Customization Guide (Sylar)

Robo

The central aspect of customization. It is the crux of the set; the robo can change the way of play dramatically.

So how do I pick a robo that works for me?

Creating a set that works for you is very important if you ever want to get really good.

Singularly, the best way to find the right robo would be to try every one, with every part combination. That, however, is ridiculous; the amount of part combinations is staggering.

First, decide what you want the set to do; normally, your main set will be a good all around set, though possibly specializing in a certain area.

Second, analyze the different types of robos to see which one can accomplish the given task most effectively. For ease of customization, I'll least the strengths and weaknesses of each robo type (bear in mind this is a general list, and as such, very specific aspect will not be analyzed):

Shining Fighter

Strengths

Good at close to mid range duels.

Good at quickly weaving in and out explosions and gun rounds in the air, for easier approaching.

Weaknesses

Poor at approaching over long distances.

Poor at avoiding long range gun rounds.

Aerial Beauty

Strengths

Good at all ranges.

Good at all types of evasion.

Weaknesses

Extremely vulnerable to anti air weapons, like Smash Bomb and Gravity Gun, especially at close ranges.

Very vulnerable to fast rounds when in the air.

Metal Grappler

Strengths

Insanely high defense and endurance.

Weaknesses

Low ground speed.

Weak against aerial opponents on large stages.

Little Raiders

Strengths

Extremely fast ground speed allows for easy lag abuse.

Weaknesses

Low defense means a good combo can easily takes a win from you.

Poor control, both in the air and on the ground.

Little Sprinter

Strengths

Good speed.

Good traction and acceleration.

Weaknesses

Low defense and endurance.

Weak to fast high powered rounds.

Sassy Stunner

Strengths

Best jumpers in the game.

Weaknesses

Mainly aerial makes you easy prey for anti air users.

Tall hitbox leaves you open to Gravity and Smash hax.

Wild Soldier

Strengths

Highly effective at close ranges.

Fast air dashes are useful for approaching.

Weaknesses

Slow on the ground and poor in the air.

Easy prey for aerial opponents, especially on large stages.

Big Boys

Strengths

Strong aerial domination.

Charges can be used effectively on the ground, for close range evasion.

Weaknesses

Slow on the ground.

Weak against anti air; poor on small stages.

Old Timers

Strengths

Strongest aerial abilities in the game

Weaknesses

Extremely slow ground speed.

Trick Flyers

Strengths

Short, fast airdashes make getting in and comboing easy.

Weaknesses

Tall hitbox makes them weak to Gravity and Smash hax.

Landing lag can be exploited.

Strike Vanisher

Strengths

Low stealth dashes can quickly approach.

Lower DOWN time than other robos.

Weaknesses

Worst landing lag in the game.

Burning Beast

Strengths

Good jump height.

Good dashes.

Weaknesses

Poor against aerial foes.

Lightning Skys

Strengths

Airdashes make spamming easy.

Weaknesses

High landing lag.

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Now, after examining the strengths and weaknesses, choose a type to fit the need.

It's time to narrow down the robo choice in the given category. I'm not going to list individual strengths and weaknesses.

The defining factor in choosing here is the charge. Flak types are best for combos with P, G and C type blasts, and any gun that raises the opponent in the air.

Evasion is, just like it said, for evading. Typically, an evasion type will move you back and knock the foe forward.

Attack moves you straight forward, knocking the opponent either straight down, or slightly forward.

Movement is a rather hard to categorize, as it really has no general consistency.

Testing is very important; if you try a robo and feel like it works for you, move on to the next section.

Guns

Newbies are notorious for using only their guns, and ignoring bombs and pods. Once you move out of the newb stage, it's common to think that the gun is a useless part of customizing; this is false.

The gun can be the cornerstone of the combo, and the set; it may not always seem very important, but the gun has a variety of duties in battle, all of which I will try examine here.

The gun can be used for an easy hit, and also to activate combos. If a combo set is the goal, make sure to examine the gun carefully, as it can accomplish many tasks in a combo.

Long range guns should only be used on medium and large stage. If you do otherwise, you'll end up very vulnerable to close range opponents.

