• When you fail a timed quest, you can move when you return to Pioneer 2, so you have a chance to use the bank and shop or discuss the run with your teammates before you return to the lobby.
• The enemies will freeze when you fail or cancel a timed quest, so they can't kill you anymore before you get sent back to Pioneer 2.
• Some quests that previously had an arbitrary requirement for two players can now be completed solo.
• Some quests that previously required four players to access bonus rooms now require only two players.
• Tollaw and Mericarol EXP values have been fixed in Ultimate.
• Ultimate Baranz missile damage has been fixed: missiles now deal 80 damage in Episode I and 70 damage in Episode II, so you no longer get "punished" for getting more HP, and weak classes no longer get instantly killed by missiles. This makes Mine and VR Spaceship quests significantly less unfair to classes that lack access to Freeze Traps and Frozen Shooter, as a single Baranz no longer means instant death.
• Doors in Ruins quests that open via switches, rather than monsters, have been replaced with switch doors. This makes it easier to tell which doors open from enemies and which doors require switches.
• Episode II quests now have event decorations.

Super Hard mode is a custom difficulty setting I created that serves as an alternative to Ultimate mode. Monsters have more ATP, DFP, and HP, but they also have less ATA, EVP, and ESP. As a result, your attacks are more likely to connect than in Ultimate, but they also do less damage, especially without support Techniques. Special attacks are also more effective, so it's possible to use Arrest and Blizzard against most monsters if you don't have access to Frozen Shooter or Freeze Traps. Enemy resistance is also lower, so Forces can deal respectable damage when nuking.

Super Hard mode also gives your character invincibility frames, so you don't get instantly chained to death by various attacks (Baranz missles, Sinow punches, Recon saw blades, etc.). This makes the game considerably more fair to classes that lack access to Freeze Traps. Various monsters have also had their parameters altered: Megid levels have been adjusted in both episodes, Mericarol/Merikle/Mericus's Megid attacks can now be resisted with EDK, minibosses are now vulnerable to Arrest and Blizzard, and all monsters in Episode II give ~25% more EXP than before to compensate for how much harder Episode II is compared to Episode I.

Some of the enemies are more difficult than they are in Ultimate, while other enemies are easier, so the point of Super Hard mode isn't so much to increase or decrease the game's difficulty as it is to provide you with a different kind of difficulty than usual. You'll find that different weapons and tactics are useful in Super Hard than are useful in Ultimate, so it gives you a chance to play differently than you normally would.

To activate Super Hard mode, simply load a quest in Ultimate mode and talk to the soldier outside the hospital in Episode I or the officer across from the Lab warp in Episode II. The NPC won't let you activate the side quest unless all players are present, so everyone must agree to play Super Hard by approaching the NPC. Additionally, you can only enable Super Hard at the beginning of a quest. If any player leaves Pioneer 2 before you have enabled Super Hard, you won't be able to activate it without loading the quest again.

Quests that support Super Hard mode include:

• Lost HEAT SWORD
• Lost ICE SPINNER
• Lost SOUL BLADE
• Lost HELL PALLASCH
• Resurgent Darkness
• Fragments of a Memory
• Endless Nightmare #1
• Endless Nightmare #2
• Endless Nightmare #3
• Endless Nightmare #4
• Sweep-up Campaign: Alpha
• Sweep-up Campaign: Beta
• Sweep-up Campaign #1
• Sweep-up Campaign #2
• Sweep-up Campaign #3
• Sweep-up Campaign #4
• Shattered Reality: Alpha
• Shattered Reality: Beta
• Phantasmal World #1
• Phantasmal World #2
• Phantasmal World #3
• Phantasmal World #4
• Today's Rate
• The East Tower
• The West Tower
• The Twisted Towers

Since Photon Drops can only be earned through luck, I created a secondary currency using Photon Crystals. You are awarded Photon Crystals upon completing quests in Super Hard mode, which you can then spend in Garon's Shop to buy various services. See the section on Garon's Shop for information on what you can do with Photon Crystals. The Photon Crystal rewards for each quest are listed below.

