Super Robot Wars: Alpha Gaiden – Mech Guide

While @G does an excellent job of capturing the Xabungle mecha’s scrap-job nature it, unfortunately for them, is also reflected in the series’ unit quality. By and large, Xabungle mechs fill out the rank-and-file “grunt” units, and that entails all that you might expect. These units have low attack power, lack versatile attacks, possess poor stats and Movement, and—look, there’s just not a lot of good things to say about them.

There are decent Xabungle mechs, but the power gap between them and everything else is difficult to overstate. The good units have efficient, mostly ammo-based attacks with respectable damage when compared to your average Mobile Suit. They’re well-rounded, often being capable of dodging, yet with enough Armor to take some unlucky hits.

As for which of these units are decent? I would say the Xabungle itself and Walker Gallier (along with their FA modules), the Iron Gear, and if you slightly stretch the definition of “decent,” the Blackalley. To be perfectly candid, only Walker Gallier deserves consideration as one of @G’s “best” units, while the others are just some degree of viable. Basically, they’re not too hard to use, and they have some above-average qualities.

But then it comes to the other like, 10 Xabungle units, I wouldn’t bother. The single nice thing I can say about them is that they sell at the Bazaar for their full asking price, so you can swap them out free of charge based on what each Scenario calls for. Sadly, this is giving these scrapheaps a bit too much credit. They’re mostly cut from the same cloth; they’re all weak, their max range barely extends beyond 5, and their post-move options tend to suck. You won’t exactly be swapping in Xabungle units that are good in water, for instance. Just get whatever suits a pilot’s stats, Skills, and Spirits.

To anyone out there who personally likes the Gallop or something, and wants to take it to the endgame: Godspeed.

Due to Dancougar being able to separate into four component mechs, the franchise technically has six playable mechs when counting Dancougar itself and the Black Wing—and that increases to 15 when adding in all of their different forms!

Granted, only Dancougar itself is really relevant. The Black Wing is simply too weak to justify a deployment slot despite Alan being an excellent pilot, and while splitting Dancougar up can be strategically useful (see below), it’s not always practical.

One of my favorite mechs and cast of pilots in the genre, Dancougar’s negative reputation in AG largely inspired me to create this guide. This once staple unit of the franchise had a particularly strong showing in the original SRW Alpha, and it was heavily nerfed in AG to compensate.

These nerfs are nearly all-encompassing: weapon power, mech stats, and resource consumption—almost everything is worse. Dancougar is designed as a tanky super and therefore cannot dodge consistently, yet it’s also nowhere near durable enough to take more than three or four hits. To make matters worse, Dancougar needs to build a considerable amount of Will to access many of its weapons, with its final requiring 140 Will for a 3900 power attack with an enormous EN cost. Compare this to something like Raideen’s God Voice, which takes 140 Will and deals 5000 damage, and you can start to understand the raw deal Dancougar was given. This is a mech that wants to enter the fray and become progressively more powerful, but instead it just goes out and dies.

While this assessment is accurate, it’s rather narrow-minded and reflects just how “spoiled” many SRs in SRW are. Without drawbacks, these things tend to rule the roost. Unlike Reals, they don’t need to rely on evasion to survive, they deal more damage per attack, their pilots have huge SP pools, and they’re often able to upgrade their EN to the point where their costs don’t matter.

Dancougar lost some of those advantages, but there were so many to begin with, that it still ends up being a valuable unit overall; it’s just not an “instant win button.” Dancougar takes the most care and thoughtfulness to use to its full potential, but there is a payoff to doing so.

For starters, there’s no getting around the fact that having four pilots is an absolutely unfair advantage. A gaggle of clowns piloting a tin can is often more useful than a single ace pilot, because your most powerful tool in SRW is Spirit commands. Every flaw a mech might have can be addressed through Spirits, and each pilot increases the likelihood of having a way to fix said flaw, and the number of times you can apply said fix. For as persistent as Dancougar’s flaws are, four pilots is still enough to address them while having some SP left over—provided you don’t use SP unnecessarily.

SP management is especially important for Dancougar for these reasons. Let’s compare it to Daitarn 3, one of Alpha Gaiden‘s best SRs. Daitarn 3 has to hit an enemy or risk it surviving and counterattacking it. Let’s say it has a 70% chance to land its finishing blow. Not bad, but far from guaranteed. You might decide using Strike is worth certainly avoiding that damage. If it turns out down the line that your SP use was unnecessary and you find you’re wanting some of it later, the likelihood of that being something that could determine Daitarn 3’s survival or some other map-relevant objective being completed is mitigated by Daitarn 3 being stronger than most units in general. If you can take a lot of hits like Daitarn 3 can, the less important it is for you to land every attack, basically, and thus your SP is less important.

The opposite is true for Dancougar. Any wasted SP can result in an extra attack being taken, and any extra attack on Dancougar is likely to be lethal, because its low buffer for taking hits means it’s more likely to be reached by pure chance. It can’t afford as many “mistakes” as Daitarn 3 can, essentially.

So, what’s the point? Why go through so much extra effort instead of using a unit that doesn’t require such? Well, one of the reasons, as stated, is that Dancougar should still have a surplus of SP compared to most mechs and their pilots. You can, as a player, make decisions that don’t necessarily put Dancougar in harm’s way. Maybe don’t have it move its full movement range or use Accel every turn. Maybe have it deal finishing blows over counterattacks to avoid taking damage while still acquiring Will. You’re not afforded as many fuckups as more reliable mechs, but technically, you should be aiming to reduce your fuckups while playing in general. It’s just good practice.

The other reason to use Dancougar is that it boasts the highest damage potential out of any mech in the game. This gets slightly complicated. Basically, Dancougar and all of its pilots have the Ferocity Skill, which increases attack by 25% at 130 Will. This effectively means that all of its weapons are 25% stronger than usual, and every upgrade to those weapons likewise has 25% more value than usual—technically even more, because all weapon upgrades are shared between Dancougar’s component mechs.

So, at 130 Will or higher, with some degree of weapon upgrades I haven’t mathematically plotted out, Sara, Masato, and Ryo attacking separately, then Shinobu combining to attack with Dancougar’s finisher is technically the most amount of damage possible by “one” mech. Add in three of Dancougar’s pilots having Valor, and the numbers get even bigger. Cool, huh?

…Well, not really. That’s all theoretically true, but pulling this off becomes more and more of a pipe dream as the game increases in difficulty. Having the pilots attack individually without dying from a counterattack will eventually require them to use Spirits, which cuts into Dancougar’s own Spirit pool that you may want to use for its basic survival and general extended boss fighting sessions. It’s rarely ever practical. On a related note, make sure to transform Dancougar’s components before attacking, as the strongest attacks while in their default two forms have different weapon terrain ranks. The Normal forms have a B in Air for their finisher, while the Human forms have an A in both Air and Land.

More practical is just having Dancougar itself deal major damage thanks to Ferocity paying dividends on weapon upgrades, but I can’t overstate just how fucking expensive upgrading those weapons is. I don’t technically know where it ranks, but Dancougar is certainly in the upper echelons of weapon upgrade cost tiers. Yes, you get more from them, but the low base power of its weapons suggests that everything was “balanced” with this in mind. It’s almost as if you’re being denied the exploit, because it requires so much resource commitment that any advantage gained could be made up by distributing it elsewhere.

Yeah, I know. Maybe you thought I was gassing up Dancougar for something big. No, my defense of it isn’t that it’s the best unit in the game; just a good one that has something to offer if you can pay close enough attention to maximize its Will gains while keeping it alive. Even without weapon upgrades, Dancougar’s strength is nothing to scoff at—the problem is getting to use it.

Weapons:

The Big Gun being Dancougar’s only post-move attack (besides its finisher) with more than one range is kind of… fucking terrible? Yeah, I’m not sugarcoating that one. 2300 power as your cap for that niche without upgrades is worse than some Mobile Suits, for god’s sake. At least it doesn’t consume EN… Dancouken’s 2800 power is not a fair trade for one range, 110 Will, and EN, but desperate times call for desperate Dancougars. Good luck getting into range with your 5 Move, because you’ll be forced to rely on it.

Following Dancouken are two mid and long-range attacks that are on the expensive side, but they at least have acceptable power relative to their range. Not too much to talk about. They’re pretty inconvenient, as Dancougar’s frailty keeps it from the frontlines, meaning firing it outside of a counterattack is likely to have Dancougar fall behind. These attacks also risk cutting into your EN for…

The Dancoukougaken is Dancougar’s poo de grâce. Okay, it’s not bad per se. It’s just not strong enough to justify 140 Will and an insane 90 EN. That cost is so high that I initially typed 80, only to double-check and realize I actually lowballed this glutton of an attack. What the hell, man. And for what looks like a mile-long sword, it only actually reaches 1-3 spaces. Granted, that’s the size of a football field as far as Dancougar’s normal post-move weapons are concerned. This attack hurts, for sure, but for all the time and effort it takes? It’s a tough sell. Alpha Gaiden‘s bosses eventually become enormous damage sponges too, so finishers that can be used repeatedly are at a premium—and this ain’t one of ’em.

Parts:

While Parts can do a lot to address Dancougar’s weaknesses, it simply has too many to cover. As such, it’s a particularly good fit for the Haro, as it buffs multiple things at once. The Mobility boost is somewhat wasted on an SR, but with it and using Focus, dodging becomes… possible. The boost to accuracy from Haro might spare you some SP for Strike and Focus. Movement is likewise for Accel—going further into enemy lines might just get you walloped, anyway.

Solar Panels are obvious, given Dancougar’s exorbitant EN consumption. However, for much of the game, it’s unlikely to consistently and repeatedly use its high-power weapons. Until it can, you may be better off using that Part slot for something else and focus on buffing its EN stat. Will-boosting Parts and Armor in general are other fine choices. In the early game, a Beam Coat is perfectly good way of cutting damage received. Later, you will want all the EN you can get.

Brygar and its two alternate forms are the only playable units from this series, so please see below for analysis.

Similar to Dancougar, I’ve seen a lot of people talking unjustified smack about Brygar. The similarity, at least, makes sense; they’re both four-pilot Super Robots that are surprisingly frail and hard to use.

But being hard to use is not the same as not providing value. I swear, you give some people a Super that can’t fly out and face-tank a ton of hits, and those people just break down. Yes, Brygar is a good unit, and if you’re willing to be conscious of its weaknesses, it can provide considerable value to your team.

As stated, on paper, Brygar is excellent. Four pilots for the price of one deployment slot, and it has high-power attacks. “On paper” is also how you might describe its Armor: for a Super Robot, it’s surprisingly lacking in durability. It needs to acquire Will to actually use its full power, so frequent combat is a necessity. Like Dancougar, using Brygar effectively comes down to squaring that circle.

