History PhantasyStarOnline2 / TropesNToZ

* AQuestGiverIsYou: The main purpose of Support Partners/Auxiliaries is to automate FetchQuests by assigning Client Orders to them and have them bring back the required items. As you send them out more, the more COs they can take on at once, and the more EXP and RelationshipValues they gain, which in turn lets you give them a Personality.

** Summoners generally want to look out for attacks or field gimmicks with a high rate of DamageOverTime, as said damage can be heavily exploited by bringing out Maron and walking into the damage to charge it up quickly.

** If you've beaten your [[MirrorMatch Clone]] in [[spoiler:Falspawn Den]], then congratulations, [[YouBastard you've just turned it loose]] [[DemonicSpider on the rest of the PSO2 community]] for three days; they copy ''all'' your stats and weapons and have a ''lot'' of HP, and you can potentially have given them a lot of good equipment. Expect anyone who dies to your Clone to curse your name if they see the real you.
** VideoGameCaringPotential: By the same token however, you can also make them complete pansies by beating [[spoiler:Falspawn Den]] with terrible equipment, or just by having a CripplingOverspecialization for other players to exploit against your Clone. [[BonusLevelOfHell The latter is more likely though.]] Clones of players in your friend list also yield more loot upon defeat, notably Photon Spheres.

** The now-defunct SEA/Taiwanese version had a few things exclusive to their version, such as regional holidays to replace Japanese ones, such as Malaysia Independence Day and Chinese New Year, special holiday Rappies to go with them, such as the dragon-themed Drag Rappies, and some exclusive Costumes and Accessories.

** Etoile's "Etoile Will" Skill functions as a LastChanceHitPoint like most "Will" Skills. However, Etoile Will also instantly regenerates all Gear Gauges to maximum when the skill is activated. Because Etoile's Weapon Gears are tied to massive burst damage, savvy players will attempt to intentionally take lethal damage during certain fights to activate Etoile Will and get an on-demand Full Connect/Protect Release for free.

** When Jet Boots are brandished, the wielder hovers in the air. The Etoile class similarly floats while using ''any'' of their weapons.

** Players with the Skill or Skill Ring "HP Restorate" (or its Etoile variation) automatically start restoring their own HP when it dips below a certain level.

** Etoile: [[DualWielding Soaring Blades]], [[MagicWand Wands]], and [[DoubleWeapon Double Sabers]]

** Apostolo Dragon has a unique interaction with Dark Blast that causes him to deal instantly fatal damage to anyone using Dark Blast with his absorption attack.

** The natives of Planet Amduscia are all dragonkin of one form or another. Full-sized dragons (typically based on the western variety) are a recurring theme in boss fights; [[KillItWithFire Vol Dragon]], [[LightEmUp Quartz]] [[FoeTossingCharge Dragon]], [[CastingAShadow Chrome Dragon]], [[FatBastard Goron]][[EnemySummoner zoran]] and [[MightyGlacier Dragon Ex]] all present a new spin on the concept.

** The rare version of Chrome Dragon, Haze Draal, is black-and-red instead of white-and-red, which happens to make it look quite a lot like the Falspawn it summons and devours.

** Dragon Ex and Drago Deadlion can attack with this method, using their left wing as the "shield". It does very little damage, but inflicts Stun, which can leave you vulnerable to a very powerful attack if you can't break out of it quickly enough.

** [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Quartz Dragon and Crys Draal]] both sport large shields on the sides of their arms. Attempting to attack these severely nerfs the resulting damage. [[ElementalRockPaperScissors Poison]] [[StandardStatusEffects helps]] with that, though.

* SoundOfNoDamage: Four different ones; one when your attack bounces off the shield of the ShieldBearingMook, another when you successfully Just Guard, one when you attack Goronzoran's/Zoron Goraal's energy shield, and one when [[spoiler:Luther's energy shield deflects your attacks.]]