• 04: Lost HEAT SWORD
• 08: Lost ICE SPINNER
• 08: Lost SOUL BLADE
• 10: Lost HELL PALLASCH
• 12: Resurgent Darkness
• 12: Fragments of a Memory
• 04: Endless Nightmare #1
• 06: Endless Nightmare #2
• 08: Endless Nightmare #3
• 10: Endless Nightmare #4
• 02: Sweep-up Campaign: Alpha
• 03: Sweep-up Campaign: Beta
• 04: Sweep-up Campaign #1
• 04: Sweep-up Campaign #2
• 05: Sweep-up Campaign #3
• 06: Sweep-up Campaign #4
• 04: Shattered Reality: Alpha
• 06: Shattered Reality: Beta
• 08: Phantasmal World #1
• 08: Phantasmal World #2
• 10: Phantasmal World #3
• 12: Phantasmal World #4
• 08: Today's Rate
• 06: Frantic Fauna
• 08: Acrid Aquifer
• 12: Halloween Horror
• 04: The East Tower
• 06: The West Tower
• 08: The Twisted Towers
• 06: Towards the Future
• 12: Prospective Horizons

Garon's Shop has many new features and changes on Altimira. You can read about the various enhancements below.

Garon:

• Garon's menu has been streamlined to make it easier to select whether you want to shop with Meseta or Garon points, and upon buying anything, you'll now return to the buying menu, rather than the main menu.
• You can now hold up to 1000 Garon points, rather than 100.
• You can now buy all seven music discs, and there is also a quantity selector so you can buy multiple of the same disc at once.
• You can now wrap items using the previously hidden red and green wrapping paper after you've unlocked all the other paper types.
• You can now combine 3 Mongrinders into 1 Trigrinder or 3 Digrinders into 2 Trigrinders, in order to save bank space. Each combination costs either 500 Meseta or 2 Garon points.
• You can now buy various tools in exchange for Meseta or Garon points.
• You can now buy and redeem Garon vouchers.
• You can now use the Information option to view how many Garon vouchers you have, as well as how many Lucky Coins you have on each character class.

Garon vouchers allow you to store tools for later use. For 1000 Meseta or 3 Garon points, you can exchange 5 tools for a voucher. You can redeem the voucher later to get your items back whenever you want. You can have up to 200 vouchers for each type of tool, thus storing 1000 of each item without needing mule characters for bank space. Garon vouchers are stored on the server, so you can deposit items on one character and redeem them on a different character, as long as both characters have the same Guild Card number.

The items you can store with Garon vouchers are:

• Power Material
• Mind Material
• Defend Material
• Evade Material
• Luck Material
• HP Material
• TP Material
• Scape Doll
• Monogrinder
• Digrinder
• Trigrinder

The items you can buy are:

• Monogrinder: 50K Meseta or 100 points
• Digrinder: 100K Meseta or 200 points
• Trigrinder: 150K Meseta or 300 points
• Defend Material: 200K Meseta or 400 points
• Evade Material: 250K Meseta or 500 points
• Mind Material: 300K Meseta or 600 points
• Power Material: 350K Meseta or 700 points
• HP Material: 400K Meseta or 800 points
• TP Material: 450K Meseta or 900 points
• Photon Drop: 500K Meseta or 1000 points

Minigames:

• A bug that caused you to need to press the A button 1/4 second early to get a perfect score in the Timing Game is fixed. You can actually use the timer to determine when you should press A now.
• The Garon point payouts for the Button Mashing and Timing Games have been adjusted.
• The Guild Card counting machine has been upgraded into a player statistics machine. You can now view the Guild Cards, playtime (in hours, beats, and months/weeks/days), number of Super Hard kills, and total deaths (since level 1) of every player in the team.
• A "High and Low" Game has been added. This game displays two randomly generated numbers, and you must guess whether the second number will be higher or lower than the first number. If you guess correctly, you earn Garon points.
• A slot machine has been added that allows you to gamble your excess Meseta in exchange for items. As with Coren (the "wandering Tekker") on Blue Burst, you can gamble 1000, 10000, or 100000 Meseta at a time for a chance to receive a prize. Paying more Meseta not only unlocks additional prizes but also raises the odds of winning prizes from the lower item tiers.
• The prizes and rates for Lucky Roulette have been adjusted.
• The RNG for Lucky Roulette has been improved slightly.
• The roulette now spins smoothly and no longer skips past Garon before it starts to slow down.
• A broken particle effect when the roulette stops has been fixed.
• A jukebox has been added next to the bank, so you can change the BGM while you do your shopping.

Paganini (Item Trades):

You no longer need to argue with Paganini to trade your Photon Drops for items. He will show you a list of the items you can buy, instead. The list is sorted into tiers based on how many Photon Drops each item costs. Sega randomised the price of each tier originally, so the prices below are based on the lowest possible cost you could have paid during the arguing "minigame". The tiers are:

• A Rank (95 PDs): Photon Sphere
• B Rank (46 PDs): Magic Rock "Heart Key", Blue-black Stone, Photon Booster
• C Rank (16 PDs): Nei's Claw, Parasitic Cell Type D, Berill Photon, Magic Water, Red Barrier, Blue Barrier, Yellow Barrier
• D Rank (1 PD): AddSlot, Recovery Barrier, Assist Barrier, Decoction ^{Note 1}

In addition, Paganini will no longer take all of your Photon Drops when you make a trade. You only need to pay the cost of the item, so if you want to buy 3 AddSlots, you can now bring 3 Photon Drops and buy multiple AddSlots in one trip.

