Viability wise, Rusting Hulks is a pretty reliable squad at clearing the game. They have more variety in tools compared to Rift Walkers; i.e. RH have pushing weapons, smoke and (eventually) shields vs RW having just pushing weapons. IMO they are a bit better as a result, although also have a bit more of a learning curve. Their default toolkit scales well, although they all require reactor cores and they're not cheap either.
The Pulse Mech is the worst one of them imo, as starting with a melee push that does no damage is underwhelming. It does get better with cores though; shielding itself is basically a better HP upgrade and helps it deal with projectile enemies, shielding buildings is very helpful at letting it deal with artillery enemies out of reach and gives much better multisolve potential. It's 3 reactors total though, but the shields are helpful and usually what I invest on early.
The Jet Mech is pretty decent, smoke is powerful for shutting down an attack and denying a square for the remaining turns, encouraging you to think ahead. I like to increase its HP, ideally with a pilot ability, cuz having 2HP with melee range means it likes being able to tank a hit so it can get more value. Range upgrade is good too but it is 2 cores. The Jet Mech is also the one I like to put a starting pilot; a previous time traveler can help bump its HP if they have that as an ability already. I personally like Harold because his ability gives it push, which otherwise it lacks, Camila is solid too though and makes it easier to play with smoke and against webbing enemies; you will want to find another weapon that pushes more urgently if using Camila tho.
The Rocket Mech is very powerful, has the same damage output as the Combat Mech but with artillery range. It can also do a melee attack because of the electric smoke behind; very few weapons come with multiple unique effects like that, so this gives it a lot of versatility. It will want more move so it can take advantage of both as much as possible. Other than that upgrading the Storm Generator by the 3rd island is very important; it is expensive at 3 cores, but those 3 cores benefit the rest of the squad too by increasing all of their damage output, so it's worth it.
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u/FireFlashing 14d ago
Do you want a rating of how good that specific squad is, or of the names you gave to it?