[Ro]A small guide to Crimrose

Really, it's a shame there's still no guide for this cute AIR bot.



Part 1 - Introduction

So, you have obtained a Crimrose. A really nice AIR bot, which has the full potential to rule in the sky.

First, you have to remember that AIR bots MUST fly. They touch the ground only to replenish their boost gauge or get to a higher level. You should never stop or land for a long time, because the idle Crimrose is as good as dead. The flying height is also vital: the more - the better, because in the sky you're safe from LND melee and short-ranged weapons.

The flying time is only 10 seconds and is equal for ALL AIR bots. That's why you should carefully watch your boost gauge and retreat when it starts to run out. Because you don't want to land near enemy ART unit. There are some ways to temporary increase it, though.

My usual playing style is: get to a high ground near the battlefield - fly over the battle and shoot either idle, large or retreating enemy bots - return to the high ground, replenish the boost gauge and repeat until you run out of ammo
Usually I don't pick small and fast-moving targets, because they're really hard to hit from a large distance. The only exception is made for fleeing enemies with low HP.
As for an AIR vs AIR combat, you just need to stay in the air for a bit longer than opponent does, then shoot enemy while it is idle replenishing its boost gauge.


The vital stats are:
1. FLY - affects your flying speed. Will be eventually maxed.
2. TEC - affects your damage with ranged weapons. The damage done by ranged weapons is: (Weapon's Force) * (1 + 0.016 * (TEC-10))" rounded
3. TGH - makes your less vulnerable to stun. Should be kept at least 10.


Crimrose is strong in:
AA combat
Ranged Air-to-Ground harass
Taking out fleeing enemies
Taking out big and slow single targets (with caution)

Crimrose is weak in:
Anything involving staying on the ground
Melee (except some fun builds)


Part 2 - First Steps

So, you have obtained a fresh level 0 Crimrose :p
Visit the shop, and buy her 2 Wing Plus AMJ's for 600UC each. Install them on your Crimrose. You will need to unequip a rapier to do so, but don't hesitate - weak Crimrose is not suited for melee combat (Okay, I know there's a melee version of a Crimrose, I will appreciate a nice guide for AIR melee).

Go gain a few levels. Choose Raise cost capacity cartridges until you have 5 of them, then get a quick boost and sniper sight. Then upgrade as you wish, because it doesn't really matter. And don't make cosmos pot upgrades except one needed for a guardian quest.

As for other parts - you could add +1 fly AMs like ace braver or mecha jetter. Mecha jetter AM is really decent, but it's restricted by level.
You may also want to get Izuna LG for stats boost and wisps. The problem is - Izuna is an RT bot. Good thing she is the cheapest one - 50RT only.

Eventually you will be able to wield your main equipment - Wide Beam Gun for shooting anything that's moving on the ground and Mini Bazooka exclusively for AIR type enemies. You will still have some free capacity, so visit the shop once more and buy AIR LOOP custom cartridge. If you are willing to spend RT.

Congratulations, now you're able to perform barrel rolls! By using it you will be able to dodge missiles and easily get to a high ground areas, including previously inaccessible ones.

Part 3 - Raising a Seraph

After a while your Crimrose will gain level 8. It will allow you to promote her to Seraph - basically the same Crimrose with increased stats and some extra abilities. You may promote a fresh level 8, but please not be too hasty as Seraph Crimrose promoted from level 8 will have less hp and free capactiy, compared to Seraph made from level 10.
So, be sure to use Limit Remove Lv8 and max your Crimriose level.

As for now, here are 3 possible Seraph Promotion items - Blonde (default one), Black and Pink for 100k UC or 30RT. JP server has brown, silver and red as well. The only difference between them is hair color. Get the one you want and promote your Crimrose (it will inherit AIR LOOP cartridge).
All equipment will stay in your garage, there is no need to disassemble it before the promotion.

Your new Seraph Crimrose will have 2 new abilities - Seraph Wings (extends your air time by 25s, 1 charge at the start) and Seraph Tackle (melee atack with 21 force).
Seraph Wings are used when your boost gauge is running out in the middle of battle which you don't want to leave. It will take some time to activate them, about 2s I think. Side effects are: increased flying speed, decreased agility (you won't be able to strafe and shoot) and inability to use air loop.
WINGS CANNOT BE RECHARGED WITH AMMO SUPPLY ITEMS
Seraph Tackle is good for killing trees (stay away from meta cactus), and may be used as a suicide attack when you don't have any ammo left. You may as well use it finish a harmless enemy and save some ammo.

