Part 69: Post-Mission 19 Intermission (Includes Unit Analysis #9 - "Greater" Edition)
A rather small update today seeing how the next mission doesn’t have a Prologue, which means it’ll go straight into Part 1 and I’ll need time to set it up. As always, your top aces:
BP Upgrades:
Tetsuya has finally joined and he comes packed with BPs to spend. I’ll build him like Kouji: 12 points in Melee, 5 in Armor, 3 in Accuracy.
Kouji has also gained quite a bit of points from his stampede over Dr. Hell’s troops. He gets 3 points in Melee, 1 in Armor and 1 in Accuracy.
Duo takes 2 in Melee and 1 in Evasion.
Ryouko gets 2 in Melee, 1 in Shooting.
Blade still needs to balance it out: 1 point each in Melee, Shooting and Evasion.
Finally, Volfogg gets 2 points in Melee, 1 point in Evasion (I’ll probably focus solely on Melee now seeing how the Hero skill adds to his Evasion – I added these 5 points just as a safety net).
Skill Parts:
The only piece we got last mission was this Infight from Ashura. It goes to Ryouma.
Unit Upgrades:
Great Mazinger is a really good unit. As such, I’m spending around half our cash to build him up to Kaiser’s level (In other games, Kaiser’s upgrades would’ve passed on to Great but noooo…).
He gets a 3 points boost to HP, EN, Armor and Weapons.
Sousuke also gets a power-up to his weapons.
Blade gets a point in EN and Weapons.
Izumi, Hikaru and Ryouko get an extra point in EN.
Finally, Valhawk/Valstork get a point in HP and Mobility.
Unit Parts:
Tetsuya is an even bigger energy-hog than the Kaiser simply due to the fact that his rocket punches aren’t as good/abusive and he needs to rely on EN-using attacks to hit farther targets. As such, he gets the EN Chip which’ll reduce his EN consumption by 10%.
Heero also relies mostly on his Twin Buster Rifle so he takes the extra Large Generator for +50 EN.
With all that out of the way, let’s have our Unit Analysis for our newcomer – Tetsuya Tsurugi and his Great Mazinger:
DASH, DASH! BA BA BA BA BAM!
Great Mazinger is the “upgraded” Mazinger and it shows. It’s bulkier and stronger than Kouji’s original unit and Tetsuya is also a great pilot.
Of course, it’s not going to beat Mazinkaiser (but, truthfully, there are VERY few units that do) in resilience and raw power but it’s certainly no slouch – it’s got nearly as much HP and Armor and Tetsuya’s Melee and Defense stats are as high as Kouji’s.
Great Mazinger has powerful weapons (and, as you know, also has the Mazin Power buff for +25% damage) but, unlike Kaiser, its range is somewhat limited: if an enemy attacks you from over 5 range, you’re forced to counter it with Thunder Break which will DEVOUR your EN before you realize it (it takes 50 EN per shot – that’s 1/5th of Great’s total).
Do note that its strongest attack, Great Booster, has only 1 shot so use it wisely.
Its (small) issues aside, you’ll still want Great Mazinger out simply because it has such great synergy with Kaiser. It’s got 3 combined attacks of low-ish EN costs and huge power (Double Rocket Punch, Double Kaiser Blade, Double Burning Fire) and, combined with Mazin Power, means it’ll destroy anything short of a boss.
Here are Tetsuya’s Pilot Skills:
- Sword Cut
- Prevail L3
- Strike
- Invincible
- Iron Wall
Conclusion: If you use Mazinkaiser, you’ll want to deploy the Great Mazinger for those great combination attacks. Hell, even if you don’t use it, he’s still very competent.
Try your best to keep him close to enemies in a way that he can counter with his Drill Pressure Punch to avoid having to was EN on constant Thunder Breaks.
He has a friendship bonus with Kouji so keep them close to increase Accuracy and don’t be afraid to spend his huge SP pool on eventual Iron Walls (like Kouji, this’ll put him in a state of near-invincibility).
If his limited-ish range annoys you, there are always High Performance Radar parts to increase it by 1 – though that’ll mean it’s a part-slot not being used on increasing HP/Armor or EN.
As I said above, there’s not prologue to next mission so I’ll get working on part 1 as soon as possible.
There are several old friends to welcome back…
See you all next time!