Siri

Yes, it's well known that the Demo servers is essentially full of cretins, mainly down to the fact that it can be boiled down to a free alternative to a avatar chat client. For cretins. I wouldn't be concerned about levelling fast in the current climate of the Winter Event combined with the Expansion's EXP rate increase - Heck, some of us are still making new alternate characters, and some simply have stats like a new character. HELLOL DONK-BOT! *totally disregards the fact that he's changed Richard to Protranser* Protranser is a great class, to be honest - I've essentially got the same weapon outset as my fortefighter, but because of the forced changes my Twin Claws and Slicer/Handgun combo has been replaced with a Lzucre (GRM Bow POWERRRRR[/clarkson]) and a Maser Cannon that I picked up for a pittance, since I was lazy about actually going into Siri and extracting his Maser Cannon that he never uses. Oh well, it will sell for the 33,000 I bought it for once I'm actually bothered. Needless to say with my adoption of the usual Fortefighter tactics for every class there is in the game, my survival rate as a Protranser is stunning, for all the wrong reasons. ...You're going to enjoy playing with us, Nietzsche. GET IN THE CAR

Yes, I did mean the JP Update, should have mentioned that. No doubt on our server there will be no additions until 1st Feb, The US branch's strategy seems to be involving pumping out update after update in a steady stream now to keep people on after the Illuminus launch. And it seems to be working ;p Can't say that I've had slowdown issues yet, even with missiles flying all over the place - I've only seen it occur from the Bysha series of robots seen on Neudaiz. Keep on getting Interrupt Requests, mind - although that could be down to Live being dodgy at the moment.

Siri's Rough Guide to The Protectors Beta: DON'T GO THROUGH THE LEFT ROUTE! NO! DON'T DO IT! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! At least for melee, anyway - Sure, you'll get through Blocks A and B. But the game will practically laugh at you afterwards - you get the final block from Endrum Remnants, and then you get the Story Mode's Train Mission (Rescuing Hyuga?) block with all the robots. and Then you get the wonderful, *wonderful* combination of Zoul Goug and Maggas Magahna. I pretty much gave up on a B Run when I got to Maggas, I just couldn't be bothered making the bugger Chikki'd. Right hand route is nice though, although you could do with a Freeze/Resist. and possibly an ally with a full stock of beast mode when you get to the maze of MASSIVE EXPLOSIONS just so you have a demolition man for said situation. EDIT: Oh, and some information: - Ice Cavern and De Rol S2 have no new drops - According to the 'Perfect Bible', Weapon drops now only change on most monsters at level 150. Might have an impact on the frequency of the drops, though. - Next week's update has been announced - New items are added to Machine City Collector, Move Passes to G-Colony and Moatoob are added, and new PM evolutions are added - and said devices apparently allow you to independantly upgrade weapons and line shields on said PMs, which sounds rather nice.

SPEARS! When you get the opportunity, run a couple of PA Frag runs (there should be a couple running over at Mad Creatures S2, entry requirement of 70-ish). when you get 30 PA Frags (you get 2 a run on S2 if the party gets an S, beyond easy with a full party), nip over to moatoob's guardians sector and purchase Dus Majarra. It's literally known as the Swiss Army Knife of PSU - first part allows you to 'surf' on the spear to either mow down a single target or position yourself, the second part does several jabs to cause insane damage on either two monsters, one large monster or reasonable crowd control, and the third section lets you take a big swing and cause BIG NUMBARZ and blowback against three targets. Spears do have other good PAs as well (Dus Daggas for quick repeated damage, or Dus Robado for a quicker alternative to the Sword's Tornado Break), but Majarra is whored by everyone for a reason - and it's because it's RATHER FUCKING GOOD! OH! ...Kan Yu runs tonight? last chance before the change to Protectors Beta, where I shall conduct Gudda Hon runs instead. THE FUN NEVER ENDS! ;p

MASSIVE PHANTASY STAR ERECTIONVERSE! Seriously, that's a *monstrous* amount of content that's going to be worked through. All those rares from the old missions to hunt for (Gudda Hon'd), Job caps to wade through (HELLO ACRO/FORTEFIGHTER!), and as for De Rol S2: READY MADE ZAGZA OR BUTI BOARDS, BITCHES! EDIT: Also, Caves of Ice S2 should mean that Soda Riban boards will be easy to pick up. Guardian's Boost Road has a drop rate increase for the following: System Defense Desert Terror Tunnel Recapture Caves of Ice Awoken Serpent and finally: SLUTTY COWGIRL OUTFITS!