Upgrade internal weapon cartridge does following:
1. Increases wing duration by 4 seconds (25s -> 29s -> 33s)
2. Adds one more wing charge (1 -> 2 -> 3)
3. Increases tackle force by 2 (21 -> 23 -> 25)

Seraph starting stats are:
HP: 315-335 (depends on crim level)
STR: 12
TEC: 15
WLK: 9
FLY: 23
TGH: 8
Capa: 710-770 (depends on crim level)


Part 4 - Everything else
I'd recommend the following build for Seraph:

Cartridges:
Raise cost x7 (+45 capa each)
Quick boost (boost gauge regenerates 30% faster)
Beam guard (-25% from beam weapons)
Sword Guard (-30% from melee weapons)
+ custom cartridge Air loop (barrel roll dash)

Weapons:

Mini Bazooka *Shop

Cost: 60
Force: 23
Ammo: 160
Range: 210
Projectile Speed: 280
Firing interval: 540
Clip size: 5
Other: FLY -2; WLK -2; Blast
The only explosive weapon which could be used by air. Insanely effective in air combat because AIR bots take double damage from explosives. Insane penalties included. Tune it for High Force.

Limited Plasma Gun *Drop
Cost: 110
Force: 15
Ammo: 300
Range: 240
Projectile Speed: 290
Firing interval: 400
Clip size: 27
Other: STR -2; WLK -1; Beam
Drops from arcantus, arena, or might be a part of clan reward.
Provides decent DPS, best with Force tune. Ammo supply is somewhat small, so make sure you don't run out.

Plasma Gun *Shop
Cost: 170
Force: 18
Ammo: 340
Range: 220
Projectile Speed: 270
Firing interval: 440
Clip size: 27
Other: STR -1; WLK -2; Beam
Shop plasma gun. Personally, I think its cost should be lower. But there are no downsides other than that.
High force tune and 21 TEC results in 24 damage. This is enough to make LND units mad (because they will take 34 from the front and even more from the back) or stun S unit with low TGH.

Auto Beam Rifle *Garapon

Cost: 110
Force: 13
Ammo: 360
Range: 300
Projectile Speed: 385
Firing interval: 200ms
Clip size: 3
Other: FLY +1; WLK -1; Hits multiple target in a row
The perfect weapon for inflicting massive amounts of damage from a distance in a short period of time. Beam hits multiple targets in a row, effectively increasing DPS in certain cituations.
Tune up for Force, Ammo and Range.

Auto Beam Rifle Mod *Garapon

Cost: 110
Force: 15
Ammo: 300
Range: 250
Projectile Speed: 380
Firing interval: 200ms
Clip size: 3
Other: FLY +1; WLK -1; Hits multiple target in a row
Altered version of auto beam rifle. You don't want to use it since it has less ammo, range and max damage.

Power Shooter *Garapon

Cost: 140
Force: 13
Ammo: 370
Range: 350
Projectile Speed: 430
Firing interval: 640ms
Clip size: 5
Other: STR -1
A crossbow. Projectile speed and range are great, but DPS is 3 times lower compared to Auto Beam Rifle. It also costs 30 more CAPA and won't give you a FLY bonus. Still worth to be mentioned cause it's extremely hard to dodge its projectile.


Parts:
2x Wing Plus AMJ

Cost: +30
HP: 0
STR: 0
TEC: 0
WLK: -1
FLY: +2
TGH: 0
Installed between AM and BD. A cheap way to get some extra fly. Found in regular shop.
Use Wing Plus AMJs only while you have enough free capacity, replace them with high level cosmos pot upgrades.
JP version has Wing Plus AMJ-G, which are metallic gold color (can't paint) and have slot. Found in UC garapon, accumulated in enormous amount, thus easy to tune.

2x Cross Raptor AM *Garapon

Cost: +35
HP: +20
STR: +1*FOR AM only
TEC: +2
WLK: +1*FOR AM2 only
FLY: +2
TGH: 0
Really good AMs. Will give you 2 fly and 5hp for extra 10 cost. You may also want to convert some STR to WLK.
The extra bonus - AM consists of 2 parts: AM@ - the outer part which gets destroyed, and AM, which holds the weapon. Sometimes it saves the day.

