In Depth: Leoship

Leoship
General Purpose Fighter...

Obtained Where: Chapter 3. Complete the stage's battle mastery.
Fixed Weapons:
- 4-Way Cannon
- Kamikaze Rush
Hardpoints:
- None!
Adjustable Features:
-1 x Powerup Slot (Empty)
-1 x Armor Slot (Empty)
-1 x Shielding (Empty)
-1 x Engine Slot (Empty)
-1 x Computer Slot (Empty)
-1 x Booster Slot (Empty)
-1 x Misc Slot (Empty)
-1 x Consumable Slot (Empty)
-1 x Food Slot (Empty)
Terrain Features: Full Flight.
Piloting Restrictions: None so far.
Notes: 1,500 credits to watch Ray give his life for the cause every level? Worth it. So worth it. It's even a melee attack!
The Leoship runs aground on the great island of "Overshadow" where big beastly Vereins clobber anything that dare try to land ashore and displace their home. I want to like the Leoship even though it seems to be powered by fire extinguishers and it's high speed seems like a possible clincher to throw someone into it.
Then it's pretty low armor class comes up and bites it in the rear. It's only marginally faster than the U.F.O or the AG-01 but both of those can survive combat alot easier.
The Leoship does have some potential on gravity based levels with Emma at the helm as she'll go from relying on a C rank on the ground to a more respectable B rank up in the air but a well armed Verein will still outperform the Leoship damage wise.

In Depth: Tessaract

Tessaract
Modified G.A.C Leisure Cruiser

First Deployed: Chapter 3
Fixed Weapons: None
Hardpoints:
- None!
Adjustable Features:
-1 x Armor Slot (Empty)
-1 x Shielding Slot(Empty)
-1 x Engine Slot (Empty)
-1 x Computer Slot (Empty)
-1 x Booster Slot (Empty)
-1 x Misc Slot (Empty)
-1 x Consumable Slot (Empty)
-1 x Food Slot (Empty)
Terrain Features: Pure speculation. Can't fly in gravity based enviroments due to E rank. I think it might float on water as well which is really freakin' awesome if it does.
Additional Features:
- Mothership. Non mothership units can board for repairs or equipment changing.
Piloting Restrictions: Natalie only.
Notes: It's our loveable mothership! And it's size category is Small!? Wat. Probably a slight mishap in the coding somewhere but size small means the Tesseract is as manuverable as the Vereins and would take the same amount of damage as them.
Also with a size category small it's managing to carry upwards of 10 units ranging from small to medium. Awesome images of it tugging along containers of mobile suits and everyone having to space walk to launch.
Small size aside the Tessaract has no combat capabilities at all but a well equipped Tessaract can be the perfect tank in any situation. Give it some Titanium Alloy and it's hitpoint pool just grows to boss levels.
Other than tanking and mid battle equipment changing the Tessaract can't really do much else but other tactical options include ferrying units around on large maps to help save energy or having a steady supply of cheese lasagna on standby.

Ch 3 Epilogue "Shakugan no Shiina"

Everyone's back aboard the Tessaract, the ship's crew already in the middle of the lengthy process of buffing out the machine cannon hits on the hull. Anderson's still got some work to do so he leaves our guest in the care of Jean and the pilots...oh dear.

The hostage we rescued from the pirates was pretty uncooperative with the medical team that tried to tend to her and was forcibly anethesized for everyone's saftey. She's a unique case with rather flame like hair and eyes...
Going a little off tangent there. Anyway the general anaesthetic has had the adverse case of sending her into some form of shock which has resulted in severe amnesia, she can't remember a thing and can only remember Anderson.

I guess it's up to the commander to see if there's anything that can be done.

If you completed the Battle Mastery for this chapter then the Tessaract crew were able to salvage one of the Leoships from the combat zone and we're given a new unit to mess around with.

On meeting with the girl it seems Natalie is right and the girl has not a clue where she is. Anderson get's her up to speed with what he knows although what little information he can give her helps her remember her name. Shiina.

Back in the pilot lounge the students are regaling Stana with their story on how they came to be all the way out here in the first place which leads to Ray and John clashing heads over Jackie's death.

The timely entrance of Anderson helps shift the subject back onto Stana (And her kickassedness if she was the one who took down the Hellfire). If you got the battle mastery then Jean comes up with a sexy idea for the Leoship.
It's just a shame she can't use frames.