** Dragon Ex, the armored dragon knight boss in Sanctum, has his own version of Over End.[[note]]The name he calls for it translates to "world-destroying conflagration sword"[[/note]] If you're not a Hunter or Fighter with above-par HP, [[OneHitKill expect to eat dirt if you're hit by it]].

** Box Dewbles swings even harder in this department, as her voice sounds like a young-to-middle-aged woman. Contrast against the other Tainted Dragonoid bosses, Gruezoras Drago and Drago Deadlion, whose voices are more in line with Dragon X's style.

** All Mining Base Defense quests cue the ''[=EP2=]'' opening mix of Resonant Defensive during the final wave. This also goes for Apprentice Gia, who cues the music when low on health.

** While confronting the first of the Four Heavenly Apprentices, Margaretta accidentally reveals that [[spoiler:she's the one who summoned the Four Heavenly Apprentices, in a harebrained scheme to become popular and respected by then getting the player's help and piggybacking on their victory.]] Xiera is clearly not happy with this development and only doesn't say ScrewThisImOuttaHere because Harriet convinces her that dealing with the Ephemera is bigger than Margaretta's mishap.

** [[spoiler:Ardem kills and absorbs Mother in ''EPISODE 4'', Chapter 7]], an action that ultimately proves to be his undoing.

** The Phantom-type enemies in Tokyo [[UpToEleven are stranger still]]: their ranks include zombies with blades and machine guns hidden in their torsos, tanks that can summon missile launchers of varying shapes and sizes, polar bears that can split their heads in half to project larger hidden mouths, Tyrannosauruses Rex that can stick their skulls out of their stomachs to use as a WaveMotionGun, and for the field's boss, bullet trains fusing together into a three-headed dragon ala King Ghidora.

** Averted with Dark Falz Apprentice Gia; while it ''is'' a Falz form, it isn't complete, as it requires the essence (read:host body with Apprentice) of Dark Falz Apprentice to become complete. [[spoiler:[[Anime/PhantasyStarOnline2TheAnimation Guess where it decides to look?]]]]

** Deus Angeus transforms into his final form, Deus ESC-A Zephyros, once he is defeated.

* PercentDamageAttack: The damage-over-time effect that Apprentice Gia spreads when she spawns in Demise deals a percentage of the player's maximum HP in damage every few seconds. This is done to dissuade AIS from wandering into it, since it will go through AIS health extremely quick if stood in too long.

** ''EPISODE 5''[='=]s Buster Quests feature a weapon called the "Buster Pile", a giant, cannon-mounted lance that has the power to destroy large structures that otherwise wouldn't be able to be destroyed. [[VideoGame/PhantasyStarNova Two guesses as to where this weapon comes from.]]

** Apprentice is ''at best'' a B-plot villain. She has almost nothing to do with the main story outside of serving as motivation for Klariskrays II and all of her major appearances after ''EPISODE 2'' are in subplots or (canon) side material.
** [[spoiler:The true form of Dark Falz Persona]], who also qualifies as GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere.

* ThePowerOfFriendship: In the final battle against [[spoiler:The Profound Darkness]], the players who clear the boss fastest contribute towards a massive HP/PP buff for the players who are still fighting, making things easier for them. This buff is appropriately called, "ARKS".

** Il Megid takes this trope quite literally by launching a hand made of darkness that flies into enemies palm-first to deal damage.

** Dodge Auto Field is the worst Level 85 Skill in the game by a vast margin. It gives the player the ability automatically activate Bouncer's Field Skills (Critical Field and Elemental PP Restorate Field) without triggering Recast when you dodge an attack with Step. This is on a class that decentivizes using Step due to the truckload of invulnerability frames it gets, and the trade-off for dropping DPS to use Dodge Auto Field isn't worth the effort. The icing on the cake is that a balance patch in July 2019 made Field Remain last 30 seconds, meaning Fields now have no downtime whatsoever and making Dodge Auto Field even more meaningless.
* PowersViaPossession: [[spoiler:When Mother possesses Aru in the final chapter of ''EPISODE 4'', they gain the power to rip a hole in space-time, which they use break through the barrier between Oracle and Earth to assist the player's party in the final fight. Aru also more or less gains Mother's abilities on top of his own.]]

