Video Game / Armory & Machine 2

Armory & Machine 2 is a early-access 2019 story-driven Idle Game with RPG Elements for the iOS and Android, developed by Uken Games. It is the sequel to Armory & Machine.

The player controls a human Operator to a Machine, an AI whose goal is to generate energy while building an Armory. Unlike the previous game, the operator themselves explores the vast wasteland of the wilderness, which has been destroyed by a faction called the Prestige.

The game is in early access and it can be downloaded here (iOS) or here (Android).

This game contains the following Tropes:

• Action Bomb: Timebomb enemies explode on you after a countdown if not destroyed first. They also come in other variants, the Resilient Timebomb that can take more damage, the Helpful Timebomb that heals you when it explodes, the Annoying Timebomb whose countdown is random, the Quick Timebomb whose countdown is faster, the Short Timebomb that starts at 5 instead of 10, etc.
• Blob Monster: Slimes are one of the enemy types encountered and they have a simple pattern: Most of them alternate between using a move that does nothing and an actual damaging attack, making them easy to beat by interrupting them on their attack turn. They also come in different varieties, usually with similar attack pattern but with the move names changed.
• Boring, but Practical:
  • Blast and Bang are two of the most essential moves as they will greatly help you at avoiding damage or harmful status effects altogether.
  • Out of all the Market items, the basic Knives are one of the most useful if they appear in the Market. You get 50 of them at a very low market token cost, and they have a very fast cast and recharge time allowing you to spam them for 15 damage each, with rather good accuracy to boot. This even makes them more practical than a max-level Detonate in the Wilderness, where several enemies take 1/10th the damage from Explosives.
  • Elemental Blast attacks are surprisingly useful out of the Market items despite being weak. They make a great replacement for Bang which has a much longer cooldown time, and by being elemental instead of Blast-typed they will damage enemies that are resistant/immune to Blast damage while interrupting them.
  • Kaboom. While its damage at maximum level is nothing to cry about (Randomized Damage Attack from 20-40 damage), it is craftable, can be used relatively quickly, has no chance to miss at all compared to Laser, Strike or the Market skills, and as an untyped attack it doesn't get greatly diminished damage against explosive-resistant foes in the Wilderness.
• Boss in Mook Clothing:
  • The Nomads in the Outskirts and Wasteland areas when you first have access to those areas. They have 50 HP, and have an attack pattern of using the 25-damage Self-Defense three times followed by Taunt (which doesn't hurt, but interrupts). Both moves are relatively fast-casting and interrupt the powerful but slow-casting Bomb, and Self-Defense outpaces Blast's cooldown meaning that you have to be careful of using and timing both Blast and Bang to interrupt and deal 5 damage per hit. The best weapon against them, Detonate (deals massive damage and has a faster cast time than Taunt), is only very rarely dropped by enemies and not craftable when you first encounter them. Thankfully, fighting them is optional in the Outskirts where you're given a choice to avoid them, but they do appear as random encounters in the Wasteland area. And if Nomads weren't tough enough, there's the very rarely-encountered Burly Nomad in the Wasteland area, who's basically a Nomad with three times the HP.
  • The Fused JrBots in the Wasteland area, which are an optional choice encounter. They have a rather good amount of HP, have a 50-damage Energy Beam attack that will off you in two hits, and a very quick Panic attack that deals 25. You need to time your Blast and Bang interrupts very carefully and precisely in order to defeat it without taking any damage, and it's nearly impossible to avoid damage if you're using the slower-recharging Bomb instead of Bunker Buster.
  • Dragons of various sorts are rarely encountered in the Wilderness but have huge amounts of HP and some very painful attacks in Fireball, Fire/Frost Breath, and Scratch, especially if you fail to interrupt Inhale.
  • The Green Orc is rarely encountered in the Damp Meadow sub-area of the Wilderness, has more HP than the Sleepy Guardian Orc boss of the area, and has the capability to buff its own attacks up.
• Confusion Fu: The Yak Slime, YakYak Slime, YakYakYak Slime, Yuk Slime, YukYuk Slime, and YukYukYuk Slime pull this off. The former three only use Yak, YakYak, and YakYakYak as their moves, while the latter three only use Yuk, YukYuk, and YukYukYuk as their moves. Only one of the moves will deal damage while the other two don't, making it very confusing, and both Yak-series and Yuk-series slimes have different attack cycles. The trick here is that the damaging move is the one that matches their name.
• Counter-Attack:
  • Attacking the Helpful Timebomb at any time will damage it and cause you to take 7.5x the damage inflicted.
  • Attacking the Bear Trap will cause it to damage you as well. It will only be unable to counter for a few seconds after its A.I. Roulette uses "Attachch!!".
  • Attacking the Arrow Trap when it's arming itself will cause you to take 30 damage. This is tricky, because you also get a split-second to hit it as soon as it's fully armed but vulnerable, otherwise it also deals 30 damage to you.
• Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Even moreso than in the first game. Upon dying, you're returned back to the Machine with everything you've collected on the run up to then, with no penalty or loss. Fuel is also far easier to come across in the game, allowing you to go for another run within a minute if you die.
• Glass Cannon: The Glitched JrBots in the the Wasteland area have 3 HP and take one hit from your weakest attack Blast to die. If they manage to hit you with their very fast-casting attack Frenzy, however, they deal a whopping 50 damage.
• The Goomba: Rats take one hit to die from your weakest ability and hit for a low 10 damage. They also waste every other turn using Wait, which does nothing.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: The Wilderness contains elemental enemies that are highly resistant to both Blast and Explosive damage, but are vulnerable to certain elements which makes them easier to defeat:
