Weapons and Attacks
Data on Kantaisen will be covered in several pages for ease of reference. This page will cover weapons and attacks in Kantaisen, while other pages will cover other elements as listed below.
Kantaisen Basics: Covers the introductory elements and terminology of Kantaisen. You are here!
Pilot Stats and Abilities: Covers pilot stats, abilities, spirit commands, and proficiencies.
Unit Stats and Abilities: Covers non-weapon elements that live on a unit, such as its base stats and abilities.
Weapons and Attacks: Covers units' attacks, including the construction of weapons in the system and attack flags.
Kantaisen Flow: Covers how attacks are exchanged in the system, including relevant elements such as Engagement and Fields.
Inspirations and Differences: Covers the major inspirations for Kantaisen's various structures, and how things may differ for players used to one system or another.
Weapon Parameters
A weapon has a Weapon Space value, as defined in the table below. Weapons are the one area of Kantaisen that is a bit more art than science, due to the sheer scope of attacks in the genre and the array of different capabilities on individual weapons. There are simply too many moving parts. If you feel a weapon is coming in "under" or "over"-weight, let us know and we'll take a look and see about adjusting it.
Weapon Space values are differentiated by whether a given weapon is fixed (as in permanently part of the mobile weapon) or adjustable, with fixed weapons receiving a space discount.
| Weapon Size | Space Value
(Fixed) |
Space Value
(Modular) |
Number
of Attacks |
Details | Average Attack Damage Cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tertiary | 10 | 15 | 2 | A Tertiary weapon is either the lowest grade of weapon, or something that is incidentally a weapon -- vulcans, shields, single sets of missile tubes, or grenade braces. | 5000 |
| Secondary | 15 | 25 | 4 | A Secondary weapon is a reliable and capable weapon offering a spread of coherent abilities to the unit equipping it. Many weapons fit this category. | 5000 |
| Primary | 30 | 45 | 5 | A Primary weapon is the beginning of a core weapon platform a unit is based around, generally offering at least one powerful attack. Many weapons fit this category, and they tend toward a specific single goal. | 5800 |
| Superprimary | 45 | 60 | 6 | A Superprimary weapon is an iconic, large weapon, weapon system, or ability array that forms the backbone of one or more strategies. It offers multiple powerful attacks and a full range of options, or serves as the payoff that the unit is building towards. | 6500 |
| Defining | 85 | 100 | 8+ | A Defining weapon offers eight or more attacks, usually, and is often a full attack list unto itself. A Defining weapon that offers less than this generally offers extremely powerful attacks that would be unapprovable elsewhere. | 7000 |
A weapon's Capabilities enable new defensive reactions. Weapons can have less than their maximum number of attacks. Weapons can trade one attack for a Capability.
| Capability | EN Cost | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Intercept | 0 | Allows you to react to Missile-tagged attacks with the 'Intercept' reaction. |
| Parry | 0 | Allows you to react to Melee attacks with the 'Parry' reaction. |
| Shield Block | 0 | Allows you to react to Ranged attacks with the 'Block' reaction. |
Attack Properties
An attack always has, at minimum, the following attributes:
Power - The base amount of damage the attack deals.
Range - Specified as Melee or Ranged. The fundamental question at issue with "Melee" vs "Ranged" is whether you end up comfortably within mutual close-quarters battle range with your opponent at the end of the attack; an attack that involves closing to less than 100 meters away (or, in Super Robot Wars video game terms, "1-3 squares" in modern games, "1-2 squares" in older games) tends to be Melee even if it technically involves firing a gun.
