______ _ (_____ \ | | _ _____) ) ___ | | _ ___ | |_ (_____ ( / _ \| || \ / _ \| _) | | |_| | |_) ) |_| | |__ |_|\___/|____/ \___/ \___) _ _ _ _ _ | || || | | | | | | || || | ____ ____| | ___ ____ _ | | ___ | ||_|| |/ _ |/ ___) |/ _ \ / ___) || |/___) | |___| ( ( | | | | | |_| | | ( (_| |___ | \______|\_||_|_| |_|\___/|_| \____(___/ _ _ ___ ______ _ _______ _____ | | (_)/ __) | ___ \ | | (_______)\ / ___ \ | | _| |__ ____ | | _ | | ___ _ | | ____ _____ / \| | | | | | | | __) _ ) | || || |/ _ \ / || |/ _ ) | ___) /\ \ | |_| | |_____| | | ( (/ / | || || | |_| ( (_| ( (/ / | | | |__| \ \____ |_______)_|_| \____) |_||_||_|\___/ \____|\____) |_| |______|\_____) Version 1.01 15th Sept 2007 baby ice dog ------------------ ~ [0.0] CONTENTS ~ ------------------ [1.0] Introduction [2.0] Trade Tables [2.1] Body [2.2] Arm [2.3] Leg [2.4] Weapons [2.5] Shields [2.6] Options [3.0] Tune-Ups [4.0] Miscellaneous Information [4.1] Character Levels [4.2] Environments [4.3] Tips [5.0] Suggested Builds [5.1] Starting Out [5.2] Tuned Parts [6.0] Contact & Legal Information ---------------------- ~ [1.0] INTRODUCTION ~ ---------------------- What is Life Mode? ------------------ Life Mode allows you to take developed characters and their bullets into randomly generated missions, to earn money, experience, and tune-ups. Money can be used to purchase new weapons and bullet parts. How do I get access to Life Mode? --------------------------------- Complete the eleven missions of Story Mode and you will be prompted to save. Life Mode now appears on the main menu. How does Life Mode work? ------------------------ Choose Life Mode from the main menu, select a file to load, and you are presented with three missions of increasing difficulty and reward. These missions are randomly generated each time you load a file. Once you have chosen one, you can choose characters and load-out, visit the shop, and apply tune-ups. Once the mission is over, you are prompted to save, and the game then quits to the main menu. Be aware that you need to save to continue with that file! Life Mode only offers one mission at at time, after which you need to reload your saved file. Why a FAQ? ---------- I found the Life Mode information given in the manual to be confusing, incomplete, and suprisingly inaccurate, with no information about tune-ups. The trade screens do not give full information, and can be awkward to wade through. Writing out tables of part stats and tune-up effects helped me design the killer bullets I wanted with minimum fuss. Key to Tables ------------- To save space, I have used the following table headings for this FAQ: HP - Endure/Durability Arm - Armour MV - Motive Power HR - Hits Received (from incoming fire) Load - Maximum Weight Left - Load left after subtracting leg weight Att - Attack Power Hit - Hit Ratio (for outgoing fire) RF - Rate of Fire/"Rapid Fire" Amm - Ammunition/"Shell Count" --------------------- ~ [2.0] TRADE TABLES~ --------------------- There are two trade screens - one to buy items, the other to sell unequipped items at half the listed cost. [2.1] BODY ---------- Name HP Arm HR Hit Weight Cost Corvus 300 28 9 20 5400 180k Ulmer 300 38 9 10 5800 190k Pavo 350 32 9 20 6300 190k Intrigue 350 42 9 10 6700 200k J01L 400 30 7 10 5600 200k Aquila 400 36 9 20 6900 200k Munster 400 46 11 10 7300 210k J01M 450 34 9 10 6500 210k Rambler 400 28 7 15 5500 210k Starina 450 32 11 0 6000 220k J01H 500 38 9 10 7100 220k Noisette 450 32 7 15 6400 220k Centifolia 500 36 13 0 6900 230k Damask 500 36 9 15 7000 230k Code 3 550 40 13 0 7500 240k [2.2] ARM --------- Name HP Arm HR Hit Weight Cost AR/ARL 200 28 