A.I.S. (ARKS Interception Silhouette) (PSO2)

A.I.S. Back and front view

The ARKS Interception Silhouette (A.I.S. for short) is a large, mechanized suit developed specifically for the purpose of Mining Base defense. It is equipped with high-powered armaments that can effortlessly cut down Darker forces, but due to the risk of corruption, its use is limited to short bursts or non-Darker battles. The A.I.S. is white in color by default, but will adjust color according to the primary color of the player's outfit or CAST Parts.

Quests

The A.I.S. appears in the following Quests, where it has a time limit:

• Mining Base Defense: Despair
• Mining Base Defense: Demise
• Bonus Quest: Magatsu (Silver)
• Bonus Quest: Magatsu (Gold)
• Wriggling the Ultimate Defense

The A.I.S. appears in the following Quests with indefinite use:

• Annihilator's Purification
• Unleashed Prestige

Mechanics

• In Quests where the A.I.S. has limited use, the A.I.S. can be summoned from a Defense Pad. In Mining Base Defense, the requisite number of Points must be collected to summon an A.I.S. In Bonus Quest: Magatsu (Silver/Gold), the A.I.S. can be summoned up to 99 times. The A.I.S. has a 120 second duration, but will end preemptively if the player dismounts manually or the A.I.S. is defeated. When the A.I.S. is dismounted in these Quests, the player returns to the ground in the state prior to boarding the A.I.S.
• In Quests where the A.I.S. can be used indefinitely, the player automatically starts the Quest in the A.I.S. The player is barred from dismounting the A.I.S. manually. If the A.I.S. runs out of HP, the player is defeated and must wait 5 seconds to respawn.
• The A.I.S. starts with extremely high base HP and 100 PP; the amount of HP scales based on the difficulty.
• The A.I.S. naturally regenerates approximately 15 PP per second.
  • In all quests outside of Unleashed Prestige, this regeneration only happens while on the ground.
• The A.I.S. can receive and qualify for the effects of certain Support Techniques, such as Shifta and Zanverse. They will also receive any auxiliary effects learned by a Techer, such as Shifta Strike.
  • It is possible to buff an A.I.S. in Annihilator's Purification by having a Tech user charge Shifta outside the teleporter, then releasing the charge while entering the teleporter as the countdown hits 0. Doing this will give players three ticks of Shifta in the A.I.S.

Basic Movement

• Analog Stick/Movement Keys: Slide around in the A.I.S. Has a fair movement speed.
• Jump Button: Slowly ascend into the air with your boosters.
• Evade Button: Activates the Boost, propelling you forward at high speed. Costs 15 PP. Can be chained repeatedly.

Basic Attacks

• Solid Vulcan: Basic attack. Fires a salvo of 5 bullets at your foes. Can be held down for automatic fire, or Just Attacked between salvos for increased damage.
  • Each bullet regenerates 6 PP each, for up to 30 PP per salvo.
• Photon Saber: 15 PP. Slash with your Photon Saber. Can be chained up to three times for a combo that ends in a strong final hit.
  • Specifically, the first 2 slashes do approximately 3.75x the damage of one solid vulcan bullet and can hit in a radius, while the final hit does approximately 16x the damage but has a much smaller area of effect.
  • The final hit's animation is a straight downward swing, and usage of the basic Solid Vulcan attack does affect the "combo count".
    • As an example, you can shoot twice with your solid vulcan, then use photon saber for the highest single target damage possible while keeping your PP high.
• Photon Grenade: 55 PP. Fire a payload of 3 rockets from your Solid Vulcan. Deals large damage per rocket; high damage potential if concentrated on a single target. Blast radius on impact. Each rocket homes in on a target if locked on.
  • Each rocket hits for approximately 6x(7x?) the damage of one solid vulcan bullet.
• Photon Rush: 70 PP. Dash forward with your Photon Saber and slash around you. Deals outstanding damage. Final slash hits in a radius.
  • 3 hits total. Each hit does approximately 10x the damage of one solid vulcan bullet. The lunge hits once, while the slash at the end can hit twice.

