Game Breakers are more prevalent in the Super Robot Wars games than you think. This is what happens when Banpresto forgets to nerf Humongous Mecha.
Note: since some of the following games comes with sequels, there maybe some unmarked spoilers regarding later games of the same series. You have been warned.
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In General
Certain games allowed the player to choose the protagonist's set of Spirit Commands via a birthday input at the start of the game. However, by entering the birthdate of "November 11" with a blood-type of "B" (coincidentally, both belong to current SRW series producer Takenobu Terada), the protagonist will be given a much better Spirit Command list and a pilot skill that makes the earlier sections of the game trivial and late-game scenarios easier.
MAP weapons in games with a squad-based system (that is, Super Robot Wars Alpha 2, Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 and Super Robot Wars Z). MAP weapons do full damage to all units in the squad (in contrast to "ALL Attacks", which have significant damage reduction the more enemies there are in a squad), can hit multiple squads AND the squad mechanics allows for abusing the "Zeal" *
Gain an additional turn (self)
or "Move Again" *
Gain an additional turn (any allied unit)
Spirit Commands. Taken to obscene heights with the SRX Altered Banpreios and AS Alegrias from Alpha 3, who have powerful, post-movement MAP weapons (though with a relatively small range). However, it's the post-movement element that turns them into walking death machines, especially when one of the co-pilots in either mecha have the "Resupply" Spirit Command *
Refill all ammo-based weapons and EN to max
.
For some post-AlphaZeta Gundam incarnations, the Zeta WILL be the most broken Gundam and one of the most overpowered real robots in the entire game, with Kamille Bidan having the highest stats of all Gundam pilots, as well as the Zeta having excellent stats of its own, usually even stronger than suits like the Nu Gundam (especially jarring and hilarious when the Nu and V2 Gundam in Universal Century canon are similarly gamebreaking). If you obtain the Biosensor attacks late in the game, expect them to be ridiculously overpowered (Waverider Crash has higher damage potential than the Moonlight Butterfly in Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden; Z lowered the damage but gave Kamille even higher stats). Z takes this up a notch with a Biosensor-mode Zeta, once the pilot's Will gets high enough, which makes it MORE unstoppable. Even with the Waverider Crash removed in the Second Super Robot Wars Z: Hakai-Hen along with other returning units, it's still one of the better machines in the game.
Likewise, the Nu Gundam potentially is quite gamebreaking: in Z, though it's obtained midway into the game, it also comes equipped with the Psycho Frame Super Mode and Amuro Ray knows the pilot skill "Attack Again" (attack a second time on the same turn) naturally and has the adequate skill stat to trigger it. In nearly all squad-based SRWs, the Nu and Hi-Nu Gundam can blast entire squads away with little effort at long distances.
The Nu in Hakai-Hen, along with blowing the animation budget, got a serious buff. It now could be better than the Zeta. It gets even better in Saisei-Hen, thanks to the machine supplementing its weakest area (lack of a powerful post-movement attack) with its new (gorgeously animated) "Combo Assault".
The Sound Force in all their appearances. Their simple ability to restore Spirit Points, increase Will and grant status buffs to pilots individually or groups alike is far more dangerous than it seems to be at first. They single-handedly can turn an otherwise diffucult game, like Super Robot Wars Destiny into a joke.
The Mazinkaiser is this in almost all games its in, thanks to the awesome power it has at its disposal, on a Lightning Bruiser that doesn't need a lot of Will or energy to perform effectively, versatile weapon setups, and Mazinpower that increases its damage output even higher (an additional 25% at 130 Will), and in most games they were in, an almost exclusive ability to stack Critical Hits and Valor. This applies (although to a lesser extent) to Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger. There's a good reason why damage increasing abilities become commonplace in present games and critical hits can no longer stacks with Valor.
The Shin Getter is always an incredibly powerful unit. It typically comes with hit point and energy regeneration, very powerful attacks, and the "Open Get" ability that gives it a 50% chance to evade any attack. The Getter-2 form has high evasion and sometimes the "Mach Special" ability, a second 50% chance to evade any attack. Oh, and it has three pilots, all with good Spirit Commands and Spirit Point pools.
Shin Getter can be strong, but it generally suffers from considerable drawbacks (in general - massive EN and Will requirements, multiform not being very useful; in particular - low accuracy and relative fragility in Alpha Gaiden, lack of good ALL or MAP weapons in Alpha 2, and so on). Regarding chances of evasion, in the games where half of the playable roster is nigh-impossible to destroy (which is really most SRWs), they aren't that special (and usually you don't get to stack them and the ability itself is inconsistent). However, the combination of ballanced spirit command and high attack power are what make Shin Getter as a what a late-game appearing unit should be.
In any game with a squad-based system, it's easy to exploit the system as you can place more allied units clogged into one panel as an effective single unit.
Not only are MAP weapons rendered more effective in squad-based games (see above), since more enemy units are destroyed per MAP round, this equates to a bigger profit earned through casting the "Cheer" *
Gain twice the amount of experience points for an ally
and "Bless" *
Gain twice the amount of money earned for an ally
Spirit Commands. Naturally, Banpresto took note of this and present day installments reduced the amount of experience points and credits earned through MAP weapons.
Having squad-based mechanics meant more allied units can be deployed in scenarios, which means easier access to Will gains, but it also gives players a larger list of Spirit Commands to use. Players can place these extra units as an extra set of Spirit Commands to make up for another characters' flaws and weaknesses, providing them with the support-based Spirit Commands needed, such as HP/EN recovery, boosting Will and accuracy/evasion buffs.
Certain abuse of squad mechanics depend on the game itself. The "Chain Attack" system in Super Robot Wars K had no damage penalties whatsoever, allowing much faster Will gains, while the squad system in Alpha 2 and Alpha 3 allowed for a maximum of 4 units in a single squad, which meant the ability to group several multi-pilot units together, enabling a vast pool of Spirit Commands at the squad's disposal. Most useful when you consider units in the latter games being able to "MAP nuke" scenarios repeatedly if grouped with pilots having the "Zeal" and "Move Again" Spirit Commands.
In older games, a Combining Mecha retains its movement for the turn, so long as the primary pilot of this combining unit has not moved yet. For example, in Super Robot Wars Original Generation, since the R-1 is the primary combining unit of the SRX, the R-2 Powered and R-3 Powered can move and perform their actions before the R-1 can combine with them without using up a turn to do it. This "SRX Trick" allows the player to manipulate the R-Units' Combination Attack "R-Formation" with the R-2 and R-3 first, then have the R-1 combine to form the SRX and attack again, which can be repeated with the "Zeal" and "Resupply" Spirit Commands, since the SRX pilots have it. Another variation of this trick involves the "Fury" Spirit Command *
The next successful attack bypasses any barrier the enemy has
from another SRX pilot, which can deal Standard Status Effect to bosses wih the appropriate weapons.
The former made unique by the fact the primary pilot of the Valstork is considered the "core" of the Valguard, despite the pilot of the Valhawk controlling the Valguard upon combining, the latter due to the Ryu's access to an extremely useful support-based Spirit Commands and Combination Attack
Useful to make up for its absurd EN cost of its weapons
. That being said, this combination trick no longer exists in current games such as Super Robot Wars L, where you cannot seperate any Combining Mecha after they are formed.
Super Robot Wars Advance
The "parts" mechanic made some of the earliest units some of the deadliest, such as the original RX-78-2 Gundam and Boss Borot. On the first playthrough, these units are the only ones you can upgrade all the way to max, and when coupled with the obscenely rare "W-Up" part that raises stats in accordance to how many item slots a unit has, early/"weaker" units, often having all four slots, get tremendous stat boosts. This is rectified in the Playstation PortableVideo Game Remake, as there are no W-Up or "U-Up" parts in the game.
For a battleship, which is supposed to be an unwieldy support ship, the Nadesico from the original Game Boy Advance version (not the remake) is a game breaker with the appropriate upgrades. With a fully upgraded Gravity Blast, it's capable of dealing over 10000 points of damage per shot with almost 100% accuracy at maxed out Will, firing at ranges that will make super robots turn green with envy (with appropriate upgrades, the range can extend to 11 (!)). Coupled with a barrier that halves the damage of any attack it takes, it can take out the Final Boss in two turns (using "Support Attack" *
Pilot can provide offensive support to an adjacent ally
to get in extra shots). Later games probably took note of this and forced the player to upgrade all weapons simultaneously, making game breakers such as this much more difficult.
The Soulgain, or really, any of the original mecha due to Axel Almer/Lamia Loveless' high level of "Support Attack", a 10 SP "Strike" Spirit Command *
Gain perfect accuracy for one turn
, an "Ace Bonus" *
A unique, passive upgrade for the pilot upon achieving 50 kills
that boosts their damage when their Will is high and their naturally high melee and ranged stats. Pump the appropriate stat and the mech's weapons and you'll have a unit that can punch far above its own weight simply by supporting other units. In fact, the change in difficulty between when they are present vs. scenarios where they aren't present is palpable at times.
Note that stat boosting annd gaining an Ace Bonus only applies to the remake, as the original had neither.
The remake allowed for some potentially game breaking hijinks, as there are some pretty strong Ace Bonuses and "Full Upgrade Bonuses", along with the customizable skill system. The only thing keeping this from reaching W levels is the remake ascended the difficulty to Nintendo Hard, as a result of the new mechanic "evasion decay" *
As a unit is attacked, its evasion rate is decreased every time it is targeted; depending on the game, defensive stats may also be affected
.
