[WIP] General Guide to Alpha Striking

What is an alpha striker?
Alpha Striking is clicking both mouse buttons at the same time to fire all main weapons at once. While this normally renders you immobile, combined with the cartridge Moving Burst it allows for one second of movement.

While ART and AIR are generally used for alpha strikers, LND has a plethora of high-damage weaponry to choose from and SUP alphas can utilize nasty debuffs in the process (most commonly shock/slow paired with drawguns), as such all types are well-suited to the task.

What makes a good alpha striker?
Easily summed up in one word: Damage. It should be fairly obvious; if you're packing multiple weapons your emphasis is on dealing damage. Then people mystify me by maxing out mobility with 18tec or something. This is NOT what you want to do, and completely goes against what your part setup dictates. If you're aiming to max mobility, use a single weapon and bring tec up as high as you can; you'll do just as much (or more) damage and you won't have to stop moving to shoot when you do it.

With alpha striking, you have the potential to break that damage ceiling artificially set in place by the 40tec cap. Keeping a minimal amount of mobility needed to function (this varies by person; personally I draw the bottom line at 22wlk/23fly) then maximizing damage should be the emphasis you put on your stats, then if there's leftover capacity you can increase mobility further.

Another common problem you'll run into with alpha striking is stun. While stun is one of the things that makes certain alpha strikers extremely difficult to fight, higher levels of stun create numerous invulnerability frames that rob you of large amounts of damage. There are several solutions to getting around stun:

1. Lots of low-force weaponry: Probably the most common setup particularly for air, as this is what you see with your standard alpha air (Raystag HD/Cross Shooters/Frau arms/pulse AMJs). Combined you'll see damage numbers as high as the 130s without hypershot, but individually none of the weapons pack much punch, resulting in frequent repeated soft stuns.

2. Small amounts of high-force weaponry: More common on non-airs due to lack of weaponized parts. 2x Victorl AM3 + Dagomure BS, Blast Bazooka + Dugdriver AM + core weapon, 2x Ilgryps AM2, etc.

3. Modified speed: Making sure the hit with the heaviest stun hits last prevents damage from being lost. Alternately, you can make the heavy stun the fastest so everything else hits after the stun invuln wears off.

What is Over-Ranging?

Winty wrote:

About the range stat:
Weapons in this game have a single given range stat listed, but in reality they actually have two different range stats: One is the maximum range where they will lock-on(this is the listed stat), and the other is the range at which the projectile actually vanishes(this is the hidden stat).
Pretty easy to check this by locking onto a tree or something, then walking until the lockon breaks, and shooting. Keep walking backwards while shooting until your shots stop hitting the target. I found this out in open beta so it's not exactly new.
Generally, these two stats are the same, but in some cases the second range is further than the first one.
When you shoot a weapon without a lockon, it dumb-fires, not gaining any sort of autoaim, or activating it's own tracking(if it has any).

What is over-ranging?
Over-ranging is abusing the mechanics of alpha striking to make weapons with longer actual range "smart fire" from beyond lockon range. To do this, select the longest ranged weapon you have equipped and use it for targetting, then alpha strike. Since you have a lockon, all weapons will fire as if they were locked on, even if the target is out of their individual lockon range.

Common weapons used to overrange on airs:
Magnet gun
Flint musket
Psycho formula HD2
Katalina AM2

Common weapons that can be overranged on airs:
Cross shooter
Izuna Kamui AM3
Tentrion HD
Raystag HD
air raider BD
tonitrus BD
pulse shot AMJ

The same basically applies to arts: most missile weapons can be over-ranged, using long range weapons can do this. I don't play these things so any list I make would be really lacking, so I'll leave it up to you.

You only need one long range weapon to over-range with. You should still know the range of your weapons so you aren't shooting at ranges where the shots vanish/don't hit, because that's just stupid.

As a general rule of thumb, if the weapon is affected by gravity or homes, it can be overranged.

Weapon Stat Breakdown
Weapon selection is an important part of any bot. Alpha strikers select more weapons than other bots, so naturally selection is more important to them as well. This won't tell you what to use, but rather help you decide what to use.