* PublicDomainArtifact: The Ame-no-Murakumo and Gram, both weapons of legend that are wielded as [[spoiler:Hitsugi and Kohri's Embodied Weapons, respectively]]. They are not actually the real weapons (for obvious reasons), but Ether constructs formed in their image with the power of imagination.

** The A.I.S. (ARKS Intercept Silhouette) (See InstantAwesomeJustAddMecha.) It comes equipped with a portable Photon Particle Cannon, and will make mincemeat of pretty much everything. However, it comes with a strict time limit; over-use makes it vulnerable to Falspawn infection and possession. Thus it is only used sparingly, such as [[NintendoHard Mining Base Defense: Despair/Demise]], [[BossBonanza Gold Magatsu and Phantom Yamato]].

** Omega Hunar, Omega Angel, Omega Falz Luther, and Omega Dourumble all have rearrangements of their Oracle counterpart themes that prominently feature instruments associated with Omega, and Omega Falz Luther even gets added vocals. Omega Apprezina and Omega Falz Apprentice get entirely original pieces instead due to their Oracle counterparts debuting in side material ([[Manga/PhantasyStarOnline2EPISODE0 the manga]] and [[Anime/PhantasyStarOnline2TheAnimation the anime]] respectively), but their themes feature stylistic similarities to the Mining Base Defense music and have samples of Dark Falz Apprentice Gia's theme.

* ShootTheShaggyDog: Not the player thankfully, but a couple of [=NPCs=] are hit rather hard by this. In one of the sub-plots, you converse with Theodore, an unmotivated Arks Force who hates fighting, and Ulc, his (girl?)friend who is trying to join the Arks but has no combat skills. It takes some doing, but she eventually gets a job as a staff member before the Chapter 7 story mission. [[spoiler:[[BusCrash She's then killed offscreen in said story mission]], because [[RedShirt even staff members had to fight in emergencies]], and Ulc ''knew'' what she was getting into despite that. Worse yet, come Episode 2, Theodore has all but ''snapped'' as a result...]]

** Train Ghidoran is a bit of an on-the-nose {{Expy}} of [[Film/GhidorahTheThreeHeadedMonster King Ghidorah]] that uses train tracks similar to the ones used by the train-themed heroes, [[Series/KamenRiderDenO Kamen Rider Den-O]] and [[Series.ResshaSentaiTokkyuger Ressha Sentai Tokkyuger]], both shows also being of the {{Tokusatsu}} meta-genera, tough they are part of the live action version of the Main/HenshinHero sub-genera and not the {{Kaiju}} sub-genera.

** The ESC-A logo appears over most Phantoms' weak points when they are exposed.
* SingleBiomePlanet: Lillipa and Vopal are both a [[ShiftingSandLand Shifting Sand Planet]] and ocean planet, respectively. Naberius and Amduscia subvert this trope: Naberius is covered all over in forest, but has frozen regions, while Amduscia has a whole two biomes: volcanic caves and [[FloatingContinent floating islands]].
* SinisterGeometry: Most of the architecture on Amduscia is composed of distinctly cubic and cuboid shapes. Some of these can glow, move to trap players, or even (in Sanctum) unfold into turrets. Taken UpToEleven in Destroyed World: Amduscia, where the environment is explicitly ''out to kill you.''

* SpannerInTheWorks: The Ame-no-Murakumo inadvertently gets the player into trouble in ''EPISODE 5''. [[spoiler:The Profound Darkness evidently does not react well to Ether. This creates a time-space distortion that it pulls the player into, transporting them into Omega.]]

** [[spoiler:The event that turns Klariskrays into Matoi happens because she mistakes Persona for you. This could only have happened if you had traveled back in time to meet her.]]

** Takts are completely worthless as actual weapons, since it's the Pet rather than the Summoner that does the fighting, and exist solely to give the wielder ATK and abilities.