Super Robot Wars Alpha
The first game has the Dancougar, a four-pilot Super Robot, all of whom carry the "Valor" Spirit Command *
Deal twice the amount of damage for the next attack
and have insanely high offensive power at its disposal. To make it even better, its Super Mode increases attack power by 50%, higher than even the infamous Mazinpower. If you spend money on it, you can unlock the Dankuukougaken Finishing Move; by that time, there's basically no boss that you can't perform a One-Hit KO.
Pilot will deal three times the damage in the next attack with an auto-critical hit. The pilot cannot dodge any attack for the rest of the turn
. With "Sacrifice" cast and the RyuKoOh at maximum weapon upgrade, you'll be able to One-Hit Kill any boss unit for the rest of the game, including the Final Boss, AND any bosses in-between that escape with a high HP pool. This is one of the reasons why critical hits no longer stack with damage-enhancing buffs anymore.
Ideon in Alpha 3. Banpresto removed the whole "Berserk" system from it (unlike its Super Robot Wars Fcounterpart), making it insanely easier to use. Simply slap on the "Iron Wall" Spirit Command *
Take 25% damage from all enemy attacks for one turn
, send it towards Mooks and have it defend rather than attack. Everytime the Ideon is hit, the invisible Ide Gauge will rise; once it hits max, it unlocks infinite EN and the MAP weapons to the Ideon Sword and Ideon Gun, both whose ranges stretch to infinity, with the latter able to cover the entire map.
Sound Force in Alpha 3: their MAP songs basically enable you to buff the entire team severely, and songs "Power to the Dream" and "My Friends" enables SP restoration at once. That means you can set up an infinite amount of turns via infinite SP loop, allowing you to destroy just about anything in one round.
Alpha Gaiden has several: Daitarn 3, which has almost as much health as a battleship and extremely strong attacks thanks to Banjo Haran having the "Soul" Spirit Command *
Deal 2.5 times the damage for the next attack
. Raideen has some of the best stats of any Super Robot (including high evasion, which supers aren't supposed to have) and one of the highest attack power, coupled with extremely early acess to Support and its really powerful God Voice. For real robots, there's the Gundam X Divider and Zeta Gundam, the former having high mobility and evasion and its energy consumption for its powerful Harmonica Cannon is low and has long range. For the latter, you only have to max out the machine's EN; all it really needs is a Biosensor or Pyschoframe and a Booster, then watch as Kamille's crazy evasion stat does the rest. In a game where money is so scarce, these two machines need few upgrades compared to others. It helps later in the game, the Zeta receives a mandatory upgrade to its core stats and the Waverider Crash.
"Haro" parts, as usual, are extrememly broken equippable enhancements but another game breaking part is the one that makes you regain 30% of a unit's max EN once per turn; in fact, you can get three of these. Put one on the Shin Getter to fuel its Stoner Sunshine, one on the DX G-Falcon, if you get the G-Bits for its Bits, and the last one pretty much depends on your choice. You can put it on the Wing Gundam Zero to solve its EN problem or the GP03 Dendrobinum Orchis for its powerful EN weapons. Alternatively, you can also put it on Mazinkaiser, to make an already broken unit even more broken by allowing two free Fire Blasters each turn.
The Gundam DX is also pretty broken in Alpha Gaiden, due to a glitch where instead of eight rounds, its stronger than usual beam rifle has somewhere around 30 shots, which is fixed if you get Tifa Adill and the G-Bits. However, you can still break the game after the bug is fixed, due to the G-Falcon's parts working while the mechs are combined, granting the DX two part slots while boosting its stats. Put a Haro on the DX and the previously mentioned EN regeneration on the Falcon after the G-Bits are obtained for an unstoppable unit with infinite G-Bits.
One unit generally declared useless along with the rest of the originals in Alpha Gaiden (except for Sanger Zonvolt) is Ryusei Date and his R-1 Custom. It's actually a major case of Magikarp Power; of course, he sucks completely unless you bother to level him up to where his telekinetic ability reaches above level six. This gives him an invisible accuracy/evasion stat boost that makes him nigh untouchable to even the Final Bosses when combined with his "Guts" pilot skill *
All stats are boosted when HP hits critical
. The R-1 Custom has 3 parts slots, but Ryusei really needs one Psychoframe to do this, something even Kamille and the Zeta can't match. The only downside is the R-1's damage is pitiful, but in this Nintendo Hard game, that isn't as much of an issue as long as it can survive.
Mazinkaiser in Alpha Gaiden has nice armor and HP, coupled with small HP regeneration, it can dodge rather well thanks to its awesome terrain rating and evasion comparable to low-tier Gundams and an acceptable mobility, further boosted by Koji Kabuto's "Accelerate" Spirit Command *
Increase pilot's movement range by three upon movement
. Its attacks are so strong it's capable of outdoing fully upgraded units (something downright impossible to achieve without hours of Level Grinding on a single unit), which is further enchanced by Mazinpower. All of its attacks don't have Will requirements, and all of the useful ones have great range with relatively small EN consumption in comparison to the damage it deals *
Fire Blaster costs 60 EN; by comparison, Stoner Sunshine, which is weaker thanks to Mazinpower, uses 90
. By upgrading armor and HP a bit, and its weapon (and possibly EN, if you want to spam Fire Blaster), slap on an armor-based part and send it to the crowds. Watch as it does 5 digits of damage casually.
By the same respect, Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger. As usual, Mazingers have good armor ratings and high damage output thanks to Mazinpower, but its greatest use is the Rocket Punch, which has a nice range of 4, good terrain rating and completely free of EN, making it an extremely useful weapon for all sorts of situations. The best part is both are available early in the game and a reliable choice until the end. The catch is, while Great Mazinger makes the entirety of early- to mid-game (barring a few number of scenarios) a cruel joke, Tetsuya Tsurugi lacks the "Alert" Spirit Command *
Successfully evade the next attack
to handle late-game bosses, and Mazinger Z lacks a good pilot. However, by that time the rest of the team has caught up in terms of upgrades and units available. Even if you decide not to upgrade the Mazinger Z, one late-game scenario forces the machine against an army of Mechanical Beasts alone. Its one of the easiest parts in the entire game, which is saying something in a Nintendo Hard game.
Any Super Robot with multiple pilots, most of which are Combining Mecha in Alpha Gaiden, most prominently Getter Robo, Voltes V and Combattler V. In a game where managing Spirit Commands are essential, these units carry at least three pilots with a multitude of Spirit Commands per pilot, on top of powerful attacks for their units. As a bonus, they have the ability to split into several parts. While it seems to be a useless gimmick, one of the pilots in each unit has "Alert", making it a key against That One Boss, who also uses Spirit Commands that plagues 80% of the late-game. Additionally, Voltes and Combattler can repair itself with one of their parts, making them a repair-, battle- and Spirit Command-based unit, all in one package.
Super Robot Wars Destiny
The Garland thanks to the armor bug which it can abuse rather well, especially with its high evasion rate and small size. As a bonus, its the cheapest unit to upgrade in the entire game, and has four parts slots. The same applies to Zarme Sow, but in a much lesser extent.
Every Universal Century Gundam. In a game where reals are relatively better than supers (due to the bug), Destiny has multitudes of useful reals. However, Amuro, Judau Ashta, Usso Evin, and Kamille Bidan stand above the rest.
Amuro is a great pilot with great stats, with the powerful Nu Gundam having good range and amount of ammunition. If you grant Amuro enough kills (something very easy to do with Basara Nekki around) and take a specific route in the game, he gains the Nu Gundam HWS, a semi-Mid-Season Upgrade for the Nu, carrying an extra powerful attack that can go through even towards the end (considering it's a pretty early upgrade, the HWS is a Disc One Nuke of sorts). All this is before you get the mandatory Hi-Nu Gundam.
Judau is basically Amuro with a different set of Spirit Commands and a more powerful Gundam ZZ, in terms of offensive power. As with Amuro, giving him enough kills (which is a matter of Basara and switching him around to use the Nu Gundam) grants him the Full-Armored Gundam ZZ.
Usso starts with the mediocre Victory Gundam, but gets the V2 Gundam with strong attacks and good stats. Later on, it gets the V2 Assault and V2 Buster Mecha Expansion Packs; by taking the proper proper routes, the Assault Buster can be unlocked. While the Packs are good in their own rights, but Assault Buster is a bonafide Lightning Bruiser with three MAP attacks equipped. Oh, and unlike most Gundam protagonists in SRW, Usso has a sub-pilot, granting him access to a second set of Spirit Commands.
Kamille begins with the rather mediocre Zeta Gundam, which is pretty much an inferior Nu Gundam in Destiny. However, Kamille winds up having the best stats out of any Newtype Gundam pilot in the game, including balanced offensive stats and the highest "Newtype" pilot skill level. Finally, at "Newtype" level 5, the Zeta unlocks the Waverider Crash, which has the highest attack power of any Gundam units that can be used post-movement, making it a solid choice if you want to keep Kamille in the Zeta.
Basara and Mylene Jenius, thanks to their ability to grant status buff to increase allied units' performance by a notable degree, either by giving the entire party a buff or create a Lightning BruiserOne-Man Army out of a single unit....and that's even WITH the Scrappy Mechanic that is this incarnation of Song Energy.
Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Endless Frontier
The first game gives us Reiji Arisu, the party's strongest attacker, and carries the "Soul" *
In the Endless Frontier games, "Soul" deals twice the damage for the next attack, rather than 2.5 times
and "Swift" *
Perform the first action on the next turn, regardless of allied/enemy speed
Spirit Commands. He's preceded by Haken Browning later in the game, who combines a more modest "Valor" Spirit Command *
In the Endless Frontier games, "Valor" deals 50% more damage for the next attack, instead
with his Special Skill "Rampage Specter". No Mooks can survive it, while end-game bosses will get a significant portion of their HP chipped away because of it.
In the sequel, Reiji gets the Special Skills "Arisu Ryuu Tenchi Shinmei" *
Refill 50-100 Spirit Points to the party
and "Arisu Ryuu Ura Kimon Kaihou" *
Gain the effects of "Swift" for the party
. Combined with newcomer Aledy Nassh's "Aspire" Spirit Command *
Refill the Frontier Gauge to 100%
, you can create a loop that gives infinite SP to the whole team. Also consider that Reiji has the "Friendship" Spirit Command *
Recover 30% HP to the party
, and add Haken's "Canfield" Special Skill *
Gain the effects of "Alert" (all enemy attacks will miss for one turn)
to the mix, only the latter parts of the Bonus Dungeon can pose a threat to the party.
Back in the first game, Haken has a 100% critical hit setup alongside "Jackpot", one of his attacks extremely easy to chain to avoid "Forced Evasion". The developers likely noticed this, so nerfed the critical setup and "Jackpot" for EXCEED. In return, he gained the Spirit Command "Co-Op" *
Personal support can be activated twice and Support Attack is granted an additional use
and the Special Skill "Canfield", all of which is learned relatively early. Later, Haken learns the attack "Quad Solitaire", which is bar none the strongest attack in the game, and still retains his absurdly high critical hit rate. Having Haken in the party gives you a powerful damage dealer, a decent Frontier Gauge filler and an almost sure fire way to make the majority of boss fights a total joke.
Don't forget that in the first game, using the 100% critical hit setup bypasses the need for casting "Valor" when using Rampage Specter - AND the setup ALSO boosts teammates' critical hits by 20% (15% in EXCEED).
Princess Suzuka in EXCEED gets the attack "Jyaki-GUN Ghost Dance", which seems mediocre on its own. However, with a Support Attack that holds the enemy in place (Xiaomu and T-ELOS, for example), they'll instead be hit repeatedly, chaining for an exceptionally long attack string. Combine this with "Co-Op" to allow T-ELOS to Support Attack twice and Suzuka's "Passion" Spirit Command *
Double the rate the Frontier Gauge gains
, you can repeat this three times per turn, dealing high damage and filling the Frontier Gauge to 100% in one go.
Super Robot Wars Judgment
Zeorymer of the Heavens: size L super robot with good defenses and a barrier, plus an evasion ability that kicks in at 130 Will and powerful attacks in melee and range, the deadliest being its MAP variant of the Meiou. If you refrain from using it for a great portion of the game (except where required), you get its Mid-Season Upgrade "Great Zeorymer" at the end of its Judgment storyline. It's even harder for enemies to stand a chance against it, since it's armed with all of its series' bosses' finishing attacks, and its Meiou attack has +1 range. Unfortunately, the requirements to get it are so strict, it bars every other Secret Character excluding Balzac, Tekkaman Rapier and Julia to become unobtainable, though most players will agree Great Zeorymer is worth it (at least on the next playthrough due to a couple of glitches; see below).
Due to two glitches, it's advisable not to get Great Zeorymer on the first playthrough because they affect it: the first glitch occurs with Gale, the unit you can recruit instead of Julia: the unit only comes with free upgrades if recruited on the first playthrough. The second is a Good Bad Bug that gives Gai Daigouji TWICE the pilot points he's supposed to get when he rejoins the party, turning him into a gamebreaker in his own right because of super high stats from the extra PP and the high damage spammable Combination Attacks.
The Arbalest after you can activiate the Lambda Driver is a good tie with the Zeorymer. It might actually be better due to its ECS ability (a "Mirror Image" proxy *
At 130 Will, gain 50% chance to dodge any attack
), can nullify damage with the Lambda Driver barrier as you reach 120 Will (damage rate also increases by 20-50%), ammo dependant attacks that have a lot of shots (the only attack that eats energy is its Combination Attack with the M9s) and Sousuke Sagara's high stats. Oh, and it's a size S unit.
The Nadesico returns as a gamebreaker. Once it upgrades into the Nadesico Y, it gets stronger attacks, EN regeneration and a Phase Transition Cannon MAP weapon. Although it doesn't outdo the Valzacard's set of six pilots, it has a decent five pilots, each with their own good, efficient set of Spirit Commands. Even before the upgrade, the battleship can destroy any mook in scenarios single-handedly, with only support units to refill EN if necessary (though unlikely, since the Nadesico has EN regeneration before the upgrade, too). Since its size is XL, attacks do surprisingly big damage, and its Distortion Field plus naturally high armor makes it a hard to destroy; even with minimal or no armor upgrades, early-game mooks have nearly all damage negated. Since SRW AI usually places battleships as the highest-priority target, the Nadesico's presense greatly helps the team survive, as enemy fire is drawn to it and bounces off its defense. Unlike many Judgment units from this list, the ship is available right off the bat, with the Nadesico's only weakness being temporarily absent from your team if you choose the route splits with the Archangel battleship, instead.
In contrast to their other counterparts from other SRWs, the JudgmentAestivalis are extremely good, due to their spammable Combination Attacks. Akito Tenkawa and Gai's are particularly overpowered, as well as the Aestis' Distortion Fields occasionally activating. Oh, and that's before you get the mandatory Lunar frames.
In fact, all the original mecha post-Mid-Season Upgrade might count, due to the Orgone Cloud ability that functions as both a "Mirror Image" proxy and reduces damage at 130 Will. In fact, every Mid-Season Upgrade comes with their own EN regeneration. Despite the different builds of each of them, this makes all the originals potential Lightning Bruisers if set up correctly.
Despite requiring three playthroughs to get it, the Laftcranz is just as exceptionally balanced with the same unit abilitites as the other Mid Season Upgrades. What offsets this is its preceding unit Vorlent is comparatively weaker than the three starting machines.
Often, gameplay mechanics can tip the balance of the game rather than the units. Judgment has at least two cases:
A new battleship mechanic allows swapping deployed units for units that weren't selected to be sortied prior to the start of a scenario. In other words, the player can exploit the maximum number of units allowed per scenario to deploy more units that they should normally be able to. Simply seperate Pegas from Tekkaman Blade and Black Wing from Dancougar (both units deploy as a single unit), upgrade one of the two battleship's "swap ability", then switch them for other units.
In certain SRWs, anytime a unit is fully upgraded, the player has an option to select one "Full Upgrade Bonus", such as increasing stats or weapon attack power beyond the unit's threshold; later games had a unit-exclusive bonus providing an even bigger advantage over others. Judgment, however, had the "S-Ranking in All Terrain" bonus. Selecting this grants a unit S-ranking in mobility and weapon reliability in every terrain, meaning additional damage/evasion bonuses anywhere and against any enemy on the map. Since S-ranks for terrain are rare among units, and terrain plays a major role in combat calculations, this is just one of the few reasons why Judgment is the last SRW to make this available as a Full Upgrade Bonus.
The Freedom and Justice, upon receiving their METEOR units, gain a damage bonus since they become a size L unit. Despite larger units having decreased mobility, both machines can still dodge, and even if hit, their HP pool is augmented by the METEOR. Coupled with strong weaponry (both having access to a MAP weapon and a hard-hitting Combination Attack with their METEORs), alongside their respective pilots' excellent stats and friendship bonus (on top of Athrun Zala's "Leadership" pilot skill), both make the best Lightning Bruiser pair available.
There is a notable flaw to this pairing: EN regeneration innate to the machines are not included, but with the right parts and skills, this doesn't become an issue. While this is fixed in W, compared to all the gamebreakers in Judgment, the Freedom and Justice seem outright average. They don't fare any better in W with the fixes either due to other units breaking the game much harder.
Mazinkaiser, especially when used alongside the "Shin"Great Mazinger: highest raw armor rating in the game, acceptable evasion, high SP count, and their numerous amounts of extremely powerful Combination Attacks result in an extremely powerful Lightning Bruiser duo (literally for the Great) with near unmatchable damage output.
Tekkaman Blade, thanks to being a size S, on top of an extra set of Spirit Commands once he receives Pegas in a mandatory event. Later, Blade gets his second mandatory upgrade "Blaster Mode" and access to the "Soul" Spirit Command. However, if you manage to follow certain requirements and save Tekkaman Rapier, who will join the party, the two of them can use the "Double Voltekka", one of the strongest Combination Attacks in the game.
Super Robot Wars K
Bucket loads of game breakers, especially in the super robot department, thanks to the Jeegs. They're small, meaning a higher dodge rate and have quite a few attacks that cost zero energy but dish out as much damage as the best moves on some of the other larger supers. All of this is before their Jeegs' Bronze Bell kicks in *
At 130 Will, +25% damage dealt, -25% damage taken, +10% to accuracy and evasion
The biggest thing that breaks the Jeegs is their insane damage potential. Unlike other supers, pilots Hiroshi Shiba and Kenji Mitsurugi have access to "Soul", while Kenji gets the "Fury" Spirit Command *
In K, Fury grants auto-critical on the next successful attack
. Since Combination Attacks ignore barriers and size differences (it help the Jeegs are small units), combined with damage being augmented by the Bronze Bell and their Spirit Commands, its entirely possible to easily deal six digits of damage. Oh, and regarding Hiroshi and Kenji's Jeegs? They share their upgrades, meaning two supers for the price of one.
