Characters / Transformers: Fall of Cybertron

Autobots

Optimus Prime

Voiced by: Peter Cullen.

Leader of the Autobots. His Special Ability is Air Strike.

"I will accept the burden, with all that I am."

"It has been a long, painful war with the Decepticons."

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• Arm Cannon: As a nod to Transformers: Prime, Optimus shifts his hand into a gun similar in appearance to what he uses in the series, only much larger.
• Badass Bookworm: During their duel onboard the Ark, Optimus and Megatron have this exchange.
  Megatron: Not bad for a librarian! Perhaps you should have spent more time in the pit!
  Optimus Prime: And perhaps you should have spent more time at the library.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Optimus would rather not fight, but if he has to, he will massacre his way through the Decepticons' ranks to protect his people, and evidences little grief for the passing of their foes. The kicker comes in chapter 10, when he is willing to bleed the Cybertronic lifesblood out of Trypticon in order to acquire the Energon he needs to power the Ark.
• Big Good: Leader of the Autobots and all that.
• Big Damn Hero: The most beautiful four words you can hear as an Autobot:
  Optimus: I'm on my way!
• Blow You Away: During the events where you play as Megatron in the final boss battle, Optimus will occasionally use wind attacks
• Death from Above: His Air Strike ability. It goes even further when he gains the ability to commands Metroplex.
• Determinator
  Ratchet: Optimus may subsist on sheer determination and will alone.
• A Father to His Men: His entire motivation in the game is to save the Autobots and get them to safety. Megatron has other plans.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil: Has difficulty grasping that his Arch-Enemy isn't entirely motivated by rational thinking.
• Guns Akimbo: Uses the Path Blaster, a magma spouting semi-automatic rifle which resembles his Arm Cannon from Transformers: Prime and his classic energy rifle from The Transformers.
• The Hero: Optimus fights for the sake of freedom, justice and liberty, and desires only to see his people brought back to safety.
• Hero Antagonist: He becomes this when Megatron is playable.
• Hope Bringer: Any Autobot in the middle of a firefight praying to Primus for survival sees their prayer answered when Optimus shows up.
  Autobot Soldier: It's Optimus Prime! The 'Cons are in for it now!
• I Did What I Had to Do: He didn't like the decision to retreat and admits that he was tempted to fight to the end, but as Cybertron is longer able to support life and the Decepticons are winning the war, he saw no other option.
  • Likewise, although he doesn't directly state as much, it's obvious that this is how he feels about the decision to siphon the Energon out of the disabled Trypticon after the attack on the Ark and the failure to retrieve the Lost Lake's Energon from the Sea of Rust.
• The Leader: Of the Autobots. It's his "gimmick" in his levels. Optimus is constantly at the fore of an Autobot army fighting a Decepticon one.
• Lightning Bruiser: Of the "fast-moving Mighty Glacier" type. He's very quick and agile, can vaporize most foes in a couple of shots, and tank a blast from Megatron's infamous fusion cannon.
• Meaningful Rename: One of the lines spoken by Teletraan 1 when greeting Optimus has it referring to him as "Orion Pax" before correcting itself.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In the last fight of the game, after Megatron blasts Bumblebee, Optimus finally decides he’s had enough of Megatron. What follows next is Optimus fighting as brutally as he can whether you are controlling him or fighting him.
• Papa Wolf: You start killing his men, he will make you pay.
• The Paragon: The Autobot. He is a Prime for a reason.
• Ramming Always Works: In his vehicle mode, he can destroy enemies by ramming them and uses this as an attack when fought as Megatron in the final battle.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: Not only is he the leader of the Autobots, he's also their best fighter. This interview even pretty much says that some level designing was devoted specifically to making Optimus this and is why calling on Metroplex is his special ability. If a huge, immensely powerful city-sized Transformer will obey Optimus Prime's every command, he must be badass.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Optimus had every right to be mad at Grimlock for leaving his post and opening the Ark to Decepticon assualt, but he instead felt that Grimlock must've had a good reason for doing so and it turns out he did, so Optimus sends Jazz and Cliffjumper to find him and his team.
• The Strategist: An interesting take: there's no argument Optimus is a skilled battle commander and planner; but too often, they don't have the Energon, the ammunition, or even the time to execute more careful and clever plans.
• The Stoic: Optimus tries to maintain a cool and level head, no matter what chaos and suffering he's confronted with.
• Summon Bigger Fish: With the Autobots in very limited numbers, Optimus has one chance to hold off the Decepticons and thus activates Metroplex, a city-sized Autobot that single-handily balances out the battle.
• Tranquil Fury: Manages to maintain a stoic attitude even when delivering a well deserved beatdown to Megatron.

Ratchet

Voiced by: Fred Tatasciore.

The Autobots' main medic.

"Be still. I'll get you fixed up."

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• Demoted to Extra: Playable several times in the original game; cameos in the first couple of missions in this one and in some audio logs scattered throughout the game.
• Everybody Has Standards: In the audio logs, he is the only one who expresses his uneasiness towards using Trypticon's body as an Energon repository - while the latter is still living.
  Ratchet: Though it might be true we have no choice, I am still uneasy about treating a sentient, even one as savage as Trypticon, as a repository for Energon. Trypticon of course took the life of many Autobots. Perhaps it is only fitting he now gives life to so many in return.
  Ratchet: Has Optimus witnessed, first hand, the sight of Trypticon disassembled, pulled from limb to limb? His still-living carcass slowly bled dry by our leeching tubes? Does war give us the right to live like parasites off our fallen enemies? I am hopeful that those wiser than me see issues such as this more clearly than I.
• Light 'em Up: Uses this to blind some Decepticons so Bumblebee can take them down.
• The Medic: It's his primary function to patch up the wounded... not that this stops him from taking healthy 'cons apart if he has to.
• Old Soldier: He's one of the oldest members of the Autobots still active in the war, and yet he's still a skilled medic and a capable skidplate-kicker.
• The Smart Guy: Although he's not the most genius scientist member of the Autobots, the complexities involved in being The Medic to a race of giant transforming robots means he's very adept in all manner of mechanical and cybernetic fields.

Bumblebee

An Autobot Scout. Was rendered mute under unknown circumstances (in Transformers: Prime, which this is sort-of in-continuity with, it's an injury from Megatron) since the last game.

"The only secure way to communicate is by messenger. I volunteered. Name's Bumblebee."

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• Adaptational Badass: In contrast to some of the depictions of the character, this Bumblebee is a brave and fearless fighter who leaps into the fray with no regard for his small size.
• Advertised Extra: Bumblebee appears on the cover, but he has an extremely minor, non-speaking role in the game.
• Badass Adorable: Despite being a war veteran whose presence is nearly as much of a morale boost as that of Optimus, his face is rendered with very childlike features; and of course he's short, round, and yellow.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: Bumblebee's voice chip may be busted, but that doesn't make him any less formidable in combat.
• Demoted to Extra: Used for two chapters in the original and only gets used in the tutorial here.
• Fragile Speedster: He's fast, but can't take that much damage.
• Taking the Bullet: He leaps in front of Megatron's cannon shot to save Optimus at the end of tutorial level. As that scenario was In Medias Res, the same scene plays out again later just before the final battle of the last level.

Ironhide

Voiced by: Keith Szarabajka.

A war veteran and old friend of Optimus' who's main mission is to protect the Ark.

"THAT guy should've stayed home."

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• The Big Guy: His strength and durability are legendary amongst the other Autobots.
• Demoted to Extra: Despite being featured in the trailer and being a main playable character in the original, he appears only in a couple of cinematics, audio logs, and non-combat situations in the game.
• Old Soldier: He may be one of the oldest Autobots, but he's also one of the strongest and the toughest.

Warpath

Voiced by: Jamieson Price.

Another war veteran who absolutely loves fighting.

"Bang bang, you're KABLAMED!"

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• The Big Guy: One of the biggest and the strongest of all the Autobots.
• Blood Knight: He's one of the few Autobots who're having the time of their lives with the endless fighting against the Decepticons.
• Boisterous Bruiser: He just loves to fight, shouting and hollering with glee at the prospect of battle.
• Demoted to Extra: Playable for one level in the last game; here he only shows up as an NPC in two levels. Ironically, he was promoted to a higher position considering he is a Sargent ordering troops this time around.
• Homing Projectile: Uses a rocket launcher with homing missiles whenever he shows up as a fighter.
• Hot-Blooded: Whoops and cheers at the top of his vocal output at the prospect of a fight, charges into the fray without hesitation... yeah, he fits this like a glove.
• Large Ham: His Drill Sergeant Nasty routine is truly a thing to behold.
• Tank Goodness: His vehicle form is a Cybertronian hover tank.

Grimlock

Voiced by: Gregg Berger.