Note 1: You must have the Decoction Patch in order to buy a Decoction, as the item has no effect without the patch.

Paganini (Regular Weapons):

Paganini now offers the ability to erase a weapon's Photon attribute for 50 Photon Drops. Erasing an existing attribute creates a free slot so you can use Photon Spheres on a different area. The price is fairly steep to avoid making this the best option with every weapon: if you find a Monkey King Bar with undesirable attributes, it's probably more practical to hunt another Monkey King Bar than to erase the existing attributes. On the other hand, if you find a Sealed J-Sword with undesirable attributes, it's much easier to get 50 Photon Drops than it is to get another Sealed J-Sword, so paying to erase an attribute makes sense.

As with the Photon enhancement option, you cannot modify the Hit attribute, and you must complete the Paganini side quest in The West Tower to access this feature.

Paganini (ES/S-Rank Weapons):

• You can change the type of an ES weapon for 10 Photon Drops. For example, if you have a "COOL SABER +50", hiding the type would make the weapon say "COOL +50". You can also reverse the process to make the type visible again, if you so desire. This mechanic was originally available in V2 by selecting the "NO TYPE" option when you beat Challenge mode, but since Sega removed this option in V3, getting ES weapons with the weapon type hidden was previously impossible.
• You can change the name of an ES weapon for 20 Photon Drops. If you've hidden the weapon type, the type will still be hidden after you change the name. The new name is limited to 8 letters using A-Z only, just like ES weapons obtained from Challenge mode.

Neither renaming nor changing the type has any effect on the weapon's grind or special attack. To avoid confusion, adding specials to ES weapons is now called "Enhance ES Weapon", while changing the type and name are under the "Modify ES Weapon" category.

Photon Crystal Shop:

You can purchase various services with Photon Crystals by talking to the receptionist who transports you to Garon. If you have Photon Crystals in your inventory, a new ???? Shop option will appear in the menu. Select this option to transport to the new shop. The available services and their prices are listed below.

• 02: Monogrinder
• 03: Digrinder
• 04: Trigrinder
• 05: Scape Doll
• 10: Photon Drop
• 15: HP Material
• 20: TP Material
• 25: 90000 Meseta
• 40: Weapon Upgrade
• 50: Discount
• 99: Bulk Discount

The first eight options should be self explanatory: you can buy the listed items in exchange for Photon Crystals.

The Discount and Bulk Discount options allow you to buy multiple items in a single transaction for a slightly lower price than if you bought the items individually. The Discount option allows you to buy 15 Trigrinders or 12 Scape Dolls, while the Bulk Discount option allows you to buy 12 Photon Drops, 8 HP Materials, 6 TP Materials, 450000 Meseta, or a Weapon Upgrade.

Remember to have enough space in your inventory before you try to use one of the discount options, as you can't complete the transaction unless you have enough space to hold all of the items you're buying. You can buy multiple items in a single trip if you're carrying enough Photon Crystals. The list of available services automatically scales after each purchase you make based on the number of Photon Crystals you have left, so if an option is still in the list, then that means you still have enough Photon Crystals to buy that service.

The Weapon Upgrade service is based on the upgrade system that Sega added in Blue Burst: if you select this service, you may raise the Hit percentage on a limited set of weapons. A standard upgrade lets you add 5% Hit, while the Bulk Discount upgrade lets you add 15% Hit. Regardless of which option you choose, you cannot upgrade any weapon beyond 50% Hit. Eligible weapons include enemy part weapons, Offline S-Rank/Maximum Attack 3 weapons, Easter Egg weapons, and weapons obtained as quest prizes. The complete list of eligible weapons is available below.

Note that you must play Super Hard mode in order to have access to the Photon Crystal shop.

