Perks, Traits, and Game Rules

Today we list the traits and perks that characters can choose from, and after we will be covering combat rules. Certain perks and traits are only open to certain backgrounds, (like infinite resources) and others have prerequisites. Perks and traits are chosen only at character creation, though players gain another one every 10 levels. The difference between a perk and a trait is a simple one, a perk just provides a bonus, while a trait has a negative and a larger bonus.

So without further ado, perks and traits. (I am also copying the perks/traits from the background post, so they can all be in one location, and I'm adding prereqs, background limits, etc.)

Basic Training: You have had basic military training, this imparts a passive +1 to all attack and damage rolls, and all 3 defense types. This stacks with every other bonus given from skills/gear/etc. (Requires 2 marksmanship and 2 combat survival training, must be taken at level 1.)

(We tell them there are alligators in there... but it's really just turtles and goldfish.)

Experienced Warrior: You have actual combat experience, this translates into your character starting 2 levels higher than everyone else. This gives you 2 extra points to distribute in your skills as you see fit, and places you closer to the HP increases at level 5, and bonus perks at 10. (Background Specific)

Combat Specialty (Insert Enemy Type Here), You have exceptional experience, training, and often malice for the type of enemy chosen. Whenever facing the chosen enemy type, you gain +2 to all attack rolls, damage rolls, stealth, knowledge, intimidation, etc. Your critical threat range also increases from a natural 20 to 19-20 against that type of foe. (No prereqs, will get written into your background.)

Close Quarters Combat Training: Whether it is advanced martial arts, boxing, a lot of bar brawls, or just accumulated over a lifetime of close encounters, your character is much more effective when the enemy gets to close. You gain +2 to hit and damage with all melee attacks, and an additional +2 in grapple situations.  A nice passive bonus of this skill is a +1 HP, as you're tougher than normal as well. (Requires 4 Survival Training) (Human Scale Only)

("I know Kung Fu.")

Marksmanship Training: You have advanced military training with all manner of long ranged weaponry. This skill grants a +2 to hit and damage with all ranged weapons, and grants a situational bonus to the range of whatever weapon they are using. (Example, grenades might have a +2 max range while a sniper rifle gets a +10.) (Requires 4 Marksmanship) (Human Scale only)

Support Specialty Slots: You gain 3 minor accessory slots, which can hold items like med-kits, grenades, communication equipment, stun guns, etc. The support specialist will have a list in the gear post that will list the options available starting. The communication equipment can call in airstrikes though, so think on that. (Background Specific)

Narcissistic Personality: You are a completely self centered rich douchebag trying to save the world. You must have things your way, you genuinely don't give a shit about bureaucracy, social etiquette, and other niceties. This stubbornness grants a +2 psychic defense, if you don't role play this properly though I will punish you in some way. (No prereqs.)

(Narcissism in one of its many forms...)

Infinite Resources: You are worth literally billions of dollars. You have your own Jaeger bays, labs, ships, aircraft, staff on hand, and a world wide network of businesses and connections. This grants a passive +6 on any knowledge roll made out of combat, and a +2 bonus to those made in combat. This also grants a 50% bonus to credits earned after missions. (Background specific, unlocks Billionaire options.)

Scavenged Necro-Gear Tech: Part of your Jaeger you pieced together from the remains of the 'Necro-Gear' that washed ashore after the last great battle involving Godzilla and the remains of our Jaeger fleet. This individual piece of gear is more advanced than anything available to us, but it is only 1 piece, and you can not pick the 'reactor' or 'core' pieces. It must be something like 'fist' or 'knee' or 'shoulder' or something along those lines. It will have a unique ability though whatever it is. (Background specific)

Bonus Primary/Secondary Accessories: Gaining one free for both Jaeger and human scale combat. Primary accessories are things like weapons, armor, rail gun, jaeger sword, etc. Secondary accessories would be like grappling hooks on your armor/belt/gun, or anything 2 credits or less from the various gear posts. (Background Specific)

Sixth Sense: You can sense impending danger, this grants a +2 bonus on all defense types, and a +2 on all perception rolls. (Requires psychic ability.)

("I see spirits.")

Bonus Psychic Spirin Trait: Your spirin gains an extra trait/perk. Must be chosen from: Psychic Mind, Enhanced Human Synergy, Mind Meld, or Psychic Spirin. (Background specific)

Major Psychic Ability: A very powerful offensive, defensive, or utility ability, thought up by the player, and I will make the numbers. Various options include pyrokinesis, with things like fireballs, firewalls, etc. telekinesis, which would allow you to hit with raw force, or with an object, maybe even a force cage later on, or even just raw psychic power, melting people's brains. Defensive abilities involve all manner of defense enhancing abilities, from shielding yourself or others, resisting elemental type damage, (possibly even EMP) and the like. Utility skills are things like group invisibility to a specific type of opponent, (Xenomorph, Necromorph, etc.) powerful heals, and movement abilities, like flying or super speed. (Background specific)

(Oh this? Not a big deal. Did you want your car back?)

Minor Psychic Ability: Lesser versions of the above, if you wanted a powerful attack and still the ability to say, make yourself (not the group like above) invisible to xenomorphs, this minor ability allows that. Just about anything in the major ability group is allowed, just at reduced effectiveness. (For example, you can have a damage ability, but not a big AOE damage ability with minor ability.) (Requires Psychic Ability)

Impromptu Science: You are exceptional at quick, absurd thinking of technological applications of things that don't seem all together probable. The 'Samantha Carter' ability to figure a way out of the situation when no one else can. This grants all manner of role play options not available to others. ("Can I try to jury rig the fallen Jaeger reactor to overload the plasma cannon for a massive burst of power?" "Umm... role a d20." "16" "Yep. critical damage, go for it." for example.) As far as combat numbers go, you roll a combat intelligence check, (DC determined by the difficulty of what you are attempting) and if you succeed, you do whatever it is you're going for. Essentially a science jack of all trades catch all skill. (Requires 3 combat intelligence, 3 jaeger survival training, and 3 knowledge)

(I obviously think she's awesome... since I use her name in every other post...)

Favored Enemy: A more focused, intense hatred/training in taking down a specific type of opponent. Must have a Combat Specialty, then when this perk is chosen, you pick a specific type of opponent, (Examples, Covenant Elites, Xenomorph Queens, EMP Kaiju.) and against that type of opponent you gain +2 additional to hit and damage, (for a +4 total, stacking with combat specialty) and the threat range for critical hits increases to 18-20. In addition, you ignore some damage from those opponents, gaining 2/- DR (damage reduction) against the chosen enemy. (Requires Combat Specialty.)

Lightning Reflexes: You're fast on your feet, this translates to a +2 bonus to both initiative rolls, +2 defense against attacks of opportunity, and a +2 bonus on saves vs. AOE damage, Traps, and Burns. (No prereqs.)

Improved Initiative: You're great at getting the jump on your opponents. +4 initiative rolls. (No prereqs.)

Toughness: You're tougher than normal, you gain +3 HP. This also transfers through the neural link to your Jaeger, strengthening it by +10 HP.  (No prereqs, can take multiple times.)

Weapon Specialization: You have special training with a chosen weapon type. When using that type of weapon, you have a +1 to hit and damage. (Type, like old school pistol, shotguns, bladed weapons, etc.) 

Unique Starting Point, Africa: (Background Specific, 'The Survivor') You begin the game differently than the other backgrounds, and because of that you have a unique ally, a powerful, alien unique ally. 

J.A.R.V.I.S.: You have a highly advanced, very helpful, integrated AI that assists in the management of your entire business network, your power armor, bank accounts, Jaeger targeting and the like. While yours might not be named JARVIS and sound like an English butler, it will still be polite, friendly, and incredibly helpful. Provides a +1 targeting assist bonus on all attacks made while in Power Armor or a Jaeger, (stacks with targeting bonus from head piece.) increases the knowledge bonus of infinite resources made in combat from +2 to +4, and empowers multiple other 'billionaire' perks. (Requires Infinite Resources)

Predator Drone Fleet: Purchasing an enormous amount of old Predator Drones (And airstrip rights) from the U.S. government has given you a worldwide network able to strike anywhere, with the proper target painting. This grants a 2 use per mission ability to call in an airstrike, which deals 4d6 to a large area, or that number to a single kaiju. The ability requires 2 rounds for the drones to re-position for another attack on the same area, but a rapid fire dual use on two areas in a line/arc is allowed. JARVIS grants another use per mission, and a +2 on all attack rolls associated with the predator drones. (Requires infinite resources, this ability can be upgraded with research and investment.)