Overman King Gainer with any of the parts that gives experience or money for each square moved. King Gainer's natural movement, its Acceleration/Super Acceleration Overskill *
At 130 Will, increase accuracy and evasion, +1 movement and gain Mirror Image; +2 movement for Super Acceleration
, combined with pilot Gainer Sanga's Game Champ/Game King pilot skill *
At 130 Will, +20 skill stat; +30 skill stat for Game King
, well...
Gain Bijou, after getting the Emperanza. He has insane skills, being one of few pilots capable of reaching a level nine in Gunfight *
Increase attack power and accuracy for ranged attacks
and level two for Combo Attack *
In K, pilot can attack both units in a partner squad; at higher levels, target additional squads
naturally. The Emperanza is even more powerful than King Gainer in terms of offensive power and has an ability to decrease enemy mobility, essentialy turning him into a walking focus for the entire team.
Kira Yamato is simply horrifying. Sure, he's usually given a handicap(horrific Will gains) to compensate for amazing stats, but in K, Will gains are standardized, meaning Kira's SEED bonus *
At 130 Will, +10% to accuracy/evasion, +25% to final attack damage
and already broken unit become impossible to stop. Hell, placing him in his outdated Aile Striker doesn't hurt too much.
Kira also has a fairly nice mobility and MAP Attacks, which is extremely useful in the corridor stages, and the extremely useful default Space Rank of S.
Vann falls under a Boring Yet Practical game breaker. His Dann of Thursday hits like a truck, but its basic melee attack at a paltry 10 EN cost bypasses any barriers. Many late-game enemies rely on barriers to survive, meaning Vann can systematically take down almost any end-game Mook with ease. Although the weapon range is short, just slap on parts so Vann can attack at a greater distance. Throw in some additional Spirit Commands to boot his Will quickly and it's easy to have Vann deal 5-digit damage on 6-8 enemies at once. This gets worse later on in the game since Van has a naturally high "Prevail" *
The lower the HP, the greater the increase to accuracy/evasion/critical/armor stats
and "Infight" pilot skills *
Increase attack power and accuracy for melee attacks
El Dora Soul from the same series is a Mighty Glacier, but with a level two maximum Combo Attack. However, it's ridiculously hard to kill and has a cheap weapon, EN-wise, that can reduce enemy Will. Couple this with 4 sets of Spirit Commands and you have a rare unit capable of fighting in disadvantageous terrain by mercy of spamming Spirit Commands. To make it better, they also share a support bonus from Vann.
The "Chain Attack" mechanic in K allows one solo unit not in a partner unit to attack upwards to three units (solo or partner) in its attack radius for full damage with any penalties. This will result in the unit gaining kills and Will much faster than other units.
What makes this broken is the way kills work in this game: in addition to boosting starting Will, as most modern SRW do, every 100 kills equates to +10 points to all stats (+100 at 999 kills). After enough playthroughs, even units with no upgrades will perform as if they have 5-6 bars worth of upgrades, thanks to their pilots. Unlike the preceding W, the damage cap in K is much higher.
Despite some of the more modern mechanics that increases game difficulty, such as evasion decay and standardizing Spirit Commands, K uses the W-style system of skills via "skill parts", meaning no skill slot limitations. Coupled with the "100 kills = +10 to all stats", you can expect a potential cast of One-Man Army pilots after multiple playthroughs. The only downside is no skills in K affects a sub-pilot's maximum Spirit Points or lowers the cost of Spirit Commands.
Super Robot Wars L
You'd think Banpresto would've learned their lesson back in W, but L brings us Iczer-1, whose SS size makes her a beast at dodging while she can also tank relatively well thanks to their mode changing ability, and has a relatively high damage output (yes, yetagain). Considering her innate "Double Image"-like ability, some fans have started to call her a "mini-Zeorymer"...at least, once you give her the "Ignore Size Modifier" pilot skill *
No accuracy or damage penalties incurred when attacking a unit of a different size
.
Unlike its previous counterpart in K, Kenji's Jeeg starts with the Mach Drill and Jeeg BazookaCombination Attacks when you get him. Naturally, Jeeg can only use these attack when it's placed adjacent to the Big Shooter, but the Partner System remedies that easily. The best thing about this Jeeg? Mach Drill and Jeeg Bazooka consume ammo, not EN, which his normal weapons burn. The Big Shooter grants EN regeneration to its partner, making it an natural pairing with Jeeg, and prevents him from taking the Morale hit from resupplying normally.
Mazinkaiser and Great Mazinger, yet again: powerful weapon sets that covers good range, which includes its signature 99 ammo missile, in a game where ammo and EN are relatively limited, further augmented by Mazinpower; however, in L, Mazinpower ALSO decreases damage taken by 25%. Both machines have the highest armor value in the game, and great accuracy/evasion ratings, making them the best pair of tankers. Simply slap on "Bullet Save" *
Increase ammo-based weaponry by 50%
for Kouji and Tetsuya so they can spam Rocket Punches, upgrade their machines to 5 bars and send 'em off. Note that when the pair arrive, they arrive with 4 bars to their stats already.
Their partner bonus is one of the big reasons for their brokenness in L: it's simply an increase in armor and mobility (Mazinkaiser) or accuracy (Great Mazinger). On their own, the units' raw stats make them durable, but partnered up, they become Lightning Bruisers.
Gaiking or a least after Gaiking the Great is unlocked. An L-sized Lightning BruiserSuper Robot with exceptional attacks and the "Flame" pilot skill *
Increase accuracy/evasion/critical/armor the higher the "Flame" level
useful for supers, and unlike its K counterpart, its EN usage is much lower in L. While it needs a combination of three units to become Gaiking the Great, the Partner System easily solves this and is generally well worth one less unit slot to deploy it.
Voltes V and Combattler V; compared to their performance in Judgment and some earlier SRW appearances where they needed all the subplots to keep up with other supers, these two are much stronger defensively and offensively, especially when they are in the same partner unit. What makes them a gamebreaker are their 5 pilots, meaning five sets of Spirit Commands, despite having good stats, and turns them into one of the best partner unit for almost every unit in the game.
The enhanced Partner System in L can greatly affect various units, as partnering up will increase things like attack power, movement or weapon range; with the right matches, you'd be surprised at the results.
This is tied into the unit upgrading system, where the game only allows for a maximum of 5 bars in upgrades for the majority of a playthrough, until the regular 10 bars is unlocked. What happens is partner bonuses are improved by the amount of upgrade bars to units (Level 1 - less than 5 bars on all stats; Level 2 - 5 bars, but less than 10; Level 3 - max upgrade).
A maximum level "Prevail" has greatly improved in L, as most pilots with the skill become quite hard to destroy at the lowest HP; among other things, an attack that normally deals around 2000+ points of damage to an allied unit will likely be rendered to around 10-20.
Super Robot Wars MX
So, just to confirm, we did mention Zeorymer, right? Oh, and you can buy the "SP Regeneration" pilot skill *
Recover 10 Spirit Points per turn
for both Masato and Miku, except instead of recovering 10 SP per turn, it recovers 10% of max SP per turn (making it a game breaker in itself. Consider this for a second.
Note that this Zeorymer isn't as strong as its Judgment counterpart, partially because you cannot unlock Great Zeorymer, but this is mostly as MX has many powerful units and arguably the easiest SRW to date, so the robot doesn't stand out that much anymore.
Kaine and Meio have a Combination Attack together. It's fairly standard for Dragonar's appearances in SRW but in MX, it has low Will requirements, costs only 10 EN to use and, with the right upgrades and Spirit Commands, can do in excess of 40,000 damage.
MX has a bug that shifts the game balance around. Generally in SRW, weapons have terrain rankings, dealing different damage depending on what type of terrain the target stands on. In MX, due to the bug, it's the attacker whose terrain counts. What does it mean? If a flying unit has anti-air weapons with an S air rating (a common occurence in this game), it will deal bonus damage against ALL targets. This makes even supposedly weak units like the TFO real hard hitters.
Super Robot Wars Original Generation
While it doesn't really belong in Original Generation per se, back in the days of the Classic Timeline (Masou Kishin: The Lord of Elemental to be exact), Shuu Shirakawa and the Neo Granzon. Yes, THAT Neo Granzon. He will only join you on the Volkruss route (the hardest in Super Robot Wars 3), and he'll pull a Face Heel Turn at the beginning of the last scenario (you can't kill him either unless you purposefully want to get a game over), but once you convince him back, fun time begins. The Neo Granzon's HP towers anything you have (around 30,000) with 30% HP regeneration per turn, hits like a bullet train (its infamous Shukutaihou only requires +5 Will to use, with base damage around 9000 and has 20 rounds), and nothing can take more than 20 HP away from him if you're not the Final Bossand hit him from behind. The remake actually tones him down since, back in the original, he can activate the "Attack Again" pilot skill half of the time. An alternate strategy of the last scenario is really 1) Convince Shu to come back; 2) Clear the map with him solo, since unlike Ayato or the Gan Eden, the possibility of him getting killed is pretty much zero.
