I'm pretty far into this game (Lvl 97 Hero), and I don't feel like I'm anywhere close to having a strong grasp on goals I should have, crafting, augmenting, like 80% of the sub quests and much more. I feel like I'm not getting even half of the experience of the game I should have. I feel like I'm just tripping kinda in the right direction with little guidance on how or what I'm doing. The content in this game is really overwhelming. Is there any resource that if dumbed down but not "for beginners"? Youtube content seems to be for square one or the well versed... I need something like, you've played this game a bunch and are just dumb, let me help you understand where to go.

Me! I am really flustrated. I missed out on the easy luminfragment Emil 300 and the Sangamori the Possessed camo seems impossible to get by grinding and not to mention I don’t have enough augment transfer passes! It seem like I missing it just shy of the goal. It like you about to get to the finish line just to run as fast as you can in one spot one step sort of the finish line. flustration Seem to be my best friend as of late!

I think that feeling is normal and honestly the easiest way to learn this stuff is having a friend or alliance member teach you in game. I’ve read so many guides and nothing would ever stick, I needed a friend who understood how to explain everything because I need the “talk to me like I’m five” version, especially for crafting. There’s just a lot of content in this game and it’s not explained well for the side stuff.

There are so many things that you need to keep track of that its hard to really get a good grasp without guides. It is why I like to use a spreadsheet and just have check lists and information to keep myself aware of what I should always be doing. Like dailies and weeklies.

While teaching is an effective method I just did stuff and learnt as I went on since I tend to stick to solo play when possible these days as it is where I feel most comfortable. Especially if I was found by some on this forum I feel like I would be flamed by them for having such different opinions to them. My point is just try things and read or watch guides hopefully something will stick.

@contactammerman Although it's a bit cliche, navigating through 8 years of progression systems layered on top of progression systems can definitely feel like trying to drink water from a firehose. However, if you want advice on individual systems we can point you to specific guides like @Theuberclips's  guide on the crafting systems or my recent attempt at an introduction to affixing.

As for the goals you should have, that answer is going to be different for every player depending on what they want to get out of the game. For example, if you want to jump into endgame content I'd recommend mainly running UQs on UH (if solo, try the Profound Darkness and the Mother + Deus triggers), Divide Quests, Ship Infiltration ultimate mission, the new Extreme quests, and maybe some older content like the Omega Masquerade ultimate quest and Endless Rondo. Each of these quests has guides as well, for example the JP visiphone provides a nice overview of Divide Quests and BlacToBasics made a nice YT video on the ship infiltration mission a little while back.

Alternatively, if you want to get a fuller PSO2 experience, I'd suggest creating a new character and slowly working your way up the ranks. Looking back, I feel fortunate that I started playing in Ep3 when there were no Tokyo Keys/4th recommended missions to power level and the level cap was only 75. This forced you to take it slower and I just worked my way through all the content to level (every Exploration, every Extreme quest level, advanced quests during ARKS boost rallies, time attacks for abductions, and the first two ultimate quests when I wanted a challenge). Then when new content was released like the 3rd ultimate mission or Buster Quests or Endless Quests or new Extreme Quests, it wasn't as overwhelming because I had exhausted the old content and could focus on the new. Going slow also delayed when I got to the point that I felt like affixing was necessary to improve so I wasn't learning everything at once. And then they introduced crafting and ring slotting later so I wasn't trying to learn both at the same time. And then came S-Grade augments and more powerful affixes, but they were easier to incorporate having understood the basics. I'm starting to ramble, but the point is that you can still give yourself this experience on a new character if you want to get a feel for some of the older content in the game without trivializing it with endgame gear/skill trees.

@YagyuChan said in Anyone else feel like you're just falling in the right direction?:

While teaching is an effective method I just did stuff and learnt as I went on since I tend to stick to solo play when possible these days as it is where I feel most comfortable. Especially if I was found by some on this forum I feel like I would be flamed by them for having such different opinions to them. My point is just try things and read or watch guides hopefully something will stick.

That’s sad, I always like your opinions. It would be pretty boring if we all thought the exact same thing.

Why not try looking up the history of the game? Knowing what came when (both JP and Global) helps you put things into context and choose what to shoot for. Plus it comes with lots of interesting trivia. Did you know Assault Rifles used to have bullet spread in the early days? Steady Shot was basically a spray-and-pray PA.