A powerful, very large, Autobot who leads a group known as the Lightning Strike Coalition Force. He was captured by Shockwave and his Insecticons and experimented on to make him even more powerful. His Special Ability is Dino Mode. He dislikes Optimus' less aggressive attitude toward the Decepticons and displays violent behavior that indicates he's not in the best mental health, but is ultimately a good guy underneath it all. He consciously remembers Shockwave rebuilding him and can grasp that power was siphoned away from his brain's circuitry. After Starscream somewhat inadvertently frees him, he plans to get his revenge after rescuing his team.

"No-one-controls-GRIMLOCK!"

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• Aggressive Play Incentive: Grimlock's levels play differently from those of other characters, as he's primarily a melee fighter who regains health as he kills enemies. In addition, each kill fills up his Rage Meter, which allows him to transform into his nigh-unstoppable Tyrannosaurus Rex mode when filled up. Grimlock has no ranged weapons: he must keep pushing forward or eventually even his endurance can give out under sustained enemy fire.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: The Dinobots have a system where only the strongest can lead, and Grimlock is definitely strong enough to earn his leadership position.
• Ax-Crazy: It's somewhat ambiguous if he's this, a Blood Knight, or both. He's more violent than the Autobots, and most of the Decepticons for that matter. He clearly enjoys killing Decepticons and his locker in his room is full of the severed heads of 'Cons that he's killed.
• Breath Weapon: In Dino Mode, he can spew gouts of flame from his mouth.
• Berserk Button:
  • And according to background materials, prepare to be mutilated by the big fella if you bully the helpless innocent.
  • The mere thought of Shockwave or the named Insecticons can drive him into a murderous rage.
• The Berserker: He's such an aggressive and brutal fighter that he can be a hazard to his allies as well as his enemies, according to Optimus.
• BFS: In robot mode he wields a molten-hot retractable metal sword with a blade longer than most 'Cons are tall.
• The Big Guy: He's one of the biggest and strongest Autobot's around, and that's before he goes into Dino mode. When he is in Dino mode, only Bruticus and Metroplex are bigger and stronger than him.
• Bully Hunter: According to his character profile on the box of his official Voyager-Class Fall of Cybertron Toy, (released Late December 2012) Grimlock's motivation for his loyalty to Optimus Prime and the Autobots is listed as thus:
  "He is smart enough to recognize a bully when he sees one; and Grimlock does not like bullies."
• Decomposite Character: Despite being a robot that can transform into a T-rex, Adam Beechen, producer on Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015), has said that Grimlock is a separate character from this one.
• Dinosaurs Are Dragons: Breathes fire in Dino mode.
• Dumb Muscle: He's a case of this, although it's specified that it's mostly just a difficulty with talking. Due to Shockwave's modifications, 98.7% of his power is dedicated to his combat systems, leaving very little for other functions. He's certainly filled with rage, though Optimus implies he's always like that, but he proves to be fairly clever at times.
• A Father to His Men: As dangerous and destructive as he can be, he's still intensely loyal to his friends and deeply protective of them. As his friends are all his squadmates, do the math.
• Foil: Serves as one towards Megatron. Both were originally Gladiators from Kaon who wound up joining different sides in the war: Megatron started the Decepticon movement; while Grimlock would later join the Autobots. Beyond this there is also their manner of treatment towards their own teammates: with Megatron writing his subordinates as acceptable losses should they fall in battle, while Grimlock is willing to put his life on the line for his team and for the innocent.
• Gentle Giant: He may be a massive guy and dangeroud threat to Decepticons, but around his team and innocent civilians he's only gruff yet caring.
• Good Is Not Nice: Fits this trope with a capital T. He puts protecting his friends above revenge against his most hated enemy, but he's insubordinate and disobedient to his commanding officer, and he's got a massive streak of brutality.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: His main projectile in robot mode has him pick up enemies and throw them (except Bruisers and Leapers; they're too big), which instantly kills them and most anything they hit. Using this with clustered enemies can let him kill dozens at a time; he can even use his shield while doing it, rendering him a nigh-invulnerable killing machine.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Life hasn't been very good to him, so he's developed a habit of lashing out at anything that even slightly angers him, which fuels his rage-based Dino powers.
• Hammerspace: His transformation into a T-Rex borrows from his G1 transformation, with his arms turning into the T-rex's legs and his legs in robot mode forming the tail. However, he has some bits of this with his tail, head and T-rex body. Partially Rule of Cool, but mostly because the designers wanted to make sure the design doesn't block the player's view during gameplay (they noted that if they copied the G1 design too much, all the player would see of Grimlock while controlling him is his back).
• Informed Flaw: Grimlock has supposedly had energy be siphoned from his brain's functions, but apart from him commenting about having difficulty thinking and having a hard time saying bigger words, he doesn't appear to be unintelligent.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Sure, he doesn't get along very well with his fellow Autobots (particularly Optimus Prime), but he's shown to care a lot for his team. He also at least agrees with Optimus when it comes to stopping Megatron from plundering another planet and protecting the innocent.
• The Juggernaut: He's huge, incredibly strong, and incredibly tough, which combine to make him almost unstoppable. Fully becomes a juggernaut in Dino mode, where no matter what Shockwave throws at him he will just stomp and smash his way through.
• Kill It with Fire: Can breathe fire in his Dino mode.
• Large Ham: He's a giant Autobot with a bad temper, and the creators have compared him to The Incredible Hulk:
  Grimlock: NO ONE CONTROLS GRIMLOCK!!!
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: In robot mode he has an energon shield as big as him, and it is very good at blocking attacks from the front.
• Mighty Glacier: He's slower than a normal character, but his melee attacks kill most enemies in one hit and he can instant kill everything but Leapers and Insecticon Bruisers using executions (unless he’s in his Dino mode), which also restores his health, or by throwing them. (Executions also freeze the rest of the game, so he takes no damage while using them.) That's without going into his Dino mode, which even with the levels being designed to utilize it, is frankly a Game-Breaker.
• Mook Horror Show: Decepticons who see him often run away in terror, with one of them even preferring to jump to his death rather than stay and fight him. Anybody who does stay and fight gets dismembered. If they're rendered catatonic from fear, he might not kill them. Or he might.
• Never Found the Body: He is presumed killed by the Space Bridge explosion in the final chapter, but no corpse is ever shown.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Assuming the player uses Optimus in the last fight the portal destabilizing from Grimlock breaking the space bridge controls interrupting the fight will save Megatron as Optimus is about to kill him, though alternatively, if the player used Megatron, the event will save Optimus.
• Now That's Using Your Teeth!: He turns into a T-rex, so it should be obvious. Apart from the bite attack that's part of his combo move, his executions on Insecticons in Dino mode, even bruisers, consist of biting clean through them. Then there's biting off and eating Shockwave's arm.
• Ominous Walk: Rare case from a non-villain, where he does this in Dino form, slowly walking towards a terrified Sharpshot before dismembering him.
• One-Man Army: Has the largest number of enemies of any characters in his levels, even more than Bruticus, and his levels include walking right into the heart of the insecticon's main hive and killing every last one of them that tries fighting him.
• One-Hit Kill: His executions:
  • Half the Man He Used to Be: With Insecticon swarmers in Dino mode, after tossing them up into the air, he bites them in half.
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: How he sets for executions in robot mode, and on smaller decepticons he repeatedly stabs them after doing so. If he does it to an Insecticon swarmer, he tears them off his sword.
  • Kill It with Fire: With a leaper, which he can only do in Dino mode, he tosses them into the air and impales them on the tip of his tail and then roasts them with his Breath Weapon.
  • Off with His Head!: His robot mode execution on Shotgunners has him cutting the enemy's head off, after running them through his sword, after which stabs them from behind which knocks them away. When executing bruisers, he lifts them into the air and bites off their head.
• Papa Wolf: Anyone who hurts his team learns the hard way that they'll have to answer to him.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: The first thing he does when he escapes is go on a murderous revenge spree against the Decepticons. This involves beating the Insecticons, killing Sharpshot, and ripping off Shockwave's arm.
• Purposely Overpowered: Grimlock is much stronger than a normal character, him lacking guns doesn't even hold him back much due to his levels being set up in such a way as to make it not much of a weakness. He has four hundred more hit points than a normal character on top of having a stronger, faster recharging shield. While slower than a normal character, he's still faster than the enemies he comes across and the reach of his melee attacks, which can be aimed, allows him to easily kill enemies without much risk of damage. If he takes damage, he can use an execution to fully restore his health. He can also kill enemies in one hit by throwing them, while still using his shield. In his Dino mode, he is even deadlier, his attacks do more damage and have a much greater reach, to the point where since his attacks have such a wide reach, the player only needs to mash the melee button to kill everything near him.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Him being a rare Autobot with red optics really helps emphasize how he's a much deadlier and more dangerous One-Man Army than even Optimus.
• Revenge Before Reason: While not played straight since he does put rescuing his team before getting revenge, when he gets his chance and nearly kills Shockwave before proceeding to destroy the space bridge, the bridge explodes before he can escape.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Aside from rescuing his fellow Dinobots, pretty much the gist of Grimlock's missions is taking revenge against the cause of his torment. His tormenters? Shockwave and the Insecticons.
• Shield Bash: He can smash enemies with his shield hard enough to scatter them in pieces.
• Shockwave Stomp: His robot mode melee combo finisher slams his word into the ground to hurt all surrounding enemies, while his Dino mode has literal shockwave-causing stomping as the default attack.
• Sociopathic Soldier: A rare heroic example, this version of Grimlock loves harming surrendering Decepticons.
• Sports Hero Backstory: Just like Megatron, Grimlock also was originally a Gladiator from the Kaon Arena before the war broke out on Cybertron.
• Super Mode: His Special Ability has him transform into a Tyrannosaurus rex, trading in his sword and shield for stomp attacks, bites and tail sweeps. These have a much greater reach and allow him to make short work of huge crowds of enemies. He can also execute Leapers (and can destroy them without having to hit their unarmored back unlike in robot mode) and Bruisers in this form and gains a powerful flamethrower attack, which while not as powerful as his melee attacks, does send enemies running scared when used, meaning he can chase them down and finish them off without resistance. When he dashes, he'll also knock any enemies aside, no matter how big they are.
• Super-Strength: He was already a tough and strong bot to begin with, but he and Swoop comment that following his tranformation he got strong enough to rip doors off their hinges and crush 'Cons with his bare hands. Taken to the extreme with Dino Mode, where the Unstoppable Rage fueling it makes him produce shockwaves with every move and able to easily crush Giant Mook Insecticons that gave his robot mode a challenge.
• Tail Slap: His Dino mode's melee finisher has him spin around to smack enemies with his big and thick tail, which doesn't just damage them, it sends them flying, even Leapers and Bruisers.
• Tank Goodness: According to Word of God, Grimlocks' original alt-mode before becoming a T-Rex was a Cybertronian Tank, something quite fitting for The Juggernaut like him.
• Token Evil Teammate: He was an argumentative and nasty brute even before Shockwave's twisted experiments.
• Transformation Is a Free Action: For him it is, because his sequence takes longer. Presumably his enemies are frozen in fear.
• Unstoppable Rage: His Dino mode is triggered by intense rage and hatred. At the end of Chapter 12 he gets so mad he can keep it going for as long as he likes.
• Vocal Evolution: Gregg Berger reprises his role of Grimlock from G1. The main difference is that Grimlock's characterization is more along the line of the "Shrewd mind behind brutish mannerisms" comics characterization.
• Wolverine Wannabe: Grimlock has always been the Autobot equivalent of Wolverine ^note  an anti-authority berserker, down to having similar headbutting relationships with Optimus and Prowl that Logan has with Cyclops and this game takes it up a notch by making Grimlock's dinosaur powers the product of torturous science experiments, a la Weapon X.

