Today we'll be looking at the Jurassic mecha the Aspis, please note it is a niode mecha and all pertinent purchase information is available in the image to the side. As usual I'll be basing the review off of the couple I own.
The starting arsenal isn't too bad really. It comes off the showroom floor with 3 Tri - Slagger lasers, 1 Sikuliaq ice weapon, 2 H. Blast Plate projectile weapons, 1 Death Head missile, 1 Ol' Willie Pete Fire weapon, and 5 Rail cannons.
All in all not a bad array of weapons, and proof of intent of this mecha being one of the ones capable of handling multiple weapon types.
You may quickly outgrow most of what it is packing, and of course as you do, replacing the weapons can become an awesome headache. But let's look at the build stats, and slots to see if we can't play around some with this design. Built in before equipment this mecha packs Trample Shield at 88%, Precision of (12), 3X Damage 18%, 2X Damage 18%, Splash Shield 30%, Fork 15%, Fork Shield 25%, Wide Fork Shield 50%, Auto Repair (4), and Crit - Kill 6%. (Using my pilot level Aspsis at 116 for this review, results may vary.)
For equipment I have 5 Cockpit, 5 Chassis, 5 Engine, 6 Shield and 42 weapon slots to play with. Now that is a decent amount of slots to build up your Precision, Dodge, Speed, and various Shielding systems on top of what this mecha already packs as an on board package. Of course how you set it up will depend on your play style. But please note unlike many mecha that come equipped with multiple weapon types from the get go, this ones stats do not reflect that at all in the build.
Instead this is pretty intensely focused on defensive measures given all the inbuilt shielding and slots for even more shielding. Adding in equipment of course will add to your arsenal in the form of bonuses to damage for your given weapon types but that is it. This mecha seems to concentrate on defensive as opposed to offensive measures.
It'll give you bonuses on 2X & 3X damage, as well as Fork for inbuilt mecha ability but it is up to you to properly capitalize on that with weapon abilities/load outs. Niode equipment as well as weapons may serve you better than crystal here as they have more abilities/damage/power to them. With that said however this mecha handles both crystal and niode gear with ease, just you will probably get more out of it, if you niode it out.
Submitted by Pat Willis#224534