Type - The type of damage it deals. There are four damage types in the system as of launch, with the following descriptions:
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Physical | A Physical attack is the most common type, and represents everything from a punch to a missile barrage. |
| Beam | A Beam attack represents charged particle weapons of the types common in the genre. Things like Mazinger Series's Photon Power, Universal Century Gundam's Minovsky beam weaponry, and Banpresto Originals Magna Beam weapons fall under the beam penumbra. |
| Force | Force represents lasers, electricity, fire, gravity, and other similar weaponized forces that are not charged particle beams. The line can occasionally get a tiny bit wobbly around some Cosmic Era Gundam weapons. We do our best! |
| Magic | Magic represents a force that acts on the world in a way unexplainable by conventional science. Things like the sorceries of Kotetsushin Jeeg's Great Jama Empire, beams composed of Getter Rays, and even some Anno Domini Gundam weapons (those that cause psychic/evolutionary events simply by being used; this primarily describes Season 2 weaponry, with Season 1 GN weaponry falling under Beam) fall under Magic. |
An attack can also have a number of Attributes, often shorthanded to flags. Attributes have a cost at the EN level; sometimes this cost is linear, while other times it is expressed as a function of the base EN cost. Attributes, their costs, and their effects have been listed below.
| Attribute | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Offense-Related Effects | ||
| Accurate | +10% EN, min 3 | This attack is one step harder to react to using any reaction but Guard. |
| Barrier Breaker | +20% EN, min 5 | This attack cannot be reacted to with Block, and Barrier, Limited Barrier, and Type Walls have no effect.
Mutually exclusive with Formation and Leader. |
| Crushing | +10% EN, min 5 | This attack cannot be Blocked or Parried. |
| Finisher | +35% EN, Min. 10 | For every 25 Morale you have over 100, all difficulties to mitigate this attack's damage increase by one step. For every 35 Morale you have over 100, all difficulties to react to this attack increase by one step. Mutually exclusive with Formation, Leader. |
| Formation | +10% EN, min 5 | This attack puts a stack of the Formation status effect on the opponent; the Formation is consumed when the unit next reacts to a Barrier Breaker, Penetrating, or Finisher attack, and adds 700 base damage to the consuming attack. While we can't force this, we strongly encourage people being attacked by an obviously-paired Formation and Formation-clearer to react to them in that order, to give the stack the chance of working as intended. Mutually exclusive with Barrier Breaker, Penetrating, and Finisher.
Multiple stacks of Formation can be discharged by the same final attack. |
| Leader | +15% EN, min 3 | This attack deals exactly 0.93x its base damage. It can only be Reacted to, and React against a Leader has a chance of total mitigation (0 damage). It is not affected by Barrier, Limited Barrier, or Type Walls; it does not ignore Lucky or Mirage.
Mutually exclusive with Barrier Breaker, Finisher. |
| MAP | +50% EN per target | This attack hits multiple targets. MAP attacks being used on multiple targets use the +map attackname on person1,person2,[...] command instead of the normal attack command.
|
| Penetrating | +25% EN, min 5 | This attack gains a single step increase during the damage calculation process. It is significantly harder to Guard against. Mutually exclusive with Formation and Leader. |
| Root | 0 EN | This attack gains two steps' worth of accuracy, but applies a very large reaction penalty until the end of your next turn. If the opponent Guards, this is reduced to one step. |
| Ship-Killer | +15% EN, min 5 | This attack's damage improves by 800 points if the defender's unit has the Capital Ship ability. |
| Spread | +10% EN, min 3 | This attack multiples its final damage by a value from 0.9x to 1.15x after other calculations are complete. This attack also ignores Mirage. |
| Status Effects | ||
| Anchor | 3 EN | This attack disallows the use of Evade next reaction for the target, if it hits. |
| Bypass | 3 EN | This attack disallows the use of Guard next reaction for the target, if it hits. |
| Rattle | 10 EN | Everything a successfully hit target does for the next turn is more difficult. |
| Repulse | 3 EN | This attack disallows the use of Charge next round for the target, if it hits. |
| Range-Related Effects | ||
| Long-Range | 2 EN | This attack can be used against any target in any Field. It costs 2 more EN to fire into another Field. |
| Proficiency-Related Effects | ||
| Attuned | +10% EN | For every rank of proficiency in Mental above D, this attack gains a bonus to hit. If your unit is not a Mental unit and your attack has this flag, it receives a 4 EN discount. |
