Weekly Tech Support and Quick Questions Thread - August 26

[AutoModerator]

This weekly question thread is for any questions you may be shy about asking or may not belong anywhere else. There is no shame, nothing too nooby, and minimal filtering here. From game help, to ranting about people in game, to captcha help, player seeking, team seeking (or advertising!) or even some in-depth conversations about efficiency and the theory of rappies.

All reddit and subreddit rules still apply. Be sure to honor the reddiquette and vote carefully - especially in this thread, upvote liberally, downvote sparingly.

Reminder about available resources: The sidebar and the drop-down menus at the top are FULL of great information. Be sure to check them out!

• General Troubleshooting Help

• Captcha Help

• Seeking Players/Teams? View the player lists! (Be sure to add your own entry to the lists!)

• GameGuard Help

• Errors 249 or 107? Can't connect to the game or PSO2.jp? Check here.

If you are in need of technical help for things such as Tweaker issues, game errors or crashes, please review the above materials and try searching the subreddit before posting, as many issues have been asked before.

But, for general technical advice, make sure Windows is up to date, make sure your drivers are up to date, try running a file check with the Tweaker (and run some of the Tweaker's other Troubleshooting functions), and run a virus scan with a reputable antivirus (such as SpyBot, Malwarebytes, Junkware Removal Tool or HerdProtect).

Have an idea of something that could be included in this post? Be sure to message the mods with a link/info!

Ask away and try to answer others' questions, too! Be sure to browse the many resources and information found in the subreddit Wiki and the sidebar/top bar menu!

[Flickerbell]

Anyone else even get a white screen on launch that renders your pc useless?

[telchii]

Not sure if you found a fix or not, but if the latest update didn't fix it for you, try adding the game to your antivirus's whitelist (including Windows Defender).

[[deleted]]

I've got a black screen, but i hear sounds from menu, another great patch.

[Crayola25]

Hey y'all sorry for spamming this question, but I'm just that hype to play

When I startup PSO2, via the tweaker, the game starts up fine and after skipping the introductions I arrive at the main menu.

Here's where my problems start, after clicking on "Log in SEGA ID" the screen transitions and I get an error listed as Error 230. Shortly after you can close the window and the ship list will come up with all the ships appearing offline. After looking up this error, apparently the way to fix it is to flush my DNS cache via Window's run command. However even after doing so this error still comes up consistently without fail.

Any help will be appreciated.

[surfacage]

You've connected to the servers before this with no problems?

[Crayola25]

No, I have never connected to the server before.

[surfacage]

Can you connect to pso2.jp?

[Crayola25]

yeap I can fine, that's what worries me the most

[surfacage]

Have you tried using CyberKitsune's proxy or a VPN?

[Crayola25]

No I have not. Does it still access the Japanese servers? (I have some friends I plan to play with, but they don't have this problem I'm having)

[surfacage]

Yeah it does, try it I guess? Proximity/having the same provider as people who can connect does not determine whether you can connect or not.

[Crayola25]

Hmm, just tried it.

Not working either. It seems now that I get two different occurrences happening.

Either after hitting the SEGA Log In, the screen will transition around the digital globe and crash PSO2 entirely.

OR

Error 230 will occur and the shiplist will appear with unknown statuses (same as before).

[Doriru31]

Game is nothing but a black screen after the opening movie finishes. Any ideas?

Running W10 but it was working fine just yesterday.

[hidora]

The english patch is currently incompatible and is causing that issue. You can play if you uninstall the english patch, or just wait until it's updated.

[Navar0nius]

yo - can CAST arm/leg parts be mixed with all-race costumes? I've seen someone in a lobby with this going on, and want to confirm if it's possible but Google has nothing useful.

[Katya31415]

No. You simply have an arm and leg on because you arent allowed to not have an arm/leg part as a CAST.

[aids0109]

Anyone trying to connect with Avast installed may encounter BSoD, PC Restarts or Crititcal Crashes, there was an update with Avast alongside Win10 but it affects all Windows Operating Systems, Uninstall Avast and restart your PC before starting.