Mecha Jetter AM *RT *Shop *Level Restriction
Cost: +40
HP: +20
STR: +1
TEC: +2
WLK: 0
FLY: +1
TGH: +1
One more decent AM. Obtained from shop (sadly, mecha jetter is RT now).
The bad thing - the cost is higher than Cross Raptor AMs, they also look bad on a crim.
On the other side they give +1 bonus to TGH, FLY, WLK and +2 to TEC.
I use those in JP.

Izuna LG *Shop *RT/UC
Cost: +40
HP: +25
STR: 0
TEC: +2
WLK: +3
FLY: +4
TGH: +2
Locked BS weapon - Tail Wisp
Cost: +100
Force: 7
Ammo: 320
Range: 270
Projectile Speed: 290
Firing interval: 1100
Clip size: 8
Wisps make a decent long-range weapon, good against hoppers or for spamming enemy from the sky. It's ALT weapon with homing, so you don't need to aim, just lock on.
LG stats are also good, i think it justifies the overall cost. Izuna RT cost is very low, so make sure to buy one and grab her legs.

Cosmos pot upgrades:
You need to max FLY, and raise TEC as much, as possible. Sacrifice WLK (keep 1) and STR to save Capacity.
For weapons I suggest Force upgrades.

You will have 9 upgrade slots in your Seraph, another 3 in auto beam rifle and 2 in a mini bazooka bought with cosmic coins (I don't know whether 3-slot mini bazooka exists).

For Auto Beam Rifle use Great Reach Alpha (+45 range, -36 ammo), Hugh Supply (+36 ammo) and Force (+1 force).

For both Cross Raptor AMJs I suggest Great Technique Alpha (+3 TEC -2 STR) and Great Boost Beta (+3 FLY -1 STR -1 WLK). Use 2 remaining slots to get High Boost and High Tough (+2 to FLY and TGH).

Now you will be left with 3 empty slots in your Seraph Crimrose LG and 50 capa left.
I used these for High Boost, High Boost Beta and High Technique Alpha (+4 FLY, +2 TEC, -2STR and -1WLK) resulting in total 24 TEC and 38 FLY when fully equipped, also made speed and clip upgrades for bazooka.

You may want to use all 50 capa for FLY and TEC upgrades.

If you're building UC seraph, then you will need to think more careful and go from the amount of slots and stats you have.
Your primary tune-up will still be "High Boost Beta".
For TEC use "Great Tech Alpha". I managed to get 2 40FLY build with 7 slots.



Wonder bits
Default beam bit is pretty useless because of the very limited range and little damage.
Propeller bit enables you to fly for a longer period. Very useful, but you need to keep a wonder drug ready.
Slayer bit for picking a fight with arts. You can even score a sword master with it.

Field power-ups
Yep, i mean those nice repair kits, hyper shots and other funny stuff.
Repair kit +100: I usually save them until I have something like 100hp, then use (my Seraph has 429hp now). Don't use them if you have something like 150hp and there is a medic around.
Repair kit all +50: Heals everyone on your team. Best when used in the middle of large fight, or if you see half your team low on HP.
Hyper shot: A very, very, very useful thing. Doubles your fire rate. You absolutely need it when
- you see a large group of healing enemies. Switch to bazooka (splash makes wonders), enable hyper-shot and inflict some terrible, terrible damage.
- there's a nasty ART you want to take out (takes some skill to aim while jumping from missiles).
- you badly want to kill someone.
Fire Pillar: throws a line of fire bursts towards the enemy. Common damage is 20-30, target is pushed up and set on fire. This also applies to your team (friendly fire). Useful for harassing large healing groups.
Wonder Drug: Replenishes your wonder bar. If you're not using the propeller bits, drop it near your medic.
Hurricane Blast: Creates a large blast which pushes every robot away from you. Push those nasty ART/LND away! Or pin somebody to a meta cactus.
Meteor Fall: Creates meteors just over everyones heads. The meteors will fall, inflicting 60-80 damage. Results in multikill, mass teamkill or both. Best when used late match. You should constantly move in order not to get hit by random meteor.
Traps (Disorder, Burning, Shell Drain): Places a trap. Might be used to secure an entrance to a high ground.
Anti Radar: Disables enemy team radars. Used for team surprise attacks from behind.
Summon Hipporoid: Summons a random size hipporoid. Widely used to distract enemy fire from the owner, or to deal some additional damage.
Ammo Supply: Must Have in a long match. Restores ammo in active primary weapon. Use only on empty auto beam rifle (it's your main weapon, and its ammo should run out first) , and only if you have confidence that you will live long enough to make a good use for this spare ammunition. Otherwise drop it to someone in your team.