Slug

Voiced by: Travis Willingham.

Grimlock's 2nd in command. Was turned into a Triceratops by Shockwave, but escaped on his own before meeting up with Grimlock.

"Excuse me."

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• Adaptational Name Change: Traditionally, his name is Slag, but the combination of that being a real-life profanity^note in British English, a "slag" is a rude, usually ugly, coarse, foul-mouthed and sexually indiscriminate woman and the fact "slag!" is often used as an In-Universe profanity in Transformers media prompted a change to a more "friendly" name.
• Deadpan Snarker: Loves to snark his boss.
• Dynamic Entry: He announces his presence by kicking down a door, which hits Kickback.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: His dino mode features a pair of very prominent horns on the front and ramming enemies is a favorite tactic of his. Do the math. Most notably, he eliminates an Insecticon Bruiser with a single hit by impaling his horns into its optic sensors.
• The Lancer: To Grimlock.
• Left Hanging: As with Grimlock, his fate after the events of the game is unknown.
• Lightning Bruiser: Very fast alt-mode despite being the largest character in the game apart from Grimlock, Bruticus and Metroplex.
• Only Sane Man: Of the prominently featured Dinobots, he's the most normal. He's the only Dinobot who continually suggests reporting to Optimus and calling for backup. It's a notable contrast from his other counterparts.
• Ramming Always Works: For him it does, seeing as his alt-mode is a Triceratops. Shockwave's logs even state that it was the intent of his design.
• Sizeshifter: Slug's robot mode is around the size of Bumblebee and Jazz, but his alt-mode is the size of an Insecticon bruiser (this makes him the fourth largest character in the game next Grimlock in Dino-form, Bruticus, and Metroplex). If you look at him after he transforms, you'll notice that he grows bigger.
• Temper-Ceratops: Downplayed; while he is a force to be reckoned with in his Triceratops mode, he tries to get his teammates to report to Optimus.
• When All You Have Is a Hammer…: He doesn't seem to have any weapons and all the fighting he does onscreen is in his dino-form by ramming everything in his path. This works against all of his foes and he even appears to be able to tunnel with it.

Swoop

Voiced by: Mark Allan Stewart.

An expert bomber and good friend of Grimlock. His modifications cause him to become a Pterosaur.

"I like flying!"

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• Brooklyn Rage: Averted. He's the only Dinobot with a prominent Brooklyn accent, but he's easily the most upbeat and friendliest of them.
• Cool Plane: It's implied that his unseen original alt-mode was one prior to being reformatted into a Dinobot. His Pterosaur Dino mode functions as one in gameplay terms for multiplayer.
• Cursed with Awesome: Swoop considers his new alt-mode to be this after the painful conversion he and the rest of his team were put through by Shockwave, though to be fair to the guy; Swoop doesn't remember what exactly happened.
• Flight: In his Dino mode.
• Keet: Has a surprisingly upbeat attitude despite the current situation and actually considers the changes done to him an improvement, liking the new power he has. Granted, he wasn't conscious like Grimlock was when Shockwave rebuilt him and he didn't have any changes done to his mind.
• Left Hanging: As with Grimlock, his fate after the events of the game is unknown.
• Motor Mouth: "SHUT UP AND FIGHT, SWOOP!"
• Nice Guy: He's actually the most easy-going, friendly and diplomatic member of the Dinobots, before and after his transformation.
• The Smart Guy: He's clearly the most intelligent member of his team, although that could be due to the mental alterations to the rest of his team by Shockwave more than anything else.

Cliffjumper

Voiced by: Nolan North.

A test subject for cloaking technology who's partnered up with Jazz in search of Grimlock's whereabouts. His Special Ability is Cloak.

"I'm not called Cliffjumper for nothing."

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• Deadpan Snarker: Snarks at Jazz's terrible decisions with his dry sense of humor.
• Glass Cannon: His size makes him fairly fragile, but his combination of stealthy execution techniques and disproportionate strength means he can dish out a lot of damage.
• Functional Addict: A few of Teletraan 1's greeting lines when talking with Cliffjumper indicates a history of this.
  Apologies, Cliffjumper: Glass Gas is not available.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: According to the official website, he's a professionally trained fighter.
• Invisibility Cloak: His special ability allows him to use a prototype cloaking field to go invisible.
• Leeroy Jenkins: While he is good at being stealthy, he usually prefers to fight his opponents head on, to the point he actually likes Grimlock's style. This of course bites him in the ass occasionally, most notably during a Jazz-playing segment where he tries to off Shockwave in the middle of his conversation with Megatron with no plan whatsoever.
• Neck Snap: One of his executions.
• One-Hit Kill: Can "silently" (as in, if no one is looking, no one will notice, despite there being plenty of noise) execute unaware enemies while cloaked.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: He's noted as being abnormally strong for a Minibot, which is why he's so deadly after being given cloaking tech.

Jazz

Voiced by: Troy Baker.

A close friend of Optimus Prime who's partnered up with Cliffjumper. His Special Ability is Grappling Hook.

"See? Under control, baby."

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• The Ace: Whatever Jazz does, he looks good doing it, and makes it look easy all while still being very effective in his duties.
• Cool Car: His alt mode doesn't have any abilities any other car doesn't have. But he has a unique model, and it is, as might be expected, the coolest-looking one.
• Cool Shades: Wears some snazzy shades.
• Deadpan Snarker: To Cliffjumper whom he loves to tease.
• Early-Bird Cameo: In the first game "War For Cybertron," One can find him on three separate occasions throughout the level "Kaon Prison Break" as a prisoner (and escapee).
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: His main ability. It also doubles as a reference to his 80s cartoon self, who did come equipped with a grappling hook.
• Le Parkour: His fighting style and movement is full of movement.
• Lightning Bruiser: He’s durable for someone his size, hits quick and powerfully.
• Nerves of Steel: Doesn't matter the situation, he always acts like he's totally in control (because he usually is).
• Shotguns Are Just Better: The Scatter Blaster, his default weapon.
• Soul Brotha: As usual, Jazz speaks like an African-American man, similar to Scatman Crothers in the original cartoon.
  Teletraan 1: Stay smooth, Jazz.
• Sports Hero Backstory: Was previously a Racer before joining the Autobots as noted by Teletraan I.
  Teletraan I: Jazz, Racing Legend turned Warrior.
• Strong as They Need to Be: His strength tends to increase when he uses his Grappling Hook. When not using it, he needed Cliffjumper to help him move a fairly large chunk of debris. When using it, he could easily yank Bruticus' leg out from under him.
• You Are Fat: According to this exchange during Chapter V, we learn that Jazz is somewhat sensitive about how much he weighs:
  Jazz: *after falling* Scrap! Thought that would hold!
  Cliffjumper: Your head was too big.
  Jazz: Careful! I'm sensitive about my weight!