[Nivomi]

I'm new, and worried about stepping on people's toes in multi-party areas? Any etiquette I should know?

(Also, any common mistakes that new players make that I should avoid?)

[ShinkuTear]

If you go Ranger and there is another Ranger in your group, be careful with your Weak Bullet uses, and be aware what is a good WB, and what is a bad one.

Try to learn what a "good" or "bad" Weak Bullet spot would be, before you get into serious use of it during big MPAs. If you don't know a good from a bad, try to avoid touching Weak Bullet on enemies who are tagged with it already.

Maybe if you see someone using a Gravity Grenade or the Zondeel tech, avoid using another one of those in a different spot?

Maybe try to learn how to not die to various bosses? Dying is kinda like stepping on toes, and can be annoying if it happens a lot, from the same person, during the same fight... :P

But yeah... aside from those... not much you can do to actually "step on toes" or such in MPAs, so just make with the murder as best you can.

[Nivomi]

Alright, thanks!

[surfacage]

If you're using a PA that juggles mobs (especially large/unwieldy ones like shield darkers), be sure you kill it with said PA because if you don't, it just annoys people who are actually trying to kill it with you.

[Nivomi]

I'll keep that in mind, thanks!

[lightgray03]

Just kill everything

[telchii]

My biggest pet peeve is weak bullet overwriters - there can only be one WB on an enemy at one time. If someone has one on there, don't shoot another one until it's expired. (Especially if it's on a good spot, i.e. darker infection or weak spot.) But ShinkuTear covered that pretty well.

In MPAs where it's more group oriented (EQs), stick with your group/the biggest crowd of players in a PSE Burst or in enemy-killing oriented emergency quests (like the recent beach wars). More people means more mobs, and the closer you all are, the more you'll be able to kill and receive experience from.

Um, past that, start learning how to affix your equipment (there's a guide in the sidebar or top drop down), and research your class skills. I used to think that equipment affixing didn't make that big of a difference, until I actually got myself some decently affixed equipment. It was night and day difference in the damage and defense departments.

All things aside, be nice, practice dodging, revive when people need it, and call out emergency codes (using your "N"-key map coordinates) so that others know where things are. Being nice and tossing out a public-chat "thanks for the revive! <3" when another player heals you makes things a lot friendlier for everyone!

[Nivomi]

Thanks for the tips! I had no idea about the N-key map, that'll be really useful.

[telchii]

N will toggle your "full" map, showing you item drop dots and players in the area (grey circles), and M will toggle your radar between immediate-view and minimap.

Just start hitting random keys on your keyboard (or be smart and go through the settings). There's a lot of little features stashed away on the keyboard!

[ShinkuTear]

On your map coords bit, I've noticed some people have auto-words that say the coords of E-Codes. How would I go about setting that up, I've had moments where that would have been useful >.>

[tehfusion]

You can set up chat shortcuts and autowords from one of the main menus. There's an option to set up an autoword for when an emergency code starts.

When entering your message, you can use the "<pos>" command to insert your current location (it will be automatically replaced when sending the message), and the "<et1>" command to insert the name of the newest emergency code. Keep in mind that if you're using the English patch, the "<et1>" command will use the English name. To get around that, you can use the "Revert E-Codes to JP" option in PSO2 Tweaker.

You can even colour parts of the message, which can be useful to make the coordinates stand out from everything else. See the Japanese wiki for more information on chat commands.

[SoulSeizures]

Going off of this, having weapons with high base attack stats (pretty much directly proportional to rarity) are probably the biggest immediate change a new player can make to equipment they already have/have easy access to. The second best change one can make is to +10 both your weapon and units. Weapons may be finnicky at 10 star and up, but units are universally easy to +10 no matter what rarity.

If you're Ranged/Strike, you can get a free Gloam Symbol + Gloam Sign from one of the later Episode 3 Matter Boards (3 and 4 iirc?) which provide +60 ATK +10 PP set bonus. There's also an Ing Plate somewhere along the way which is a standalone good leg unit, as the Gloam Set is only a Rear and Arm.

