Pilot Stats and Abilities
Data on Kantaisen will be covered in several pages for ease of reference. This page will cover basic concepts in Kantaisen, while others will cover more detailed elements such as unit abilities, pilot abilities, and attack attributes.
Kantaisen Basics: Covers the introductory elements and terminology of Kantaisen.
Pilot Stats and Abilities: Covers pilot stats, abilities, spirit commands, and proficiencies. You are here!
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 attributes.
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.
Pilot Parameters
A pilot has a Tier, which determines their base stat total. A PC's stat total increases by 25 for each Tier. Stats can be further modified by abilities, including the "Depth of Experience" ability that increases base stat total outright. Tiers are as follows:
| Tier Name | Base Stat Total |
|---|---|
| Capable | 500 |
| Expert | 525 |
| Ace | 550 |
| Great Ace | 575 |
| Extreme | 600 |
Character Tiering Guide
All Player characters fall into these tiers, which are specifically intended to be relative to other Player Characters, not relative to every Generic Enemy portrait character.
Movement between tiers happens as a factor of narrative role and billing, and it is possible to move down as well as up. Higher narrative tiers beg more and more a state of 'actively, right now', because someone who is a notable Ace in one conflict period might return from retirement an Expert or even Capable pilot with trauma and distance holding them back from an old prime state.
The tiers, generally, fit as follows:
Capable
Capable pilots are just that: The Robot Genre presumption of a person with a name and a face and a backstory to participate in the basic conceit of the setting if shoved into a cockpit or control situation they aren't incapable of using.
Capable pilots represent 'competent but not notably excellent' pilots and military-drilled regulars, veterans who do not see active combat any more, people with some notable deficiency that is smoothed out by their other skills into 'makes it work (because genre)', all the way to people who have enough plot armor to make it work while shouting very loudly about it.
Expert
Expert pilots are just that: A cut-above notably-excellent pilot who has not personally distinguished themselves, pilots who are designed to excel without having the magic pop that really brings forward an iconic image, up-and-coming members of the cast who wish to prove themselves in the story, and many things between.
Expert pilots are the default ask for PCs looking for the full spread of general roleplay opportunities involved with the game, and if you are genuinely clueless as to where they should go but you want to feel good, Expert is a fine choice.
Ace
Aces are the first tier where the name is relevant to discuss 'among the context of Other PCs'. Aces are characters who are notably excellent and developed, fairly completely, into a "Great Pilot". Designed, bred, bargained, or just that good: Aces are the soft pinnacle of advancement by simply grinding it out or adding more Good to someone or something.
Aces should acknowledge, generally, that their statistical growth beyond the extent for which Advancement provides is done, unless they are on a heel arc or temporarily bearing the full weight of the era. If they are on a heel arc: they should note that, instead.
Great Ace
A soft narrative role, Great Aces encapsulate 'someone who is fully realized and developed' as Ace while adding a chunk of story lifting or narrative push onto themselves.
Generally, heel/antagonist roles are sitting at Great Ace as "their Ace", as well as active legacy roles, but Great Ace is not presumptive.
Great Ace pilots always require justification at application.
Extreme
A hard narrative role. Extreme enforces down on Great Ace because the most rancidest space pixel bastard you've ever met needs to be a notch above.
Extreme is simply always there as a tool for an antagonist bearing the full weight of the era, and not something "A Pilot Is, Generally."
Each pilot has the following stats:
| Stat Name | Effects |
|---|---|
| Targeting | The Targeting stat represents a pilot's ability to quickly track enemy movements and position. Targeting is most useful for defending against close combat attacks while engaged and accurately shooting, especially at long distances. |
| Piloting | The Piloting stat represents a pilot's ability to make tight, effective maneuvers with their unit. Piloting is most useful offensively in melee, and to react to people attempting to close to melee with you. |
| Intuition | The Intuition stat represents a pilot's overall judgment and ability to predict opponents. Intuition affects a wide range of reactions at all ranges, especially the common 'React' action. |
| Skill | The Skill stat represents a pilot's ability to precisely apply force in a variety of situations. Skill affects damage calculations and increases the severity of a successful strike, but not your ability to land a blow or react to one in the first place. |
Note that a pilot must have at least 100 in each stat.