Hunter's Guild:

You can earn Photon Crystals by selling unwanted rare items to the military officer in the Hunter's Guild. As with the "Team Points" system on Blue Burst, the price you get is based on the number of stars the item has:

• 9 stars: 1 Photon Crystal
• 10 stars: 3 Photon Crystals
• 11 stars: 5 Photon Crystals
• 12 stars: 10 Photon Crystals

Unlike the BB system, you may sell more than just weapons: frames, barriers, and units are also allowed. The rules for selling are:

• You can only sell "rare" (red box) items. Certain regular weapons can reach 9* by having the best special attacks, e.g. Demon's Laser, but you still can't sell them.
• You must identify rare weapons with the Tekker before you can sell them.
• You can't sell ES weapons.
• Certain tools can come in red boxes, e.g. AddSlot, but you can't sell them, as they have no star value.
• You can't sell Mags, as they have no star value.
• The number of rare items you can sell is tied to how frequently you play Super Hard mode.

The purpose of this feature is to give you a reason to keep all of those Dragon Slayers, Cross Scars, and other technically rare items that would normally just get left on the ground or sold for 10 Meseta. Now "junk" rares actually have some utility.

• Quest success is no longer global; each player must enter the boss arena to claim the missing weapon and also talk to Hopkins in order to complete the quest and claim the reward.
• Lost SOUL BLADE: A Warp has been added in the second room of Mine 1 that you can use to enter the cage in the third room if you get locked out.

Lost HELL PALLASCH

This is a Japanese Blue Burst quest that I ported to V3 after Cranberry and I translated it into English. It takes place in Ruins 1-3.

• The hospital music now works correctly after you get sent back to Pioneer 2.
• Ruins 1, 2, and 3 are no longer disabled after you beat Dark Falz. You may return to the areas after the boss fight if you so desire.
• Delsabers can now parry your attacks.
• Doors are no longer visible through walls.
• Dimenian types have been rebalanced. Ruins 3, for instance, previously had no La Dimenians for some reason. Dimenian diversity has been fixed.
• The life signature computer console has been removed from Ruins 3.
• It is now possible to play the entire quest when you have at least two players in the team. If you are alone, you will still play only half of each area. If you have 2-4 players when you load the quest, you will be able to play both halves of each area without needing to set Telepipes to join your teammates. When you reach the end of the first half of each area, you will encounter a warp that will send you to the second half of the area, rather than a teleporter to the next area (as you would in the single player edition of the quest).

  Whether you activate the single player or multiplayer edition of the quest depends solely on how many players are in the team when you load the quest. If your teammates are leaving, but you want to play the whole thing by yourself, simply have them stay while you load the quest, and then once the quest is loaded, they may quit the game or cancel the quest to return to the lobby, and you will still get to play the entire quest. If they leave the team before you load the quest, then you will play the shorter edition. Which half of each area you get to play in the single player edition still depends upon which gem you are (using the original pattern), and you cannot activate the full quest by yourself.

• The time limits have been rebalanced.
• The time limit now scales based on the number of players, rather than the difficulty.
• The extra time banners have been converted into scrolling text messages, so they look nicer and no longer require interaction to dismiss them.
• You will receive invincibility frames in Ultimate mode.
• The battle BGM will now play constantly during each quest, which matches the other timed quests.
• The quest completion music has been fixed to actually play after you clear the final room.
• Each difficulty now gives separate Meseta values, rather than Very Hard and Ultimate sharing the same reward.
• Quest success is no longer global; each player must talk to the soldier to complete the quest prior to claiming the reward.

• These quests now have a "camera button" next to the warp that leads to the final room. If you step on the camera button before you use the warp, you will automatically disable the special camera angle in the final room without needing to use a Telepipe. You'll hear a chime to indicate that you've disabled the special camera angle when you step on the button. If you want to use the special camera angle, simply take the warp without stepping on the button. Now that the special camera angle is optional, Telepipes will no longer reset the camera to normal.
• The quest completion music has been fixed to actually play after you clear the final room.
• Each difficulty now gives separate Meseta values, rather than Very Hard and Ultimate sharing the same reward.
• Quest success is no longer global; each player must talk to the soldier to complete the quest prior to claiming the reward.

Endless Nightmare #3

• Mine 1 doors are now locked, so you actually have to kill the enemies to move from room to room.
• The perpetual darkness in Mine 1 no longer randomly turns off and on as you move from room to room. The quest stays dark constantly as long as you are in rooms with darkness.
• A missing wave of Sinow Beats in the mineshaft room has been enabled.
• A missing flashing crate that made it unnecessary to unlock a laser fence to access a box has been added.

• As with the Endless Nightmare series, these quests now have a "camera button" next to the warp that leads to the final room. If you step on the camera button before you use the warp, you will automatically disable the special camera angle in the final room without needing to use a Telepipe. You'll hear a chime to indicate that you've disabled the special camera angle when you step on the button. If you want to use the special camera angle, simply take the warp without stepping on the button. Now that the special camera angle is optional, Telepipes will no longer reset the camera to normal.
• The Lucky Coin payouts have been increased.

