Extra Tools

You should get them somehow, as long as your budget allows you, being available in your respective server, or you have plans to utilize them. All of it can be obtained fairly easily. I can guarantee that they are worth investing in and improve your quality of life.

1) A Katana

Any katana will work for moving around with Asagiri-rendan [Morning Mistreaver], releasing the Katana Gear for extra Critical Strike Chance from Braver Combination, and acting as your backup weapon. Check Ahri’s Guide for her recommendation. Otherwise, reap the benefit of Katana Gear Bonus and turn it into a PP recovery weapon!

2) Buffer Weapons

Grab Eclucio Culte to provide your party with Shifta and Deband. Otherwise, grabbing any all-classes Jet Boots that let you use Strike Gust is also viable. The weapon action of Strike Gust casts a charged Shifta that persists even after switching weapons. Keep in mind that this category may become obsolete due to the existence of Luster subclass and S8:Sky Dance's Boon.

3) Weapon Camo/Skin

The more it resembles an actual IRL bullet bow, the better you can anticipate your charged Normal Attacks. The good looking one also encourages you to play a bit better! Besides, some bow have very long limbs that can obstruct your view during Over-the-shoulder aiming mode. You don't want that, do you?

4) PP Recovery Weapon

Apart from the Gaels weapon lines and Genon Ain, you can convert Atlas Agria Ex, Austere Bougen, and maybe a gunslash or a katana along those series into one. Keep your eyes open for the following SSAs or abilities/augments:

• Spirited Response [Luminous Adaptation] available as S1 and S2.
• Radiating Grace [Luminous Grace] as S3, any variants.
• Phrase Recovery obtained as SAF from certain weapons.
• S4: Radiant Response [Photon V Adaptation]

5) Status Effect Inflictor

If you aren't aura/gleam users with S8:Rainbow's Decay, this is your alternative. Use them against certain bosses to expose its weakness or force them to the down state. Frost weapon series, such as Tohisame [Grinding Hail], or Kosai Hyou [Hollowed Ice Crystals], and Lumigunny; pick one. Don’t forget to put on a Tier V Status Effect on those weapons as well.

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Rings Setup

These invisible accessories can improve or alter your class mechanics. Some of them also provide minor stats and often enough, directly increase your damage output to a degree. PSO2 allows up to 5 rings. The first two are your Left and Right rings on your hands. The other three, however, are slotted Left rings in your 12-13* units.

While there are tons of choices, only a few of them are useful for Bow Braver. However, if there are situations that you can find the rest useful, don’t hesitate to switch them a bit, especially the Left ring.

Also, most should be at +20 for maximum effect and always get R-ATK [RNG PWR] if applicable. They are added directly to your Character Base Stats. Otherwise, DEX is viable, and any DEF will come in handy. If the ring is added to a unit, however, it loses the stat bonus. If you fancy other options, consider checking the tabs below.

Check The tabs below to see the recommendation.

Left Rings

The following are "the must-have". All of them massively improve Bow Braver gameplay.

Bullet Bow Homing [Bow Homing]
The arrows of your charged Normal Attacks receive a 150 degree turn-rate and up to a 1-second timing window to follow a target. It only affects your charged normal attack, and makes dealing with high mobility enemies much easier.

And, NO. This ring is not bugged. At +1, you get 30 degree turn-rate and less than half a second for the arrow to track any enemy. The difference becomes significant once you have grinded the ring to at least +10, and even better at +20. (75 deg. vs 150 deg. at 1-second tracking window). Regardless of your skill, the ring guarantees your arrows would hit something and recover PP, rather than nothing.

Brave Power
It combines the max level effect of L/Bullet Bow Homing and L/Katana Combat Count Up (doubles the amount hits counted toward the damage multiplier of Katana Combat's Combat Finish). Nothing changes at +20, apart from the stats that you choose.

But when you think about it thrice upon the time...

While most Braver players (including me) would suggest you to make them, it's actually ok to ignore it as long as you know what in heck you are doing with bow and katana. The situations where this Braver-exclusive ring can become completely useless are as followed:

• You are a katana main, and all you care is abusing Genon Ain with double Cursed Radiance [Lucent Adversity] and using your high RATK bow solely for its CPA. You never care about bow Normal Attacks, let alone firing one.
• In certain engagements (such as mobbing or fighting stationary targets), you are sure that with Katana Combat activated, you can hit enemies 50 times without the boost from the ring.
• Using bow to fight against extremely large targets, such as Dark Falz Elder or Gommorrath. Your arrows will hit those giants regardless of your aiming proficiency or reasons behind those shots.