Jetfire

Voiced by: Troy Baker.

An Autobot scientist and Aerialbot. His Special Ability is Shockwave.

"Alright, Autobots! Let's turn and burn!"

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• Badass Bookworm: Very knowledgeable on the Energon core and it’s effects to transformers.
• Cool Plane: His alt-mode.
• Demoted to Extra: One of the three playable characters in the flying Autobot mission of Transformers: War for Cybertron, he gets a much shorter playable sequence during the final battle, and otherwise is a background character or present in the occasional audio log.
• Flight: Flies extremely fast.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: He speaks with some kind of accent, but you can't tell which. It sounds like an amalgamation of a Scottish, British, and Australian accent.

Metroplex

Voiced by: Fred Tatasciore.

An ancient Autobot titan the size of a city, awakened by Optimus Prime to turn the tide of the war. Technically not playable; his actual presence in gameplay is to give Optimus Prime the ability to call artillery strikes.

"Metroplex heeds the call of the last prime."

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• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Now keep in mind, your average Cybertronian is probably around 20-40 feet tall to begin with. So it's more like Attack of the 50,000 Foot Whatever, and it really shows in how he can easily crush Giant Mooks just by stepping on them.
• Badass Adorable: He's absolutely giant, but his politeness and willingness to help his allies just makes you want to hug him.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Megatron learned the hard way that this Gentle Giant isn't so gentle to his enemies.
• BFG: He is outright coated in numerous massive cannons, each of which individually can vaporize an entire squad of Decepticons at once, and when using all of them he really exemplifies Person of Mass Destruction
• The Big Guy: He's the biggest (literally), strongest, and most combatively destructive force on the Autobot's side whenever he's in a fight.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Him showing up sends the entire Decepticon army into a panic, but even that doesn't get any more curb-stompy than smashing Megatron with his fist. Repeatedly.
• Genius Loci: During Optimus's first mission, an unnamed character in Perceptor's lab is studying a monitor which, if you know your Transformers, you'll recognize as Metroplex's base mode. He comments, when prompted by Optimus, "it's like the city is repairing itself."
• Gentle Giant: Is extremely humble and polite if you're on his side. If not, well, you won't be around long enough to care.
• Guardian Entity: Yeah, just try to hurt Optimus while Metroplex is around. Megatron learned this the hard way.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Gives his life force to power the Ark.
• Hope Bringer: Awakens in the Autobot's darkest hour and single-handedly turns the tide of the battle. Later, he sacrifices himself to let the Autobots escape Cybertron.
• Humongous Mecha: So huge that Optimus Prime, who for us humans is the height of a two story building, is proportionally speaking the size of a grain of rice on Metroplex's hand.
• The Juggernaut: The entire Decepticon army can't stop him, let alone a few shots from Megatron. Even a point-blank shot from a warp cannon only knocks him out temporarily.
• Let Them Die Happy: He looks at The Ark as it departs, filled with hope for the future of the Autobots.
• Meaningful Name: Metroplex, as in, a the combined urban area of multiple cities. The implications are both obvious and awesome.
• Mighty Glacier: Relatively speaking. He doesn't walk too fast, but he's so large that he covers huge distances faster than Optimus's vehicle mode. Meanwhile, he's so huge and heavily armored that no ground-based weapon is strong enough to hurt him. It takes one of the building-sized Warp Cannons shooting at him in point-blank range that the Decepticons manages to put him down, and even then it only manages to temporarily stun him.
• More Dakka: Has a pair of huge forward facing cannons on his shoulders and another pair of being skyward pointing ones.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Even being shot point-blank by a warp cannon couldn't keep him down for long. During the level itself, you'll notice he's basically getting shot at constantly and he ignores it.
• One-Man Army: Extra points for being the size of an army and actually taking on the Decepticon army and winning. The entire Decepticon army.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: His brightly glowing red optics clash a bit with his otherwise gentle facial features, which really helps emphasize how this Gentle Giant is the absolute biggest case of a One-Man Army in the game, with the entire Decepticon armada being little more than an inconvenience to his desire for aiding Optimus.
• Remember the New Guy?: Metroplex is the sole exception to all the new "old friends" popping up in this game, seeing as he spent all of his time before this game as a city with no one the wiser. The Autobots are just as surprised by and in awe of him as the Decepticons - probably even a little afraid of him at first, as a few of them express relief that he's on their side.
• Sacrificial Lion: In the final mission, he gives up his own reserves of Energon to power the Ark due to there being no more left on the entire planet.
• Sealed Good in a Can: No one, not even really old bots like Ironhide, remembers Metroplex; the ancient Cybertronians, when their society was more peaceful, probably had him sleep away the eons until needed.
• Spanner in the Works: Even the Autobots didn't know he existed until they rerouted power to a set of artillery cannons that were part of his alt-mode, which began to awaken him from his slumber; naturally the Decepticons couldn't possibly have anticipated him.
• Story-Breaker Power: His sudden appearance basically motivates everything in the plot. He singlehandedly stops any and all attempts to assault the Ark again, gives Megatron a beating which makes Starscream the new leader and prompts Soundwave to rebuild him in a new body, the Energon given to him means that the Autobots need to find other reserves and with the Ark a no-go to enter Shockwave's portal, Megatron is forced to rebuild Trypticon into a ship.
• Summon Bigger Fish: He is the bigger fish that the Autobots didn't even know they had on their side until Optimus awakened him.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Almost all of his attacks, be it blasting 'Cons with his giant cannons bigger than they are, or crushing them. And let's not forget the beatdown he gave Megatron.
• Too Powerful to Live: The fact that he's more powerful than anything the Decepticons can offer means he inevitably has to die for the conflict to remain believable, which comes eventually about through him literally being too powerful to live, since he drained almost the entirety of the Autobots' stored Energon they need to fly the Ark upon being activated, and when they can't find any more to replace it, he gives it all up again so that they can leave Cybertron.
• Tranquil Fury: He expresses emotions, but always maintains a calm demeanor even when laying waste to the Decepticon army and giving his life to power the Ark.

Perceptor

Voiced by: Jim Ward.

The head of the Autobots' science division, meaning he's largely in charge of the Ark project.

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• Devil's Advocate: Seems to favor pointing out the obvious downside of certain necessary actions. He's technically right, e.g., that activating old artillery to fight off the Decepticon attack on the Ark ends up draining so much Energon that the Ark they just fought to save can no longer launch, let alone leave the system, but if they hadn't fought off the attack they'd have all the Energon they needed to launch but nothing to launch with it.
• Not So Above It All: He may be The Spock, but that's not to say he can't appreciate a bit of Decepticon-mashing. Excellently shown with this comment from him after Optimus uses his new Air Strike ability to destroy a Decepticon Transport Ship. You can just hear the satisfaction in his voice.
  Perceptor: I believe the scientific term for that is pulverized!
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Doesn't get much opportunity to stretch his legs, but he does seem to be in charge of every aspect of Autobot science.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: He uses lots of long, complicated words to indicate his general intelligence.
• Tank Goodness: His omniscope alt-mode functions as a tank in multiplayer modes where he is playable.
• The Smart Guy: He's the smartest scientist the Autobots have left.
• The Spock: As is standard for Perceptor, he operates purely under a logical mentality.
• Voice with an Internet Connection: Guides Optimus for the last half or so of the second mission.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Probably the main reason that he's not a playable character in the single player campaign mode. The only time we see him transform in the game he becomes a sort of omniscope (in keeping with his original transformation in the toys, where he could alternately act as a telescope or microscope).

Decepticons

Megatron

Voiced by: Fred Tatasciore.

Leader of the Decepticons. Aims to eradicate all surviving Autobots even though he's effectively won. His Special Ability is Hover.

"Through my will alone shall Cybertron be restored."

"Rejoice, my Decepticons! Victory is nearly ours!"