Force
High damage is good. High stun is bad. This has already been covered in the previous section.

Totaled force between all weapons with most alphas tends to sit around 60+, though there are "weaker" exceptions that still have ridiculous damage output.

Ammo
Unless your team has a Fluene, it's more or less impossible to keep your weapons filled, meaning alpha strikers should plan on suiciding eventually - or having one weapon that's functionally decent on its own. Picking weapons that tend to run out of ammo at the same time is generally advised, as you don't have much reason to alpha with, say, just a cross shooter and a beam gun.

Range
Since alpha strikers sacrifice mobility, long range is generally preferable, though short-range alpha weapons exist as well.

Speed
As previously mentioned in the stun section, this varies based on what you're attempting to do. Barring that, as a general rule of thumb homing weapons will always benefit from more speed.

Interval
540 int is the threshold at which a weapon can still fire twice in the timeframe of Moving Burst. Lower intervals equal lower cooldown. Past that there isn't a whole lot of reason to worry about this.

Cartridges
This is the part where you make every effort to compensate for your missing mobility!

Moving Burst
If you have to ask you should probably stop reading this guide.

Air Loop
Highly useful for alpha airs to extend alpha striking time and dodge more effectively with lower fly.

Short Boost, Float Dash
Gives you mobility options on the ground, and both can be used to extend alpha striking time. Float Dash gives you more freedom in aiming (fast turn speed) while Short Boost is good for getting you back into the air (extremely useful for alpha air/art in particular).

Accele Roll
Used for some alpha ART/SUP, but it's situational as to what you'd want it on. Since you turn to face the direction you're rolling in it doesn't synergize with alpha striking unless you're chasing a fleeing target, in which case it can also be used to extend alpha time and help you catch up to your prey.

What about Wing moes?

Diabolical wrote:

Anyone who needs guides on how to play them is a fucking retard.

what about the Wings? o:

RaiKage_Vermell :3 wrote:

what about the Wings? o:

Premade shit/Long Moving Burst, etc

RaiKage_Vermell :3 wrote:

what about the Wings? o:

Anyone who needs guides on how to play them is a fucking retard.

My Lord and Master, teach us how to Alpha.

i think you forgot to list recommended cores for building alpha strikers (from each type, either UC or RT)

RaiKage_Vermell :3 wrote:

what about the Wings? o:

updated

Diabolical wrote:

RaiKage_Vermell :3 wrote:

what about the Wings? o:

Anyone who needs guides on how to play them is a fucking retard.

guide to new wings:
HURRRRRr

guide to old wings:
don't alpha you dumb shit

Air Alpha cores would be Flapjack(don't), Air Raider and Illgryps come to mind.

Art Alpha would be Amateus, Ragna, Alba. Not gonna list Illumis as too many people play her as subwep spam.

LAND Alpha? ASSAULT OX MK2.

Seraphcrim wrote:

Air Alpha cores would be Flapjack(don't), Air Raider, Wingsluts and Illgryps come to mind.

Art Alpha would be Amateus, Ragna. Not gonna list Illumis as too many people play her as subwep spam.

LAND Alpha? ASSAULT OX MK2.

Why Wingsluts again, this guide is to build one, THOSE SLUTS ARE PREMADE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

>not listing Albatreos

Magna.Zero wrote:

i think you forgot to list recommended cores for building alpha strikers (from each type, either UC or RT)

I remember reading a similar one in sugu's diary a while before.

Seraphcrim wrote:

Air Alpha cores would be Flapjack(don't), Air Raider and Illgryps come to mind.

pacifar

how about aura air alpha cores?

RaiKage_Vermell :3 wrote:

how about aura air alpha cores?

In all fairness, why do that?

Seiron HD, Basca BS, propellant boosters.

What Dia said. To elaborate on the propellant boosters, you'll receive an effect similar to indestructible propeller bits. Is cute.

Also some parts gives nice TEC/FLY bonus in Aura mode

Seraphcrim wrote:

RaiKage_Vermell :3 wrote:

how about aura air alpha cores?

