Hi there! Its Vince Noir here – you probably know me. I'm well known for the fact that I saved everyone when the grenade was thrown our way … what do you mean you don't know? Because of that I'm famous everywhere … still no idea? Oh, maybe you don't even know what I'm ranting on about, or maybe you've been living under a rock for the past decade. OK, it's best if I told you what I'm on about.
From that little piece up there, I probably sound human to you. Well, surprise surprise, because I'm not. No one is in this story. I'm a robot – a fully functional robot. This is the future, thousands of years after your time, whatever year you're currently in. There are hardly any humans about – we've taken over the planet now, ha!
So, about this robotic business. One crucial thing you must know is there are three types of robots; Surge, Ram – which is my model – and Patch. You can probably guess which features stand out for the models, right? No? OK, I'll explain each one through.
Surges can smoothly move around on any kind of terrain by its antigravity cyber core. It uses powerful laser attacks to penetrate heavy metals with its long blades for arms. As you can guess Surges don't have legs. Apart from speed bonuses, they also have useful evade and long-range bonuses. Evade helps them to avoid attacks, which can save them from fatal blows. Long-range increases the damage done per bullet which they fire from their guns.
Patches possess strong physical power, which makes them much stronger. They have wheels for their feet but they do have legs, which means they can run as well as rolling about, only their running won't be as fast as Rams. They have stunted arms with a pair of big fists at the end. Their strength means they are much more effective at using critical than any other models. They also have trans bot attack and defence.
Rams were created on the concept of an insects' adaptability. They look the most like humans, but their arms are the special parts. One is a four-fingered big fist which – and believe me – can hurt if punched rather fiercely. The other is an arm with a claw for its hand. Rams are best at transformation – they can have bonus trans speed (which shortens the transformation time), special trans, and transformation gauge (which increases the length of the gauge, giving a longer transformation time).
After reading all that, you're probably wondering what is transformation. Every robot can transform into a bigger, more powerful form. Each robot has a transformation gauge, which gradually charges itself. The energy it charges can temporarily change both the structure of the robot and its power when attacking. Once the gauge is full, a robot can start the transformation process, a stage which shuts down the gauge charger and opens the flap to release the energy. Once the process is complete the robot is transformed. While they are transformed, the energy is released from the gauge. Once there is no more energy left, the robot transforms back to their smaller self. Then the flap closes and the gauge charger is switched on once again. The longer the gauge, the longer the robot can stay in transformation.
Every robot starts at level 1, and with each battle they fight at the fight stimulators (bear with me, I will explain), if they win they earn gigas (the currency) and experience points. When they gain enough experience points they level up and so on. The highest possible level is 100. So far no one has been able to go higher, but it is believed to be possible. So with all those gigas the robots earn, what do they spend it on?
They can spend their gigas in shops selling equipment needed for a robot. The most basic items are head, body and arm armour. Each model has its own type, and each armour has a level requirement before it can be worn. Every robot has a non-armour form, which is also their nude form, and by wearing armour they cover up their nude form. Armour gives benefits – the head increases a robot's health points, the body increases the trans attack damage, and the arms increase the basic attack damage. Apart from armour shops also sell guns, shields, shoulder parts (to protect the shoulder), mini-bots (small creatures which circle you), energy fields (packs which project an image swirling round the base of a robot), and skill cards. More items can be brought by Coins, which can only be purchased by paying thousands of gigas.
Every robot can adapt skills. There are two types – passive and active. Active skills are used to attack enemies, whereas passive skills are used for self-defence. Skill cards are cards with the knowledge. They can be inserted into a chamber for the cards, and the system will read the data. However each card has a limited amount of use, and once the card has expired, it is no longer useful, therefore meaning they will have to go to the shops to buy another card if they wished to continue using it.
You probably wonder just how the cards expire. In every town there are fight stimulators. These are places where robots can go, free of charge, and play either alongside (sector) or against other players (Player vs Player – PVP for short – or base). Upon entrance, everybody is given special game armour. Then the robots can into a room, where one person is the room master. There are eight places in each room, and the room master selects the map they will do. In front of the room master is a red button, which he or she presses to start the game. In order to start, everyone must push a blue button in front to indicate they are ready. Every button lights up when pushed.
