As I mentioned in [How to start playing PSO2 after having played PSO2:NGS], making a new character for PSO2 Classic is a must, in my opinion. I found it quite confusing to play Classic with my NGS main, to the point that I quit playing Classic for some time until I went back with a brand new toon.
On to the fun part.
Let’s make a new character that we’ll dedicate to PSO2 Classic!
As far as I’m aware, you can’t actually start a character in Classic anymore. You’ll be making your character in NGS, so I suggest you skip some story in order to avoid the NGS tutorial. We’ll leaving for Classic right after a few minutes anyway!
In character creation, make note of the paragraph describing each race. Humans, Newmans, Deumans and CAST all have slightly different traits based on their race (that was taken out in NGS). If you know what class you want to try out, you may be able to use a race that works to your advantage, or you can just pick whatever you want, too!
Skip as much or as little NGS story as you want. I personally made my character skip everything I could, and I’m leaving any big XP quests for whenever a new class comes out, so I can boost it and have fun with it.
Once you get in PSO2:NGS, you’ll get a bunch of messages (I hope they eventually make that part less heavy) letting you know that you qualify for random stuff. Cool. *SKIIIIIIIP* Before heading into Classic, if you need to make a pit stop at the Salon, you sure should. You got 5 precious hours of Salon fixes and tweaking!
Mah girl gotta be pretty. After all, she IS the Queen of the Gods.
Last thing to check before going into PSO2 Classic: your current class. Once you jump ship, it will register your current class as your starting class, but you don’t need to stick to the 6 starter classes if you don’t want to. Pick whatever tickles your fancy, then let’s dash to the closest Ryuker Device (most certainly Central City’s), get into Black Transfer, and select “Transfer to PSO2 Block.”
If you’ve tried doing PSO2 before and it gives you the option to skip the prologue, I strongly suggest not to skip!
Once you’re in PSO2 Classic, you’ll get a little cinematic as an intro. You may notice that your character looks a bit off, since you’re bringing a PSO2:NGS into the older version. You can see here that my character is a bit weird at the waist, and the shoulders weren’t supposed to be so skeletal! I’ll change that at the salon once I can make use of it in PSO2. You’ll be appearing in a lot of cutscenes, so it may be worth your time to actually pay attention to whatever little things you want to swap while you can do it for free.
You won’t be able to access anything on the Gateway ship this time around, but I’ll tell you all about it when it becomes accessible!
And the Intro tutorial begins…
Aaaaand done. Great!
You made it into the Gate Area! …Now what?
Through the tutorial, you got to check out a bit how the gameplay works. You probably noticed a few things, like the fact that loot doesn’t automatically get into your inventory, and how you DON’T HAVE A DASH OPTION, NOR A DOUBLE-JUMP! (How dare!)
While Dashing is not a part of PSO2 Classic, you will be able to unlock the Double-Jump setting at level 40, through your Class Skill Tree.
Now, before continuing with the story, here are a few things to set up, or information that’s useful to know now rather than later.
Auto-Loot, Pls
As for loot, here’s a piece of info to help a bit. By opening your menu and clicking on System -> Options -> Game Settings, there is a section for “Auto Pick Up” which will automatically loot some things if you walk to their location.
You WILL need to walk to the location of pretty much anything you wish to loot, whether it’s auto-loot worthy or not.
Something is missing though, isn’t it?
It’s your mag! You’ll have a mag permit at level 10, but for now, nothing to show for it! Mags have to be equipped (and fed!) in PSO2 Classic.
MOVING ON.
Now that we’re out of the tutorial, we have access to some stuff. Through the story, or “ARKS Missions,” the game will show you the ropes of most things and introduce you to Jan, the grumpiest tutorial dude I’ve ever met.
Here’s Grumpy Jan, if you want more info (and quest rewards!) on this and other starter info. If you’re not in a hurry, your ARKS Missions will eventually lead you to him anyway.
Don’t get me wrong, he’s helpful! But dang, that attitude.
Storage
Here’s your storage! The green terminal will give you access to your storage (there is a “retrieve” and “store” option, but they both give you full access to your storage/inventory and moving things around).
The Purple one with a question mark, on my left, is the Visiphone Terminal. This is where you can access the Personal Shop, among other things.
