Characters

The characters in the game can be as personalized as the wanzers they drive. Each character, therein, has skills that he or she can learn that helps her wanzer's skills. Combined in the proper way, a well-equipped, smart-equipped wanzer with a slick pilot is unstoppable. Below is a short list of each pilot in the game, along with what you should concentrate on when upgrading their stats. Afterall, EP is extremely valuable, and you might not want to waste it on useless upgrades when they aren't needed.

Bosch
Continent: Europe
Primary Weapon Concern: Machinegun
Secondary Weapon Concern: Shotgun
Ignore: Skills involving missiles, long-range guns, grenades, et cetera.

Bosch is best paired with Zead while on the battle field in their wanzers. They should never be together, however, as Bosch and his backpack allow Zead to shoot missiles theoretically clear across the battlefield, out of range of his normal attacks. Hence, he can be in the exact opposite corner of Bosch, and as long as there are enemies within range of Bosch's backpack, he can still shoot a missile or other projectile. On his own, however, you should have a machinegun equipped on his wanzer, since his inherent pilot skills point towards machinegun enhancements.

Chaeffer
Continent: South America
Primary Weapon Concern: Machinegun
Secondary Weapon Concern: Shotgun
Ignore: Skills involving missiles, long-range guns, grenades, et cetera.

Acting as the South American team's healing wanzer pilot, Chaeffer will have the option to use any weapon his wanzer can carry as long as weight and power permit it. However, because of his weight restrictions due to his backpack, which is vital for him to heal, he can usually only pack a machinegun or shotgun. With that in mind, it's a good idea to equip one hand with a machinegun, and the other with a shotgun, or a melee weapon is weight allows. Concentrate his upgrades as a pilot to weapon skills applicable to the machinegun and healing first and foremost.

Darril
Continent: South America
Primary Weapon Concern: Shotgun
Secondary Weapon Concern: Melee
Ignore: Skills involving missiles, long-range guns, grenades, et cetera.

Darril is the Elsa-like character on the South American team, with an overall well-balanced set of skills to learn. Leaning towards being strong with a shotgun, melee weapons can also be equipped on Darril, and should be, for when linked to other characters, he makes a powerful retribution character with his melee weapon. Learn shotgun and melee skills, also increasing evasion and the like when you can as well. Focus on keeping him well-balanced, however, not committing him too deeply towards one weapon or the other.

Elsa
Continent: Europe
Primary Weapon Concern: Machinegun
Secondary Weapon Concern: Shotgun
Ignore: Skills involving missiles, long-range guns, grenades, et cetera.

Elsa is the best overall character the European team has, with her well-equipped, fast-moving, well-armored wanzer being able to deliver damage to even the most extreme enemy troops. Equipping one hand with a shotgun, and the other with a machinegun, Elsa will become an unstoppable force who can deliver damage to those with various armor types. Concentrating on machinegun and shotgun enhancements will never hurt, of course getting link abilities, evasion bonuses, and the like en route to making her as perfect as possible as well.

Hermes
Continent: Europe
Primary Weapon Concern: Machinegun
Secondary Weapon Concern: Shotgun
Ignore: Skills involving missiles, long-range guns, grenades, et cetera.

The European team's healer, Hermes' backpack is actually his primary use in battle, although he's fairly well-versed with a machinegun as well. Feel free to upgrade his machinegun, as well as his ability to link in battle. The battle link will be especially useful to Hermes, since he more often than not should be healing the party in battle - this will allow him to offensively and defensively use his remaining AP in battle to attack. Shotguns work well on him as well, but machineguns are his forte.

Ines
Continent: South America
Primary Weapon Concern: Missile Launchers
Secondary Weapon Concern: Melee
Ignore: Skills involving machineguns, shotguns, or long range guns.

Ines is the Zead of the South American teams, who should be kept far away from combat when she still has missiles, rockets, grenades and the like to still launch into the fray of battle. Make sure to keep her away from the battle, launching her goods into battle, but still keeping a melee weapon in one of her hands, since if she runs out of long-distance ammo mid-battle or gets teamed up upon by enemy units, she can actually fight them and hopefully fend them off.

Latona
Continent: Europe
Primary Weapon Concern: Melee
Secondary Weapon Concern: N/A
Ignore: Skills involving missiles, long-range guns, grenades, et cetera.

Latona and her EMP backpack-toting wanzer make her and her mech a valuable addition to your team, although you'll find yourself using her melee abilities more often than her wanzer-disabling backpack. Concentrating your pilot ability upgrades on her melee attacks, as well as her ability to link to other fighters while in battle, should be your top priority. Fire Strike, Blast Strike, and the like, should also be a priority, since it'll upgrade the damage you can do with your various melee attacks.

Luis
Continent: South America
Primary Weapon Concern: Shotguns
Secondary Weapon Concern: Machineguns
Ignore: Skills involving missiles, long-range guns, grenades, et cetera.

Luis is a pilot who uses a wanzer suited to both machineguns and shotguns. Because of this, you don't have to concentrate on upgrading other weapons with him as far as pilot skills are concerned, concentrating solely on upgrading machineguns and shotguns, with his other skills as far as shooting are concerned. He's an offensive powerhouse, so you should really concentrate on his attack power and attack skill over all else.

Renges
Continent: South America
Primary Weapon Concern: Long-Range Guns
Secondary Weapon Concern: N/A
Ignore: Skills involving machineguns, shotguns, or melee weapons.

Renges is a long-range character whom you can equip with sniper rifles, bazookas, and weapons of the like. His inherent abilities make those weapons the weapons of choice to equip on this particular character, with the option of increasing his stats in that area from early on in the game. Ignore all other weapons with him, and just concentrate on those long range guns that make him one of the most useful characters in the South America campaign.

Zead
Continent: Europe
Primary Weapon Concern: Missile Launcher
Secondary Weapon Concern: Melee
Ignore: Skills involving machineguns, shotguns, and long-range guns.

Zead is a powerful long-range attacker who uses grenade launchers and missile launchers to strike the enemy with massive damage to multiple parts of his wanzer. Concentrate his pilot skills in missile and other long-range attacks, also concentrating on melee upgrades, since up-close, he best serves the team with a pair of knuckles or a powerful rod. His heavy armor provides plenty of support (since you'll be able to upgrade it well without having to worry too much about weight restrictions), and linking him in attacks is virtually useless since he's usually far off from the battle, chucking missiles into the fray. Concentrate on making those attacks, therefore, as powerful as you can before proceeding.

On to Battle Technique...