@contactammerman said in Anyone else feel like you're just falling in the right direction?:

I'm pretty far into this game (Lvl 97 Hero), and I don't feel like I'm anywhere close to having a strong grasp on goals I should have, crafting, augmenting, like 80% of the sub quests and much more. I feel like I'm not getting even half of the experience of the game I should have. I feel like I'm just tripping kinda in the right direction with little guidance on how or what I'm doing. The content in this game is really overwhelming. Is there any resource that if dumbed down but not "for beginners"? Youtube content seems to be for square one or the well versed... I need something like, you've played this game a bunch and are just dumb, let me help you understand where to go.

This is going to be... very, very long but I hope it helps.

All games, heck, all things can feel like this over time. I'm going to give an abridged idea of things you'll need for end game weapons and units. Note interlaced with this there will also be menu commands and quick locations for things. If you don't already know these things, please read. In a very very short time here, every weapon and unit is going to be outclassed by the release of two weapon series (one which is used to make the other) and the first one is incredibly easy to make:

Ayer Weapon of your choice you will need 100 of either Plamnia Plamdest or Plamgrimo

You get these from desynthesizing/dismantling (this is done in your personal quarters on a crafting console if you possess one, or at your personal quarters menu under crafting to the right of the door as you come in> DIY Crafting >Item Dismantling)14-15 star drops that you find pretty much anywhere. Alternatively, if you have access to the personal shop, you can buy them there in the quantities that you will need

Next you will need 50 Emerards Much the same as with getting Plam stuff, you'll need to dismantle weapons for this as well. Specifically 13-14 star weapons. Also as above, you can buy these off the player shop.

Next you'll need 20 (primordial) Darkstone Diemos. You can only acquire these on the mission pass currently as the UQ that they come from is unavailable.

The next component for the weapon is the luminfragment Emel (Luminmech Emer Fragment). You'll need about 200 of these if you don't already have them from last month's mission pass. You can acquire these in the Divide quest (quest counter > Sub Quests > Divide Quest), and they can be run solo. Note this will be a challenge.

The last two things you'll need are 200 excubes and 30 ultimate boosters Excubes are gained by trading in 10-12 star weapons to the swap shop (start button/esc shopping cart> Swap shop). the 30 ultimate boosters, provided that you're doing Divide quests, you can turn in the divide medals that you earn at "Medal Barterer Anatoliya" (shopping plaza on the second floor, opposite side of the horseshoe from the salon). Additionally, here you can also trade in your divide medals for luminfragment emel.

Now, you might be asking "Why is any of this important?"

All these ingredients make an Ayer Series Weapon.

You might be asking now, "What's an Ayer Series Weapon?"

My response to you is, Here, look it up yourself: https://pso2.arks-visiphone.com/wiki/Main_Page

Joking aside, my answer is: It's the weapon you'll need to trade in to Zieg to make your final weapon: Lightweaver Cras. The Ayer is also the 3rd best weapon in JP, stat wise

Here are several links that will assist you in determining gear, specing your skill tree, and general help info that you can use to gleam valuable info

https://pso2.arks-visiphone.com/wiki/Main_Page

This is the link to the Japanese site. Don't worry it's still in english, you'll just need to tilt your head sideways at the translations from JP to Global (Example: Rivalate in global is the Liberate in JP)

There is also an english site... though you'll be hard pressed to find most of the info that you'll need here. https://pso2na.arks-visiphone.com/wiki/Main_Page

I call this the "PSO2 CALCULATOR"

https://arks-layer.com/skillsim/

If you haven't used this yet, it's ostensibly a spreadsheet that you can use to plan out your character's skill points, and stats based upon your mag's stats and race/sex.

Zieg exchange stuff page!

https://pso2.arks-visiphone.com/wiki/Zieg's_Exchanges

here you can see all the recipies for crafting. It's from the JP side of things so the translations aren't the same, but you can compare and contrast pictures, of stuff or use this one for simplicity: https://pso2na.arks-visiphone.com/wiki/Zig_Permit_Exchange_Shop

The only tips I can give for affixing, are to enhance your gear, and upslot your weapon/armor with the amount of slots you want first, then hone the weapon's affixes later as you will not suffer the decrease in percentile while at max slots. Focus on whatever you use as a primary weapon attack stat (Melee for hunter/fighter/katana braver, soaring blades bouncer, RNG for Gunner, ranger or bow braver and Tech for Jet boots bouncer, techer force or summoner that doesn't use pet Switch Strike/shot) For scions (phantom, etoile, luster, and Hero) you might want to look into affixes that give bonuses to all attack stats, which are.. expensive.