Phantasmal World #3

• Two missing enemy waves in Seabed Upper levels have been enabled.
• The Recons in the final room of Seabed Lower levels no longer spawn in the ceiling.
• You can now use the Barrier Field when playing solo.
• The Barrier Field now lasts 60 seconds, rather than 30 seconds.
• The Barrier Field cost now scales based on the difficult setting. It costs 500, 1000, 2000, or 4000 Meseta to charge the Barrier Field on Normal, Hard, Very Hard, and Ultimate, respectively.
• The Barrier Field now has an optional "Speech Mode". In Speech Mode, you can say the keyword barrier on to activate the Barrier Field. The old method of pressing the X button to activate the Barrier Field is now called Palette Mode. You can change the Barrier Field mode in the Quest Board.

Phantasmal World #4

• You now enter a holding area in Central Control Area after teleporting from Pioneer 2, rather than going straight to the Control Tower. The holding area contains teleporters for both the East and West Towers. This gives you the opportunity to switch weapons before teleporting so as to reduce the odds of getting the Endless Warp bug. The teleporter at the end of the East Tower will also send you back to CCA, rather than directly to the West Tower, so you have the chance to deposit any items you may have found before you risk another crash.
• The Medicine Vending Machine now sells Scape Dolls, and the price rises each time you buy one. The first five Scape Dolls cost 9000, 13500, 20000, 30000, and 45000 Meseta each, and every one after that costs 45000 Meseta.
• Gi Gues are less likey to spam their shields after every hit.
• You can no longer get stuck behind the objects on the tenth floor of the East Tower.

This is a Japanese Blue Burst quest that I ported to V3 after Cranberry and I translated it into English. It takes place in Ruins 1-3.

• The Ruins 1 warp roulette is properly randomised and synchronised between players.
• The quest no longer contains Dimenians exclusively. You'll find Dimenians in Ruins 1, La Dimenians in Ruins 2, and So Dimenians in Ruins 3.
• Delsabers can now parry your attacks.
• The various Meseta rewards have been rebalanced.
• If you run out of time while on Pioneer 2, you will be moved directly to the Hunter's Guild instead of teleporting there by reloading Pioneer 2 unnecessarily.
• Doors are no longer visible through walls.
• A life signature computer console has been added to Ruins 1.
• Ruins 3 ghost durations have been changed. Instead of waiting for 10 seconds and then chasing you for 7 seconds, the ghosts will now wait for 30 seconds and then chase you for 10 seconds. The longer respite period gives you more time for fighting monsters and moving between rooms, especially if you get caught and sent back to the beginning of Ruins 3.
• Being dead no longer causes the ghosts to automatically catch you if you don't have a Scape Doll. The ghosts won't try to chase you anymore until you get revived.
• You can now use Photon Blasts without getting caught by the ghosts. They will still chase you while you're using the summon circle, but they won't chase you while you're watching the actual PB animation. This means you can now perform combos in Ruins 3 without getting caught, and you won't get unfairly caught when you're forced to watch your teammates' PB animations outside of combos.
• The ghosts will behave differently when you activate Super Hard mode: instead of standing still, you must attack to drive them away. This prevents you from having to sit around and get killed in order to avoid getting caught.

• The crate at the start of Seabed Upper levels has been removed, so you can access both the Zoa and Zele routes without needing to use Telepipes.
• An inaccessible Recobox in Seabed Upper levels has been moved, so you can always reach the item it drops.
• Recons in Seabed no longer get stuck on Recoboxes.
• It is now possible to return to Seabed Upper levels from Control Tower.
• Elly is fixed and will now appear correctly if everybody has completed Seat of the Heart on the current difficulty.

• The timer is no longer blank for one second after you enter each area.
• The bright green doors in Cave 3 are fixed.
• The green gem player is no longer within targetting range of Irene at the start of the quest and thus cannot talk to her accidentally anymore.
• The prize system has been rebalanced.

• The timer is no longer blank for one second after you enter each area.
• The bright green door in Seabed Lower levels next to the Control Tower teleporter is fixed.
• Ultimate Gal Gryphon is fixed: you no longer instantly die if you cast Jellen on him.
• You no longer get immediately sent to the Lab after you defeat Olga Flow. As on Blue Burst, you are now sent to the Lab after a delay of 30 seconds.