Non-Stat Pilot Properties
Pilots also have other properties.
Proficiency - Proficiency indicates how effective a pilot is with a given type of unit, and is ranked as follows:
| Level | Effective Hitrate Stats | Damage Boost | Final RX Boost | Reaction Discount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| - | -50 | - | - | - |
| F | -7 | - | - | - |
| D | -4 | - | - | - |
| C | - | - | - | - |
| B | +2 | - | - | - |
| A | +4 | - | - | - |
| S | +6 | - | - | - |
| Ability-Exclusive Proficiency Levels | ||||
| SS | +8 | 400 | - | - |
| SSS | +8 | 400 | - | 2 |
| SSSS | +10 | 400 | 20 | 2 |
| SSSSS | +10 | 600 | 20 | 3 |
For completion's sake, information on control schemes has been mirrored here from the Units data.
| Control Scheme | Description | Example Unit Types |
|---|---|---|
| Autobalanced | Autobalanced units use a control scheme similar to a mobile suit; maneuvers perform a significant amount of automatic adjustment and modification of the unit's orientation and limbs to retain orientation. Autobalanced units tend to perform better in space than one might expect from their class, though this is by no means a hard and fast rule. | Mobile Suits; Knightmare Frames; EXAMACs |
| Manual | Manual units control similarly to modern tanks, planes, cars, and other vehicles. | Variable Fighters; Wanzers; tanks; planes; Mazinger-series units; Evangelion units |
| Crewed | Crewed units operate through the effort of multiple people taking on dedicated roles. Not all combiner robots or multi-seaters necessarily operate as Crewed units, though we're pretty flexible on that point. Note that monsters that you do not drive, but instead simply demand things of, are also treated as Crewed units, since the paradigm remains one of giving orders and direction. | Battleships; crewed tanks; kaiju (if you direct them by barking orders) |
| Kinesthetic | Kinesthetic units operate by having the user perform bodily movements themselves. Some such units perform mild correction, and others do not; we do not make much distinction here. Note that characters who personally become large and fight will generally have their "units" covered by Kinesthetic proficiency, though there are a couple of cases where this might instead be Cybernetic. | Arm Slaves; Mobile Fighters; Ultramen |
| Mental | Mental units operate through the use of psychic commands from a Newtype, Psychodriver, or other Awakened human. Note that this covers units controlled exclusively by this means; units that simply mount remote weapons are Autobalanced, but gain effectiveness from Mental proficiency through the Attuned attack attribute. | A handful of Mobile Suits; a handful of kaiju |
| Cybernetic | Cybernetic units operate through some sort of interface with the pilot through a mechanical medium, such as nanomachines or a conventional cybernetic plug. Characters who are themselves AIs can also choose to use this to represent their facility with moving themselves, especially if the AI can be transferred to other housings without incident. | Aestivalis; Super AIs |
Modes - Sometimes a pilot has multiple modes. (more data when i remember how our data structures work)
Personalities - Pilots have Personalities which determine the circumstances under which they gain Morale.
| Personality Name | Description | Pilot
Hits |
Pilot
Misses |
Pilot
Is Hit |
Pilot
Is Missed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active | This is a stable Morale gain type that gains more Morale on the offense. | 5 | 6 | 3 | 3 |
| Berserk | This Morale gain type gets more Morale from being hit or successfully hitting. | 6 | 3 | 5 | 2 |
| Cautious | This Morale type gets more Morale from successfully defending or missing. | 2 | 6 | 3 | 4 |
| Default | This is a placeholder type used for staff NPC fights and cases where staff forgot to set any type.