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• Adaptational Nice Guy: Transformers: Exodus showed that in spite of him rebelling against the Fantastic Caste System, Megatron hated Minicons, expressing an idle desire to step on Soundwave's posse. In-game one has the option to pet Laserbeak on the head, and though he snaps at Megatron, Megs merely laughs it off.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: He all but invokes the trope name in chapter 9 when he reminds Starscream that he's sending Mooks to kill Megatron in the same gladiatorial arena that he won over the Decepticons in.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Deconstructed; a major reason he succeeds is because his complete absence of rationality terrifies and confuses most who fight him in addition to his incredible strength. However, when his opposition can outlast him and isn't remotely cowed by his attempts at sowing terror, he just comes across as a lunatic that's refusing to let go of his combat high. It gets him smashed to bits by Metroplex.
• Ax-Crazy: Not as bad as the Insecticons, but he loves combat and destruction, feeling part of the fun of a battle is leading it himself.
• Back from the Dead: Rebuilt by Soundwave after he's smashed to pieces by Metroplex.
• Badass Boast: Delivers several over the course of the game, most notably after his return
  Megatron: Run Autobots! Megatron lives!
• Bad Boss: Though he doesn't display those tendencies as much as the last game, probably since he's low on manpower. Still, he is not the best bot to work for, it's just that Starscream manages to be worse.
  • Case in point? In chapter 10, he leads a mission to recover Trypticon's power core — his "heart" — for fuel. Upon finding out that Trypticon is still alive, he has him salvaged and forcibly rebuilt into a new intergalatic spacecraft, even after being told that failing to repair him first will trap the damaged Decepticon warrior in his new spaceship body. In fact, he takes a moment to specifically lambaste Trypticon for his failure to defeat the Autobots during the events of the last game, stating that his new fate is fitting punishment for that failure.
• BFG: His Fusion/Riot Cannon.
• BFS: He uses a long, energy-bladed sword as his melee weapon of choice.
• Big Bad: He is the primary source of conflict in the game.
• Bullying a Dragon: His reaction to seeing Metroplex rip the roof of his command centre? Stand there and shoot at him. Metroplex squashes him like a bug in response, killing him.
• Came Back Strong: Soundwave takes the opportunity to do some upgrades while rebuilding him after his death by Metroplex's fist. Megatron is at first miffed that Soundwave tried to " [...] improve upon perfection", but soon grows to like his new body.
• Disney Death: Is literally pummelled into the ground by Metroplex, resulting in his temporary demise, but Soundwave later rebuilds him.
• Emergency Transformation: He starts out with his design from the previous game, but after Metroplex wrecks him, Soundwave and his minions rebuild him, taking the liberty of making some improvements in the process.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He's not pleased with Starscream for wasting the Decepticons' dwindling Energon supply on "self-worship". What eventually follows are a series giant statues (larger than the ones Starscream had) of himself being put up, though the swiftness of their being produced indicates they were just brought out of storage along with them not being gold-plated to allude to his humble gladitorial origins. Megatron also at least had an idea for solving the Energon dilemma.
• Eviler than Thou: He eventually makes it clear to Starscream who the true Decepticon leader is.
  Megatron: Enjoy your brief respite as leader! It will not last!
• Evil Is Hammy: He practically screams half his lines, especially if it involves boasting or making threats.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Courtesy of Fred Tatasciore.
• Fatal Flaw: It's a toss-up between Pride and Wrath. Megatron's arrogance is the stuff of legend; Cybertron is dying around them, and he still insists that only he can save it, completely ignoring that its current state is a result of his own actions. However, his lust for blood and destruction, and obsessive pursuit of vengeance for even the smallest slight, is just as driving as his sheer ego.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Started out as an unimportant, knuckle-headed gladiator spilling mech-fluid for Energon shards in the arenas of Kaon. Went on to inspire a revolution that ultimately destroyed his homeworld.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Megatron when acting as the Final Boss pulls his Riot Cannon out during a Quick Time Event, which during actual gameplay in the fight he can't use.
• Ground Pound: Can perform this while using Hover, unleashing a powerful shockwave that can kill many enemies and blow back the tougher ones. When he arrives to take back control from Starscream, he can pull this off right in the middle of a crowd of Starscream's supporters as his opening (and dramatic) gambit.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: When playing as Megatron for the final fight, Optimus disarms and impales him with his own sword. Megatron takes it well, as he uses this opportunity to grab Optimus and land some blows.
• I Am the Noun: Calls himself the "solution," contrasting with calling Optimus the "problem”.
• Jerkass: He takes any chance he can to spite Optimus and very rarely shows respect to anybody.
• The Juggernaut: Megatron's main gameplay mechanic is that he is incredibly mobile and his signature weapon is horrifically powerful.
  Autobot Soldier: That's a hit, I think we hurt him!
  Autobot General: You didn't even hurt his feelings!
• Kick the Dog: Besides trying to kill the Autobots when all they're trying to do is escape the war, he also kills two captured Autobots right in front of Optimus just to spite him.
• Knight of Cerebus: Contrasting with the last game, comedy almost completely stops whenever he shows up and his villainous traits are much horrific.
• Large Ham: Hams it up when he yells, and even in his quieter moments he still boasts about him superiority and power.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: While you play as him, he'll sometimes say "I should not be doing this" when you spend time looking around for goodies. Similarly, when you pick up ammunition, he notes that he (the supreme commander of a vast army) shouldn't have to look for it.
• Leave No Survivors: What he wants to do to the Autobots. As he puts it: "I'll stop when all of you are dead!"
• Lightning Bruiser: Like Optimus, he can move extremely quickly, even having a hover ability, but he can tank damage with the best of them and he hits like a tank.
• Made of Iron: Justified by his gladiator background.
• Milking the Giant Cow: Megatron curls his fingers while telling Trypticon his fate.
• Mook Horror Show: Megatron's fight against Starscreams' followers in the Kaon Arena.
  Decepticon Soldier: He's unstoppable!
  Megatron: You are unfit to be called Decepticons!
  Decepticon Soldier: For Starscream!
  Megatron: YOU DARE ATTACK ME!? Martyr as many of your fools as you wish Starscream, I'm just breaking in my new systems.
• Narcissist: His response to Soundwave reviving and upgrading him.
  Megatron: Never improve upon perfection, Soundwave!
• Never My Fault: Blames Optimus for Cybertron's shutdown, even though the reason the planet shut down in the first damn place was to repair the damage from the Dark Energon Megatron infused into it.
• Not Quite Flight: He can hover for a short time.
• One-Man Army: All throughout his chapter, you get to hear the panicked transmissions of Autobots who are stuck in the middle of Megatron's path as he cuts a swathe through their base. Single-handedly.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Decides not to go after Starscream following his dethroning by him, reasoning that the Decepticons have bigger problems to worry about.
• Pride: His ego is the size of a mountain, totally convinced that he and only he can restore Cybertron and lead the Decepticons. Granted, when Starscream took lead he failed miserably, so the latter is at least justified, but he still refuses to believe anybody else could achieve his envisioned goals.
• Rank Scales with Asskicking: As Optimus' equal and opposite in leadership and authority, he's just as capable of kicking ass and taking names, as shown when following his rebuilding he utterly brutalizes the entirety of his former army after they thought it was a good idea to stick with Starscream.
• Small Name, Big Ego: A variant; he's famous and powerful for real, but his ego and his delusions of competency still outweigh his actual competency. Two brilliant examples of Megatron's planning being less than stellar are the whole "infuse a highly corruptive and destructive element into Cybertron's Core" thing, which effectively killed the planet, and his ordering Trypticon, one of his greatest and most powerful warriors, being rebuilt into the Nemesis, a process that leaves him irreversibly trapped in that comparatively limited form forever and thus deprives Megatron's army of one of its greatest weapons out of sheer impatience and/or spite.
• Spikes of Villainy: Eventually gets some spikes added to his design following being rebuilt.
• Sports Hero Backstory: During his battle against Starscreams' followers in the Kaon Arena, Megatron shares this nugget of information with the upstart Sky Commander.
  Megatron: You forget Starscream, it was in this gladiatorial arena I proved myself worthy to lead!
  Starscream: That day is long past, Megatron.
  Megatron: THAT DAY WILL LIVE FOREVER!
• Tank Goodness: His vehicle mode is a big tank with an equally impressive cannon.
• Tautological Templar: Argues that everything he does is for the good of Cybertron and sees anybody that opposes him as being in the wrong. His plan to convert Trypticon into the Nemesis was, in his mind an act of compassion, since it would allow Trypticon to make up for his earlier defeat, even though it would leave him stuck in that form.
• Too Dumb to Live: Thinks standing right in front of the massive Autobot and shooting at him is a great idea. In brilliant irony, he calls his Decepticons fools for doing the right thing and running away. Starscream is right to say it’s his own fault.
• Unstoppable Rage: His desire to kill Optimus and the Autobots is heavily motivated by personal hate.
• Villainous Valor: Megatron might be a psychotic egomaniacal despot, but he leads from the front and by example.
• Villain Protagonist: He's both the Big Bad and a playable character, so he qualifies.
• Why Won't You Die?: Says this word for word in his final boss battle with Optimus.
  Optimus Prime: It'll take more than you've got, Megatron!