Part 5 - Tactics

The basics are already described - get yourself as high as you can (lol), then fly over the battlefield and shoot some bots.
Air-to-Ground is always played with long range beam rifles. Well, you may use wide beam gun and fly lower, but then you have a real chance of getting a random missile from LND unit.
The best map for this tactics is Relic Towers. You just get on the top of the tower, then fly to the middle, shoot, return, shoot, etc...
If there's no high ground near the battle zone (map center on Noel Blizzard, for example), you will need to stay behind the others and wait for enemy to come.
Avoid using dash jumps, as you will lose some extra boost and height. Use them only if you need to dodge a heavy attack.
Anyway, retreat at the moment you have been locked on. ART missile attacks may deal up to 100 damage (which will stun you for sure), you don't want it to happen.

In case of AIR combat, switch to bazooka. Air bots take great damage from blast weapons, the multiplier is 2.3. You just need to be as close, as possible, so all bazooka shots will land at your target. If your opponent switches to bazooka, you may try to create some distance and use the beam rifle or plasma. Use strafe dashes to jump away from the enemy line of fire. Retreat if you get low HP, or if you see an ART or LND unit going to help your opponent.

If you're running out of ammo (it will happen in big matches with a 50k pool), save some for shooting at trees or fending off a random enemy.
Remember that trees may be killed with your melee attack.

Retreat when you have less than 120hp - the amount of damage that will be likely done by a single ART shot. You may go crash some trees hoping to get a repair kit, or just wait for a medic. Don't just go and die, because your team might lose too much BP for a high ranked robot.



I will appreciate any comments or objections.
p.s. sorry for my engrish ^_^

Excellent guide, you revived my love for my kurimu... must try the bazooka XD

It's not over yet.
But yeah, my Crimroses rewarded me for this guide - I stayed awake the whole night and got to participate in lumberjack event resulting in finally having enough money for full Seraphim sqad.

koi wrote:

It's not over yet.
But yeah, my Crimroses rewarded me for this guide - I stayed awake the whole night and got to participate in lumberjack event resulting in finally having enough money for full Seraphim sqad.

gratz on the seraph.

cant wait for the complete guide

I would like to comment on something: Mini Bazooka.

DO NOT, I meant it, DO NOT use this if you're aiming for more FLY. It deduct 2 FLY from you and it's a horrible weapon for air-to-air combat because of its relatively slow projectile speed. Against Air which are fast and agile (they are different things) units by default, you should use a gun with decent range and fast speed attribute, the speed attribute is usually the projectile speed. I find the Auto Beam Rifle a very good all-rounded weapon for almost every situation including downing a 35+ FLY Seraph Crimrose, a Jikun or a Toybox. Most of the time in battle air units with Mini Bazooka dies relatively fast against another air with a simple Beam Gun in my experience. Getting close to an experienced Air playert is a hard thing to do, really.

A few other things based on my experience:

As an Air unit, you don't rush toward the enemy. You should try to flank them and outmaneuver them, especially Art, unless you want to eat a Double Rocket in your face. My Sturbanger kills a bunch of Seraph like that simply because they thought they were so fast and ran toward me face to face. This is why Sniper Scope is nice to have but not essential (because a veteran player would be able to figure out fast where the bullets coming from).

Electron Gun and the like is quite handy against big air unit because usually if it hits they will be stun and drop down, which makes a perfect target for incoming shots. The downside is the projectile speed is slow.

Plasma Gun is quite good against L Art and Land in mid-close range. It's also nice to beginner because you can just hold the mouse button for continuous fire instead of quick taps like Auto Beam.

Some part of the Seraph Tackle animation makes you invincible to incoming damage, but not the entire animation like some others'.

Quick Jump is nice to have, make you escape melee Land more often.