(You own a few hundred of these around the globe...)

Jaeger Battle Support Navy: (Requires Infinite Resources) By purchasing decommissioned warships off of financially strapped nations like Russia, you've put together for yourself a 4 ship support fleet, independent of X-Com. 

This fleet contains one actual WWII Era battle ship, with 2 weapon options, Anti-Air guns, which deal 2d4 damage, (This is Jaeger Scale damage, more about that in the rules later.) This is meant for closer combat situations, having a range of 6. The primary weapon however, is a very large Rail Gun, with a limited aiming capability, a pretty long charge time, and good damage. This weapon deals 5d8+5 damage, and has a range of about 50 miles. It is not effective in closer combat (where I would use spaces to measure). The Ship has 40 HP, 14 physical and 13 energy defense, and 4 movement speed. Jarvis increases all the attack rolls of the battle ship by +2.

(One of these, with a Rail Gun taking up the entire front area.)

The 2nd ship is a turn of the century Russian nuclear submarine, it does have torpedoes that deal 2d8+2 damage, and sea to land rockets that deal the same damage, but it is more important for its undersea stealth abilities and advanced sensors. The Submarine has 20 HP, 13 physical and 12 energy defense, 4 movement speed. (+5 base perception checks, +5 stealth) Jarvis increases the attack rolls, stealth and perception rolls by +2.

(Something along these lines.)

The 3rd ship is a small destroyer, from the 2050's, it is significantly more maneuverable than the other ships, and contains mainly Gauss based weaponry, anti-air craft guns and some larger caliber 'anti-kaiju' weaponry. The Anti-air guns deal 3d4 damage, with a range of 8, and the rail cannons deal 3d8+3, with a range of 30 spaces, with 1 round charge up. They are also lighter and easier to adjust then the large model on the battle ship, having a full 180 degree range of motion. The ship has 30 HP, 16 physical and 14 energy defense. It moves 6 squares a round. Jarvis gives this ship +2 on all attack rolls.

(Like this, slightly better armed and faster.)

The final ship has no weaponry of its own, but is the most important ship, a decommissioned American Aircraft Carrier. (Nimitz Class, a little over 1000 feet long.) Currently it houses a Jaeger, 3 Pelican transport craft to carry the Jaeger, and several older US fighter craft. (F-14's, F-16's, etc.) The ship has 50 HP, 14 physical and 13 energy defense, with a movement speed of 4, and is 2x3 'squares' in size on the combat map. Jarvis increases the movement speed by 1. The Fighter craft can perform 2 'strikes' with their explosives, and can attempt to fight kaiju and ships with their guns after. The missile strike has a 'deploy range' of 100 miles, double the railgun, and can deal 3d6 to a large area, or single kaiju. The fighter jets automatic weapons deal 1d4 damage to ships and kaiju. If used in an AOE attack on human scale opponents it deals 4d4+4 damage, save vs AOE damage. Jarvis increases the attack rolls of the fighter planes by 2, and the defense scores by 2 as well. The planes have 5 HP individually.

(Exactly like this.)

All the ships and abilities of this trait are able to be upgraded, with the proper amount of credits/research tech. However, these abilities, as awesome as they are, are limited use. If your fleet is stationed in San Diego and you're getting deployed to Washington DC they can't make it through the Panama Canal and around the country in time. The Jaeger is just taken by the 3 pelicans to the combat location. If the same situation was occurring and the enemy was in San Francisco or maybe even Seattle, your ships could make it to help. So that is the downside to this as opposed to the predator drone strike. You will have the drone strike every mission, that might not be the case with the ship fleet.

EMP Shielding: Experimental alloys and insulated wiring helps ward of EMP shock waves. This reworks not only the Jaeger and Power armor, but all associated support structure. If you have a ship fleet, or a predator drone fleet, those also have the insulated electronics. This grants +4 EMP resistance. (Requires Infinite Resources)

For the moment, that shall conclude perks and traits, I'll add more later.

Let us begin on playing the game, Combat Rules!

We're starting with human scale combat, which is easier than Jaeger combat.

(So, I know I'm going to make some assumptions and probably assume a 'base knowledge' level, that you've played some d20 games, it isn't a big deal if you haven't, I'll help you out.)

This is d20 based, so like DnD, you roll a d20 to determine if you hit, make a save, etc. adding the various modifiers. (If your guy has a +6 to hit with his assault rifle, you would roll 1d20+6, trying to get higher than the target number.)

Every player has 3 defense types, and each attack has an attack type. It is really easy to figure out, a gun, claws, knife, etc. is a physical attack, and is rolled against physical defense, and if it is something like a plasma grenade, beam sword or perhaps a pyrokinetic fireball, it would roll against energy or psychic respectively.

As combat goes along, you will be asked to make a save vs. some sort of effect. Every save works the exact same way, you roll a 1d20, (+ or - any modifiers) and get higher than a 10. Kill a xenomorph with a knife? Make a save against Burn to see if the acid burns the knife away. (Or rather if you fling the acid off in time.) This will occur against EMP, AOE damage, and all kinds of other special attacks.

(A Kaiju charging an EMP shockwave.)

So we've established the basics, you got attack rolls and saves, you add modifiers, and you try to beat a target number, either a 10 in the case of a save, or whatever the defense you attacking is. (A xenomorph with 16 physical defense would take 16 to hit with a gun, baseball bat, etc.)

From there, you have a few combat options that we will cover.

First off, when starting a battle, and at the start of EVERY round, initiative is rolled. In one on one fights, this can allow for sometimes two actions in a row. The two init. perks are very important, as this is a difficult skill to boost. We roll a 1d20, and add init. modifier, if any, to determine combat order.

Charging Melee Attack: By performing a full round action, you may move at double your movement speed placing your momentum into a melee attack. This grants a +2 to hit and damage, but grants you a -2 to energy and physical defense for a round after. (There are several items that make this bonus and distance greater.) Doing a full movement action you can also cover double your movement speed, just without attack. This is different then Jaeger rules, stating that here and now.

Grappling: Many of the invaders are at their most deadly when they have you pinned. Xenomorphs can use that horrid second jaw, necromorphs will try to infest you, and Kaiju of course love to grapple. Most of these creatures are stronger and tougher than a normal human, so it takes special training to be able to go toe to toe with these creatures.

Grappling works like a physical attack, only you add your 'grapple bonus' to all offensive and defensive d20 rolls. If you have a +6 physical attack in melee, and you have a +1 grapple bonus, all your grapple checks would be made at +7, for example.

The way a grapple works is like so:

A person says 'I'm grappling' and makes an attack roll. Most alien grappling attacks do not provoke attacks of opportunity, but most made by human players will. (An attack of opportunity is as it sounds, a free attack.) When first initiating a grapple, a creature must first hit your standard defense, and then both creatures involved roll a d20, adding their grapple scores, whoever gets the higher score wins.

If the defensive player wins, the grapple never happens, and most of the time there will be no damage, even if the initial attack 'hit.'

If the offensive player wins, the target is 'grappled' and they suffer normal physical damage. (There are some accessories that add to grapple damage specifically, you would add that damage now.) And the target is grappled.

The next turn, the offensive player can now perform any special attack that it may have, (Example, xenomorph secondary jaw.) but first another grapple check is made, and if the offensive player wins, the attack hits. If the attack misses at this phase, the player is still grappled, but he is no longer pinned, and the attack doesn't occur. (Grapples can last many many rounds of back and forth.)

(You can guess who won that grapple check...)