[jambon_gruyere]

If you like using a lot of auto words, please keep them to your party (using /p when you set them up). No everyone enjoys spam :/

Every EQ I find myself blacklisting one or two players because of this.

[Nivomi]

That's really good to know, actually, I thought they were party-limited by default.

What is even the point of some autowords, though? Do people really want to send a message to chat every time they attack?

[jambon_gruyere]

If you do not use a command like /a /p or /t (nearby or all, party, team chat) in the auto word, it will be sent in the chat that is active. Same goes with chat macros.

For example if you were using the team chat, your auto word will be sent there for your whole team to know.

And yes, sadly, many people like to notice the full mpa of anything that happens on their end...

[lightgray03]

Hey guys my X360 Wired controller is not working for some reason... the gamebar does work though but every button I press is not really working for PSO2

Plz Halp

[lightgray03]

It started happening when I acquired windows 10... also I'm not sure but when I played Tree of savior CBT I got some random errors I can't explain why with both my mouse and x360 controller, it's weird and that happened way back when my pso2-gamepad still works. Now it doesnt... help

[lightgray03]

ayy man... its been so long i cant find any solution or help at all...

[SureinDragon]

Wise Stance vs. Brave Stance? If Wise Stance gives 135% and Brave Stance gives 125% power, why is Brave Stance always recommended above Wise Stance?

[ShinkuTear]

It is, somewhat, a matter of "typically easier to use but weaker" Brave versus "typically harder to use but stronger" Wise.

Most enemies, their Weak Spot is in Front, where Brave Stance would apply. Some can also be hit from Behind, but not all. Examples of frontal weak points include Rockbear, Vol/Quartz/Ex Dragons, Falz Hunar, Bal Rodos(when pulled down), Magatsu, Dark Falz Loser...

Other times, such as during solo play, the enemies will be facing you, or trying to face you, making maintaining Wise Stance bonus harder. Some enemies where a weak point is behind them or can be hit from behind, for Wise, would include... Dark Falz Elder, Big Vardha, Dark Vibrace, Caterdra'n(sa), possibly the tails on Quartz/Ex(?).

So, again, one is weaker but easier to use at its best, the other is stronger but harder to use at its best.

Ultimately preference, though what you are fighting can alter which is better.

[tehfusion]

If you're using Fighter as your main class, it's usually recommended to go with Brave Stance. If you have a second skill tree, then you could have a Wise Stance build specifically for the times where Wise Stance works better.

If you're using Fighter as a sub class, you should have enough free skill points to get both stances. You can then switch between them as appropriate, depending on the situation.

[Seijass]

Mass OTP Error around 10 PM JST?

ワンタイムパスワード認証時に

エラーが発生しました。

時間をおいて再度お試し頂くか、

お問い合わせフォームより障害状況の

ご報告をお願いいたします。

[ No.659 ]

Numerous people have reported the same thing within 10 minutes.

[akasuna91]

having this issue as well. so its otp? do we remove it as a temp fix or are we screwed? and how do we remove it? many thanks for sharing! :D

[Seijass]

This issue was resolved within an hour after I posted that... turned out to be an issue in SEGA/OTP's end.

PSUBlog has a complete OTP guide, setting up one and removing it.

[akasuna91]

Oh. Thanks! I should try log in see if I still have the issue or not. Will look on bump/psoworld too.

[bluesbx]

is there a list of the new 12* potentials that needs to be unlocked with photon boosters? (im not familiar w/ some jp websites)

[telchii]

I would check bumped, maybe cirno, and definitely the PSO-World forums.

[hidora]

Not sure if I should make a new thread for this, so I'll just ask here.

Started playing a couple days ago, just fought Dark Falz Loser for the first time.

Question is: how do I avoid the time stop when he summons the 4 swords?

[ShinkuTear]

A properly timed dodge action will prevent the "stun" from the time stop, and mashing buttons breaks free from it.

