EARTH DEFENSE FORCE 5: Classes and Weapons Overview

There are four main classes in the game: Ranger, Wing Diver, Air Raider, and Fencer. Early game, there are also ‘civilian’ versions of these classes, but this is not important. Functionally, the civilian classes are identical to their military counterparts aside from looks.

The Ranger is the core of any infantry unit and can serve reasonably well in just about any mission with the right weapons. The easiest and most straightforward class to play out of all, ideal for new players. Majority of your time will be spent running and shooting things.

Ranger’s host of abilities from EDF 4.1 returns in the sequel with some minor adjustments:
Dodge – Pressing the jump key while strafing left or right results in a roll in the pressed direction. This roll is quick and can be used to evade attacks (but is more often then not, used to travel since it is somewhat faster than walking).
Bodies of Steel – While dodging, Rangers will destroy light obstacles and scenery in the path of the dodge. This can be used to bowl through fences and other such obstructions if needed. Certain perks can be used to activate this ability while sprinting.
Sprint – Holding shift and moving forward initiates a sprint. While sprinting, your field of view is narrowed and your item collection radius is increased (represented by a grey circle). In addition, firing and switching weapons is disabled while sprinting (however they can still be reloaded). Sprinting can be used to travel on foot quickly and collect items, but it has a rather lengthy windup and cooldown when initiated and released, respectively, making it rather clumsy to use during combat. Certain perks can increase sprinting speed and reduce windup and cooldown.
Lightweight Armor – Of all infantry classes, the Ranger recovers the fastest unaided when knocked off balance. Other classes recover slower or require special moves to recover from a knockdown quickly.

The Ranger’s strong suit is in his versatility; his large variety of weapons helps solidify any of his roles as sniper, assaulter, or close range combatant. New to EDF 5 is his access to a support equipment slot. This slot either holds basic vehicles, such as bikes, tanks, and even helicopters, making these no longer exclusive to Air Raider. Besides vehicles, it can also hold a piece of equipment, which essentially functions as a perk. These perks can increase your movement speed, reduce slowdown when hit, increase your item collection radius, or increase the amount allies heal when picking up healing items, among many other things.

Ranger’s weakness is his lack of effectiveness in particular scenarios that the other classes can excel in. While he can be applied to almost any situation, certain situations can be much better handled by an appropriately equipped Air Raider, Wing Diver, or Fencer. Be sure to either coordinate with team members or recognize a mission that can be better handled by another class.

Wing Divers return with much improved energy management and flight mechanics. Wing Divers specialize in hit-and-run tactics, boating extremely high damage output but risky gameplay, usually requiring extreme proximity to the enemy in order to deliver damage.

They also require close management of a Plasma Unit, which powers their flight ability as well as weapons. If the unit is overdrawn for energy, it is disabled and enters emergency charge mode. During emergency charge mode, no power can be used from the pack until it is fully charged, disabling flight and using uncharged weapons, leaving you mostly defenseless. On the upside, emergency charging is typically performed faster than normal charging.

Wing Suit – Your wing suit allows you to sustain flight by holding Space. Flying drains the suit’s energy, which is always automatically recharging. In addition, your weapons also draw from the same reserve of power for your wing suit, requiring careful management.
Plasma Core – The plasma core powers your wing suit, providing energy for weapons and flight. If the plasma core is overdrawn (power gauge reaches 0), it enters an emergency cooldown mode, which temporarily disables it from outputting any power at all until the suit is fully charged.
Air Dodge – Pressing Right Mouse and a directional key preforms a dodge in that direction. Dodges are faster and more effective while flying, but can still be preformed while grounded. Dodging requires energy from your plasma core and cannot be preformed if the core is in emergency charge mode.
Air Recovery – Pressing Space while knocked off balance and airborne will quickly right the Wing Diver and instantly recover from being knocked down. This action consumes energy and cannot be preformed if enough energy is not available.