I've added enough changes to Maximum Attack 1 Ver.2 that I decided to upgrade it to "Ver.3". ;)

• Points now scale by difficulty, so you have an incentive to play the higher difficulties.
• The time limits have been rebalanced. You get 30, 35, and 40 minutes in Normal, Hard, and Very Hard modes, and you get 60, 55, 50, or 45 minutes in Ultimate mode for 1, 2, 3, or 4 players, respectively.
• The timer no longer skips seconds.
• The Forest 2 bridge will now rise after 15 minutes have elapsed, regardless of how much time you started with.
• You can no longer move and attack when talking to the Forest 2 bridge computer.
• The quest will automatically end when you defeat every available enemy solo, so you no longer have to sit and wait for the remaining time to expire.
• The Meseta reward scales based on the number of enemies you kill.
• You will receive 2 extra Lucky Tickets if you defeat every enemy.

I've added enough changes to Maximum Attack 2 Ver.2 that I decided to upgrade it to "Ver.3". ;)

• Points now scale by difficulty, so you have an incentive to play the higher difficulties.
• The time limits have been rebalanced. You get 30, 35, and 40 minutes in Normal, Hard, and Very Hard modes, and you get 60, 55, 50, or 45 minutes in Ultimate mode for 1, 2, 3, or 4 players, respectively.
• The timer no longer skips seconds.
• You can now receive a time bonus when all players reach Central Control Area. If players take different routes to reach CCA, you receive an extra 5 minutes per route (5 minutes when solo, 10 minutes for 2 routes, 15 minutes for 3 routes, 20 minutes for 4 routes).
• The Seabed Upper levels time bonus has been increased to 8 minutes if you clear the enemies quickly enough, while the Control Tower time bonus has been decreased to 2 minutes, as the Seabed bonus room is much more difficult to clear.
• You can resist the Megid attacks of Mericarol, Merikle, and Mericus by increasing your EDK.
• The Meseta reward scales based on the number of enemies you kill.

These quests are adapted from Maximum Attack 4th Stage on Blue Burst and feature completely rewritten dialogue and mechanics. I've adopted the following naming scheme to make it easier to tell which quest is which:

Episode I

• Maximum Attack 3.1a: Cave 2, Mine 2, Ruins 3 (easiest, fewest points)
• Maximum Attack 3.1b: Cave 2, Mine 2, Ruins 3 (harder, more points)
• Maximum Attack 3.1c: Cave 2, Mine 2, Ruins 3, Dark Falz (hardest, most points)

Episode II

• Maximum Attack 3.2a: Central Control Area, Seabed Lower levels (easiest, fewest points)
• Maximum Attack 3.2b: Central Control Area, Seabed Lower levels (harder, more points)
• Maximum Attack 3.2c: Central Control Area, Seabed Lower levels, Control Tower (hardest, most points)

Here are the details:

• The time limit is 30, 35, and 40 minutes in Normal, Hard, and Very Hard modes and 60, 55, 50, or 45 minutes in Ultimate mode for 1, 2, 3, or 4 players, respectively.
• You won't fail the simulation if you die without a Scape Doll; instead, every death reduces the remaining time by 60 seconds.
• Telepipes are not allowed.
• Once you teleport to the next area, you can't return to the previous area.
• You will receive invincibility frames in Ultimate mode.
• Monsters have been repositioned to not spawn in invalid locations that prevent them from dropping items.
• The Recoboxes in Episode II are no longer all empty.
• The Megid attacks of Mericarol, Merikle, Mericus, and Deldepth have been adjusted in Episode II so that you can use EDK to resist them.
• Targetting monsters in the penultimate room of Seabed Lower levels has been fixed.
• After you clear the quest, you are awarded points based on the difficulty setting and the number of kills you got.
• If you defeat every enemy, you receive exta points equivalent to having killed 100 extra monsters.
• If you run out of time, you receive 2/3 credit for the kills you got.
• Points are shared between all 3 quests in a given episode, so you can play whichever one you like.
• Points are shared between your characters, as long as they have the same Guild Card number.
• You receive prizes when you reach certain point milestones in each episode.

Episode II, Stage 3

• The Mericarol in Jungle East is no longer random and will always be a Mericarol, so you no longer have to quit and make a new team when you get a Merikle or a Mericus.
• Mountain Area now has 2 boxes that give a fixed Buster and a fixed Lockgun, since finding Busters is extremely difficult, and Brands are grossly underpowered for the fight with Gal Gryphon.

The Lockgun is mostly for the sake of Rangers, so they are slightly more helpful when fighting Gal Gryphon. Of course these weapons don't have percentages, so you still need to find an A.Beast Buster if you want to defeat Gal Gryphon quickly, but at least this establishes a better baseline for fighting him and reduces the chance of failure when you get bad drops from Gees.