And like Dancougar, it—look, people, it’s not that hard. Don’t send either mech out into hordes it can’t survive. Pay attention to the average damage inflicted by certain enemy types, and make general predictions about how much risk you’re going to take by sending out Brygar across varying distances. Don’t always use its full Movement range. Initiate attacks with Alert applied. You have four pilots, so don’t save every drop of SP for bosses, tempting though that may be. When the time comes for bosses, Brygar’s considerable damage output is appreciated when dealing with some of @G’s greatest obstacles. That’s important: you do get something out of putting effort into Brygar.

Don’t forget to use its alternate forms to move greater distances and increase evasion when needed. If you start your turn with Brygar about to be picked off by enemies, consider transforming into the Bry-Star or Bry-Thunder and using Focus. For this reason, and because you’re often first entering enemy lines as Bry-Star, Mobility is a more relevant stat for Brygar than most Super Robots.

Weapons:

Well, I can’t beat around the bush on this one; Brygar at least does much better than Dancougar in the weapons department. While its strongest post-move weapon with no Will requirement, Bry-Lance, is only 1-3 range, its base power of 3000 is very respectable and often just enough to one-shot M-size or lower units due to Brygar’s size bonus. The Bry-Claw is bizarrely pointless due to its strict inferiority in what’s a classic “retro SRW” design choice.

Brygar’s two finishers are interesting in the sense it even has two. The Bry-Launcher is obviously the more powerful one, but the 200 boost in attack power is often not worth using it over the Bry-Sword due to the latter’s lower EN cost. @G’s later stages and boss fights require a lot of endurance, and you want your EN to last a long while.

Parts:

Armor-boosting goes a long way thanks to Kid’s Prevail Skill multiplying Brygar’s Armor stat. This can really help it stay alive. Solar Panels and Generators are helpful, as always.

To avoid completely repeating myself, virtually everything I mentioned about the Super Dimension Fortress Macross (SDFM) units applies to those from Macross Plus. These units are fast, and able to quickly reach the frontlines and return easily-evaded enemy attacks with efficient, high-crit rate counterattacks. As @G enemies become more dangerous, the ability to reliably ignore damage is worth its weight in gold. These are among the best units in the game.

And Plus provides VFs that may be even better than their SDFM counterparts. Their Fighter forms have a 1-4 post-move attack, letting them stay in that mode instead of transforming into Gerwalks, but their true claim to fame is the Battroid’s Pinpoint Barrier Punch attack. For a mere 110 Will and 15 EN, this 3500 power attack boasts a considerable Crit modifier that frequently makes it effectively a 5250 power move. That is a lot of damage for very little work, and the only reasonable downside to this attack is its single-tile range.

By using the PBP effectively, the Plus units provide extremely practical, significant damage. In contrast to the SDFM VFs, however, those of Plus lack long-range weaponry. As such, it’s not uncommon for them to be surrounded by enemy units they can certainly avoid attacks from, but find themselves unable to counter with their own. Despite their high Movement and missile-based attacks, they are, for all intents and purposes, close-range fighters.

In many Super Robot Wars games, Boss Borot is depicted as more than the butt of jokes, as he is in the Mazinger Z anime series.

Alpha Gaiden is not one of those games. True to form, Boss Borot is clunky, prone to destruction, and awkward to use.

To be fair, Boss Borot is certainly not at his worst in @G and even has some uses. Most important is Borot’s access to a rare Resupply Module, allowing him to recover the EN and Ammo of @G’s many powerful mechs that rely on either. Late into the game, Boss himself learns Daunt, which lowers an enemy pilot’s Will by 10, allowing you to inflict even greater damage and disabling certain powerful enemy mech Abilities and pilot Skills. Of course, Boss can be reassigned to any Mazinger Z or Great Mazinger mech, so this isn’t really a point in Borot’s favor…

Lastly, Boss Borot is capable of dishing out… not pathetic damage thanks to its high base power values and cheap weapon upgrades. However, those weapons’ massive Will requirements, complete lack of Air terrain rank, limited range, and the Boss Borot’s low 5 Movement, as well as its thin defenses, all give you a challenge when it comes to utilizing any positive traits.

Weapons:

Boss Borot is really screwed over by its obscene Will requirements. Until reaching an absurd 140 Will, your only attacks are single-range punches of middling strength and poor accuracy. The final attack’s 3300 power, 1-4 range, and no resource consumption is nothing to scoff at, but that assumes you can even use it.

That goes doubly so when considering how all of Boss Borot’s attacks lack Air terrain ranks, meaning they outright cannot hit flying enemies without the assistance of very rare, high-demand Parts. Giving Boss Borot a Minovsky Craft/Drive means not giving one to much better units who could benefit from it, such as the Xabungle with its Full Power Xabungle attack.

Parts:

Oh, lord. Where to even begin? Boss Borot is very fortunate to have four Part slots, because it has countless things to fix. If you want any hope of using Boss Borot offensively, a Part to allow it flight is a must. A Minovsky Drive also alleviates its poor Movement, but because of the four slots, that might be better off saved for a more compromised unit (i.e., Zamzeed has need of those things, and it has only two Part slots). A Minovsky Craft along with a Booster(s)/Megabooster(s) may be more prudent.

Boss Borot consumes no EN for any attacks, so beam barrier Parts are a nice addition. Will-boosting Parts speak for themselves, but keep in mind that if that +5 or +10 does not get you to 140 Will before the end of a map, they’re basically wasted. If your pilot has Prevail (Boss does), Armor-boosting Parts can really help with survivability. You will want to take a lot of hits in order to build Will, so that’s a significant consideration. If you have extra room, Accuracy-boosting Parts will not go to waste.

Pilots:

Well, for better or worse, everyone other than Sayaka gains Will from being punched in the face and has Prevail, so they all meet the minimum requirement for piloting Boss Borot. The best pilot is probably Kouji, awkwardly enough, as he has Accel and Guard on top of just all-around superior stats.

Boss himself has the terrible Detonate Spirit, relies on Blitz to use Accel, and in general has too many high-cost Spirits that can’t be used in conjunction without consumable Parts. Yeah, Daunt is great, but again, he could use Daunt in any other mech. Boss’s main advantage over Kouji is his three levels of Support, as Support Defend helps the Boss Borot build Will, but that’s assuming enemies even aim for something other than Boss Borot…

If you just want to use the Boss Borot as a Resupply unit and don’t care about its damage output (i.e., you’re sensible), you may as well keep Boss in the background to occasionally use Daunt. With similar logic of avoiding combat, Sayaka and Jun make fine choices too, if you prefer their Spirits. Sayaka has Trust, Bless, Rouse, and Enable, while Jun has Hope.

In my humble opinion, Mazinkaiser stands alone as the best mech in all of Alpha Gaiden (barring “that” certain, special, secret unit…). Yes, this is the peak; there’s nothing the player can get without cheating that is all-around better than Mazinkaiser. The steel devil boasts impressive durability and HP Regen (S), massive power, efficient weapon costs, a solid attack range, above-average Movement, and it looks cool.

Abilities:

HP Regen (S) boosts Mazinkaiser’s already stellar endurance to even greater levels, as it automatically heals 10% of its max HP at the start of every player turn. If I’m being totally fair here, this actually isn’t necessarily a good thing. The amount is too small to matter, with Mazinkaiser’s maximum intrinsic HP giving you just under 1000 HP recovery per turn.

This means that it’s unlikely to contribute to saving you from a killing blow, and in fact, might make them more likely to happen. This is because this Ability pulls any pilot out of the threshold needed to proc Prevail, which would normally be giving Mazinkaiser a huge boost to Armor, evasion, and critical chance. HP Regen (S) is nice when it’s simply topping off your HP, but since Mazinkaiser is a frontline fighter, it’s rarely going to have the breathing room to have that healing pile up. Mazinkaiser’s natural stats and Prevail will still be what keeps it alive, if anything.

As is standard for Mazin mechs, Mazinkaiser has Mazin Power, which boosts all of its attack power by 25% when its pilot has 130 or more Will. As simple as it gets. Mazinkaiser is already super strong, and Mazin Power makes it even stronger.

Weapons:

While Mazinkaiser has an oddly high amount of weapons, it really only needs two of them. Okay, three of them, since Jet Boomerang provides range. Anyway, these are Turbo Smasher Punch (TSP) and Fire Blaster. TSP is a cost-free, 1-4 range weapon with an obscene level of power. For zero effort, Mazinkaiser has an infinitely-usable attack that’s both stronger and wider-range than most other mechs’ finishers. What can you even say? It’s ridiculous.

The Fire Blaster is Mazinkaiser’s proper finisher, and for a paltry amount of EN, it gains a substantial boost in firepower (heh). It’s 1-3 range is already generous, but it’s also surprisingly low-cost, and even more surprisingly, rounds out Mazinkaiser’s weapons having entirely no Will requirements. Yeah, it wasn’t enough to have the most powerful mech in the game; you don’t even have to earn it. Just send Mazinkaiser out and start killing shit.

Parts:

Fire Blaster’s immediate availability does mean you’re liable to quickly run out of EN, despite Mazinkaiser’s rather high EN stat. With so few inherent flaws, Mazinkaiser certainly has the room to equip Parts that increase its EN. Given the room you have, it’s not a bad idea to combine a Generator with a Solar Panel, as the former will increase the amount recovered by the latter. An HPHGCP is better saved for a Super Robot with less sustainable EN costs.

From there, you may as well slap on a Megabooster so it can start engaging enemies earlier. Armor can permit you some extra attacks, but Mazinkaiser under the effects of Prevail is pretty hard to kill if you just use Defend when necessary. It’s a bit redundant, basically.

Pilots:

Who shall get the honor of piloting @G’s greatest machine? While Mazinkaiser is so strong that anyone piloting it is going to kick ass, there are some niche differences between them to consider.

Kouji and Tetsuya are very similar, but Kouji gets the Accel and Flash Spirit commands, while Tetsuya gets Gain and Spirit (Will +10). This basically comes down to whether you want Accel and Flash, or the ability to reach Mazin Power faster. Tetsuya has slightly higher stats than Kouji across the board, but nothing major.

Frankly, it’s a wash. Mazinkaiser has very little problem reaching the frontlines, and it even builds Will efficiently with its better pilots, as it can take a lot of enemy hits and easily get kills. I’m inclined to give Kouji the win here, as I think Accel and Flash are more likely to see use than Spirit. Spirit is just too expensive, and using it just once means you have one less use of Valor. Gain isn’t an entirely wasted Spirit, but by the time you get Mazinkaiser, you should be approaching the levels at which your pilots max out their Skills, so it’s pretty much irrelevant.