This last one is... complex...

This is a link to an affixing calculator:

http://arks-layer.com/abilitysim/jp/

but I recommend playing with it and maybe watching some tutorials on youtube (This one is.. ok https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0GgX8eToWY)

Youtubers to watch for tips and tricks

Blac To Basics https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbZ_Vz4wQobZg02jXPs1a8A

He promotes himself as being "Uncomplicated, To The Point, and Unopinionated" and it's true. He has writeups for all kinds of things from class reviews and how to play them to how to set up chat commands that will let you change gear on the fly.

Azelyra https://www.youtube.com/user/Azelyra

Azelyra is a cultural pso2 JP youtuber who releases info on classes but also game play footage for Urgent Quests, and what you should expect in general from these types of missions in game.

anamana https://www.youtube.com/c/AnamanaAU/videos

Most of the time when I recommend people to him, they come back with more questions.

The last thing I can recommend is learn to make meseta. There are a lot of ways to do it, but none of them are quick.

The most chill way to do it is talk to Yerkes in Franca's Cafe once a week, and he will ask you for 6 items (navershroom, Amduskian Dragonscale, Lilipan Vest, Wopal Shell, Harukotan Fragment, and Empty bottles). These are aquired from exploration missions, such as Forest exploration, Volcano, Desert, Coast, Daybreak Province, and Tokyo. Note: you do not need to complete these missions to collect materials from these missions. Simply go to one, fish until you wrack up a fever, and then mine until you're out of stamina. This will net you about 1.6 mil per week, per character.

Another way to net funds, if you're a premium user, or have access to the player shop otherwise, is through crafting. By doing daily crafting (personal quarters menu to the right of the door as you come in, crafting > daily crafting) you can earn things like PA fragments for melee ranged or tech, and then sell these on the player shop for about 10k per pa tech fragment. This doesn't seem like a whole lot, but considering that you got them for free, with next to no effort, they're worth selling.

Suppress Bar Lodos. Bar lodos is a great punching bag for newly arrived players, and if you take the quest given out every so often by the Daily Order Officer, you can easily net 250k per character you fight Bar Lodos with.

You get three free characters to play the game with, and you can do all of these things on each of them, meaning you can net 250k, 1.6mil and about 100k (1,950,000) per week, per character (5,850,000 total if you do it on all three).

My last bit of advice would be to get an auxiliary. You get one for free from Cofy, and you can have them do just about any gathering quest for you while you're away. This means that if you get one of those daily quests that say "Procure at least One of _________" you can have your aux do that. Additionally, they can do the quests from Franca. As you turn in more quests with Franca, she will give you gifts, and eventually "Miracle Rations" which is a 10 minute boost of +30 to all attack stats. These can also be really handy for dealing with the daily arks missions.

@BarrelHunter

Hey thanks, this helped me too! I’ll get started on that weapon.

Thanks for all of this. It'll take a while for me to digest all of it.

One last tip:

If you should find yourself in the position to spend real money on the game, don't spend it on fashion, or scratch tickets. Fashion is a good way to make large amounts of money quickly, but it is not sustainable. If you are to spend money, spend it on premium, or characters . Premium gives you access to all the premium things, and characters give you.. well... a whole new character. This includes their inventory, their own private storage and their access to daily and weekly quests.

BarrelHunter, you're help was a huge help in identifying areas of focus to continue further toward high level content. I appreciate the time you took to type all of that out.

@contactammerman said in Anyone else feel like you're just falling in the right direction?:

I'm pretty far into this game (Lvl 97 Hero), and I don't feel like I'm anywhere close to having a strong grasp on goals I should have, crafting, augmenting, like 80% of the sub quests and much more. I feel like I'm not getting even half of the experience of the game I should have. I feel like I'm just tripping kinda in the right direction with little guidance on how or what I'm doing. The content in this game is really overwhelming. Is there any resource that if dumbed down but not "for beginners"? Youtube content seems to be for square one or the well versed... I need something like, you've played this game a bunch and are just dumb, let me help you understand where to go.

its funny since your a hero having trouble on goals you should have or you're just being cautious, its either you get your excalibur and save the world or train til you get bald.