Tuning up will most likely be very costly in term of real money, don't look forward to it much.

A Crimrose should have min 20 FLY and a Seraph min 30 FLY to become decent.

Try to learn the way around maps. Several maps have Jump point where you can access to higher than normal altitude where you can comfortably rain down bullets.

Air Loop, don't Air Loop straight forward or backward if you're face to face (or back to face, you know, on a straight line with their guns) with the enemy, projectile except Missile still hits you. A good idea is Air Loop over OBSTACLE. Air Loop from obstacle to obstacle if you can, they won't be able to hit you. I ran away at 100 Hp and under with 6+ enemies at my back like that all the time.

Flank or Backshoot (not Backstab lol) small units. Be surprised, you can still kill Jikun or Lily Rain or even other Crimrose quite often. Learn to shoot with the auto-targeting system, just because it auto targets for you doesn't mean you hold the mouse button and it works, learn the right angle, the right direction to score a hit. Remember, just because someone have a Seraph with Auto Beam Rifle doesn't mean he's a tough one :p

thanks for the tips MariyaShidou-san i'll consider it .

is nice im learning how to use my kurimu now

Well, I just ran a few matches using all beam types for a sidearm, and I have to say that bazooka has no equivalent in mid- and even close air, if you're not talking about melee.

Dual auto beam rifles are really nice for ranged and mid-ranged combat though I can't test it without running a whole new upgrade cycle. Well, i still feel that mini bazooka has a higher DPS against AIR.

Anyway, Mini Bazooka is way easier to get, so newb crimrose will have a chance to deal some serious damage compared to beam guns.



I'd like to make an UC-only crimrose build, but I can't do it since we don't know which items will be cash shop only.

i found that using the paralyzer gun is most effective bot on air and land...... since it stuns.....Literally go it must be annoying your in the air then suddenly falling becuase of being stunned hahahaha or an ART unloading bullets to suddenly stop and unable to move because of the paralyzer

but maybe its just me

also it seems the Auto beam rifle does not work for me >_< im the type who love to waste bullets hehehe

koi wrote:

Well, I just ran a few matches using all beam types for a sidearm, and I have to say that bazooka has no equivalent in mid- and even close air, if you're not talking about melee.

Dual auto beam rifles are really nice for ranged and mid-ranged combat though I can't test it without running a whole new upgrade cycle. Well, i still feel that mini bazooka has a higher DPS against AIR.

Anyway, Mini Bazooka is way easier to get, so newb crimrose will have a chance to deal some serious damage compared to beam guns.



I'd like to make an UC-only crimrose build, but I can't do it since we don't know which items will be cash shop only.

I have yet to come across someone that do it successfully with a Mini Bazooka vs an experienced Seraph Crimrose or the like, there's a big distinction between an inexperienced and an experienced one, it's very very hard to get close to an experienced Air player, especially those speed maniac with 40 AIR.

And no, Auto Beam Rifle technically has higher dps. In the time of one Bazooka round Auto Beam Rifle can score 3 hits (provide they all hits) and like I said, the projectile speed is VERY important. Have you ever wonder why a Blitz Blaster is so amazing in racking points against big targets? It got both projectile speed and firing rate.

as long as i can buy a paralyzer im fine but if not ill stick to either mini zooka and beam rifle

then again i really dont like zookas that much since i only use em on my lily for defense and that rather than zookas i use the trance skirt lasers alot more than my dual handy zookas

Well I usually use Assault Rifle or Armor Breaker on my Lilyrain and have her as tiny sniping unit. In my opinion if you're using a S size robot, be it Land/Air/Art or Sup, any weapons with slow projectile speed is unwelcoming with the exception of Paralyzer or Electron Gun. Too bad Paralyzer comes from Garapon so it's not guaranteed and it will cost real cash. Main reason why is because for S size bots you depends on hit and run tactics.

yeah im a hit and run person >_<

even in dota im that type of a guy

but man i will miss the paraluzer

but they said that in japan garapan will be available for UC once every week only well taht is what i heard anyway

I don't know if I'm experienced enough, but I don't have any troubles getting close enough for bazooka to be effective. And if teh enemy is fleeing - well, I switch to auto beam.
Maybe I should get +1 FLY to qualify for a speed maniac?