While you might initially scoff at the suggestion, Boss is a perfectly solid pilot for Mazinkaiser. His stat distribution is similar to Kouji and Tetsuya’s, but just all-around worse (except for Skill and Ranged, which take a nosedive). The reasons to use Boss is his access to Luck, Blitz, and Daunt. You’d essentially be running a glorified support pilot that can squeeze off Valor in a pinch via Blitz, and get relatively more from it than most support pilots thanks to Boss’s acceptable Melee stat.

I think this setup sacrifices too much of Mazinkaiser’s power, but if you’re tight on deployment slots and want a Daunt user that also contributes damage, it can work. The biggest flaw with that role is lacking the SP to freely use Daunt/Luck while saving some for Blitz. Blitz is 20 SP more than Valor, regardless of whether or not you want Strike and Accel from it. Boss is not an SP-friendly pilot.

Sayaka and Jun tip the scales from Boss’s split offensive and support role into being almost purely support. Mazinkaiser is such a beast that they can still dish out a lot of pain, but it will function as a crutch for these two. In particular, Sayaka’s Melee stat is completely terrible, while Jun’s is comparable to Boss’. Sayaka has the Bless, Rouse, and Enable Spirits, but Jun can still use Valor and has Hope as her major support Spirit. Pick whichever sounds most useful to you.

All Mazinger series pilots have Prevail, so that’s fantastic. However, while Kouji and Tetsuya only get one level of the Support Skill, the remaining three can get up to level three. For all of their flaws, one could argue that the pilots with more Support are superior, as they can stack up additional uses of Fire Blaster, etc. This will guzzle EN, however, so make sure you use Parts appropriately.

I have a massive soft spot for the Super Gundam. I really do. The audacity to call something so mediocre the “Super Gundam” is hilarious and adorable, and it gives the mech a sort of The Little Engine That Could quality.

That’s not to say the Super Gundam is terrible; far from it. While it’s not a top tier mech or anything, it has a relevant niche. It’s the only Real Robot to be a natural two-seater, as it’s technically the combined form of the Gundam Mk-II and the G-Defensor. Any two Universal Century Gundam pilots can go into either of those two units, and the pilot for the Gundam Mk-II will control the Super Gundam.

Basically, in exchange for a statistically average mech, you get to bring an extra pilot along. It’s honestly pretty neat. You can get additional mileage out of combat Spirits, or bring along a pilot with support Spirits like Bless, etc. Of course, you can even go all-in on the support and bring two support pilots. Wow!

As with other units that are Combined by default, the Super Gundam can participate in Combine/Split shenanigans. Notably, the G-Defensor has one of the strongest attacks of any component unit (I think; need to double-check). This can help offset the Super Gundam’s low weapon attack power.

Weapons:

Well, it’s another Alpha Gaiden mech with a weird number of redundant, overlapping weapons you will never use. You’ll pretty much only use the Beam Rifle, your best post-move weapon, and the Long Rifle, your finisher. The Long Rifle’s power is initially fine for something with 7 range, 10 Ammo, and no Will requirement, but stronger, also fairly spammable finishers show up over time and power creep its better qualities.

The Super Gundam’s weapons are relatively cheap to upgrade, and all upgrades are shared between its component units. The G-Defensor uses the Long Rifle as its weapon, and it’s literally the same one—they even share the same Ammo quantity.

If you Split the G-Defensor before moving the Super Gundam, you can launch a long-range attack with decent power, only to Combine afterwards and potentially do another one. This functionally doubles the Long Rifle’s attack power at the cost of likewise doubling Ammo consumption. This symmetrical relationship also means you’re technically getting double the increase of any weapons upgrade, at least as far as the Long Rifle is concerned.

Parts:

You’ll probably want to boost the Super Gundam’s Mobility no matter who you have as a pilot, because it’s just too frail to risk standard evasion percentages. Other than that… I dunno, Boosters, range-increasing Parts, accuracy-boosting Parts, maybe, depending on your pilot. It’s just not a very complicated mech, and you have three Part slots between the Mk-II and G-Defensor (both units’ Parts apply to the Super Gundam).

If you can spare the room, consider equipping a Minovsky Craft/Drive to the Gundam Mk-II, as this allows the Mk-II’s pilot to naturally Support Attack the G-Defensor every time they Split. Otherwise, the two units can’t occupy the other’s terrain type (unless they’re in Space, I guess).

Ammo-restoring Parts might not be a bad idea, since it enables you to exploit Split more often. However, as the Super Gundam has no Will requirements for anything, docking the unit to replenish its Ammo is a relatively acceptable cost. Doubly so, since the G-Defensor can dock while the Gundam Mk-II can still perform an action! See, isn’t it a cool unit?

Pilots:

Oh lord, I am not going to go through every single UC pilot. Instead, just use pilots who have what you want, whether that be a certain support Spirit, or something that the main pilot lacks, like Accel. In a recent playthrough, I used Sochie as the main, and Four as the sub-pilot. I was fairly happy with the results, so you can probably do whatever. I think every UC pilot is naturally going to have a stat distribution appropriate for the Super Gundam. The Super Gundam is also compatible with the Sword Cut Skill.

If you want to be really greedy, one of the two pilots can be Usso, giving you three pilots for the price of one, thanks to his Haro. At what point can we call it the Super Duper Gundam?

Generally, the Gundam Wing units have weapons with efficient costs relative to their power and lack of Will requirements. They’re great for immediately starting a Scenario at almost full-power and mowing down enemy grunts. They also receive Relationship Bonuses from each other, making them even more powerful when adjacent.

However, they can sometimes have trouble inflicting substantial damage to bosses, and they are somewhat on the frail side while not always being consistent dodgers, either. Also, many of their pilots have the Detonate Spirit command, which is basically a wasted Spirit due to its extremely niche “use.”

The Deathscythe is an odd little machine. It may look weak at first glance, with its strongest of only two weapons topping out at 2900 base power. However, it specializes in landing critical hits due to its excellent +40% crit modifier. On top of that, it’s a 1-5 post-move weapon that has no Will requirement and consumes no EN.

The Deathscythe’s job is to throw itself in the middle of enemy groups and endlessly counter while hoping to land critical hits. With a critical, the Beam Scissors has an effective power of 4350—more than enough to be relevant.

There are limits to this, however. A major one is that the Deathscythe can’t critical while Valor is enabled. When other mechs are potentially doubling the damage of attacks with much higher base power, the main thing balancing the Beam Scissors is thrown out the window and results in a mediocre weapon.

To summarize, the Deathscythe is great at whittling down normal enemies, but struggles to contribute to boss fights, of which become an increasing threat as @G progresses.

This doesn’t totally invalidate Deathscythe as a unit; it just means it has a niche. Doing reliable damage throughout most of a map can help preserve your other pilots’ SP for bosses. Also, if its pilot has Support Attack (which Duo does), it can make up for underwhelming damage through that (and Support Attacks can still crit).

If you want to use the Deathscythe the entire game, which you can without much difficulty, it’s highly recommended that you upgrade its weapons. The cost is on the cheap side (relative to other weapons, at least), and every increase to power is theoretically more valuable than it appears due to critical hits. The same logic applies if its pilot can Support Attack.

Weapons:

The Vulcans are completely worthless due to the Beam Scissors being objectively better in literally every conceivable way—even by the normal standards of Vulcan weapons, this is one of the most pointless I’ve ever seen. The only possible usage it could have is keeping certain enemies alive, like with Nuclear Missiles on some missions, but they’re probably not even going to help much for that. Just find a pilot with Mercy, for god’s sake.

Of course, the Beam Scissors are great. Their unexceptional base power is made up for in other ways like its critical rate, terrain ranks, range, and not requiring resources. If you’re using the Deathscythe long-term, upgrade its weapons from time to time.

Parts:

With only two Part slots, the Deathscythe really benefits from a Haro. It certainly wants Movement, as it must be deep in enemy lines for it to take advantage of the Beam Scissors. Additionally, you’ll want to boost its defenses to be more reliable, and (depending on the pilot) its better to focus on Mobility over Armor. A range-boosting Part helps, as the Deathscythe has no truly long-range weapons, and this lets it Support Attack more often. A Hyper Jammer isn’t a bad idea, especially if the pilot lacks Prevail. A Hovercraft can help it not fall behind during maps, while a Minovsky Craft/Drive can allow it to Support Attack with flying units.

Pilots:

Fortunately, the default pilot, Duo, works perfectly fine for the Deathscythe. His stats are just where they should be offensively, with Melee and Skill being highlights, and his Evasion is the highest of all Wing pilots, too. As far as his Spirits go, Detonate and Hide are worthless, but everything else is fairly on-point. It’s a shame he learns Accel so late, as the Deathscythe greatly needs more Movement, but better late than never, I suppose.

Sword Cut and Shield Defense provide him some breathing room when he’s counterattacking enemies, and Support Attack makes up for the Deathscythe’s low base power.

The only other flaw with Duo that bears mentioning is his Will gains, as he gains Will for being hit, but not for dodging, which is what he’s better at. As the Deathscythe has no Will requirements, this isn’t a huge deal, but it does cut (very) slightly into his damage and defense.

Quatre also does a fine job piloting the Deathscythe, as his stats and Skills are nearly identical to Duo’s. Seriously, there’s almost nothing worth talking about. Quatre gets Bless, Faith, and Trust instead of Flash, Hide, and Accel. If those Spirits sound more appealing to you, go for it.

If I can be sacrilegious for a moment, the best pilot for the Deathscythe might actually be Zechs. His stats suit it perfectly, he has better Spirits, and he has all of the same Skills, except for one less level of Support Attack in exchange for getting Prevail, which only boosts his survivability and critical rate! The same can mostly be said of Wufei, who has two levels of Support Attack, as well as not having any wasted Spirit command slots.

You can sacrifice stats in exchange for three levels of Support Attack and four levels of Support Defend by using Noin, who is the only Wing pilot other than Duo and Trowa to have Accel, and Trowa shouldn’t be considered due to mismatched stats and Spirits. Likewise for Heero, who’s similar to Zechs, just with a much worse Melee stat.

As it turns out, many Wing pilots are fairly interchangeable when it comes to stats and Skills…

Pilot Recommendation Priority: Zechs > Wufei > Duo = Quatre > Noin

The VF units from Macross are among the swiftest of the entire cast, thanks to their high Mobility, high Movement, and S Size. With very little investment, enemies have great difficulties hitting them, allowing them to quickly reach the frontlines and deliver counterattacks at a low risk.

While their attacks rarely feature particularly high-power, that is somewhat offset by their relatively high critical hit modifiers. However, the true cost of these benefits is the VFs’ fragility. While they’re hard to hit, if an enemy does land a strike, there’s a real possibility your unit is going down right then and there.

