Biomotor Unitron Weapons and Tactics FAQ v 1.1

Biomotor Unitron Weapons and Tactics FAQ v 1.1
by Kendrick Kerwin Chua ([email protected])
Last revision 10/18/99

Biomotor Unitron is a copyrighted property and trademark of Yumekobo Co.
Ltd. Neo Geo Pocket is a registered trademark of SNK corporation of
America. The author respects all property ownership and intends no
infringement or unauthorized usage thereof. All text copyright 1999 by
Kendrick Kerwin Chua, except material which is attributed or quoted from
original sources. This text contains a mechanism to detect unauthorized
usage of its contents. Please do not use or otherwise distribute the
contents of this text without express written permission from the author.

This information is provided as-is, with no guarantee implied or given.
Neither the author of this document nor the companies named above may be
held responsible for any action taken as a result of this information.

This document best viewed in a fixed-width, non-proportional font.

**NEW - Weapons list now completed. Check out the Demon Sword, a monster
weapon with 400 Attack points.

I. Introduction
II. Glossary of terms
III. Table of weapons and attributes
IV. Tactics and strategy when choosing weapons
V. Optimizing development
VI. Credits and revision history

I. Introduction

Biomotor Unitron is the first RPG for the Neo Geo Pocket Color, an obscure
portable game console only recently made available in the United States.
The maiden voyage by developer Yumekobo enters the American market with a
pretty addictive variation on the dueling monster game. Although it's not
innovative in its graphics or its gameplay, the design is sufficiently
deep to entertain both casual gamers and more obsessive RPG players.

A Usenet denizen calling himself Faust ([email protected]) first put
together a FAQ covering the game in general back in May of 1999, when
Biomotor Unitron was available only as an import title. His FAQ provided
translations from Japanese as well as a complete guide to basic gameplay.
The intent of THIS document is to focus specifically on the development
and choice of weapons, which to me is the main draw of the game. Faust's
FAQ is available at the Gamefaqs website at the following URL:
(http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/neopocket/faq/bio_motor_unitron.txt) and
should be considered the authoritative source.

Unlike its predecessors Pokemon or Monster Rancher, statistics are not the
only avenue of improvement for your surrogate warrior. Biomotor Unitron
uses robots as its fighters, meaning that components may be swapped or
replaced as required depending on the situation.

It entirely possible to rely on a single set of weapons and accessories
and fight your way through the game by way of brute force. However, I
believe it is much more rewarding to carefully consider your choice of
weapons and accessories. This also results in faster completion of the
game, and less time spent in tedious battles. The Arena battles and the
five Dungeon areas each contain unique enemies denoted by their elemental
aspect. Although it is much more complicated than the 'Rock, Scissors,
Paper' game on which it is based, the end results are essentially the
same.

II. Glossary of terms

Skip this section if you are already familiar with basic gameplay in
Biomotor Unitron.

All monsters and piloted robots in Biomotor Unitron may be identified in
part or in whole by an elemental aspect. Each aspect determines a
numerical advantage or disadvantage in battle. The HELP option in the game
identifies these aspects as follows:

Fire: Advantage over wood, weak against water
Wind: Advantage over water, weak against earth
Wood: Advantage over earth, weak against fire
Water: Advantage over fire, weak against wind
Earth: Advantage over wind, weak against wood
Light: Advantage over none, weak against none
Dark: Advantage over all, weak against light
Mirror: No advantage or weakness

These aspects are stored in the main body of the Unitron and in each of
its arms. Monsters tend to exhibit only one aspect. It is possible for a
Unitron to exhibit contradictory aspects depending on what equipment it is
carrying.

Put simply, the weapon you choose will either help or hurt your progress
through a dungeon area or against an Arena opponent. For example, you may
find that the OGRE weapon is very effective in the Windy Ruins dungeon.
But when you enter the Forest or Verdure, your weapon will inflict
one/fourth of that damage. For this reason it is necessary to return to
the city and swap weaponry depending on what type of opponent you are
facing.

Weapons not only have elemental aspect status but modify the statistics of
your Unitron as well. For reference, here are the stats as given on page
sixteen of the Biomotor Unitron manual.

HP - Hit points. The Unitron is destroyed if HP reaches zero
EP - Energy points. Attacks use EP like fuel, and at different rates
AP - Attack points. These are further separated by left hand and right hand
SP - Defense points. The higher the SP, the less damage is received
RP - Agility points. This affects ability to hit, and ability to dodge
MP - Movement points. This determines who attacks first in battle

Any weapon may be able to increase any of these statistics when equipped.

