GF13-001NHII Master Gundam

Master Gundam

Difficulty ★★★★

Range: Close-Range
HP: 1000
Dash Limit: 2

Developed by Neo Hong Kong, this suit is made of DG Cells and piloted by the Undefeated of the East, Master Asia.

---

Weapon and Skill

Main Weapon: Master Cloth

Main Action:
Swing a cloth-like weapon generated by a beam in a wide arc that damages and slows opponents.

Master Gundam's weapon - in this theorycraft - is to help set the idea that it's a melee suit that specializes in manipulating the enemy. The ribbon has a wide strike zone in front of the unit, doing less damage for each unit it hits at once, but applying a slow effect to each to balance it out.

Sub Weapon: Darkness Finger

Sub Action:
Rush forward with a powerful claw glowing with darkness, pinning all enemies hit for the duration.

In the vein of both the theme of "map control" and G-Evo having miniature versions of G-Maneuvers on other suits, this attack is akin to Hyperion's Armure Lumiere Lancer but with significantly less range and damage. The dash meter does recharge while it's in use, however, serving as a "third dash" if needed.

G-Maneuver: Fuunsaiki

Summon and mount the support mobile fighter Fuunsaiki. While mounted, the unit moves more quickly and causes impact damage.

This could've easily have been the Sekiha Tenkyouken since that's The Big Move for both the God and Master Gundam. That said, most G Gundam fans love to mention the horse suit piloted by a suit so it felt wrong NOT to have it here. It's a summoned "addition" to the unit like Nu's Fin Funnel Barrier, but with a melee twist - lasting until timed out or enough damage is done to the unit.

Active Skill 01: Wing Shield

Deploy your Wing Shield in Normal Mode, reducing incoming damage and regenerating health with DG Cells. Ends early if you attack or use thrusters, but allows dashing and hovering.

Originally more of an all-around variant of OG Gundam's Gundam Shield, I decided to instead make it a tankier, restricted version of Turn A's Nanoskin. Waffled if certain attacks could be done with the Wing Shield up - such as the Juuniou below or Darkness Finger - but I figured that'd make them a bit too safe.

Active Skill 02: Juuniou Houpai Daishahei

Draw seven symbols and summon seven miniature Master Gundams. Once summoned, this skill lets you fire each one until empty, causing damage and knockback.

Another potentially goofy choice here but I wanted to give Master Gundam a unique ranged option. It has to spend time summoning up the shadow clones (though it can do this while moving or with Wing Shield up), and then has to use them all before it can "reload.' The alternative to this was to have this be its main action a la Exia but I liked the Ribbon as its weapon too much.

BONUS:

Passive Skill: Undefeated of the East

Reduce the reload time of Juuniou Houpai Daishahei and cooldown of Darkness Finger when you get a kill or assist.

Since having Passive Skills has become the new hotness with the latest units, I felt I'd provide something here though it might be a bit too much. I wanted to have simpler verbiage of "reduces cooldowns" on kill or assist but that wasn't quite the angle I was going for, instead letting you get your clones back faster and increase your mobility with kills in a different way than Kampfer.

~𓆚~

The long-promised Master Gundam theorycraft! I've been wanting to do it for a while but never actually getting around to it... until now. With only a couple months left of the game, I wanted to figure this out and put it up before the end.

It probably doesn't help that the unit has gone through some iterations and changes as it floated about in my mind. The Beam Ribbon was going to be a gap-closer but I ended up finding that more appropriate to Gundam Epyon's Heat Rod. I waffled between having the Juuniou as the Main Weapon or an Active Skill, and if the Wing Shield should be a straight shield or what I ended up going with. And the addition of more Passive Skills on newer units made me wonder if Master Gundam should have one too - and what that would be (along with if I should go back to the Stargazer Theorycraft and give that a regen passive or something).

Fuunsaiki being the G-Maneuver was always The Correct Decision in my mind, though. Was just a matter of how it would work - with me finally settling on a sort of variant combination Fin Funnel Barrier and Screaming Nimbus. Even now I wonder if it should also change some abilities like making Darkness Finger into Darkness Shot (same thing but as a ranged attack) and making the Wing Shield into a charge. But that might be - once again - me over-complicating things.

That said, this will very likely be my last Gundam Evolution suit theorycraft barring some last-second ideas or the game rising again. It has definitely been a fun time thinking how I would add certain suits, and I'm forever saddened by the knowledge that Epyon was going to be added but wasn't so I couldn't compare notes. Such is life.

But what do you think of this last unit idea? Is it too complicated to the last? Did you like one of the earlier ones better? I'd love to hear your thoughts - and if you had any suit ideas of your own for this soon-to-sunset game.