3 10 7400 90k GAX-AR-L 200 38 3 5 7800 95k AR/ARM 230 32 3 10 8600 95k GAX-AR-M 230 42 3 5 9000 100k J01-AR-L 260 30 2 5 7600 100k AR/ARH 260 36 3 10 9400 100k GAX-AR-H 260 46 4 5 9800 105k J01-AR-M 290 34 3 5 8800 105k BE-AR-L 260 28 2 10 7500 105k BET-AR-L 290 32 4 0 8000 110k J01-AR-H 320 38 3 5 9600 110k BE-AR-M 290 32 2 10 8700 110k BET-AR-M 320 36 4 0 9200 115k BE-AR-H 320 36 3 10 9500 115k GAX-AR-X 350 40 4 0 10000 120k [2.3] LEG --------- Name HP Arm MV HR Weight Load Cost Left AR/LGL 300 28 7 6 5400 20300 180k 14900 GAX-LG-L 300 38 8 6 5800 20800 190k 15000 AR/LGM 350 32 6 6 6300 23700 190k 17400 GAX-LG-M 350 42 7 6 6700 24200 200k 17500 J01-LG-L 400 30 9 5 5600 20300 200k 14700 AR/LGH 400 36 5 6 6900 26300 200k 19400 GAX-LG-H 400 46 6 7 7300 26500 210k 19200 J01-LG-M 450 34 7 6 6500 23600 210k 17100 BE-LG-L 400 28 10 6 5500 20200 210k 14700 BET-LG-L 450 32 7 8 6000 21300 220k 15300 J01-LG-H 500 38 6 6 7100 26300 220k 19200 BE-LG-M 450 32 8 7 6400 23400 220k 17000 BET-LG-M 500 36 6 8 6900 24600 230k 17700 BE-LG-H 500 36 6 7 7000 26000 230k 19000 GAX-LG-X 550 40 5 8 7500 26900 240k 19400 * *Note: The GAX-LG-X appears to have no turbo capability. I'm not sure if any other heavy legs suffer from this. If a bullet's weight is over the maximum load for its legs, the bullet will have half MV (it seems to round up OR down, depending just how overweight the bullet is) and no turbo capability. You can eject weapons during a mission (or they can be destroyed), and if this reduces the weight to under the leg's maximum load, the bullet will regain turbo and normal MV. [2.4] WEAPONS ------------- BG - "Buster Glove", a fist or blade-type weapon. These have no ability to counter/intercept or use targetting. SB - "Depth Charge", a close-combat bomb, effectively a fist-type weapon with limited ammunition. AMG - Short-range machine gun, lightweight and high capacity, but low attack power. MG - Medium-range machine gun, high capacity but low attack power. SHOT - Shotgun with good damage, low RF, sturdy armour and HP. Inaccurate at short range. GR - Grenade launcher with good range, good damage, but low capacity. GG - Gatling gun with great damage and RF, but limited capacity. Name Att RF Amm Range Hit HP Arm HR Weight Cost BG-7 130 1 - 0-2 40/0/0 400 20 2 700 70k BG-8 150 1 - 0-2 40/0/0 400 20 2 800 80k BG-9 170 1 - 0-2 35/0/0 400 20 2 900 90k BG-10 190 1 - 0-2 30/0/0 400 20 2 1000 100k BG-11 210 1 - 0-2 30/0/0 400 20 2 1100 110k SB13 180 1 5 0-2 40/0/0 200 24 2 600 80k SB15 200 1 5 0-2 35/0/0 200 24 2 700 90k SB17 220 1 5 0-2 30/0/0 200 24 2 800 100k SB19 240 1 5 0-2 25/0/0 200 24 2 900 110k SB21 260 1 5 0-2 20/0/0 200 24 2 1000 120k AMG-10 40 12 216 1-9 32/28/0 250 24 2 300 80k AMG-11 45 12 144 1-9 32/28/0 250 24 2 400 100k AMG-12 45 12 216 1-9 32/28/0 250 24 2 600 110k AMG-13 50 12 144 1-9 32/28/0 250 24 2 600 120k AMG-14 50 12 216 1-9 32/28/0 250 24 2 800 130k MG1000 44 10 300 2-15 20/35/0 250 24 2 500 90k MG2000 50 10 200 2-15 20/35/0 250 24 2 700 120k MG3000 50 10 300 2-15 20/35/0 250 24 2 900 130k MG4000 55 10 200 2-15 20/35/0 250 24 2 900 140k MG5000 55 10 300 2-15 20/35/0 250 24 2 1100 150k SHOT-Z 80 5 50 2-12 5/30/0 350 26 2 500 100k SHOT-ZZ 100 5 40 2-12 5/30/0 350 26 2 700 130k SHOT-Z3 100 5 50 2-12 5/30/0 350 26 2 900 140k SHOT-Z4 120 5 40 2-12 5/30/0 350 26 2 900 150k SHOT-Z5 120 5 50 2-12 5/30/0 350 26 2 1100 160k GR-R 120 1 15 3-30 0/21/25 200 22 2 600 100k GR-M 140 1 10 3-30 0/21/25 200 22 2 700 110k GR-W 140 1 15 3-30 0/21/25 200 22 2 900 120k GR-W2 180 1 10 3-30 0/21/25 200 22 2 900 130k GR-W3 180 1 15 3-30 0/21/25 200 22 2 1100 140k GG-080 60 12 96 2-12 20/35/0 200 