Close range guns can do many things beyond what they seem to do at first glance. Take the Mega Burst Gun, for example. It seems rather useless at first, because it does rather small damage, doesn't normally down the enemy, and leaves you open. Upon closer examination, it can be seen that it has not only a sweet spot, which increases the damage, but also has a stunning effect, which is very useful in starting a high powered combo.

Mid range guns are the most generally overlooked guns. The reason is that they're misused; the Needle gun is actually not most effective at mid range, but much more useful at a slightly longer range, as it hits with less of the lasers, and doesn't down the robo, letting you make easy follow ups.

So, how do you choose a gun?

You can pick a gun that works well with your robo. But what does that tell you?

What you want to look at is what the gun can do; can it hit aerial foes? Can it activate a combo? Can it be a part of a combo? Or is it just going to be deadweight on the set, so that you have to sacrifice HP to get a hit in?

If you want a combo set, look at stunning guns, or guns that draw the opponent in, like Needle, Catch or Stun.

Remember that this is a bare overview; for more on gun techs, check Robopedia.

Bombs

Ah, bombs; often the most overlooked weapon among noobs, yet if the right one is picked, it's the strongest and most universally useful of the parts.

I've called this game 'bomb based' a good bit. Normally, noobs will try to come back and tell me that it's about the gun or charge. That's why they're noobs.

Bombs can hit at any range, which makes them useful for long range combat. Surprisingly, though, they are most effective at mid range.

At mid range, they hit the ground rapidly, which let's you take advantage of the usually fast reload to trap your opponent behind a wall, and follow up with another bomb, a pod or your gun; the possibilities are almost endless.

That's only if you have a bomb like Charge, Burrow or Standard; what if you have a different bomb?

Bombs like Titan don't do much damage, but can severely restrict movement area, so use it to move your enemy to a certain area to combo. Or you can just throw them out and cause mayhem; that works, too. It just depends on the rest of the set.

Crescent bombs are quite unique, which is why I want to make a section for them specifically.

Crescent bombs have different shots from the air and ground; a technique commonly used is to fire one from the ground and the, as soon as it reloads, fire from the air. This creates a situation where both bombs hit at the same time, which, in essence, traps your opponent. Use that to you advantage to attack quickly from the air. Most use something like the Wall pod to inflict high amounts of damage quickly, but a strategy like using the Gravity gun air shot, then coming around and using a pods to knock them upwards can be useful as well.

From what I've seen, bombs are really the on weapon where the phrase 'the sky's the limit' can really apply; try different things to find something that works. Don't worry of it's been done before; if it works for you, you'll automatically add your own techniques to it, making it different from the crowd.

Pods

In my opinion, the second most useful weapon is the pod. It can do a variety of things, as the amount of pods is the same as the diversity among them.

Some pods can just restrict space, like Satellite, which can be useful against aerial robos, as it leaves them no safe space to land.

The Diving pod home in on the enemy, which can be used in a variety of ways. You can have them come from either sides, trapping them, you can have them go straight forward, or anyway you want.

The Speed Pods and Wave pod, at first glance, seem like another Direct Bomb-like weapon, that try's to make the bombs and pods like another gun. But look deeper and you'll see that they can be some of the best combo pods, and can restrict area, provide a lag free direct attack and also just cause flat out confusion.

When choosing a pods, you want to look at all the tasks it can do, instead of just one; if your pod is doing only one job, ditch it. A pod should be able to do something in any situation.

I realize this section is short and rather uninformative, but pods are just that diverse.

Legs

Legs affect landings, jumps, ground movement, and fall speed.

Like pods, legs should accomplish many tasks. For example, consider this set:

Luna
Sniper
Crescent C
Double Wave
Feather

It may seem that the legs don't do much, since Aerial Beauties don't have much landing lag, but if you look at how this set would actually play, you may see that Feather legs also give this set extra air time, which can be used to set up a Sniper hit more easily.

So always try to find a pair of legs that cover everything the set needs; many legs have multiple effects.

You won't always be able to find a pair that will do everything you need them to do, so try to figure out what is/are the most needed effect, and pick a pair that covers that.

(This is my version; a previous version was made by NinjaPengui.)