Cheers for the runs, everyone. Not much found, but still an alright haul shared between everyone involved: [b| Crea Doubles [b| Ank Dedda [b| Bulletmaster + Random guff. I'm slightly relieved now from looking at what's to come - Ryucross' second mission actually has a rare Jigga at a high enough level to drop a [b|Kan Yu, so it's not the end of the world completely. not only that, the normal monster that spawns instead of Jigga drops a [b|Gekitsnata, so it might be fun running it anyway. Regardless, I'll be on tomorrow for more rarz. See you there!

Nice one, Raff. The Unit itself is a heap of shite, but there's so many kids out there who's gagging for the 'LOLXTREMEGOFFMETAL' look (that, and it's dropped from a rare monster) that it's easy to sell for tons of dosh. Have fun kitting yourself out! Yeah, I'll be on tonight. spent my time just now checking the Mac Keynote updates ($1799? Time to buy an EEE PC!) and having dinner, and now I'm ready for sexy rare hunting without having to blow all my stock of Trimates, Dimates and two Scapes. sad face

On The 360 Version, hit the left trigger, and hit A. This will open the initial briefing, and you unfortunately need to do this as you can't cycle through articles (at least, to my knowlege). repeat that, and you'll get the mission results. As long as you access this before the next mission starts, you'll get the points, so there's no need to panic if the leader is frantic enough to quit the mission as soon as it ended. You also do this to access any Simple Mail that you recieve from other players. again, cycle to it with the left trigger and select it with A.

Nice meetup, but there doesn't seem to be many people around. it's a shame really, As I want to do some concentrated Kan Yu runs at some point (done by running the Moatoob run up to the relics, see if you come across the Lutus Jigga, and then bail if it doesn't show up or you get nothing from them). Anyway, whenever anyone's on, please come to see Richard Hawk's room - The Grand Linear Line Hall is complete, I would appreciate it if I come into my room one day and see everyone sat on the big sofa looking at my masterpiece And for reference - if you're starting a new character, you can get to level 10 in one full run of The Protectors A on C. Which is pretty nice, as Corleth found out!

*eyeballs crea doubles board* GET IN THE CAR! > Good night last night, although there wasn't much to grab - I think most of my share consists of wood, a couple of Goldania and a couple of Burn/Resists (one while soloing as Karin, one at the meet that I handed over to Kiskio). Power-Levelling Karin is a joke now - she levels once every 1.2 runs it seems, while the acro class glitch means that she'll get to level 10 within two runs, providing I don't kill Ragnus too fast (which I did last time I ran it :S). However, who am I to care? My 50% Ice Ran-Misaki has finally sold (albeit at a reduced price of around 5.something million), and now I'm loaded. I was almost tempted to blow my wealth on the slowly emerging Kan Yu Board market but NO! I must search for it!

Thanks DNA. Copy and Paste = failboat! Donk has reached *trumpet* level 110. Many Congratulations! I think a few people felt like trying the SCHTACK server for blue burst, but my PC setup isn't that practical - However, if I do feel like a prize nob with my cash and splash out on one of those dinky Asus EEE PCs, I'll still be able to run it and the size makes it the *ultimate* PSO drip feed. well, either that, or it will be Diablo 2. I won't be on for the Winter Event until the late afternoon (about 5pm onwards), but I should still be there for the grand meetup for some proper mob nuking. Just can't get enough of the Fortefighter palette atm: Fists - Zubba Spear - Majarra Axe - Jabroga Slicers - ...Just about anything Sword - ...Tornado Break? Just looking to see if Cross Hurricane will make the set of Heavy Twins amassed from synthing worth the time. Unfortunately, I don't think you get PA Frags from the S-Rank Event missions, doesn't say anything about it on PSUpedia

Survival Mission: OMG DO WANT. I'm still sitting here, waiting for a mission like the offline mode's 'Absolute Zero' - a mission where you simply have to kill about 150 enemies (!) in a huge ice wasteland on moatoob. Speaking of this 'Endless Nightmare', I found a Youtube link. or at least a link of the fourth part of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZDm6-ZT-s4...feature=related <3 the old ruins music! hopefully it's in Maximum Attack G. EDIT: It is. nacnacnacnacnacnacnac

Aye, Alpha and Beta selection is from the counter - however, within the mission, you have three different branches. There was only two 'Boss' segments, right? they wouldn't have put all six bosses in there in one massive boss rush orgy, would they? Willei: Yeah, I guess so. Although the 360 servers are shared between the UK/US and JPN players, It's probably the case that all the mission data and descriptions are changed to a critical amount that you can't really have multilanguage. Maybe.

http://psupedia.info/Guardians'_Road_α http://psupedia.info/Guardians'_Road_ß I'm unsure if the 'routes' can be chosen within the mission, or is selected randomly after the first block. Donk has watched a video example of the mission, so he might know. Asura: Did you try setting your 360 to a different language? I know some games change from the language selected - Either that, or it might be an idea to check the region compatability for the game - PSU is region free for American and European machines at the very least, and a UK/EU Silver account should let you download the english expansion to accompany it and subscribe to a Guardian's License. EDIT: Ok, turns out that the US version doesn't work on JPN machines, and knowing Sega's publishing process, the UK version is probably the same as well. Boo!