Wing Divers have the best mobility out of all the classes – but only when flying. When grounded, Wing Divers are agonizingly slow and easily taken out by the enemy. In addition, Wing Divers also have the smallest amount of armor of any of the classes, making them much more susceptible to attack. Furthermore, management of your power supply unit is of upmost priority while fighting. If the supply unit is overdrawn, you’ll drop out of the sky and be left usually without any option to defend yourself. Many of the stronger weapons available to Wing Divers draw obscene amounts of energy, requiring careful consideration of where and when they should be applied.

When used correctly, the strong suit of Wing Divers is the ability to deal obscene damage to the enemy, all the while staying out of reach of their attacks.

Besides the usual loadout of two energy weapons, new in EDF 5 is the ability to upgrade and change the power supply for your wing suit. Better and more specialized power units can be found, which can increase your energy reserves, charge rate, and even provide bonuses to weapon loading and flight speeds. Some specialize in flight while others specialize in fighting or reducing the time it takes for an emergency cooldown to occur.

Air Raider returns with even more fire support and vastly improved fire support mechanics. He specializes in coordinating and delivering devastating damage from off-map using a variety of artillery units, gun ships, bombing runs, missile batteries, satellite blasts, vehicles, and remote grenade launchers, to name a few.

Call for Support – The Air Raider is the only class that can communicate with off-map support entities to deliver fire support. He can also call for vehicles like the Ranger, however Air Raider has many more combat-oriented and support vehicles.
Dodge – Like the Ranger, pressing space while strafing left or right preforms a roll in that direction. The Air Raider’s roll is slightly slower and does not destroy obstacles, but is still a great tool to evade attacks.

Air Raider’s strong suit lies in his ability to decimate any type of enemy with the correct application of fire support. From wide-area attacks with large splash damage to very narrow attacks focused at one point, there is always some kind of fire support that can fit the situation at hand. Properly timed support can easily wipe whole waves or delete tough enemies from the map. His vehicles can also serve many support roles, or direct combat, depending on the need.

Air Raider falters in that he has very few options for direct combat and often is unable to defend himself if directly threatened by the enemy. Majority of his support requests take at least a few seconds to actually see results, and a large number of them affect a much wider area than you would be comfortable using at point blank, for your own safety. Even his direct-combat weapons like Limpet Guns are still lackluster for more than a few stray bugs, and he could still easily be overwhelmed. His vehicles are also much larger targets than infantry and can soak up a lot of damage quickly, leading to quick destruction. Many of his supports must be timed correctly or risk missing the target entirely, and majority of supports also require your team to kill enemies in order to request them again, which could deadlock you if you are unable to kill anything.

Furthermore, Air Raider’s ability to fight is severely reduced in underground missions, where he cannot call any fire support and very few vehicles.

Proper balance between direct combat weapons and fire support should be considered. If your team can cover you and you can exist soley as a support class, then you should have no problems taking strictly fire support. Otherwise you should consider taking automated turrets or a limpet gun for self protection.

Fencer returns and is still a hulking beast carrying four arm mounted weapons. Unfortunately, many returning players will be upset to find out that dash-cancelling has been removed from the game, regaling the Fencer back to being extremely slow unless equipped correctly. This does however free you up your other set of arms so you don’t have to always carry a melee weapon and shield to get around.

