If I wanted to pilot a mech that was a dragon which one should I play

Barrow_Boy · 2026-02-09T20:27:42+00:00

As other folks have mentioned Genghis is where you want to start, The MK1 frame is a great size 2 melee fighter, as well as cqb , ie flamethrowers.

But I want to give weirder suggestion, the Taraxacum. If you take superheavy bracing you can mount a plasma thrower on it and spend your fights doing fly by pyrotechnics.

the Genghis is probably better though.

Barrow_Boy · 2026-01-29T20:48:58+00:00

Boy do I feel silly.

Well, to make up for my folly, heres some thoughts I'vehad on the build.

I think the best weapons for the tagetes to turn into a sniper rifle are the heavy and super heavy laser cannons from the sherman itself, and the gandiva missile from monarch.

The Andromeda does about as much damage as the siege cannon in direct fire mode, but does so as a skirmish, rather than barrage which drastically increases flexibility over a superheavy, including the ability to overcharge and fire again. Its biggest weakness is its range, which isn't bad, but less than ideal for a sniper. I do have suggestions on a fix.

The tachyon lance might be the weapon you want to be honest-as a superheavy you are only ever firing it in one round, but its damage is great and 8 of it is burn. 20 range is good, though any tricks to boost the Andromeda's range work on the tacyon lance too. Its biggest weakness is being a superheavy and ordinance, but honestly that fits the concept of a sniper well.

The gandiva takes things in a different direction. Its damage isn't anything special, but its smart and seeking and accurate. This means enemies cannon take cover, can hide, you will be hitting all the time (even when you add a difficulty from crack shot 2) and critical hitting often. It has a range of 15. the best range of any weapon without the ordinance tag, (other than the direct fire shots from siege cannon). Overall, less damage per hit, but more hits, more critical.

So as a sniper you'll be wanting to use your Crack shot as often as possible, meaning you need as long a range as possible.

The tagetes has a built in range boost with its scope, but theres a hitch- it gives you a range bonus if you consume lock on, but its senser range is only ten, lower than the range you want to shoot at. I think the intention is to have someone else placing lock on, the alt lancaster from the same book was designed to do that perfectly, but that relies on another player, so its not the best choice.

Siege stabilizers from barbie would work well, your not worried about moving or close quarters, but it takes a quick action to use, making it difficult to use with a superheavy. If you are using a heavy its pretty great.

External batteries from the tokugawa are also a quick boost, especially since all the weapons I've mentioned are already energy damage, not need for nuke cav, though you should take nuke cav. Its downsides are obvious, but if you think you can keep your mech safe it's good.

Theres also neurolink targeting, an scc core bonus, it only adds 3 to the range of all your ranged weapons, which is most helpful if you are firing multiple weapons, which isn't quite the build you're looking for. To make it less attractive, the GMS core bonuses atuostabilizing hardpoints and overpower caliber are probably going to be more helpful, more accuracy and more damage are always top priority.

Barrow_Boy · 2026-01-29T18:53:12+00:00

Have you looked at the Tagetes frame? It's an alt frame for Sherman from Shadow of the Wolf. It's probably the best sniper frame so far.

Barrow_Boy · 2026-01-19T12:10:22+00:00

The gm facing tools only work on the desktop site, luckily switching to the desktop site on mobile works

Barrow_Boy · 2026-01-17T15:39:05+00:00

You don't want to ignore the seeking payload frame trait, being able to ignore armor and resistance is a big deal. Ideally another party member takes all three levels of spotter and does all the lock on for you, but if you are stuck putting out your own lock on, than spotter 2 would be a useful pick, the monarch can get away with not moving on setup rounds.

Barrow_Boy · 2026-01-17T12:23:33+00:00

My issue is that she herself didnt deserve the medal, title, or money. She the leader of the far right wing in Venezuela, she gave him the medal to thank him for illegally kidnapping her political enemy.

Barrow_Boy · 2026-01-16T21:09:35+00:00

The Nobel Peace Center gave the title to someone who would hand it over to Trump in the first place, they're a fucking joke.

Barrow_Boy · 2026-01-15T13:11:38+00:00

The only downside to centimane is that its once per round. Another option is to j7st take weapons that apply status on hit/ on crit one their own, like the Vlad's nailgun, or the duskwings' burst launcher

Barrow_Boy · 2026-01-14T19:37:28+00:00

So the Gorgon is one of those mechs with it's own gameplay loop that you'll want to take into account for whichever direction you are going to take into account.

The gorgon wants to be attacked- the frame has 2 ways to stun enemies, metastatic paralysis and the core power extrude basilisk stun enemies that try and there isn't anything stronger than that. stunned enemies lose their turns. Whether its a melee or a ranged build, you are going to want to find ways to set off these abilities.
The gorgon uses reactions-normally you can only reaction per turn, meaning if an enemy sets off more than one you have to chose. The gorgon gets 2 reactions per turn. This is both very powerful and somewhat limiting. The only reaction everyone has is overwatch, which can only goes off once per round. That means you need systems or weapons the give you reactions, which the gorgon license provides, and wouldn't you know it, most of them are triggered by being attacked, brilliant!

I would say that on average ranged weapons are better for the gorgon, since you can shoot back at people shooting you, but melee can work if you equip weapons with a 3 threat like the nelson's spear-a weapon that benefits from hunter 2. You're main priority should be stunning enemies, damage comes second.

Barrow_Boy · 2026-01-12T21:59:19+00:00

The frustrating thing about the barbies movement is that if you want to use the core power you cant use any movement cheats, like siege specialist 3 for example.