Critical hits (and critical failures) are universal in all combat forms. If you roll a 20 or a 1, you roll again to 'confirm' the critical success or failure. This means that you would roll again, trying to beat the same number you just rolled against, to confirm. Should you confirm a critical hit, you deal x2 damage. (some weapons deal more, like x3) If you confirm a critical failure, meaning you fail again on that roll, something really bad happens. (Examples: You're shooting your shotgun at a covenant elite. You roll a natural 20, and you have to roll again to 'confirm.' The Elite has 19 physical defense, so on your 2nd d20 roll, you would have to beat a 19, if you do, you confirm. If you don't, you still hit, it just deals normal damage. On the flip side of that, same scenario, only you roll a 1. You would roll again, trying to 'confirm.' If you rolled below the 19 mark, you critically fail, and something bad happens, like the Elite grabbing your shotgun from you and smashing you in the face with it. If you beat that hypothetical mark, in this case a 19, you just miss, nothing bad happens.)

(Yep.)

Critical Surges (and negative surges): A house rule spanning over a decade now in all my games. When you roll either a 20 or a 1, you must confirm, like above. If on the followup roll, you roll either another 20 in the case of a critical hit, or a 1 in the case of a critical miss, you 'surge' having an exceptional effect happen. Each time you roll a 20 or a 1 on the follow up rolls, the 'incredibleness' of your success/failure is amplified. This stacks each time you roll a 20 or a 1. (The house record is 4 20's in a row, which gave the player a massive critical bonus, permanent fire resistance, and permanent on hit fire damage, the critical failures disabled all the players internal weapons, shield generators, and the like. These were a DnD game and home made Fallout d20 game respectively.)

The final human scale combat rule we're covering is cover and concealment. When covenant are firing plasma that will kill you in a hit or two, sticking to cover is a requirement. Getting behind cover adds a flat bonus to your defenses, energy and physical only. (Psychic damage doesn't care about the wall you're hiding behind.)

25% cover, +2 defenses, 50% cover, +4 defenses, 75% cover, +7 defenses, 90% cover, +10 defenses.

Concealment is different than cover. Cover is something physically there to block an attack, concealment is smoke, fog, darkness, visibly obscuring things that affect hit chance. If a person has say, 30% concealment, and they are hit by a normal plasma rifle, the attacker would then roll a d10, and if they rolled a 1-3, the attack misses. Concealment goes from 20% up to 90%.

(Taking cover is required for survival.)

Attacks of opportunity: This occurs whenever a player/creature leaves themselves open, and is a free attack by an opponent. Common occurrences for this are: initiating grappling, leaving melee range, (like in the melee with a xenomorph and running away, it might take a tail swipe at you.) performing special attacks in melee range, (like trying to snipe a far away opponent with a covenant grunt next to you.) or trying to run across a heavily covered area. (Like running across a city intersection under siege by overseer forces, they might get a shot or two at you while running across the road.) Every player, and opponent except for a select few, (like Xenomorphs) get 1 attack of opportunity per round.

That about covers special instances and basics of human combat, now we move onto Jaeger scale combat.

First off, Jaeger scale combat is the exact same as human in style, dice rolls, and the like. The numbers are a little higher obviously, but all the terminology and attack types, like grappling, stays the same.

'Jaeger Spaces' when I describe distance, are not comparable. 1 Jaeger 'square' equals roughly 5 human squares. (Give or take, that isn't solid.) So that 20 square sniper rifle is a few strides for a Jaeger. Also, Jaeger HP and human HP are different.

Jaegers have obviously significantly higher armor factors, hit points, etc. (Gypsy Danger survives a somewhat nearby 240 megaton nuke at the bottom of the ocean. These things are tough.) This has certain effects on game play. First off, if a human scale soldier is shooting at a Jaeger or Kaiju, it is possible to hurt them, only there are some rather sizable obstacles to that.

(Putting some scale to this.)

Every large scale creature has a flat Damage Reduction Value, based on whether they have light armor, medium armor, or heavy armor.

All light armor creatures have 15/- DR, Medium have 20/- and Heavy armor has 30/- DR. This is only for human to kaiju scale, like shooting a kaiju with your laser rifle, or a tank cannon, helicopter rockets, etc. Certain attacks, like many of those in the ship support or predator drone category, have separate numbers for a kaiju strike, those supersede these DR numbers. (This is why it is feasible to slowly take down a category 1 kaiju with conventional weapons.)

As far as armor types go, all Jaegers are Medium armor, period. Category 1-3 Kaiju tend to be in the light to medium armor range, and category 4 and 5 are mostly heavy armor. The majority of Comet Kaiju are also heavy armored.

Thus, while it is possible for smaller forces to support/assist against large scale foes, a jaeger is required. Even a full modern day (2100 modern) Gauss weaponry equipped naval fleet would be unable to go toe to toe with anything beyond a category 2 without Jaeger assistance.

Now that we've covered small things attacking big things, lets go the other way.

Your jaeger sees a group of xenomorphs scaling the side of a building, and you want to burn them with your plasma scorcher. You simply say you want to attack them, and then all the enemies affected must make a save Area of Effect damage. If they fail the save, all affected take max damage of the weapon. (Let's say the plasma scorcher deals 2d8+4, those failing automatically take 20 damage. Dying pretty much.) If they succeed in the save, the jaeger rolls damage, like normal, and those affected take that damage. (This would hypothetically give those xenomorphs a chance to survive, if the roll was lower.) If a target makes the save exceptionally well, (8+ or critical success) they take no damage.

This makes Jaegers very effective as support weapons in large scale city sieges, if the Jaeger gets a break from fighting kaiju for a few rounds, his allies can call in a 'Jaeger Strike' allowing the jaeger to stomp, burn, rail gun, etc. conventional targets, causing massive damage.

While this isn't really in either category, attacking a space ship, like a covenant banshee or overseer battlecruiser, is just like attacking a Kaiju, the numbers are the exact same 'scale.' roll damage normally. (A Banshee only has 10 HP for example, so chances are a stray fist can kill one from a decent warrior.) Those small ships just have a higher on average defense number, dodging damage more than absorbing it.

Now lets move into the brunt of it, Jaeger vs. Kaiju fighting.

This battle is ran exactly like a standard human on xenomorph or other style fight, rolling your d20's to hit, damage dice, and the like. All the DR numbers and such above are ignored for Kaiju on Jaeger battles, though the armor type affects many weapons. (Buzzsaws, swords, etc.)

The following is different in large scale combat however.

Movement is different than human scale. Your charge/full movement range is dependent on your base movement speed, not just double, like for human scale.

Movement speed: 3 or below, MS +1 (MS = movement speed.)

Movement speed  4-6, MS +2

Movement speed 7+. MS +3.

Thus movement rates are more important in Jaeger battles, since you can't make drastic moves (like a charge or double move.) at the range you can in human form. Certain accessories allow for double move speed charge options, but not every Jaeger will have that.

Charging works at the max speed of the leg type above, and numerically works like normal charges. (Starts at +2 to hit and damage)

(Booster rocket punch go!)

Many Jaegers have ranged weapons that have a charge time. If a Jaeger only moves its base movement speed while charging, and the enemy doesn't move more than 5 spaces per turn of charge, the targeting computer will target locking, granting a +2 per round of charge. This may be done by choice with other non-charging ranged weapons, that are being fired in tandem with the weapon. (Example, you have a Rail gun and 2 mounted shoulder rocket launchers. The railgun has a 1 round charge time, the +2 lock on bonus will also go to the shoulder rockets as long as they are fired simultaneously with the rail gun.) This will help those powerful charge up abilities to have greater effectiveness against slower opponents. (Rule effect: +2 to hit per round of charge, opponent can't move more than 5 spaces per turn in that charging time frame to gain this bonus.)

Cover rules and concealment rules are the exact same, it's just going to be situationally much more difficult to find large cover/concealment bonuses, since Jaegers are sometimes 300 feet tall.

Grappling rules are also the same.

I imagine more rules will need to be covered as time goes on, so this post will probably be updated from time to time with more perks/traits, and rules as we need them, but I think I got the basics covered enough to actually run a campaign.