* StoryDifficultySetting: An "Easy" difficulty was added to Story Quests in response to people wanting to simply enjoy the story. Easy caps the enemy levels to roughly the same as Normal difficulty enemies, making them extremely weak. However, playing on Easy [[EasyModeMockery denies you of earning certain Titles.]]

** The final fight with Phaleg Ives is a high-speed battle that never lets up. You only have 7 minutes to whittle down all six million of her health, and she moves extremely fast and hits incredibly hard, one or two-shotting even the best equipped ARKS operatives. To add insult to injury, healing is dramatically reduced during this fight, making a VictoryByEndurance impossible, and she gets even ''faster'' during the second phase of her fight, during which she gains a 50% damage resistance buff to the weapon that damaged her the most in the previous phase. just to rub the salt into the wound, you only have 3 minutes to S Rank it and get the corresponding title for defeating her. It's widely agreed that she makes the final boss of ''Episode 4'', Deus Esca, look like a complete joke by comparison.

** ''EPISODE 4'' has the Ame-no-Murakumo, a MidSeasonUpgrade Hitsugi acquires that enables the wielder to temporarily dispel the effects of Ether from a desired target.

** During the final mission of Episode 2 the Player Character, Matoi, Ohza, Lisa, Marlu and Fourier are able to have a long conversation while Falspawn are continuously spawning around them but not attacking for some reason. Slightly humorous when you catch a glimpse of any Luda Sorcerers since they look like they are just twirling their scythe due to boredom.

** [[spoiler:The fight against Valna in ''EPISODE 6'' Chapter 2 features a Level 96 miniboss with decently powerful attacks and flashy gimmicks but is otherwise fairly straightforward and easy. One cutscene later he's giving the heroes what for and taunting them like they've done basically nothing.]]

* ThrowTheDogABone: [[spoiler:While Ulc did get killed offscreen, you eventually end up rewriting history so that she is simply believed to be dead. With her alive, she manages to pull Theodore back from the brink of despair.]]

** Falz Dourumble can also toss the Elder Pain as an attack.

** Dark Falz Luther stops time as part of his DesperationAttack. You can avoid being stopped by dodging the attack, or otherwise invoke SmashingSurvival to break free.

** The notorious DPS check in Phantom God of Creation is this. You and the other players get 5 minutes to inflict about 20 million damage worth of HP to kill Deus ESC-A Zephyros. Most multi-parties can make it up to this point, but once you get to the DPS check, if your team has undergeared players, you're effectively ''screwed.''

** Train Ghidoran can enter enrage early if you break two of its train doors. The standard method of depleting its HP can still trigger it, however.

* ThePointsMeanNothing: Played with. In Mining Base, you gain points from killing enemies or collecting Crystals. While the points from killing enemies are completely arbitrary, the points from collecting Crystals are not, as they help fund important tools such as Base Recovery and AIS. However, both systems count toward a "total" score, and at the end of each Wave and at the end of the Quest, every player in the current Quest is ranked based on how many points are collected that round. This system is also completely arbitrary and exists purely for bragging rights.

** Global also added Collection Folders exclusively for Atlas and Atlas EX components as well as a Rising Weapons Badge 4 shop for Jutus weapons; in the Japanese version, you were required to grind for every single component manually through farming content, which made them magnitudes harder to obtain.

* {{Retconjuration}}: This is the Matter Board/Divergence Matrix's actual ability; by collecting "Matter" via nodes, the player is able to edit the past and create possibilities not foreseen by the Akashic Record. [[spoiler:Although given the fact that a version of the player themselves is the Akashic Record and the its creation is part of a massive StableTimeLoop, it's possible that "changing" the past and future is actually all part of the plan.]]

* {{Retconjuration}}: This is the Matter Board's actual ability; by collecting "Matter" via nodes, the player is able to edit the past and create possibilities not foreseen by the Akashic Record.