Powered Exoskeleton – A hulking suit of armor that gives you the mass of a small car. It allows you to carry two sets of two weapons, one weapon for each hand. Controls are different, you can fire the left weapon with the left mouse button, and vice versa for the right. Many weapons can be used at the same time. All weapons are also equipped with a secondary function, accessed with Shift for the left arm and Space for the right. This is usually some form of jump or dash booster, but can also be a scope for long range attacks. In addition, the weight of the suit will allow you to crush scenery objects like fences and guard rails just by walking into them. A normal jump can be achieved by using the middle mouse button.
Secondary Function – Dash – Most melee weapons are equipped with a dash thruster. While pressing the equipment’s secondary function key and a direction key, you can quickly dash in the direction pressed. This can be used to get out of the way of an enemy attack, or simply to travel.
Secondary Function – Jump Booster – Most automatic artillery weapons are equipped with a jump booster. Pressing the equipment’s secondary function key and a direction key will preform a boost assisted jump in that direction. This can be useful to create space between you and the enemy or scale difficult obstacles. If pressing the equipment secondary function key without a direction, you will preform a much higher vertical jump.
Secondary Function – Scope – Most artillery weapons have a scope equipped, which can be toggled with the equipment’s secondary function key.
Secondary Function – Reflection Shield – All shields are equipped with a reflector which can be activated with the shield’s secondary function key. This reflector will create a force field that reflects enemy attacks in the direction you are facing. The reflector has a rather narrow range, so timing is essential. This also saps durability from the shield (covered later), which can be reloaded.
Fencer’s Riposte – When knocked off balance and having a weapon with an active jump or dash booster, pressing the equipment’s secondary function key just before hitting the ground will boost you a short distance away and instantly recover from the knockdown. Timing is essential for this move to work, and you must have a weapon active that has a jump or dash booster as its secondary function.

This is a rather large number of abilities to consider, and Fencers do require a bit of finesse to play effectively.

A Fencer’s strong point is his great destructive potential and versatility with his two pairs of weapons. Many of his weapons can be asynchronously fired to keep a constant stream of lead downrange, even when one weapon is reloading. This can keep enemies at bay, while other weapons would allow them through due to gaps in reloading. Furthermore his missile systems can deal obscene amounts of damage, especially when paired with an Air Raider’s laser guidance kit.
Furthermore, his shields and associated upgrades can help him soak a supreme amount of damage without going down, all the while attacking with the weapon in his other hand. Also, Fencers have the highest health pool and benefit the most from collected armor drops.

Fencer falters in his speed. This can be mitigated by equipping him with appropriate upgrades, however a lot of his heavier weapons can leave him defenseless or are not equipped with a thruster. This makes them risky to use under fire or in close proximity to the enemy. Fencer has a terrible move speed on foot without using boosters, and his walking speed even takes some time to ramp up instead of starting at full speed.

Besides his usual host of two pairs of weapons, Fencer can uniquely equip two of the same weapon, unlike the other classes. Furthermore, he has two slots for exosuit upgrades, which are always active, regardless of which pair of weapons are active. Unfortunately, these upgrades do not stack if they provide the same kind of buff (two recoil dampeners will not both provide bonuses, only the best one will). These upgrades are still immensely useful and can increase the number of consecutive jumps or dashes, reduce recoil, or improve shield characteristics.

The Ranger can equip two primary weapons and one piece of equipment or vehicle.

The core of any Ranger. There is not much to say here except that majority of these are bullet hoses. They have very high magazine capacities, can reach out to mid range, have acceptable accuracy, and deal good damage with sustained fire. They’re all around an okay choice. Many of the weapons specialize in a certain aspect, such as rate of fire (Raven series), splash damage (Minion Burster series), penetrative power (G&M series), or damage (Slugger series).

Much improved over the first game. Almost all shotguns have very short effective ranges, but benefit from having penetrative power. This means the bullets can pass through one enemy and deal damage to enemies behind the target. The damage does not appear to be penalized on penetration, only the normal damage reduction for distance traveled is applied. This makes them supremely effective and splatting close doomstacks of bugs at close range.

Some shotguns specialize in rate of fire or fully automatic firing modes, but majority of them function the same: pull trigger, dispense shell, have a somewhat lengthy reload. Still, they are very effective for any mission where the enemy can be brought within close range. They loose a lot of stopping power against most flying/far away targets, like teleportation ships and larger teleportation anchors.

Long range, accurate, high damage, but abysmal fire rates and sometimes reload speeds. These are great for picking things off at a distance, as expected, but don’t expect to hold your own when charged by the enemy with it. The best application for these rifles are removing drones, far away targets outside their range, and other flying enemies, such as teleporter ships.