Making the rings often guarantees that you are going to have a easier time with bow and katana in most situations. If you know the way, just switch to something else.

Mate Lover [Mate Maniac]
It causes “Mate” items to heal you up to 20% more and quicken the consuming animation, up to 60% faster. This stacks multiplicatively with Quick Mate. If you use Mates item a lot, or you are going BrEt, it’s a great option.

Jumping Dodge [Leaping Dodge]
It grants Jumping Dodge skill that launches you upward, providing a moment of invincibility on launch and allowing the second jump afterward. The cooldown at grind level 1 is 120 seconds, down to 5 seconds at grind level 20.

Compared to regular “double jump” learned at level 40, the main differences are the invincibility frames on launch, the launch speed, input count, and having “moderately higher” jump height. You can live without it, but the opportunity offered by Jumping Dodge is far too good to pass regardless of your class.

Atomizer Lover [Atomizer Fanatic]
It allows you to use “Atomizer” items twice as fast and provide invincibility for the entire animation duration. If that Atomizer can heal you as well, the healing effect increases up to 60%.

These are the alternatives that you can use depending on personal preference or sitations.

Katana Gear Guard R [Katana Focus Guard Release]
It increases Katana Gear accumulation rate by 10%, letting you achieve the maximum Gear faster and extend the duration of the released state duration. Adding to that, the ring lets you release the Gear when maxed () after holding the Katana Guard for 3 seconds.

The only time you would need the ring is to release the Gear at the start of a quest for extra Critical Strike Chance from Braver Combination or you are a Hybrid player. You should be able to cap the value without the bonus. However, if you are using S4:Skilled Balance or ignore Stance Criticals for some reasons, you may find it useful.

Short Combat [Grounded Combat]
It removes the tracking from Katana Combat. You stop chasing enemies during it and get full control of your movement, regardless of the grind level.

Stealth Attack [Stealth Strike]
It reduces your aggro/hate generation by 67%. This means you have to do damage quicker and higher than the other players to maintain the aggro.

Giving up the aggro to other classes grants them more chances to do the damage or hold the enemy still in exchange for your improved survival, space, and time to think. When you are acquainted with Bow Braver, it’s easy to maneuver around bosses for better firing angles. If, for some reasons, you are consistently getting the enemy aggro/hate with Stealth Attack equipped, even with things like Hunter’s Warcry, Gunner’s Showtime or even Victory Shout from Hero, something is probably going very wrong in the raid.

Right Rings

Prioritize these rings over the rest. Due to how Braver functions these days, you cannot ignore it.

C. Strike Shoot [Critical Strike: Ranged]
It grants +20% to your Critical Strike Chance regardless of equipped weapon and 3% more Critical Damage for Ranged Weapon. Simple just that.

C. Strike [Critical Strike]
A compound ring created from 3 Critical Strike rings: Shoot, Strike and Tech, which is a direct upgrade from C. Strike Shoot.

While some might argue that "Perfect Keeper [Perfectionist]; ranged or combined variants" work, it shouldn't take that long to hit level 85 and start reaping the benefit of Braver Combination. Save yourself some resources though! The rest are pretty much obsolete at this point. We don't really that many options compared to the Left rings, do we?

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Crit Happens

We already have 50% Critical Strike Chance from Braver Combination using bow or katana, along with the 5% base chance for 55% value by default. However, there are other things that can help you, besides the skill tree.

Crit. Disabler

The items/abilities below will reduce you Critical Strike Chance, but may give extra benefit from doing so. The SSA called S4:Skilled Balance [Precise Balance] falls here, reducing 50% Critical Strike Chance but increasing Critical Strike Damage by 6%. Be mindful of your gear setup amd subclass if you plan to use it.