* NumericalHard: Mostly played straight as per ''Phantasy Star Online'' tradition, with enemies getting more stats on higher difficulties. The game makes an attempt to subvert it starting from Super Hard, which features different Infection Cores and touts "AI changes" for enemies, but most enemy encounters still play out exactly the same save for a select few enemies and bosses. Ultra Hard generally subverts this, since it also introduces Photoner Infection Cores and Enemy Shields, and many minibosses and some basic mooks have ''actual'' meaningful changes like new attacks and altered behavior.

** Phantom Battleship Yamato's guns are turned into lots of laser cannons. During the latter half of the on-foot section, it will attempt to deal massive damage to players by firing them in bursts. The A.I.S. section instead trades them for FrickinLaserBeams.

* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: Blu Ringahda is a badass[[note]]complete with BadassArmFold[[/note]] avian [[OurCentaursAreDifferent centaur darker]]. Even by this series' standards, this one is [[OurMonstersAreWeird just plain weird]]...

** ''Mining Base Defense: Despair''. Not only are [[BossBonanza bossess]] and {{Elite Mook}}s far more plentiful than in previous iterations, but the field is wider and there are far greater elements in place that single-handedly threaten entire runs with their presence, including Darker Particle Cannons, which OneHitKill Mining Bases if left unchecked, infected Campships, which kill players as fast as you can say "OhCrap", and [[spoiler:the addition of new Waves with Falz bosses and greater enemy numbers than ever before]]. You get the [[PurposelyOverpowered A.I.S.]] on your side for this mission, but if you're not careful with how you use them, you can still throw an entire run down the drain with one slip.

** Gunslash's Aiming Shot is a ChargedAttack that fires a moderately-powerful bullet at enemies. It's one of the few attacks in Gunslash's arsenal that has no Striking component to it, and it goes through enemies to hit groups.

** The Chrome Dragon is a minor example. It's already an enormous monster, but as the fight goes on it starts eating the Darkers it summons. This causes it to sprout wings, a bloated, glowing torso and an array of claws and spikes. These additions substantially boost its abilities (and grant new ones) until destroyed.

** The rare versions of certain enemies are of a different color. Rare Darkers are a bright red, Burn Draal is gold, King Vardha is blue, just to name a few. Some of the monsters starting from Episode 2 also gain physical differences on top of the color change, such as Org Keratos' bigger, spikier horns when compared to Org Blan.

** PlayedWith. The Signobraver gunslash is built from the arm of a robotic enemy, and fires/creates a LaserBlade from its palm.

** The A.I.S. (ARKS Intercept Silhouette) (See InstantAwesomeJustAddMecha.) It comes equipped with a portable Photon Particle Cannon, and will make mincemeat of pretty much everything. However, it comes with a strict time limit; over-use makes it vulnerable to Darker infection and possession. Thus it is only used sparingly, such as [[NintendoHard Mining Base Defense: Despair/Demise]], [[BossBonanza Gold Magatsu and Phantom Yamato]].

** The Darkers' default color scheme. Rare variants go for lots of red instead. [[spoiler:Dark Falzes like a more varied palette, though.]]
** The rare version of Chrome Dragon, Haze Draal, is black-and-red instead of white-and-red, which happens to make it look quite a lot like the Darkers it summons and devours.

** The emergency city missions takes place in a city devastated by the Darkers.

* ShootTheHostage: One cutscene involves Apprentice chokeholding Afin and putting a Twin Dagger to his throat while she tosses his Gunslash, preventing him from fighting back. You pick up the Gunslash and charge a Penetrating Bullet, and [[ButThouMust whether you want to or not,]] you shoot them both, knocking them out. [[spoiler:They're both okay, since Photon wielders are FriendlyFireproof... including Apprentice. This ultimately helps Afin prove that she isn't a Dark Falz.]]

** Luster has a very unique system known as "Styles" that are based on the Element of the Gunslash being equipped.
*** ''Fomelgion Style'' is an offensive style that activates if the equipped Gunslash is Fire or Dark, and gives balanced usage of both Move [=PAs=] and Stand [=PAs=].
*** ''Zandion Style'' is an evasive Style that activates if the equipped Gunslash is Wind or Lightning, and prioritizes the usage of Move [=PAs=].
*** ''Barantsion Style'' is a defensive Style that activates if the equipped Gunslash is Ice or Light, and prioritizes the usage of Stand [=PAs=].