I said earlier that my look wasn’t quiiiite how I wanted it, but now I can access the Salon again! Like me, you probably still have quite some time to use the Salon for free, so I just wanted to remind you of that. You can access the Salon through your Quick Menu, or you can find it in the Shopping Plaza.
I won’t explain to you stuff that is easily learned through the story (we’re out of the original tutorial, but there’s still lots of tutorial-esque stuff for you to go through) but there is a lot of info that is less obvious to figure out, but could be quite helpful.
1. Weapon camos are set differently
It’s not complicated, it’s just not what we’re used to!
2. Class Skill Points are accumulated by level.
Forget about Cocoons here! You’ll get one SP per level, and your class trainer has quests that will give you extra SP for completing their quests. You’ll find them close to the Class Counter, just gotta find your own class’s NPC.
3. Also, the Class Skill Trees look like this:
The horror. No really, it’s just so weird to look at after having seen the neat and tidy NGS skill trees!
Still, make sure to go back to the Class Counter often to spend your Skill Points. Unlike other games, PSO2’s skills are actually pretty game-changing, and each point will improve your damage output a lot. Here’s a resource for all Class Skill Trees, if you don’t want to chance it (after all, Skill reset passes are not rare, they’re basically non-existent!) or if you just want a bit of guidance.
Unlike PSO2:NGS, the Class Skill Trees in PSO2 Classic is pretty elaborate, and there is quite some room to make mistakes. While it probably won’t make your class entirely unplayable, it’s not as forgiving as NGS.
Lvl 20: subclass permit
You can’t get your subclass until you do the permit quest, which unlocks at level 20. It’s not a very long quest, just talk to Cofy and do two different explorations for two different enemy types.
Your subclass will be lagging behind a lot unless you use a few EXP boosts from your exploration title rewards. In Classic, each level grants 1 Skill Point, and that applies to your subclass too, which means your subclass level matters a bit more than in NGS.
Armor units
Just like in NGS, we have three slots for armor pieces. Unlike NGS, the pieces show, and they don’t always look good. However, there is the option to “stealth” them, and it’s surprisingly easy (and free, too!). All you need to do is to click on your armor unit in your inventory and select “engage stealthing.”
Gear Rarity
7-8-9 star weapons and armor are the equivalent of 4-5 star gear in PSO2:NGS. It may feel like you should keep them all… but they’re actually not that good enough to keep. You can dismantle items in your personal quarters, or sell them, unless they’re copies of your weapon, which you can use for optimal augment affixing.
Collection Sheets
This mechanic exists from the start, but I didn’t know about it until way later!
Collection Sheets are a passive way to receive great Weapons, Materials or Summoner Eggs. It takes time to fill up the requirements, but it builds up by completing Expeditions, and you’re about to do a lot of those!
Auxiliaries
At level 20, you’ll be able to get an Auxiliary. You need to place your Auxiliary Console in your Personal Quarters (basic Personal Quarters are free) and talk to them from there.
A few things of note…
You auxiliary starts at level 1, and it can only do “collect” quests. These “collect” type quests that require lvl 1 aren’t always available, so be sure to keep 1-3 level 1 collect quests even if you’re not level 20 yet. If you’ve collected enough items to turn the quest in, you can put them in your storage and keep the quest open for your Auxiliary anyway.
Until your auxiliary is level 21, you should keep sending them on the level 1 collect quests. After level 21, a lot more collect quests will be open.
It’s mentioned briefly in the info box, but I want to remind you that your auxiliary can take on more than one quest at a time. Each quest takes 1 hour, so if you send your auxiliary on 3 quests, they will come back after 3 hours.
One last thing
Read your quests well. Seriously. The amount of times that I thought I was doing the right thing and getting frustrated at the quest not completing only to realize a tiny detail afterwards, then having to start over…
For example:
Client Order from Jan “Don’t Get Overconfident!” asks you to clear “Automata Survey: Underground Shafts” on Hard difficulty with Jan only in your team. I misread or misunderstood it, and I did a “Underground Shafts Exploration” from the Expeditions tab instead of the Automata Survey which was in the Sub Quests > ARKS Quests section.
Oops. Not the same thing.
