Best Mecha Parts?

[Mr. Bear]

If i wanted to purely min/max my mecha, which is the way to go? Thanks.

[Joe Stanley Laserpants]

That would entirely depend on what you what your mecha to do in combat. Do you want lots of health, a greater chance to hit, more special abilities, better healing, a certain finishing move? Picking some of these will exclude the others.

You can't min/max your mech the way you can your squad.

[dq_177]

I'd ask which build and strategy is best for challenge difficulty.

Some combinations are going to be notably more effective than others.

[Sabin Stargem]

I would say that the accuracy headpiece is the best of the helms. Hits turn into greater damage and abilities, after all.

[JSlayerXero]

This is very arguable. Finishing moves are great for the regular fights as they have several smaller health bars. However, if you have the Titan Arm, all damage breaks loose and wrecks them. If you have a high hit-chance, the boost from the combo will absolutely tear through everything. That said, I can't really say there's a "best" way to do it. As somebody who is still trying to beat that final boss without the fans chiming in I can definitely say, that there are some things your regular strategy for most mecha fights just won't help with.

[ImHelping]

Seconding accuracy head as most useful head. I'm sure that even on challenging that's your best bet for heads.

I have a soft spot for the Punch Arm. The one that gives a bigger damage bonus for your combo multiplier. The last upgrade to it makes you start off at 1.2x before you throw your first punch. Combo multiplier applies to your finisher damage, so your finishers will deal more damage after less hits. As well as making your normal hits you did land that much stronger when you inevitably miss that 80-90% chance punch a fourth time in a row in a streak of bad luck.

I like the electrical box chest. Nice amount of Defense, and a nice power to rechagre your finishers or other abilities faster.

The electrical box's power also has a heal on top of the recharge, but let's face it. ALL THE HEAL POWERS ARE USELESS. Oh good you healed 4,000 health after a 3-4 hit combo? Well now as you line up your guards afer using that power, you will take 3-5k damage after a perfect guar, with +70% defense, on Normal.

The only heals of value are the legs types that give you a good chunk of HP on enemy knockdowns (On that note, I'm a fan of the 3rd set of legs. Fully upgraded is +100% health, big heal on knockdown, and clears debuffs on knockdown).

The active "push this button and you get healed" powers just do not keep up with how much damage you take from a single well guarded against hit.

EDIT: Also there are no director goals for mecha fights. Use those finishers as soon and as often as possible when you got them.

While it is much more satisfying to end a fight with a finisher, they will go much more smoothly belting out your finishers every moment they are not on cooldown.

Outside of round 1 and round 2 when you are pretty sure you can get that knockdown without one, or want to better block a super.

[JSlayerXero]

At first I thought the Punch Arm was better, but then I did math. This thing about the Punch Arm is you should treat it as a multiplier. Yes, it increases the base multiplier by up to 1.5 without help of a marketing firm or other bonus. The thing is, technically, because of how multipliers work, you're basically taking 50% of your attack and adding that after your regular combo damage. With the Titan Arm, you get a flat bonus of 65% to your attack power which THEN gets multiplied by the combo bonus. Once you factor in the Dragon Head I don't know which arm is really better, but if you're aiming for harsh hitting, the Titan Arm actually beats out the Punch Arm. The Titan Arm even boosts the damage the finishers do, so unless the +50% combo somehow affects guarding, which it might, then the Titan Arm is generally better. If the Punch Arm does boost guarding, then you have more guarding options to work with.

For the torso, Refresh is good for using a finisher immediately after the last one. This includes any other skills like Flurry Strike or Precision Strike. I will say though, the torso that grants a large defense bonus, when timed right, is really good at negating entire attacks. This includes super-damaging special abilities that hit like absolute beasts.

The Handyman Legs are actually useful when combined with Refresh, as you can use two turns-worth of really good heals. That say, the Armored Legs do grant the largest bonus for health and is second-best for recharging health after an enemy knockdown.

[Sabin Stargem]

Aerodynamic Arm does not feel good to me. Sure, it does guarantee three hits...but those hits do lackluster damage, even after combo multipliers are in effect. Further, it takes three turns for the aerodynamic arm to be available again. That arm is best used to build a higher combo for a different component's powers, but it feels like that it takes too long to cool down.

In any case, I am hoping that more active abilities are introduced for the components that do not have them yet.

[ImHelping]

Originally posted by JSlayerXero:

MATH FACTS

I can't argue AGAINST hit chance or raw attack power over the punch arm, really. I just consider it an alternative, because raw attack power (seemingly) doesn't effect your finishers due to finishers having a flat listed damage. Honestly a low of my assumptions about punch arm are based on the fact we have nothing telling us for certain what the combo multiplier or +Attack effects.

Does raw +attack boost finishers or mecha special attacks? Drill arm lists a separate statistic for mecha finisher damage, after all. At a glance no, but who knows maybe it does!
Is it your combo multiplier that boosts guard? Or your combo count? WHO KNOWS!

