The fan translation efforts have really simplified the process. So basically here’s what you need to do.

1. Go to ARKS Layer and download the english installer here. It’s about 16GB (I have it on USB if anyone near me wants to just copy it)

2. While you’re at it use the torrent here to download the story patch (~2GB’s). Also download the tweaker which you will be using as an alternate launcher.

3. While its downloading you will need to set yourself up with a SEGA ID. There’s a step by step guide on how to do that here. I’d suggest doing it in Chrome because its automatic language translation seems to work better than Firefox and because you can use this handy extension.

4. Once you have your account setup and the game downloaded install the game. It takes up about 20GB so somewhere with a fair amount of space. Do not launch the game when the installer ask you to.

5. Copy the tweaker to your install directory (you dont need to do this but it makes things tidier) and launch it. If any dialogs pop up just keep hitting No for the moment.

6. First things first, click on the orb in the top left corner of the tweaker and chose “Select pso2_bin folder” and make sure its pointing to the right place.

7. Click on the orb again and select “Check for PSO2 updates”, if there are any the tweaker will download and install them. It’ll also check all the files to make sure theyre up to date which can take a little while. Every time the main game updates you need to re-apply all the patches which is why you do this first.

8. Click the orb, click “Install/Update Patches”, select English Patch. It will ask do you want to use a locally downloaded file. Select No, it will download and install the patch (its about 7 MB’s)

9. Click the orb, click “Install/Update Patches”, select English Large Files. It will ask do you want to use a locally downloaded file. Select No, it will download and install the patch (its about 70 MB’s)

10. Click the orb, click “Install/Update Patches”, select English Story Patch. It will ask do you want to use a locally downloaded file. Select Yes, direct it to the story patch you downloaded earlier and let it do its stuff. When its done it will likely say theres an update to the story patch. Let it download and intall that (its usually fairly small).

11. You are now read to rock and can hit “Launch PSO2”. Though first I’d suggest hitting “Remove Censor File” and hitting apply selected changes (dont get excited its just for chat). You may run into some issues with the games GameGuard software. I found turning off my antivirus software and using the tweakers (Orb->Troubleshooting->Fix Gameguard) option fixed the issue. Once you launch the game you can exit, turn back on your antivirus and re-launch.

12. Once in the game follow the instructions to login and create your character. The official unofficial English Ship(Server) is Ship02:UR (and within that Block 20).
13. You can only have one character per account (you can buy more slots with real money). So have a play around with the characer creator. You swap class at will so you dont really need to worry about that. You can save characters youve created and then exit the character creator go back in and reload them.

14. When creating your character it will ask do you have a friend code, a friend code gives both the referrer and the referee a reward every ten levels, as such you should totally use my friend code – 10538519

15. After that you can get playing, I’d recommend a controller as I think it fits the game better but unsurprisingly mouse and keyboard is probably the “superior” option. Oh and let me know so we can team up and I can finally do some of the group missions properly.

Essential Links

As I mentioned above while the English patches translate a fair bit theres still a good amount they dont. For most things googling “pso2 [what I want to find here]” has worked well for me but there are some sites that you will end up going to again and again:

Bumped.org – Best place to keep up to date with PSO2 news and their range of Guides is extensive.

Cirnopedia – English language wiki with item/quest translations

Banjo’s Mag guide – Everything you want to know about Mags

PSO World Forums guide section – Great amount of guides and what seems to be the most active PSO2 english forum. I’d recommend checking out the Official Build Thread it covers the pros and cons of all the races and classes and offers sample builds. I’d actually suggest skimming the race and gender stuff before you lock down your character.

PSO 2 Reddit – What you’d expect

PSO2 Keyboard controls – A list of the default keyboard mappings.