Specialized rifles can boast higher rates of fire, burst fire, or penetrative ability (Fang series).

Typically unguided launchers that shoot explosive warheads. Great for doing damage to clusters of targets, but not so great at point blank range or near things you hold near and dear. Also, they are not great against moving flying targets due to relatively long travel times. Most of these weapons can actually pop ground enemies in the air, temporarily stunning them until they land.

Specialized versions can have high rates of fire (Cascade series), high damage and blast radius (Goliath series), laser guidance (Leopard series), multi-shot ability (Volcano series), or high speed warheads, suitable for hitting flying targets (Hornet series).

Guided launchers that must first be locked onto a target before firing. The obvious advantage over rockets is self-guidance, usually ensuring a higher probability of a hit on fast moving targets. This usually comes at the cost of reduced damage and blast radius, and the need to for an enemy to be in effective lock-on range before engagement. This range can be extended with certain perks and an Air Raider’s beacons or laser guide kit.

Guided weapons can also further be hampered by the missile’s tracking ability. Some missiles require a longer time after launch to start tracking, and still others have poor turning radius which limits their ability to hit fast moving or close range targets.

Specialized versions exist for high damage (Tortise series), high target count (MLRA series), high missile count on a single target (FORK series), and top-down attack.

Hand grenades and grenade launchers for more indirect application of explosives. These can be useful to lob explosives around corners and over buildings, where a rocket launcher may not be as suitable. There is no limited supply of grenades, so toss with reckless abandon. The downside of these is they are usually harder to place than a missile launcher at longer ranges, and time-detonated ones (especially with longer timers) can leave when the grenade explodes up to guesswork.

Variations of hand grenades include timed-detonation (MG-J series), impact detonation (MG series), and long range versions (DNG series). For grenade launchers, there are variations for napalm, impact, timed, and cluster grenades.

Everything else that failed to fall in the prior categories. Acid guns (a literal can of bug spray is the first one you get), reversers for healing yourself and others, mines, bound guns, flamethrowers, and cluster grenades affectionately known as “firecrackers”.

Support equipment items are essentially the aforementioned “perks”. They improve the characteristics of your soldier or weapons passively. Many of the later items are straight upgrades to existing equipment, or combine the benefits of one or more equipment pieces.

Equipment can improve your movement speed, sprint behavior, collection radius, knockdown resistance, lock-on characteristics for guided weapons (lock-on speed, range, and the ability to target a single enemy with multiple locks), and even can increase the healing you apply to recruited allies when collecting healing items.

Alternatively, the Ranger can equip one vehicle instead of a piece of equipment. Vehicles first must be earned by collecting enough credits to request them. On the start of any mission, all vehicles have half the credits required to request them. Additional credits are earned any time you or any of your allies defeat an enemy. More credits are rewarded for stronger enemies.

Air support is generally unavailable in underground missions, and this includes the dispatch of most vehicles. Certain vehicles such as Depth Crawlers and Bikes can be requested underground. Check to ensure your vehicle of choice can be taken to underground missions by searching its description in the armory for “Able to request underground.”
Vehicle request is almost instant underground, but otherwise it takes approximately 20-30 seconds for Carrier Noble to arrive and detach the vehicle. Be sure your vehicle is requested in a safe location, and be sure that it is away from buildings or other terrain that might make it inaccessable.

Tanks are fairly solid all around, and railgun tanks specialize in high damage and penetration against targets at range. Helicopters can provide decent fire support while remaining safe from some enemy types, but are easily overwhelmed by enemy air power or focused ground attack. Bikes can provide fast transportation and can collect items quickly, but generally suffer from poor traction and combat ability.

Wing Divers can equip two weapons and a wing suit power supply.