*Added Rules, Jaeger Infiltration*

There will be times when an enemy will try to break into your jaeger and fight you. In times like these, you have a few options.

First, if your Jaeger has an internal defense accessories, you can use those, making Jaeger Combat Survival checks to try and take care of the threat, but if you don't have those installed, this is how it works.

When the creature first makes 'entry' whether it is through a weak point in the armor, or actually tearing off the hatch on the head itself, the pilot makes a Perception check. If the check passes, the pilot is aware of the intruder, and has a few options.

If the player's spirin is in the cockpit with the character, the spirin may take on combat form, and try to fight off the intruder.

If the player wants to attack the intruder himself, he can either have the spirin take over primary piloting, with the AI, which makes the Jaeger still able to fight, but with a -2 on all combat numbers. If the player either doesn't have a spirin, or both need to fight off the threat, the Jaeger can continue functioning on limited neural link and AI assistance, with a -4 on all combat rolls. The Jaeger can function this way for 4 rounds before it shuts itself down.

Of course, if you fail the perception check, you will get maybe another chance or two to notice, situationally, but the last thing your character might remember is looking at a xenomorph tail sticking out through its chest.

Building your Jaeger

Now we have covered how to make a character, a spirin, and to equip your character. Now we cover how to build your own Jaeger. Depending on your background, you will have so many Jaeger credits to build your Jaeger with. There are essentially 3 economic levels though, the 'salvaged' cheaper equipment, the standard military equipment, the high end military gear, and the 'infinite resources' billionaire options.


The Jaeger is made up of many parts, the bare minimum required for functionality are a core, a head, legs, and arms. From there, you can add multiple types of weapons, and multiple accessories.

We will start with Cores, the core is the reactor containing unit, contains all the connections for arms and legs, head, shoulders for weapons, and more. The core is usually the most expensive piece of the Jaeger.

5 credits, Salvaged Standard Core: Uses either an advanced nuclear reactor, or a more modern fusion reactor. The salvaged series gets the bulk of its parts from the various 'Oblivion Bays' essentially Jaeger graveyards. They take the most complete ones, and piece together what they can. The salvaged standard core has +30 HP, +2 physical, +1 energy defense, and 1 accessory slot.

(All that salvage comes from somewhere...)

7 credits, Salvaged Tri-Arm Core: Relatively popular salvaged core, with 3 armed support. The core has +20 HP, +2 physical, +1 energy defense, and 1 accessory slot. Multiple armed models gain an extra attack per round, at a -5 penalty. (There is an accessory to make that only a -2.)

7 credits, Salvaged Heavy Core: A standard core with substantially more plating grafted onto it. This weighs the core down, slowing its movement for toughness. +40 HP, +3 physical, +1 energy defense, -1 movement speed, and 1 accessory slot.

10 credits, Standard Military Grade Fusion Core: Using our most modern fusion cores, and strongest steel, the standard for most wealthy modern countries. +45 HP, +3 physical, +2 energy defense, and 2 accessory slots.

12 credits, Standard Military Grade Tri-Arm Core: Our most modern tri-arm core. +35 HP, +3 physical, +2 energy defense, 2 accessory slots.

12 credits, Standard Heavy Core: Heavily reinforces the core, adding multiple feet to the hull thickness, increases toughness significantly, but weighs down the core. +60 HP, +4 physical, +2 energy defense, and 1 accessory slot.

20 credits, Solar Core: A powerful experimental core covered in solar cells, durable clear lacquers, and comes equipped with an experimental Solar Shoulder cannon, which has proven to be very effective. +55 HP, +4 physical, +3 energy defense, 3d10+4 base energy cannon, 3 shots per mission, 1 round charge. This core amplifies other parts in the 'Solar Set,' and has 1 accessory slot.

(Inspiration for the solar shoulder cannon.)

24 credits, Fusion Duo-Core Reactor: A powerful reactor with a twin core set up. Each reactor is 80% the size of our standard fusion reactors, combined making substantially higher energy. This core has 1 bonus jaeger trait, chosen from the list below, and has +50 HP, +4 physical, +3 energy defense, and 2 accessory slots. The twin reactor energy field grants a +2 resistance to EMP.

Jaeger Trait Options:
Enhanced Deflector Shield: A constantly running, significant increase on our Tesla field. The shield has a base 25 HP, and while it is functioning it provides +2 physical and +2 energy defense, and stacks with the tesla field accessory, for a truly powerful defensive ability.

Reactor Beam: Channeling energy directly from the reactor into a focus lens on the core, and unleashing raw fusion energy at an opponent. This attack deals incredible damage, but forces all weapons on the reactor to undergo a 1 round cool down, and the reactor beam itself has a 2 round cool down. The weapon also requires 1 round to charge. 6d12+10 damage base, slices through DR.

Plasma Blade: A very intense energy blade, drawing massive energy off the twin reactors. This weapon can function for 2 rounds without issue, but every round after requires a save, or the twin reactors give out, forcing a 1d3 round reboot time. 4d10 damage base.

Ultra Thrusters: Installs a mega powerful thruster into the shoulder and back section, that draws energy from the Fusion reactors themselves, and this ability triples the movement speed of a Jaeger for 1 round, making the charge to hit and damage bonus +6. Unlike standard rocket boosters, this only has a 2 round cool down.

Infinite Resource Options:

26 credits, Quad Arm Core: What is better than 3 arms? 4 arms! +50 HP, +4 physical, +2 energy defense, quad arm support, and 2 accessory slots.

35 credits, Alloy Plated Duo Reactor Core: Not only does this Core have incredibly expensive salvaged Covenant plating covering it, but it is slightly larger than a standard military model, and houses 2 full sized reactors. This translates to stronger Trait options. The Deflector shield gains +10 HP, the reactor beam gains 1 more d12+5 damage, and the plasma blade does an extra 1d10. The Ultra thrusters only have a 1 round cool down.

Stats: +80 HP, +6 Physical, +4 energy defense, 2 accessory slots.

38 credits, Quad Armed Alloy Core: Like the quad armed core, only majorly reinforced with Alien Alloys. +70 HP, +6 physical, +4 energy defense, quad arm support, and 2 accessory slots.

(Damn Bridge...)

Head Pieces: The head part of the Jaeger contains the pilot chair, and the sensors, display, etc. Each head type adds to hit points, some defense, and targeting sensors that translate into a to hit bonus.

4 credits, Salvaged Single Pilot Head: The most basic of pieces, it functions. +10 hit points, +1 physical defense, and +2 to hit bonus.

6 credits, Salvaged Heavy Single Pilot Head: Heavily reinforced with scrap metal, increases the longevity of the standard head. +20 HP, +1 physical, +1 energy defense, +2 to hit bonus.

8 credits, Standard Military Grade Head: Standard head gear, with our most up to date military targeting assistance. +20 HP, +1 physical, +1 energy defense, +4 to hit bonus.

10 credits, Heavy Military Grade Head: Heavily reinforced military head. +25 HP, +2 physical, +1 energy defense, and +4 to hit bonus.

10 credits, Solar Head: A standard military head with solar panels all over. +15 HP, +1 physical, +1 energy defense, and +4 to hit. The head has built in solar eye beams, and if the core is also equipped, you gain a blind ability. This also counts as another energy source, stacking with powers from the Solar Set.

Solar Eye Beams, 1d10+2 base, range 6, partial action, may be fired in tandem with other weapons, or in the melee, while grappling, etc. Has a 1 round CD.

Solar Flare, point blank AOE status affect. Save vs. Blind or blinded for 1d3 rounds. The ability has a 1 round CD, both abilities share the same CD. (One or the other essentially.)

12 credits, Dragon Scorcher Head: A modified heavy military head, which has a built in flame breath, and defensive barbs. Purchasing this head also changes the overall motif of the Jaeger to a more Draconic style. +25 HP, +2 physical, +1 energy defense, and +4 to hit.

Flame Breath, 2d6+2 damage base, 4 rounds per mission. Partial action, just like Solar Eye beams. Save vs Burn, 1d6 damage for 1d3 rounds on fail.

