Multi-weapons can be pretty costly to make. Gathering some info on multi-weapons before making one could save you quite a bit of N-Meseta! Although I don’t guarantee savings… I know a lot about it and still waste a lot of money in there (oops!)
Information about multi-weapons and how they work
First of all, if you’re very new to Phantasy Star Online 2: NEW GENESIS, it’s possible that you don’t have access to the Multi-Weapon option yet. If that’s the case, you’ll find it at the Item Lab soon enough, just keep going through the stoyline!
Multi-Weapons work by merging two weapons together, so you don’t have to swap weapon palette to use a secondary weapon. The only condition for merging two weapons together is that they must be of the same Weapon Series, aka have the same prefix (Resurgir Rod + Resurgis Talis, for example)
One thing of note is that your base weapon is the only one that needs enhancements, augments and other stuff. The weapon you’re merging into your base weapon will all but disappear, so you don’t want to use a weapon you already decked out.
I’m Te/Fo and I’ll use Twin Machine Guns if I want to!
Another good thing to know is that you are not limited to weapons that can be used by your Main Class or Sub Class. It may sound obvious to you, but it sure took me quite some time to figure that one out myself! I kept merging weapons that matches my current classes, but it’s not necessary!
However, a non-class weapon merge has a few drawbacks.
First, using a non-class weapon will make your Photon Blast unusable until you switch back to a weapon your class can use. No using other classes’ Photon Blasts, although that would certainly have been interesting!
Second, a non-class weapon will give you access only to the “Normal Attack” and “Weapon Action” while the Photon Arts themselves will remain unusable.
i’m not sure I like my multi-weapon anymore…
That’s okay! While it may cost you a bit, you can still save your multi-weapon. You can’t “un-merge” the weapons, but you CAN merge a new weapon into your base.
For example, if your base weapon is a Rifle and you merged Twin Machine Guns into it, you can go back to the Item Lab and merge, say, a Launcher into the Rifle. Your TMGs will be gone, and you will now have a Rifle-Launcher combo.
However, that only works if you’re unhappy with the weapon your merge into your base weapon. If your base weapon is the problem, you will need to start over.
Keeping an eye on the potentials
DID YOU KNOW THAT POTENTIALS ARE MOSTLY ALL THE SAME ACCROSS WEAPONS BUT NOT ALWAYS?
I only discovered that recently myself. And yes, it IS a big deal.
Since weapons have to be merged with the same series of weapons, I was kinda bummed that we were stuck with the potential of that weapon series. While that’s still true, the fact that some weapon series have different potentials depending on the weapon means that there is some leeway!
PSO2:NGS – What They Didn’t Tell You About Weapon Potentials covers everything you need to know about the multi-potential series, as well as identifying the broken series.
Are multi-weapons actually necessary?
While Multi-Weapons are super fun to experiment with, if you don’t want one, it’s not necessary. I rarely go without a Multi-Weapon myself, because I really enjoy the flexibility it can give, but some weapons are very well-rounded by themselves, too.
PSO2:NGS also gives this class-specific damage boost that makes merging non-class weapons into your class weapon a little less interesting, too. Using a weapon that is not meant for your Main Class (and Main Class only, by the way! Even your subclass weapons don’t count!) is punitive to your damage.
See also: Color Variants for Almatis and Weapon Camos – How to Make the Best Use of Them
Fun multi-weapons to try out
When it comes to Multi-Weapons, I’m partial to two specific weapons: Wired Lances and Twin Machine Guns.
Both of them have really useful weapon actions, which makes them prime options for any multi-weapon, whether it matches your class or not!
Rod + Twin Machine Guns: for reasons listed in PSO2:NGS – What They Didn’t Tell You About Weapon Potentials, I kept the machine guns as my base weapon even though I’m a Force Class. The Rod’s weapon action (block) is very useful, and I still use it, but I also use the TMG’s evade Weapon Action as needed. They can’t touch me!
Wired Lance + Melee weapon: it’s broad, but the Wired Lance WA (Weapon Action) functions as a grappling hook, which makes for an insanely usefuly gap-closer for any melee class that may need it!
Rifle + Melee weapon: still broad, but it you prefer having some ranged options instead of having a gap-closer, slapping a rifle on any weapon will give you the option of staying out of reach as needed!
Twin Machine Guns + Launcher: one big drawback from Launcher is that it has no evasive/blocking weapon action. Having a TMG merged into your launcher can provide you a lot of mobility!
More suitable for Class-Matching
The following are great combos that would benefit from you having the class as a main/subclass, as these combos will be more powerful if you can use the photon arts of both weapons.
(Te/Hu) Wand + Partisan: if you’re a wand user, a partisan may be a great option for multi-weapon. While the partisan remains a melee weapon, it’s also a throwable weapon, so it has more range. Kind of like my Rod+TMG situation, both the Wand and Partisan have very strong Weapon Actions (Wand block + Partisan parry). However, know that the partisan photon arts will not be imbued in techniques like the wand will!
(Hu/Fi or Fi/Hu) Twin Blades + Wired Lance: while the Wired Lance is great as a non-class weapon, there are some benefits to using it as a multi-weapon while being a Hunter, specifically. The Wired Lance is heavily targeted towards AOE damage, which would work nicely with Fighter as they always have to be in the middle of the action for maximum damage.
Rod + Talis or Wand + Talis: it can seem a little redundant, but Talis’ WA is a PP regen action, not an evasion or blocking action. Because of that, having any weapon with a good block, like Rod or Wand, is a good match.
Weapon Actions and Skill Trees
If you’re using a weapon solely for its’ blocking/parrying/evasive maneuver abilities, it may be worth keeping to a class you use, so you can enhance the weapon action through skill points.
For example, the Hunter’s Sword block will be so much more efficient if you have Hunter as a subclass. Most of the skills only require you to use a Hunter weapon, not having Hunter as a main class. Same goes for Force or Techter; both the Rod and Wand have many upgrades to their weapon action, with only one or two skill points being Main class-specific.
Some extra links for you:
PSO2:NGS – What They Didn’t Tell You About Weapon Potentials covers everything you need to know about the multi-potential series
Target Reticle Colors, Icons, and Other Things You Should Know – PSO2:NGS covers a lot of kind of untold markers and colors that is actually useful info
Need some N-Meseta? Take a look at Making N-Meseta in PSO2:NGS – (100% free-to-play)
Storage full? Same girl, same – Augments – what to keep and why + what to discard