Wing Diver weapons are unique in that generally, they draw power from the Wing Diver’s power unit, which has a limited but always-recharging capacity. Overloading the power unit forces it into emergency cooldown mode, which disables any power from being output from the device. This disables not only flight, but also most weapon systems since they must draw from the suit to work.

A few weapons are unique in that they have an internal energy tank specific to the weapon. These weapons have their own internal capacitor that is depleted before attempting to deplete the Wing Diver’s power unit. These weapons can be great to attack the enemy while flying, since firing the weapon will not reduce your flight time. These weapons can be reloaded whenever required by using “R”, which will then deplete power from your unit. Be aware that generally, the power in the capacitor at the time of reload is discarded.

Most other weapons must be charged prior to firing by holding the attack key. This draws power from the suit while the weapon charges. Once charged, the weapon can be held as such for as long as you want, until you switch weapons or fire. A lot of weapons can easily deplete your suit while charging even when full, so ensure you are mindful of the energy cost for the weapon to charge. Undercharging weapons and firing usually cuts damage, accuracy, and range quite a bit.

These weapons are typically used at short to point-blank range, but also typically deliver the most on-demand damage in the game. Usually, they have poor accuracy which almost necessitates it being used at point blank.

Rapiers and their derivatives fire a large number of plasma blades very quickly, and in a usually wide pattern. Each blade individually does small damage, but these weapons fire at 60 arcs per second or more, and have capacities usually in the hundreds. The Power Lances are much more precise instruments – they are charged and deliver high power bolts a short range (usually about 70 meters maximum, but damage falls sharply), dealing intense damage to single targets.

These weapons are typically mid range lasers and plasma blasters. They fire beams of energy an okay distance, but damage still falls off at range limiting their usefulness. Generally they also have an internal energy tank making them a good option when on emergency recharge.

Mostly lighting crossbows and bows. These mostly fire shotgun blasts of lightning (which is pretty heckin’ metal), damaging everything in the vicinity. The bolts also typically are capable of leaping between nearby targets, causing additional damage.

Pulse Machine Guns and derivatives. They charge up and spit out a constant stream of small, explosive plasma projectiles. While individually the plasma balls do little damage, they are still capable of putting out damage at range due to the explosion, and rate of fire can be quite impressive, as well as time the weapon can be fired when fully charged. Just be aware they usually have sizable energy cost to fully charge.

Energy sniper weapons, mostly. They usually have sizable energy cost but can safely nuke most small targets at a range. Specialized long range weapons can take several standard tanks from your aerial unit to fill but deal immense damage at long range.

These are mostly the Wing Diver equivalent to the Ranger’s rocket launchers. They fire explosive balls of plasma (usually more than one in a spread) for sizable damage and at a moderate energy cost. They can be used to great effect to bomb clusters of priority targets from the air.

Lock-on weapons exclusive to the Wing Diver. These weapons are capable of locking on to enemies just like a guided missile launcher, and employ the same mechanics as such. They are also affected by laser kits and guide beacons, just like standard missiles. While usually less effective than a direct fire weapon, they can still be used to great effect to hit fast moving targets, or hit multiple targets from a distance.

These are mostly grenades or similar bombs that can be deployed with a long cooldown. Most of them fire numerous bolts of energy at random in the area, destroying almost anything in the vicinity. They also have a long charge time (usually around 60 seconds), but only a modest energy cost. This means they are usually leeching energy for a while between uses from the suit, but it is usually low enough as to not be readily noticeable.

Probably the best part of EDF 5’s changes to Wing Divers. This allows you to specialize your power unit to the mission and weapons equipped. Large cores usually provide a huge storage of energy (700+) and good charge speed, but have greatly reduced flying ability, and increased energy costs for flight. Some cores can provide bonuses to weapon charging speeds or flight abilities, while others are tailored to emergency charging speed. Make sure you find the correct core for the job.

He is essentially the kid who burned ants with a magnifying glass as a hobby as a kid. He can equip any combination of three weapons, utilities, and fire supports, and one vehicle.