28 3 700 110k GG-090 70 12 96 2-12 20/35/0 200 28 3 700 130k GG-100 70 12 120 2-12 20/35/0 200 28 3 900 140k GG-110 80 12 72 2-12 20/35/0 200 28 3 1000 150k GG-120 80 12 96 2-12 20/35/0 200 28 3 1100 160k [2.5] SHIELDS ------------- Shields have good armour, good HP, and a high chance of taking hits. Name HP Arm HR Weight Cost MSH-100 400 40 12 600 50k MSH-200 500 42 15 700 60k MSH-300 600 44 18 800 70k [2.6] OPTIONS ------------- SM - Smoke discharger, can drop one smoke square in front arc of starting position, as a "Special Action" (costs TP). M - Mine dropper, requires "Motion Technique" skill to use (costs TP). RL - Rocket launcher with good damage, good range, but low capacity and quite heavy. Best at long range. ATG - Anti-tank gun with astonishing attack power, but crippling weight and barely any ammunition. Name Att RF Amm Range Hit HP Arm HR Weight Cost SM10-A - 1 10 0-5 - 300 24 1 300 50k SM10-B - 1 10 0-7 - 300 24 1 400 55k SM10-C - 1 10 0-9 - 300 24 1 500 60k M12 100 3 9 0-1 - 300 20 3 1000 70k M30 80 4 8 0-1 - 300 20 3 1000 80k M50 120 2 8 0-1 - 300 20 3 1400 90k RL-M1 140 1 8 5-30 0/12/45 250 24 3 1200 130k RL-M2 180 1 5 5-30 0/12/45 250 24 3 1350 140k RL-M3 180 1 8 5-30 0/12/45 250 24 3 1550 150k RL-M4 220 1 5 5-30 0/12/45 250 24 3 1600 160k RL-00 220 1 8 5-30 0/12/45 250 24 3 1800 180k 45mm ATG 300 1 3 5-30 0/12/45 300 26 3 1850 150k 57mm ATG 350 1 3 5-30 0/12/45 300 26 3 1950 160k 76mm ATG 400 1 3 5-30 0/12/45 300 26 3 2100 170k 90mm ATG 500 1 3 5-30 0/12/45 300 26 3 2250 180k 105mm ATG 600 1 3 5-30 0/12/45 300 26 3 2400 200k ------------------ ~ [3.0] TUNE-UPS ~ ------------------ You earn one random tune-up after each successful mission. These can each be applied once to any unequipped item, giving a renamed item with modified stats. You can keep applying tune-ups to an already tuned item. Tuned items are named as follows: T-XX-YYY## Where XX is a two letter identifier for the weapon type (for example, "SM" for a smoke launcher), YYY is a three letter identifier for the last applied tune-up (IDs are listed in the table below), and ## is the lowest two digit number that will uniquely identify the item in your inventory (starting at "00"). Below is a list of the tune-ups that I've found so far. All have both positive and negative effects (for example, most will drop the HP and raise weight), so it's a good idea to plan what you're going to do before applying them, and make sure you are not creating something that will be too heavy to equip. Tune-ups also come in double- and triple-effect versions of their basic form - these have the same name as the basic version, and can only be identified by checking their tuning effect. You can keep up to 32 tune-ups in your inventory. When you have this maximum number, you will NOT earn any more tune-ups for successful missions. Name ID HP Arm HR Att Hit Weight RF Amm [Tough] END +50 +5 +1 +50 [Defence] ARM +30 +10 +1 +50 [Close] GRA -10 -5 +5/0/0 +50 [Halfway] MED -10 -5 0/+5/0 +50 [Further] DES -10 -5 0/0/+4 +50 [Attack] ATT -10 +20 +100 [Rapid] LAU -10 -5 +50 +1 -5 [Magazine] NUM -10 -5 +50 -1 +10 [Normal] AVE +15 -5 +15 +75 +2 [Size] BOU -10 -2 -3 +50 [Light] LIG -15 -5 -10 -100 Notes: There is no way to affect the ammunition of GR, ATG or RL-type weapons. There is no way to affect the firing rate of BG, SB, SM, GR, ATG, or RL-type weapons. Tune-ups cannot be applied if they would cause a parameter to fall to zero or below. ----------------------------------- ~ [4.0] MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION ~ ----------------------------------- [4.1] CHARACTER LEVELS ---------------------- Characters level up when they reach the following experience points totals. 