Regardless, due to @G enemies eventually using such threatening attacks, the Macross units are still among the most reliable in the game when it comes to survivability. Would you rather a unit that can’t consistently dodge be able to take three hits, or would you rather a unit that can take one, but only has a 10% or lower chance of that happening? The answer should (generally) be the latter. Macross VFs can so safely move far ahead and counterattack, that their damage output across an entire map can actually be among the highest of all units. Naturally, this means they overall come highly recommended.

I’d be remiss not to mention the VFs’ ability to transform, but only just; the alternate forms are not that relevant. The Gerwalk form possesses marginally higher Mobility, but its real use is getting terrain benefits and a 1-4 range post-move weapon, something the Fighter form lacks. The Battroids are more niche, as their only purpose is using their single-ammo Full Volley finisher, or the free-of-resource Punch to score some cheap damage.

Some secret, optional Macross units, such as the Destroid Monster, have different gameplay styles from the standard VFs, and those will be noted in their section(s).

I’ve long been frustrated by Milia inexplicably having the Guard Spirit, which is borderline worthless on a VF pilot. On a recent playthrough, I had the bright (stupid) idea to place Milia in the Destroid Monster, as its a heavily-armored unit with ranged attacks that plays into her Guard Spirit and stats, respectively.

The results were… not good. That’s mainly down to the Destroid Monster (DM) having no post-move weapons, which is a shockingly bad drawback. For the DM to inflict damage on your turn, it must give up pushing into enemy territory, which would normally provide it counterattacks on the Enemy Phase. If you choose to spend your turn only positioning the DM, you’re still at the mercy of the AI choosing to target it. In my experience, they won’t unless the unit is their only target or nearly destroyed.

Even with three Megaboosters, the DM struggles to see an adequate amount of combat, both to contribute raw damage, and to even keep its pilot properly leveled. After getting in the DM, Milia was perpetually my most under-leveled pilot.

And for what? What did the game designers consider a worthwhile trade for no post-move weapon (and low Movement, too)? Uh, well, the Destroid Monster has a massive attack range. Unfortunately, this isn’t a tower defense game, so you have to manually put things in the DM’s range, which it sucks at doing because of its 5 Movement. It also has a single-ammo MAP weapon with a huge 8×3 area of effect. That might sound amazing, but again, consider how difficult it is to line up shots when you’re this slow. The MAP’s range also does not offset its low attack power and single ammo.

Weapons:

Well, I kind of gave the game away on the MAP. It’s too impractical, too weak, and too inefficient to be worth a damn. The DM’s three other weapons are functionally identical, since they’re all just long-range cannons. Oddly, though conveniently in our case, the DM’s weapon ranges directly rise in relation to their attack power, so you pretty much only default to the weaker ones to conserve Ammo or gain accuracy.

And boy, will you want to conserve Ammo. The DM’s finisher has a pathetic four Ammo. So, even if you pull off getting the DM to see combat, it can only fire four times before taking a significant dip in firepower. Like, what the fuck, man? This thing should excel at counterattacking thanks to its range and Armor, but instead it develops hypertension after one turn.

Parts:

A Minovsky Craft (preferably a Minovsky Drive) to avoid terrain penalties and fix the DM’s poor Air weapon ranks. Enough said. Then, as many Megaboosters as you’re allowed. I’d say you could carry along item Parts to restore Ammo, but that means nothing if you can’t get in range to attack in the first place. If you’re tight on Boosters for some reason, anything to increase weapon range does about half of the same thing.

When mechs have extremely limited use for their EN stat like the Destroid Monster, I like to slap on a barrier Part to give EN a purpose. It’s not necessarily a bad idea here, either, as the DM isn’t designed to dodge well, but your Part slots are so monopolized by Boosters as is.

Pilots:

The only Macross pilots with Accel are—

Wait, none of them have Accel? Well, shit. I guess the Destroid Monster is going to be late for dinner no matter what it does.

I dunno, man. I’m still fond of my idea to turn Milia and the DM into a tank by using Guard, but that still assumes it can get to the frontlines and be targeted. The DM’s absence from combat does rid you of some use for SP, at least, so you can save it for Love. Hell, use Zeal to get to the frontlines or position the MAP weapon. Does this sound terrible, yet? It should.

One way to take advantage of the DM’s range is by having it Support Attack before you move it forward. Everyone other than Guld gets one level of Support, while Hikaru and Kakizaki get two. Because Hikaru has the Leadership Skill and Kakizaki’s Accuracy stat is terrible, he wins in this comparison. On the other hand, if you can tolerate Kakizaki having to deal with accuracy penalties on long-range attacks, he can just chill in the back as he waits to apply his Daunt Spirit. Focker and Isamu have Guts, which can help the Destroid Monster function as a tank.

I guess that’s it, then. The Destroid Monster sucks, so use it at your own peril. Hell, it’s so bad that it’s capable of crashing the game if any Macross pilot force-deploys in it. So, uh, be wary of that.

Did you think I wouldn’t review the pointless final units @G gives you? How naive. Especially when Aya is my waifu.

At best, you get the R-3 Powered for two Scenarios. For one of these, it joins at the Scenario’s start, which means it cannot be upgraded. It does come with two upgrades across the board, including weapons, but this is laughable in the face of @G’s final enemy strength. This means the R-3 is practically unusable for one Scenario, and only usable in the final Scenario for people dumb enough to sink Funds into it. Now, let me tell you what that’s like.

In truth, if the R-3 Powered was available for more of @G, it would be quite a decent unit. Ammo-based finishers are a rarity in @G, and the Strike Shield has a generous 8 Ammo. Aya herself has some powerful support Spirits, as well as the basic combat-oriented ones, and her Psychic Skill boosts her hit and avoid rates. Essentially, it would be another solid, Newtype-esque Real Robot. Nothing amazing, but certainly competent. If anything, its greatest flaw is being unable to land and receive terrain bonuses.

Stats:

The R-3’s stats, to its credit, are quite good. In every category, it meets or exceeds expectations for its unit type. Its HP doesn’t quite reach Super Robot or hybrid-mech levels, but outstrips your typical Mobile Suit’s. Its EN also is on the generous side, albeit fairly irrelevant for the R-3, and its Mobility competes with the fastest Mobile Suits. Its Armor is shockingly high, and is on the level of a particularly bulky Super Robot. At 8 Movement, it’ll also be tearing across the battlefield.

Abilities:

TK Field blocks damage that would remove 1400 or less HP. The R-3’s Armor caps at 1800, which is actually quite high and competes with some of the game’s beefiest Super Robots. Now, is that worth the Funds, especially when considering most of the game’s final enemies hit like sledgehammers? No. The R-3 can just commit to dodging, regardless. The nicest thing I can say about TK Field is that the R-3 isn’t reliant on the EN it saps away each time it triggers.

Weapons:

The R-3’s loadout is a bit strange. Notably, it lacks a ranged post-move option other than its MAPW of all things, which can strike a diamond-shaped area within five spaces. That’s incredible reach, but its single ammo ensures that it’s not a practical substitution for a proper post-move weapon, nor is it likely to contribute much damage due to its low base power.

Otherwise, the R-3 has to rely on its Vulcans and Beam Sword. I won’t waste time humoring the Vulcans; we all know they’re bad. The Beam Sword’s power is perfectly fine, but what stands out is its +50 (!!!) critical modifier, which is among the highest in the game. Not sure what happened there, but we’ll take it.

TK Laser Cannon basically exists to save you some Strike Shield Ammo in exchange for a paltry 10 EN. It’s equal or inferior to Strike Shield in all ways, though it is only 100 attack power weaker than it, oddly enough. Strike Shield’s main advantage is having one more range and 20% more Hit. As mentioned already, the Strike Shield is a great finisher thanks to its borderline irrelevant 105 Will requirement, efficient costs, range, and power when considering all other benefits.

The R-3’s weapons also boast unusually ideal terrain ranks. The only weapons without an A everywhere are the Telekinesis Missile and TK Laser Cannon, with a C and B in water, respectively. Despite its name, the TK Laser Cannon is not considered a beam-class weapon. Other than Beam Sword, the R-3’s weapons sadly either lack a critical modifier, or have a -10 one (Vulcans and Missile).

Parts:

Just go all-in on Mobility. Between the R-3’s Mobility stat and Parts, it’s not too difficult to achieve a 100% dodge chance against most or all enemies in the final Scenarios. Other than that… I dunno. I guess increase the R-3’s Movement even further to make up for its lack of post-move options? Then again, you start pretty close to your enemies in the last few Scenarios. Maybe just equip Ammo-restoring Parts for Missile and Strike Shield.

Pilot:

Aya’s stats are pretty good, but her offensive ones are hurt by her joining so late, as she doesn’t have bonus points earned from attacking. Her Evasion and Accuracy are raised to exceptional levels thanks to her Psychic Skill, which caps at level 6. Her amazing level 3 Support lets her make the most out of the Strike Shield’s accessibility, and the R-3’s excessive bulk. Deflect level 2 is fairly pointless, but sure, why not?

Her Spirits favor support functions, but she does possess Focus and Valor for combat. With the R-3’s stats and her own Psychic Skill, Focus should be enough in the absence of Strike and Alert. The R-3’s high Movement makes setting up Rouse easy, and Renew helps her add to another mech’s offense over her own. Aya having Bless is hilarious, as you can’t even spend the Funds you earn from the final Scenario.

Aya ends up as one of the pilots that benefits from @G’s nonfunctional mech terrain ranks, as she inexplicably has a B in Space, dragging the R-3 down to a B overall. What the hell, man?

Overall:

Well, if you’re going to use one of the superfluous final units, it may as well be the R-3 and Aya. The R-3’s stats and the positive traits of the Strike Shield make this unit the most likely to contribute to the final Scenarios. And even if it doesn’t, Aya can fall back on her support Spirits. The psychic underdog pulls out another victory… kind of.

The R-Gun Powered has the honor of being the most-available SRX series unit. Unfortunately, it does not make a case for its brethren, as it’s a highly-underwhelming Real Robot lacking in noteworthy traits, despite its visual uniqueness and cool factor.

Abilities:

At 110 Will, the TK Field nullifies hits that would inflict 1400 or less damage. Regardless of whether it’s successful, 5 EN is consumed each time. And that’s unfortunate, because it will almost never be successful. The R-Gun is not a particularly durable unit due to its unexceptional Armor, which makes this Ability rather redundant at best, and harmful at worst due to cutting into your EN reserves for (likely) nothing.

Weapons:

The R-Gun gets done particularly dirty in the weapons department, as its weapons’ power is inexcusably low when compared to other Real Robots. The Twin Magna Rifle is a fine-enough post-move weapon when compared to typical Beam Rifles (especially because it’s not a beam), but the TK Boomerang’s high +40 Crit modifier does little to offset its 2000 power.