Back in Super Robot Wars EX you can play Shu's secret scenerio and, with some code input, Neo Granzon will be in place of the Granzon (which you're supposed to use). It's so horribly broken that you can plough through the whole game with Shu alone and without any modifications needed. The guide book even sstates "it's a shame for life" if you get it destroyed.
The Wild Wurger L in Original Generation 2: it's really a red Wild Wurger that can't perform the Twin Bird Strike with the Wild Falken, but it comes with the unique weapon "Stun Shot". Any enemy hit with it is unable to move or attack (let alone, counterattack) for both the player and enemy turn. By pairing off the unit with any character having the "Fury" Spirit Command (Ratsel Feinschmecker, Raidiese F. Branstein and Leona Garstein), bosses are effectively helpless, despite most late-game bosses having barriers that negates most damage. Although Stun Shot runs out after one volley, there are about four ways to replenish it on the battlefield at any given moment; for even greater results, combine it with an Armor Breaker to trivialize every major boss past Scenario 27.
In the same game, Lamia is an excellent pilot and her super robot Angelg's also one of the better mecha. But if you complete certain requirements with her, and pump up her melee stat instead of ranged (which goes against the Angelg's style), then you get the Vaisaga. Not only does it do insane damage, it dodges like crazy, almost always activates "Mirror Image", and Lamia's Ace Bonus increases the chance to do "Mirror Image" even further, making it nigh untouchable. The drawback is only Lamia can pilot it, making the Angelg another good mecha collecting dust in the hangar bay (unlike the other secret unit, the Ash Saver, which can be used by anyone), though some players think it's better this way. When you get her back in Original Generation Gaiden, you basically get the Vaisaga for free.
Note that post-Original Generation 2, the Vaisaga has been nerfed slightly; while it's still an extremely good machine for Lamia, it's no longer considered a gamebreaker.
In Original Generation Gaiden, you get Folka Albark and the Ialdabaoth, a very dodgy super robot that hits very hard (its final attack is only rivaled by certain combination attacks), and this is before it gets its Mid-Season Upgrade, where its dodginess is augmented by After Image *
50% to completely dodge an attack at Will 130
, making it nigh untouchable even by bosses. Its basic attacks tear through non-bosses like paper, and, with some creative upgrades and parts, Folka can spam his most powerful attacks like crazy. It helps that Folka's Twin Spirit Command is "Soul" and he's one of the few characters who have it. Considering Folka and the Ialdabaoth are pastiches of Kenshiro, it's almost unquestionable they'll be broken. The catch, however, is even with a game breaker like the Ialdabaoth and the Vaisaga, when you get Lamia back, they can't win against the Final Boss alone and unprepared.
"Attacker" grants an additional 20% to damage upon hitting 130 Will
. The former makes SP management trivial compared to any SRW where the ability is unavailable for purchase. The game throws another boss at you when everyone's beginning to run low? No problem: simply turtle a few turns, let pilots recuperate their SP pools, then bounce back into the fray with buffs. In the case of the latter, this allows any pilot to deal more damage than they should normally be able to, since the originals and their units don't have the likes of Mazinpower to back themselves up. This is one of the few reasons why either pilot skill is rare among the playable roster and no long purchaseable in the Second Original Generation.
However, the new "Maximum Break" mechanic and various new pilot skills introduced in the Second Super Robot Wars Z remedies the hole left by some of the rare, non-purchaseable skills.
Despite the Second Original Generation "downsizing" a few game mechanics, there are characters and units that stand above the rest of the cast, though some of them only appear late-game. That said, Ing Egret joins pretty early with the decent Ashe, but once he fully awakens, acquires the "Telekinesis" pilot skill and the Ashe becomes the EX-EXbein, he becomes a beast. Defensively, his unit can perform "Mirror Image" and can generate a "T-Link Field", which Ing can put into good use (Ing's evasion stat is close to boss statistics, anyways); offensively, his Ace Bonus boosts all ranged-weaponry for the machine (all but one weapon are ranged) and the ammo/EN distributions are just perfect (the only EN-draining weapon is its late-game equipment "Black Hole Buster Cannon", which is one of the best attacks in the game for a single unit). You seriously will want to use this "Inheritor of Huckebein". Do mind, however, if you aim at fighting the True Final Boss, Ing will be temporarily unavailable in the last scenerio.
Recall how the Second Original Generation shafted "Attacker" being a purchaseable pilot skill. Only Axel and Kai Kitamura get it by default, though the former is arguably better because of what his Soulgain comes with: HP/EN regeneration, high damage output ("Code: Kirin" has the second highest non-Combination Attack damage in the game), further augmented by "Attacker" and "Will Limit Break" *
Raise maximum Will to 170 instead of 150
), and comes in with 3 ranks of upgrades immediately. Truly a terrific fighter that can be used instantly.
If properly set up, Kai can be also as broken as Axel, or better. His advantage is the "Soul" Spirit Command, which Axel doesn't have, and Kai is one of the few characters who can initiate a Maximum Break, further maximizing damage. His slight disadvantage is his default Gespenst MK II M Custom is comparatively weaker than the Soulgain, but this can be remedied by placing him into the Grungust Type-3, a two-seater which will allow you to give Kai an extra set of Spirit Commands to use to make up for his weaknesses.
Since he's Back from the Dead, Shu and his Granzon (no "Neo" this time, folks) is also a powerhouse, but not as much as he was in Original Generation Gaiden (probably because he won't leave the party this time). Here's an example of a real Mighty Glacier, as Shu enters with a high level of "Prevail", "Guard" *
At 130 Will, -20% to damage received
and "Genius" *
+20 to accuracy and evasion stats and critical hit rate
pilot skills, his Ace Bonus reducing 80% damage from all ranged attacks and the Granzon comes equipped with "Distortion Field"...the very same boss-exclusive mech ability that halves all damage taken. Since there aren't too many barrier-breaking weapons in the tail end of the game (certain end-game bosses are lacking those), using Shu to wall off attacks will drastically reduce the difficulty level. And the Granzon's Full Upgrade Bonus? "Beam Absorb" *
Absorb any beam-based attack and convert it into HP
. In fact, upon fully upgrading the Granzon's weapons, the "Black Hole Cluster" rivals the EX-Exbein's "Black Hole Buster Cannon" and only uses a paltry 30 EN. Its post-movement MAP attack is also very powerful, and to it off, all of its weapons get S-ranks in air and space terrain (notably, the Second Original Generation shafts plenty of terrain S-ranks). This is probably the closest thing we'll ever get into using the Neo Granzon for Original Generation.
G Bankaran is the Original Generation answer to the BossBorot. Michiru has a level 7 "Prevail" by default with the G Bankaran having a high armor value of 2100...at stock. The only allied unit that comes close to its armor rating is the Giganscudo Doro...at full upgrade. In fact, its strongest attack has a higher attack power than the KoRyuOh's "Tyrant Overbreak", and it gets S adaptability on all terrains as a Full Upgrade Bonus. The kicker? It's a resupply unit: run out of EN? Just have it resupply itself and continue to kick ass. Unlike the Boss Borot, you don't need to tinker Michiru or the G Bankaran to make it a Lethal Joke Character (since it isn't one, despite appearances). It's still a super powerful unit even with normal tuning.
The hidden Forte Gigas may qualify, as its comes with 4 ranks of upgrades, economic and powerful attacks (its strongest attack "Riot Buster" costs only 20 EN), a high armor rating, the incredibly rare S-ranks for many terrains and its weapons and functions as a two-seater for Joshua Radcliffe and Cliana Rimskaya. The only issue is it takes some real work to acquire it (even compared to unlocking the Vaisaga back in Original Generation 2) and no upgrades from the Aile Chevalier or Blanche Neige carry over to it. Still, it's kinda worth the payoff that unlike in the original game there's no Super Robot-hampering Game-Breaking Bug that makes it have troubles in tanking.
Super Robot Wars Reversal
The Black Serena from Martian Successor Nadesico: The Prince of Darkness. Two or three complete life bars (depending on whether you get its "High Mobility" upgrade), ridiculous dodge rates, the "Boson Jump" ability ("Mirror Image" clone) and powerful attacks. Its only weakness is burning through EN like no tomorrow, which is meant to force the player to sacrifice its life bars to refill it, but there are ways around that like the "Solar Panel" part (10% EN regen) and other reloading methods. That, and Akito can't use the Double Gekigan Flare unless its down to its last life bar...
Oddly, for a game that has a glut of broken units, the Black Serena in W is decent at best: the programmers forgot to give it Boson Jump...
While hit with a Nerf by having Rocket Punch use EN and less range, Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger. Alongside mooks rendered weaker in Reversal, both Mazingers have a Combination Attack with one another and the Shin Getter, while earning access to a one-round ammo-based weapon with an absurd attack power ridiculously early, turning them into Mighty Glaciers. Due to the Relationship Values in Reversal, placing them adjacent to one another increases damage. Unlike their Alpha Gaiden counterparts, there's nothing holding them back that makes them the Crutch Character of this game, so it's not surprising to find them dealing 5 digits of damage with basic attacks when other units need to use high-end weapons to do the same.
Gundam X and Gundam DX, mainly for the fact their Satellite Cannons don't cost a single thing to use (the attack is locked until after a few turns are over), a rather easy to obtain secrets and being able to to a Satellite cannon combination attack between the two mechs.