* SuperMode: ''EPISODE 5'' grants the player access to Dark Blast, which transforms them into a modified version of one of the Dark Falzes' combat forms (Hunar, Angel, Apprezina and Douran/Dourill), giving them extremely high stats and powerful attacks. Elder Form is a tanky close-combat powerhouse, Luther Form can fly and harass the enemy with constant ranged attacks, Apprentice Form is highly agile and can summon Darker drones to fight for it, and Gemini Form can hammer foes with a range of versatile moves, growing even stronger in the process. The transformation only lasts one minute, however, and can only be used once per quest.

** The gunslash is the all-around weapon replacing the Saber

** When wielded as a Gunslash, the [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Master Sword]] shoots circular wave beams as projectiles a la ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild Breath of the Wild]]''. Particularly funny if used with Luster, which can result in ''rapid fire'' sword beams.

** During the final mission of Episode 2 the Player Character, Matoi, Ohza, Lisa, Marlu and Fourier are able to have a long conversation while darkers are continuously spawning around them but not attacking for some reason. Slightly humorous when you catch a glimpse of any Luda Sorcerers since they look like they are just twirling their scythe due to boredom.

** Gigur Gunnegam infuses some of his stronger attacks with ice to boost their effective range and hit a lot harder. He also winds up freezing himself whenever he uses any of these attacks, creating ice structures that the player can scale to get to Gigur Gunnegam's [[AttackItsWeakpoint head]].
** A common trait of Phantoms is that they typically expose their weak points by performing specific attacks.

** [[spoiler:The Falz Hunar fight in Story mode. If you've done your LevelGrinding, got your best equipment together, you could completely wipe the ass of a partly-awakened destroyer of the universe in under two minutes (possibly one), and it will still be standing (commenting on how the fight has warmed it up nicely) and you still have to leave two of your three NPC friends behind to do their HeroicSacrifice. Even if you're thirty times stronger and one of them has a legendary status. Would've been a ''huge'' kick in the teeth by SEGA if his level were high enough for him to drop his [[RareRandomDrop rare equipment]] (you're booted back to the Campship and can't return, so no Boss Crystal), but thankfully he isn't 41+ here.]]

** Many Darkers have -ahda attached to the ends of their names.

** The Mining Base emergency quest tasks players with defending three towers against waves of Darker enemies. Crystals scattered about the area provide points with which to repair the base, erect shields, and set up turrets.

** The Aberrations faced in Ultimate Quests are massively powered up versions of previous enemies with new attacks. While the Darkers are simple {{Palette Swap}}s with a stronger [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver black and red]], many of the other Aberrations are visually completely different from their original counterpart. This is especially true with the bosses -- Vol Dragon's Aberration is a giant bird found on Naberius, while Lillipa has mechanical versions of the Banshee and Banther.
** Similarly to Abberrations, ESC-A Darkers use existing Darkers as a base, but are colored varying shades of white and blue due to the use of Ether. However, ESC-A Darkers have slight design variations and even get several new attacks or variations of existing attacks.

** Massive Mate is unnecessary on Summoner Main because it gives you super armor when consuming Mates. Except Summoners have Technique access anyways, so there's no reason for them to be using Mates when they can just Resta to heal. This is only important for Subclassing Summoner for main classes that rely on Mates and don't have enough T-ATK for Resta to be efficient.

