Its a "Mode."

Not a fan of it personally. Not enough time to get my main stuff ever onward and higher. If I was somehow maxed out across the board and had little to no further growth/expansion across the possibilities of the "main game." It might be something I'd put time into.

¯_(ツ)_/¯

o/ =^.^=

You entered something called Challenge Mode at your own discretion. Not every content has to be first time seeing clearable, and even now the CM rewards are kinda shit so you can just skip it. Some people actually love it precisely because it strips you out everything that makes much of the enemies a joke.

Haven't done this one for lack of skill and a group to do it for now. But from what I understand, the mode is made to test player skill and coordination with other players. It can be soloed by those with either talent, or who have memorized the content enough. But it's meant to be for a coordinated group effort.

There was a similar mode in PSO1. I attempted it a few times and didn't do that bad back then. Now my current health situation prevents me from reaching that peak, but I'm sure this time around it shouldn't be much more difficult than that old mode, simply because characters have better ways to move out of danger quicker. Back then, block and evade were RNG, and combat stance slowed you to a crawl.

Challenge mode not even hard you just can't be carried by your overpowered gear

local elite arks gets mauled by a bunch of monkeys

CMode was probably the most fun i ever had with PSO2 especially back when it was even a bit harder. I'm suprised it held up so well.

With 4-8 players it's a well paced and fun challenge where your mistakes actually matter. It might be "clunky" because the mode lacks a lot of convenience classes have gotten, but it's definitely not badly designed. One might argue this is the best design PSO2 has ever seen in terms of map / enemy placement and the deliberately chosen equipment that can drop. Compared to that all other quests just seem random and boring in comparison.