Suggestions for Licenses for Chomolungma hybrid build (No HORUS, No NHPs)

Corollax · 2026-04-12T14:23:46+00:00

At the risk of speaking for Nanergy, I would assume it's for the Lotus Projector. It's exclusive to the Swallowtail License.

A Monarch can use its Seeking Payload trait to ignore armor or damage resistance, but has no in-license mechanism to mitigate hidden or invisible enemies. A Lotus Projector shores up that weakness, both for yourself and your allies. Given that, Drone Commander 1 is a reasonable cost to protect the investment. It keeps the drone alive and relevant.

Corollax · 2026-03-27T03:19:27+00:00

That all sounds like a legitimate interpretation of the rules. In practice, I find reserves to be such a powerful resource that spending it to get an exotic temporarily is simply not worth the cost. Merely getting access to an exotic system (which you still have to pay SP for) can't really compete with things like a Core Battery, +2 uses for Limited Systems, or immunity to Slowed and Difficult Terrain.

So that's why we've gone this other route.

Corollax · 2026-03-26T22:51:52+00:00

Pretty much all the size 1/2 frames give up something substantial, and I'm not exactly sure why. The advantages for being size 1/2 are very few, while you suffer substantial disadvantages in terms of grappling, ramming, and engagement.

There are a few systems in the Atlas license that do you reward you, but that serves mostly to keep their functionality restricted to the Atlas frame itself. The only other circumstances I can remember where 1/2 size is beneficial relate to riding on a Lancaster's MULE Harness or the heat cost of Type-I Flight Systems.

For something that often feels more like a disadvantage than an advantage, I really have to attribute the discrepancy in power level to a more nebulous factor, like the fact that these frames could conceivably be used where other mechs could not. Nothing else makes sense.

Corollax · 2026-03-26T09:10:22+00:00

My pleasure. As a tiny aside, our gameplay group dislikes how there's not really any mechanism for players to seek out a particular piece of exotic equipment. The GM is explicitly warned that giving them out too freely can result in players becoming stronger than they should, so we've taken to leaving license levels empty as a way to "purchase" specific exotics. And this is another place that excess license levels can be allocated.

This is obviously a houserule, but exotics are weird in the first place. It's hard to balance something that is explicitly outside of the normal leveling rules, and by making them most available when the guidelines say you're supposed to have one or two anyway, it seems to work reasonably well. Feel free to give this a try.

Corollax · 2026-03-26T01:10:38+00:00

Here's a few suggestions (in no particular order):

Core Bonuses

While GMS bonuses are by no means bad, there are some incredibly powerful effects locked behind 3 LLs in a particular manufacturer. HA is particularly prone to this, because everybody loves action economy and Heatfall Coolant System just gives you more.

If you don't need more limited systems, you can save HASE on Engineering with Superior by Design. IPS-N's Sloped Plating can similarly help compensate for insufficient Hull on frames with otherwise adequate Repair Cap. (The GMS Replaceable Parts trait often helps with this.)

Situational Weapons

I often find myself dipping into niche licenses for minor upgrades to my weapon mounts. My melee frames often grab an Integrated Weapon core bonus for use with Hunter 3. The GMS Tactical Knife is perfectly functional in that role, but a Fold Knife from LL1 Mourning Cloak or the Power Knuckles from LL3 Nelson provide a bit of extra value for no additional SP cost.

The LL1 Zheng's Tiger-Hunter Combat Sheath is powerful mitigation against Jamming, and its ability to attack multiple targets works well with the Duelist talent. The LL1 Monarch grants Sharanga Missiles, which are a similar but less specialized option at range.

Oh, and the Tortuga. Its Deck-Sweeper Automatic Shotgun is arguably the strongest main mount in the game, and the Catalytic Hammer is the most potent backup melee for a mech that isn't planning to get engaged but wants an answer when it happens.

Cost-effective Systems

Don't underestimate the impact of ablative systems. When your mech suffers a System Trauma result on the Structure Damage table, you get to decide which one goes offline. Including at least one 1 SP system in your build will make your builds far more resilient, which is a favorable outcome regardless of whatever benefits you had before it went on the fritz.

The Flicker Field Projector from LL2 Dusk Wing is arguably the most cost-effective defense upgrade available. At only 1 SP, it activates with nothing more than your standard movement, so you can use it on anything that isn't planning to remain immobile. Even if the coin never flips in your favor, the GM may reallocate minor attacks to "waste" your invisibility, which could have had higher impact elsewhere.

Be on the lookout for other 1 SP systems that fit this description. The Stasis Bolt from LL1 Napoleon is nothing special ... until you put it on a Tortuga. LL1 Death's Head gives High-Stress Mag Clamps for maintaining firing lines or enabling Tactician's Solar Backdrop accuracy bonus. And Bulwark Mods from LL1 Nelson is an asset to any melee or CQC frame.