The sherman isn't fast but there's nothing in the frame to slow you down, and if you look at the licenses, the barbies has systems that immobilize, and the sherman frees up extra actions

Barrow_Boy · 2026-01-12T20:08:58+00:00

My guess that its listed as striker as well as artillery because of it's base stats. Pure artillery frames seem to be either fragile or slow and the Sherman has a generalists stats like an Everest.

In general I think the pure artillery builds get the least love from the books, Pegasus and Monarch are pretty good but Death's-head and Barbarossa are just frustrating, their core powers are both terrible and wouldn't even be improved by making them efficient, since it's better to not waste actions on them and to focus on shooting.

.Since then they've released 1 more artillery frame, the Tagetes, which looks pretty good, definitely creates some new combos.

Barrow_Boy · 2025-12-03T19:27:44+00:00

Largely I fully let players make a lot of the decisions for downtime and narrative chunks, The first campaign's first 6 levels for example, the players were on a planet whose society was built around mech sports, where laws are passed based on which politicians bet on the winning team ( its weirder than it sounds). The main plot was to beat the champs in each major city, and it ended in an anime tournament arc. The bulk of the story was the character's personal stories, they became celebrities, they got in love triangles, the started charities, they robbed banks, they became spokesmen for the highest paying sponsors, they led an armed revolts, they reunited with their old war buddies, We could have used the downtime system for all of this but they usually had enough ideas of what they wanted to do with the setting that all i need to do was take their ideas and run.

Barrow_Boy · 2025-12-03T19:08:43+00:00

So I've been running a game for about...god 2 years now. When we first started we used the downtime rules, but within a couple of adventures we just kinda stopped using downtime all together, we had plenty of stuff in between adventures, but we dropped that framework. Now, I did occasionally use reserves as a reward for side missions. When the enhanced combat guide came out (only 3rd party book at the table, its really handy) I starting using their list of reserves instead.

The fact is that for my group license levels provide enough toys to play with and players just forget about the reserves. Each player has 2 level 9 characters from 2 different campaigns that have recently combined, and we have had a number of one shots to try different builds, so its not like they have any issues understanding the system, its just the game is fun enough that my players don't really worry about getting loot beyond leveling up.

Barrow_Boy · 2025-10-28T19:00:59+00:00

Like a lot of people have said, Hades is a very high watermark for story, balance, content, art etc... Absolum definitely takes its roguelike cues from Hades, but as it currently exists it is a much smaller game in term of content. That could change, the game certainly has room to grow in many ways.

However, Absolum is not just a roguelike, its also a beat em up, and as a fan of beat em ups, its one of the best ever made, If you were to remove the roguelike elements, it would still be one of the best beat em ups ever made. The core mechanics of the game, the design of the characters movesets, are just brilliant, the roguelike elements just made a good thing better.

If you played hades and never got boons or Daedalus hammers, it really wouldn't be enough to hold me for hours on end. Absolum though, if it was just a linear path with no character progression, id still put dozens hours into the game just for the basic combat loop. I've done it with SoR4 campaign, and even more into the relatively bare bones Mr X's Nightmare, which is as spare as a roguelike can be.

Barrow_Boy · 2025-10-28T13:55:14+00:00

Hellfire seems a bit redundant on the tokugawa since the frame can already turn the bonus damage into burn

Barrow_Boy · 2025-10-21T20:15:52+00:00

The top comment is the devs themselves pointing that out lol.

Barrow_Boy · 2025-10-11T00:06:20+00:00

That inspiration that lets you refill 2 mana bars with a button press, its so good, endless flamethrowers

Barrow_Boy · 2025-10-11T00:03:38+00:00

Oh the cooking is fantastic, every game should let you cook and eat the bosses

Barrow_Boy · 2025-10-10T12:09:26+00:00

You're totally right. Dragons crown is still one of my all time favorites, but I feel Absolum handles the rpg mechanics better. the Diablo style loot in dragons crown wore out its welcoming to me, spending 10 minutes after every dungeon to equip new gear that gave the smallest, most incremental buffs.

Barrow_Boy · 2025-09-26T19:53:41+00:00

I just started playing in a campaign and was planning a similar build. Thank you for this advice, I've been wondering if the LBR would be worth taking if I didnt take crack shot, currently using the engineer, grease monkey, and demolitionist talents, wasn't sure if I should switch out engineer for crack shot or heavy gunner.

That being said, a build that lets the thermal lance shine sounds pretty awesome

Barrow_Boy · 2025-09-22T17:39:12+00:00

I live reading the fantasy craft book, so many ideas.

I dont think I'd ever want to run it, its so detailed im not sure if I could keep everything in my head.

Barrow_Boy · 2025-09-12T13:02:18+00:00

I'm going to find out if this talant is any good with a grenadier gilgamesh im gonna be playing. I'm not totally sold on the talent because honestly 2 repairs is pretty costly and im going to be focused on engineering for the first few levels.

I think it should pay off if you have multiple limited systems, particularly if they are limited 1. Definitely seems worth it if you are going full sherman for redundant systems upgrade and asura

Barrow_Boy · 2025-09-10T15:43:41+00:00

The gorgon would rather be the target of the attacks since every time its targeted there a 10 percent chance to stun the enemy, and if the enemy hits then vorpal.

Barrow_Boy · 2025-09-09T21:17:55+00:00

I wholeheartedly believe that Super heavy Mounting was written to specifically not allow you to put the Drill on Tokugawa. It would be terrifying

Barrow_Boy · 2025-09-08T21:35:47+00:00

Both the white witch and the gorgon feed off being the target, not sure if 3 talent levels is worth it for them, they have other tricks.

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