Stana can't join us however, she's got no buisness with Earth. All she wants to do is hunt down the pirates, giving us her backstory and reasoning. Daw. The Task Force don't have the time to aid Stana in her quest but the least we can do is drop her off at the nearest colony. Heck maybe after we're done hunting down the Imaginary Element creetins we can help her out later.

Time for another celebration and that means more food.

Tsukuyomi Task Force? More like Tsukuyomi FAT Force amirite?

After finishing off what we can Idris chimes in with a new contract proposal from an old acquaintence we met earlier on Amatsu. Rey Varista (Not to be confused with RAY Va'shir or Amuro RAY. Sure hope we don't get Eva included in this mess or we're in for more REI.) co-developer of the M.I.V.S operating system is looking for experienced pilots to test a new prototype suit and system.

There's no one more experienced with M.I.V.S than the Task Force and a new experimental unit gets everyone excited.

If you have the Verein Geves upgrade from chapter 2-A then all the girls will gang up rather hillariously on Keeruu as he sugests he get the new unit. Ooooo ICEBURN.

With another detour plotted and the course set Anderson will spend some quality time with Tenea.

Rewards
There is no real reward for completing this chapter unless you achive the battle mastery.
- New unit Leoship

Ch 3 Combat "In Ackbar We Trust"

We're in the combat zone and everyone is launched for this one. Even our luxury culinary cruise ship is in the area ready to provide what support it can but low and behold our suspicions were correct...

Three ships is alot more than we were expecting and they're all well armed as well. Either way that doesn't change the fact that there may still be a hostage onboard one of the vessels and as long as it's just those three capital ships we should be fine.

Then the Tessaract's shields drop, in fact the entire ship is rendered inoperable, it's a complete sitting duck and something's jamming all it's abilities.

Friendly Forces
- Tessaract
--- Natalie
- Everyone else in their unit

Enemy Forces
- Hellfire
--- Stevan
-2 x Armaden
--- Pirate Captains
-9 x Leoship
--- Space Viking

Deployment of your own forces is exactly as picture above. If you have the Geves with you then Keeruu is located right in the middle of the Zaku and the AG-01.

Win Condition
The incoming fighters need to be delt with before we get through to the Hellfire but at the same time we need to keep an eye on Natalie in our ship. The Tessaract however has a massive amount of hitpoints and Natalie has the SP Command Trust which lets her heal a third of any allied unit's maximum hp including her own so she'll be perfectly fine where she is.

Engaging
There's little cover between us and the enemy fleet. There is a large asteroid field stretching in from the north east of the map towards the center but for this battle it's almost entirely ineffectual.

Since the Tessaract is our carrier we can board it and get fully repaired if things get hairy though it'll cost any boarding unit 5 morale and it won't refill our energy or restock our ammunition.

Whilst boarded we can also change over any of the items on our units, this includes weapons, different armor plating or brand new consumables if we use them in the battle. This is where having a good stock of equipment lying around will come in handy.

The Leoships are nippy little fighters that could have been dangerous if they weren't piloted by complete and utter morons who are only able to pull at most a D rank modifer for space which helps throw some of their evasion out of the window and amplifies their already fragile nature. Not even level 8 can save them.

They're equipped with two attacks, a 4-Way Machine Cannon that'll at most tickle your units into submission with a post-movement range of 1-4 . At most the cannons were hitting my well equipped units for a little around 40. One even critted Hotariko for just 38.

The real danger happens when you reduce a Leoship below 1/4 of their maximum hit points which'll enable them to use a kamikaze attack. Kamikaze attacks are a point blank attack which'll take out the Leopship but have a good crit chance with 300 attack power. This can hurt.

It's often better to avoid attacking in your turn if you're not guranteed to kill the unit and to counter attack instead during the Enemy Phase. This way you'll only get a dose of Machine Cannons and not a crazy space viking in your face.

Leoships controlled by AI are lower in level but their Terrain Stat for space is a B, much better than that of the Space Vikings so they're a little more deadly.

The Armadens will be completly ineffectual for this battle so don't worry about them at all.

All the enemy units in this stage drop nothing with melee critical hits so you're not missing out on anything if you stick to range attacks.

Event 1
On enemy phase 2 the two Armaden battleships retreat from the battlezone. Suddenly things are much more easier maybe our show of force might have detered the pirates. Either way now it's just us, the fighter and the Hellfire.

Event 2
Shooting down five of the Leoships will trigger this next event. We're really overpowering the pirates and it seems we're being hailed by the commander of their forces.
Weird, it looks like we're the ones winning here. The real trap is now sprung and the two Amardens that retreated previously have completly flanked the Tessaract from above and below. Each capital ship also deploys 9 more Leoships as well.