1 0 2 150 3 300 4 500 5 800 6 1200 7 1700 8 2300 9 3000 10 3800 11 4700 12 5700 13 6800 14 7000 15 8300 16 9700 17 11200 18 12800 19 14500 20 16300 21 18200 Characters will usually gain +1 Max TP every other level and a new skill at each level (at lower levels they don't get so many TPs). I haven't found a maximum level yet, but my Kazuma Saeki stopped gaining new skills at level 15. [4.2] ENVIRONMENTS ------------------ The following environments are available in Versus mode, or during the Story Mode: Eastern Europe Forests Eastern Europe Streets Eastern Europe Plains Tunnel Shinjuku Daytime Ochanomizu Forest Countryside Haneda Airport Parliament Building Park Odaiba Life Mode missions only occur in four different environments: Forest - Unpredictable tree positions can make for awkward fighting and blocked routes. Countryside - Fewer trees, but some nasty fenced-in areas. Streets - Doesn't appear in Story Mode, a rural village with small buildings and a few trees. Tunnel - Grid arrangement of pillars and passages, with piles of cargo blocking movement. [4.3] TIPS ---------- [4.3.1] Life Mode Tips Don't lose any bullets! You are charged for total and partial repairs at the end of each mission, and rewarded for kills and mission success. The total balance of this CAN be negative, even though the assessment screen doesn't show this well. Expect one lost bullet to negate the reward from 3-4 enemy kills. If you don't like the look of a stage from its preview, feel free to back out and reload. Stages are randomly generated when you load your save file. Bear in mind that you can't save until the end of a mission, not even during set-up. If you have complicated and long-winded changes to make to your team or equipment, then choose an easy stage, make your changes, dominate in battle, and save. [4.3.2] General Strategy Tips Take a moment to check the enemies at the start of each stage - the battle cutscenes will show you if they have ranged or close-combat weapons, and cycling through them to look at damage levels will show you if any have options equipped (usually long-range, high damage weapons). Stay out of sight of option-equipped enemies until you can close the range. Once you are close enough, and if you have blocked the line of sight to any of your distant allies, they won't use their options. Use bullets in close-combat to block line of sight to vulnerable allies. Enemies don't like to back out of close-combat, even if they don't have any means to attack you at short range. But they WILL attack any other bullets they can see. Use their own tactics against them - position your close-combatter to block their line of sight, and angle yourself away from them a little, to let you use interception fire on other nearby enemies. Bullets will not counter/intercept an enemy which is shooting directly at them and causing damage. This means that if you are moving towards an enemy you know is countering, you should be able to suppress their intercept fire by attacking them with a rapid-fire weapon as you approach. Tempting though it is to run up and punch, you will be exposed to intercept fire as you move. Bear this in mind when YOU are countering as well - there is no point using TP on targetted interception against a single enemy who will spend his round spraying you with suppressive fire. An bullet can still intercept during action phases in which it takes no damage. Better shots mean more body hits (I think!). It seems that if you invest your TP in targetted techniques (including precision firing or interception), you