A good number of fire support requests and all vehicles require credits until they can be re-requested (all fire supports initially start fully charged and ready to use, but most vehicles start at half charge). Credits are earned whenever you or any of your allies defeat an enemy, with more credits generally being awarded for more difficult enemies.
Most other fire supports or weapons will reload automatically, and typically do not require you to have the weapon in your hand to continue reloading, unlike most other infantry weapons.

Unless otherwise noted, most fire support requests come into the playing area at a random angle. This can potentially negate a request if the angle is poor and it ends up hitting the side of a building instead of your target. Be mindful.

The artillery unit delivers munitions to your ground level, typically from their own ground level and several miles off-site. All artillery unit requests are done via smoke grenade, which must be thrown into the target area. This makes them rather difficult to accurately request at a long range, however the radius they affect is typically so large that placement becomes secondary.

Artillery also suffers from taking several seconds to arrive on-target and splash. This makes placement of them tricky, but they are no doubt powerful attacks, typically sporting huge attack and blast radii. Certain specializations of artillery fire kinetic shells instead of high-explosives, which do not detonate but will absolutely splatter almost anything the round hits.

You will find gunship requests are you bread and butter for most missions. Gunship requests do not cost credits to re-request, and additionally the loading is done automatically, allowing you to use other weapons while it cools down. Furthermore, many requests have very short reload times (such as the Minigun and Autocannon requests), allowing you to almost participate in direct combat with them.

All gunship requests are preformed with a beacon launcher. This beacon launcher has a limited range, and will self-destruct if the beacon exceeds the range stated in the armory. The beacon does, however, stick to whatever object it hits, including the enemy, and including the enemy after it becomes a corpse. Many requests can send bug corpses flying before it is over, moving the beacon into fresh targets. This could sometimes be undesirable, so you might just want to shoot the ground with the beacon.

In particular, the Minigun and Autocannon deal a staggering amount of damage if all rounds connect, allowing them to be used to great effect to smack alien infantry and evaporate them with a few requests.

Bomb requests are massively improved over EDF 4.1. All bomber requests are done via handheld radio. Holding the attack key zooms your view out to a tactical standpoint of the battle. Using the movement keys allows you to change the starting point of the attack run, while using the mouse allows you to modify the angle. The range of the request has no limit, so you can bomb any portion of the map you like (though it helps if you can see it).

Bombers and strafing runs are available. Bombers obviously have the benefit of huge splash damage radius, while strafing runs can benefit in raw damage against larger targets. Specialized bombers could be high-speed, with a low request cost and very fast arrival time after being requested. Bomber Kamuy can drop napalm bombs which linger and burn in an area for a very long time, making an effective area denial.

Each bomber can typically take a few seconds to arrive into the combat area, so make you requests with the enemy’s movement in mind.

Missile requests are always preformed using a laser pointer. The pointer must be maintained on a target for a set amount of time (different for each missile group) until the request is actually filled. Once filled, it takes a few seconds for the missiles to arrive in the combat area, and a few seconds more for the missiles to begin tracking your laser.

Contrary to in-game dialogue, you do not have to maintain the laser point until the missiles hit. The missiles will try to track the last location you pointed at, but they will not make course corrections unless your laser is pointing at something. Once you are satisfied with the flight path, you can disengage the laser.

The number of red squares under your crosshair indicates the number of active missiles following your beacon. Use it to determine if the missiles have made it into the combat area or detonated. Some missiles require credits to re-request, while others can reload automatically. Check carefully in the armory.

Unleash your inner bird of peace by smiting your foes with the power of the Ark Bird. A variety of lasers from orbit can be used to burn bugs to a paste (pretty much like an interplanetary level magnifying glass). All requests for satellites are preformed with a laser pointer, which must be maintained for a certain time until the request is sent through. Some fire continuous pulses at the target area once requested, while others will fire a single beam which can be moved by targeting a new location with the laser pointer. Variations also exist which fire a single powerful pulse at the point you designate.

