General Tips
Combat Mechanics Explained
Press Page Up to toggle between centered (highly recommended) and off-center over-the-shoulder view camera view (default).
Staggers and Knockdowns Explained
Greatly simplified from before, if you shoot an enemy enough you will deplete their down gauge. The first time it empties out they stagger if they are on the ground if they are airbourne their boost is cut and they will drop. The second time the down gauge empties out they will be knocked down briefly. If enough time passes from not taking damage your enemies down gauge will refill, so keep the pressure on them is important if you want to disable them.
As of the Char's Counter Attack update, DP thresholds to stagger and knockdown vary from suit to suit.
There are three levels. Generally bigger suits get higher dp level thresholds (With some exceptions such as small tanks like the G-Bull and Zaku tanks/Gigans which count as level 3).
Level 1 takes 500 DP to stagger then 500 DP to knockdown
Level 2 takes 600 DP to stagger then 600 DP to knockdown.
Level 3 takes 700 DP to stagger then 700 DP to knockdown.
Boost attack melee always knocks down on hit if it is a suit that can be knocked down (Generally those with legs).
Boost melee has a couple special rules regarding DP:
- During a boost attack you take 1.5x more DP.
- If your suit has a shield and you take the option to remove it, you take half DP (As if you guarded the attack with a shield) while wielding a melee weapon
Each weapon has a down point value highlighted in yellow above.
Blocking, crouching, or defending against a ranged beam attack with beam coating decreases down points by half. These stack, so if you have a non-beam coated shield and you block while crouching you take 1/4 the down points compared to being shield-less and standing.
Carrying containers, beacons, and nukes increases incoming down points taken.
Note: Some suits cannot be knocked down, they will be staggered if struck for the right threshold of damage. These suits tend to have high armour and are well suited for trading damage.
Load Capacity
Having extra load capacity grants extra boost capacity (MAX 20%) and damage mitigation (MAX 10%).
Here's how bonus boost gets calculated:
Balance Bonus = (Max Load Capacity - Current Weight) / 5
Then, Boost Duration Bonus = Every +20 Balance is +1% Boost Capacity Bonus
Roughly every +2% boost capacity grants 1% damage reduction.
The picture below is slightly outdated, instead of Balance Bonus there is a % damage reduction bonus displayed.
The weight bar will look like this if your mobile suit is overloaded.
Shields
Blocking reduces the down point damage you take by half.
Shields will only guard hits when you are not attacking unless you have a special internal weapon such as the Gyan Shield Missile or the GM Guard Custom Shield Vulcan.
After you attack, it takes 2 seconds for your shield to be active again.
During weapon switches, your shield will be inactive for as long as it takes to switch weapons. However, swapping to instant switch weapon (Ie. Hand Gatlings/Head or Shield Vulcans) puts you into the guard state instantly.
When a shield is destroyed, it will absorb all the excess damage taken from the last hit. The suit will not take any extra damage. For example, if your shield has 1 HP and you take a 3000 damage beam hit to the shield, your shield will simply be destroyed and your suit will not take the excess 2999 damage.
Note This does not apply to explosive damage such as bazookas. Explosive damage will damage both the shield and suit upon landing a hit.
The Unit 4 Gundam Sniper / Act Zaku Charge Sniper Rifle pierces through shields. If you guard with a beam coated shield you can survive getting one shotted but you will be staggered after taking this hit.
If your shield is destroyed you still have the balance penalty as if you had the shield equipped still. While it is not recommended to remove your shield, certain suits have high enough armor that sacrificing shield protection for more balance makes sense.
Movement
Boost is love. Boost is life. Try not to overheat; the penalty time is 4 seconds + the time it takes to recharge an empty boost gauge. For most suits, that's around 10 seconds of being grounded and vulnerable to bazooka and melee. A suit that arrives to a fight overheated can't do much and is an easy kill. That being said, having a high boosting stat isn't quite the same as being evasive.
Crouching increases your boost recharge, worth considering if you are over heated and behind cover.