Starscream

Voiced by: Sam Riegel.

Megatron's treacherous second-in-command. His Special Ability is Cloak.

"If anyone can hear ME, feel free to listen in as I execute your friends."

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• Adaptational Badass: Unlike the traditional bungling coward, this Starscream is a genuinely skilled and dangerous foe, quite capable of fighting fairly with almost anyone. Not that he needs to fight fairly, as his cloaking field lets him get the drop on bots with deadly results.
• Bad Boss: Even more so than Megatron. Megatron was at least willing to give praise for a job well done... well, some of the time, at least. Starscream won't even do that, and berates the Combaticons for disobeying him when they actually salvaged a mission he fouled up.
• Beard of Evil: Unless it's meant to be his chin, he has a single "spike" on his jaw reminicent of a goatee.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Starscream seems harmless, thanks to his laughable combination of arrogance, glory hounding and cowardice. When actually in the fray, though, he's a lethal killer.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Starscream wants to be leader not because he's a better leader or commander, but just for the sake of being the leader. At first, Onslaught puts up with him, devising the plans, but letting Starscream take credit for them. Later on, when Starscream proves just how incompetent he is not only as a commander, but as a leader, Onslaught calls him out on it in complete and utter disgust.
• Combat Pragmatist: He ambushes Optimus at the end of Chapter 3, sticks bombs on his opponents while they aren't looking, and uses stealth to kill off unsuspecting bots.
• Cool Plane: His alt-mode is some kind of Cybertronian jet-fighter.
• Dirty Coward: It's a trait of Starscream's that while he's actually fairly powerful, the moment things don't go his way he'll often assume he's outmatched and hide behind others or beg for mercy. Prime (ahem) example being his brief encounter with Grimlock; once Grimlock grabs him, Starscream goes from mocking him to pleading not to be killed.
• Disproportionate Retribution: He has Onslaught and the Combaticons arrested for defying his orders and calling him out on botching the plan.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: No matter the actor, Starcream's image as a conniving, prideful, self-serving bastard isn't complete without a high-pitched scratchy raspiness.
• Fragile Speedster: He can't take that much damage from enemy weapons, but he is the fastest Decepticon alive.
• General Failure: Because he wants all the glory and respect, he refuses to listen to advice from underlings and leaps into battle headlong. Add in his cowardice making him quick to flee when things seem to be going against him, and his plans turn out to be disastrous.
• Groin Attack: One of Starscream's animations for stealth-killing an enemy is to kick them between the legs before attaching a bomb to them.
• It's All About Me: He wants to lead the Decepticons, not because he thinks he could do things better than Megatron, but because his Pride means he refuses to take orders from anybody.
• Jerkass: More so than Megatron in terms of his usual behavior, refusing to even so much as give a compliment.
• Karma Houdini: As always, Starscream gets away with his betrayals again, this time because Megatron had bigger problems to worry about.
  Megatron: He's not worth the time.
• Large Ham: His massive inflated ego oozes into his dialogue.
• Leeroy Jenkins: He refuses to listen to Onslaught's warning about the Energon transport being armed with heavy artillery, and charges headlong into battle with the rest of the Decepticons forces. They get their skidplates handed to them, leaving Onslaught and the Combaticons to salvage the mission.
• Invisibility: Naturally, the cowardly but vicious traitor has a cloaking field. Like he needed more Paranoia Fuel in his systems!
• Mook Horror Show: Gets a minor example of this in chapter 11, where he invisibly stalks and then murders two Decepticons, then proceeds to stealth-kill his way through to Shockwave's lab.
• Never My Fault: Blames the Combaticons for losing half of the Energon from the Autobot's transport when it crashed, even though the mission went south in the first place because of Starscream's incompetence. He even goes as far as to imprison them simply for insulting him.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: He let Grimlock escape, putting a stop to Shockwave's plans to use him and the Dinobots as weapons. Not only did they run over a big chunk of the surviving Decepticons and slaughter a significant portion of the Insecticons, but given what the audio logs found early the game said about the Ark's light armament, allowing Grimlock to go free and destroy the Space Bridge might have likely saved the Ark as well.
• Pointy-Haired Boss: When he takes charge, he leads a mission to recapture Energon the Autobots jacked from the Sea of Rust. Onslaught devises most of the plan and the Combaticons put it into motion. Then, Onslaught discovers the transport system has too many air defenses for an air assault to do anything, and advises calling off the attack. Starscream calls him a coward and sends in the troops, who promptly get slaughtered. Onslaught salvages the mission with just his 5-bot team and manages to get away with at least half of the Energon. Starscream blames him for the "failure", as half the Energon was destroyed when they brought down the transport, and Onslaught points out the Autobots would have gotten all of it if his team followed Starscream's orders. Starscream has him and the other Combaticons arrested for insulting him. (In comparison, Megatron would have likely executed them on the spot for such insubordination, but then Megatron probably wouldn't have found himself in that situation to begin with.)
• Pride: Amongst other things, during his reign, he routinely makes long, self-indulgent speeches along with covering the Decepticon fortress in Kaon with over-sized gold-plated statues of himself, and every other line he utters through the game has something do with admiring his perceived greatness or emphasizing himself. He makes Megatron look humble by comparison. Heck, his whole motive for leading the Decepticons comes from this: he's so arrogant he thinks he deserves to lead more than Megatron, and despite doing a worse job leading and being a weaker warrior, berates Megatron as a failure and refuses to admit his own failings.
• Replacement Scrappy: Starscream is this in-universe for the Decepticons after Megatron is killed by Metroplex, with them getting sick of him after literally less than a week (between the first mission and the final mission, in-game calendar advances only 6 Earth days). During chapter 9 after Megatron sends him running scared, talking to the other Decepticons (notably the Combaticons), they'll go into how much they hated him, with Brawl saying he wanted to smash Starscream's statue the moment he saw it built.
• Skewed Priorities: He wastes most of the Decepticons' Energon supply on statues of himself rather than trying to find a way to escape the dying Cybertron.
• Small Name, Big Ego: A darker take compared to other versions of him that used this trope. He's too arrogant to take advice and feels he deserves to lead the Decepticons out of an unearned sense that he's better than everyone else. Megatron at least paid lip service to the Decepticon cause, and arguably was its exemplar; all Starscream is concerned with is people obeying him on pain of horrible unspecified pain and death.
• Smug Snake: As is usually the case, Starscream's arrogance and ego outstrip his common sense and skill.
• Spanner in the Works: After being kicked out of the Decepticon army by the recently restored Megatron, he decides to become one of these in order to give Megatron the proverbial middle finger by interfering with Shockwave's experiments, which culminates with him inadvertently setting the captive Dinobots free.
• The Starscream: Of course, though he's in particularly memorable form here, taking his backstabbing and self-service to an artform. There's even an achievement and chapter called 'Starscream's Betrayal'.
• Suicidal Overconfidence: Ordered a full frontal aerial assault on the Autobot Transport despite of being informed of its powerful anti-air defenses. Then there's his idea to try and recruit Grimlock, assuming that the destructive, angry Autobot who has energy diverted from his brain is something he can order around like a trained dog.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Disappears at the end of Fall of Cybertron and doesn't reappear at all during the final battle, though since the game is in the same continuity as Transformers Prime, Megatron does ultimately let him back in.
• 0% Approval Rating: By the end of the game. Not only seen as an enemy by the Autobots, but the only Decepticons that might have had any faith in him as a leader were either killed by Megatron or abandoned him when they saw how much of a coward he was.
  • Even Teletraan I doesn't like him, as one of its "Goodbye" phrases to the Combaticons is "You are unlikely to survive Starscream's leadership."

Soundwave

Voiced by: Isaac C. Singleton Jr.

The Decepticons' surveillance officer and Megatron's most loyal follower. His Special Ability is Eject Minicons.

"Autobots. How predictable."

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• Badass Bookworm: An extremely intelligent surveillance officer.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: He never speaks for the sake of speaking: he issues commands or instructions, responds to questions, or acknowledges orders, always with as few words as possible. And he will mess you up if you cross him.
• Creepy Monotone: As is traditional for the character, he speaks in the most robotic fashion of all the Decepticons. Even Shockwave has more of a personality than he does.
• Co-Dragons: With Onslaught when Megatron returns.
• Drone Deployer: He uses his loyal Casseticons Rumble, Frenzy and Laserbeak in battle.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Initially intends to repair Trypticon but Megatron shoots down repairing him. Soundwave also warns Megatron that converting Trypticon into the Nemesis without repairs means his alt-mode will be permanent, Megatron actually prefers that idea to punish Trypticon for his failure in the last game.
• Evil Genius: He is one of the Decepticon science leaders for a reason.
• Genius Bruiser: He's strong, and he's intelligent enough to rebuild Megatron after he's smashed by Metroplex.
• Shock and Awe: The E.D.K. Techvolt, his default weapon.
• Summon Magic: Summons Laserbeak and Rumble to aid in battle or for specific situations.
• Undying Loyalty: As faithfully loyal to Megatron as always. Even after he's killed by Metroplex, he stays loyal to him and rebuilds him.
• We Can Rebuild Him: He rebuilds Megatron after Metroplex destroys him, having to use a bunch of replacement parts since Metroplex kinda crushed a lot of them.