have a better chance of scoring body hits. Wildfire tends to scatter all over the target, targetted fire seems to hit higher on the "hit table" (the list of damaged parts that you see after each round). Surround and conquer! If everyone is out in the open, and if your bullets are fast enough, consider spending a round to turbo one or two through the enemy lines. Sure, that bullet won't be facing the enemy to be useful that turn, but next round they can turn and provide interception. With the enemy surrounded, your advantage is twofold - firstly, however they rotate, someone will always be firing at their rear or sides; secondly, they won't be able to get interception fire on all of your bullets. Exploit bottlenecks. Conversely, if the stage isn't open, and the enemy is starting to come at you through an obvious bottleneck, just position yourself and wait. In a best case scenario, the enemies come through one-by-one, taking fire from your whole team, and clogging up the route to prevent other enemies getting line of sight. If not all of your bullets can get in a good position here, turbo the spare ones down any side-routes you can see, to flank the enemy. Turn order seems to be based on total weight, rather than on MV values. This means that it is worth saving weight, even if you're not going to be saving enough to equip a faster pair of legs (or if you don't want to, for armour/HP considerations). On the same basis, ejected or destroyed parts no longer count towards a bullet's weight, meaning that its turn order may change if enough parts are lost. -------------------------- ~ [5.0] SUGGESTED BUILDS ~ -------------------------- So, fresh out of the rather restrictive Story Mode, and into the confusing options of Life Mode... What will you do? I went with a two-stage upgrade process - first earning cash to buy improved stock parts, and then using tune-ups to create specialist parts that suited my fighting needs. I am heavily biased towards rapid fire weapons and punching, so feel free to adjust these suggestions to your own style. [5.1] STARTING OUT ------------------ Straight out of Story Mode, I was using: 2x Close-combat bullets: J01M body parts, BG-9 and GG-090, no options (200 weight free). 1x Medium-range bullet: J01M body parts, GG-090 and GR-W, no options (200 weight free). 1x Long-range bullet: J01H legs & arms, J01M body, GG-090 & GR-W, RL-M1 option (0 weight free). Improving these with stock parts: Replace BG-9 -> BG-11 (+200 weight) Replace GR-W -> GR-W3 (+200 weight) Replace J01-LG-M -> GAX-LG-M (+400 max load) Replace GG-090 -> GG-120 (+400 weight) This still leaves the long-range heavy untouched. [5.2] TUNED PARTS ----------------- Note that these are works in progress - getting the tune-up parts you need for a project can be a tiresome business, especially when you periodically have to clear out your inventory of unwanted tune-ups. Even though these projects aren't "finished" yet, they offer an advantage over even the best stock parts, and a good indication of what can be done with tune-up parts. [5.2.1] Hard-Hitting & Rapid Fire AMG-10 + [Attack]x5 (800 weight) MG1000 + [Attack]x5 (1000 weight) The concept here is simple - take a high capacity rapid fire weapon, and increase the attack power as far as possible. The downside is that the chosen weapon loses HP and armour, and gains weight. I started with the lightest weapon in each category, because larger versions have marginal increase in attack power, but much greater weight. The result (so far!) is a pair of weapons that will deliver grenade power, at machine gun firing rates, with enough ammunition to last