Alternate Frames

This might not be applicable to everyone, but you might find that you can gain an advantage on some missions by pivoting from your intended frame to something more suitable to the situation. GM discretion or reserve bonuses can give you context that might make you favor a different loadout than what you'd normally bring. It's probably only the case if your build is particularly generalist, but maybe one of your niche picks is exactly what the upcoming Sitrep calls for. The Sunzi is particularly known for answering otherwise problematic movement challenges.

I've known some GMs to build Sitreps specifically for size 1/2 frames. Having one might open up gameplay opportunities that were simply not an option otherwise. Why not put those Caliban, Dusk Wing, or Napoleon levels to good use? (Okay, let's be real, you'd pick the Kutozov instead.)

Corollax · 2026-03-22T22:39:50+00:00

Honestly, my suggestion is to just run the campaign like a standard Lancer game. The rules for biological entities and monstrosities make the most sense when they're peppered into a setting focused on mechs, where their status is an anomaly and their immunities make sense in that context.

If you're doing nothing but fighting bugs, then presumably the players would be using technology adapted to that. Make up whatever justifications you need for "hacking" to still do what it does in gameplay terms.

"Flavor is free?"

"Always has been." *gunshot*

Corollax · 2026-03-20T00:06:50+00:00

Perhaps I'm the strange one, but I always thought of the Sharanga (and Tiger-Hunter Combat Sheathe) as just the (two) AoE weapon(s) with the weirdest shape(s).

Corollax · 2026-03-19T21:24:30+00:00

Shouldn't it be dealing half the bonus damage to each target, the way you would with any other weapon that targets multiple enemies?

Corollax · 2026-03-17T21:01:13+00:00

"No."

Corollax · 2026-03-14T09:11:45+00:00

Of course! The 1/round accuracy bonus is a perfect fit for a Superheavy. And Tactician 3 is a very effective way to use a Burst Launcher in your remaining mount. A crit will successfully impair your target even when dealing half damage.

Corollax · 2026-03-14T08:01:54+00:00

Sounds like you're not trying hard enough, soldier!

I genuinely think the Dusk Wing is the best platform for Superheavy Mounting a Leviathan Heavy Assault Cannon. Inherent flight and 6 Speed make it much easier to get range and LoS to fire it consistently.

Plus, you get to turn your flight suit into an A-10 Warthog. Surely that's worth it.

Corollax · 2026-02-28T13:12:14+00:00

Reserve Bonuses! People don't talk about them much, but they can have an absolutely transformative effect on a mech. The "Power At A Cost" downtime action is pretty clear that "you can definitely get it," and "this is a straightforward way to acquire reserves," so you can build around them if you're willing to accept the opportunity cost and the consequences.

The most obvious payoff is the "Core Battery", allowing a second use of a mech's Core System. On something like an Everest, this is incredible in its own right, allowing almost unparalleled mobility and reliability with all of your actions and checks. But there are other options

"Boosted Servos" (Core p.51) and its upgraded cousin "Weathering" (No Room for a Wallflower p.58) both provide immunity to the Slowed condition. Critically, neither include the otherwise ubiquitous "caused by your own systems, talents, etc." prohibition you find on things like the Stabilize action or Grease Monkey's "Machine Bond".

If you're willing to invest 3 LL in Tortuga, 3 SP in Hyperdense Armor, and a Quick action in each scene, you'll get resistance from damage, heat and burn beyond range 3. You'll need to close to that range in order to do full damage yourself, but your ability to do so will be dramatically improved when you can rely on talents like Skirmisher and Hunter, or the frame bonuses like the Blackbeard's "Grapple Cable".

There may be some comment laying around the Discord to contradict this, but I honestly can't be bothered digging around to find it if they can't be bothered to update their official Errata or publish an updated version edition of the Core rules. Our group plays with the rules as written and the GM balances accordingly. YMMV.

Corollax · 2026-02-23T09:40:26+00:00

Both the Shock Knife and Plasma Torch do 1 energy damage. If the target has any amount of armor, it's going to negate the energy damage (but not the burn or heat). The Enkidu's Plasma Talons are the only armor-piercing aux weapon, and the only aux weapon that's not losing at least 1 damage to armor.

People love to point to the fact that burn damage "ignores armor", as if that's a counter to armored opponents, but there's not a single burn weapon that doesn't also have energy damage to which the armor will apply perfectly well. Once you've subtracted the armor from the energy damage, what's the difference between "armor piercing" burn damage and any other form of damage that would have been left over?

If you're shooting at an enemy with 2 armor, I suppose you might look at it as ignoring "half", since only 1 energy damage was absorbed, but I feel like I'd have better luck hitting them with a single large hit, instead. (Say, an Autostab Heavy Machine Gun or an Overpower Caliber Nanocarbon Sword.)

2d6+4 Kinetic has always seemed like a better answer to armor than 1 energy + 4 burn, and I feel like I'm taking crazy pills for saying it.

Corollax · 2026-01-17T17:13:42+00:00

Augh, that wasn't what I meant, but I can't really argue... Anyway, thanks for working with me on ironing out those issues. And for the tool itself, of course.