The fixed boxes are behind the rock wall next to the teleporter to Seaside Area. To access them, you have to hit the timer switch in the southeastern corner of the map and then run through the timed fence and saws. The four boxes used to drop 2 random weapons and 2 random frames, but the frame boxes have been replaced with fixed Buster and Lockgun boxes. There are already other boxes that drop frames with 4 slots, so these 2 random frame boxes were never important, anyway.

These are Mop-up Operation-style Extermination quests for Episode II, which I created in 2024. The quests in this series are:

• Sweep-up Campaign: Alpha: VR Temple Beta
• Sweep-up Campaign: Beta: VR Spaceship Beta
• Sweep-up Campaign #1: Jungle Area East
• Sweep-up Campaign #2: Seaside Area (night)
• Sweep-up Campaign #3: Seabed Lower levels
• Sweep-up Campaign #4: Control Tower

Shattered Reality: Alpha and Shattered Reality: Beta are are Endless Nightmare-style Extermination quests for VR Temple and VR Spaceship, respectively. I created them back in 2023.

This is the second quest I created in collaboration with Jodin: he created the Ruins 2 map, while I created the maps for Ruins 1 and 3 and wrote the script. Originally titled Lost HAVOC VULCAN and released in 2006, I reworked it in 2008 after Sega released Lost HELL PALLASCH on PSOBB. I brought the quest to V3 in 2016.

This is the third quest I created and the first I created as a solo developer, back in 2010. It takes place in the Battle mode areas of Spaceship and Palace, which makes it the only quest in Episode I where monsters of different attributes appear together. Since the Battle mode maps weren't meant to be used in freeplay, there are some problems, such as monsters not staying in the rooms where they spawn, but overall the quest works quite well and is probably the most popular one I've made. I brought the quest to V3 in 2016. If you know the right people, you can also unlock an extra challenge...

This quest has the distinction of being the first quest with custom monster spawns ever created, and it's also a case study in why you probably shouldn't let teenagers make quests: it has too many monsters, annoying Megid traps, and juvenile dialogue, but it's also a small piece of PSO history. I created it in 2005 in collaboration with Jodin: he made the Mine 2 map, while I made the Mine 1 map and wrote the script. I brought the quest to V3 in 2015. The quest is available on Altimira every December. You can also get various Mag items through a certain side quest...

This is the second event quest I created, back in 2011. It takes place in Forest 1 and 2, and your mission is to battle speedy monsters that have been enraged by the radiation from a crashed probe. I brought the quest to V3 in 2021. The quest is available on Altimira in April and June. This quest has multiple side missions which allow you to get various items...

This is the third event quest I created, back in 2012. It takes place in the Ruins, where you'll be chased by terribly spooky ghosts as you fight speedy monsters. If the ghosts catch you, they'll inflict various curses upon your character to impede your progress. I brought the quest to V3 in 2018. The quest is available on Altimira every October. You can get various Mag items if you manage to unlock every door...

This is the fourth event quest I created, back in 2014. It takes place in Cave 1-3, where you'll be battling speedy monsters as you try to secure Pioneer 2's water supply. I brought the quest to V3 in 2018. Unlike the other event quests, this one is not tied to a particular time of year; instead, it's available whenever Frantic Fauna, Halloween Horror, and Christmas Catastrophe are not.

This is the first new Episode II quest I created, back in 2016. An earthquake has triggered a security lockdown on Gal Da Val Island, and you need to retake both the East and West Towers so the Lab can continue its research. This quest serves as a sequel to The East Tower and The West Tower, and as such it's more difficult than those quests, but it's also easier than Phantasmal World #4. Unlike PW4, any class should be able to solo this quest, as long as you're careful and choose your positioning wisely.

This quest contains patches that Ralf and I made for GameCube PSO. If you're on GameCube, Wii, or Wii U, you can use this quest to temporarily apply patches in memory if you can't patch your ISO directly for some reason.

The quest allows you to automatically apply your favorite patches with only a few button presses. The automatic patching system works like so:

1. Use Patch Select to apply the patches you want to use, one by one.
2. Use Save Patches to store a list of these patches on the server, then exit the quest.
3. The next time you want to patch the game, select Load Patches to automatically apply your favorite patches again.

This makes it more convenient to patch your game, since you must re-apply the patches every time you power cycle your console.

This is a Japanese Blue Burst quest that I ported to V3 after Cranberry and I translated it into English. It takes place in the Forest and sees you working once again with Alicia Baz to track down a Rappy's egg.

Unlike the default offline quests, Alicia will revive in the hospital if she dies, instead of causing you to fail the quest. In addition, Alicia has access to Smart Mates^TM in Super Hard mode, which allow her to heal herself during combat if her HP drops below 50%. She also receives 10 seconds of invincibility frames after getting hit.