Boosting Movement Directional Speed:
Forward = 100% suit speed
Backwards = 80% suit speed
Sideways = 90% suit speed
Forward Diagonal = 92% suit speed
Backward Diagonal = 87% suit speed
You can jump before boosting to gain more height or you can jump while boosting as an evasive maneuver. The former will consume less boost, but make you more vulnerable as a target while the latter consumers more boost, but makes you much harder to hit. Also remember to dodge and weave rather than boosting in a predictable straight line. You can also swap the shift and space keys so that the controls are more intuitive if you are familiar with FPS/TPSs. It's recommended that you disable double tap to boost. The check box at the bottom of the key binding settings enable/disable double tap to boost. Turn it off if it is making you overheat unnecessarily during critical moments.
If you're in a bad situation and need to escape, turning around and boosting forward boost is the fastest way out, but keep in mind that shots to your back get %25 bonus damage.
More often than not, you should boost backward diagonally to retreat. This allows you to dodge enemy fire, return fire, and gain protection from your shield while retreating.
Avoiding Missiles
Generally, the best way to avoid guided missiles is to commit boost and move to the sides. If your suit is fast or if the missiles have low tracking performance, you can even boost forward diagonally. The missiles will attempt to adjust and arc into you, but overshoot you since you are boosting towards them.
If you can identify the type of missiles the opponent is using, you can adjust your evasion accordingly:
Guided Missile Tracking Performance (Best to Worst):
Type-M
Type-N
Type-G, Type-S, Type-W
Type-F
Avoiding Melee
Melee cannot be avoided if your suit is not fast enough. That doesn't mean you can't attempt to bait your opponent into swinging too late/early. Boosting jump (While holding onto boost hold jump) or moving diagonally forwards (Attempt to make them overshoot since melee has start-up) towards your opponent is generally the best choice. Boosting backwards away from the enemy will generally get you killed because you are boosting into their melee hitbox. Be aware that an enemy who misses a melee charge attack is vulnerable so always have a plan to counterattack after you've dodged. Usually this is an easy set up to counter with your own melee charge attack.
Note There is a counter-hit mechanic regarding melee. While boost attacking a suit is considered aerial and will be knocked down if struck by an attack that would normally just stagger the suit (Usually Rockets/Shotguns/Other melee/Charge Beam/Beam Cannon). This is why charging straightforward with melee is usually a bad idea against a suit that packs a weapon that staggers.
Boost attacks cost different amounts of boost depending on the direction you were moving in:
Melee Charge Attack Directional Boost Consumption:
Forward or Forward Diagonal Boost Attack: greatest boost consumption.
Sideways or Backwards Diagonal Boost Attack: moderate boost consumption.
Boosting backwards Boost Attack: half the boost consumption of a Forward attack.
If you've knocked down an enemy and want to do an addition melee charge attack to finish him off, make sure you boost backwards a bit before charging again. Most melee hitboxs have a dead zone immediately in front of the MS from the point where you initiated the charge attack. Charging too close to an opponent will result in you passing over him (Overshoot) and missing.
Lock-on
Why upgrade lock-on on my weapons when I can just upgrade other stats and aim better?
Because other people are using it, and they will have an advantage over you in close range combat.
Lock-on is an aiming aid which helps you pick out targets in the chaos of the battlefield or track evading suits at close range.
Learn to use it effectively
Lock-on is best for circle-strafing your opponents using shotguns or beam guns at close range. This kind of circle-strafing is extremely hard to respond to unless you use lock-on yourself.
Lock-on is also useful in fog, at night, or when there's a lot of smoke on the battlefield.
Lock-on marks your target on the map for all your allies to see.
Do not use lock-on to melee or to fire bazookas. Doing the former will quickly get your disoriented while doing the latter will prevent you from leading your shots properly due to the slow projectile speed of bazookas.
Note that lock-on triggers an audio warning to the target so don't lock-on to anyone you're ambushing.
How much lock-on is enough? It really depends on the weapon.
Too much lock-on will prevent you from leading shots effectively while too little lock-on will make it hard to lead targets at medium to short range.
Recommended Lock-on:
Very short range live ammunition weapons (such as shotguns): as much as possible without sacrificing other stats. Usually around 900 is a good amount.
Beam guns: 800 to 850.
Short to medium range live machine guns: 850 too 900. Generally you should get more lock-on on live ammunition weapons because of the smaller bullet hitbox compared to beams.
