A new system update is coming to Phantasy Star Online 2 on January 9th, 2013. On a typical day, the ARKS are going on a quest when suddenly, the Camp Ship is attacked by Darkers and transported to an unfamiliar place. Once they come to, they realize they were transported to a horrific place called the "Darker's Den."
To get back to the Arks Ship, they must tread through this horrid place with hordes of Darker enemies on their tail. At the same time, within the quest, some ARKS have gone rogue and started assaulting their fellow teammates. But these are not real ARKS, they're… clones!? Clones created by the Darkers!? Now the Oracle fleet must face a new challenge… ARKS Clones!
If certain conditions are met, the Camp Ship will be taken over by the Darkers and transported to a place known as the Darker's Den. This event will trigger an "Escape Quest" where hordes of Darkers and poisonous marshes impede your path back to the Arks Ship. Please note that during this quest, you can not return to the Camp Ship, you're going to be in for the long haul.
An "Escape Quest" is a rare event that happens at the start of a quest. You could say, it's an "Emergency Trial" in quest form. It's a battle of survival as you face countless Darkers with no possible way to return to the Camp Ship for supplies. Only players that are considered "Elite" or "Superior" by the Darkers are permitted to enter this escape quest. You could think of it as an "honor" to be among the ones chosen to participate in the Escape Quest.
During certain quests, there's a low chance that you may see ARKS Clones in an Emergency Trial. When you defeat ARKS Clones, they drop items just like a normal enemy would. However, you can obtain better drops if you encounter your own clone or your friend's clone. ARKS Clones will take the physical appearance. weapons, and autowords of the character they cloned.
ARKS who were cloned share something in common, and it will be up to the community to figure out what that secret is. This cloning system is a way to introduce a pseudo "PvP"-like element to the game. It will be interesting to see how this pans out once it arrives.
The next series of updates for Winter will start in late January, titled "Courageous Leader." Like always, this update is split up into parts and will be delivered through February. The first half of the update will feature class level 55, and a Valentines Day Event. In February, they will introduce "Advanced Quests" for end game content. This system update should help make it easier to obtain some of those rare items you've been clamoring for.
Once the PlayStation Vita version comes out, in late February through March, expect to see a new boss, new story quests, and more things coming to the Premium Set.
- In April, yet another new field is coming, and you can unlock an even higher class level.
- In May, another kind of highly difficult quest is coming. (Ultimate mode?)
- In June, we'll have a 1 year anniversary event.
In addition to these updates, they will continue to update the scratch, improve existing features, and fix bugs like they always do. In the summer, they will introduce yet another new system update, and provide measures to improve the game for starting players.
Oh and Vita players… Guess what you can do!
[via psblog]
The support team will be going on "vacation" from January 1st through January 3rd and won't be able to respond to support tickets until January 4rh, 2013. In addition we will not have maintenance on January 2nd 2013.