  • Fire is resistant to Nature and Ice but is vulnerable to Water.
  • Water is resistant to Fire and Ice but is vulnerable to Shock and Nature.
  • Ice is resistant to Shock and Water but is vulnerable to Fire.
  • Shock is resistant to Water but is vulnerable to Nature and Rock.
  • Rock is resistant to Fire and Shock but is vulnerable to Ice.
  • Nature is resistant to Water but is vulnerable to Fire.
  • Purification is vulnerable to Undead and Demon.
  • Undead is vulnerable to Purification and Fire.
  • Demon is vulnerable to Purification.
• Full-Boar Action: The Mutant Boars in the Deep Woods subarea of the Wilderness. They normally waste turns using "Puff", but they will every so often use Charge to increase their attack then follow up with a Powerful, but Inaccurate Ram that cannot be interrupted, only dodged.
• Helpful Mook:
  • The Helpful Timebomb that is rarely encountered will explode after a countdown to heal you for a very nice 50 HP. It also gives a huge amount of Evos for enemies in its area upon exploding. However, it will hurt you for a good bit of damage if you attack it.
  • All the Sprites in the Wilderness will grant you a buff as their third move of their attack pattern, so it might be wise to avoid interrupting it.
  • The Wandering Soul will either provide you with a defense buff or heal 25 of your HP, and expire when it does so.
• Immune to Bullets:
  • The Snake, Titan, and regular JrBot enemies are immune to damage from the Blast and Bang skills, though they will still be interrupted as usual.
  • Several of the Wilderness enemies and all of the Wilderness bosses are not only immune to Blast-type damage, but will also take 1/10th the damage from explosives, making even the powerful Detonate deal extremely weak damage to them.
• I Shall Taunt You: The Nomads use Taunt after three attacks of Self-Defense. Attacking them with anything during this turn is highly inadvised, as the Taunt can still interrupt you, is followed up with another onslaught of three Self-Defense, and while slow, comes out faster than your Bomb/Bunker Buster. Their Taunt is meant for you to recharge your Blast and Bang cooldowns for the next set of three Self-Defense attacks.
• Luck-Based Mission:
  • The Annoying Timebombs. Each turn, instead of counting down like other Timebombs, their A.I. Roulette will either display a number from 1-10, or use Boom to explode on you for 50 damage. They take 2 hits from Blast do go down, and if they use Boom when your Blast is on cooldown you will be taking a huge amount of damage. At this point, you probably do not have a max-level Bang to quickly off the rest of their health.
  • Finding the sub-areas in the Wilderness is entirely up to random chance, and whether you will be able to find a boss encounter in said sub-areas is also random.
• Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Your character wonders if the Titans are products of science or alchemy.
• Pesky Pigeons: Mutant Pigeons are a possible enemy encounter in the Deep Woods subarea of the wilderness. They attack with Disease Peck, an attack that hits multiple times if it connects.
• Powerful, but Inaccurate:
  • At maximum level, the Laser is one of your most powerful options, dealing 10 immediate damage with no cast time and a further 80 damage over 4 seconds. Its accuracy, however, is rather questionable.
  • The Beam and Arrow weapons in the Market can deal a potentially large amount of damage, but have very poor accuracy. The Focal Beams and Scoped Arrows have better-but-not-perfect accuracy, but are more expensive.
  • The melee attacks in the Market (Hit, Bash, Bone Breaker, Sore Spot) deal a great amount of damage and for the latter two also inflict a debilitating status effect. However, all of them have rather questionable accuracy.
  • The Mutant Boar in the woods will use Charge to double the power of its next attack, followed by using Ram which cannot be interrupted. If Ram connects, it deals an incredible amount of damage thanks to Charge, but fortunately it's also inaccurate and misses often.
• Quick Draw:
  • Downplayed with the Glitched JrBots in the Wasteland area. They have only 3 HP and die to one 5-damage Blast, but their only attack Frenzy casts quickly and hits for a massive 50 damage. Your reflexes determine whether you survive unscathed or take a massive chunk of damage.
  • The Arrow Traps in the Wilderness' Deep Woods subarea are even worse. They too take one hit to die, but you have a split-second window to safely hit them as soon as they cast their actual attack. If you attack them too early (when they're using "Trigger") you take counterattack damage, and if they pull off their arrow shot (which has a split-second cast time), you take 30 damage.
• Randomized Damage Attack: Most attacks in the game always deal a fixed amount of damage, but certain attacks have a damage range such as Kaboom or Strike.
• Rat Stomp: Rats are The Goomba of the game and are found in the first area. They take one hit from your basic attack to die, hit for low damage, and spend half their turns doing nothing.
• Science Fantasy: Even moreso than the last game. Your skills stat out tech-based at first, but once the Market is unlocked you can find elemental abilities and skills that outright infuse opponents with an elemental soul. The Wilderness area is high on the fantasy side, with Sprites, Nymphs, Orcs, Imps and even Dragons as enemies.
• So Last Season: Your Bomb, Bunker Buster and especially Detonate which absolutely trashed the enemies and bosses in the first four areas are extremely resisted or completely ineffective against the elemental enemies in the Wilderness. Even some of the enemy attacks are now immune to basic interruption moves.
• Spam Attack: Both can be used by the player and the enemies:
  • The player can obtain Knives and Strike, both of which have a very quick cast time and fast cooldown in exchange for low damage.
  • The Nomads always use Self-Defense three times in a row, followed by Taunt.
  • Thanks to how their A.I. Roulette works, both the Imps and Zombies can spam Attack or Bite respectively if the player is unlucky enough.
• Underground Monkey: Unlike the first game, variants of enemies exist in each area. For example, the Bowling Slime replaces the basic slime's Hop (does nothing) and Attack with Spare and Strike respectively, the Rocker Slime that replaces them with Strum and Drum, the Surprise Slime opens with Attack instead of Hop, and others.