Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis: How to Get PSE Bursts More Efficiently

PSE Bursts are Combat Area Only effects that get you a lot of loot, enemies, xp and silver + golden enemies and bosses, which give more xp and loot themselves by virtue of simply giving a crapton of enemies to fight. Currently this is only possible in Mt. Magnus, Vanford Laboratory Ruins and Resol Forest areas.

PSE Bursts are a great source of meseta, loot, XP, event bonuses, Silver and Golden Primm swords, rare drops… it’s like cracking up a pinata filled with spiders that give you gold once you smash them.

AKA “the names that I use for the stuff I am explaining”.

<E>-MOBS or <E>-AREA

When I talk about <E>-Mobs or <E>-Area, I’ll be referencing the mobs/area that’s around the above E Symbol.

<T>-MOBS or <T>-AREA

Likewise, when I am talking about <T>-Mobs or <T>-Area, I mean the trials that happen on the location shown by the symbol above.

COMMON MOBS
The mobs that are NOT around an <E>-Event. They are the ones that are scattered throughout the map.

TRASH MOBS
Mobs that are easy to kill – the floating DOLLS, the lizards, the wolves

TANKY MOBS
Anything that takes more than 5 seconds to defeat.

PSE BURST BAR or PSE BAR

The thing you are reading this guide for – you want to have this at maximum and I call it “PSE BURST BAR” or, at times, “PSE BAR”. Additionally, as can be seen in the picture, it has a total of 5 levels.

PSE BURST LEVEL 0-5
The bar, as seen above, has 5 Levels. So an Empty PSE Burst Bar is at Level 0, while a full one is at Level 5.

LEVEL UP or LEVEL DOWN
Level Up – Increase the amount of bars in the PSE BURST BAR
Level down – Decrease the amount of bars in the PSE BURST BAR

BURST

The thing that happens at level 5 PSE Burst Bar.

What you are told is that you gotta fill the PSE Burst Bar for the Burst to trigger. But that doesn’t tell you much more than that. I’m here to help clarify this.

WHAT CAUSES THE PSE BURST BAR TO LEVEL UP?

1) Killing <E>-Mobs
2) Killing common mobs
3) Finishing a Trial (quickly)

WHAT CAUSES THE PSE BURST BAR TO LEVEL DOWN?

1) Killing common mobs
2) Taking too long or not performing well enough in a Trial after it is started
3) Starting a <T>-Area with the PSE Bar lower than Level 4

COMMON MOBS – IMBALANCE IN ALL THINGS
As noted above, Common Mobs can cause the PSE Bar to both level up AND level down. Each enemy is secretly assigned one of the 3 following options:
-PSE Bar Level Up (guesstimate: 15%)
-PSE Bar Level Down (guesstimate: 15%)
-Nothing happens (guesstimate: 70%)

So if a person goes to a group of common mobs, they may come out empty handed, or with more level ups, more level downs, etc.

<E>-MOBS AND <E>-AREA – TREACHERY AMIDST TREASURE
So you’re probably saying “Yeah well I just go to the <E>-Mobs then, that’s what the game told me to do, you ass”, right? Unfortunately, it’s more complicated than that.

What the <E>-Area does is create a sort of “Sanctuary” that guarantees no Level Downs by defeating the enemies in the area around the <E>-Icon. In other words, as long as the <E>-Area is active, you will indeed gain level ups for the PSE Bar…

But the moment the <E>-Icon leaves the area, all remaining enemies no longer are under the “<E>-Area Sanctuary” – and that means all of them could level up OR level down the PSE Burst bar.

<T>-MOBS AND <T>-AREA – BEST LEFT FOR LAST
Which leads to the mobs in the Trials. Trials remaing “dormant” until activated by a player.

As far as I know, as long as the trial is cleared quickly enough, the PSE Bar will level up. Additionally, the mobs that are labelled TARGET do not give out Level ups or Level downs for the PSE Bar, to my knowledge.

HOWEVER; one must bear in mind that more often than not, these trials are mingling with common mobs, and those are subject to the normal Level Up/Level down rules stated above.

Additionally, though it needs further testing, I am quite confident that trials level down the PSE Bar over time as long as it is under level 4. I may be wrong in this regard and Trials could be a valid source of Level Ups, but I’d say it’s not worth it – especially because Trials guarantee a Burst once the PSE Bar is at Level 4.

Now that you know all of that information, here’s why you keep getting level downs:

#1 – CONTINUOUS ENGAGEMENT OF ENEMIES ONCE THE <E>-ICON HAS MOVED OVER

This is not straight forward because one would think that the <E>-Icon assigns all the mobs in the area to have positive levels of PSE Burst Increase, but as stated above, that is not the case. Once the <E>-Icon moves away, so should all players.

#2 – GOING TO <T>-AREAS BEFORE HAVING 4 LEVELS OF PSE BAR

Again, I may be wrong here, but it just feels like it goes down like water if the trial is started before the Bar is at less than 4 levels.