III. Table of weapons and attributes

The following table lists almost every weapon which can be bought or
developed in Biomotor Unitron. Their elemental aspect and additive effect
on statistics is given in a tabular format. Again, elemental aspect has a
multiplicative effect on damage done against a weaker element. Also,
damage done may be cut to one-half or one-fourth against a stronger
element.

I've just completed this table by going back to one of my old save files
and playing my way through the last dungeon to collect some of the more
rare development metals. Look for Demon and Ashra down below. Demon is of
particular interest, since it adds 400 AP to your Unitron.

Weapon Aspect HP EP AP SP RP MP

BtFist Fire 15 15 15
PwrHnd Fire 30 30 30
ArmHnd Fire 60 60 60
SlkHnd Wood 15 15 15
OakHnd Wood 30 30 30
Crssbw Wood 60 60 60
H-gun Water 15 15 15
IceBlw Water 30 30 30
Hydro Water 60 60 60
Hawk Air 15 15 15
AirHnd Air 30 30 30
Killer Air 60 60 60
Ogre Earth 15 15 15
Golem Earth 30 30 30
Giant Earth 60 60 60

Weapon Aspect HP EP AP SP RP MP

Magma Fire 40 5 7
Binder Fire 10 40 40
Hammer Fire 40 10 40
Pliers Fire 80 40 60
Blade Fire 40 70 70
Driver Fire 40 40 10
Drill Fire 70 70 40
GrvHmr Light 120 140 40
Cutter Dark 60 120 120
3DDrvr Air 80 110 110

Weapon Aspect HP EP AP SP RP MP

Rapier Air 15 20 10
Sabre Air 30 40 20
Dirk Air 30 20 40
Sabre+ Air 60 40 80
Gradus Air 60 80 40
Gram Wood 100 100 100
Lavatn Fire 100 140 60
Wyndia Air 80 80 140
Demon Dark 100 400 50
Crsadr Light 100 175 175

Weapon Aspect HP EP AP SP RP MP

HndAxe Fire 25 15 5
BtlAxe Fire 40 35 15
TomHwk Fire 30 45 15
2Edge Fire 60 90 30
Break Earth 120 150 30
BllArm Earth 25 10 10
MgaBll Earth 50 20 20
NoWire Earth 20 20 50
Crushr Earth 120 60 60
Sthrn+ Light 60 60 120

Weapon Aspect HP EP AP SP RP MP

Lancer Earth 5 25 15
DrlArm Earth 10 50 30
Pierce Earth 10 60 20
Trnado Air 30 90 60
Spiral Water 75 150 75
Hook Wood 20 15 10
LogHk Wood 40 30 20
BtlHk Wood 80 60 40
IceClw Water 150 90 60
DvlClw Dark 150 90 60

Weapon Aspect HP EP AP SP RP MP

Whip Air 5 20 20
Whip+ Air 10 40 40
FBoot Fire 20 80 80
9-Tail Air 20 80 80
EBoot Air 20 80 80
Fork Water 21 12 12
HKClaw Water 20 20 5
Tridnt Water 40 25 25
WlfClw Wood 40 40 10
TgrClw Air 80 80 20
Disc Air 20 5 20
SpikeD Air 30 20 40
RingD Air 40 10 40
Disc+ Air 60 40 80
AirD Air 80 20 80

Weapon Aspect HP EP AP SP RP MP

EWire Wood 20 20 5
ArmWre Wood 30 50 10
Tangle Wood 40 40 10
Lghtng Wood 60 100 20
Coil Wood 130 120 50
Mage Wood 10 5 10 10 10
Wizard Wood 20 10 20 20 20
Warlok Wood 40 20 40 40 40
ArchMg Wood 50 50 30 50 60 60
GodHnd Light 75 80 40 75 90 90

Weapon Aspect HP EP AP SP RP MP

Skull Dark 10 15 20
DgnHed Earth 15 35 40
DrkClw Dark 20 30 40
Cursed Earth 30 70 80
Infrno Dark 40 120 140
Spring Water 5 35 5
Curler Water 20 60 10
Snaker Water 10 70 10
Zoomer Water 30 120 30
Buster Earth 50 200 50

Weapon Aspect HP EP AP SP RP MP

Claw Earth 5 20 20
Triger Earth 20 40 40
Qatar Earth 20 80 80
Indra Air 50 125 125
Agni Fire 50 125 125
Maxi Water 15 15 15
Twin Water 30 30 30
FPlse Fire 60 60 60
IcePls Water 60 60 60
Ashra Water 100 100 100