This is about as close to direct combat the Air Raider can be, and even then they are underwhelming. They are grenade launchers which fire remote-detonated bomblets. These bomblets can be detonated on-demand by using your zoom/alternate activation key. Many variations exist, like snipers, shotguns, chainguns, and good old fashioned normal limpet guns.

Mostly sentry turrets, which can keep the area around you relatively monster free while you do more important things. Also, enemy-seeking bombs.

Entirely composed of the following:
Laser Guide Kits – Creates a laser wherever you point, which your allies can lock onto with any guided weapon. The laser itself can be locked into at an increased distance and decreases your allies’ lock-on time. Certain Fencer weapons like the Leviathan can only be used in conjunction with some form of laser guidance.
Guide Beacons – Same as the laser guide kits, but these fire a beacon. Once the beacon contacts the enemy, you no longer need to maintain it. The beacon remains attached until either the enemy dies or you reload the beacon gun, allowing you to do other things while your allies demolish whatever the beacon is attached to.
Buff Posts/Guns – The posts are set onto the ground or on a vehicle and provide a buff to all allies within range of it. These buffs can reduce the damage you take, increase the damage you deal, heal you, or provide a Wing Diver with more energy to their suit. The guns are similar, but they fire a beacon with a much smaller radius that can be attached to infantry. Be aware that healing equipment cannot be reloaded and has a finite number of uses per mission.

Bunkers that stop enemy attacks but allow yours through, and decoys which attract enemy attention to lure them into air raids. Also, rudimentary shotguns with extremely short range, which can help save you in an urban pinch.

So much stuff for Air Raider that he needed two sections.

Most of these can be guessed at.
Tanks – Armored, slow, but decent weaponry. Variations for explosive cannons, penetrating cannons, shotgun-acid cannons, really really big cannons (Requiem Cannon), and railgun cannons for penetration of the enemy at incredible hihg speed.

Ground Vehicles – The Armored Vehicle Grape series, an APC primarily for transport of other players (but it is also quite fast and has decent weapons, makes it great for picking up items). The Naegling Self-Propelled Missile Launcher series, an anti-air platform that sports decent damage and a large number of lock-ons (however it is quite flimsy on its own – best to be supported instead of on the front line). And finally the Caliban Support Vehicle, which is an ambulance. Slower than the Grape and with no weapons, but the passenger compartment heals anyone who gets inside it (however the medical supplies are limited per vehicle).

Helicopters – Helicopter controls are unfortunately still not very good. Never-the-less, they return and are still fairly effective against anything that can’t really fight back easily, or when supported by other players. Some even come equipped with napalm cannons for the complete “It Ain’t Me” experience.

Powered Exoskeletons
The equivalent of the BM03 Vegalta suits from EDF 4.1. Their controls are much better explained now, and weaponry somewhat improved. Each suit model has a different setup of weapons, and many have different handling characteristics (such as rotation speed and walking speed). Be sure to bring the right set of weapons for the job.

Depth Crawlers are here, which are one of the only vehicles (besides the bike which appears to be for the Ranger only) that can be requested in underground missions. Also, the MBX10 Proteus returns from EDF 4.1, a mech for you and all of your friends (if you have any). Unfortunately the Proteus requires at least two players to operate effectively (one driver, three gunners is the ideal).

Fencers can equip two pairs of two weapons, and two pieces of equipment for the exoskeleton.
All Fencer weapons have a secondary function (described above).

If you thought you would get a game developed in Japan without some super huge anime swords, you were wrong. Giant hammers, giant swords, giant axes, and giant vibration roller blade thingies, and a lot of them can also shoot lasers. The hammers do insane damage up close, but are not very useful outside melee range. The Force Blades/Axes generate a band of energy that can cut an impressive distance and hit enemies at range. The rollers create a shockwave on the ground that damages the enemies it contacts (but are useless against flying enemies).