| Technical | +10% EN | For every rank of proficiency in Kinesthetic above D, this attack gains a bonus to hit. If your unit is not a Kinesthetic unit and your attack has this flag, it receives a 4 EN discount. |
| Unlimited | +10% EN | For every rank of proficiency in Cybernetic above D, this attack gains a bonus to hit. If your unit is not a Cybernetic unit and your attack has this flag, it receives a 4 EN discount. |
| Other Effects | ||
| Missile | -5 EN | This attack is susceptible to the Intercept reaction. This reflects conventional missile weapons and remote weapons such as Funnels that can be intercepted, and even mobile suit wings in some cases. |
| All-Range | + 10% EN, Min 4 | Attacker adds Mobility to the damage check; Defender adds Piloting. |
| Indirect | + 10% EN, Min 4 | Attacker adds Sight to the damage check; Defender adds Targeting. |
| Initiation | + 10% EN, Min 4 | Attacker and Defender both add Intuition to the damage check. |
| Sniper | + 10% EN, Min 4 | Attacker adds Targeting to the damage check; defender adds Sight. |
| Dominance | + 10% EN, Min 4 | Attacker adds a value based on the control skill for their unit, unless the attack has a proficiency flag, then it uses that one - Attuned funnels, for instance, would use the Mental value. Defender adds a value based on the control skill for their unit. The 'stat' is equal to 90, plus 10 per rank over F. |
| Gamble | +10% EN, Min 2 | This attack's damage calculation uses a random Morale value between 110 and 160. |
Weapon Power Levels
With the new, updated statting people are working on, staff has produced a guide for what attack levels you probably want to be looking at on your units.
These are just guidelines, not hard rules, but they're the guidelines we use to decide whether a weapon needs to be adjusted before approval, so they're worth keeping in mind. However, they don't apply much to units meant exclusively as bosses or one-night special modes, both of which have their own art to statting.
Many old units don't follow these guidelines because they're older than the guide is. Part of down-stepping is so that when the units are brought back up in an application, we can reconsider the numbers again. Do not assume that because you have a 7500 now you will have a 7500 after we've checked it over! Generally we will be checking units over when they are apped for an upgrade or a revamp.
For EN costs, anything over 50 is significant and anything 60 or higher is expensive, though of course the exact values where it's hard to use will change depending on the unit's RX.
Weapon Power Guidelines
3000 And Below: This is a very weak attack, and they are unlikely to appear more than once, if at all, on the fixed weapons of a unit. The standard fixed (non-heavy) vulcans' basic attack is 2900. Anything below that is by definition weaker than light vulcans, which are primarily for interception fire or desperation attacks.
3000-3500: This level of attack begins to appear on improvised or weak attacks. Low-end shield bashes are sometimes in this range. It's best not to add many; they can sometimes be used to gain a lot of EN in one go, but that only requires one attack.
3500-4200: This is the lower end of 'real' attack. The Standard Beam Saber's weakest attack is 3700. Modular weapons often have a single attack in this range, or maybe two if one has expensive flags (Rattle is one you'll see a lot since it's a flat 10 EN). Weapons only top out here if they're very minor, or not really primarily used as weapons, like shields that can be used for bashing but aren't reinforced melee-use shields.
4200-5200: The bulk of attacks live here. These tend to be good for gaining EN at the low end, maintaining in the middle, and a bit spending at the upper end; that said, low 5000s attacks without flags are surprisingly efficient as a large but simple attack. About half a robot's attacks want to be in this bracket, or just barely outside of it. A lot of secondary weapons top out here.
5200-5800: Some units have their big attacks in this bracket. If they don't go any higher it probably has powerful flags. Other units use them as spendy but not final attacks. Primary weapons top out at the high end of this range.
5800-6200: Units that don't have an RX investment, either on raw RX or by using generative abilities, should think about keeping their finishers in this range if they intend to use them most fights. Superprimary weapons sometimes top out here, especially if they're modular weapons meant to be shared.
6200-6600: Units that do have an RX investment are more likely to put finishers a little higher, in this range. Superprimary weapons top out here, especially if they're fixed or unit-unique modular weapons. Most units won't have more than one or two attacks in this range, one of which may be a true finisher that they don't intend to use every fight. Generally it is difficult, but not impossible, to use more than one of these in a given battle, especially if it has flags.