Reliable Crit. Enabler:

The following sources permanently and consistently increase your Critical Strike Chance. There may be more…

• Class skills found in Braver (Stance Critical from Weak & Average Stance; up to +25%), Hunter (Fury Critical; up to +25%), Phantom (scales with the level of Critical Stream and your PP; up to 60% at 300 PP), Etoile (the skill JA Critical; up to +50% on Just Attack), and Luster (25% when High Voltage reached and +10 to 25% from Tech Arts JA Multi Bonus).
• S5: Mysterious Purpose [Skillful Adept Will] provides +20% Critical Strike Chance, up to 30 HP recovered on Critical Strike and +2% Critical Strike Damage.
• R/Critical Strike grants +20% Critical Strike Chance. The attack variants must be at grind level 20 for +20% though. R/ Effort Symbol and R/Critical Field also works, but it doesn’t give damage like R./Critical Strike.
• S6:Wise Skill [Skillful Adept] for 13* Rear Unit piece offers +15% Critical Strike Chance.
• S7:Rainbow's Skill for 13* Arm Unit piece offers +30% Critical Strike Chance but requires using ANY aura/gleam in your weapon's S1 slot.
• Liberate weapon series gives +20% Critical Strike Chance as a part of “Liberated Fang” Potential Ability.

Unreliable Crit. Enabler:

The following sources can help capping your Critical Strike Chance at the cost of annoying conditions. Treat them as bonuses, and never account them in your final value of Critical Strike Chance!

• Bouncer’s Critical Field, providing +30% Critical Strike Chance as long as you stay within the origin of it. If that Bouncer learns Field Remain, you get the buff for 10 seconds after leaving the field.
• Techer’s Shifta Critical, giving +20% Critical Strike Chance if you receive the buff from Techer itself. The buff from these selfless support should take priority due to Shifta Advance as well. As long as you can refresh it, it’s pretty good.
• The released state of Katana Gear [Focus], granting +50% Critical Strike Chance. Katana should get it upon gear release in combat, while bow requires learning Braver Combination. Do not die if you are using this, or be mindful of your katana usage.

Depending on your approaches, and try your best to cap it at 100% to maximize the damage from your SSAs. Some may be unfortunate to find themselves having a redundant amount of Critical Strike Chance (~200% for example), but you don’t need to think too much about it for most subclass choices.

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MAG

The General Things

The short answer here is just get the DEX MAG with DEX stat of 200. This is because Braver MAG grants additional S-ATK and R-ATK based on the level of DEX it has. However, if you’ve decided to play other classes, you will lose the stats if Braver is not your subclass.

Many ARKS will recommend katana players to go with 200 S-ATK MAG, bow players to go with 200 R-ATK MAG, and hybrid to go with DEX as usual. With all due respect, pick whatever you want, but DEX remains better for Braver regardless. You can always create a new character and tailor your MAG for other classes, or even buy a new one if you want.

As a side note, DEX does decrease the minimum damage taken from enemies attack, but the effect is subtle compared to stacking HP and DEF from units and affixes. While the stat actually improves the damage variance, Braver always deals Critical Strike, so it has become somewhat irrelevant. At least DEX lets you grab higher tiers of equipment faster though.

What about raising them? Here's how you do it.

Ranged MAG

Dexterity MAG

Feed your MAG with any R-ATK/RNG weapons, mostly the useless ones that you come across. It will give you both R-ATK/RNG and DEX. When the DEX stat is high enough that the next item you feed will increase the level, feed them with 5* rarity furnitures to reduce the DEX stat, while further raising the R-ATK/RNG of your MAG. You can also trade Photon Sphere for Food Device / R-ATK (RNG) Mini to speed up the process.

Feed you MAG with Photon Arts Disc (mostly the discs; any discs and any level), 7* rarity Candy and Sol Atomizer. You can also trade Photon Sphere for Food Device / DEX Mini to speed up the process.

Don’t worry if you accidentally mix R-ATK/RNG with DEX stats, unless you are playing Katana. You won’t get 200 points in each of the stats though. It’s possible to fix it with MAG Stat Down Device somehow.

MAG Settings

For MAG attack actions, pick whatever you want. If it is a Tech-based attack, your MAG can randomly trigger the detonation timer of Banishing Arrow, so be warned. The special action at level 200, however, should be Vulcan [Rapid Fire]. Your MAG will fire at the closest boss and recover 1 PP per shot for you for a fixed duration, which helps in PP sustain.

When it comes to Photon Blast, I would recommend going with Julius Nykta for grouping a huge pack of enemies, or Ketos Proi for HP and PP Recovery. You are immune to everything as long as you hold the Photon Blast skill when it is ready. The rest are useless today...

