Star Ocean The Second Story R gives players multiple ways of strengthening their characters and teaching them new specialties. Upon leveling up, each character in your party will earn SP and BP, both being used to further upgrade that character.
Using these points, players are able to upgrade the base stats of the character or have that character learn new specialties to open up various bits of side content. While there is no wrong way to spend these points, there are a few things players can prioritize to get the most out of them.
What Is SP & BP Used For
SP & BP are two different currencies that are earned by each character when they level up. SP is used to improve a character’s IC/Specialty Skills. These are mostly stat-based increases or specialty-focused increases that can all be leveled up ten times.
BP can be used to unlock and improve Combat Skills along with leveling up Special Arts/Spells. Combat Skills are random effects that boost various stats of a character for a short time during battle. Leveling up the Skill will have it trigger more often and have a greater effect. Special Arts and Spells are unlocked by characters as they level up and can be further upgraded to have more of an effect depending on their level.
How Should You Spend SP & BP
The most important use of SP at the beginning of the game is on the Determination and Effort skills. Determination lowers the amount of SP required to level up all other skills, while Effort lowers the amount of XP needed to level up. With so many skills to unlock and a max level of 255 to aim for, both of these skills are incredibly useful early into a playthrough,
BP should be spent to level up all of the spells on a spell-casting character, making every spell a viable option and letting them adapt to what is needed in the moment. While Combat Skills are useful, make sure the right skills are learned by the right characters, as a melee-only character would have no use for a shortened cast time.