Please contact staff if you see this type somewhere it shouldn't be. |
3 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Defiant | This Morale gain type gets more Morale from missing or being hit. This encourages comebacks. | 3 | 6 | 6 | 3 |
| Focused | This is a stable Morale gain type that gains more Morale on the defense. | 2 | 3 | 6 | 5 |
| Triumphant | This Morale gain type gets more Morale from hitting or being missed. This encourages pressing the advantage. | 5 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
Spirit Commands
Pilots have Spirit Commands, which are active-use commands that can be spent at will as a free action. They increase a pilot's stats temporarily or allow for additional effects.
Note that unlike the Super Robot Wars games, the same Spirit Command can be used multiple times consecutively. However, as stats have a lower value the higher they climb, the value of each successive use will reduce accordingly.
| Name | Cost | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Alert | 15 | Adds 30 to Piloting for one round. |
| Focus | 15 | Adds 30 to Intuition for one round. |
| Strike | 15 | Adds 30 to Targeting for one round. |
| Valor | 15 | Adds 30 to Skill for one round. |
| Wall | 12 | Adds 30 to Armor for one round. |
| Name | Cost | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Detonate | 25 | Your Morale increases to its maximum potential value. Reduces your own HP to 1. |
| Spirit | 30 | Your Morale increases by 10. |
| Trick | 15 | Restores 8 EN. |
| Name | Cost | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Accel | 15 | Changing Fields costs 0 EN this turn. Raises your terrains to a floor of C; if they are already C or higher in the field you end up in, it gives you +1 terrain rank instead |
| Assail | 20 | Allows you to Parry ranged attacks or Block melee attacks this turn, if you have those capabilities. |
| Dash | 10 | Raises your Control ranks by 2 for the turn. |
| Name | Cost | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Attune | 25 | Give someone (yourself or someone else) 30 to Targeting for one round. |
| Daunt | 40 | Reduce someone's Morale by 10. |
| Enable | 25 | Give someone (yourself or someone else) 30 to Skill for one round. |
| Foresee | 25 | Give someone (yourself or someone else) 30 to Piloting for one round. |
| Prospect | 50 | Give someone else 40 SP. |
| Resupply | 25 | Restores 8 EN to someone (yourself or someone else). |
| Rouse | 40 | Give someone (yourself or someone else) 10 Morale. |
| Trust | 20 | Give someone (yourself or someone else) 30 to Armor for one round. |
Pilot Abilities
Pilot abilities represent the ways in which a pilot excels in Kantaisen. All pilots have, at game launch, 8 pilot ability slots. Some abilities cost more than one slot.
The number of ability slots available to pilots does not change with tier in Kantaisen 1.1. This may be adjusted depending on feedback, but is unlikely to receive adjustment at this time. See Advancement for more information on how pilots gain new ability slots.
Base Parameter Abilities
These abilities increase a pilot's base parameters beyond those normally expected for their tier.
Depth of Experience - This increases the pilot's stat total by 20. This can be bought multiple times for one slot each, noted as "Depth of Experience LX".
Breadth of Experience - This increases the pilot's spendable proficiency ranks by 5. This can be bought multiple times for one slot each, noted as "Breadth of Experience LX".
Command Abilities
These abilities offer new "commands" to players. These special actions route through the attack system, and are treated as weapons with a Weapon Space cost of 0 internally. Note that as weapons, you my not target yourself, even with (MAP) multi-target effects.
Commander (Lv2) - The pilot's Attune, Enable, Foresee, and Trust SCs have their costs reduced by 5. In addition, gain:
- All-Out - Improves Skill by 40 for 2 turns (MAP)
- Caution - Improves Intuition by 40 for 2 turns (MAP)
- Coordinate - Improves Piloting by 40 for 2 turns (MAP)
Charisma (Lv2) - The pilot's Rouse and Prospect SCs have their costs reduced by 5. In addition, gain:
- Shock - Decreases Morale by 20 (MAP)
- Awe - Improves Morale by 15 (MAP)
- Dream - Improves SP by 50
Pressure (Lv2) - The pilot's Daunt SC has its cost reduced by 5, and has their SP recovery improved by 5. In addition, gain:
- Goad - Reduces Intuition by 45 for 2 turns
- Demoralize - Reduces Morale by 35
- Despirit - Reduces SP by 65
Morale Abilities
These abilities primarily orient in some way around the pilot's Morale.