Super Robot Wars W
The Ardygun family's Valzacard is a battleship-sized super robot that dodges like a real robot with nearly 30,000 HP. Technically, it's really its attacks that make it so powerful in the game; to top it off, it has six pilots, meaning access to a vast Spirit Command list (moreso if you add a P.A.S.F.U. unit to regenerate Spirit Points), giving it tons of bonuses each turn. The best part? It's the mandatory final Mid-Season Upgrade for the protagonist, and its implied that its not even at full power during the course of the story. Also, if you're willing to glitch a bit, it can have infinite turns due to the "Infinite Spirit Points Glitch" (see below), and that's not even with setting up the protagonist to do it. Whatever minor flaws it has (if any), it can be covered with its FOUR PARTS SLOTS (can you say +150 EN/10% EN regen, Barrier, HP regen, and a Haro?). In a game full of gamebreakers, this is the most game breaking of them all.
Its previous form, the Valguard, is no slouch, either: a battleship-sized super robot with five pilots with insane durability and acceptable offensive power. While it doesn't sound too amazing compared to the Valzacard, it has an ammo-based MAP weapon with nice coverage and all of its attacks cost little EN, but powerful enough to do its job thanks to its LL size. The early parts of the second half of W can be trivialized by spamming its MAP weapon after giving Kazuma the "Hit & Away" pilot skill *
Attack first without moving, then move after attacking
. Even though the Valguard won't be as powerful as many of the returning first-half units, you'll be getting the final Mid-Season Upgrade a few scenarios later.
Detonator Orgun and the Tekkamen...ALL seven of them (eight, if you play your cards right). Five of them have two HP bars (and a second set of Spirit Commands), six of them have long-range Wave Motion Guns with a MAP variant, and on top of that, are small (size SS: human-sized in a battlefield full of 30-foot plus Humongous Mecha) and hard to hit, and can attack several enemies in a row with their base attacks, especially Yumi (Tekkaman Hiver), whose Voltekka MAP attack is Friendly Fireproof and has a wide area of effect. Augmented further because Yumi gains access to the "Love" Spirit Command *
Gain the effects of the Accelerate, Strike, Alert, Valor, Spirit, Gain and Luck Spirit Commands for one turn
. Oh, and most of them (bar Orgun) have cheap and extremely powerful Combination Attacks with each other.
The thing that makes them complete game breakers is unlike its preceding game Judgment (where Blade is already broken), the size difference mechanic that otherwise reduces the effectiveness of small units attacking larger ones doesn't exist, meaning Orgun and a Tekkaman can hit every bit as hard as a Mobile Suit, yet their damage output is comparable to high-end supers or even higher. Notably, W lacks the AI of Judgment that focuses on hitting slower units.
To say nothing about GaoGaiGar and its derivatives is a crime. Basically, GaoGaiGar's a super robot with excellent defense, yet dodges like crazy with its only downside being EN cost for its more powerful attacks and its low attacking range. On top of that, its "Protect Shade"/"Protect Wall" defensive skill buffs defense against small damages (pilot Gai Shishioh has the "Invincible" Spirit Command *
Reduce all damage received from the next attack to 10
, which when used in conjunction with Protect Shade/Wall, means he takes no damage from the next hit). Also, unlike its Alpha 3 counterpart, Goldymarg's no longer a separate unit, so it can use the Goldion Hammer as many times as possible. Once the story brings in the Genesic GaoGaiGar and Goldion Crusher, it can use the Goldion Crusher infinitely to your heart's content. Wow, talk about one God of Destruction... breaking the game.
Incidentally, in order to make things simple for combining the supporting Ryu robots (because you can form both their normal combinations and their combinations fuelled by THE POWER), all four of them share upgrades and levels. Basically, you can get four fairly decent for the price of one, and eight different pools of Spirit Commands (4 from the Ryu robots, 4 more from each of their combined forms, with 2 of them being an easy to unlock Secret Character). Oh, and the upgrades you spend on the male Ryus get carried over to the female Ryus, which also share character levels with each other. That means you get two more fairly decent supporting robots for the price of one. Thanks to how combinations are handled in W, you're equipping up to three units with a part for every part given to each of the Ryu robots. To make it worse, they also share pilot skills (give one "Will Limit Break", all four/two gets the effect), which means they are, BY FAR the most resource efficient in SRW history. Whew! What a mouthful!
It should be noted that thanks to the innate ability of the GaoGaiGar cast, all of their units, including The Ryus become a straight up Lightning Bruiser. And this, before you realized that their attack power makes 90% of the entire cast looks pitiful in comparison*
The non secret form of the combined Ryu has a Combination Attack that is even more powerful than EXA Nova Shoot Over, costs the same, and is alvailable as soon as you unlocked their ability to combine. The secret version is even more powerful.
Volfogg has an attack that nullifies barriers of anyone it attacks, and is a Lightning Bruiser with two HP bars with "Double Image" (Mirror Image proxy). Mic Sounders the 13th can buff Will for allies and its attacks inflict status effects, one of which gets a MAP variant, and all of them have high damage capabilities and are ammo-based. Finally, King J-Der inherits upgrades from GaoGaiGar and has insane durability backed with "Double Image" and a damage reduction skill complimented by strong attacks. It gets a 4-pilot Spirit Command pool and is an LL-sized super robot, which essentialy turns him into a more durable Mini-Valzacard. In short, the whole cast of GaoGaiGar is a big family of game breakers.
Mazinkaiser, at least after getting its Kaiser Scrander, which makes it a more offensive-based GaoGaiGar with less armor, but makes it up with Mazinpower. Add in the Kaiser Nova, economic combinations with the Great Mazinger, a slightly more expensive combination with the Shin Getter and the Final Dynamic Special with both, you basically got one hell of a Lightning Bruiser.
Great Mazinger, despite being a Mazinkaiser-lite, is pretty broken. It has the same statistical layout as the Mazinkaiser, but with weaker weaponry, which won't be a problem when you realize Kouji and Tetsuya share four extremely overpowered Combination Attacks. As an extra, Tetsuya is the first unit in the game who can stack "Valor" with critical hit, thanks to his "Fighting Spirit" Spirit Command *
Gain 100% chance of performing a critical hit for one turn
, something that is unlocked when he joins permanently. Add in the fact that both units are unlocked early in the game and you got a reliable Disc One Nuke with their mobility as the only weakness.
On New Game Plus, you can buy External GS-Rides. These parts grant +150 EN and regenerates 10% of max EN each turn. So go ahead: pick an EN-consuming attack and go wild.
Just like Judgment, W has at least two gameplay mechanics that tipped game balance over on its head. However, both are a case of Good Bad Bug:
The "Infinite Spirit Points Glitch", accessed by manipulating Spirit Commands for units with multiple pilots. By selecting two specific Spirit Commands that have the same action, with one that grants more (ie "Spirit" and "Drive"*
Raises Will by 10 and 30, respectively
or "Valor" and "Soul") from the primary pilot and a co-pilot, then deselecting both Spirit Commands before actually casting them, the primary pilot will gain extra Spirit Points equal to the cost of the Spirit Command selected, even bypassing that pilot's maximum. In other words, if the primary pilot has the "Zeal" Spirit Command, the unit can move and attack infinitely without any penalties. By default, there are three units that can abuse this bug: King J-Der, Boss Borot and the Valzacard.
To further extend just how ludicrous this bug is, if the primary pilot has "Soul" and one of the sub-pilots has "Valor", manipulating this bug will also multiply damage to a total of five times. Thankfully this combination is only alvailable to Kazuma in New Game Plus, and only in the final stage of the first part onwards.
Like most modern installments, you can sell acquired parts in the intermission menu for extra credits. However, another bug in W returns all items sold if a game over occurs. Simply sell parts at the pre-battle intermission menu (the one just before you sortie your units), trigger the game over conditions and you'll acquire all credits from items sold and enemies destroyed, yet keep everything you previously sold. This can be repeated infinitely, including acquiring infinite Battle Points (BP) *
"BP+" skill parts are returned after a game over like equippable parts. However, unlike other skill parts, "BP+" still retains its effect on the pilot after a game over
.
There are a couple other mechanics that aren't bug-related, yet by modern gameplay standards, can break the game:
The handling of pilot skills in W: unlike modern SRWs that require pilot points to purchase skills with a limited amount of space per pilot, W doesn't use points nor have such restrictions. Pilot skills come in the form of "skill parts" akin to equippable parts (once used, however, they are permanent). With the right skill parts, a pilot can inflate their maximum Spirit Points to staggering levels, reduce Spirit Command costs by 30%, boost starting Will by 15, increase the Will limit beyond 150 and so forth, and all of these can be used to a sub-pilot. In other words, every pilot can potentially become a One-Man Army.
Some of the upgrade inheritence in W can easily result in a good number of future acquired units receiving those upgrades, while a few others outright sharing them. Finding out which unit(s)' upgrades carries over to which goes a long way in making the most of your finances. The Ryu robots (see above) are just one of the few examples in the game.
Super Robot Wars Z
Not to the levels of Zeorymer in MX and Judgment, but the Baldios. This "Zeorymer-lite" Lightning Bruiser that's a size-LL, though without a MAP and EN regeneration, high armor rating, ridiculous range, strong and economic weapons, and better yet, it has a "sub-dimensional warp" ability allowing it to dodge anything completely with a set probability. What's more is the Baldios has a goddamned A-ranking in every terrain in a game that rarely gives out a unit with anything better than three A's and a B.