Outside of the "Murphys' law" feeling of ensuring your multiplier was as high as possible as fast as ppossible, All I got is some personal comparisons to end result. Same head, torso, and legs in both runs.

My first playthrough, I used punch arm+bazooka arm and the recharge chest for the most part.

My second playthrough, I've been using Bazooka arm+sword arm, and the recharge chest. So that's TWO finishers (that I can have ready again almost instantly, or instantly if my combo goes well), and raw +attack power from the sword arm.

Through either coincidence or design, my run with the punch arm had a much easier time in mech battles than my run dual wielding finishers. My punch arm run, the first I found out about the fan boost was in the final battle. My dual finishers run, I've become well acquainted with that mechanic (though I always finish the fight RIGHT the next turn).

I admit I'm a bit stalled on my second run, rider path at Colin's bear. But, again, I didn't have the slightest trouble with mech battles using my punch arm while my dual finishers run has suddenly been struggling.

It could just be really bad luck? Logically, dual finishers and a higher attack base should kill things much faster than one finisher and a combo multiplier. In fact my season 2 fights, that was in fact the case. But once season 3 hit, things swung the other way for me.

EDIT: Well, I just double checked by moving some parts around and confirmed that +Attack does boost finisher damage. My punch arm run, bazooka had around 9k damage. This run, 13k bazooka with the best sword arm. (+40% attack)... So why the heck am I doing so much worse in my second run?

I even upgraded my torso and legs earlier in my second run than I did the first, but still felt like I was getting my Robutt handed to me in damage by comparison.

[JSlayerXero]

I was always observing what changes the power of the Final Strikes. I noticed that when hovering over the new Sword Arm, it doesn't show an increase, but then I craft it and suddenly it does more damage. I pick a different arm and now the damage is way different. The Final Strikes are all based on a set of multipliers that are applied to your base attack power. Then, the combo bonus applies to that. I'm still working out how defense works. If you guard without getting any combo you gain less Defense than it says you do. You get a huge combo? The defense gain is... pitiful.

From what I recall, Repair II, Wonderwall II, Refresh and Super Shield are all directly based on your Combo count, not combo bonus. Finishers are all based on the combo bonus. You cannot, say, get any less than 5200 Heal from Repair II. However, you gain an additional 5200 health times your combo count. Thus, a 9-hit combo gains 5200 + 46800 = 52000 health. Wonderwall works similarly. While Refresh doesn't heal for much, the ability to cool down your other abilities is what it's really there for.

At the moment, I have no idea the specifics of the Titan Head or the Drill Arm. My guess is the Drill Arm only affects the damage of the Final Strikes, but I have no idea at the moment. I know it doesn't work with either healing or defensive abilities.

For what it's worth, I am working on gathering data on everything. It currently doesn't include the crafting requirements, and it's missing some of the middle-tiers for each part. However, once I'm done collecting data, I will publish a sort of "guide" on the forums so that you can get a good overview of everything, how they actually work, the base Mecha Health, Power, Defense, etc. and some clarity as to what everything does. I will also add my own thoughts and maybe some extended math because I do love me some completely unnecessary math and all :P

Edit: To give my experience, finishers are rubbish in multiples. Fighting without them isn't nearly as flashy, but it will certainly do its job. If you intend to use a finisher, I would recommend having the Electrical Box so that you can simply refresh your existing one. I used the Mega Mecha Arm and the Aerodynamic arm alongside the Electrical Box, Armored Legs and Hunter when I played my first, Interesting run. Furthermore, Finishers run on a set of multipliers. They all hit for around x2 to x3 damage. Chroma Beam at its strongest hits for x3.3 damage. However, it also adds cooldown time to everything else.

Also, if your second run was on a higher difficulty, that will most certainly contribute to getting hurt more.

[Mr. Bear]

Originally posted by JSlayerXero:

Edit: To give my experience, finishers are rubbish in multiples. Fighting without them isn't nearly as flashy, but it will certainly do its job. If you intend to use a finisher,

If you HAD to choose a finisher part, which one would it be? I agree that not using finishers gives you more freedom in customization and optimization. My question, once again, was about pure efficiency and not flashyness.

But if you HAD to add that flashyness, which part would you change to do the job?

[JSlayerXero]

I would ignore the Chroma Beam, because I value my abilities without having to deal with two extra turns of Cool Down. The Bazooka hits for a guaranteed x2.6 damage. However, the Sword Strike can deal anywhere from x2.4 to x3.1 damage. The Sword Arm can hit harder and even comes with an attack bonus, but that bonus can be fulfilled by other arms. The Bazooka randomness, better than a weaker Sword Strike and comes with an accuracy bonus. You can obtain a worse accuracy bonus only by picking the Drill Arm or something without upgrades.