Weapon Aspect HP EP AP SP RP MP

Bazoka Fire 5 25 15
SDisc Fire 10 50 30
Chnsaw Fire 10 55 25
Saw Fire 20 110 50
Hacker Fire 40 180 80
Knukle Water 11 17 17
Gloves Water 10 10 70
Rocket Water 22 34 34
Mail Water 20 20 140
Plate Water 40 40 220

Weapon Aspect HP EP AP SP RP MP

Troopr Wood 5 30 10
Scorp Wood 10 60 20
Spider Wood 20 100 60
Mantis Wood 20 120 40
RedClw Wood 40 180 80
HndGun Water 15 30
Vulcan Water 30 60
Lncher Water 25 65
Gatling Water 40 140
Phalnx Water 30 150

Weapon Aspect HP EP AP SP RP MP

Cannon Fire 5 40
2Barrl Fire 10 80
LineGn Fire 20 70
XGun Fire 20 160
RailGn Fire 20 280
Flint Wood 80 40
Sword Fire 60 60
Kama Air 50 50
TgrHnd Wood 20 50 50
MoleHd Earth 50 50 20
Stunr Water 60 60
Needle Air 60 60
Pole Earth 120

IV. Tactics and strategy when choosing weapons

As stated before, it's advantageous to select a weapon based on the
elemental aspects of your opponents. Put most simply, select arms which
give you an advantage over your opponent by muliplying your attack
potential. If you are fighting a Pumper (found in the Forest of Verdure)
which is of the Wooden aspect, then you'll want to pick up a weapon with a
Fire aspect, like the Chnsaw or the 2Barrl.

When you start off the game, your Unitron will have two default arms which
are usually offensive weapons. The attributes on these arms will typically
add more Attack points and Hit points to your base Unitron. As you win
money in battles, you'll want to upgrade your arms as well as other
components. The higher your AP, the more damage you'll be able to dish
out. This translates into higher Arena ranks and deeper dungeon levels.

However, not all weapons are chosen for their offensive capability.
You'll notice from the table that most weapons add a small amount to your
Hit points, and slightly larger amounts to your Attack points and
Defensive points. However, some weapons do little or nothing for your
offensive capability, and may not add HP or AP at all. If you're going
into an unfamiliar dungeon area for the first time, a weapon like Flint
which raises HP and SP isn't a bad choice. Likewise, look at the Mail
weapon, which adds very little to HP or AP but raises SP by 140.

I've found that for the four regular dungeons (as opposed to the fifth
secret dungeon) you should go with one offensive arm and one defensive
arm. My favorite combination early in the game is 2Barrl on the right arm,
and Warlok on the left arm. 2Barrl has a very high AP and will give you
enough muscle to get past most monsters, whereas Warlok adds points to all
your stats and makes you faster and smarter.

As always, your mileage may vary. Experimentation is encouraged.

V. Optimizing development

The development of weapons is covered thoroughly in Faust's Unitron FAQ
(http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/neopocket/faq/bio_motor_unitron.txt)
Again, his FAQ is the primary reference source on this game. I've
purposely left development examples out of this document to encourage
people to go and do it on their own. Suffice it to say that the big reason
I put together this FAQ was because I wanted more hint as to what weapons
were possible.

Without spoiling too much of the story; it's necessary at several points
in the game to have Light aspect weapons to combat enemies of Dark aspect.
These weapons aren't available for purchase anywhere, and it was very
difficult to develop them since metals and gems were very scarce. There
are two things you can do to optimize your development ability.

First off, continuously develop weapons even if you don't need them. Your
technician's Development Level should be the same or higher than your
Unitron pilot's level. If your tech is lagging, then you won't have the
skills to consistently create the weaponry you need.

Second, there's the old 'Saved Game' trick you can pull easily and
repeatedly when developing weapons. If you pick up new materials and want
to try them out, save your game first. Then, go and perform development
repeatedly, writing down what weapons you're able to create and restoring
your game after each successful development. Compare the stat improvements
each weapon makes and select the one which fits your current need.

VI. Credits and revision history

10/18/99 - Added Demon and Ashra to weapons list, completing it.
10/17/99 - Composed version 1.0 on a rainy afternoon after the hurricane.
Two weapons missing from table, otherwise all information complete.

Written by - Kendrick Chua ([email protected])
With help from - Faust ([email protected])

Your name could appear here! If you spot any errors of fact or continuity,
or have any other contribution, e-mail Kendrick at the address above.
Future revisions will occur as appropriate.

--EOF--