I released this quest in 2009 as a V2 adaptation of the Episode I Government quests from Blue Burst. Although V3 does support the Government quests, I had already made this one, so I brought it to V3 in 2015. The quest contains unique maps from various Government quests compiled into a single quest that spans Forest 1 - Ruins 3. The map for each area came from the following Government quests:

• Forest 1: 1-3
• Forest 2: 1-2
• Cave 1: 2-1
• Cave 2: 2-2
• Cave 3: 2-3
• Mine 1: 3-1
• Mine 2: 3-2
• Ruins 1: 4-1
• Ruins 2: 4-3
• Ruins 3: 4-4

I created this quest in 2022 as a downloadable training tool for people who want to practice Normal mode speedruns. Simply create a new character, load the quest to select which freeplay maps you want, and then load the quest a second time to begin your run. The quest has the following features:

• Using a level 1 character, you can play from Forest 1 through Dark Falz to see how quickly you can complete an Episode I Any % run.
• You can use randomly generated maps or manually pick the map you want to use for each area to help you better prepare strategies for each map.
• You can see your current total time as you play.
• Splits are handled automatically. You can see your splits at any time in the Quest Board, and you'll receive a summary of your splits for the last area after you complete each boss. Split calculation includes the time spent loading into the next area.
• The timer starts the moment you load into the initial Principal Tyrell conversation, and it stops the moment you press A to activate the teleporter after Dark Falz, as is the custom for freeplay runs.
• As with freeplay, you must activate the pillars in each area and speak with Principal Tyrell after each boss.
• In order to reduce the reliance on RNG that exists in freeplay runs, the quest can give you items before each area. If you use a Force, the quest will automatically give you the most useful drops that you can potentially find in the next area.
• Items are awarded after you speak with Principal Tyrell.
• You won't receive the items if your inventory is full, so you'll need to visit the shop to sell items before you talk with Principal Tyrell to unlock the next area and receive the next set of items.
• The items given represent the best possible scenarios for each area. For example, the quest will give you Angel/Mind before you begin Cave 1. This item can only drop from Nar Lily on Pinkal, Redria, and Whitill. It is up to you whether you want to use every item to simulate an extremely lucky freeplay run or whether you want to discard some of the items to simulate more realistic conditions.
• In order to use this quest effectively, you will need to learn the drop charts for Normal mode to decide which items you want the chance to get. The quest will give you item combinations that you can't get in a real run, because they drop on different Section IDs. If you use every item the quest gives you, you won't be preparing yourself for the conditions of a real freeplay run.
• Item sets for Hunters and Rangers may be added in the future, although Forces are the most important to practice with if you hope to get a good time.

Note that this quest is only intended for use with dummy speedrun characters. Existing characters cannot play the quest, and your new character won't be able to make progress in freeplay after playing the quest, so you should only use it on new characters created specifically for speedrunning. After you complete a run, you can either reset the game to erase your progress or remake your character.

For more information on the rules for eligible runs, see Speedrun.com.

The updated editions of The East Tower and The West Tower include a fix for Gibbles EXP on Ultimate, as well as the ability to play the offline version of Super Hard mode.

The offline edition of The Twisted Towers includes a fix for Gibbles EXP on Ultimate, as well as the ability to play the offline version of Super Hard mode.

I released this quest in 2015 as an adaptation of the Episode II Government quests from Blue Burst. Although V3 does support the Government quests, I had already made Hero & Daughter for Episode I, so it made sense to create a companion quest for Episode II. The quest contains unique maps from various Government quests compiled into a single quest that spans VR Temple Alpha - Seabed Lower levels. The map for each area came from the following Government quests:

• VR Temple Alpha: 5-1
• VR Temple Beta: 5-2
• VR Spaceship Alpha: 6-1
• VR Spaceship Beta: 6-2
• Jungle Area North: 7-1
• Jungle Area East: 7-1
• Mountain Area: 7-2
• Seaside Area: 7-3
• Central Control Area: 7-4
• Seabed Upper levels: 8-1
• Seabed Lower levels: 8-2

Many quests contain special prizes, as well as secret side missions. I've documented the secrets and prize information that people have discovered over the years to ensure that the knowledge isn't lost, but if you're new to PSO, I encourage you to play without reading this information right away. PSO is an old game, and old games tend not to get new secrets added very often, so once you know everything, there won't be any surprises left for you to discover.

If you hate discovering secrets yourself or just can't figure something out, click here to view the list of documented quest prizes and secret side missions.