Combaticons

Voiced by: Travis Willingham (Onslaught), Dave Boat (Vortex), Nolan North (Brawl and Bruticus) Steve Blum (Swindle), and Keith Silverstein (Blast Off).

A team of skilled and powerful Decepticons capable of combining into the mighty Bruticus. Three of them are playable; their Special Abilities are Shockwave, Grappling Hook and Sonic Pain Wave belonging to Vortex, Swindle and Bruticus, respectively.

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• A Father to His Men: Villainous example, Onslaught is this in regards to his unit; despite being gruff and tough to his team, he's still concerned for their wellbeing, even if he has to yell at them.
• Ascended Extra: Onslaught wasn't part of the main story mode in the original game and only appeared as DLC content. He was an unlockable character in the DS version and a minor boss in the Autobot Campaign. In Fall of Cybertron his role's been greatly increased and he's one of the main Decepticons in the story.
• Affably Evil: Swindle and Onslaught.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Bruticus is so big that he can actually kill enemies by stepping on them.
• Badass Crew: Five badasses who managed to defeat an Autobot transport mostly by themselves.
• Benevolent Boss: Onslaught, to an extent. He berates his men, though some of that might just be him in a bad mood due to putting up with Starscream, but he never needlessly sacrifices or abuses them, and is overall pretty fair to them^note When they take the Energon Transport, Onslaught says "my team" salvaged the mission, not just himself.
• Bigger Is Better: Bruticus definitely thinks so.
• Blood Knight: Brawl seems to enjoy battling and explosions a little too much.
• Blow You Away: Vortex with his shockwave special.
• Combining Mecha: All five of them combine into Bruticus.
• Cool, but Inefficient: Bruticus' standard melee attacks. They're instant kills, more appealing to look at than his Shield Bash, but they are also slow and awkward to aim, so much so that it's hard to even hit a stationary target with them. Bruticus's Shield Bash has the same results when it hits enemies, combined with the defense it gives him and the area of its impact, means there is no reason to use his melee attacks over it.
• Cool Plane: Blast Off's alt-mode. Vortex's helicopter alt-mode can also turn into this for a boost in speed.
• Death from Above: An attack Bruticus uses when fought as Jazz, which can't be used in the segments where he's playable, has him fire a bunch of shots from the cannons on his back that land on spots all over the area.
• Demoted to Extra: Brawl due to being the only Combaticon in WFC, he had a fairly large role, acting as a commander and muscle behind Megatron. Here he shares screen time with the rest of the team and is less important than the likes of Swindle.
• Dragon-in-Chief: Onslaught could easily be seen as this to Starscream. When Megatron returns, he becomes Co-Dragons with Soundwave.
• Dumb Muscle: Bruticus, though not to the same extent as other incarnations where he refers to himself in the third person.
• Helicopter Blender: Bruticus uses the rotor blades of Vortex's helicopter alt-mode in this manner as his shield.
• Hyper-Competent Sidekick: During Starscream's tenure as leader, Onslaught and, to a lesser extent, the rest of the Combaticons serve as this.
• The Juggernaut: Bruticus is the biggest, toughest, and strongest playable character. It doesn't matter what the Autobots fire at him, he'll shrug it off and keep going. He only "loses" because he was ultimately knocked off the Ark with no way to grab back onto it, thus taking him out of the fight.
• Killit With Fire: Bruticus carries a powerful flamethrower formed from the engines of Blast Off's shuttle alt-mode as his primary ranged weapon.
• Laser-Guided Karma: A cut audio log indicates that Onslaught felt this was the only possible outcome for Cybertron in regards to the Fantastic Caste System.
  For thousands of Megacycles, the High Council and the so-called Elites of Cybertron repressed freedom to such an extent that it seemed the entirety of Cybertronian society was crushing down on the backs of the individual. In response to such a circumstance, Revolution is not only inevitable; it is beautiful.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Bruticus uses the rotor of Vortex's alt-mode as one, which doubles as a Helicopter Blender and will protect him from anything that hits him.
• Mighty Glacier: Bruticus. He is very slow moving, but he is huge and incredibly powerful. One punch from him finishes off almost all of the enemies he encounters, in fact he only needs to walk into them to take them out.
• Mook Horror Show: Anytime Onslaught gives the order for them to merge into Bruticus, it very quickly becomes one of these for any Autobot Red Shirts unlucky enough to be in the vicinity.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: No matter what the Autobots shoot him with, Bruticus doesn't stop. Ever.
  Autobot Mook 1: Hit him with something that'll slow him down!
  Autobot Mook 2: Like what?! A starship?!
• One-Man Army: Bruticus. Technically a "five-man army" due to being a Combiner, but when he gets involved, nothing the Autobots throw at him can stop him short of probably Metroplex himself, and those two never have a chance to clash.
• Only Sane Man: Onslaught, and to a lesser extent the other Combaticons, take the role of only characters fully understanding the rammifications of Starscream's actions during his reign, even expressing disgust when he takes things too far even for a Decepticon.
• The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything:Vortex's bio describes him as an interrogator, and the Teletraan system occasionally greets him as such. Swindle is also referred to by Teletraan as "Merchant Reknown". Neither of them does anything related to their professions in the game.
• Purposely Overpowered: Bruticus is a Combiner whose levels are meant to give the player a feeling of power, and it shows. He has nine hundred more hit points than normal characters, and a much stronger shield that recharges very quickly, so he can only die if the player goes out of their way to get him killed. His flamethrower weapon kills almost anything in a single hit, reloads instantly and Bruticus carries an unlimited number of clips to reload it. Even his size and lack of speed isn’t much of a weakness, since the player can use his Helicopter Blender to stop any almost attack send in his way, and a Shield Bash with it that instantly kills almost any enemy. To top it all off, Bruticus' Sonic Pain Wave covers a huge radius, goes a very long distance, instantly kills whatever it hits, and recharges much faster than other special abilities.
• Recycled In Space: This version of the Combaticons come across as more like The Expendables AS GIANT COMBINING ROBOTS., with their scenario in the story feeling as if it's straight out of any guns and explosions-filled action movie.
• Shapeshifter Baggage: The Combaticons get at least twice as large when they combine into Bruticus.
• Shockwave Stomp: Bruticus' Sonic Pain Wave ability, which destroys whatever is in its path before leaving a big explosion.
• Super Mode: Bruticus can probably be considered one for the whole team.
• The Strategist: Onslaught is one to make strategies first before going on the attack, such as when he explains the plan to reclaim Energon from the Autobots carrying it away.
• Tank Goodness: Brawl's alt-mode.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: Brawl was an effective field commander in the previous game, to the point where he had more in common with Onslaught than the typical dumb killing machine his incarnations usually are. However, probably because of the actual Onslaught's debut, Brawl is demoted to being a simple bruiser, if one who's very good at warfare, back in line with how he's always portrayed.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: A lot of the dialogue between them consists of light jabs, snarks, and cranky calls to hurry it up (though it's justified, as they have a strict time limit for their mission, and putting up with Starscream probably doesn't help). However, they function very well as a team and watch each other's back (and not to stab at it).
• Vocal Evolution: Brawl has a noticeably lighter and smoother voice compared to War for Cybertron, with his previous voice being provided to Bruticus instead.

Shockwave

Voiced by: Steve Blum.

A Decepticon scientist who exploits science for his own twisted interests. Among other things, he's responsible for turning Grimlock and his team into the Dinobots.

"Now, sit there like a good pet while I finish my work."

