The Let's Play Archive

Super Robot Wars W

by Brunom1

Part 17: Post-Mission 5 Upgrades and Unit Analysis #4 (COURAGEOUS EDIIIIIIITIOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNN!)

Off we go to our post-mission activities. To start it off, as usual, the Top Aces:



Nothing much has changed. Duo got 1 kill in the last mission but nearly everything else was killed by the GGG and Mazinger teams (or people that aren’t on the top list).


Mind you, the Mazinger team hasn’t joined us. They are, as Tetsuya said, off in the Photon Power Lab repairing their mechs.

Good news, though, the GGG folks have joined! Let’s go on with our Unit Analysis on them.

First off are the Dragon Brothers, Enryu (the red one) and Hyoryu (the blue one):







The dragon brothers are quite similar to each other, featuring nearly identical stats and identical spirit commands. They’re power is decent (on par with Quatre’s Sandrock) and they have a good amount of armor and HP to lessen the fact that they aren’t very dodgy.

Do note that while both have a gun with which they can use Shoot Down, Enryu has a shield, as well. Also, the Brothers do have a combination attack but it has a high morale requirement so you won’t be using it very often during these early stages of the game.

Let’s go over the spirit commands they’ve unlocked so far:
Nothing special there. I’ve always preferred Focus over Alert but I suppose it CAN be helpful when you’re up against things with good aim (which we will as the game goes on).

Take note that they both have status inducing effects to two of their attacks. Hyoryuu's attacks only decreases the enemies movement range but Enryuu has the AMAZINGLY useful Attack Power Down effect which, as the name says, reduces the target's weapons power in HALF. Good stuff against any boss.

Now, on Pilot Skills, Enryu and Hyoryu show some more differences. Here’s Hyoryu first:
And here’s Enryu:

They both have good skill sets. Hero is one of the best skills in the game and Prevail makes it so they can compensate for when they get hit (and they will). Their Skill stat is good enough that they can make use of their Shoot Down skill but, due to finicky RNG gods, they never seem to do so when it’s actually needed.
One thing that strikes me as odd is the Shield Defense on Enryu. Hyoryu is the clearly the one that would be activating it more oftenly (being the one with Support Defense) but they gave both the Skill and the Shield attachment to Enryu, the attacker brother. I’m guessing that someone at Banpresto misplaced a 0 and switched it around.

While the brothers are good, their true strength comes from their Symmetrical Docking into Chouryujin.



Nope, I couldn’t find any proper picture of him.



Chouryujin is better in every conceivable way. He has more HP, EN, armor and power. To put it in perspective, Chouryujin’s weakest attack is only 100 points weaker than the strongest of either Brother (not taking into account the combination attack, that is).
His most usable attack will probably be the Double Tonfa, that we used to take down the Zondar during last mission, since it has 1-3 range and is post-movement.

Mind you, his most USEFUL attack is his Double Guns which apply Enryuu's Weapon Attack Down effect.

His most powerful attack, while being much more powerful and having a 1-7 range, is not post-movement and has a high morale requirement (for this early in the game, at least) of 120.

Take note of the Chouryujin "trick" that was displayed during the last mission in that, if you keep the brothers side-by-side and attack with one, the other can still call for a Simmetrical Docking. Which means you can split at the start of the turn, attack with one (preferably Hyoryu since Enryu will be able to support), and combine back. That extra damage can be really helpful right now.

When they combine, the Spirit Commands and Pilot Skills change, mind. Below are the Spirits:

They also seem to combine their Pilot Skills:
Conclusion: All things considered, the Dragon Brothers are very good for the start and up until the midway point of the game. Their usefulness will decline as we get stronger pilots and units but, for the time being, their power as Chouryujin and the split/combine-trick (along with the Hero skill) makes them good damage-dealers.
Do take care when sending them into the fray since they’re not as defensive as Gai and they’re not the most dodgy of the GGG units but give them a few upgrades (and possibly, a Command Aura) and they should be more than capable of holding their own.


Next, we have Volfogg:





Volfogg is dodgy. So dodgy that, even un-upgraded, his mobility is slightly lower than the Valhawk in Airforce mode. He’s even got decent armor but his HP is very low which means he won’t survive more than two clean hits. His movement range, at 7 points, is huge and his attacks are nothing to sneeze at (he’ll even get stronger, too).

As I said in the above mission, Volfogg’s real value comes from the fact that he’s the only unit in the game (I think) that can disable Barriers and this will be a life-saver right now when we don’t have many attacks that can go through those. Also, don’t underestimate that Accuracy Down effect in his stronger attack – it’s very useful when fighting Real Robot bosses (like the Tekkaman). His only weakness is his range, which ends at 4 with his shuriken attack.