Julius Nifta [Julius Nifta]	Ketos Proi [Cetus Proi]

What about the support abilities? It’s pretty much up to you. You can follow my JP MAG setting in the equipment example section, or experiment with them yourselves. They do have cooldowns, along with activation conditions, while some are chance-based as well. The abilities come with various effects such as healing, status effect cleansing, invincibility, stat buff and PP recovery.

Most people will just stack HP recovery ones, while some try to balance them or set them up for specific quests such as Endless. Besides, the stat buff seems to be obsolete due to S8:Sky Dance’s Boon [Skydance Support] and Luster Voltage Bonus providing it on-demand.

As a side note, there’s actually one support ability type that is worth mentioning and people only recommend it if you want to maximize your MAG usage. They are “PP Recovery J” and “PP Recovery E” gained from raising your MAG and forcing it into a certain evolutionary path. I recommend checking Airohh’s Summoner Guide in the MAG & Drink section for the details.

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Drinks

It’s a thing that you always take before starting any quests. If you are not a Premium player, then you might have to spend some time to refresh your drink until you get the desired effect. Here is a page in ARKS Visiphone that could tell you all about it.

After another revision, due to the change in both server updates, there are 3 drinks that I can recommend to you. For others, you may have your reasons.

• Random Drink EX has a chance to roll for 20% increased damage while hitting weak points. The roll is gated behind Premium...
• Shifta Drink EX gives a 50% increase in your base attack power, and one additional bonus that worth rerolling for is 10% PP Reduction. Premium or not, it is readily available.
• Photon Drink EX gives +20 PP and, if possible, you may want to be Premium for 2 extra effects: 10% PA Damage and 15% Natural PP Recovery (10% if you are using the regular drink, not the Premium version.) You can roll for PA Damage as non-Premium anyway.

Regardless of situation and your PP amount, take Photon Drink w/ PA Damage. The extra 20 PP extends your PA usage, goes well with bow playstyle and grants further bonuses from S4: Radiant Response.

Otherwise, check the following priority choices to see whether you can use Shifta drink w/ PP Reduction or not. You must be comfortable with your PP amount and management after taking it though.

• Your PP amount is within the range of 250 - 270 PP or higher.
• Your PP amount is within the range of 200 - 250 PP and you must have at least one source of PP reduction from anywhere, be it from your weapon’s Potential Ability or SSA.
• Do not take Shifta Drink if your PP is lower than 200.

Random Drink Ex w/ Weak Point Damage is viable if and only if you know that the enemy you are fighting has tons of weak points. It grants more damage than the other two, especially those that are sitting with 5.5-6k attack stats and having a good amount of PP Efficiency, in exchange for less potent side effects.

For example, here are Arnia’s character stats in the past after taking Shifta Drink and Photon Drink, along with other buffs that I can get and use by myself (Jerky, self-casting Shifta as BrPh, Team ATK Buff Level 8, and max level Rapid Shoot Up).

Shifta Drink	Photon Drink

Damage from both stats is close though. Harder hits and better techs with Shifta Drink. Better PP economy with Photon Drink.

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Food

The concept of food in PSO2 is what you would expect from other games: go find the materials, let’s get cookin’, and magically consume it for a temporary buff. There are various options that you can choose and here are my recommendations that you can get.

Food Name	Effects	Obtain from...
Jerky Thinly sliced dried meat.	+50 HP, +5 PP 30 Minutes	Cooking or buying it from Visiphone.
Meat Stir Fried Robust high-heat cooked meat dish. Aka, a classic Stir-fry.	+100 All-ATK, +50 HP 30 Minutes	Cooking or buying it from Visiphone.
Fish Ration Ready-to-eat meal made with fish and [redacted]. Right...	+30 R-ATK, +3 PP 10 Minutes Multiple use increases duration.	RANGED NPC’s Max Trust Gifts, such as Io, Affin, and Lisa. Repeatable.
Cheesecake Cesty, creamy pastry made with freshly-found ingredients.	+30 R-ATK, +3 PP 5 Minutes	Three Sisters Cake Shop. Appear randomly in the free field [expedition] as E-trail.

The colors in the table show the category of each Food. You can stack the ones from different categories for greater effects in various quests. The baseline is that you will use Jerky for +5 PP for most of the time, and I ignore any food that comes from special collaborations or seasonal snacks. The details about Gathering and the other food that you can try can be found from this link for EN and this link for JP.

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