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Overview

Bosses

Guide

This page was last updated for patch Soaring Beyond, 2025/02/28.

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Overview / Mission Logistics / Cumulative Progress Rewards / Weekly Participation / Intensive Battle Ranking Rewards / Phantom Pain Shop

Pain Cage Overview

Phantom Pain Cage (also simply referred to as Pain Cage or PPC) is a game mode where users can battle simulated versions of boss-level enemies found throughout various points in the game. It is unlocked after both reaching Commandant level 35 and completing Normal Story Mission 5-7. PPC is one of the weekly game modes that provide players with Black Cards. PPC also provides the player with a game-mode exclusive currency called Phantom Pain Scars, also known as Scars/Skulls, which players can use in the Pain Cage Shop to obtain rare items such as Harmony Accelerators and Character Inver-Shards.

In this mode, users compete by earning a score based on clear time and average health percent of the deployed team at the end of the battle. Entry in Pain Cage is limited to 3 attempts per day from Monday to Friday, and 9 attempts per day on Saturday and Sunday.

Zones

Phantom Pain Cage is separated into 4 different zones:

• Basic - Available for players below level 54
• Intermediate - Available for players below level 80
• Advanced - For players level 80 and above
• Ultimate - For players that scored at least 1,000,000 cumulative points in a single Advanced PPC week.

Each zone provides more rewards at the cost of harder bosses. The number as well as potential pool of bosses that can be encountered will vary. Commandants under level 54 will be able to battle two bosses per week, whereas Commandants above level 54 will have access to three. Some boss enemies cannot be encountered in this mode unless the Commandant's level is 80 or above (such as Rosetta).

Players who have unlocked Ultimate PPC can choose between Advanced PPC and Ultimate PPC the first time they open the event for the week. Previous week's ranking rewards will also be distributed at this time.

Difficulties

All bosses encountered in Pain Cage have three difficulties:

Difficulty	Standard Max Score	Ultimate Zone Max Score
Knight	62,500	93,000
Chaos	112,500	186,000
Hell	212,500	372,000

Ultimate Zone has an increased max possible score, while Advanced, Intermediate, and Basic share the same max score. Each increase in difficulty will enhance the boss' stats, granting them additional ATK and HP. Subsequent difficulties will also unlock new boss attack patterns. This increase in difficulty is rewarded with double the max possible score as the previous difficulty.

AP Gauge

In Pain Cage, any given Construct will have a limited weekly entry count, denoted by an "AP" gauge. By default, any given character will possess 3 AP at the beginning of each week. Clearing any single difficulty stage will give players the option to save the score and consume 1 AP of the character(s) deployed. AP Gauge will not decrease if the user chooses to discard their score upon stage completion. Players can freely discard their scores until they are satisfied with the score they achieved. Once a character's AP has been exhausted, they will become unusable until a new cycle begins the following week.

Auto Clear

As of Stars Ensnared, the only stage available for Auto Clear is Knight Difficulty. Players that have already cleared Knight difficulty of that specific boss are able to Auto Clear this for 80% of their best score, and consume 1 AP for the used team.

Attempts

In Basic difficulty, players will only need to challenge two bosses, for a total of 6 challenges. Other difficulties come with three bosses, requiring 9 challenges to fully complete for the week.

From Monday to Friday, players are given 3 challenge attempts per day. From Saturday to Sunday, players are given 9 challenge attempts per day. Since players are given 9 challenge attempts per day on Saturday and Sunday, players can finish the entirety of Phantom Pain Cage in one day during the weekend.

Affixes

Each boss comes with affix(es), usually increasing or decreasing their weakness to an element/mechanic. Certain affixes are flavor-text only and provide no benefits, like Shark-speare and Trailblazer. These affixes determine which team is the best to fight against the boss. Since the score is based on clear time, players must utilize these affixes to optimize how fast they can defeat the boss. A boss weak with the Frail / PRes- Debuff benefits heavily from players with an invested Physical team, while another boss with Corrosion / DRes- benefits heavily with a Dark team instead. Players can still clear with a different element's team; however, they might miss out on a high score that contributes to their cumulative progress and/or ranking rewards.

You can view the details on affixes in the Bosses Tab.

Time Limit and Score Calculation

Score Distribution for any stage is split into 3 categories:

• Damage Dealt
• Remaining Time
• Remaining HP

Damage Dealt and Remaining HP account for roughly 50% of the score (with a little variation based on zone), while remaining time accounts for the rest.

All PPC stages come with a 5 min time limit. Players that do not defeat the boss within this time will be booted out of the stage and earn a score based on the damage dealt and remaining HP only. Bosses for Ultimate PPC grant time-based buffs to the player's team, increasing DMG dealt by 50% after one minute, and an additional 50% increase every 30 seconds afterwards.

Intensive Battle

Intensive Battle is a unique zone exclusive to Ultimate PPC, added in Stars Ensnared. It is unlocked when a player reaches a cumulative score of 1,800,000 points in Ultimate PPC for a given week. Each week resets this score requirement; players must reach the threshold again for the week in order to unlock Intensive Battle again. This stage features a single boss that can be challenged with 3 separate teams. Each of the three challenge attempts feature a buffed element. Only the top two highest scoring attempts of the three are counted. Intensive Battle comes with its own rewards based on ranking, but does not include any Black Cards, meaning this stage is not necessary for those aiming to obtain all possible premium currency. However, it does reward extra Phantom Pain Scars, making it a worthwhile challenge for those who can unlock it.