The Nirvash TypeZERO doesn't start as much until you advance in the game and get its Spec-2 upgrade, with top-class accuracy/evasion and a hideously overpowered, 6-ranged Seven Swell MAP weapon that can be recharged and abused using the appropriate skills. Most players are divided into two groups after getting the Spec-2: those who avoid using it to ruin the game and the ones who nuke everything with Seven Swell by using the "Resupply" and "Move Again" Spirit Commands to set it up, hence where the "Nirvash/Haman/Amuro/Resupply" combo comes from.
The Aquarion in the hands of a player who knows what he/she's doing. This mecha has the unique ability "Element System", which gives the primary pilot the highest stat among the three pilots in every category if his/her Will passes 130; not a difficult task. This may not seem like much, but if one takes each of the three pilots and pump a specific stat, an Element System-powered Apollo can hit like a tank, dodge like a Gundam and have a high enough skill stat to activate "Attack Again", allowing him to double-hit everything using his insanely powerful weapons that have amazing range, which can be further improved with items and parts.
For extra brokenness, give Apollo "EN Save" *
EN attacks cost 20% less EN
and "Hit & Away" pilot skills and use the 14-ranged (!) "Mugen Punch" as much as possible.
Roger Smith's exclusive "Negotiation" pilot skill: so long as Roger is deployed on the battlefield and remains there until the end of the scenario, any repair costs incurred from destroyed units are reduced to zero. Repeat: all repair costs are reduced to zero. It helps The Big O is one of the game's better units by being a defensive and offensive powerhouse capable of leveling enemy forces by itself with the right build. Its weapons also have pretty good range for a Super Robot and its most powerful attack is ammo-based.
The ∀ Gundam is largely Magikarp Power incarnate, but with the right pilot (any Universal Century Gundam ace who isn't Loran Cehack (unless you decide to do some Level Grinding with him), usually Char Aznable or Harry Ord, and with Amuro or Haman Karn as a squad member using their very cheap "Move Again" Spirit Command), it becomes a WMD capable of not only "MAP-nuking" the entire battlefield, but also walk over everything in its range by lowering its armor rating via Moonlight Butterfly while doing insane amounts of damage.
Most players tend to pick Char, since he isn't relegated to the Sazabi and is stuck in the Hyaku Shiki while Amuro has the Nu Gundam, giving him a good unit to pilot; plus, Ord has his Gold Sumo.
Kei Katsuragi and his Orguss. This pilot is one of the best in Z, if not the flat-out best: he comes with an amazing pilot skill set (containing the much sought-out "Attack Again" and "Counter" *
Chance of attacking first before the enemy strikes first
), a high enough skill rating to activate both, high evasion/ranged stats, and a very dodgy mech that has no business doing as much damage as it does. Just slap him "Bullet Save" to get more hits and "Ignore Size Modifier" since the Orguss is a size-S, spend a couple thousand Orguss' weaponry and mobility and laugh as he evades everything thrown at him and nukes mooks to death with a Macross Missile Massacre, easily doing above 10000 damage when fully upgraded.
It Gets Better: later in the game, he gets Orson as a partner with an identical machine, giving both access to a very cost-effective and powerful Combination Attack that makes them even more broken. Keep in mind that Kei's stats are as good as (if not even better) than the Universal Century aces Amuro and Char.
One of the things that make Kei insanely powerful is his Squad Leader Bonus: +20% damage against male enemies, -20% damage against females. Since 90% of the enemies in the game are male, this is probably the best Squad Leader Bonus in the game.
Rand Travis' Gunleon can be made into one of these if you set it up as a Stone Wall or Mighty Glacier unit and give it a squad with two other units that have the "Repair" equipment (the TFO comes in mind), giving it a 30% HP recovery each turn. Add this to Rand's possession of "Prevail" and the Gunleon's high armor and size-L rating, you have a virtually un-killable, wrench-wielding GaoGaiGarExpy of doom that can survive wave after wave of attacks. There's a good reason people avoid Rand when the plot forces you to fight him.
King Gainer, just like its K counterpart: if Gainer gets 100 kills before a certain scenario (or just reaches Ace status with 70 kills in Hakai-hen/Saisei-hen), he gets "Game Champ". In other words, slap Gainer with "Attack Again", "Ignore Size Modifier" and "EN Save" to get in more mileage out of his Overskill attacks, upgrade King Gainer's weapons and enjoy the sparks flying as he tears through enemies.
Certain pilot skills, like "Predict" *
At 130 Will, +10% to accuracy/evasion/critical stats
, "Dash" *
+1 movement; at 130 Will, +2 movement
, "Guard" and certain parts (particularly the "Hyper Jammer" *
At 130 Will, gain 30% chance to dodge all attacks
and the "D Extractor" *
At 130 Will, +200 to all weapons, +150 armor rating
in Saisei-hen) can be used to push his already useful Overskill bonus to even greater heights.
Second Super Robot Wars Z: Hakai-hen
Mazinger Z has the highest armor rating among allied units and powerful attacks at all ranges, including a 7-rangedPhoton Beam which it gets early on in the game (it ignores size differences and barriers). Combined with EN regeneration ("small" un-upgraded, "medium" as a Full Upgrade Bonus) that allows it to spam the attack multiple times every turn, it becomes possibly the best super robot you have for most of the game. Oh, and if you think the good old Mazinpower is gone? Simply train Kouji until he hits Ace status to get it.
Not to mention Saisei-hen gives it the God Scrander, allowing it to use the Big Bang Punch (MAP and normal versions) and One Hundred Rocket Punch; both attacks are post-movement. The best part? The MAP Big Bang Punch and One Hundred Rocket Punch are ammo-based (only one round, though), meaning you can spam EN like no tomorrow when dealing with mooks.
The real Game Breaker? The humble "Propellant Tank" part *
Replenish all EN; one use per scenario
. Rescued from the Scrappy Heap, indeed, on account of how you get one use of it per scenario rather than one use per game. In most situations, the Propellant Tank is more useful, in terms of total energy recharged, than the Solar Panel *
10% EN regeneration
or "Yggdrasil Drive" *
+150 maximum EN
(the same goes, to a lesser extent, the "Cartridge" *
Replenishes all ammo; one use per scenario
and other expendables).
Hakai-hen is bashed for being too easy due to the new pilot skill "Continuous Action" *
At 120 Will, pilot can perform one additional action if he/she successfully destroys an enemy; this can only be done once per turn
In contrast to its Z counterpart, the Aquarion is actually better due to its new finisher that can be used with any of its pilot combinations, alongside each Aquarion pilot having a unique Ace Bonus that boosts a certain stat by 20 (Sirius is melee, Silvia is range, Reika is skill, Pierre is defense, Jun is accuracy, Tsugumi is evasion). Apollo's Ace Bonus? 125 Will at the start of every scenario (20 from the bonus, 5 for achieving Ace status), meaning he only needs 5 more Will points to activate the Element System. It basically tells you to use Apollo/Sirius/Reika combo, then train all three of them to become aces. The only downside is the Solar Aquarion's even more of an energy hog than before, but this can be easily remedied with the appropriate parts and pilot skills.
As far as Hakai-hen units go, Chirico Cuvie and his Scopedog, when given such things as the "Ignore Size Modifier" pilot skill, will dodge almost everything and rarely fail to hit a critical. Chirico's starting skills include a max level "Prevail" and "????" ("Abnormal Survivor" *
When HP is below 10%, +30 to accuracy/evasion, +20 to melee/ranged/defense/skill stats
) which makes him the god of One Hit Point Wonder units from the start. To quote the following post (note those dreaded Dimensional Beasts will still have a fair chance to hit him if you're not careful, especially when their OWN "Prevail" kicks in):
"His special skill coupled with his Potential 9 basically means that if Chirico is in the red, everything is dead. He simply goes apeshit viking berserker super saiyan crazy at that point and even DAMON bosses will find it impossible to land a hit."
In fact, the Scopedog's strongest attack has a built-in "Ignore Size Modifier" by default, hits about 5700 at max upgrade and if the Scopedog's fully upgraded, its Full Upgrade Bonus increases all weapons' critical rate by 30. Alongside Chirico's Ace Bonus of +300 attack power to all weapons after 130 Will, so long as he's in the red, every attack will score a critical. WOW...
Though some players may overrate Chirico, others look to Akagi Shunsuke and the Dai-Guard. Considered another god of Magikarp Power, Akagi comes with the exclusive "Salaryman" pilot skill *
Upon level up, for every 10 enemy units destroyed or completing the map, pilot earns +3 pilot points
. If you use the Dai-Guard and get enough kills with it, Akagi can easily outclass every other pilot in the game. The machine's secondary pilots have healing Spirit Commands too, which help cancel out it's Glass Cannon status, not to mention it can resupply by itself AND if Akagi hits Ace status, he gains access to the cheapest "Soul" in your team (while still being a super).
It should be noted that its status as frail mainly comes from the first time using it where its armor value is much lower than normal (a decent amount but it's no Mazinger).
In fact, give Akagi "Continuous Action" in the first quarter of the game. Throw in some other skills like "Dash" and "Bullet Save" to make up for the Dai-Guard's weaknesses and some parts (such as a "Haro" *
For Hakai-hen, Haro parts grant +2 movement, +45 mobility, +25 weapon accuracy, +1 weapon range
) and it'll turn into a Lightning Bruiser capable of single-handedly pushing through half of the map in scenarios.
In the case for the Gurren Lagann, despite losing Kamina, you've likely stored up enough pilot points to give Simon "Continuous Action" and "EN Save". Note while Simon is a half-decent pilot, admittedly with one of the best blitz machines in Hakai-hen, you'll realize he's more useful once he aqcuires his Ace Bonus, granting him 150 Will at the beginning of each sortie.