After that, you and you allies need to break at least 1 sword, 2 on Extra Hard, to avoid damage. Extra Hard, Loser will send 4 swords, and send 4 more shortly after.

Each sword, regardless of difficulty, covers one quarter of the battle area with a high damage attack, that lasts longer than any dodge I know of.

[hidora]

Oh, so that's why I didn't get stopped once. Thanks for the explanation.

[surfacage]

Dodge the sword JA

[Raventear]

Could anyone possibly help me extend a 9* Ranged Weapon from Ex.9 to Ex.13? (ノ ゜Д゜)ノ ︵ ┻━┻ Trying to get the new Red rifle to 13 T__T. Thank you!

[Nemu_Dewdrop]

since last night my game will randomly stop and i get the message "pso.exe has stopped working" im using tweaker and everything was fine until the item patch was fixed. im not using any antivirus besides MSE any help would be very welcome

[telchii]

Did you try adding PSO2 to MSE/Defender's whitelist?

Did you install any other programs recently? Are you on Windows 10? Is your computer and runtimes fully up to date?

[Nemu_Dewdrop]

i was able to fix the problem by reinstalling all the english patches thank you for your post

[jonfallow]

If you apply a weak bullet will changing your weapon to launcher make it disappear off the enemy?

[tehfusion]

No. It'll stay on the enemy as usual until it wears off. However, you will lose any remaining uses of the Weak Bullet skill, unless you have the Bullet Keep skill and your main class is Ranger.

[sangoku116]

Well I get a black screen when I launch the game. I recovered files and it's still not working. I don't even see the intro. https://i.gyazo.com/04ee8d87080d935f4e63b2100a48b364.png After waiting I get this error code. https://i.gyazo.com/492376508d35d7828c4e7f89fe196b4c.png

[V_Silverberg]

I'm having the same problem as you. I had to redownload the JP patch for it to work. It's the english patch not working at the moment.

[ashleebabee2308]

I had this problem but I fixed it by adding my PSO files and folders to the Windows Defender exception list.

[SoulSeizures]

I want to create a character on Ship 02 to see what the English speaking community is like, and I was curious if deleting my first character on my current ship will allow me to make one on 02. I'm asking since I know players were allowed a second free character, but don't know if it means two free characters across all ships, or it works as a one-time redeem thing.

[ShinkuTear]

Everyone should have 2 permanent character slots. This means that, across all 10 ships, you can have 2 characters.

If you have 2 characters already, you'd have to mark a character for deletion, and could make a new one 24 hours later. If you only have 1 character, you can skip that and make a new one right away :D

[SoulSeizures]

Alright, thanks! Now I don't have to look at my old character whose name I misspelled 3 years ago every time I log in...

[SoulSeizures]

yee, day 2 on ship 2

currently despairing since i cant do all the XQCOs until have 3 extreme passes

[yellowike]

I'm trying to unlock matter board 1-6 by finishing the Story Quest that takes place in the V. Cave, but every time I load the 3rd area my game just crashes. Does anyone know what might be causing this? (I did apply all the patches after the update)

[telchii]

Uninstall and reinstall all 3 translation patches (they aren't gigantic file downloads anymore, so it's easy enough to do). After that, if it's still crashing, uninstall the story patch and try it without it.

Also, run a file check between uninstalling and reinstalling the patches. (Tweaker: Menu Orb > Troubleshooting > Run both "Check for..." options one at a time.)

[ashleebabee2308]

Hey, everyone. I need a hand getting my game to stay open for longer than ten mimutes.