Flurry Strike and Precision Strike both grant guaranteed hits will simultaneously being attached to arms that give the same attack or hit chance the Finisher Arms gives. The Flurry Strike's three attacks only hit for 5% your base attack. As such, they're best when used with an ability that channels your Combo in some way.

Precision Strike is effectively one guaranteed attack. I don't recall what the minimum damage is, but I know the maximum damage your default punches can do is x1.2. Precision Strike always hits for x1.2 damage. While the hit chance on the True Striker is lower than the Precise Puncher, the Precision Strike is a guaranteed hit. In fact, because the Precise Puncher gives only +15% hit chance, it's slightly weaker in terms of guaranteed hits. Counteracting this is that the Precise Puncher requires cooldown. Thus, even with Refresh, you cannot make use of it every turn like you can with the Precise Puncher.

I don't know. Flurry Strike gives you 3 extra hits which combos nice and well with other abilities, but takes longer to recharge that Precision Strike. Precision Strike is effectively a guaranteed hit at maximum damage. While it doesn't hit as many times, it hits harder and has a slightly lower cooldown. When comparing the finishers, one is random, and has a chance to be weaker or stronger. The finisher itself is really a matter of preference. I just would not recommend the Chroma Beam. Its lowest damage is x2.9, which puts it well above the Bazooka, but its max damage is x3.3, which isn't actually that much higher than the Sword Strike. I would recommend picking based more on which arm would you rather switch to something else.

I still haven't tested the Drill Arm. That could be a game-changer that I'm completely unaware of at the moment. Again, once I finish compiling my data on the Mecha I'll probably write a nice long post that gives a nice overview of all the parts and stuff. It won't go into specific bosses or crafting requirements, however. Haven't really been paying too much attention to either one.

[ImHelping]

Bazooka arm at least, has a hit chance bonus on it which can be nice. It also says it can't miss unlike the sword arm, but then I've yet to see the sword arm miss so I can't pitch that as a sale point.

Mostly my usage of the Bazooka Arm was because I wanted a finisher, and was using the chest and other arm for non finisher parts at the time.

As for my own times, I was normal difficulty in each playthrough I've done so far. Considering punch arm isn't an accuracy boost, and I feel like I'm missing more my second run on top of getting hurt more despite having the same hit chances, it could easily just be terrible luck.

EDIT: I wish everything listed it's cooldown. Instead of some of them leaving you guessing.

[Mr. Bear]

Originally posted by I'm Helping!:

Bazooka arm at least, has a hit chance bonus on it which can be nice. It also says it can't miss unlike the sword arm, but then I've yet to see the sword arm miss so I can't pitch that as a sale point.

Mostly my usage of the Bazooka Arm was because I wanted a finisher, and was using the chest and other arm for non finisher parts at the time.

As for my own times, I was normal difficulty in each playthrough I've done so far. Considering punch arm isn't an accuracy boost, and I feel like I'm missing more my second run on top of getting hurt more despite having the same hit chances, it could easily just be terrible luck.

EDIT: I wish everything listed it's cooldown. Instead of some of them leaving you guessing.

I have tested the Chest Finisher and the Sword Finisher. I agree that i have never seen the Sword miss a strike, ever. I haven't tested the Bazooka Finisher yet, so that probably is the flashiest.

In terms of flashyness, the sword is winning, the chest does not have a sound and it looks kinda lame, i expected like a bigger meaner beam of light.

[ImHelping]

Originally posted by DarkOmegaMK2:

Originally posted by I'm Helping!:

Bazooka arm at least, has a hit chance bonus on it which can be nice. It also says it can't miss unlike the sword arm, but then I've yet to see the sword arm miss so I can't pitch that as a sale point.

Mostly my usage of the Bazooka Arm was because I wanted a finisher, and was using the chest and other arm for non finisher parts at the time.

As for my own times, I was normal difficulty in each playthrough I've done so far. Considering punch arm isn't an accuracy boost, and I feel like I'm missing more my second run on top of getting hurt more despite having the same hit chances, it could easily just be terrible luck.

EDIT: I wish everything listed it's cooldown. Instead of some of them leaving you guessing.

I have tested the Chest Finisher and the Sword Finisher. I agree that i have never seen the Sword miss a strike, ever. I haven't tested the Bazooka Finisher yet, so that probably is the flashiest.

In terms of flashyness, the sword is winning, the chest does not have a sound and it looks kinda lame, i expected like a bigger meaner beam of light.

Sadly, the bazooka is the LEAST flashy. Your arm opens up, you point it a them, and the enemy spontaneously explodes.

[JSlayerXero]

The Bazooka isn't flashy. It has a nice dubstep wub every time you fire it, which is why I nicknamed it the Dubstep cannon, but yeah, that's it. As far as I know, the only thing that can actually miss in the mecha fights is your timing for defending, and the default punch. Anything else is a sure-fire hit. Precision Strike's main thing is that it's basically a full-powered regular attack that's a guaranteed hit.