Break Morale Limit - The upper bound of your Morale increases by 30, and your starting morale increases by 10. This is a Level 1 ability.
Coolheaded - Your unit's terrain rankings and your control rankings are all increased by 1 permanently. All of your morale gains are reduced by 1. This is a Level 2 ability.
Mercurial - You gain +1 Morale from any action or reaction (as with Spirit Endurance and Apply Terrain when it applies). The effects of the Shock, Awe, Demoralize, Despirit, Sound Spirit actions, the Deject effect rider, and the Daunt and Rouse spirit commands are all increased by 50% when targeting you.
Resolution (L1, L2) - At L1, you have an effective 135 Morale at all times for the purposes of damage calculation. At L2, your Morale is permanently set to 135.
Spirit Endurance - Whenever affected by an effect that would reduce your SP or Morale, you have a chance to halve the effect that increases with current SP. In addition, the core Morale gains you accrue from trading blows are increased by 1. This is a Level 1 ability.
Unpredictable - Your damage calculation uses a random Morale value between 110 and 160 for every attack. This is a Level 1 ability.
Range-Focused Abilities
These abilities offer benefits primarily to ranged or melee combat.
Gunfight - While making a Ranged attack or defending against a Ranged attack, you receive additional effective points in one stat (currently +10/level). This ability can be bought incrementally, up to three Levels.
In-Fight - While making a Melee attack or defending against a Melee attack, you receive additional effective points in one stat (currently +10/level). This ability can be bought incrementally, up to three Levels.
Scaling Abilities
Scaling abilities increase in power over the course of a fight, often tied to Morale or some other value.
Clarity - The pilot's Piloting, Targeting, Intuition, and Skill increase at certain Morale thresholds.
- Clarity Lv2: At 120 Morale, gain 15 PIL/TAR/INT/SKL.
- Clarity Lv3: At 135 Morale, gain 35 PIL/TAR/INT/SKL.
Predict - The pilot's Intuition increases as Morale increases, at an equal rate. This is a Level 2 ability.
Potential - The pilot's Piloting increases as Morale increases, at an equal rate. This is a Level 2 ability.
Prowess - The pilot's Targeting increases as Morale increases, at an equal rate. This is a Level 2 ability.
Prevail - As the pilot's unit takes damage, the pilot's Skill increases. This begins to work only after taking at least 50% damage. This ability can be bought incrementally, up to three Levels.
Resurgence (L2, L3) - The pilot's Piloting, Targeting, Intuition and Skill increase by 25 when the pilot's unit is under 33% (for level 2) or 50% (for level 3) HP. You can have this or Clarity but not both.
Revenge (L1) - Your attacks are more likely to do more damage and you are more likely to take less damage at low health instead of with high Morale. This begins to work only after taking at least 50% damage.
Dynamic Hits
If your attack deals critical damage, Dynamic Hit abilities add an effect that lingers after the attack resolves. All of the below are are Level 1 abilities.
- Precision Attacker: The enemy is afflicted by Nullify, which negates the effects of Barriers and Mirage, and the pilot regains 5 SP.
- Analyst: The enemy is afflicted with Designate Lv1, a 15% decrease to the success rate of defenses for 2 turns.
- Disruptor: The enemy is afflicted with Jam Lv1, a 30% decrease to the success rate of attacks made for 2 turns.
- Enervator: The enemy is afflicted with Deject, reducing Morale by 15.
- Defiance: The pilot's unit is afflicted with Sparkle, reducing incoming hits by two effective steps for two turns.
- Ace Attacker: The pilot is afflicted with Insight Lv1, a 30% increase to the success rate of attacks for 2 turns.