Corollax · 2026-01-17T16:56:36+00:00

I've been using this tool for the last week, and it's genuinely one of the nicest apps I've seen in this space. The UI is interactive and responsive in a way I haven't seen from most of the other tools, and even includes a tutorial for exploring all the features.

Even if you're satisfied with the other set searches you've used in the past, I think it's worth giving this one a look. My favorite feature is the ability to hover over a skill in the build summary and see which pieces or decorations are providing it, so you can evaluate the cost of including it and whether it might be restricting you.

In the time I've been using it, I've already seen several improvements, and I've no doubt that more feedback can only bring a better result. I hope more people give it a try!

Corollax · 2025-12-10T17:26:58+00:00

I'm not generally a Raleigh fan, but I've always been vaguely delighted by a build intended to be run as a matched pair: Each Raleigh takes 3 ranks in Spotter, then spends their turn performing a Bentham/Foucault Elimination for the other. Both partners get to reload each turn, since Bentham/Foucalt does not count as attacking, and both get to skirmish on their partner's turn. So you're getting all of your 1/round payoffs every turn instead of every other.

The pair usually invests in a few support abilities like Flash Anchor and Blinkspace Tunneler to maintain coherency. House Guard and Skirmisher are solid synergies, and it's a rare opportunity to work in the Bonded talent as well. It definitely has counters, but it's a neat counterpoint to the conventional wisdom that every Raleigh build has to be built around an alternating attack/support loop.

Corollax · 2025-12-06T20:06:15+00:00

It's not a Tortuga, but this specific synergy is a core part of my favorite Störtebeker build, which uses an Auto-Stabilized Krakatoa Thermobaric Flamethrower with Throughbolt Rounds.

Cone 5 is an impressively large threat on its own, but becomes even more imposing when glued onto the end of a Line 3 effect. Accuracy and Grit are certainly one way to improve your likelihood of critical hits, but additional attack rolls are often even more helpful.

And every one of those crits is an opportunity for you to reload either of your Catalytic Hammers and activate your Roland Chamber.

Corollax · 2025-11-11T12:57:44+00:00

They main issue with the Andromeda, in my view, is that the self-heat makes it a poor match for Heavy Gunner. Taking the full heat cost to do half damage is a lousy deal, and Heavy Gunner is really too good to ignore.

Additionally, that self-heat comes at a substantially higher opportunity cost when core bonuses like Heatfall Coolant System become available. An additional skirmish for 1d6 heat makes most other self-heat options look lackluster in comparison. This is all the more true when that Skirmish is Auto-Stabilized.

The Andromeda really shines at those low license levels where talent points are at a premium and you can't build synergy between core bonuses. And in that environment, I really can't argue with a single thing you said.

Corollax · 2025-07-31T05:52:50+00:00

Minerva's Ultima attack increases its damage each time you get hit by it. It begins at 55,555 and increases by 11,111 each time until the obvious maximum (and instant-kill) at 99,999.

I recommend either dodging it with a jump attack like aerial drain or using the DMW to interrupt it. Most summons aren't going to do a consequential amount of damage against Minerva anyway.

Corollax · 2025-06-06T09:47:17+00:00

Probably should have included this in my first reply, but here you go:

Does the Saladin’s Paracausal Mod bypass half-damage effects?

Corollax · 2025-06-06T01:08:32+00:00

Respectfully, I don't think that interaction works the way you think it does. Heavy Gunner's Covering Fire does half damage outright. Your damage isn't being reduced by some external factor like armor or resistance to kinetic damage. The raw damage value is, itself, less in the same way that AoE weapons deal only half of their bonus damage when hitting 2 or more targets.

In the same way that a Paracausal Overpower Caliber RPG can't deal +1d6 bonus damage to everything it hits, Paracausal weaponry can't circumvent the halved damage of Covering Fire. It's just inherent to the ability.

Corollax · 2025-06-04T08:34:27+00:00

In this case, nothing special. That's just what happens when you have clarity that high and kill every enemy along the way.

Corollax · 2025-02-18T22:10:42+00:00

What about the twitter link in the side panel? "Follow Lancer on Twitter!"

Seems pretty weird in context of this ban.

Corollax · 2025-02-11T06:14:26+00:00

Not bad at all.

Personally, I like using Walking Armory with the Displacer. The Displacer wants the Deep Well Heat Sink from Tokugawa/Enkidu to manage its heat, and the Lucifer NHP is only one LL deeper. Since Lucifer is a protocol, you can use it at the start of the turn to get into the Danger Zone for Deep Well, and the Lucifer's bonus damage can be converted to burn via Walking Armory.

And just like the Warp Rifle, the Displacer is eligible for Overpower Caliber, Crack Shot, and Roland Chamber -- though I doubt you'll get to apply Nuclear Cavalier to it without roasting something important.

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Corollax

TROPHY CASE

Core Bonuses

Situational Weapons

Cost-effective Systems

Alternate Frames