Skills

The A.I.S. knows the following Skills by default:

• Photon Blaster: Use the Photon Blaster to fire a portable Photon Particle Cannon at enemies. The strongest move in an A.I.S.'s arsenal. Radial mobility is reduced slightly while in use. Has a 120 second cooldown.
  • Each tick of damage deals approximately 24x the damage of one solid vulcan bullet. Maximum of 8(?) ticks of damage on one target.
• Photon Blizzard: Fire a bomb that explodes on impact, inflicting the Freeze status on all enemies in range. Has a 40 second cooldown.

The following Skills only appear in certain Quests:

• High Boost: Appears in Bonus Quest: Magatsu (Silver/Gold), Annihilator's Purification, and Unleashed Prestige. Fire boosters to vault upwards at high speed. Has a 1 second cooldown.
• Weak Blaster: Appears in Bonus Quest: Magatsu (Silver/Gold), Annihilator's Purification, and Unleashed Prestige. Load and fire a bullet from your Solid Vulcan that inflicts Weak Bullet on a target.
• Area Heal: Appears in Bonus Quest: Magatsu (Silver/Gold), Annihilator's Purification, and Unleashed Prestige. Release a healing pulse that restores up to 1/2 of an A.I.S.'s maximum HP to yourself and nearby allies.
• Over Boost: Appears in Unleashed Prestige. Fire boosters to travel forward at high speed. Turning radius is dramatically reduced while in Over Boost. Holding the Jump button enables hovering as normal. Once you have traveled a certain distance, pressing the Photon Saber button will cancel your Over Boost and transition to a powerful slash attack that has long range and very high damage. Can be cancelled normally with any other action. Also stops natural PP regeneration while active.

Skill Rings

The following Skill Rings affect A.I.S. behavior.

L/Wide Area Heal

	JP Name	Description	Materials
128px	L/ワイドエリアヒール	Boosts the effective range of Area Heal.	Lilipa Rock x3 Desert Topaz x1
Ring Level	1-20
Heal Area	300%

L/Quick Blaster

	JP Name	Description	Materials
128px	L/クイックブラスター	Photon Blaster gains increased firing speed, but turning ability is reduced.	Lilipa Rock x3 Quarry Lapis Lazuli x1
Ring Level	1-20
Firing Speed	200%
Turning Speed	-40%

L/Early Rise

	JP Name	Description	Materials
128px	L/アーリィライズ	In Quests where A.I.S. usage is infinite, reduce respawn time if defeated.	Lilipa Rock x3 Desert Topaz x1
Ring Level	1-20
Respawn Time	1 Second

L/Light Armor

	JP Name	Description	Materials
128px	L/ライトアーマー	Reduce the cost of Boost, but increase damage taken.	Lilipa Rock x3 Desert Topaz x1
Ring Level	1-20
PP Use	10
Damage taken	110%

Darker Version

A counterpart version known as A.I.S. Exoda exists and appears in Mining Base Defense: Demise, Necky's Challenge, and Base Defense Training: VR. They are visually similar to A.I.S., but are red and wrapped in Darker webbing, as well as having Darker Cores on various joints. Exoda take magnified damage from normal players, but resist damage from A.I.S., as well as being able to inflict abnormally high damage to player A.I.S. In addition, they will gain an aura that increases their overall strength when an A.I.S. draws near. Their Darker counterparts of the A.I.S.'s weapons are also able to wreak havoc on both A.I.S. and Mining Bases alike.

Trivia

• As with other Ranged weapons, firing your Solid Vulcan at a Mining Base will restore PP as if striking an enemy.
• In Unleashed Prestige, you are able to regenerate PP while airborne as if in idle state. No other Quest with an A.I.S. features this.
• Additional models of the A.I.S. were planned to appear during the development of the Magatsu Emergency Quest. This idea was scrapped.
• The A.I.S. contains additional space in its arms for non-core augments, enabling ARKS to customize it to suit their needs. This is not seen in gameplay.
• The A.I.S. appears in Phantasy Star Online 2: The Animation in Quest 12, where a squadron of A.I.S. sent in by Casra are seen decimating Darkers attacking the Mining Bases, culminating in the fleet combining their Photon Blasters into a giant laser beam. However, they are destroyed when Dark Falz Apprentice Gia appears and annihilates them.