Defensive Spines, combat spines that assist when opponents get close. Grants +2 damage when grappling.

(Heavily reinforced head... uh huh huh.)

Infinite Resources:

15 credits, Alloy Head: Made almost entirely from salvaged alien alloys, strong defensive ability, and the most advanced targeting sensors available. +30 HP, +3 physical, +2 energy defense, and +5 to hit bonus.

20 credits, 'The Crab': Made from both recovered alien alloys and small recovered bits of Meteorian. It is incredibly powerful, and comes with the 'Defensive Spines' add on. +40 HP, +3 physical and energy defense, +5 to hit. Adds a 'lobster' 'crab' or other armored sea creature motif to the Jaeger.

Defensive Spines, increases grappling damage by +4.

Arm Parts: Come in 2 general types, non-transformative options, that have weapons mounted directly onto them, and transformative options, which store weaponry inside them. Transformative arms may contain any weapon, even non-transformative weapons. All arms have HP, defense bonuses, and an unarmed damage base. Certain damage items are based off of unarmed damage, rather than having damage numbers themselves.

2 credits, Salvaged Standard Arms: +15 HP, +1 physical defense, and 1d8 base damage.

3 credits, Salvaged Tri-Arms: +10 HP, +1 physical defense, 1d8 base damage, third arm comes with buzzsaw or piston drill.

4 credits, Salvaged Heavy Arms: +20, +1 physical and energy defense, 1d10 unarmed damage, -1 movement speed.

4 credits, Salvaged Transformative Arms: +15 HP, +1 physical defense, 1d8 base damage, can house transformative weapons.

5 credits, Standard Arms: +20 HP, +1 physical and energy defense, 1d10 base damage.

(Very wide variety in Jaeger types and styles.)

7 credits, Standard Tri-Arm: +15 HP, +1 physical and energy defense, 1d10 base, either a buzzsaw or piston arm.

8 credits, Standard Transformative Arms: +20 HP, +1 physical and energy defense, 1d10 base, can house transformative weapons, and gives a small bonus to non-transformative weapons made into them.

8 credits, Solar Arms, +15 HP, +1 physical and energy defense, 1d10 base, has solar wrist blasters, 1d8+2 damage, range 6, and with 3 parts, empowers the tesla field ability, if that accessory is installed.

9 credits, Standard Heavies: +30 HP, +2 physical defense, +1 energy defense, 1d12 base, no transformative options.

Infinite Resources:

10 credits, Standard Quad Transformative Arms: +25 HP, +1 physical and energy defense, 1d10 base. Doesn't come with any weapons built in.

12 credits, Alloy Transformatives, +30 HP, +2 physical and energy defense, 2d6 base.

14 credits, Alloy Heavies, +40 HP, +3 physical, +2 energy defense,  2d8 base.

15 credits, Quad Alloy Transformatives: +35 HP, +2 physical and energy defense, 2d6 base.

18 credits, Quad Alloy Heavies: +45, +3 physical, +2 energy defense, 2d8 base.

Legs: Important for mobility and toughness, adds to HP, defenses, and has a base movement speed.

2 credits, Salvaged Standard Legs, +15 HP, +1 Physical defense, 5 movement speed.

3 credits, Salvaged Heavy Legs, +20 HP, +1 Physical and energy defense, 4 movement speed.

3 credits, Salvaged Pneumatic Legs, +10 HP, +1 physical defense, 7 movement speed. All pneumatic legs gain +3 to hit and damage bonus on charge attacks.

4 credits, Standard Military Legs, +20 HP, +1 Physical and Energy defense, 5 movement speed.

5 credits, Military Heavy Legs, +25 HP, +2 Physical and Energy defense, 4 movement speed.

5 credits, Military Pneumatic Legs, +15 HP, +1 Physical and Energy defense, 7 movement speed.

6 credits, Solar Legs, +20 HP, +1 Physical and Energy defense, 5 movement speed, empowers the other solar abilities, with all four unlocking the 'Solar Sword,' a 3d10 energy blade that functions like the plasma blade under duo core reactor. All 4 parts also grants a +2 EMP resistance.

7 credits, Artillery Legs, +25 HP, +2 Physical and +1 Energy defense, 4 movement speed, contains 3 hidden caches of short range rockets, cluster bombs, and other artillery. The rockets have a range of 6, and deal 4d6+4 damage. If used in a grapple, instantly hits, whether on the defensive or offensive side of it.

Infinite Resources:

8 credits, Alloy Standard Legs, +35 HP, +2 physical and energy defense, 5 movement speed.

10 credits, Alloy Heavy Legs, +40 HP, +3 physical and +2 energy defense, 4 movement speed.

10 credits, Alloy Pneumatic Legs, +30 HP, +2 physical and energy defense, 7 movement speed.

12 credits, Anti-Gravity Experimental Alloy Legs, +35 HP, +2 physical and energy defense, 8 movement speed. Uses technology derived from the gravity cannon to place anti-gravity thrusters at the base of the feet, and on the palms of the hands. This actually causes the Jaeger to 'Float' slightly off the ground, and move much more like Magus from Chrono Trigger than a giant robot. This also has the +3 charge bonus that pneumatic legs have.

(So cool, he doesn't care about physics.)

Jaeger Weaponry, Non-Transformative.

1 credit, Offensive Barbs, very simple additions of sharp pointy objects, from actual spikes to rebar poling out of the elbow. Grants +2 unarmed damage bonus.

2 credits, Salvaged Drill Arm, a salvaged high pressure drill, strapped to the top of the hand. When used to punch, this imparts a -2 penalty to hit, but a +2 to unarmed damage. If you successfully pin the kaiju however, (win two grapple checks in a row) this weapon does instant critical damage.

2 credits, Salvaged Buzz Saw Arm, essentially a 10-14 foot saw taken out of a lumber mill and strapped to a Jaeger. This weapon exploits light armor type kaiju, and does reduced damage to heavy armor type kaiju. Against light armor Kaiju, this weapon deals 3d6+3 damage base, and against heavy armor deals 1d6+1 damage.

2 credits, Napalm Launcher, a simple weapon, that launches super heated napalm at enemy Kaiju. Deals 2d6 damage, save vs burn for 1d6 for 3 rounds. Has 6 shots per mission and a range of 4.

3 credits, Salvaged Tesla Knuckles, highly electrified crudely reinforced knuckles. This weapon deals unarmed damage +2, and +1d6 energy.

3 credits, Spike Offensives, +4 unarmed damage.

4 credits, Military Grade Piston Spike, highly effective high pressure impact spike. Punching with the arm is a -2 penalty, with a +3 damage modifier, and pinning with this weapon deals x3 critical damage.

4 credits, Military Grade Buzz Saw, laser sharpened, thick powerful saw blade. Against light armor this weapon deals 3d10+3 damage, and 1d10+1 against heavy armor kaiju.

(Whew! It's got 3 arms!)

5 credits, Tesla Knuckles, +4 unarmed damage, and +1d8 energy damage. This weapon has an added stun affect on all critical hits, no save.

5 credits, Plasma Scorcher, Fires a much hotter stream of flame then a napalm launcher, and contains a superconductor add on, allowing the plasma scorcher to charge melee weapons with extreme heat, adding 2d10 damage to that weapon. 2d10 damage, save vs. burn or 1d10 for 1d3 rounds, 8 rounds per misson, each 'superconducting' takes 2 rounds to perform, takes two plasma scorcher rounds, and lasts 3 rounds once completed. The plasma scorcher can be paired with non grappling melee attacks, like a sword swing, for even greater combined damage. Be careful though, it is easy to go through ammo with this weapon.

5 Credits, Jaeger Claws, essentially Wolverine Claws on your Jaeger, incredibly powerful weapons. These increase unarmed damage by 2 dice sizes. (Example, a 1d6 would become 1d10.) These are exceptionally deadly in close combat situations, gaining a +4 bonus to both 'hit' rolls and 'damage' rolls. Can be supercharged/cooled.