Learning to use lock-on to your advantage will make prolonged shoot-outs easier as you mostly have to worry about leading a little to the left or to the right when fighting a very mobile target. Effectively, you only need to make small mouse movements to hit a fast target rather than big mouse movements.
Modules
Popular modules include shield breaker, shooting assistance, quick weapon switch, quick charge, auxiliary ammo, and quick lock-on.
Maps
The start of a match generally splits the team into two groups: fast suits will usually go straight for a base, and everyone else will defend and intercept the enemies assaults. Defense is a great time to get kills and points.
Gameplay Videos
Channel of a good Japanese player: https://www.youtube.com/user/rinko2842/videos
http://www.youtube.com/user/lllsilvialll/videos
Nico Video Streams (Need nico account, may have to favourite the user/join community to view: http://live.nicovideo.jp/search/%E3%82%AC%E3%83%B3%E3%83%80%E3%83%A0%E3%82%AA%E3%83%B3%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4%E3%83%B3?track=niconico_search_keyword
Personal Mobile Suit Statistics
It is useful to know the records, effectiveness, and history of the suits you have used. Which suit is actually your best?
Open profile, second last tab, click desired suit.
Total Matches used Total Base HP damage dealt
Kills Assists
Most red points(Destruction) earned in a single life Total red points earned for this unit
Most green points(Support) earned in a single life Total green points earned for this unit Weekly World Ranking position for this suit Current week's points to claim Ace Status (There can only be one ace designated per suit)
Most yellow points(Objectives) earned in a single life Total yellow points earned for this unit Weekly World Top's Points
Total Score earned for this unit
The #1 World Ranking for a suit gets to claim Ace Status for that suit in the next week after maintenance.
Upgrade Breakpoints
When upgrading certain stats, improvements will only appear when a certain number is met or surpassed. Keep these in mind when upgrading since you can save upgrades for other stats with smart planning.
If you are in between one of the two values you only receive the effect of the lower one.
Ie. You upgraded rate of fire from 1447 to 1450. The stat didn't hit equal to the break-point so your rate of fire in-game is unimproved as if you were still at 1447.
You roll once more from 1450 to 1460, now your weapon fires faster as if you were at 1459.
Rate of fire / 連射速度
Assuming 1 second = 60 FPS
Homing Time
Same rules as above apply. Ie. If your homing was 136 and you upgraded to 149 you're still waiting 22 seconds to home out.
Reload Time
Breakpoint rules do not apply to this table. You will always see some benefit from upgrading.
Formula for reload: (1000 - Reload Value) / 100 = Reload Time in seconds
OUTDATED
Weapons that take advantage of staggers and knockdowns
Taking advantage of these balance mechanics is the key to beating expensive suits. Players usually try stay to in the air to avoid bazooka direct hits and melee(the most common methods to knock down). This makes them vulnerable to weapons which are good at anti-air such as shotguns, beam cannon, charged beam rifles, and magella tops.
These weapons are the most commonly used to stagger or knockdown:
Type-T and Type-D melee weapon charge attack. Attack while boosting to initiate a melee charge. Deals double the damage and is usually impossible to resist. Just as an example, a fully upgraded Type-T melee weapon charge attack will deal 880 damage, requiring a Balance Bonus of +281, which is extremely difficult to achieve without sacrificing the performance of your suit.
Type-F Bazooka, when fully upgraded, will deal 770 damage and require +171 Balance Bonus to resist. This is a relatively high number making it difficult for lower end suits to reach this number. This is part of the reason why it's so popular.
Type-F Zock Charge Beam. Zock is love. Zock is life. Zock is 1100 damage.
Type-F Charge Beam Sniper Rifle. 1600 damage. It will knockdown the enemy if they didn't vaporize from the hit.
135mm or 75mm Type-F Sniper Rifle. Deals 880 damage, high anti-air potential near guaranteed ground stagger potential.
Type-F Charge Beam Rifle. With the recent buffs, this thing has become an anti-air beast, dealing 660 damage.
Type-N or Type-F Shotgun. If you manage to make all the pellets hit, the combined damage of the shotgun is surprisingly high. Enough to stagger or knockdown suits.
It is recommended to max out the damage stat on these weapons when customizing. You can beat expensive suits with cheap suits if you make good use of this mechanic.
