I've always said that splatbooks and the like are a bane to me. In that if it's for a system I like, I'll get Ideas for characters and such and waste hours on it. So, here we are again because I got some more Lancer resources as part of potentially joining a new "drop in, drop out" sort of game that's supposed to be starting soon.

In conversations, the idea of a mech that is made up of its defeated opponents came up and I brought up the Scrounger and the new-to-me Corpse Collector Talents. And, from there, the Donner from the Marley, Oz, and Silver Lending & Consultations manufacturer and Gluttony from Downfall (both from the Liminal Space splatbook where Corpse Collector came from) were brought up. And things just evolved from there.

And so, I decided to see what kind of build I could put together that made use of that oft untapped resource of a wrecked mech.

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Jikininki

The Resources

• Castor & Pollux
• Dustgrave
• Field Guide - Liminal Space
• Field Guide to Suldan
• Intercorp Licenses

The Build

-- MO & S DONNER @ LL12 --
[ LICENSES ]
  MO & S DONNER 2, MO & S FRANKENSTEIN 1,  
  DOWNFALL GLUTTONY 3, IC ACASTUS 3,  
  IPS-N Vlad 3
[ CORE BONUSES ]
  Reinforced Backup Systems, Improved Armament,  
  Gyges Frame, Enhanced Systems Upgrade
[ TALENTS ]
  Scrounger 3, CORPSE COLLECTOR 3, WASTEBORN 3,  
  Executioner 3, Duelist 2, Bruiser 1
[ STATS ]
  HULL:6 AGI:4 SYS:4 ENGI:0
  STRUCTURE:4 HP:28 ARMOR:1
  STRESS:4 HEATCAP:6 REPAIR:10
  TECH ATK:+4 LIMITED:+0
  SPD:6 EVA:13 EDEF:12 SENSE:8 SAVE:16
[ WEAPONS ]
  Integrated: Carrion/Chirurgeon Articulated Claws
  FLEX MOUNT: Threaded Climbing Axe
  FLEX MOUNT: NULL MATTER BLADE
[ SYSTEMS ]
  METEOR Jump Jets, REAPER STRIDE, CARRION System,  
  Caltrop Launcher, PSEUDO VAULT, Charged Stake,  
  Blast Plating x6, Armament Redundancy

The Breakdown

The main goal of this mech, as mentioned above, is to make as much use of a wreck as possible.

The Donner makes for the perfect frame for this due to its Grisly Feast Trait, which lets you destroy a wreck to heal yourself or others. Then we delve into the Gluttony specifically for its CARRION System at L3 to remote detonate wrecks, but the Blast Plating and even its Heartburn Cannon if we want an energy-based ranged weapon. And we want energy/burn options because of Wasteborn's ability to create radioactive wrecks when a mech is destroyed using a weapon of that type. Add in the ability to strip goodies off wrecks through Scrounger along with Corpse Collector letting us detonate wrecks for armor AND be Invisible when next to them... and we got a lot of things we can do with wrecks.

Once that was squared away, it just became a matter of how the Donner would go about getting to and making some wrecks to use. It has an integrated Heavy Melee, so I decided to lean on that and make the suit melee focused with the remaining Talents being used towards Heavy and Main Melee weapons. And I wanted a good energy Main Melee, which got me looking at the Acastus and its variable typed Null Matter Blade - which had the added benefit of also providing some additional mobility with its Reaper Stride and locking in a target with its Pseudo Vault. The singular Frankenstein license was also to help with this, letting us keep our target within range at risk of damage via the Threaded Climbing Axe and the ability to just leap in and start fighting with the METEOR Jump Jets.

What's interesting is that the build is basically complete at that point license-wise. I, of course, delved into the Vlad not only for the Gyges Frame Core Bonus to increase melee threat range, but also the Caltrop Launcher and Charged Stake for additional ways to cause carnage in melee range. But you could easily go elsewhere or even keep the Vlad and replace the Acastus licenses instead. It's really just the Donner and Gluttony that are "required" to fit the wreck theme I had in mind.

There's even some wiggle room in the Core Bonuses, as well. Really, the only "required" one is Enhanced Systems Upgrade for the extra 2 SP to fit everything, but that's wholly due to my love of cramming as much as I can on things. You could also make the argument for the Gyges Frame as mentioned above, and maybe Improved Armament for the Climbing Axe. Reinforced Backup Systems, however, is just for extra survivability and the fact we had the prerequisite MO&S licenses to grab it.

Like, there's nothing keeping you from doing something very wacky like picking up Superheavy Mounting and figuring out how to squeeze in Vlad's Combat Drill to really make sure you have a wreck to utilize afterward. We also have access to a Manufacturer-specific Core Bonus from Downfall or Intercorp to play with as well, given our choices. Downfall can give another point of SP to work with via the Additional Device Rails amongst other options, and Intercorp has some interesting selections as well. There's a lot to play with and adjust to fit how you want to pilot the mech.

But what do you think? Does it seem like an interesting build, or more of a Don'ter? I'd love to hear your ideas - for this build and any fun ones you've made yourself!