The Hi-Twin Launcher is when things start going really downhill, as 3000 power for 120 Will is outrageously unfair, and the R-Gun’s natural EN cap only allows it to be fired a measly five times. Despite not being considered a beam weapon, it has no water rank, and while its +15 Hit isn’t unusual for this type of attack, it lacks any added accuracy from something like the Newtype Skill and its associated funnel-based attacks. Viletta has the comparable Psychic Skill, but hers caps at a very low level.

But the not-so-killing blow comes in the form of the HTB Cannon, whose mostly superior traits to the Hi-Twin Launcher does not justify its 130 Will, 3500 power, and single Ammo. To put into perspective just how bad this is, the Heavyarms Custom’s Full Open Attack has the same power, no Will requirement, three Ammo, 10 higher Crit, and 5 more Hit. There is simply no excuse for the R-Gun’s HTB Cannon being as bad as it is, and it perfectly demonstrates just how superfluous the R-Gun Powered is among Alpha Gaiden‘s cast of Real Robots.

Parts:

You know, it’s almost nice that the R-Gun is so mediocre that there’s no obvious things about it to fix. Anyway, increasing the R-Gun’s move to reduce Viletta’s reliance on Accel wouldn’t be a bad idea, as it frees up SP for her to use Focus, which she will need to stay alive. Likewise, you could consider a Haro to take things even further, but her three Part slots do give her the room to spread the boosts out a bit.

So naturally, Mobility-raising Parts do well here. With a Generator, the R-Gun is unlikely to fire off the Hi-Twin Launcher enough to exhaust its EN. However, it’s not uncommon for it to even need that much, especially because it struggles to build Will due to it neither taking hits well, and being unlikely to nab kills.

With all that in mind, the R-Gun can probably do to fit some Will-boosting parts to have any hope of firing the HTB Cannon without spamming Spirit so much that you have no SP left over to use Valor. Similarly, you could load the R-Gun down with your best Armor-boosting Parts on top of maxing its Armor stat in hopes of putting attacks under the TK Field threshold.

Viletta’s Ace Bonus combined with a single Minmay Doll will instantly put the TK Field up, and from there, you can equip something like two Nanoskin Armors. This gets the R-Gun up to 1850 Armor, which is higher than just about anything not named Mazinkaiser. However, endgame enemies like the Bergelmirs can hit so hard that nullifying attacks is still a crapshoot, and if you gamble wrong, the R-Gun is going to lose like, at least a third of its HP. Your mileage may vary… While it leaves the TK Field on the table, players are likely best off just trying to make the R-Gun dodge consistently.

Pilot:

If there is any reason at all to field the R-Gun, it’s for its pilot, Viletta. Viletta has ace-level stats, but her Skills are more interesting. Her Psychic Skill caps at level 2, which is truly unfortunate given how badly the R-Gun needs its bonus to hit and evade, and Sword Cut’s likewise level 2 cap is not enough to aid the R-Gun’s survival in the face of its poor HP stat.

Indeed, this leaves Viletta’s final skill, Leadership, to carry her worth. While Leadership is undeniably a helpful Skill, it’s still a hard sell when considering just how poor the rest of the R-Gun is. Also, Viletta’s Leadership caps at level 2, and she only obtains the second level at pilot level 47, which is essentially the endgame. Viletta’s Spirit list is fairly ideal, with every combat-centric fundamental you could want, but does it really matter, after all this? Accel helps offset the R-Gun’s 5 Movement, but it’s insulting to have to spend SP to achieve a functional movement range on a mech that has so little to offer.

Overall:

It hurts me to say, as I love Viletta and quite like the R-Gun, but the two just do not pull their weight in Alpha Gaiden. They’re not unusable or anything, and they’re preferable to your average Bazaar grunt mech, but that’s damning with faint praise. Field them with the knowledge that your deployment slot could go to any number of more helpful units.

SECRET: To obtain the Thrudgelmir, do not let it retreat, and instead destroy it on Scenarios 40 (accessible on any difficulty) and 43 (only accessible on the “Hard route”).

As the game’s most “difficult” secret (G-Bits is certainly more convoluted), it’s only appropriate that the Thrudgelmir is the overall strongest of all mechs. Despite being nerfed from its stats as a boss, it still outrageously high base stats, such as 12,000 HP. It’s so powerful and durable that it’s almost capable of soloing the game’s final Scenarios without upgrades. While I doubt anyone who went as far as to unlock it would do otherwise, it’s recommended that you use the Thrudgelmir, no questions asked.

Abilities:

In a bold move by Banpresto, Thrudgelmir retains both HP and EN Regen (L), which allows it to recover 30% of each stat’s total per turn, respectively. Since the Thrudgelmir’s HP and EN are both sky-high at base, it recovers obscene amounts when considering its amazing Armor and lack of hefty EN requirements on its weapons. While it’s not literally invincible (unless you upgrade it, maybe), it’s shockingly close and can outpace the damage inflicted on it by the game’s strongest grunt units.

Weapons:

One of the Thrudgelmir’s few flaws is a relatively modest maximum 5 range provided by its Drill Boost Knuckle. All the same, it’s an above-average range for a post-move weapon, and it lacking any EN cost means the Thrudgelmir essentially pays nothing for countering most enemy attacks.

The Zankantou is its proper finisher, which sadly sees it downgraded to 1 range in the Thrudgelmir’s move from boss to player unit. This does nothing to offset its massive power, however. It still requires 120 Will, but the Thrudgelmir’s high Movement, raw bulk, and ability to get kills will see it hit that in no time.

Pilot:

In an ideal pairing, Sanger is every bit as amazing as his mech. His stats are phenomenal across the board, with the exception of Evasion, which one could argue is a good thing due to Sanger acquiring Will upon taking damage, and the Thrudgelmir’s extremely high defenses making that low-risk play.

His Spirits cover the combat basics, though it is a shame he lacks Soul. Spirit is somewhat redundant due to how easily Sanger builds Will, and while Love is a nice lore touch and good utility, you’d be crazy to waste the SP of one of the game’s strongest units. From my experience, Sanger ended the game with enough SP to use Valor almost exactly four times.

Shockingly, Sanger’s Sword Cut caps at a mere level 2! I can only assume the developers found him too sturdy as is. Guts boosts his mech stats to downright laughable levels if something manages to put him under 10% HP. Support caps at a generous level 2, and his no-cost Drill Knuckle and amazing bulk make both Support Attack and Defense from the Thrudgelmir a premium.

Overall:

Obviously, the Thrudgelmir is super good.

While the Masoukishin (MK) units are certainly very cool and fun to use, they mostly struggle to contribute when compared to more viable mechs. This is largely attributable to their generally, surprisingly low weapon power. To make matters worse, their attack power is often not scaled appropriately to their high EN costs and/or Will requirements. In other words, they can take a while to get going, and once they do, the payoff is not worth it.

Unfortunately, the problems do not end there. The MK units are overly-balanced stat-wise, which threatens their survivability as @G’s units become progressively stronger. They can neither tank nor dodge reliably enough. This can be dealt with to an extent by favoring them with upgrades or Parts, but that’s still a lot of investment that could be spent elsewhere. Lastly, the MK units receive their ultimate attacks late into the game, and they do not avoid the aforementioned cost-balance issues.

Now, they’re not completely without merit. With the exception of the Nors Rei and Diablo, two primarily support units, all have fairly solid MAP attacks, and some of them have the uncommon trait of not hitting allies. Their pilots, as is more typical of pilots new to @G, also tend to have a wide array of Skills, whereas many (usually returning) pilots can have very few.

Of these units, I find Granveil to unequivocally be the best of them. Simply put, it just doesn’t have most of the issues mentioned earlier. While it still struggles with its balanced stats, Yang Long’s Prevail Skill can actually turn them into something formidable due to its percentage-based boost. By all means, give him a try. Really, these units aren’t too hard to use, if you’re willing to pay the cost of fixing their weaknesses. But again, money doesn’t go very far in @G…

If I had to rank all of them by usefulness, I’d probably go:

Granveil > Valsione R > Nors Rei > Cybuster > Zamzeed > Diablo > Goddess

The iconic Banpresto Original fan-favorite has seen better days, as Alpha Gaiden is not one of its better showings. Cybuster has low weapon strength and ranges, high Will and EN requirements, and generally struggles to make an impact during Scenarios. However, it has a few tools in its belt that keep it from being totally useless.

Abilities:

One of these tools is its ability to Transform into the Cybird, a plane-like form that gives it an incredible 9 Movement and remarkably high Mobility that’s nearly comparable to a VF. Most of the time, Cybuster is best-off in its Cybird form, dodging enemy hits on the frontlines while countering with the Caloric Missile and High Familiar. Its damage pales in comparison to the aforementioned VFs, but it has the chance to turn those tables if it’s able to access the MAPW, Cyflash, and its stronger finishers. Also, consider cases where being Cybuster and landing to receive terrain bonuses is more beneficial than the increase in Mobility that Cybird provides.

Should Masaki reach 140 Will, the Cybuster activates its unique Spirit Possession Ability. This boosts its Mobility by 15, Limit by 20, and Armor by… 1500!? That’s the case according to Akurasu, but I feel like that can’t possibly be correct, as that would be an absurdly high boost. I suspect they accidentally added an extra 0. I’ll need to test it, but for now, just assume it’s plus 150 Armor.

If that’s the case, it’s a pretty weak offering for the steep 140 Will requirement. I often found myself even forgetting Cybuster had this Ability, which goes to demonstrate the impact on its effectiveness, or lack thereof. I rarely, if ever, noticed a shift in Cybuster’s performance, likely because the boost was so minor when compared to something like Prevail. Considering how difficult it is to hit 140 Will, this isn’t something to rely on, regardless.

Weapons:

Well… This is unfortunate. It seems not even Cybuster was able to escape the Elementals’ curse of lacking post-move weapons with more than one range. Cybuster is often forced to rely on the Discutter, which inflicts paltry damage. More often than not, Cybuster’s default attack will be the High Familiar, with an ungenerous 1-5 range and power that’s not much better off than the Discutter. Its Ammo is limited too, which gets in the way of the Cybird’s potential for being a dodgy, counterattack-heavy unit. Still, it’s the best we got.

In order to reach greater attack power, Cybuster has to hit ridiculous Will requirements: 120 for Akashic Buster, 130 for Akashic Rave Sword, and 140 for Cosmo Nova. With its low damage, Cybuster struggles to net kills needed to accumulate Will, and using Masaki’s Spirits to narrow that gap will affect Cybuster’s combat versus bosses and its general survivability. Not to mention, the first of those two attacks still being single-range is downright insulting.