6600-7000: This is a real dedicated power weapon. Units will have trouble using these on a regular basis if they have any flags. It's a good place for the most expensive finishers that may still appear in a lot of fights to go. Units probably don't have more than one 6600 or higher, or *maybe* two for the most powerful of robots. Fixed superprimary weapons occasionally reach this tier; Defining weapons are more likely to.
7000+: This attack is extremely noteworthy and also rare. Units should really not have more than one of these except in exceptional situations and probably don't even have one. It's going to be extraordinarily expensive if it has flags and will be difficult to use even with RX investment without careful EN management. Generally if a unit has one of these, that attack is Its Big Thing, the thing it is known for, and it belongs on a Defining weapon.
7500+: Think very hard before asking for this. It's for 'this is one of the most powerful weapons in the series' weapons. It should definitely not go on anything but a Defining, it will be difficult to use, and it will not be feasible to use in every battle.
8000+: Unless it's a plot weapon, like the single time the Phase Transition Cannon was used, the answer is no.
Sample Weapon
Presented below is a sample weapon. We'll go through this step by step and put it all together.
+--------------------------[MULS-P Dual Launchers]---------------------------+ | Source: Front Mission series | | | | Commonly equipped on launcher-type wanzers for very heavy firepower, this | | weapon represents any combination of two missile launchers, grenade | | launchers, or rocket launchers. The attack list does not change based on | | which two weapons are chosen, and it is presumed that pilots are doing | | things that make sense for the attack. For example, a MAP with two | | missile launchers might consist of the pilot alternating between each | | launcher, rapidly locking onto individual targets between each shot. | | Likewise, a non-MAP attack with a grenade launcher and rocket launcher | | might consist of saturating only a very small area to focus on just one | | enemy. Note: These are designed for Small size, MULS-P compatible | | machines and may look out of place on anything significantly larger than | | 6 meters tall. | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Cost: 60 | | Capabilities: None | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | MULS-P Dual Launchers Artillery Shot: 3600 (Ranged, Physical, Missile, | | Indirect, MAP) | | MULS-P Dual Launchers Heavy Artillery Shot: 5500 (Ranged, Physical, | | Missile, Indirect, MAP) | | MULS-P Dual Launchers Blast Volley: 4000 (Ranged, Physical, Missile) | | MULS-P Dual Launchers Anti-Ship Fire: 5800 (Ranged, Physical, Missile, | | Ship-Killer) | | MULS-P Dual Launchers Barrage: 6000 (Ranged, Physical, Missile, MAP) | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Factions: All | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
This is a MULS-P Dual Launchers weapon, representing putting heavy missiles or grenade launchers on both shoulders of a Wanzer or Knightmare Frame.
At a cost of 60, this is a modular superprimary weapon, representing the heftiest part of many arsenals; for many units, this represents half or more of available Weapon Space! A Superprimary weapon makes a big chunk of a unit's identity.
It has no Capabilities -- it's pretty hard to use rockets to parry, intercept other rockets, or block like a shield, so it isn't.
Bluntly: all of the attacks here are excellent. Superprimary weapons bring a lot to the table.
The first two -- and the final -- give the unit the ability to significantly alter the course of a whole battle, especially if that battle is in multiple Fields and the wielder has an enormous reactor or EN-generating Spirit Commands. They are Missile (susceptible to Intercept but cheaper), Indirect (capable of firing into other Fields if a target has been Designated using EWAC), and MAP (can hit multiple targets, paying half again the cost for each subsequent target). Actually using Heavy Artillery Shot or Barrage would of course be an undertaking in and of itself.
The Blast Volley is a fairly standard missile attack with nothing to recommend it too much save its cheap EN cost for a basic attack.
The Anti-Ship Fire is self-explanatory; it's for dealing particularly high damage to a battleship or other large unit.
This weapon is available to all factions! Some weapons are only available to specific characters or factions, but this one is available to all.