#3 – SUCKING AT TRIALS

Yeah, this can happen. Doing particularly bad at a trial can lead to the PSE Bar leveling down.

#4 – KILLING COMMON MOBS WHILE IN A TRIAL

Killing Common Mobs while in a trial still can affect the PSE Burst Bar negatively. However, Killing TARGETs only should not affect the PSE Bar – only completing/failing it should.

So I wrote a lot, and probably a lot of stuff many people don’t care. I get that. So here’s my personal steps on how to cause PSE Bursts to pop more frequently.

1) Go to <E>-Mobs and defeat as many of them as you can. KEEP AN EYE ON THE <E>-ICON – The moment it moves, STOP fighting and move to the new <E>-Area!

2) Keep going until a <T>-Area spawns. If 4 Levels are already achieved, players should keep fighting <E>-Area mobs only (avoiding everything else) until the <T>-Area (Trial) spawns.

3) Once that happens, GO TO THE <T>-AREA IMMEDIATELY and survey the <T>-Area. As long as no common mobs are killed, the PSE Bar should keep at level 4!

4) If it’s just TARGETS and no common mobs, kill all TARGETs/Complete the Trial and if you still have 4 levels of PSE Bar, Burst will happen.

COMPLICATIONS

A) <T>-Area has spawned and we still don’t have 4 bars!
-If this happens, avoid the <T>-Area at all costs. Instead, you will have to take a chance and kill common mobs until you get level 4 again. The best way to do so is to go for Trash Mobs only.

B) The <T>-Area has common mobs!
-This is were things get difficult. If this happens, odds are that common mobs will get in the way of <T>-Enemies and there is a high likelihood for the PSE Bar to level down.
Players should try to focus their attacks on TARGETs only. If that is not possible, however, not all is lost – It is still possible to level up the PSE Bar while the trial is ongoing. As long as you started the Trial with 4 Bars, it is still salvageable, and the PSE Bar will not decrease by itself. Go to other common mobs and repeat the process of Complication A while others keep the Event going. Bear in mind that doing poorly at the Trial also causes the PSE Bar to level down.

If you have a large enough party, you could wipe the common mobs in the <T>-Area while 2 others scatter to offset any level downs caused.

C) There’s a <T>-Event and we have the PSE Bar at level 0!
-In this case, it’s OK to go to the <T>-Event. It might even be good to do so, as there seems to exist a bug that makes a PSE Burst occur right after the Trial is cleared – as if the players have Level 4 PSE Bar already.

TRIAL AFTER BURST
-If you get a Trial right after a Burst, go for it immediately, even if you have Level 0 PSE Bar. Chances are that you will get 2 Bursts in a row due to a strange bug that I can’t explain.

BEST WEAPON?
-I sincerely recommend Wired Lancers for cleaning of trash mobs, or Force with lightning. Even their normal attacks are very helpful, and if you have points spent in their tree, the Weapon Action (Sides) cause a wide AoE of constant damage.

DISCIPLINE AND COMMITMENT
-To make this work, this requires *commitment* from all sources. One player doing their own thing and not respecting the guidelines above can easily throw everything in jeopardy.

TRIAL “LOCK”
-It seems that once a Trial is started at 4 bars, it’s “locked” as a possible trigger for PSE Burst. So if you get a level down during the trial, it is still possible to get a level up from common mobs. Remind yourself that <T>-Mobs do not level down NOR level up the PSE Bar, so it’s best to seek other sources.

INVISIBLE PSE BURST BAR LEVEL UP
-Sometimes it may seem that the PSE Burst Bar has not leveled up at all. If that happens, the PSE Bar is (probably) increasing as normal, but due to some bug or another, it’s not showing as such. Keep following the stratagem and you’ll get a Burst after a Trial, guaranteed

PERFECT PSE BURST RUN
-It is actually possible to do PSE Bursts perfectly one after the other, without Trials appearing too soon.
If, as soon as the players enter a new room (likely with Level 4 PSE Bar), they keep to the strategies shown above, it is unlikely that a trial will appear before level 4 PSE Bar.
I can’t say for sure, but I think that the amount of enemies killed influences when a Trial appears.

This guide was made based on my observations and observations of others. I have followed my own advice and managed to trigger PSE Bursts frequently and without 20-minute slogs of constatn fighting until the stars aligned. Whenever I failed, it had a clear reason – more often than not a friend who wasn’t paying attention to the <E>-Icon or common mobs who were in the <T>-Area and I couldn’t salvage the PSE Bar in time.

There may be still variables to account for. There may be things that I got right due to luck. There may be conflicts in your perception and mine. Again, this wasn’t done by looking at the code, but by performing PSE bursts frequently and studying what other people found out as well. So some stuff may sound wrong.

I do not claim 100% guarantee of PSE Bursts, but I do claim that following my suggestions will likely net you more Bursts.