Note: Rewards listed below are the base rewards (1x). With the Global Synchronization plan in place, the in-game rewards will be either double (2x) or triple of the base (3x), depending on the number of patches being combined.
These rewards will remain increased until the Global server has caught up with the CN server.

Cumulative Progress Rewards

Players will earn rewards based on the cumulative score per PPC cycle, resetting every week. Since each stage has a max amount of points, this means that players must score high enough in all the stages in order to obtain all the rewards.

Users who scored at least 1,000,000 points during any given week in Advanced PPC will receive a special permanent badge, Medal of Millions.

UltimateAdvancedIntermediateBasic

Total Score	Rewards
50,000	x6 x3 x2 x3,000
150,000	x6 x1 x24 x5,000
350,000	x8 x1 x2 x10,000
650,000	x12 x1 x20,000 x30
900,000	x4 x20 x20 x6
1,250,000	x6 x1 x1 x30,000
1,500,000	x6 x30 x8
1,750,000	x6 x6 x12 x1
1,800,000	x6 } x16 x1
1,850,000	x1

Total score	Rewards
30,000	x3 x3 x1 x6,000
90,000	x4 x1 x1 x6,000
120,000	x5 x1 x1 x8,000
360,000	x7 x1 x1 x18,000
500,000	x9 x10 x5 x2
700,000	x3 x1 x1 x30,000
900,000	x4 x40,000
1,000,000	x5 x15 x5 x2
1,100,000	x8 x50,000

Total score	Rewards
25,000	x3 x1 x12,000 x6
75,000	x2 x1 x13,000 x6
175,000	x2 x1 x15,000 x6
300,000	x2 x1 x20,000 x5
450,000	x1 x3 x2 x5
625,000	x1 x1 x30,000 x5
800,000	x1 x3 x2 x4

Total score	Rewards
17,500	x3 x1 x12,000 x4
52,500	x1 x1 x13,000 x4
122,500	x1 x1 x15,000 x4
210,000	x1 x1 x20,000 x4
322,500	x1 x3 x2 x3
437,500	x1 x1 x30,000 x3
550,000	x1 x3 x2 x3

Weekly Participation

There are 8 Pain Cage related missions that refresh weekly on the Monday reset. These can be found in the Missions tab in the main menu, of which 6 correspond to participation and 2 correspond to score. These award Black Cards, making these missions high valuable and the main source of currency alongside War Zone.

Mission	Rewards
Clear Phantom Pain Cage for the first time	x40 x4,500
Clear 2 Phantom Pain Cage stages for the first time	x40 x4,500
Clear 3 Phantom Pain Cage stages for the first time	x40 x4,500
Clear 4 Phantom Pain Cage stages for the first time	x50 x4,500
Clear 5 Phantom Pain Cage stages for the first time	x50 x4,500
Clear 6 Phantom Pain Cage stages for the first time	x50 x4,500
Reach 200000 Progress	x65 x4,500
Reach 400000 Progress	x65 x4,500

Intensive Battle Ranking Rewards

Intensive Battle is the only stage with a ranking reward, encouraging players to compete for nameplates and some extra Phantom Pain Scar.

Ranking	Rewards
1% Ranked NO.	x12 x27 x64 x1
1%-5% Ranked NO.	x10 x22 x52 x1
5%-10% Ranked NO.	x8 x18 x42 x1
10%-30% Ranked NO.	x7 x15 x35
30%-50% Ranked NO.	x6 x12 x28
50%-70% Ranked NO.	x6 x10 x24
70%-100% Ranked NO.	x6 x8 x20

Pain Cage Shop

Commandants can use Phantom Pain Scars to purchase Inver-Shards for their currently owned Constructs. Inver-Shards for Constructs that the user has not yet unlocked cannot be purchased. Inver-Shards for Uniframes cannot be purchased in this shop.

The cost for Inver-Shards are as follows:

• B- and A-Rank Construct Inver-Shards: 5 Phantom Pain Scars each for the first 10 purchases; 10 each for the purchases from that point forward.
• S-Rank Construct Inver-Shards: 10 Phantom Pain Scars each for the first 10 purchases; 20 each for the remaining 20.
  • S-Rank Construct Inver-Shards have a total purchase limit of 30; once the player has purchased all 30 Inver-Shards for that Construct, the item becomes out of stock. Further Inver-Shards for that Construct will not be purchasable in this shop.

Players can also purchase Harmony Accelerators for 25 Phantom Pain Scars each. This has no limit, and is used for Weapon Harmony. We recommend prioritizing getting Inver-Shards for characters first due to the expensive cost of Weapon Harmony. Unlocking a Weapon Harmony for a single character requires 25 Harmony Accelerators in total, equivalent to 625 Scars if buying all 25. Unlocking new Evolution nodes, such as SS-Rank (and S5-rank if applicable) usually nets more benefits than Weapon Harmony for a given character.