high-ranking weapon boards will be introduced.
• The level cap will be raised from 80 to 90.

This week's issue of Famitsu has opened the floodgates on new information on the upcoming PSU expansion, Ambition of the Illuminus. With all of the new information and images that have surfaced, be warned, there are spoilers all over the place. So, if you'd prefer not to see any of the new weapons, enemies, areas, etc. we'll be treated to later this year, do not click either of the above links or the "read more" link below. On the other hand, if you don't mind taking a peek at what's to come, click away!

Battle System Overhaul

• Just Attack: This special attack is exclusive to striking weapons. If timed correctly, you can unleash the Just Attack on the second or third hit of a combo for extra power and new sound and visual effects.
• Just Counter: This move allows you to turn a guard or evasion into an immediate attack, if you time your button press correctly.
• Striking weapon PP recovery bonus: Striking weapons will now recover a little more PP by using normal attacks. If you land a critical hit, you will regain a larger amount of PP.
• Monster AI upgrades: Monster AI will see an improvement by the time the expansion comes around. They will no longer just chase players across maps, but will instead actually use knowledge of their own attacks and abilities to their advantage.
• Elemental stats will be adjusted. No real details have been given yet, but we could see adjustments to attributes that would make even low elemental weapons and line shields useful.
• Weapon grinding: The no-break-grind system will be implemented. In this system, you no longer have to worry about completely destroying a weapon on the chance that it fails a grind. Instead, a failed grind will reset its stats to their original numbers and decrease the total number of grinds that particular weapon can have.
• Photon Art disks: Instead of erasing a PA to make room for a new one, you can now convert it into a disk format to keep and relearn later.
• New battle types: We already knew about these, but now we know what the requirements for each are. Acrofighter requires that you have lv.3 Hunter and lv.5 Ranger; Acrotecher requires lv.3 Hunter and lv.5 Force.

New Fields

• Il Carbo Base: This map takes place inside an AMF base on Moatoob.
• Saguraki Conservation District: A cherry tree-lined mountainous trail on Neudaiz.
• AMF Central HQ: Missions here take place inside the AMF HQ on Parum.
• Habilao Restricted District: A strange mushroom forest with extremely high photon concentrations.
• Caves: PSO fans will remember this place...
• Mine: Straight from PSO. No word just yet on how this (or the above) will work into the story.

New Enemies
Over 30 new enemies will appear in the expansion including Alteratsu Goug, SEED-Ardite and SEED-Arguine.
New Weapons
Numerous new weapons of all types will be added, many of which take their designs from various PSO weapons such as the Van-brella and Madam-brella, both of which are shotguns derived from PSO's Madam's Umbrella.

New Costumes
All 12 classes from PSO will be covered when it comes to costumes in the expansion with the PSO Replica series. Aside from that, however, many original designs will be available including the organic male SPF Set and the CAST female Valatenes Set.

New SUV Weapons

• Gigas Faust: A "rocket punch" attack that hits in a straight line in front of your character.
• Lapia Fluge: Instead of unleashing a massive attack, CASTs can now heal, revive and cleanse party members within the radius of this support SUV.

New Photon Arts

• Vishi Grudda - Photon Whip
• Chikkyo-renji - Slicer
• Renga Chujin-shou - Twin Dagger
• Chuei Jitotsu-shin - Twin Claw

Check out the two posts above for discussion, pictures and further details. Extra special thanks to Lyrise for help with translating and clarifying portions of this information.

Reported earlier today by Rakuten Ichiba, the Japanese release date for the PC and PS2 versions of Ambition of the Illuminus has been set for September 27th! According to the article, the expansion's story mode will be a retelling of the events of our current game's online story missions (Episode 2) complete with voice overs during event sequences as well as a more powerful story. Following this, the network mode of Ambition of the Illuminus will feature a new series of story missions to be known as Episode 3.

Stay tuned for more details as they are released!

Due to a massive power outage in the San Francisco area, the NA/EU/360 PSU servers are temporarily down. Authorities expect power to be restored later this evening. Stay tuned, as we'll bring you further updates as they are reported.

UPDATE! Power has been restored to the San Francisco area, so the game servers should be back up and running within the next half hour. (Approximately 8:30PM PST.)

It's official! Earlier today, we hit the 80,000,000 points mark for Operation Firebreak! Don't let your guard down just yet, though. We still have some work to do on Parum and Moatoob, as fire SEED are still contaminating the Raffon, Seabed Plant and Galenigare areas. Let's make the most of the last few days of this event and show the remaining SEED what the GUARDIANS are made of!

So, what does hitting this milestone mean for us? Simple enough: a full week of super Photon Fortune for everyone! No date has been set for when this reward will be issued, but stay tuned, as we should find out in the coming weeks.

As reported on the official PSU web site, a special event will be held on June 23rd in celebration of Sonic the Hedgehog's 16th birthday. Participants will receive a Sonic room decoration after the event has come to a close. Exactly what do you have to do to participate? Simple! Just shout out the phrase "Happy Birthday Sonic!" exactly as it is typed there (minus the quotation marks) at select times, and you'll receive your gift following the end of the festivities. Here are the times set aside for wishing Sonic a happy 16th:

(All times are PST, June 23rd.)
10am-12pm
2pm-4pm
6pm-8pm
10pm-12am

Please note that you can only receive one Sonic decoration per account. Even if you have four characters who all participate, you will only get one decoration. Also, your birthday wish must be typed out exactly as it is above (without the quotes, of course). And no matter where you are in Gurhal, as long as you wish Sonic a happy birthday during any of the specified times, you will receive the special gift. Concerning the times listed, if you need help converting them from PST to your time zone, please see The World Clock Time Zone Converter. (Select any of the "U.S.A. - California" options for PST.)