CC Strikers are typically equipped with a side thruster as their secondary function.

A little longer range than CC Strikers, a little safer to use. The Blasthole Spear is a mechanical lance, essentially, and variations of it exist for fast, short range attacks. The Jackhammer is a giant mechanical fist that beats the $hit out of a bug until it is paste, and can even be used while protecting yourself with a shield. Alternatively, you can equip two jackhammers for increased destruction. Spine Drivers are similar to the jackhammer, but slower and with more damage.

CC Piercers are typically equipped with a side thruster as their secondary function.

Large ones, small ones, very tiny ones that are very good at deflecting. There’s a shield for you. While brandished, shields reduce the damage your character takes from attacks, so as long as the attack hits you within the angle the shield protects. Shield durability is reduced when damage is taken. Knockback is also imparted onto you when you block attacks, which for extremely vicious attacks might push you back outside of effective range of your weapons.

Shields heat up from blocking attacks and deflecting, reducing durability. Once depleted, the shield must be ‘reloaded’ (read as: cooled off or something). During its reload, the shield cannot be brandished and will not block attacks, nor can the deflector be engaged. Once reloaded, the shield is returned to maximum durability. You can manually reload your shields by pressing ‘Z’.

Shields are equipped with a deflector mechanism as their secondary function. If timed correctly, almost any projectile attack can be reflected with the shield back towards the enemy and away from you and your allies. Each use of the deflector costs a percentage of the shield’s maximum durability (see the armory for this cost).

Automatic artillery, with high rate of fire and medium range. Gatling guns, automatic shotguns, the equivalent of an arm-mounted .50 cal, and flamethrower revolvers with incredible damage.
Gatling guns can fire continously for long periods of time, all while dealing decent damage. Galleon Cannons can keep up a respectable rate of fire of decently damaging slugs, and the Dexter Automatic Shotgun can rip things apart at close range.

The Flame Revolver takes almost 4-5 seconds to spin up and actually do damage, but holy christ can it completely evaporate enemies at close range. You literally cannot keep the muzzle from rising to the top of the screen if you try to use two flame revolvers at once.

Autocannons are typically equipped with a jump booster as their secondary function.

Plain old artillery. Arm mounted versions. Light and heavy mortars for your indirect fire needs, hand cannons and heavy cannons for when you need to splat big things from far away, and huge, arm-mounted shotguns. These are almost all great weapons.

Cannons are typically equipped with a scope as their secondary function, but most shotgun-type cannons have a jump booster.

Guided missile launchers. The Leviathan and the Haytal Multi-Missile Launcher both require the use of laser guidance to function, so don’t take those without a pal present. Other missile launchers are pretty okay, but are made much better with laser guidance or if covered by your own troops.

Missile launchers are typically equipped with a scope or a jump booster as their secondary function.

Boosters increase the number of times that you can use your side thruster or jump booster consecutively before needing to cool down. This can make getting around the map much quicker, especially when using side thrusters. Be aware that multiple boosters will not stack together – the booster’s best stats out of all benefits are used.

Increases the abilities of any equipped shields. The Barricade System reduces damage and knockback received when blocking attacks, but increases durability penalty for blocking them. The Deflect Cell reduces your shield’s abilities at blocking attacks, but improves the handling of the shield’s deflector. Shield Protection Armor increases your shield’s maximum durability and protection angle.

As far as I know this is just for Muzzle Stabilizers. These reduce the recoil imparted onto you when firing any type of cannon or automatic artillery piece. This can be useful for high-recoil weapons like the Gallic 30mm or Flame Revolvers.

Improves the handling characteristics of your exoskeleton. Your currently held weapons imparts penalties onto your movement and turning responsiveness based on how heavy they are. Super heavy weapons like the Gallic 30mm severely reduces your aiming sensitivity and how fast you can move on foot, while lighter weapons make it much easier to turn and aim.

This boost will reduce the apparent weight of held weapons as well as increase your movement speed.