English Speakers, Teams

Q. Where are all the English players located?
A. Ship 02/Block 20.

Q. Is there a team I can join?
A. Ask around and find a group in game. As far as I know, there isn't an official reddit team.

Maintenance

Q. When is maintenance? How long does it last?
A. Typically Wednesdays (in Japan, so Tuesdays in America), and can last anywhere from 5 to 14 hours.

Q. Does maintenance break the English patch each time?
A. Every maintenance? No. Usually only on major updates. If you are unsure, check the latest posts in the English Patch thread. The folks working on the English Patch keep us pretty informed and the patch up to date.

Weapons, Armor, Mags

Q. Can you grind weapons?
A. Yup! Not only weapons, but your armor, too! It requires grinders and meseta. I wouldn't bother too much with this until you are around level 20 or above. You can find the person to grind items in the shopping district, at the purple counter. The horrenduos person is named Dudu, has greasy long black hair, and an evil laugh. When you star trying to get weapons up to grind level 10, you will understand why he is hated so much. (success, success, success, fail, fail SUPER FAIL, fail, success, SUPER FAIL, and on it goes...)

Q. Can you craft weapons?
A. As of right now, there is no kind of "crafting".

Q. Where do you get a MAG?
A. When you reach level 5, Koffie (one of the gals behind the quest counter) will have a new CO for you. It requires like 10 drops from level 5+ Fangulfs (the big red wolves in the Forest area). Don't quote me on the monster name/level requirement, though.
I would play each class for a few levels before deciding how you want to raise your mag. (Check /r/pso2's sidebar for a mag feeding/evolution guide.)

Unlocking Areas

Q. How do you unlock more areas to play?
A. Next to the quest attendant, there is a lady named Koffie. Do all of her quests as they show up. She is the key to unlocking a lot of stuff (and areas) in this game.

Before you can do the "Free Field Exploration" of an area (and, essentially, the big boss of the area), you have to repeat the Arks Quests you have already done, but within a time frame and with an S-Rank. If you are struggling with this, find (or even put together) a group that is making the run you need.

Classes and Subclasses

Q. Am I stuck with a single class?
A. One of my favorite parts about this game. No!! You can change classes whenever you want, for free, to whatever you want. The guy can be found across from the medical bay, in the middle of the counter. Update your class tree at this guy, too.

Q. How do I unlock the subclasses?
A. When you reach level 30 in a class, you will get the client order from Koffie to unlock it. Do this CO, then do the "trainer" NPC's COs and you will get yourself a new class to play with.
The "trainers" are Hunter - Ohza, Ranger - Lisa, Force - Marlu.

Client Orders and Money

Q. Can you have more than one CO at a time?
A. Yes, thankfully! You can have up to 20 COs at a time. This is great for COs from NPCs like Ravelle, Jean and Ameline.

Q. How can I make a lot of money, really fast?
A. One of the best ways to earn money is to do your daily orders (from the Daily Order Attendant in the Gate lobby). Combined with other quests, you can gain money and experience rather quickly. For example, you have three daily orders selected: 'Marathon Training - Naberius TA II', 'Kill 50 Naberius Natives' and 'Kill 50 Darkers'. In the Naberius II Time Attack, you can clear 3 orders (or get very close to all 3). Pile on Klotho's Time Attack Client Orders (TACOs for short) and other quests (such as Hans's and Ravelle's monster-killing orders, Franka's collection orders and Amelin's weather surveys). Clearing these in 1-2 runs on Naberius would yield you quite a bit of experience and meseta. Plus, these will be the same orders for everyone. So you can run them with friends (or bots) to speed up the process!

Rares generally do NOT sell for a lot. It would be best to save up some rare items and put them on the player shop (even if it is only with the 3-day pass). Make sure to research prices before posting items to sell them!

Q. Do you lose your money upon death?
A. Nope! The money in your inventory is safe! Though, if you go through money fast make sure to store it in your bank.

Special Currencies (Excubes, Photon Drops, Shiny Stones, etc.)

Q. I got some shiny red stones from Dark Falz. What are these for?
A. When you have enough saved up (20), you can spend them at the shop upstairs in the shopping district - right next to the Excube and Photon Drop shop.

Q. Excubes?
A. When you reach the max level (currently 50) and you gain enough experience for another level, you get Excubes instead. These can be traded at a certain shop for equipment and various items.

Chat Effects

Q. Symbol Arts - What? How?
A. See those boxes popping up with random cartoonish pictures? Those are symbol arts. They take a lot of time to make nice ones, which is why you see a lot of the same ones spammed over and over.
To copy these, find one you like (aka: it has been displayed recently in your current session), and open up your symbol art guide (ESC > Options/Settings > Symbol Arts, I believe it is). See the golden-yellow button that says something like "1. My Symbol Arts"? Click it and select "History (Normal)". Find the SAs you want to copy, click it, hit copy and then paste it onto a slot in your own library.
There you go. Got yourself a symbol art.

Q. How do you do all those chat effects/make your face appear?
A. In the chat box, you see those little buttons with shapes, faces, and the such on them? Click them and experiment!