a whole battle, all for the weight of an "average" stock gatling gun. The AMG version is ideal for a close-combat bullet, because it allows you to fire at an adjacent target - even when you're up close ready to punch an opponent, the AMG allows you to intercept fire against them. The downside is its limited maximum range. [5.2.2] Light & Tough Body Parts Corvus + [Tough]x2, [Defence]x2, [Size]x1 AR/ARL + [Tough]x2, [Defence]x2, [Size]x1 Here I've taken the lightest body and arm parts, and increased HP and Arm beyond those of stock medium-weight parts. [Size] has been used to offset the increased HR, and [Light] could be used to strip even more weight off if desired. Each of these parts frees up ALOT of weight, either for heavier weapons or faster legs. Something similar could be done with leg parts, but this requires good planning because you need to calculate required maximum load before choosing legs. [5.2.3] Disposable Sniper 105mm ATG + [Further]x5, [Halfway]x3 I created this solely to use up [Further] tune-ups, and added some [Halfway] to attempt to make it more useable. The idea is to equip this on a medium weight bullet that has some other useful long-range weapons (GR types, for example). The ATG makes it overweight. Assess on the first turn whether to eject the ATG and proceed as normal, or whether you have a chance to snipe a few opponents (either via firing or interception) before doing this. The ATG will destroy any stock bullet part it hits, and increasing the accuracy with [Further] should/may increase the chance of a body hit. Use up the ammunition as soon as possible, eject, and continue the fight with full MV. I've had mixed success with this weapon, but it could be improved further - note that it doesn't matter how heavy the tuning makes this weapon if you treat it as "disposable" this way. [5.2.3] Other Tuned Parts I'm still finding new tune-ups, and I'm still working on the parts above. There are some more concepts that I'd like to try - a shield with multiple [Defence] to bump up HP/Armour, equipped on a bullet with low HR parts (making the shield by far the most feasible target); or a killer BG with high Close accuracy and good Attack. I've also been using [Magazine] to make useful smoke launchers and mine-layers (though with hindsight, [Normal] might be a better choice for mines). Right now the problem is finding enough tune-ups of the right part. If you have any tuned parts, concepts, or entire bullet set-ups, please send them to me so I can include them here (with full credit, of course :D). ------------------------------------- ~ [6.0] CONTACT & LEGAL INFORMATION ~ ------------------------------------- This FAQ may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. The only sites permitted to host this guide are: GameFAQs.com GameSpot.com Neoseeker.com SuperCheats.com Please respect the work I have put into this, and let me know if you see it hosted elsewhere. All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. I can be mailed at baby_ice_doghotmailcom with any submissions, corrections, or questions. Please make sure to mention that you're writing with reference to this Robot Warlords Life Mode FAQ! Also, bear in mind that I am no expert at the game, I just made this guide to help others starting out in Life Mode :) Special thanks go to CJayC, for creating the best gaming resource on the net & keeping it pure, and to The777howling, for advice and encouragement during the tougher moments of Story Mode. ASCII art courtesy of: http://www.network-science.de/ascii/ (ASCII Generator); FIGlet; David Walton ("stop" font). Copyright 2007 Brian Towlson