Cosmo Nova does respectable damage, if you’re even be able to fire it (and with SP remaining for Valor), but the “if” there is doing a lot of heavy lifting. Restoring its single Ammo to get more mileage out of it will drop Masaki’s Will by 10, often pushing him out of the threshold needed to fire it. I’d suggest Parts to restore Ammo in that case, except Cybuster has a lot of need for its Parts.

As for why, Cyflash is a large reason. This MAPW is Cybuster’s signature attack, and while not as overwhelming as it has been in other titles, it’s still among the better MAPWs in Alpha Gaiden. Its low attack power relative to normal weapons is mitigated by just how many enemies it’s able to strike at once with its massive 1-5 range.

The Cybuster’s awful attack options often turn the Cyflash into a weapon of necessity, as it won’t be in range to attack with anything else. That’s all well and good, but its huge 80 EN cost warrants heavy consideration, especially if you have any ambition of using Cybuster’s single-target finishers.

If there wasn’t enough humiliation yet, let it sink in that Cyflash requires 120 Will, unlike the Valsione R’s 110 Will requirement for Psychoblaster. What the hell happened there?

Parts:

Everything. Which is a problem, because the Cybuster only has two Part slots. You may think it’s fine with regards to Mobility, but I find its dodge rates unreliable without using Focus, and Cybuster is in heavy need of SP in general. As such, a Part to raise Mobility so that it’s less reliant on Focus could be a good investment. Otherwise, you may want to pump a lot of Funds into its Mobility.

I think it’s futile to even consider using Cybuster without an EN-enhancing Part. Even if you max its EN, a Generator or Solar Panel/HPHGCP (I fucking hate typing that) is a must. If you do both, you can get Cyflash to where it’s safe to use nearly every turn. However, with its Will requirement being what it is, it may not be worth it due to how long it can take to access Cyflash.

A Generator might be marginally preferable, as if your EN becomes completely exhausted, docking Cybuster in a battleship could also restore Cosmo Nova. This is insanely niche and ambitious, but hey.

A Will-boosting Part has obvious value. Increasing Range is fine too, to make the High Familiar a better counterattack.

Pilot:

Well, Masaki is in decent enough form, I suppose. His stats are solid as per usual, with his SP being on the low side, but not as bad as some appearances. More problematic is just how gluttonous his Spirits are: Luck, Spirit, Valor, Zeal!? Who the hell is going to have SP to spare for Zeal? Masaki can’t even use his strongest attack twice in a row! Maybe you can use it to zip Cybird across the map in order to pick up a Container you forgot about.

Anyway, Luck is cute for its synergy with Cyflash, but it’s such an SP commitment that I tend to share some of the load with my other teammates, who can use Bless while Masaki uses Spirit and/or Valor. Focus is frustrating, as he often needs it to get consistent dodge rates, but he’s frequently on a razor’s edge of having enough SP as it is.

Skill-wise, Masaki is certainly not impressive. One level of Support is just lame in general, and it marginally cuts into his Will growth. Sword Cut caps at level 2, but at least he only needs to be pilot level 32 for it. Still, that’s not a high enough level to place any faith in when it comes to survivability. I’m always taken aback that Masaki wasn’t given Prevail or Guts in this game. It would’ve been a substantial help.

Overall:

Yeah, Cybuster got fucked up in Alpha Gaiden. He’s not useless, but he’s way closer than he should be. I’d say he’s in the bottom half of the Elemental Lord units, which is nuts to say, and I would also make the claim that the Valsione R completely outdoes him in Alpha Gaiden. And the Valsione R isn’t that great to begin with!

Use our golden boy if you want, but anticipate being underwhelmed.

If Nors Rei is the most dedicated support unit of the Elementals, Diablo is a step closer to something combat-focused. While the Diablo is lacking in power and easily usable weapons, Precia has a few powerful support Spirits and Skills to assist the entire team.

Unfortunately, Diablo’s greater combat potential is largely wasted due to its low endurance, few post-move weapons, and pathetic 5 Movement, meaning it’s often better to cut out the middleman and deploy a full-time support unit.

Weapons:

Diablo’s weapons get shafted on both sides of the aisle. They have shockingly low base power, and they’re difficult to use. Initially, it’s only post-move weapon is the Plasma Saber, which requires Diablo get directly adjacent to an enemy, using its paltry 5 Movement, mind, just to inflict very low damage.

The Hyper Railgun is great utility thanks to its 1-7 range and generous Ammo count, but it’s not good enough to be a mech’s primary weapon, which it will be because of its range and lack of Will requirement. The Railgun also makes Diablo’s weakest attack, the Missile, utterly redundant outside of the occasional Ammo conservation.

At 110 Will, the Diablo can use Green Grave, another non-post-move weapon. Its 30 EN cost makes it decently spammable, but its too impractical to set up. Ranged finishers are best used as counterattacks, and the Diablo is far too frail to trade hits with enemy hordes, and that’s assuming it can reach the frontlines in the first place. Also, both the Plasma Cutter and Green Grave are incapable of hitting flying enemies without a flight-enabling Part. Fucking phenomenal stuff.

Once Diablo receives its late-game upgrade, which it waits far too long for, it has the honor of getting two new attacks. The important one here is Sword Dance, a 1-3 range post-move weapon with tolerable damage. But of course, there’s a catch. It consumes significant EN and requires 120 Will, and the Diablo is not a mech well-suited to quickly building Will. Nonetheless, Sword Dance fills an extremely important niche and makes the Diablo a fair bit more competent, but it just isn’t enough.

Post-upgrade, the Diablo’s new finisher is The Nutcracker, which does not, in fact, feature Diablo kicking enemies in the groin. It’s just as short-range, however, once again needing Diablo to be adjacent to its targets. This isn’t that big of a deal, however, as the increase in damage from Sword Dance is fairly minor, and enemies with high HP often remain on the map long enough for the Diablo to get some whacks in.

If you’re committed to using the Diablo, I think you’re wasting its combat if you don’t heavily upgrade its weapons. It’s unfortunate, as you’re still upgrading a fairly limited set of weapons, but its base attack numbers are genuinely that bad. If you’re not salvaging Diablo’s combat, then it loses any possible niche it could have over other support units/pilots.

Parts:

Fixing Movement is a must, not just for the convenience, but to make sure Precia is around to use her Support Skill. I’d recommend Will-boosting Parts once Diablo acquires Sword Dance, as it helps Precia reach 120 Will faster and use her much-needed decent post-move weapon.

Diablo takes hits very poorly, so it should have something to alleviate that. Precia lacks Prevail, so it might be best to commit to Mobility. However, she also doesn’t have the Focus Spirit to boost her middling evasion chances, so this is not an easy call. Prioritizing Armor also makes her Support Defend more viable. Given the Diablo’s balanced stats, an even upgrade approach is fine, but may lead to inconsistent results in battles.

In any case, the Diablo is a great candidate for a Haro, as it solves its movement issues while also helping it survive longer and land more attacks. Using a Haro also frees you up a Part slot to equip a Solar Panel or a Generator, which makes using her better weapons less punishing. Before getting Sword Dance, a Minovsky Drive/Craft will allow the Plasma Cutter and Green Grave to hit flying enemies, which is very important.

Pilot:

Precia’s stats are about as average as they come. She’s the weakest of the Elemental pilots in that regard, but only by single digits, typically. Her relevant strengths are in her Spirits, as she can use Bless, Trust, and Faith (Hope), but doesn’t sacrifice the combat basics like Strike, Flash, and Valor. You’ll often have to give up using all of these during one map, but at least there’s something for every occasion. Her survivability is really screwed over by lacking Focus, however.

Frustratingly, Precia only gets two levels of Support despite her hybrid support role style. It’s still more than most Elemental pilots, but I digress. She also learns all four levels of Sword Cut, but it takes her until a whopping level 56 to do so. For whatever reason, this is a trend for the Skill as a whole; Precia starts with level 1, and doesn’t see 2 until she hits pilot level 35. The hell is that about? Obviously, Diablo needs the extra durability this provides, but that means little if it’s unlikely to proc for most of the game.

Well, that’s Diablo and Precia for you. They got a pretty raw deal, even by the low standards of their colleagues.

While it pains me to say it, because I do quite like these units, Goddess might be the worst out of a bad bunch—the Elementals. At a glance, Goddess appears solid. It has a fine weapon ranges, a MAP weapon for utility, and balanced stats. In practice, its attributes are so overly-compromised that it has trouble making use of even if its most fundamental properties.

Namely, it struggles seeing combat due to only one (bad) post-move weapon, and it lacks the Movement needed to enter the fray and deliver ranged counterattacks. Even if it can, its average Armor and Mobility will see it torn to shreds.

To make matters worse, one of Goddess’ only niches, its A rank in all terrain types, is made completely inert by Alpha Gaiden accidentally making mech terrain ranks nonfunctional! Even if they were, Goddess just so happens to be unavailable for most stages that have water terrain, despite the fact @G has a decent amount of them. Amazing.

Out of all Elementals, I believe Goddess has the most difficult time contributing to a Scenario’s success.

Weapons:

It’s fine for Goddess to specialize as a ranged attacker, but that’s no excuse for its one and only post-move weapon being as terrible as it is. The Gungnir, given its name, might have you expecting greater strength than the Elementals’ typical, generic beam swords, but Gungnir is one of the weakest of all of them. That’s bad enough on its own—you can just barely find an attack target after moving, and you’re further punished with horrible damage. But of course, the Gungnir also can’t even hit flying units, limiting your attack options even further.

Once the Elementals receive their late-game upgrades, Goddess is the only one without a post-move attack with more than 1 range. Even Cybuster has Cyflash, for God’s sake. So yeah, that’s really fucking bad. If Goddess wants to use its decent weapons on its turn, it will have to give up moving and will further fall behind the rest of your units. With 6 Movement, it does not have enough to recover its positioning and find more attack targets. This also means that building Will is extremely difficult, which further restricts Goddess’ damage potential. Its weapon kit just does not function properly.

I wish I could say that I’ve covered the bad parts. I wish I could say that. A more lowkey flaw with Goddess’ remaining weapons is their redundancy. As Goddess gains Will, its ranged options only increase in power and max range, meaning that there’s no balance between them other than their EN costs. If it helps to explain, it’s like you effectively have only three weapons: your MAPW, Gungnir, and one long-range attack that gradually increases its power and reach (and does so very slowly). That’s not necessarily bad, partially because @G doesn’t have status effects, but it’s sure as hell uninteresting.

Goddess’ MAP weapon is the Kelvin Blizzard, and wouldn’t you know it, it’s probably the worst fucking one. It’s on the weaker end of the Elementals’ MAPWs, which isn’t a huge deal; MAPWs have unique utility that makes up for their damage output. However, that doesn’t change the reality that it’s still relatively worse off for no real reason.