Nice, thanks! great price on the Sori, I think I picked mine up for 300k. So, Friday's update. Here's what's happening: - The Winter Event, natch. - Four new clothes sets, one for each race - a barbarian suit for fleshy males, a flowy shirt/skirt combo for fleshy females, a samurai outfit for Cast Males and a... generic, but nice looking cyborg outfit for Cast Females. - Casino rotation - new stuff in, old stuff out. maybe. Casinoc. - Level Cap Increase! 110 > 120. - Tunnel Recapture gets adjusted again. Nobody cares! - More Universe transfer cubes at Casino Voloyal (maybe at the desks?), and more access points to the 'my room' options (most likely making another access point from the shop desk). Meanwhile, JP Servers get this update, giving a taste of things to come: - Winter Lobby theme. No 'Winter Event', of course. - New Mission at Ryucross. Apparently a Boss fight at the end, and a new Goal Lobby! - Speaking of missions, something awesome has happened: Maximum Attack G Missions ARE HERE TO STAY! That's right, you can replay the PSO-Clone missions as much as you like - however, you cannot earn any of the special mission stuff that came with the event (although you can still cash in old badges for rewards), and the missions have been 'rebalanced' so that you can't benefit from it as much (normal droprates, monster stats back to normal instead of being weak). Very good for PSO fanatics! - New Items, and there's a new Item in the Offertory Box at the Shitenkaku! Winter Event, bitchesssssssssssssssssssss. Let's kill stuff for six Kan Yu swords each!

Actually, I might be able to loan out my Sori-Senba that's on Siri right now if you're interested - it's not like I will be playing that much until friday, and even then I have a Hardline to lean on. I'll drop it off when I'm bothered to get off the couch and munch on some Mr Kipling Angel Slices. I could drop off a spare weapon or two, as well - I have three Blanc Grenades that are unused simply because I prefer the Grenadoc's black finish >_>

Not in the slightest, especially if more DiscoHIVE or simply more boss runs happen - Even Lightning Beasts S earns you a good chunk of EXP. To be honest regarding Raff's situation, Synth just isn't viable until you've got a shedload of cash and a high-end bot - at the current state of the player shops (where, quite literally, buying the right synth materials is comparable or more expensive than to actually buy the proper armour), you're much better off spamming missions for cash and/or materials - You can, quite literally, make 10k a run from Scarred Planet *C*, even after paying for the Photon Recharge every run. Of course, that's *just* cash - without hoarding the Car/Power Units, Twin Stinger daggers and such that you can sell to an NPC. Naturally, you can go higher rank as you're about 40/50 Raff - in fact, if you can solo it with minimal fuss, I recommend Sakura Blast C or B (although B might be an enemy level of 40, which isn't convenient) - The Boomas drop plenty of B-Rank Sabers and Single Handguns, with the rare drops being some lovely seven-star, A-Rank weapons (the Durandal Replica, and TEH LEGENDARY UBER-RARZ Varista), which can either be sold for a pretty penny at NPC shops, or will do equally as well in a player shop and sold for about 150% of the NPC sale value. of course, I could be talking shit and could be sold higher than that, I'm just being barmy and making wild accusations. Steak's being served, so I'll shut up now. nom nom nom nom nom

Try and get hold of a cheap Sori-Senba or Michi-Senba through the player shops, Raff - When it came to kitting out Siri (a fellow ForteGunner, with lower stats when it came to this situation from what I remember), I bunged on a Sori with Donk/Tokky's advice, and it worked out just fine. Yohmei stuff has nice, low DFP requirements. Got to level 110 now on Richard, so I'm rather unsure if I'll be playing this week! might pop on one evening with my low characters, but otherwise it would be rather nice to leave the game on the backburner for once. I'll be on for Winter Festival, of course - it would be nice to pump that 350% EXP into my alts, and the Mission points will be nice to finally fill Richard's Fighgunner stats. So yes, I'll be around, just not during the work week. much. yes. ;p

Just cosmetic, although you'll obviously increase your synth success with every level. It's only when you hit 80 it will morph into a battle-ready partner. Ended up soloing because there was a party of 6 already. no sign of Tokky or Fenix