Technically auto beam is weaker. Its burst has 3x13=39 force, and bazooka has 23x2.3=53 force against air, bazooka has 540 int against 3x200=600 for auto beam. Not to mention the possibility of miss.

And well, I don't want to compare this weapons. Bazooka works fine for me, it's helping me to turn some capacity into FLY, TEC and TGH tune ups and save auto beam ammo for land targets.

technomo12 wrote:

yeah im a hit and run person >_<

even in dota im that type of a guy

OMG you play WC3 !!!

Koao wrote:

technomo12 wrote:

yeah im a hit and run person >_<

even in dota im that type of a guy

OMG you play WC3 !!!

yes i doo my ace char is either silencer or luna and chaos knight

anyway i think i should switch to a beam rifle.... then again for a UC only crim (doubt we can buy limit removers for UC) i suggest sticking with either beam rifle or plasma gun.

as for zookas well lets leave it at that that they pack a mean punch and all round close combat weapon

also since i dont have the so called ramptor arm ( where do you get it anyway??) im using a Lily arms since it has additional 1 fly to it though an additional cost of 5 with it but its better than getting a tune up

but for now aslong as i have my paralyzer im happy as for those who says beam rifle are awesome......ok sure you win they are awesome but i love my paralyzer better since im more used to waste bullets rather that click click clicky click clicking my mouse to kill

One interesting fact: Improve Internal Weapon Catridge does affect Seraph Wings. It increase ammo (uses) so you can actually have 3 Seraph Wing uses.

MariyaShidou wrote:

One interesting fact: Improve Internal Weapon Catridge does affect Seraph Wings. It increase ammo (uses) so you can actually have 3 Seraph Wing uses.

Intresting face: Running gets you in 1st place

It's still better than running and get the bottom place.

I don't remember ever see you if you were talking about me, and I only run when surrounded by 6-7 enemies and all my allies are busy far away chasing one single Shaden BS + Blitz Blaster.

Miliken wrote:

I finally went to the guide section. I hope to make a really good crim when OP 2 starts. I don't kow, I just want to make a good one, you know?
I'll be sure to follow this guide till death.

And then Miliken realizes people are laughing at her because it's a bad idea for airs to use explosives.

Well, i usually get a place in top5 with this build.
It won't happen if certain explosives used by air bot suck THAT badly.

I was trying to find a gun which is well suited for AA (by means of high DPS) and has relatively low cost. I failed to find one amongst all shop and garapon weapons.
I never got to use a stardust cannon, though.

Btw, visit the japanese wiki. The comments are proving that bazooka has a good Air vs Air capability.

Of course if its air vs air use mini bazooka, thats what japanese players do and i met alot of them in teamfights already they all use bazookas when against air and i use mini bazooka too

well, provided you can hit the enemy a bazooka is good, but I don't pvp and I know for sure that slow projectiles generally don't hit.

So I use a curving gun instead since it appears to have a 100% hitrate against air when I use it.

I'd rather have a 100% hitrate with lower damage than a 10% hitrate with higher damage. At least, that's what I considered when I used to pvp.

Thanks for the guide. The Wing Plus AMJs have proved to be quite useful.

That said, I'm not particularly sold on the recommended weapon loadouts. Before I bought a Beam Rifle and a Mini Bazooka, I was using a Wide Beam Gun and a Pulse Gun. Both are high ammo, cost-efficient and generally useful (at least in Mission / Quest Mode).

I went to the Arena and tried both loadouts, but neither felt particularly potent. I always ended up Top 3 on my team (with both loadouts), but I still wasn't getting more than a few frags per round, and fights between opponents would last several Boost bars simply because none of my shots were hitting.

I do see the usefulness of having a side-arm dedicated to Anti-Air (or perhaps even Anti-Artillery, if there is such a thing for Air units?), but I was running out of ammo for my Beam Rifle far too often, and a Mini Bazooka isn't exactly a great all-purpose substitute. While the Wide Beam Gun has more than enough ammo, it's still a bit slow, slow enough for opponents to dodge it.

Should I not be firing at max range? My understanding was that Air is based around staying high and firing from afar, far enough that enemies can't fight back; and yet, when I do so, I'm so far that I can't hit them either. Any ideas? Perhaps a different weapon with a faster travel time, or just a change in playstyle?

Thanks in advance.