Kelvin Blizzard has the unique property of Goddess’ adjacent spaces being ignored in its range, but that’s not the worst. You can hide ally units there to avoid damaging them, and MAPW-appropriate enemy formations are more likely to spread out. Kelvin Blizzard would probably be better off having access to those spaces overall, but I like the cute synergy with Tyutti having Rouse. While underwhelming, Kelvin Blizzard is the least of Goddess’ problems. Any flaws with it, such as needing the required Will, or being close enough to enemies, is something tied to Goddess’ general traits.

Lastly, Goddess guzzles EN. That’s not unusual for Elementals, but it has the hardest time accommodating for it. Every EN-based weapon she has consumes a lot of it per shot, and when it’s exhausted, she has to fall back on High Familiar and it’s stingy 6 Ammo. Its damage-per-attack isn’t good enough to justify its weapon costs.

Parts:

Goddess gets really fucked over by only having two Part slots, as it desperately needs to fix multiple problems. Diablo and Nors Rei each had three slots, so I suppose the game designers figured Goddess tipped the scales more towards “fighter” than “support unit,” despite Tyutti’s Spirits.

Anyway, uh, I dunno. Goddess needs EN, Will, Movement, Mobility, and Armor. Potentially a Minovsky Craft/Drive to use Gungnir more. Shit is fucked, man. You don’t wanna be Goddess.

If you really want to use all of its attributes, I think you should pump Funds into Goddess itself, then attach a Megabooster. Once it can reach the frontlines and survive several rounds of combat consistently, it can address its own Will problems. Ideally, you spare yourself the need for a Part to raise Mobility or Armor, which means you can attach a Generator or Solar Panel. You need a lot of Funds to get there, though, so bust out your wallet. You can accept the EN problems and attach Armor or Mobility-boosting Parts for extra durability, of course. Up to you.

A Haro can kill two birds with one stone, but that’s a Part in heavy demand even by better units, so you’d have to give Goddess a lot of favoritism. That’s what it needs, though… It could also very much use Will-boosting parts, if only to increase the odds it can use its MAP weapon when it wants to, but you’re probably compromising Goddess’ one-on-one combat to make room for that Part. Again, it’s whatever you want most.

I suspect the most optimal way to use Goddess would be to have it be a MAPW spammer that runs away and casts support Spirits once it’s been punched in the face too many times. So make of that what you will.

Pilot:

Poor Tyutti does her best, but she’s not doing Goddess any favors. Just having Prevail would be a massive help, but alas, she does not. Thankfully, she has the Focus Spirit, and when combined with a Part (such as the aforementioned Haro) and some upgrades, she might be able to get acceptable dodge rates to get in some counterattacks (provided you buff Goddess’ Movement).

What makes Tyutti stand apart is her slight access to support Spirits. Trust gives her something to do if she gets stuck in the back, unable to reach enemies. I’d say the same for Rouse, but she has to be around other units to take advantage of it…

She does have Spirit to raise her Will, which she certainly needs, but you’re naturally giving up either Rouse or more uses of Valor. Sometimes it might just be better to get Kelvin Blizzard going, though. Flash is nice for its cost-effectiveness, as it can help Goddess avoid a counterattack from attacking with Gungnir, for instance. Tyutti lacks Strike, but there aren’t too many enemies in @G where Focus won’t be good enough for an M-sized unit like Goddess. Really, her Spirit list is fine, and she has the most SP of all Elemental pilots (though not by a ton or anything).

Tyutti’s stats in general are good, but her standout is getting two levels of Support. Granted, the second one doesn’t come until pilot level 46. Her ranged attacks would normally make her a great support attacker, like the Nors Rei, but without flight, she has a much harder time keeping pace with the army so that she can be in position to make Support Attacks. Support Defending is a liability if anything, as lacking Prevail puts her in a bad spot if enemies then decide to pick her off, instead. And two measly levels of Sword Cut is not going to do much for her survivability.

Overall:

Aaaaaargh.

While the Elemental Lord units are, sadly, overall underwhelming in Alpha Gaiden, Granveil is the closest to being a possible exception. This mech has something that is quite rare amongst AG’s units: cost-efficient attacks that do a relatively high amount of damage.

The star of the show here is the Caloric Smasher, a 1-7 range, 3000 power weapon with an EN cost allowing it to be used multiple times even at base EN. The 115 Will requirement isn’t as steep as it looks relative to the payoff, especially thanks to Yang Long having the Spirit Spirit (can we rename one of these, PLEASE?)

The rest of Granveil’s kit is surprisingly versatile, given how already generous the Caloric Smasher is. It has a solid 1-4 post-move weapon (High Familiar), and even a MAP weapon in the form of Megiddo Flame. To be fair, the latter is one of the game’s “lesser” MAPWs; it has low base power, costs a ton of EN, and has a bizarre area-of-effect.

Unlike most MAPWs, Megiddo Flame attacks in a line extending from Granveil to its target, striking friend and foe alike in its path. If you could freely control this pathway, that would be fantastic, but its automatically generated based on some kind of criteria. I think the way it works is if your path needs to turn before reaching its target, it will turn at the first opportunity to do so, regardless of if that causes it to miss an enemy-occupied space or not. Very annoying, but it still has its uses.

Stat-wise, the Granveil has a rough start. It’s an all-rounder, which isn’t a great thing to be in Alpha Gaiden, as its enemies eventually become fairly threatening. It can’t tank well enough or dodge consistently. Thanks to upgrades being percentage-based, however, heavy investment in Granveil should pay off and provide it tolerable-enough mixed defenses to do all right. Yang Long’s Prevail Skill also helps with that, so buff Granveil’s HP to increase the likelihood you enter the Prevail threshold without being killed outright.

Parts:

Granveil isn’t too desperate for any specific Parts. Until Yang Long learns Accel, you might want a Booster or two. If you want to increase its survivability, I would prioritize Armor over Mobility, as Yang Long lacks Focus but has Prevail, which gives a percentage-based boost to its Armor stat.

Solar Panels are nice, but there are probably units who could use them more. If you have one lying around, go for it. As maps start to drag on in the last quarter of the game or so, you may want to upgrade from a Solar Panel to an HPHGCP.

Pilot:

Yang’s Spirit list is pretty excellent, and his early obtainment of the Spirit Spirit gives him quick access to Megiddo Flame and Caloric Smasher, which is excellent. While he likely won’t unlock it until he rejoins later in the game, Accel perfectly makes up for Granveil’s low Movement.

The only truly wasted Spirit is Snipe, which is too damn expensive (30 SP) for how niche it is, and when considering the fact Accel would likely put Granveil in range of anything it would be hitting with Snipe—especially once it has an attack stronger than Caloric Smasher. It really is a goddamn shame that Yang Long doesn’t learn Focus, as it would be a significant help in his ability to survive dense Enemy Phases. Well, that’s neither here nor there.

Yang’s stats are decent across the board, and he does especially well in Skill, which pairs perfectly with the frequent combat his versatile attacks and Accel allows him to see. That’s a lot of chances for critical hits to happen.

Yang stands alongside Mio as one of the only two Elemental pilots with Prevail or Guts. Unfortunately for Yang, he has Prevail, which is strictly inferior. Regardless, Prevail can provide substantial boosts to Armor and avoid, which Granveil very much needs due to its balanced stat distribution. It’s not anywhere close to enough to make Granveil unkillable, but it’s still a huge help when considering the usual difficulties the Elementals have with surviving.

He also has three levels of Sword Cut, and will eventually learn a single level of Support. Not too much to say there. Sword Cut may allow him to tank an extra hit or two, while Support can make great use of the Caloric Smasher’s range and power. It’s too bad he only gets one level of Support, but it’s not exactly unfair.

The Nors Rei is the archetypal support unit, as far as the Elementals go. This is signified by it uniquely having a Repair Module, which can restore an adjacent ally’s HP. As one might expect of a “cleric” unit, the Nors Rei is rather frail and lacking in power. However, it’s capable of being a competent dodger, and it can make up for low damage thanks to its Support Attacks.

Abilities:

Just the Repair Module to speak of here, but it’s still appreciated. For those accustomed to modern SRWs, a Repair Module might not sound all that helpful, but it’s quite nice in Alpha Gaiden. Gaining Will can be quite time-consuming and resource-intensive, so being able to avoid docking’s 10 Will cost is appreciated.

Also, the healing formula scales based on its pilot’s level. As pilot levels raise quicker than the average HP of your units, this makes the Repair command better over time. By the end of the game, a pilot should fully heal just about any unit, outside of a battleship-class one.

Weapons:

While the Nors Rei only has a meager three weapons, their attributes are efficiently distributed enough to where it doesn’t really need more. It has a one-range, resource-free weapon, a standard 1-4 range post-move weapon, and a long-range finisher that only requires 110 Will. Other than the fact it lacks range before hitting 110 Will, it has all the basics. Once Cenia receives her Ace Bonus, her finisher will be active almost at the start of a map.

Though offense isn’t its strong suit, it does pay to invest a little in Nors Rei’s weapons. Cenia quickly reaches her max Support level of 2, and she’s able to easily set up Support Attacks thanks to her flight and range. If positioned intelligently, she will have plenty of opportunities to inflict damage, which adds up over time. Also, the Nors Rei’s weapons have easily manageable EN costs.

Parts:

With three Part slots, the Nors Rei has a lot of leeway in what it can equip; it doesn’t expressly need anything. You may as well raise its Movement to let it more easily reach allies in need of healing, and to set up Support Attack/Defend. The Nors Rei also isn’t an amazing dodger outside of using Focus, and Cenia has other Spirits worth conserving SP for, so a Part to boost Mobility can go a long way. A Haro can solve many issues at once, but it feels unnecessary given her three Part slots.

A Solar Panel or Generator can be nice once Cenia gets increasingly consistent access to her finisher. Other than that, I don’t really know. More Mobility, healing items, whatever; the Nors Rei is a mostly-functional unit out of the box.

Pilot:

Cenia has the predictable range of support Spirits: Trust, Bless, Rouse, Faith (Hope). With her last two being Focus and Valor, she’s even all set for combat. Don’t ignore Rouse, as the Nors Rei’s flight can make it very easy to position your units in need of Will. Cenia’s stats are almost entirely average, with somewhat low Melee and Defense, but those stats aren’t too relevant to the Nors Rei.

As explained in the Weapons section, the Nors Rei works great with Cenia’s Support Skill, which she can obtain two levels of. Her other Skill, Sword Cut, likewise caps at level 2, which is unfortunate, as that is nowhere near enough to rely on. Granted, the Nors Rei shouldn’t be risking direct hits at all, so the most you can hope for is that Sword Cut procs on an unlucky hit.

Overall:

While it’s not as good at providing general support as, say, a Blugar, the Nors Rei has a surprising amount of combat utility thanks to its versatile weapons and Support Skill. Ultimately, an okay unit that can contribute something to any team, which means it’s probably among the better half of the Elementals. …Ouch.