Only a couple? for every 12 hours, you can feed your PM up to 100 Items. so it's a case of budgeting for it - if you can, try and push it to 80, as the PM will come to a point where it can help you out in combat, which is great for soloing. By the way, I can drop a Serdote off as well if needed - I've got way too many on Karin, and I would rather have A-rank Tech mags anyway considering my love for whips combined with nuking. By the way, if you're after an armour, you can't do wrong with either a Sori-Senba or a Michi-Senba - both have incredibly low DFP requirements, have great all-round stats, and have plenty of slots - Sori has all four open, while Michi has everything except Body. The only bad thing about either is that Sori only has Ice protection built into it. I'd still rather have a De Colte Line, though. Look at all that defence, all I need are my 4-star rifles and I'll be the PSU equivalent of Jesus ;p

We must sort out some Riban runs - you can have the Riban, while I have the 5 Ank Zagza boards that will drop beforehand. ;p I should be able to sort out Richard when he's needed, just give him ten minutes to go back to Acrofighter and equip Chikkigeddon and perhaps come Gants to punch De Rol in his ugly mug it would be nice to run more De Rol than the trip to the Casino, that's for sure. I didn't realise that it was a boss drop, I thought it was given by Vandas - but no, you only get Ank Dedda and Shigga Desta boards. I mean, who needs tho-*Fenix grabs board*-se. ;p I'll take a Gur Bazga(cacacacac) from those fat, lazy Drua Gohras as well. Only good looking launcher compared to the GRM models, and you all know it!

If you want easy PA frags, just give us a shout for some S2 missions - They should be hilariously easy by now, as demonstrated by TEAM S2 IS EASY ripping through Hive and, in the lowest level entry case, Labs S2. Bees? who the fuck cares about bees? *pulls out slicer, one hit KOs the lot of them with Chiki* also, PSUpedia has now updated the sources to Thanks Festa, complete with explanations: http://psupedia.info/Main_Page Get those photon erasers ready for the Firebreak section! and then keep them afterwards for TEH LULZ! also: the Fact that Kan Yu, Gudda Hon and the Needle Cannon all drop throughout the missions makes my rappy suit's robotic penis explode. you can also get a Black Heart unit, which I'm sure is Straw's second most-wanted item. ...the first one being ALL THE OTHER ITEMS IN PSU COMBINED! OH! Speaking of which, I was taking a look at the other GRM launchers - Blanc Grenadoc is getting built, regardless of how shite the stats are - it just looks the business, and who cares about how much damage you do if you do it in style? ;p

Apologies to Raffa - noticed that you were outside when I finished the mission, but I was pretty burnt out after changing characters 329084732857345 times to get a load of materials to the right characters to synth a barrel load of stuff. I shall be on later for low level lolz. also, a new event has been announced to be released on January 11th, the 'Winter Festival' - aka, the PSU Thanks Festa. http://boards2.sega.com/psu_board/viewtopic.php?t=65485 Two missions, each with 250% drop rates, 350% exp rates, double the boss boxes and an increased rate of rare enemies. also, because of the second rollback, we're getting three weeks of Super Holy Luck, starting on the 11th as well. Not only that, more additions are being planned for the 11th, so there's a good chance that we'll get some more content - potentially the level 120 cap, and maybe even the Dark Ryucross or a new Story mission.

Some more low-level runs again tonight, gents? I can't believe how much Siri levelled last night - I'm very sure it was four times due to those White Beast runs. I haven't even considered soloing the old low-level haunt - Valley of Carnage C, with the new EXP rates? yes please! saying that, I'll have to make up some cash soon - I'm bordering on skint because of pumping money into my new pure bots (Armour and Range, for reference purposes), and various gubbins for my alternate characters. also got tempted by yet another Muktrand when I bought a Sori-senba from the same shop - 7/9 grinds with 38% dark, 500k

Happy new year, everyone. I'll be up for a meet either on Friday or Saturday - I need to wrap my head around work starting Wednesday. a small tip when you're starting off (quite literally) - you can pick up some reasonable gear from the new expansion mission 'Scarred Planet' if you're a melee type. Vahras drop lots of Twin Sabers, Golmoros drop Twin Daggers, Grass Assassins drop Twin Stingers (three stars!), while Boss Boxes can drop several weapons, including boards for Twin Sabers and Single daggers, and actual Single Daggers and Sabers drop as well. Also, Rappies (which are known as a 'Rare' Spawn, where you have to attain a certain map variation to see them) can drop a Car/Power, which provides enhanced attack power when you're starting off with the initial Carline-style armours. Thanks to the expansion, weapon drops are now assigned with a random element, meaning that they're worth a lot more and become more handy in the field. In fact, it's a good thing to keep in mind with all new missions - all of the 'new' monsters and end-of-mission boxes (commonly known as Boss Boxes) are more likely to drop readily-made weapons and armour than the original missions.