Piority switches from offense to defence as Anderson is moved directly next to the Tessaract only for him to get jumped by two more Leoships (Oh god there's hundreds of them). After a brief exchange of gunfire and dirk swinging Stevan reveals that these fighters are being controlled by much better AI and onboard one there is a hostage. Sneaky bastard.

For now you'll be unable to take on the AI Leoships but the ones still piloted by the pirates are fair game. It's up to Rane to find out where the hostage is.
Event 3
As soon as a Leoship targets Anderson the next event will trigger. The Tessaract has picked up another unit closing in, it's pretty small, maybe another fighter? Things just seem to be getting worse.
Reinforcements! Though it isn't officialy on our side contact is established with the new unit and it's assitance requested. It's ANOTHER cute girl in a mecha and it looks like she has a beef with the pirates as well. She drops one of their capital ships in a single shot and Rane locates which of Leoships the hostage is in.

Anderson will grab it and take it onboard the Tessaract and leave everyone else to the clean up of the remaining pirates.
Battle Mastery
The objectives have changed to annhilation now that we've rescued the hostage and the battle mastery makes itself known. All pirate fighters now will make a beeline for the Tessaract and the remaining Armaden will start making a move as well.

The Battle Mastery for this stage is pretty easy and readily obtainable with Emma's mercy around. Chip the Hellfire's health down gradually to a little under 100 and then just sit around waiting for Stana to fly in and pick up the kill.

Depending on how quickly Stana spams her energy draining attacks it may take a few turns of her generating energy to get around shooting the Hellfire down so be patient.

Event 4
Being engaged by the remaining Armaden or attacking it will result in Anderson making a dynamic entry with a new frame mounted on the Zero destroying the capital ship in one shot.

The Hellfire out of options will now either start moving at full speed or engage any nearby targets whilst constantly deploying two Leoships every turn. We're now on the home stretch.

Engaging the Hellfire
It's worth noting that a good portion of your units have some words to say to Stevan when they attack. Anderson, Hotariko, Jean, Ray, Stana and Yohko all have something to say, but Hotariko's is the bestest.

The Hellfire is a large class unit so it's a little easier to dent compared to the Musai but it's also flying around with an S Rank in space and Stevan has counter which means he'll reguarly go first with his counter attacks.

There's no dead zone when it comes to the Hellfire but it's primary anti suit weapons the turret machine cannons have a post-movement range of 1-2, are well stocked with ammunition and pretty accurate.

With a post-movement range of 2-6 the Hellfire also comes with a Laser Cannon which is obviously beam based and as such can rip our Zaku up pretty badly. It is however geared towards anti-ship combat so it's highly inaccurate so engaging from 3 squares and beyond might be much more suitable.

Be careful though, the Hellfire's Laser Cannon critted a defending John for 178. That's a big number.

If you need time to fix up your units again Rane comes in hander with Fetter to buy you a few turns of putting things back together.

Event 5
As the Hellfire is eventually sunk Stevan gives us a good old bad guy monologue before becoming space dust. Everyone's exhausted, but not so much that they can't thank Stana for her timely arrival.

At the very least we can invite her onboard, repair and refuel before she has to go and there seems to be something Natalie wants to discuss with Anderson.

Ch 3 Prologue "They're...Always...Eating..."

A new shipment of Wall Shields, Cheese Lasagna and the rest of the equipment for the ZakuII has arrived. We've switched out the Gattling Maser, put it on the Zaku II and given Ray a Box Machinegun instead so we're very well prepared for the upcoming S.O.S response.

We're still about six hours out but strangely Anderson's decided to call together a quick briefing on what's about to come...

There's little information to go on beyond the coordinates broadcasted with the S.O.S but some new evidence has poked it's head out in the form of a static filled communication signal. Looks like a young lady might have run afoul of pirates in this sector of space. Considering it's been a few days now she may already be in their clutches.

The Task Force are ill equipped for dealing with pirates. Sure we have big massive robots but we lack the ability and training to conduct a boarding action, looks like immobilization of potential enemy threats might be key here.

Infact that's a great idea, if we immobilize any pirate vessels we can steal all their stuff . We're a modern day robin hood crew, if we exchange bows for high power rifles and axes.

Albino Maido has even prepared a folder and information on the expected enemy vessel we'll run into to give us an idea of what sections of the ship to attack. Awesome work. Even better there's going to be one hell of a meal prepared one hour before the sortee. Can't fight on an empty stomach.