While not an Elemental in lore, as it was an Earth-developed mech, the Valsione R has essentially been grandfathered into the cast of the Masoukishin series. So nobody better “um, actually” me on my simplified language. Anyway, the Valsione R somewhat embarrasses most of its colleagues by being better than all of them, with the exception of Granveil. While it’s still not an amazing unit, its easily accessible MAPW, decent post-move weapon, and spammable finisher(s) ensure it’s a cut above the competition.

It also helps that its spritework in Alpha Gaiden is downright gorgeous, and I don’t (only) mean in a “waifu” way. Its animated idle effects and vibrant colors are truly something to behold.

Weapons:

Oh, be still, my heart; a completely functional weapon list for a Masoukishin unit. A 1-4 post-move weapon, a costless single-range weapon, two long-range options that don’t cannibalize each other’s resources, and the most user-friendly MAP weapon in the entire game!? What more could one ask for? Other than, y’know, tolerable attack power…

While Valsione R is a mech for all seasons, that doesn’t mean it has an easy time cleaning its gutters or shoveling snow from its driveway. This thing is generally, simply weak. Or at least mediocre, given the wide-range in quality of Alpha Gaiden‘s cast of mechs. Most of the Valsione’s power level is comparable to an average Mobile Suit. But, like, it’s not an average Mobile Suit. It’s the fucking Valsione! I’m not expecting a 3000 attack, low-cost, post-move weapon or anything, but turning those knobs up ever so slightly would be warranted, in my opinion.

To be fair, it does get some of the power its missing from its two long-range options, the Cross Saucer and Cross Smasher. Conveniently, most of the Valsione’s weapons consume Ammo, which frees up EN needed for Psychoblaster and Full Moon Cut. Cross Saucer and Cross Smasher are mostly relegated to counterattack options or boss battles, as they slow the Valsione down, but Ryune’s Accel Spirit does open up her options a bit.

Psychoblaster is the Valsione’s true coup-de-grace, as it’s an MAPW of unparalleled attributes. While the standard Will requirement for Masoukishin units’ MAPWs is 120, Valsione somehow gets away with only needing 110, with no perceptible decreases to attack power, range, EN cost, or whathaveyou.

Psychoblaster becomes available quickly, which is when enemy density tends to be at its highest, and the attack’s low power is mitigated by just how many targets it ought to have. It’s genuinely nice utility. While it’s unlikely to kill things outright, the damage spread does add up. Also, it’s one of a few rare MAPWs that does not target allies.

Now, the Psychoblaster wasn’t shown any mercy when it comes to EN costs, as it rarely gets to fire it more than twice a Scenario without further adjustments. Fortunately, the Valsione can just fall back on its Ammo weapons from that point, or use Parts to fix its EN problems entirely.

This only becomes an additional concern much later, when the Valsione unlocks its Full Moon Cut finisher. This single-range attack does fairly decent damage, but its Will and EN requirements make it relatively impractical to use. I found myself mostly committing to Psychoblaster, and if I had anything left for Full Moon Cut (or was able to use it at all), it ended up just being gravy for boss fights. If it had a lower EN requirement, I would say it’s a cleverly balanced attack, but it’s too rare that deciding between it and Psychoblaster is actually an option.

On a side note, the Divine Sword has its already measly power cut by 200 once the Full Moon Cut is acquired. Part of me suspects this is to balance the two, as if they thought the Divine Sword’s lack of cost made it too preferable to the Full Moon Cut, despite the (original) power difference.

But in truth, I think this was a mistake by the game designers. It’s likely that the Valsione pre and post-upgrade are different units within the game’s data, and a balance adjustment to the Divine Sword’s power was accidentally not applied to both units. For all we know, however, the weaker Divine Sword was meant to be on both of them.

Parts:

What truly makes the Valsione R an honorable Elemental is how it shares their curse of having too few Part slots, so we’re forced to pick a role for it. If you want to go all-in on Psychoblaster, the choice is obvious: by equipping a Generator along with an HPHGCP and maxing Valsione’s intrinsic EN, you can recover enough EN to use the Psychoblaster every turn. Once Ryune gets her Ace Bonus, you’ll only need a measly 5 Will to start going wild.

If you want to make the Valsione R more all-purpose, you should really buff its horrendous durability. This thing cannot take hits, and in my experience, enemies love to punch this giant anime girl in the face (Accel probably isn’t helping). I think you should commit entirely to Mobility, but it will still take significant Funds and Mobility-boosting Parts to make it a reliable dodger. I still think this is preferable to making it a mixed Mobility/Armor unit, however. I tried that, and it just doesn’t work, especially because you’ll want to save SP from using Focus.

Pilot:

Other than Gain, which is pretty underwhelming on Ryune due to her lack of Skills, Ryune has a fairly ideal Spirit list. I might have liked Guard on her, but Focus, Accel, Spirit, Valor, and Flash cover all of her basic needs. Accel is particularly nice, as it allows her to more easily position Psychoblaster.

Again, Ryune’s Skill options kind of suck. All she gets is one level of Support, and two levels of Deflect. Level 2 Deflect is not going to keep anyone alive, least of all her. Her Support Attacks are super easy to line up due to flight, Accel, and her weapon ranges, which is all the more reason it hurts that she can only do it once. Stat-wise, she’s quite good, but her Defense leans on the poor side, which might explain a few things…

Overall:

While best as a MAPW spammer, just having a niche is more than one can say for most Masoukishin units, and the Valsione R being technically capable of doing other things means it’s easily among the best of her team’s mechs.

Turn A, turn! Being a celebration of the Gundam franchise up to its release, Turn A Gundam’s unit quality is as varied as its own franchise. The Turn A Gundam itself is a force to be reckoned with, although it takes some time for it to unlock its full power. The remaining units from this series include grunt mechs that can be above-average quality, as well as the game’s best battleship, the Soleil.

It is inevitable for any game that in one category of unit, one option will naturally stand supreme overall. For Alpha Gaiden‘s battleships and the Soleil, it’s nearly indisputable. With the only exceptions being fringe arguments like the Freeden’s three pilots as opposed to the Soleil’s two, and the MAP weapons of the Argama and Iron Gear, the Soleil triumphs over its fellow battleships in virtually every possible way.

Abilities:

The I-Field reduces damage from beam-category weapons by 2000 for the cost of 10 EN. Considering the Soleil’s massive defenses, this often nullifies the damage entirely. The I-Field tends to be enough for the Soleil to be a frontline unit, which is something any other battleship takes on serious risk for attempting.

Weapons:

Well, this will be quick. The Soleil has two weapons, and has little need for any more. The AA Machinegun is its economic option, with 1800 power, 1-3 range, +35 Hit, and an entirely unnecessary but appreciated stellar Crit boost of +40. Its greatest flaw is not its power per se, but the fact it has a brutally low Land rank of C.

This goes for Water as well, but there’s almost no water tiles left from the point the Soleil becomes fieldable (there literally might not be any). Granted, most endgame enemies are flying, but it does come up on occasion. Still, the AA Machinegun is largely just to have a post-move option, and to conserve EN by picking off weakened enemies.

The start of the show is the Megaparticle Cannon. At 3700 power, 1-8 range, no Will requirement, a 20 EN cost, and +30 Hit, this is an obscenely strong weapon, let alone to have on a goddamn battleship. Making it even better is the fact that the Soleil’s EN caps at 480. If you can believe it, the Soleil is such a great frontline unit, that between this and the I-Field, it is actually not rare for it to exhaust all of that EN. For perspective, the Megaparticle Cannon is stronger than the fucking Twin Buster Rifle, has more range, 10 more Hit, and costs 30 less EN on a unit with far more to give.

Yeah, the Soleil is a genuine beast, and it throws the traditional concept of battleships as units to be protected out the window. This flying, purple space turtle should rush to the frontlines to unload dozens of counterattacks on enemies using its Megaparticle Cannon while taking minimal damage in return. Bow to the Moon Queen, you swine.

Parts:

Well, the game designers restrained themselves for once and gave the Soleil only one Part slot, which is entirely deserved. There’s a few good options here. You could raise its Movement to reduce spending Milan’s SP on Accel, but I find that unnecessary. Accel gives the Soleil 10 Movement, which is usually enough to have it keep pace with your army for the rest of the Scenario. You don’t want it too far out ahead, as Diana provides a Leadership boost and highly valuable Supports.

A single Solar Panel gives it 48 EN regen per turn, which can be worth considering. It’s not like the Soleil can dock itself, so it’s reliant on other sources to recover its exhausted EN. However, if you have a unit with Resupply to handle this, or you’re fine with simply ignoring the Soleil once its EN reserves are gone (which usually means most of a map has been dealt with), there’s not a super-pressing need to equip anything for EN.

In lieu of urgent problems to fix, I would recommend a Nanoskin Armor. This helps further push the Soleil’s Armor into the realm where enemy attacks rarely even matter, and it’s trivial to upgrade the Soleil to where it’s restoring at least 2000 HP per turn. It might take more Armor upgrades to make the Soleil functionally invincible, but it takes little to get it very close to that.

A Hovercraft is also a fine consideration, simply to allow the Soleil to support grounded units. It may feel a bit underwhelming a use of your one Part slot, but it’s genuinely worth considering.

Pilot(s):

Well, Diana doesn’t break the mold too much when it comes to battleship pilots. Her stats are on the low-end of things, making her mostly reliant on the Soleil rather than the other way around. What we’re really here for is everything else, like her and Milan’s amazing support Spirits, and Diana’s simple-yet-effective duo of Skills.

The Spirits are hardly worth going into out of expedience’s sake, as between its two pilots, the Soleil has basically every support Spirit possible. Milan’s Accel and Strike give it the only utility it could want, and while it lacks Valor, that SP is better used on support Spirits that increase the damage of your heavy-hitters.

Diana hits the max Leadership cap of level 4 at pilot level 43, which is amazing, and at 45, she caps Support. The Soleil’s bulk and incredible versatility/strength of the Megaparticle Cannon make her an amazing Support Attack/Defender, and anyone adjacent to her gets the added bonus of her Leadership aura.

For whatever reason, Milan also has stats, even though I can’t recall him ever being the main pilot of any unit, nor can he be made into one. His Skill and Evasion are substantially better than Diana’s, and the former might have been enough to make him a theoretically better main pilot, but his Leadership and Support Skills cap out at levels 1 and 2, respectively. Stay in the passenger seat, grandpa.

Overall:

What more can anyone say? The Soleil is one of the best units in Alpha Gaiden, which is an honor I would not give to any other battleship. It hits hard, hits a lot, takes hits like a champ, supports your other units, and asks for virtually nothing in return. Maybe the Moon Race does deserve Earth.