Note that mobile suit Passives may modify these balance numbers. The Balance and damage numbers shown here only assume that the weapons are fully upgraded. There are damage reduction modules as well as balance increasing modules to lower the balance requirement.
Common Balance Bonus amounts:
Assuming no traits and max customize damage (Always max damage on your knockdown capable weapons)
Note that crouching doubles your balance bonus. Blocking also doubles your balance bonus. Blocking while crouching quadruples your balance bonus.
+86, immune to semi-auto sniper F if non-beam shooter. Bare necessity so this gun doesn't chain stagger you.
+105, immune to semi-auto Sniper F if Beam shooter 1
+111, immune to non rocket shooter Alex/Kampfer/Dom variants Bazooka F on the ground.
+123, immune to semi-auto Sniper F if Beam shooter 3
+141, immune to 1 GLA S type missile in the air, untraited
+143 immune to semi-auto Sniper F if Beam shooter 5
+168, immune to beam spray M / Shotgun M untraited
+196, immune to non rocket shooter 180mm cannon F / Magella cannon F OR Zeta/Bau Double Wrist Grenade in the air / GM Cannon II Beam cannon F non-beam shooter
+207, immune to 1 GLA S type missile in the air, missile shooter 5
+211, immune to rocket shooter 3 Alex/Kampfer/Dom variants Bazooka F on the ground. Considered "decent balance".
+245, immune to GM Cannon II Beam cannon F, beam shooter 3
+270 immune to beam spray M / Shotgun M spray shooter 5
+270, immune to rocket shooter 5 180mm cannon F / Magella cannon F in the air / GM Cannon II Beam cannon F, beam shooter 5.
Balance past this point is impractical for most suits or seen on melee weapon only suits, you'd be ditching some sort of key weapon(Or you won't have a weapon at all even).
+331, immune to non beam cannon F/charge beam F full charge, at higher beam shooter levels this is unresistable
+331, immune to non combat custom O type weapons if grounded
If you are hit by both GLA missiles simultaneously you will be knocked down. Juke to delay the missiles hitting (Get hit by splash rather than direct hit) if you cannot evade.
Forget about getting enough balance to purely tank the Shiki/MK2/MK2(T) Shotgun, you'd be running a 1 or 0 weapon build. Theoretically possible but not practical at all.
Information Below will be outdated after November 9th update
Make use of this mechanic to win fights without risking yourself and score well.
When a mobile suit takes damage from a single hit or multiple rapid hits (we're talking within the span of 0.1 seconds), it is possible for it to be staggered or knocked down. A stagger is equivalent to a 2 second stun while a knockdown is equivalent to a 5 second stun.
Here's how balance gets calculated:
Balance Bonus = (Max Load Capacity - Current Weight) / 5
Balance vs Fall = 1000 + Balance Bonus
Balance vs Stagger = 300 + Balance Bonus
Note that you use 2x your balance if you blocked an attack with a shield or are crouching (Homing doesn't count). Blocking AND crouching against an attack gives you 4x your current balance against the attack.
In addition, Boost Duration Bonus = Every +20 Balance is +1% Boost Capacity Bonus
You can see from this formula that if your Current Weight > Max Load Capacity, you Balance Bonus will go negative and increase your vulnerability to staggers and knockdowns. Avoid exceeding your Max Load Capacity at all costs. +400 balance, +20% boost bonus is the cap.
Note Max Load Capacity technically isn't the maximum weight you can put on your mobile suit. Rather, it is the maximum weight you can put on your mobile suit without incurring a Boost Duration or Balance Bonus penalty.
When your mobile suit is hit, the game compares the damage taken with your mobile suit's balance.
To figure out how much damage a weapon does, divide the Power by 10. The game won't round up decimal numbers.
If Damage taken >= Balance, then your suit will get knocked down.
If you had enough Balance to resist knockdown, but Damage taken > (1000 + Balance Bonus), then your suit will get staggered instead.
If you are hit while in the air OR are performing a boost attack, you will get knocked down if Damage taken > (300 + Balance Bonus).
Basically, it takes 1001 damage (10010 Power) to knockdown a mobile suit with +0 Balance Bonus.
It takes 301 damage (3010 Power) to stagger a mobile suit with +0 Balance Bonus.
It takes 301 damage (3010 Power) to knockdown an airborne mobile suit with +0 Balance Bonus.