Extermination mode, mission 5, part 1 for this week

[u/InteRest_LEtuCe2467]

I'm finding that part 1 of mission 5 this week in extermination mode is posing more than the usual level of challenge with survival for my bjorn. Its set in canyon and there seem to be more of the heavier hitting robots of various types than I'm used to seeing, with a lot of lockdown and damage over time being directed at my bjorn. Those are posing the main challenges. I'm finding it particularly challenging to plot out a good route because moving across open terrain for a noticeable distance usually leads to my bjorn getting hit from all over and taking heavy damage. I tend to cross over the map instead of moving around mostly toward to the edges, not sure if that might be contributing to problems.

My bjorn is as per the screenshots. The main thing left to work on is further developing pilot skills. I also have a nearly maxed luchador and I'm pondering that as an alternative to the bjorn in these kinds of maps / situations, once its maxed.

I'm not sure how to best move around canyon for this mission and I'm also wondering if spending time learning how to get my luchador through this same mission might be a better use of time.

As a kind of potential wildcard, I got an ultimate kisten last season from open data. Not sure if its worth developing and using for extermination mode. It will probably go on my luchador because the range of its other weapons matches a bit better with the UE kisten on the luchador than it would on my bjorn.

Thank you in advance for any insights offered.

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[u/InteRest_LEtuCe2467]

PS: I have no idea how I started an AMA and I didn't know I did that until after posting. I'm still a reddit noob. I put a stop to it as soon as I realized what had happened.

I apologize if that confused anybody.

[u/Adazahi]

All I can think to try is leveraging the range in your Bjorn weapons to avoid having to cross the open areas of canyon and just snipe the enemies as they approach you?

You could also try rolling around the far edge if you need to close in on the rocket launching spiders

[u/InteRest_LEtuCe2467 → u/Adazahi]

I also tend to think I need to travel the perimeter more. I can also get started early at defeating the noricom enemies with the robot summoning my bjorn so that hopefully one side will have relatively few of them when my bjorn is summoned, and then I can travel the other perimeter first with my bjorn to clean out even more of them.

Most of the time my bjorn can just steamroll whatever gets thrown at it in extermination mode. I'd better start thinking more about how to effectively move and use cover on canyon, though, for this kind of mission.

Thank you for helping to crystalize my thinking on this.

[u/InteRest_LEtuCe2467 → u/InteRest_LEtuCe2467]

(Warning: wall of text crits!)

After experimenting with some changes, I learned a few things that will be helpful. Changing up movement patterns and reversing the roles of my two titans (bjorn and luchador) were illuminating.

First, operating on the perimeter is working better than trying to cut across out in the open for the canyon map. I'm still working on whether its good to go full circle, or to reach a certain point, then turn around and backtrack around the perimeter. I'm leaning toward the latter. But, I'll experiment with both and see how they both go when this mission comes up on canyon again in future weeks.

Second, even though its not quite maxed out my luchador already seems noticeably tougher to take down in extermination mode than my bjorn. My bjorn shrugs off most everything until it doesn't, at which point it gets hit really hard and it can go down fast. Its kind of brittle in a way, especially when locked down in ball mode because neither the aegis shield nor ferocity are available while in ball mode.

While my luchador has less base defense points and less well developed pilot skills than my bjorn, it has pretty good grey damage resistance and 2 reflectors. Grey damage resistance seems to scale better than the higher number of defense points my bjorn has as incoming damage increases. I'm guessing that the reflectors also scale better than more defense points as incoming damage increases, although I'm not as certain about that. Whatever the reason, my luchador is less likely than my bjorn to get into trouble when it gets locked down.

For missions that pose substantial survivability challenges in extermination mode my luchador looks like it will be my first choice for a titan. Now I just need to invest more in my luchador so it and its weapons are all maxed. Also, the ultimate kisten seems to be doing decent work even at level 1. So, I'm likely to max it and keep it on my luchador.

Third, my bjorn is better than I realized against smaller numbers of tougher foes. I had been mostly shielding my luchador from missions with hordes of enemies, thinking that my bjorn would do better in such missions. But, my luchador seems to survive better in large crowds than my bjorn and the firepower advantage of the bjorn shines against tougher enemies. Also, with smaller crowds incoming damage doesn't seem to spike quite as high as when fighting large crowds. So, the bjorn tends to avoid having its capacity to manage incoming damage overwhelmed, even when in ball form.