6 Credits, *New* Kinetic Hammer, A massive hammer, which houses both a tesla cell, and a highly advanced neodymium magnet set up. Requires two hands to use, is stored either on the back or the hip. Deals 2d8+2 physical base, +1d10 energy damage, and on charge attacks deals 1d8 knockback. (On a Jaeger with an increased charge bonus, it deals 1d10 or possibly higher knockback) Can be supercharged/cooled

Infinite Resources

6 credits, Tesla Spikes, adds a series of electrified spikes all over prime grappling, offensive and defensive regions on the body. This grants +1 dice increase to unarmed damage, a +4 damage bonus, +1d10 energy damage, and in addition +1 energy defense. (example, a 1d10 would become 1d12+4+1d10.) This ability also empowers Tesla Field and Defensive Spikes.

6 credits, Vorpal Saw, an alien alloy forged giant buzzsaw, charged with electricity from the fusion reactor. This weapon deals 3d12+3 damage to light armor, and 2d12+2 to heavy armor.

6 credits, Barbed Piston, a specially made barbed alien alloy piston. This weapon has no to hit penalty like the other piston models, and +3 damage on unarmed strikes. In a grapple situation, it deals x3 damage against light armored Kaiju, and x4 damage against heavy armor kaiju.

10 credits, Armageddon Cannon, (Can't be made transformative) an astonishingly huge cannon, that shoots a massive ball of super heated energy, like a comet of flame, at the opponent. This attack has a 1 round charge, and a 1 round cool down. It deals 6d10+10, save vs burn damage, 4d10 1st round, 2d10 2nd round, 1d10 third. Range 12, 4 shots per mission.

Weapons, Transformative options:

Now  we move onto weapons that require trasformative arms. These arms can hold any weapon, except the Armageddon cannon, which takes the place of the forearm entirely. There are also no 'salvaged' level transformative weapons, if a transformative arm that is salvaged had a plasma cannon on it, for example, most of that equipment is scrapped and used for other material, transformative weapons need to be installed new, even if it is into salvaged arms.

4 credits, Plasma Cannon, similar to what we've been using since the Mk. III, takes quite a while to charge, but hits pretty hard. 2 round charge up, 6 round clip, 3d12+3 damage, 1d6 knockback if used in the melee, Max Range 5.

4 credits, Jaeger Sword, a powerful blade, stored in the shoulder and forearm region. Can be super conducted, deals enhanced damage to light armor, but has a weakness in that it can't be used while grappling. 2d10+2 damage base, 3d10+3 against light armor. Can be supercharged/cooled.

4 credits, Gatling Cannon, stored in the forearm, fires 70mm rounds that we used to use in artillery in a rapid succession. 4d4+4 damage, no charge or cooldown time, 4 'bursts' per mission. Has a range of 8. Has the same -2 grapple penalty as the railgun, below.

5 credits, Rail Gun Cannon, this transforms the forearm into a high powered magnetic rail cannon, firing large, powerful armor piercing slugs a long distance. Range 15, 2d12+2 base, 8 rounds per mission. If this weapon is not transformed back into a proper hand in the melee, you suffer a -2 on all grapple checks. This weapon ignores 2 DR.

Infinite Resources

6 credits, Alloy Jaeger Sword, a jaeger sword made entirely from recovered alien alloys. Deals 3d10+3, or 4d10+4 against light armor, and can be superheated/supercooled just like a Jaeger Sword.

(Should have pulled that out at the start of the movie...)

6 credits, Supercooled Liquid Nitrogen Gun, like it sounds, fires a stream of liquid nitrogen, dealing damage and slowing the opponent. This weapon also has a 'supercooling' attachment, meaning that if it is mounted on the same arm as a Jaeger sword, it can cool the blade, for added damage. This weapon functions just like the plasma scorcher, even dealing 2d10 damage, only the save is against cold, and if failed, the slow inflicts a -2 penalty on attack, damage, defenses, and movement speed. Supercooling the sword causes the sword to slow those it hits, adds 2d10 damage and increases the blades critical range to 19-20.

10 credits, Superconducting Alternating Gatling Laser: Each of the weapons 8 barrels fires a laser at a radically different temperature, some super hot, others super cooled. The overall effect is devastating to enemy kaiju, and even covenant and overseer battle ships. This weapon requires 1 round to charge, and may sustain fire for 2 solid rounds before requiring a cool down, should you elect to continue firing, a save must be made to see if the reactor can keep up. (Duo Reactors get a +4 bonus on this save.) Deals 4d10+8 base, and those hit must make a save vs. Frostburn, (which has both frost and burn in it, but passes through resistances to both 'frost' and 'burn' unless the kaiju has both.) or suffer a -2 slow penalty and 2d10 burn damage for 1d3+1 rounds. When this weapon is deployed, it takes the entire forearm, imparting the -2 grapple penalty that the Rail Gun suffers from.

Mounted Weaponry, This weaponry is mounted on the shoulders and chest region mainly, though other creative places occasionally are used, very popular among less wealthy nations that can't afford many of the more powerful weapons above.

1 credit per mount point, Low Yield Explosives, places cheap, loaded low yield missiles taken off of all manner of downed aircraft, each mount has 2 salvos per mission. Each Salvo has a range of 6, and deals 1d10+2.

1 credit, Shoulder Mounted Napalm Cannon, has 3 shots per mount, range 4, 2d6 base, save vs. burn, 1d6 for 1d3 rounds. Popular to pair with other napalm weapons, for a lot of damage over time.

3 credits, High Yield Rockets, Mounts proper high end rocket launchers, with 2 salvos per mount. Deals 3d8, with a range of 12. Popular among developing countries, like India and Brazil.

(Arm Rockets go!)

4 credits, Shoulder Mounted Plasma Scorcher, military grade, firing super heated reactor gunk onto the opponent. Range 4, 4 shots per mount, 2d10 damage, save vs burn, or 1d10 for 1d3 rounds.

5 credits, 120mm Gatling Cannon, a mounted, very large Gatling cannon that fires 120mm shells, (the really really big ones on old battleships.) Has enough ammo for 3 burst per mission, Range 6, 5d4+5 damage.

Infinite Resources:

6 credits, Shoulder Mounted Nitrogen Cannon, like the arm mounted one, only mounted on the shoulder. Range of 4, 4 shots per mission, 2d10 damage. If a single target is hit by both Nitrogen cannons in the same round the slow penalties increase to -4.

6 credits, Titan Rocket Mounts, essentially bunker buster missiles on your shoulders. Very long range, and very powerful, 2 salvos per mount. 4d10+4 damage, range 15.

(Chest rockets go!)

Now we move from weapons onto accessories. The cores above have so many accessory slots, this is what you can spend money to fill those with.

1 credit, Defensive Barbs, crudely placed metal spikes, hooks, barbs, etc. placed about the Jaeger body, assisting in those close combat situations. +1 cqc defense, +2 grapple damage. This accessory, and all defensive spine type, take up space on the body, making less room for mounted weapons. With defensive spikes only, you can still mount 3 items, with offensive and defensive, you may only mount 1.

1 credit, Internal Defense Steam Jets, Installs rudimentary sensors, and a few cameras, through out areas vulnerable to infiltration on the Jaeger. If a target is detected, the system can make an attack with super heated steam, vented into the arms itself. (Exterior will see some steam come from a knee joint or something.) 2d4+2 damage base, uses Jaeger Survival Skill for attack rolls.

2 credits, Tesla Field, channels a weak energy field around the body, assisting in shrugging off energy damage. This shield has 10 HP, and provides +1 energy defense while active. This shield is empowered by many other Jaeger parts, the shield improves at a rate of 10 HP and +1 energy defense per power up. At 4 power ups it gains +1 physical defense while active.

2 credits, Multi-Limb AI, uploads an advanced AI to compensate for the unwieldiness of the multi-limb type Jaegers. Changes the off-hand attack penalty from -5 to -2.