Volfogg also comes equipped with a Mirror Image effect called Holographic Camouflage which works just like Duo’s Hyper Jammer (when over 130 Morale, Unit has a 30% chance of instantly dodging the incoming attack). At these early stages, getting morale that high doesn’t happen often but it’s good for later missions.

Now, let’s go over the Spirits he knows thus far:
These will serve him fine, Scan and the -10% dodge rate to the target is useful when fighting those dodgy bosses but I hope he learns Focus soon so he doesn’t get in danger when fighting said bosses nope, he never learns focus so you better make good use of those friendship bonuses (remember that Size Modifiers don’t apply in here, so he won’t be getting any slack from his S size).
Now, his Pilot Skills:
That’s pretty well suited for him. They all cover his slight weaknesses and give him a boost at what he does well.

Conclusion: Volfogg is probably the 2nd best GGG unit. If Noin is Gundam Wing’s Noal, Volfogg is GGG’s Duo, having traded the higher damage potential for a lot of usability (and his damage WILL go up as we move along the game, mind). Upgrade his mobility so you don’t have to worry about enemies getting lucky hits and then focus on weapons and EN.

Volfogg will serve you well for a long time but, like Duo, he might fall to the sidelines when you get stronger units and more barrier piercing attacks.

One last unit to analyze and we all know I saved the best for last. Let’s get the proper mood music going before I begin.








You don’t get much better than Gaogaigar. He’s got a bunch of HP, a lot of armor and the ever useful Protect Shade (completely blocks out incoming damage if it’s lower than 1400 – no effect if it’s higher). His attacks are all melee based, taking advantage of Gai’s very high melee stat and they’re all Post-movement (on top of Hell and Heaven being the only attack we have right now that can pierce Barriers).

Normally, Gai’s stats (aside from his melee) would be good but they’re further boosted by the Hero skill (which starts off on level 2 for him) and this is what gives him the extra defensive power to resist attacks (even though his Defense stat is the lowest of all the GGG units we have right now at 128 (compared to the Brothers’ 130 and Volfogg’s 132) – I guess if it was any higher naturally, Protect Shade would be too broken) and even the extra Evasion to dodge every now and then.
Like Volfogg, Gaogaigar has a weakness is his range which maxes out at 4 (which is from his weakest attack, Broken Magnum – Melee is 3 and Hell & Heaven is 2). Nevertheless, those are small weaknesses seeing as how if he can’t counter, he’ll defend and then a mooks attack won’t go past the barrier.

Now, let’s go to the Spirits:
Standard-issue spirits that pretty much all Super Robot pilots will get. I prefer Iron Wall to Invincible but if Gai had the incoming damage taken down by ¾ then not even Bosses would get through Protect Shade.

Now, for his Pilot Skills:

If there’s something Gai Shishioh can do is make a comeback and these skills show why. With both boosts from Hero and Prevail, it’s unlikely anything will be able to take down Gaogaigar save for some massive screw-up from my part.

Conclusion: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Gaogaigar is a beast and easily the 2nd best Super Robot in the game and the crazy thing is that he will get stronger (oooh boy, he will get SO much stronger). Use him, abuse him and don’t feel any guilt. I know I won’t.

Now, with all that done, let’s go back to our usual stuff.

Unit Upgrades:


Gaogaigar gets 2 points in HP, 1 in EN, 2 in Armor and 1 in Weapons.



Volfogg gets a boost to his mobility and EN.


Enryu and Hyoryu share upgrades so they both get 2 points in HP, 1 in EN and 1 in Armor.

…Hold on a minute. I HAVE PROPELLANT TANKS AND CARTRIDGES TO SELL!



Mwahahahaha.


BP Upgrades:



Gai gets 6 more points in Melee and 4 more in Defense.


Hyoryu and Enryu also share BP pools so they get 3 in Melee, 3 in Shooting and 4 in Defense.



Volfogg gets 6 in melee and 3 in Evasion.


Skill Parts:



Gai was the person I was waiting for to give Infight+1 (インファイト) to. All of his attacks will be melee so he’ll make the most out of this.



Also, I’ll be moving Bless close to the front lines now since he’s starting to lag behind in levels. Due to that, I might as well give him a level in Support Defend(援護防御).


Unit Parts:



We only got one useful part which was the Cobham Armor. This part adds +500 to HP and +100 to armor. For the time being, it’s going to Gai since he’ll be going up close to the enemies and Chouryujin can stand back and snipe with his 7 range attack.

This might be switched around depending if some other unit shows up and needs it more.




That's all for today. See you all next mission!