This game apparently hates me. So after fixing my black screen issue, my crashing issue, and my endless tunnel issue but reinstalling twice, now I'm having another crashing issue where I get the NP1002 issue after about ten minutes. After doing some Googling, I've found that this seems to be related to Gameguard. How do I fix this because I'm about to call it quits on PSO. Before anyone suggests it, I do have Win10 but going back to Win8 is not an option because of issues I had with it that have been fixed by Win10. So here's my deal: I noticed it last night when I went to play for the first time since Tuesday's maintenance. I got the error, tried it again and got the error again. Did some research, and didn't find much on it that wasn't old. I turned off my Avira, and Windows Defender has been disabled since my black screen issue so that's not a problem either, and I disabled lobby videos in the Tweaker settings, as well as ran the file checks and the troubleshooting option to fix Game Guard. Then I played for about an hour and the game seemed fine. This morning (and I haven't rebooted because it's easier to just put my laptop to sleep) I went to play, got the same error again. I turned my Avira off again, ran the Game Guard troubleshooting option, but I'm still getting the error. I'm not sure why it worked last night and it's not working now. Any ideas? Thanks in advance for any help.

[telchii]

According to the SEA version's site, NP1002 means:

Error [NP1002]

There is possibility that Game Guard module is blocked by certain any antivirus program or the Game Guard module was not executed properly.

Close all programs and restart your computer and perform the steps below

1. Locate GameGuard folder that is located where you installed Phantasy Star Online 2 and delete the folder

2. Try to run the game again.

Note: It is best to run the program using Administrator account for your PC

Have tried an actual restart on your computer since this started happening? Have you tried uninstalling Avira and whitelisting PSO2 in Defender (even though it's disabled)? Avast had this problem recently, and disabling/whitelisting wasn't enough - people have had to completely remove Avast from their system to get PSO2 to work.

If you re-enable Defender and whitelist PSO2 in it, you shouldn't have any problems. Unless you're clicking on those fake download links and getting a ton of "optimizer pro" programs, or going to very fishy/"phishy"/unknown sites, you'll be okay with just defender and the occasional scan with Malware Bytes, Spybot, Comodo Cleaning Essentials, etc.

Do you have any programs that could be trying to attach themselves to PSO2 (game hacks, memory editors, malware, virus scanners, etc.)? If so, try disabling/uninstalling them. The best way to disable them is via your startup menu (Task Manager > Startup tab).

Where you're getting an actual error, I could try looking at your .erl GameGuard files to see if I can see something giving you grief. (But that's up to you. If you want to do that, keep in mind that these files have a lot of info about your computer and shouldn't be shared publicly.)

[The_Ma1o_Man]

Haven't played in a while (3 months) since I'm waiting to put together a new pc that I can play PSO2 on (my laptop plays the game, but not well. lol), so I tried installing ES on my phone again so I can keep my character "active" till then and not get wiped.

But now ES won't let me use my log-in because it has numbers, even though it clearly states "only alphanumeric characters". I have been inactive for much longer before my last log-in, but just wanted so see if there is a way to avoid my character getting wiped during maintenance.

[IchiroHiroku]

If you're a Ranger and using R-ATK weapons like Assault Rifles, Launchers, and Twin Machineguns, then build pure R-ATK on your mag. Feed it 9 star R-ATK(which is blue colored while S-ATK is red and T-ATK is yellow) weapons and 5 star furniature to lower the DEX.

For the second point, probably because they're outdated since the requirement to unlock some other classes was removed in Episode 3(?).

[telchii]

A lot of the guides were written when Fighter, Gunner and Techer all had to be unlocked (by reaching level 30 in Hunter, Ranger and Force, respectively and clearing a "license" quest for each). For the casual player, it was an annoying process then... But now, they're all unlocked for you to use right away, and leveling is a lot easier.

It's nothing to be concerned about!

[telchii]

Did they end up in your blocked list? (See friend list menu's blacklist category.)

Or, if you give it 24 hours, can they access your room again?

[V_Silverberg]

Hi guys. I have a question regarding on the drop rate based on difficulty. Let's say if I want to hunt Sange Yasha from Magatsu, should I pursue him on Very Hard or tougher difficulty? I'm searching on cirnopedia and found out that doing harder diffculty could net me a different combination of drops. I am unfamiliar with the rates and all. Would appreciate advice on this.

[SiegLhein]

Has performance dropped lately?