- Outmaneuver: The pilot receives a two-turn increase of their control proficiencies by 2.
Other Abilities
The following abilities do not fit neatly into any of the above categories.
Apply Terrain - In terrains your Unit has B or better in, you gain 10 effective hitrate stats attacking and defending and increase base Morale gains by 1.
Otherwise, in terrains your Unit can enter (F or better), your terrain rating is increased to C. This is a Level 1 ability.
Biorhythm (L1, L2) - after each +round, you receive the effects of Level# of the following Spirit Commands: Alert, Focus, Strike, Valor, Wall, Trick. The effect list may be updated if additional cost 20 or less Spirit Commands are added to the game.
Blocking - Block, Parry, and Intercept reduce damage by one step if they succeed. This is a Level 2 ability.
Instant Hero - At Level 1, your Intuition and Skill increase by 30 if your unit is Obsolete, Surplus, or Unremarkable. At Level 2, benefit increases to 45 to each stat, and applies up to Standard.
Lucky - You have an 11% chance to automatically hit or successfully execute your chosen reaction, regardless of anything else. This is a Level 2 ability.
SP Regen - You gain 10 more SP per turn, making the use of Spirit Commands a more central element of your playstyle. This is a Level 1 ability.
Transformation Specialist - Transforming your unit costs 0 EN. This is a Level 1 ability.
Special Technique
This ability has been given its own category, and its own detailed notes for each level of that ability, due to its complexity.
Special Technique gives you a "weapon" that costs 0 Weapon Space and follows you from unit to unit.
Special Technique L1
Special Technique L1 allows you to buy up to five attacks with up to two attributes each and up to 5800 Attack Power.
You can spend two attack slots each to buy the Parry, Shield Block, or Intercept capabilities, provided they make sense for you to be carrying from unit to unit.
You can also spend two attack slots each to buy effects from Jammer, EWAC, Sabotage, or Sound Force, in any configuration you like.
Alternatively, you can use Special Technique L1 to buy three of the effects from Jammer, EWAC, Sabotage, or Sound Force, in any configuration you like (such as "Sound Spirit, Insight, and Warn" or "Jam, Designate, and Nullify"). This is a slight discount on the third one since: you're getting no actual attacks out of it.
An example of the former type would be Cucuruz Doan's Mobile Suit Martial Arts, featuring Improvised Weapon (3700 Melee Physical Initiation), Mobile Suit Martial Arts (5100 Melee Physical Penetrating), Thrown Debris (4100 Ranged Physical), and the Parry capability (representing unusually high effectiveness at interrupting melee techniques with ambient objects, sword grasps, etc). It's starting to be a legitimately impressive and reliable part of Doan's arsenal, but not something to use to the exclusion of all other weapons.
An example of the latter type, meanwhile, would be Tiffa Adill's Newtype talents, featuring the Insight capability from EWAC L2, the Designate capability from Jam L2, and the Warn capability from EWAC L2. It's a significant part of her arsenal, and gives her distinctive capability as a support character that isn't quite offered by any other support ability.
Special Technique L2
Special Technique L2 allows you to buy up to six attacks with any number of attributes and up to 7500 Attack Power.
You can spend two attack slots to buy only one of the Parry, Shield Block, or Intercept capabilities, provided they make sense for you to be carrying from unit to unit.
You can also spend two attack slots each to buy effects from Jammer, EWAC, Sabotage, or Sound Force, in any configuration you like (though if you're going to do this Special Technique L1 is the better deal).
A good example of a Special Technique L2 is Domon Kasshu's School of Master Asia, featuring Bakunetsu Sekiha Tenkyoken (7200 Ranged Magic Barrier Breaker Finisher), Chokyuu Haoh Den'ei-dan (5500 Melee Magic Ram), Bakunetsu Shuffle Doumei Ken (6000 Melee Magic Penetrating), and Sekiha Tenkyoken (6100 Ranged Magic Finisher). This represents some of the marquee tricks of Domon's arsenal and he can carry them from unit to unit however he likes.