The robots are then 'taken' into the game, when really they stay in the room but there is a screen in front which shows them. Once the game starts they can control their character through the special armour. It is during these games do skills get counted as used.
Sector mode means the players are against viruses. Viruses are the bad guys, in a way. The small viruses with no special abilities are the minions, and they are not as harmful. Whenever it is nearing the end of the sector, the boss virus appears. These viruses have two or three special moves each and they are bigger, more powerful, and much tougher to beat. Once a boss virus is killed, any of its minions that are still alive also die. At the end a revival can appears and revives any robots that have died during the fight. Sometimes there is also a box. The first person to snatch it gets whatever is inside it. Boxes are colour co-ordinated; red box means armour with bonuses (e.g. SpikerGUN+2, which means bonus to long-range attacks); blue box means other parts (e.g. TowerTG+1); and brown boxes means gun (e.g. Polarspike+3). Smaller boxes are known as drop items, and they contain a coin item which lasts for 3 days, 1 if it is a trans pack (a pack which can be equipped to transform into something different).
After all that talking, I suppose you should have picked up everything you need to know. The only other thing is there is a large company called Acclaim which deals with official merchandise, as well as overseeing the production of parts. They are very closely associated with the Authority, the government in other words.
So now you know more, I suppose this will make things easier. Enough about what I said, more about me and my best mate Howard Moon. First let's start with me. I'm a Ram, and quite a well-known one. I'm level 67, and I'm in a full Scritter +3 set. Obviously you don't know what the Scritter looks like, so I'll try and explain.
The armour is a combination of red, yellow, grey, dark brown and white. Only my head, knees and arm joint are white. I am mostly red, especially at the legs and shoulders, with brown feet and a brown hand. My claw arm is basically a rounded disc with four knife-like blades sticking out north, south, east, and west.
My shield is a TowerTG+3, which is a long black rectangular shield, a gold 'T' engraved on. The shield gives me extra trans gauge, like my arms do. For my shoulder, I have a Blocker, which is white on the surface but blue on the bottom. The Blocker gives me a trans defence bonus, which reduces the damage done to me while in trans. An Orbiter+3, which is a red mini-bot with a single eye and two thin red legs, circles me. The mini-bot gives a bonus 144 to my special trans, along with my head. Circling my feet is a normal Sparkler, a white disk with lightning-shaped lines across it. My gun is a Launcher+1, a big dark lumpy gun with blue stripes across it.
Enough of me, I'll move on to my best mate Howard Moon. He is a level 68 Patch, one level above me, and he's really into jazz. Ever heard of something called a saxophone? I find it a pretty weird instrument but he and loads of other jazz people meet up and blow away at their saxophone. If I'm honest, I'm allergic to it – I just can't stand it! I prefer something more robotic. Apparently the saxophone is an instrument dating back to the 19th century. Who knows how it managed to survive until now? If I could turn back time, I would have demolished the first ever saxophones.
Enough about me showing my hatred for jazz. Howard wears an Ultrabash +3 body and arms, but his head is a very rare +4 item. The Ultrabash armour is literally dark beige armour with orange and blue markings. How dull is that compared to my armour? Anyway, Howard's stacked with Coins. Recently he brought a so-called pair of wings called Tangler – more like two long sticks tangled with emerald green leaves and ivy stuck to a box which moves them up and down – and a trans pack (he now transforms into Frosty the Snowman – ha!). He's even got a Coin mini-bot – a cute little tiger with the world's biggest pair of clear blue eyes – a Lil Stripe. His Energy Field is a Lucky Aura, which makes him luckier – it's basically a white circle with green edges with the pattern of a white four-leaf clover with a green stem drawn down the middle. Even his gun is a Coin item – it's a red gun with yellow and white bits – called a Joy gun. Thankfully he still has some giga items. His shoulder is a Spectre Pad – a dark blue rectangular object – and his shield is also a Tower, only its bonus is TG+2.
So there's enough of us. You must probably be quite bored by now, since all I've managed to do is give a massive talk. I know I am. Now that you know more about us, I think it's time to get cracking with the story, don't you think?