** If you've beaten your [[MirrorMatch Clone]] in [[spoiler:Darker Den]], then congratulations, [[YouBastard you've just turned it loose]] [[DemonicSpider on the rest of the PSO2 community]] for three days; they copy ''all'' your stats and weapons and have a ''lot'' of HP, and you can potentially have given them a lot of good equipment. Expect anyone who dies to your Clone to curse your name if they see the real you.
** VideoGameCaringPotential: By the same token however, you can also make them complete pansies by beating [[spoiler:Darker Den]] with terrible equipment, or just by having a CripplingOverspecialization for other players to exploit against your Clone. [[BonusLevelOfHell The latter is more likely though.]] Clones of players in your friend list also yield more loot upon defeat, notably Photon Spheres.

* VideoGamePerversityPotential: There's no apparent moderation with what you can whip up in the game's Symbol Art system. Although not rampant, don't be surprised when someone shows off a picture of boobs, panties, or other lewd whatnot through Symbol Art.
** Unlike the Japanese version, you can and ''will'' get banned for inappropriate Symbol Art by [=GMs=] in the North American version of the game.

** Seems to be a running theme for Dragonkin, though it's justified by them communicating through telepathy.
** Dragon Ex suitably has the voice of a gruff, battle hardened warrior. Its rare counterpart, Noire Draal, has the voice of a confident teenage schoolgirl.
** Box Dewbles swings even harder in this department, as her voice sounds like a young-to-middle-aged woman. Contrast against the other Dragonkin Aberration bosses, Gruezoras Drago and Drago Deadlion, whose voices are more in line with Dragon Ex's style.

* VolleyingInsults: A side cutscene between [[spoiler:Luther and Gettemhart]] in ''EPISODE 5'' largely consists of both of them taking potshots at each other, with the player caught in the crossfire. They don't back off until the player threatens to either get rid of them or tell Xiao, and even then only the former decides to let the topic go.

** The Big Vardha boss has five of them: four on the front, and one in its core.

** Photon Particle Cannons will rip apart nearly anything it hits, but you only get one shot.
** The A.I.S. comes equipped with a cannon known as the Photon Blaster. Unlike a Photon Particle Cannon, it doesn't need to be charged, ticks more, and is much more mobile, but in most Quests, it can only be used once per piloting session.

** The Fusion Technic Fomelgion is essentially a giant laser powered by fire and darkness.
** Dark Falz Apprentice Gia has one that is fired via a very suspicious-looking appendage. It has to take some time to charge up, but it has more than enough firepower to destroy all of your towers in one blast, so it's a race against time to inflict enough damage to the appendage before she can fire. [[spoiler:At the finale of the battle, you get to combat its WaveMotionGun with one of your very own and blow it to high hell.]]

** In Mining Base Defense: VR, if you let a Zeta Guranz stay alive for too long, it will initiate a unique move where it summons a ginormous laser that ''destroys a Base in two ticks'' before [[VillainExitStageLeft flying up, up, and away.]]
** In the "Cosmic Twinkle Star" concert, Quna combines her power with the A.I.S.' Photon Blaster to make a ''superpowered'' laser to destroy the holographic Dark Vibrace.

* WeaponOfChoice: Each class has its own set of weapons that are unique to it (barring the universally equippable [[{{Gunblade}} Gunblades]]):

** Techer: [[MagicWand Wands]] and [[PaperTalisman Talises]] (shared with Forces).

** Summoner: Takt.
** Hero: Unlike previous classes, Hero chooses existing weapons from other classes: the [[{{BFS}} Sword]], [[GunsAkimbo Twin Machineguns]], and [[PaperTalisman Talis]].

** Luster: [[{{Gunblade}} Gunblades]]

** Some weapons have a Potential that gives them an advantage against certain enemy types. For example, weapons with the Potential "Negative Hunter" deal boosted damage to Darkers. Dragon Slayer has a Potential that boosts damage to Dragonkin, and the Welk series weapons dropped by ESC-A Ragnus increases damage against and decreases damage taken from Phantoms.

** Chapter 6 keeps the whams coming, [[spoiler: taking you back in time to the terrible darker raid ten years before the game's events.]]

* ZergRush: The 3rd opening treats us to the characters facing off against an entire '''legion''' of Darkers on Lilipa Desert. Mining Base Defense throws you into that, and boy does it get chaotic.