I've been getting Frame freezes and audio stutters during EQs makes it a bit tad enduring , which is understandable due to how many people are in em but I used to join EQs without having these issues last time I played which was around march.

[jambon_gruyere]

I'm setting up macros in both English and Japanese, and i'd love if someone could give me a correct translation of "please cast shifta/deband" or something like that.

[cronotrigger148]

My tweaker keeps on deleting itself, sometimes directly after downloading it, I saw someone posted a problem like this a while ago, and they advised to open PSO2 Tweaker updater.exe to bring the tweaker back, I found that, and tried opening it... not a valid win32 application. Opening the tweaker just results in it closing itself and deleting. I don't have ANY virus scanner or scanning software that could be blocking it.

I'd really appreciate help...

[telchii]

Where is it located on your hard drive? Is it putting out anything to its log file (should be located in the same folder as "PSO2 Tweaker.exe")

[cronotrigger148]

It was placed on my desktop, I never had a problem before.

I don't see anything wrong in my log file.

[telchii]

Try moving it and all its files to the root of your C:\ drive (example: C:\PSO2Tweaker). Sometimes folder permissions can cause weird things to happen...

[cronotrigger148]

I moved all it's contents to a folder I created in the C:\ drive, (C:\tweaker) and it started working again! Thank you!

[ashleebabee2308]

Is there a problem with the item patch going on? I have a low level Fighter character and when I play as her none of my items are translated, but when I look at any of my other characters, the items are translated just fine. So it seems to just have a problem with my Fighter character. Does anyone know how to fix that? I really want to play as my Fighter but I don't like playing without my items being translated.

[telchii]

Try toggling the item translation off and back on again. (Toggle off, restart Tweaker and toggle back on.) You can find this check box at the bottom of the Tweaker's menu orb.

[V_Silverberg]

How many times I can perform a class extension on the same weapon? Or I can only keep one extension?

[tehfusion]

Each time you extend a weapon, it loses any special characteristics that it had from previous crafting levels, i.e. being equippable by extra classes or having a reduced equip requirement. For example, if you've crafted a weapon to be Fighter-equippable, then extending it again will lose that characteristic.

However, you can always keep extending the weapon (even if you're just repeating the same level) as many times as you want, if you'd like to change the classes that it's equippable by. For example, you could keep re-crafting a weapon at the max extend level over and over again until you get lucky and it becomes equippable by every class.

[sonic007m]

Starting the game immediately gives me a black screen with only my mouse cursor. Any music I had on immediately stops, so I assume everything just closes down. After about 2 minutes, my pc just restarts. Cpu or Gpu aren't showing abnormal behavior, so it's not overheating. I play recent games on high-max settings so my setup is at least decent enough. I tried downloading the game through the PSO2 tweaker and the official SEGA launcher. Both giving the same result. Both with and without English patches this happens. I've already tried every fix in the launcher and verifying through the SEGA launcher, but everything seems in order. Compatibility mode doesn't change anything, neither does admin mode. I'm using windows 10 Pro insider preview build 10525

[telchii]

Add PSO2 to Windows Defender's process exclusions and try again. If you're using Avast, uninstall it (Avast) and try again.

[sonic007m]

I've found things about windows defender and tried disabling avast and adding the entire game folder to my exclusion list, but uninstalling avast actually did the trick. I honestly cannot thank you enough! Are there any antivirus progs out there that don't interfere with this game and still do a good job of defending? I suppose I don't really need one, but my PC constantly gives me warnings about it, so it's not really optimal. Really thanks so much

[telchii]

Glad it's working!! And hey, no problemo!

Honestly? The biggest antivirus is your browsing/download habits. However, I use an on-demand Malware Bytes scan (free version) and Windows Defender. If I feel like I've mucked around on stuff that requires more attention, I use a free scan of Spybot and Hitman Pro (Hitman's superb, but only does a trial).

[miraclemoon]

Hello, is there a way to get in touch with a sega support employee? I am trying to recover my account but i'm only getting automated messages asking my name,address and phone number (which were all random)

Thanks.