Phantasy Star Universe -- Still Expanding.

The third content update has hit Phantasy Star Universe. It brings with it five new S rank missions. They've added S rank missions for Mad Creatures, Mizuraki Defense, Demons Above, Valley of Carnage, and Mine Defense. The new S ranks are sort of all over the place, both within the world of the game and what they have to offer. Mizuraki Defense and Valley of Carnage are both in areas that are generally harder than the Unsafe Passage and Fight for Food missions. The later two are the first missions of the game, but on S rank are quite difficult due to the enemies use of the Megid technique. Megid, as any Phantasy Star player knows is an attack that has a high chance of instantly killing the target. The creatures themselves aren't physically that tough in comparison to the Mizuraki Defense and Valley of Carnage creatures, so what should be harder actually comes off as easier. The most important aspect to S rank missions are the rewards. Not in the potential weapons and items you might find in the mission, but in the actual set rewards for earning an S rank score on an S rank mission. You're given a relatively large amount of Meseta. And at this point with A rank weapons and armor costing what they do, Meseta is still very sought after. You're also given a relatively large amount of type points to go towards leveling the advanced types. It takes an awful lot of type points to level the advanced types. In fact, none of us have reached level two in our advanced types. You're also rewarded with what's called a Photon Shard. Photon Shards can be used in the game as a means of distracting enemies so you're not attacked for a while. But that's not the real value of the Photon Shard. They can be traded in to purchase the best Photon Arts and Skills and Bullets. It takes large amounts of Photon Shards to purchase one of these advanced arts, skills, or bullets. We're talking between seventy-five and ninety-nine for each one. That's a lot of work. Work we're welcoming at this point. Next week will see an update further adding content. Reportedly a new online mission in the story, and some more S rank missions.