2 credits, Booster Rockets, Strategically placed thrusters on the hips, shoulders, feet, and elbows. (Unlocks Elbow Rockets, which can be activated to grant an attack -2 to hit, for +4 damage. Can't be done during a charge.) Which, when fired in unison, accelerates the Jaeger greatly, doubling movement speed, and the charge bonus to +4 to hit and damage. (+6 to hit and damage for pneumatic leg types.) This ability has no charge time, but a 3 round cool down. 3 uses per mission. (Elbow rockets don't count as a 'use.')

3 credits, Defensive Spikes, Properly constructed into the Jaeger, making it tougher, and deadlier in those close combat situations. +1 physical defense, +1 CQC defense, +4 grapple damage. Whenever an enemy deals damage to you in a grapple, they suffer 1d4 damage back.

3 credits, Pressurized Fluid Internal Defense System, Comes with better sensors, more cameras, and it sprays super heated oils and coolants from the jaeger itself. Our Janitorial staff hates it, but then again, the Xenomorphs that get deep fried hate it more. 2d6+2 damage, +2 on detection rolls.

3 credits, Hidden Ammo Caches, places many strategically located ammo reserves all over the Jaeger, refueling plasma scorchers, shoulder rockets, leg artillery, and the like. This accessory contains 2 full reloads for every weapon that has ammo on your Jaeger. A necessity for heavily rocket mounted Jaegers.

4 credits, *New* Active Camouflage Spraypaint System, thousands of cans of spraypaint pop out of flaps all over the Jaeger, painting it in one of thousands of programmed in camouflage patterns. The cans are then taken off to a processing facility within the Jaeger, where the empty cans are melted down and used to reload weapons like plasma scorchers, nitrogen cannon, fuel for booster rockets, or even shells for Gatling cannons or railguns. Jaeger pilots that have used this for long periods of time swear the paint makes the machines tougher.  

Infinite Resources:

6 credits, Perfected Multi-Limb AI, super advanced neural AI link eliminates any multi-limb penalties.

6 credits, Tesla Spikes, Strategically placed spikes around the body, only they are also charged with massive amounts of electricity. This provides +1 physical and energy defense, +2 cqc defense, and +8 grapple damage. This ability empowers the Tesla field, and also increases the strength of Tesla Knuckles, increasing damage dice by 1 on both the unarmed base, and increasing the energy damage from 1d8 to 1d12.

6 credits, Superconductive Energy Array, by activating this ability, all the cooldowns on your weapons are reset. This ability has a 3 round cool down.

6 credits, Internal Anti-Predaton System. Shores up several areas of the Jaeger with an internal defense system better than what the President has. 2d10+2 damage, +6 detection.

And thus concludes our Jaeger post, quite a hell of a lot going on there. You have a lot of options, even if you're a poorer background, you can still make an effective machine.

(Beam sword!)

Human Scale Combat Gear

We now get into the heart of the game, equipping your character and building your Jaeger. (AKA giant monster smashy device)

Each background on the character page has a certain amount of credits available, so when you're making your character, you will refer to this post to figure out how much damage he/she can do with those skill points you've assigned.

So without further ado, starting with human sized combat gear, armor. No special tables, just an item by item list. It will be in order of credit cost by category, lowest to highest.

Armor: (All armor has a bonus to hit points, physical defense and energy defense)

2 credits, Carbon Kevlar Weave, advanced by today's standards, this mixes light weight highly durable fibers supporting kevlar plates. +3 HP, +3 physical, +1 energy defenses.

(Modern armor.)

5 credits, Mk. I Alien Alloy Armor, essentially our carbon/kevlar weave, but made much more sturdy with recovered Covenant materials. +5 HP. +4 physical, +3 energy defenses. (Looks like a slightly bulkier, shiny version of the above.)

10 credits, Mk. I Utility Armor, early form of power armor. Has many movement enhancing abilities, pneumatic jumping upgrades, and is slightly heavier armored than our alloy armor. +6 HP, +5 physical, +3 energy, +3 Movement speed. Empowered Charge, (+3 to hit and damage instead of +2) Also contains built in storage satchel, (bonus accessory slot) and grappling hook add-ons. (Grappling hook has a range of 6.)

(The beginnings of Power Armor, still useful today.)

15 credits, Mk. I Titan Armor, X-Com's most advanced power armor, land bound armor ran on a fusion battery. This armor has 2 shoulder slots, and 2 arm slots for built in weapons, a built in emergency medical system, (med-kit that activates either manually or upon health reach 2 or below.) environmental protection, (like air filtration, temperature regulation and the like.) super strength, and even has an accessory slot for power armor upgrades. It does have a weakness however, EMP effects completely shut it down, forcing the wearer to either wait until it restarts, or try and get out manually.

(Titan Armor. It's pretty bad ass.)

Stats: +10 HP, +7 physical, +5 energy, immunity to gas weaponry, natural radiation, cold, and heat, natural fire, and a +4 resistance on burn and radiation effects. (Alien acid, plasma scorcher, alien radiation beam, etc.) Super Strength Rank I, (+2 to hit and damage melee, +2 throwing range, +2 additional damage grappling.) Emergency Med-kit, (1d4 base, automatic deployment at 2 HP or below.) This armor can 'throw' about 1,500 pounds, so a 1960's Volkswagen beetle, or any small European car.

Infinite Resources Requirement

22 credits, Mk. I Icarus Armor, essentially the 'Iron Man' suit. Has advanced flight technology, and all the advantages of Titan Armor. The flight option has caused a slight reduction in durability, but the flight aspect more than makes up for it.

(Ok... lets try 4% thrust...)

Stats: +8 HP, +6 physical, +5 energy, all the titan abilities, plus Flight, movement speed 10, while in flight, gain a +2 to physical and energy defense, (evasion bonus) and a +1 height bonus to hit.

25 credits, Mk I Hercules Armor, larger, thicker, stronger Titan armor. This armor is tougher, but slower than Titan armor, and it is currently the strongest, physically, armor that we know of.

(Bigger is always better! Right?)

Stats: +14 HP, +8 physical, +6 energy, Titan armor immunities, -1 movement speed, super strength rank 2, (+4 to hit, damage, and throwing, an additional +4 grapple damage) 2 accessory slots. You can literally pick up a car and throw it at someone in this armor. (Up to about 4000 pounds, so like... F-150 and below in car size.)

Ranged weapons: (Range for all weapons is the optimum, the marksmanship perk and marksmanship skill increase the max range. Firing past that distance imparts a -2 penalty per square.)

1 credit options,

Old School Powerful Handgun, whether it is dirty harry or blade runner, an old school powerful weapon. Deals either 1d4+1 for a 6 round type, or 1d4 for an 8 round type. No rapid fire options. Range 6.

Old School Assualt Rifle, AK-47's, M-16's, essentially anything WWII to today is in this category. Deals 1d4 damage, has a full auto option for 3d4, clips hold 5 'bursts' (shots) per clip. Range 6.

(Anything like this essentially)

2 credit options,

Gauss Pistol, magnetically accelerated pistol, deals 1d4+1 damage, and ignores one DR, (effective against covenant shields.) 8 rounds, range 10, empty clip option, 3d4+3.

Laser Pistol, early model for an energy sidearm, deals 1d4 damage, energy attack. Can perform an overload attack, dealing 4d4, but forces the laser pistol to cool down for 2 rounds. Range 8

Assault Rifle, modern day, mild magnetic acceleration and slightly advanced rounds by today's standards. Deals 1d6, full automatic attack options, 3d6. 8 'bursts' and range 12. 2 reloads per mission.

(Standard issue mildly magnetically accelerated assault rifle)

Combat Shotgun, more advanced then modern day shotguns, but the same basic concept. 1-5 spaces, it deals 2d4+1, 6-9 it deals 1d6, and 10-12 (Maximum unmodified range) deals 1d4. Has a double shot mode, two shots, -2 penalty each shot. 6 round clip, 2 reloads standard per mission.

Sniper Rifle, like today's long range rifles, only magnetically accelerated. Optimum range 20, no penalty 8-20, 5-7, -2 penalty to hit, 1-4, -4 penalty. Deals 1d10 damage base. 6 round clip, 2 reloads per mission.