Forget about the Shin Getter: regular old Getter Robo is already a strong candidate for the best unit in the game. It has amazing, powerful attacks, coupled with primary pilot Ryouma Nagare having access to the "Drive" Spirit Command for the same cost as "Spirit", alongside the Getter's Full Upgrade Bonus of changing forms after movement, which means that Getter-2, with Hayato Jin knowing "Dash" and casting "Accelerate", can move 11 spaces across the map, then switching to Getter-1 or Getter-3 to dish out the hurt. Combine this with "Support Attack" or "Move Again" on Musashi Tomoei for added utility and you've got a unit that can easily handle mook clearing, support attacking and boss killing all-in-one.
Still, the Shin Getter in late-game scenarios count, where achieving Ryouma's Ace Bonus grants him an additional 30% damage at 150 Will, making him capable of dealing the highest raw damage in the game. This is slightly nerfed in Saisei-hen, where his Ace Bonus will only activate at 170 Will. It doesn't hurt since Ryouma knows "Will Limit Break" naturally.
God Mars is pretty nigh unstoppable in its combined mode, especially since its last appearance made it practically useless *
Not only does the armor coding bug in Destiny give God Mars next-to-no defense in a game where getting Takeru shot down is an instant game over, but his stats, coupled with him having some not-so-helpful Spirit Commands (to put it short, his set is offensive-based; most super robot pilots come with "Iron Wall" for tanking necessities, something Takeru doesn't at all), and the risk of forced deployments, alongside having the second most powerful Combination Attack in Destiny, makes God Mars near pointless
. The starting mecha, Gaia (which has to reach 130 Will before transforming without its Full Upgrade Bonus), actually HELPS because it can dodge by some degree and take a few hits as well as having strong attacks. Most importantly, once Gaia changes to God Mars, it's given full HP/EN regeneration. At the same time, Takeru has a set of good stats, with an Ace Bonus that grants him the "SP Regeneration" pilot skill.
An unexpected tanking god would be Sandrock and its upgrade in Saisei-hen. Normally it has a good armor stat and a shield, but its Full Upgrade Bonus pushes its armor rating beyond that of Mazinger. Add on some defensive skills ("Guard", "Support Defend", "Prevail") and you'll have a unit that can basically tank alongside the toughest super robots. Do note the Sandrock's not exactly lacking in offense or speed either, and Quatre's Ace Bonus is getting morale bonuses off of supporting others.
Second Super Robot Wars Z: Saisei-hen
Saisei-hen introduces various emblems as parts and you can receive one of each after completing various requirements. What makes them game breakers are the effects they allow:
Iron Emblem: Receive twice the experience points; stacks with the "Gain" Spirit Command *
Gain twice the amount of experience points
.
Bronze Emblem: Primary pilot recovers 20 SP per turn.
Silver Emblem: Primary pilot earns triple the number of pilot points.
Gold Emblem: Receive twice the amount of money earned; stacks with the "Luck" Spirit Command *
Gain twice the amount of money earned
.
Platinum Emblem: Gain an additional turn during the player phase.
Saisei-hen brings back "SP Regeneration" (which wasn't available for purchase as a skill in Hakai-hen) and adds the new "SP Get" pilot skill *
Pilot recovers 10 SP every time he/she destroys an enemy. Can activate multiple times per turn but only once per combat action (e.g., MAP attacks)
. Oh, and both stack; do the math.
Lelouch Lamperouge can easily become this in Saisei-hen, between the Shinkirou's Absolute Protection Territory (which nullifies ANY attack under 4000 damage), his powerful Phase Transition Cannon MAP attack, and his Ace Bonus *
The area of effect of Lelouch's exclusive pilot skill "Tactical Command" is increased by 2. At 150 Will, a random Spirit Command will auto-cast on the pilot at the beginning of the player's turn; this includes Spirit Commands the pilot doesn't have access to normally
. While the Shikirou's Absolute Protection Territory costs a jarring 30 EN per activation, you could make it cost zero (no pun intended) with its Full Upgrade Bonus. Give Lelouch "Support Defense" pilot skill *
Pilot can provide defensive support to an adjacent ally
while you're at it and the Shinkirou becomes an awesome tanking unit.
Suzaku Kururugi in his Lancelot Albion is also a beast, moreso after you make him an Ace. He gets the unique skill "Curse of Geass", which activates at 130 Will, granting him a max level "Prevail" and an additional 10% to all damage. His Ace Bonus? "Curse of Geass" activates regardless of Will. Doesn't hurt the Albion is a very powerful unit and Suzaku's "Soul" Spirit Command costs 40 SP. Unfortunately, he's only available in the last stretch of the game.
Kallen Kozuki is available early in Saisei-hen, and for those who used her in Hakai-hen should know how strong she is already, until she receives her final, mandatory upgrade to the Guren. It's still a size S unit with S-ranking in air, high mobility, a barrier, and its Radiation Wave Emitter's power rivals other protagonists' units, while it's one of the least EN-using strongest attacks for a unit in the roster. The only problem is it's still an EN drainage in Hakai-hen, but like the Aquarion this can be fixed with parts.
The Zero SystemTook a Level in Badass in Saisei-hen. In contrast to its use in previous SRWs, the system no longer gives a preset number of pilot stat increases upon activation; instead, stat gains depend on the pilot's Will level. Therefore, activating the Zero System at 150 yields greater stat increases than at 130 Will (moreso if the pilot has "Will Limit Break" and activates it at 170). Combine this with skills dependent on the pilot's skill stat (such as "Attack Again" and "Counter"), you'll have a Wing Gundam Zero Double Tapping almost all bosses.
When compared against Chirico's "Abnormal Survivor", the Zero System is a much more Awesome Yet Practical equivalent, since it doesn't require unit HP to be below a certain threshold ("Abnormal Survivor" only kicks in at 10% HP or less).
In fact, the Wing Zero has exceptional, cost-effective attacks in Saisei-hen, such as its beam saber dealing 5500 damage at full upgrade for only 5 EN with a 1-3 range. Other non-ammo based attacks do roughly the same amount of damage will cost at least +10 EN. The Rolling Buster Rifle MAP weapon may not have the damage and range as the Seven Swell, but it's a post-movement attack that carries three rounds in contrast to the single shot Seven Swell.
00 Raiser carries a 7700 power post-movement Raiser Sword with a 2-6 range and a MAP variant of the attack with 12 range, alongside the machine's "Afterimage" ability (another "Mirror Image" proxy). It helps that Setsuna F. Seiei is a much better pilot in Saisei-hen and eventually gets the unique skill "Innovator" *
At 140 Will, +20 tp accuracy/evasion/skill stats and regenerate 10 SP per turn
. For further game breaking, "Innovator" stacks with "SP Regeneration" and "SP Get", meaning at least 30 SP per turn.
Also take note of Setsuna's Ace Bonus: 50% additional damage to Gundams or GN Drive-equipped units...and it stacks with "Valor" or "Soul". Needless to say, when it comes to Gundam 00 units, it'll easily be a Curb-Stomp Battle against them with Setsuna.
The Ace Bonus for Esther Elhaas turns her "Valor" Spirit Command into "Love" with the same casting cost as "Valor". In order words, you get the full effects of "Love" for the low, efficient cost of 40 SP, beating out the likes of Irmgard Kazahara in Original Generation, who also has "Love", but at the slightly higher cost of 45 SP. Unfortunately, Esther learns "Valor" as her last Spirit Command, which is only available after Scenario 46.
The Sound Forceyetagain in Saisei-hen (though only Basara is available). Like the Protodeviln in Alpha 3, Dimensional Beasts take damage from their songs, with the added punch it also debuffs their morale. But here's the kicker: if any Vajra unit's morale dips below 120 Will, they automatically flee the battlefield; in fact, if Basara is the one to do it, he earns TWICE the amount of experience and pilot points. Feel free to simply send him into a group of Vajra and watch as his pilot points skyrocket through the roof. His presence makes any scenarios consisting of Vajra an absolute cakewalk.
Even crazier are the MAP variants of the songs: "Planet Dance" is a MAP version of the "Trust" Spirit Command *
Recover 2500 HP
, "Totsugeki Love Heart" casts the "Rouse" Spirit Command *
+5 Will to adjacent allies
, "My Friends" restores SP and "Try Again" boosts stats (notably there's a cap this time for offensive/defensive stats and it doesn't stack with itself, Zero's commands however...). However, it's his new song "Dynamite Explosion" that blows every other song out of the water. The song grants the "Cheer" and "Bless" Spirit Commands to allies; as his Song Energy climbs, "Acceleration" and "Alert" are also added. If Basara casts "Valor" before belting out this tune, all allies affected RECEIVE VALOR FOR FREE. Truly, this is Theme Music Power-Up exemplified.
This turns Ozma Lee into a gamebreaker, as his Ace Bonus is doubling the effects of both the Fire Bomber CD part (+3 Will/turn) and Basara's songs. Have Basara sing "Try Again" to Ozma with "Valor", and watch his stat boost go through the roof (+60 to Melee/Ranged/Skill, +120 to Accruacy/Defense/Evasion). Such a boost also means his "Attack Again" pilot skill instantly becomes practical, even if his level is way behind that of enemies. Naturally, the developers were likely aware of this, as he joins the party before the Macross Frontier finale.