With five hours to burn Anderson catches some rest, here comes another freaky dream sequence.

Must've arrived in the shipment though I have to question the lavish nature of the foodstuffs on board. I'm sure it's more detrimental throwing up such an overtly substantial meal all over your cockpit due to a combination of heavy combat and inertia but hey, we're sticking cheese lasagna rations into the cockpit.

Jean's also a big flirt and we've got time for desert. This really can't end well. Anyway it's time to launch and everyone's going out for this one. Better safe than sorry, this could be a trap.

In Depth: E.Y.E

E.Y.E
Fire Support Walking Cannon Fodder...

Obtained Where: Military Market. 8,500
Fixed Weapons:
- Red-Light Cannon
Hardpoints:
- None!
Adjustable Features:
-1 x Armor Slot (Empty)
-1 x Engine Slot (Empty)
-1 x Misc Slot (Empty)
-1 x Consumable Slot (Empty)
-1 x Food Slot (Empty)
Terrain Features: No flight system. No inherrent hover capabilities.
Piloting Restrictions: None so far.
Notes:Eye am not the strongest. The E.Y.E is available the first time you have access to the military market for a pretty hefty cost of 8,500 insert universal currency here so it can be a little difficult to afford as you'll be spending most of the time upgrading the equipment on your more customizable units.
It's comparable to the Verein Zero except that the Zero actually gets customizability a little later on whilst the E.Y.E remains just an E.Y.E.
Lacking a booster slot and any hardpoints the only person who can really take advantage of the unit is Bruno but he remains right at home in a Beam Shooter equipped Verein which is way more cheaper to put together.
The only real advantage the E.Y.E has is it's medium size and it's terrain modification for ground which is a step up from the Verein so it might be a rather silly anti-capship turret.
The single attack the E.Y.E has is the Red-Light Cannon, a range 1-6 beam based attack with 150 attack power. This attack drains 20 energy so without a good solid engine it's going to drain this pretty fast.

Relationships and You 101

Q. "Hey! Hey S.E.R.I.K.A! What are relationships and what are their mechanical benefits?"

A. We've reached a point now where if you've been doing sub missions there's a good chance several of your female pilots will have developed feelings for someone else in your team.

Relationships are similiar or pretty much exactly the same as the original SRW passive friendship and lover bonuses except you need to work for them though that work needn't be difficult, sometimes they'll call upon personal sacrifice.

Relationships will provide a bonus to the characters they involve and are never negatives but are oneway buffs. Character A might think highly of Character B and gain the benefits of relationship but Character B might be indifferent to Character A and receive no benefits. In this example Character B is Character A's focus.

Mechanicswise characters benefit when they're within 2 squares of their relationship focus. A basic rank one relationship will earn that character a tempoary +5 morale for the duration they remain in range. This tempoary morale can exceed a character's limit.

A rank two relationship increases from +5 morale to +8 morale so there might be a morale curve to the ranks. We won't know until much later.

As we all know morale factors into pretty much every single equation performed in this game, from evasion values, accuracy percentage, damage mitigation and maximum damage calculation. Relationships boost EVERYTHING so it's a good idea to keep an eye out for them anywhere you can.


Q. "But S.E.R.I.K.A, how do I tell who's recieving what from a relationship?"

A. I just noticed the relationship's one-wayness during simulator tests and so haven't factored that in so let me just clear that up now.

Where I mention a relationship boost with a character and no one else is mentioned assume it's a one way boost with Anderson as the focus.

Where I mention a relationship boost with two character names and describe it as shared the characters become each other's focus.

Where I mention a relationship boost with two character names and say nothing more on the matter assume that the first character is benifitting and the second character is the focus.


Q. "Why not just use the term 'focus' in all relationship related posts from now on?"

A. Good idea voices inside my vast neural cybernetic cerebrum. It'll make things much more clearer. I'll update the other posts when I get around to scanning for horribly murdered english.


Q. "Any other gnarly benefits from relationships?"

A. The game will call upon a relationship check in certain situations. Sit back and keep an eye out. I'll mention it where I can.


Q. "Last question. What kind of 'relationships' are these? Love? Tell me it's love."

A. I hope so. As that would mean Emma's winning Anderson's affections easily whilst Jean and Natalie could be potential experimenting lesbians. Though they're probably more admiration based and burning hot flames of eternal friendship.

...nobody loves S.E.R.I.K.A