Does the game give any explanation of what grinding a weapon actually does to it? Why using grinders increases a weapon's offensive capabilities?

Sorry if I hadn't made it clear, but it was the second paragraph of your post I was aiming for.


I had thought a similar thing myself, but then how does one use a grindstone on a photon blade? This might seem a frivolous and ultimately pointless thing to pursue, but I am genuinely curious as to the nature of the grinders.

Calibrating the actual generators of the photon blade to be more precise/put out more power?

Could you explain how that works with TJS, BKB, etc then Sin? :P /facetious

Grinders are probably just a container term for 'weapon enhancements.' Sharpening and recalibration are probably things that result from this.

Alternatively, as grinding technically is meant to buff your characters level and stats, it also could symbolize using the weapon and getting more proficient with using it.

One point folks haven't touched upon yet, as far as i would believe the actual blade itself is photons and shouldn't be altered directly, so you should look at the physical parts that can be altered. First off the blade is emitted by a power source and a crystal, these grinders would polish the crystal ensuring more of the power source can actually pass through the crystal (nothing refracted or wasted).

If you look at the description of photon crystals/drops/spheres it says they are all crystals (or part of a crystal) so it makes sense that they increase a photon blades accuracy or intensity by modifying the crystal. As for the actual process well thats something else, us lowly hunters can take apart our weapons and polish crystals easily enough, as for the refinement and use of merging crystals/drops/spheres, i guess those are secrets held by paganini and montague and what make them so special as scientists and pso characters (i believe they are actually researching their methods as you play through the story if i'm not mistaken).

And it makes sense that you have to grind some weapons to maximum before modifying their other components, imagine putting in a new power source on a shitty crystal, wouldn't make sense to me, like getting out the shower and putting on your old crusty socks :/

Anyhoo i've been a busy bee lately but will be around more, been helping a friend arrange his 30th birthday party (which is on friday), so i gots maself a couple o disco burgers for the main event.

Very good points raised by the latest posters - I think that's probably as good as we're going to get without official word on the matter.

Thanks a lot, guys.

You just took the words right out of my mouth for Photon-based weapons. As for non Photon-based weapons if the grinder can polish hard crystal, then it can polish the edges of steel and alloy weapons too like Last Survivor or Agito. Also, there are some weapons that look like they're made out of photon crystals like Flowen's Sword. So perhaps grinders themselves are stones/cloth you put on a tool that can be used to sharpen the edge or polish the crystal. Maybe this explains why grinding is more resource intensive in PSO2 which requires you to get someone else to grind your weapons.

These are my two cents about grinders and photon.