In all fairness, why do that?

i was thinking of trying to make a suzeku/basca BS alpha. o:

Mecha Jetter, Cresent Saint,, Raystag, Brickgale Red, Tonitrus, and Seiron are the cores in familiar with that can fit the conventional weapons and have some firm of functional stats.

Basca Bs is a good alternative to double pulse shots. I've trid Tierougue amj and I can say it's fair to say the DPS is better than I had that, as well as it pins down lands trying to escape up to ledges as well as bots in water. The amjis especially nice when combating other airs. It had good tracking too.

EDIT: Found this.
http://www.cosmicbreak.com/commu/?m=pc&a=page_fh_diary&target_c_diary_id=2898

Tierouge is sexy.

Trufax

Seraphcrim wrote:

LAND Alpha? ASSAULT OX MK2.

Synoris makes a good Alpha core too.

Magna.Zero wrote:

i think you forgot to list recommended cores for building alpha strikers (from each type, either UC or RT)

You pick a core with Moving Burst.

Air Raider and Pacifar may make up the majority of alpha air, but depending on how you're approaching your setup something like Vulder or Psycho Cluster may better suit your needs.

The one thing I probably should've stressed though is that weaponized cores don't necessarily make the best alpha. Cores like Pacifar and Accel Saber generally outperform ones with core weapons, and cores like Victorl I-BZ offer other nice perks along with it.

At any rate the purpose of this guide was to get you thinking and let you realize your options, not hand everything over on a silver platter.

Suguri wrote:

Magna.Zero wrote:

i think you forgot to list recommended cores for building alpha strikers (from each type, either UC or RT)

You pick a core with Moving Burst.

Air Raider and Pacifar may make up the majority of alpha air, but depending on how you're approaching your setup something like Vulder or Psycho Cluster may better suit your needs.

The one thing I probably should've stressed though is that weaponized cores don't necessarily make the best alpha. Cores like Pacifar and Accel Saber generally outperform ones with core weapons, and cores like Victorl I-BZ offer other nice perks along with it.

At any rate the purpose of this guide was to get you thinking and let you realize your options, not hand everything over on a silver platter.

This.

Nice guide btw, this should tell most peeps how to build correctly and also how to make their own alpha builds.
I think you forgot to mention the fact that most alphas (if not all) are really fragile. They depend mainly solely on movement to negate damage (there is exceptions to this, though not going to mention it since you should know what I'm talking about).

Also note that INT is important but some weapons (Flapjack arm/illgryps) can bypass cooldown or can still be used as alpha weapons. Just my two cent.jpeg

On Over-ranging:

About the range stat:
Weapons in this game have a single given range stat listed, but in reality they actually have two different range stats: One is the maximum range where they will lock-on(this is the listed stat), and the other is the range at which the projectile actually vanishes(this is the hidden stat).
Pretty easy to check this by locking onto a tree or something, then walking until the lockon breaks, and shooting. Keep walking backwards while shooting until your shots stop hitting the target. I found this out in open beta so it's not exactly new.
Generally, these two stats are the same, but in some cases the second range is further than the first one.
When you shoot a weapon without a lockon, it dumb-fires, not gaining any sort of autoaim, or activating it's own tracking(if it has any).

What is over-ranging?
Over-ranging is abusing the mechanics of alpha striking to make weapons with longer actual range "smart fire" from beyond lockon range. To do this, select the longest ranged weapon you have equipped and use it for targetting, then alpha strike. Since you have a lockon, all weapons will fire as if they were locked on, even if the target is out of their individual lockon range.

Common weapons used to overrange on airs:
Magnet gun
Flint musket
Psycho formula HD2
Katalina AM2

Common weapons that can be overranged on airs:
Cross shooter
Izuna Kamui AM3
Tentrion HD
Raystag HD
air raider BD
tonitrus BD
pulse shot AMJ

The same basically applies to arts: most missile weapons can be over-ranged, using long range weapons can do this. I don't play these things so any list I make would be really lacking, so I'll leave it up to you.

You only need one long range weapon to over-range with. You should still know the range of your weapons so you aren't shooting at ranges where the shots vanish/don't hit, because that's just stupid.