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• Above Good and Evil: Word of God is that Shockwaves' loyalty is to Cybertron itself first and foremost, though outwardly he acts loyal to Megatron and the Decepticons.
• Adaptational Wimp: This version of Shockwave is not as strong compared to his animated counterparts. For starters, this Shockwave allows Starscream to take over the army^note Though Shockwave was otherwise occupied with the Space Bridge in the Sea of Rust when Starscream took the helm and displays no skills at fighting when confronted by Grimlock. He even cowers at the sight of the Dinobot instead of defending himself, though he was caught very much by surprise.
• Adaptational Villainy: Compared with other incarnations of Shockwave, this one is far more villainous, his logs indicating a sadistic glee in his cruel experiments.
• An Arm and a Leg: He loses his arm after Grimlock bites him, foreshadowing his future arm cannon.
• Arm Cannon: Gained one after his left arm was ripped off by Grimlock .
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's not especially liked by most of the Decepticons, due his experiments scaring the crap out of them, but Megatron isn't bothered and considers him invaluable due to his scientific genius. In fact, Shockwave's one of the few Decepticons in either game to whom Megatron shows any respect. Megatron apparently trusts Shockwave so much that he believed the tower in the Sea of Rust was a valuable find because Shockwave told him, even though he didn't tell him what it was.
• Creepy Monotone: His cold, nigh-emotionless voice is matched only by Soundwave's.
• Cyber Cyclops: Has one eye.
• Evil Genius: But of course.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Being voiced by Steve Blum.
• Evilutionary Biologist: He's deeply interested in upgrading the Decepticon forces by experimenting on enhancing Cybertronians. He created the Insecticons through experimentation on robotic insects forced up from the depths of Cybertron, and transformed Grimlock and his team into the Dinobots because he was impressed with the ferocity of the recordings of Earth dinosaurs.
• Gone Horribly Right: His plans to experiment on the team of captured Autobots and remake them into brutal killing machines who would be loyal to the Decepticons. The first part worked wonderfully, resulting in the creation of the Dinobots. The part about switching their faction loyalties to the Decepticon side, not so much, which came back to bite him. That said, his plan may have actually worked if Starscream's interference hadn't led to Grimlock and the rest of the Dinobots escaping before Shockwave was finished with them.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: In his efforts to create more powerful Transformers out of his Evilutionary Biologist goals, he turned Grimlock into somebody who is both fully capable of and very much wanting to wreck his plans.
• Intrigued by Humanity: Well, specifically intrigued by Earth, where being a scientist he finds examining Earth rather interesting, which hints that he hasn't looked at any worlds beyond Cybertron previously since he's surprised to find out that Earth's surface isn't metal.
• Mad Scientist: He's a crazy mad-con who engages in mechanically re-engineering other bots entirely For Science! regardless of the consequences, to the point the game website outright calls him a mad scientist
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: If thought about, Shockwave is even more of a "fixer" than Starcream releasing Grimlock, since he's the one that turned Grimlock and his team into Dinobots in the first place.
• Surrounded by Idiots: States this in one of his audio logs found in Chapter 4, where he's annoyed with how the rest of the Decepticons are mostly seeing value in a lake of Energon while he sees far more value in the space bridge, and is annoyed with how Starscream only views it as an Energon refinery.
• The Spock: Takes everything with a calm attitude, remains unflappable until something goes wrong.
• The Stoic: He puts up with Starscream without losing his cool (note that he's the only Decepticon with prolonged contact with him that's able to do that; Soundwave might have also been able to, but he seems to have a knack for being elsewhere when Starscream is in charge) and even Grimlock doesn't scare him for the most part anyway; it helps that most of the time, Shockwave isn't in the same place as Grimlock was when speaking to him.
  • Not So Stoic: He expresses a bit more emotion in his audio logs...and when Grimlock breaks his hold.
• This Cannot Be!: His reaction to Grimlock transforming out of his trap, moments before he rips Shockwave's arm off.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Implied by some of his audio logs, with him planning to restore Cybertron.

The Insecticons

Voiced by: Troy Baker (Kickback) and Steve Blum (Sharpshot).

A group of creatures that emerged from the underbelly of Cybertron and were discovered by Shockwave, who calls them his "pets". Most simply act as mooks and cannon fodder, but the three that display distinct personalities are Sharpshot, Hardshell, and Kickback. They lead the other Insecticons and are appear to only obey Shockwave due to unspecified methods of mind-control.

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• Adaptational Name Change: Hardshell and Sharpshot are traditionally known as Bombshell and Shrapnel, respectively. However, Hasbro can't use these names or they might get sued for trademark infringement. Note that this is an extremely common issue with modern Transformers franchises.
• Ambiguously Gay: Kickback makes a lot of suggestive comments towards Grimlock.
• Asshole Victim: Every single one of them had their beating coming. Especially Sharpshot who is a lethal example.
• Ax-Crazy: Sharpshot and Kickback, even more so than Megatron. The former tortured Snarl brutally and taunted Grimlock about it, and even the other Decepticons have remarked that he enjoys the "testing process" way too much. One of Shockwave's logs explicitly labels Kickback as psychotic, and his dialogue leaves nothing to question.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Giant robotic insects that engage in Zerg Rush tactics. There's even one variety called Bruisers that's bigger than Grimlock's robot mode.
• The Brute: Hardshell is dimwitted but strong, so he acts as the muscle for Shockwave.
• Combat Pragmatist: Hardshell, who when faced with Grimlock, leaps into a huge mech armed with a pair of massive rocket launchers and a shield that keeps Grimlock's melee attacks from hitting it, meaning it can only be damaged by throwing explosives at it.
• Dirty Coward: Kickback and Sharpshot. Out of Grimlock's reach, they constantly taunt him. Upon finding out that things aren't going their way, Kickback tries to run away and Sharpshot screams at Grimlock to stay away from him.
• The Dragon: Sharpshot is the primary and direct subordinate to Shockwave.
• The Dreaded: In an odd case where it's the guys they're supposed to be on the same side as who are afraid of them. The common Decepticons are terrified of Insecticons and see them as little more than opportunistic killers, and, they're absolutely right. In chapter XII, the Insecticons will attack the Decepticon Mooks as well as Grimlock. Even Shockwave considers Kickback and Sharpshot dangerous.
• Eaten Alive: Sharpshot gets killed by Grimlock eating him.
• Extreme Mêlée Revenge: Sharpshot ends up on the receiving end of one from Grimlock.
• Horror Hunger: Shockwave's logs say they can eat nearly anything, audio logs from an anonymous Decepticon outright terrified of them because of it thinking they'll turn on them, and come chapter XII, they do, going wild and attacking the Decepticons as well as Grimlock. During that chapter a bit chatter coming from them can heard, all of it regarding Grimlock as a meal.
• Large Ham: Sharpshot is very loud and boisterous, while Kickback loves taunting and laughing at Grimlock.
• Kick the Dog: Sharpshot torturing and nearly killing Snarl for no reason besides that he can.
• Killed Off for Real: Sharpshot Is the only named Insecticon to permanently bite it here.
• Percussive Maintenance: Hardshell falls victim to this when Grimlock slams him face-first into a biometric scanner to get past a door.
• Psycho Electro: To let Shockwave's description sum it up; "By far the most dangerous Insecticon, Sharpshot enjoys torturing his victims with electricity", and when we see him do it to Snarl, some of his comments make it sound like he's getting high off of it. It's every bit as creepy as it sounds.
• The Sociopath: Sharpshot and Kickback show no empathy, not concern for the lives of others, and a sadistic glee about causing death and destruction. Shockwave even explicitly calls Kickback a psychopath.
• Smug Snake: Kickback and Sharpshot will taunt Grimlock and mock him while siccing a hoard of Insecticons on him, but Once they run out of fodder, Kickback tries to run, while Sharpshot is left begging for Grimlock not to hurt him.
• The Unfought: Only Hardshell serves as a traditional boss fight to Grimlock. For the rest: Kickback has a door knocked onto him by Slug, while Sharpshot is torn apart by Grimlock in a cutscene.
• Verbal Tic: Kickback has a tendency of repeating the last sylable in his sentence, saying things like, "Come on Grimlock, lock, lock!"
• The Voiceless: Hardshell never says a word here, although he does speak in Transformers: Prime.
• Zerg Rush: The Insecticons' main attack strategy is sending out literal swarms to attempt overwhelming Grimlock with sheer numbers.

Trypticon

Initially a non-aligned research orbital station, he gets infused with Dark Energon and used as a colossal warrior for Megatron. Later his comatose body gets forcibly converted into the Decepticons flagship, The Nemesis.

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• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: His robot mode is a giant T-Rex.
• Cruel Mercy: Megatron recovers Trypticon, only to berate him for his failures and convert him into the Nemesis as "atonement". It's noted by Soundwave that with the damage Trypticon's taken, the change would be permanent. Keep in mind, in Megatron's opinion, this is actually an act of compassion, because he's giving Trypticon a chance to atone, considering what he usually does if somebody displeases him.
• Foil : To Metroplex. He is also a giant (by Cybertronian standards) titan who transforms into a large structure. But unlike Metroplex who willingly drained himself of his Energon so that the Autobots could escape aboard the Ark, Trypticon was converted into the Nemesis against his will so that Megatron can give pursuit.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler: Everything involving his scene makes no effort to hide the events from the finale of last game involving him.
• Shapeshifter Baggage: Trypticon is slightly smaller than the Ark when he is turned into the Nemesis. Oddly enough, it's his dinosaur mode that is the one that removes baggage, as his station form in War was that size.
• You Have Failed Me: Megatron has Trypticon permanently turned into the Nemesis out of punishment for failing to stop the Autobots and getting beaten by them in the last game.