Cyberpath wrote:MemphisR56 wrote:Starting to wrap my head around some of the finer points of the weapon synthesis system now, just need bigger and better loot to make a real dent in it.
Do you know if duplicate weapons can be merged/synthesised automatically or must I do it manually?
Also, does anyone know if the weapons list can be arranged alphabetically?
And finally, how are mission ranks determined? (B, A, S, SS, etc.) Time? Hits taken..?
MemphisR56 wrote:Commander level fight against Menasor and Devastator must've cost me at least 7 auto-repair kits.
The regular repair kits (full and %50) don't work for me for some reason.
Synthesis MechanicsThey can't be arranged alphabetically but you can filter to Melee or Ranged, and you can organise by Rank, Type (duplicates of the same weapon), or level. Which makes it quite easy to lump all your duds in one place, and sell off anything that's not even worth investing the credits in. Once you're into commander, nothing less than a rank A or B weapon will suffice. Weapons are ranked D - A, S, SS and X. Level cap for each rank will be higher than the last (e.g. D rank max level 5, C rank max level 10, etc).
Skills can stack and combine into more powerful versions of the same skill. e.g. 2 focus + level 1 will combine into focus + level 2, but I'm not sure of the mechanics here.
Base weapon determines the Type, Rank and Amount of skills slots you get, but all skills from both weapons are carried forward. So even if you have, for example, 2 Menasor's Ionizer swords, both rank A, but one is level 5 with 2 skill slots, and one is level 3 with 4 skill slots, it'd be a better choice to use the 4 skills slots one as the base weapon when you combine them, as you'll probably end up with a lvl 6 with 4 slots, and all the abilities of the two, as opposed to a lvl 7 with 2 slots, and have to lose some of the abilities.
Cost of the upgrade is determined by the rank and level of the base weapon, so you'll want to try and get as much experience per merge as possible. Trying to grind a rank A weapon by synthing Rank D's onto it will just be a waste of credits by comparison. For this reason, you're better deciding on a "junk threshold" where anything below that level or rank is useless and just gets sold off, the credits will be far more useful.
Also worthy of note, certain weapons are better versions of others. For example, with the Axes,
Prime's Axe (or Shock, Cryo or Thermal Axe) can also be
Hyper Axe (Hyper-Shock, Hyper-Cryo or Hyper-Thermal) and then later
Battle Blade (movie prime's blades, also comes in Shock, Cryo and Thermal flavours)
There's too many of these to sensibly list without writing and extensive FAQ, so the gist:
They're all available at similar ranks, but certain ones have higher base stats. So it's better to invest in that Rank C hyper axe, than a rank C prime's Axe, as it's basically identical playwise, but will have higher damage output at the same level.
My personal favourite upgrade in this vein is Menasor's Ioniser sword, which, for all intents and purposes is just a solo energon sword, but has a much faster swing speed (AKA attack charge time). Also available is the solo shock blade at higher ranks, which is a similar thing, though I believe that is a more powerful version rather than faster.
Level ranking is determined by 3 factorsTime - preset on what time is considered the min&max bonus for each mission, varies with difficulty level, up to a max of 200 pts.
Damage - 0 damage best for max of 200 pts. Although this might seem like a major one, with certain bosses it doesn't really matter, as the max score could be much more forgiving than zero, and the third factor can easily mitigate taking a lot of damage on a long fight.
Style - How you fight really matters, especially, believe it or not, on lower difficulties. You can get Max bonus for time and Damage (400pts) and still only top out at a rank A even on Scout mode. Points are generated based on certain types of moves or counters that you execute, usually its 5 - 10 points per execution, per action. I've not noticed if there's a cap on any individual one (highest boost i've seen here was 180pts for focus initiated)
The criteria I'm aware of so far:Initiating focus 10pts per time
Attacking while in focus unusure
Vehicle attacks 5 per time
Rush attacks 5 pts per time I think
Rushdown combos Hold the attack button when you rush attack, your character will jump up with the enemy after they launch them, you can then input a combo which will be >fast< and >powerful< but does not end with a vehicle prompt. Best followed up by using ranged weapons straight out of the final hit (preferably autofire ones) and then executing your vehicle attack from that to continue the combo. (Works pretty good for the soundwave fight)
Headshots not sure of pts allocation
ALL headshots I've only seen this once, while fighting Menasor as wheeljack (it also got me the hawkeye trophy) but I executed it by doing a ranged reversal on his standard sword swing, leaving me floating in bullet time, roughly in front of his face, and unleashing a volley of thermal machine gun fire straight to his dome. All shots connected with the head, not the body. I think the bonus was a standard 150pts flat rate
All allies survived the fight Single 50pts bonus
Overdrive gauge filled not sure of the mechanics, but certain actions build your overdrive (autobot symbol next to health bar, as previously talked on, building this gauge via dodges, vehicle attacks, parries and reversals gives you points. I usually get about 40-50pts when I'm doing well in a fight. Harder to build in shorter missions.
Executing a parry 10 pts per time
Executing a reversal dodge to initiate focus, then immediately after hitting dodge, press and hold Heavy attack, Light attack, or Ready ranged weapon. If you've done it right for close range, focus will initiate, but your character will swing an attack in bullet-time slow-mo and the initial hit will generate a vehicle attack prompt straight away. For range, you character will do a john woo style slow-mo dive with their weapon drawn, during which you can aim, focus does not initiate, but time slows down (works great against menasor for head-shotting him).
Standard combo attacks and combo length don't really count. Use of unique abilities and ultimate attacks likewise doesn't seem to count.
Time and health give decent bonuses, but the lion's share of where you'll get your points is with your dodge and counter inputs.
The score menu gives you a breakdown, here's a screenshot of my no-damage against devastator at the end of chapter 1 on commander
Edit because I'm terrible at formatting and closing parentheses.
Posted: Wed Oct 21, 2015 3:26 am