4 credit options,

Heavy Gauss Support Weapon, a high end magnetically accelerated machine gun. Deals 2d6 damage, this weapon can shred through most cover, (half cover bonus to AC) and ignores 2 physical DR. 4 'bursts' per clip, 2 reloads per mission.

Laser Rifle, early model laser rifle, deals 1d6 damage, and like the laser pistol, has unlimited ammo. It can perform an overload function for 3d6, but forces a 1 round cool down. Range 10.

(Prototype Laser Rifle)

Power Armor Only,

3 credit options

Knuckle Uzi's, hidden small gauge rapid fire weapons hidden in the hand and wrist area of the armor. Meant as a close range hail of bullets. Range 5, 2d3+1 damage, deadly crits, (x3 damage on critical hits.) 6 'bursts' per mission. 

Shoulder Mounted Gatling Gun, just like War Machine, allows a hail of bullets. This attack doesn't require an attack roll, all in an 3x3 area must make a save vs. Area of Effect (AOE) damage, if they fail the save, they take 4d4 damage, if they make the save, it is 2d4. If the armor has the 'flight' upgrade, or you otherwise have a sizable height advantage, all effected have a -2 penalty on their save. Range, 10, 3 'bursts' per mission.

(I obviously am super original in all my thinking.)

4 credit options

Repulsor Ray, an energy weapon mounted in the hand, that was originally a prototype for a flight stabilizer. Deals 1d8 damage, and causes 1d4 knock back. (1 square and point of damage per result on the d4.) Range 8, can make 2 consecutive shots before this requires 1 round to cool down.

(Damn, the first one was good.)

Ion Cannon, named after the mythological ion cannons of Star Wars, this energy weapon is the product of an attempt to create a more reliable plasma weapon, and while that wasn't successful, it created a hybrid energy/emp weapon, that relies on a burst of a weakened repulsor ray style blast to deliver a concentrated, contained electromagnetic pulse to a single target. This weapon deals 1d4 damage, and completely disables all covenant, predaton, or overseer shields and energy weapons for 1d4+1 rounds. Range 10, requires 1 round cool down after firing.

Plasma Scorcher, a high intensity flamethrower, firing super heated napalm. This weapon comes in shoulder or arm mounted format. Deals 2d6 to primary target, and all opponents in surrounding squares must make a save vs. AOE damage or take 1d6 damage. All creatures damaged must save vs. Burn or suffer 1d6 fire damage for 1d3 rounds. Range 5, 6 rounds per mission.

5 credits, requires infinite resources to access. (Meaning even if you can afford it only billionaire)

Gravitational Vortex Cannon, a strange experimental weapon derived from downed alien ships mobility systems, pulls in material in front of it before launching it far away, often with devastating effect. The weapon does a flat 2d3 damage, plus knock back depending on the distance of the opponent. The weapon also has a much higher hit chance at close range. 1-3 spaces, +4 to hit, 2d4+2 knock back,  4-6 spaces, +2 to hit, 1d6+2 knock back, and 7-10, no bonus, 1d4 knockback. This weapon requires 1 round to cool down after firing, and requires super strength to wield properly. (Meaning power armor of course.) There is an added affect to this weapon, that you have some control over those caught in the initial anti-gravity pull, allowing you to aim those caught slightly. Why not toss a few gravitationally captured grunts off a cliff? (Or get damage bonuses tossing them into something.)

(Episode 3 not included.)

Reactor Chest Ray, channels energy from the fusion reactor into a focus lens located on the chest piece, firing a short range, but very devastating weapon. This weapon drains all weapons, placing everything the power armor has onto a 1 round cool down, with the chest ray suffering a 2 round CD. Only non-power using melee weapons are unaffected. This weapon has a range of 3, and deals 3d8+4 damage base. This weapon, for some reason, empowers the 'Tesla Field' accessory. 

Melee Weapons: (Some melee weapons are two handed, others can be quick/drawn, will be handled stylistically case by case.)

Scrounged Weapon: For the truly desperate, anything you can find to smack an invader with. damage range is 1d2 to 1d3, with an added affect, like knock back, for a relatively exceptional scrounged weapon.

2 credits, Alien Alloy Melee Weapon, a typically custom made weapon, with the bulk of the construction consisting of intensely reworked recovered covenant alloys. Alien Alloy weapons gain a +4 vs. Burn, like when they kill a Xenomorph.

(Alien Alloy weapons tend to be exceptionally shiny.)

The effect is dependent on type

Blunt weapons deal 1d6 for one handed types, 2d4 for two handed, and on a charge attack deal bonus knock back damage. 1d4 for one handed, 1d6 for two handed. Certain types, like a police baton or tonfa, will add a defense bonus instead of knock back. 

Edged weapons deal 2d4 for one handed, and 2d6 for two handed. These weapons deal x3 damage on critical hits.

Knife and Spear weapons are considered their own class, and they get an attack of opportunity whenever an opponent makes a far moving melee attack against the player. Damage range is 1d6 to 1d8, spears tend to get an attack before the target gets there, and knife fighting tends to get surprise stabs in. These weapons increase cqc defense by +1 to +2, depending on style/stats.

3 credits, Alien Alloy Shield, a relatively large shield made from super dense carbon fiber, with a covenant metal plate stuck to it. When actively equipped, provides +1 HP, +2 physical defense and +1 energy defense. Can shield bash for 1d3. Upgrade Option 1 credit, tesla spike, adds a metal, highly electrified spike specifically meant to cause damage. Changes shield bash damage to 1d4+1 base, and gives it enhanced charge damage of 2d4+2. This enhances the shield to +2 energy defense as well.

3 credits, Tesla Baton, a unique weapon made entirely with defense in mind. This weapon is made from a highly conductive material, (except the hilt) and upon activation there is a constant large electrical energy field around it. This grants a +1 to energy defense passively, and if the player chooses to not attack, or fight defensively, (readying vs. attacks, etc.) the bonus increases to +1 physical and +1 energy, with an additional +1 cqc bonus. This weapon deals 1d3 physical and 1d6 energy, it is also non-lethal damage, allowing those taken down by this weapon to be captured for study/interrogation.

(Like this, only more dramatic, and collapsible.)

Power Armor Options:

3 credits, Alien Alloy Power Armor Claws, hidden in the armors fore arm section are 3 alien alloy forged blades, very much in the spirit of Wolverine. These weapons are a free action to deploy, These weapons deal 2d4 damage base, grant a +2 cqc defense bonus when deployed, and are exceptionally deadly in grapples, gaining a +4 damage bonus in that combat form. Like other alloy edged weapons, these deal x3 critical damage.

(They'll still be making Wolverine movies in 2100 I imagine...)

4 credits, Tesla Knuckles, this option places many electrified spikes on the fists and arm region. This is almost always functioning, causing a constant field of energy to flow around the warriors armor. These fists deal 1d4+2 base physical, and +1d6 energy, they grant a constant +1 to both physical and energy defense however, a  +1 to cqc defense, and share the Alloy Claws grapple bonus. (+4 damage in grappling) This weapon also enhances the power of Tesla shield, if that accessory is installed.

Infinite Resource options, (All are 5 credits)

Meteorian Forged Weapon, made from exceedingly rare and expensive Meteorian, which encases the comet kaiju, protecting them during their atmospheric entry and subsequent destructive touchdown. Forging the metal itself is another great expense, requiring absolutely immense heat to melt down to be forged. (4000+ degrees hot) These weapons are immune to alien acid, freezing, or pretty much any item effecting ability. 

(Meteorian weaponry tends to be dark colored.)

They follow the same rules as the weapon types in the alloy section, only with the following changes:

Blunt weapons do 1d8 for one handed, 2d6 for two handed, the knock back numbers increase to 1d6 and 1d8 respectively, and all blunt weapons ignore 1 physical DR.

Edged weapons do 2d6 for one handed, and 2d8 for two handed, they ignore 2 DR and deal x3 damage on crits.

Knives/Spears do 1d8 to 1d10, ignore 1 DR, have the attack of opportunity just like the alloy weapons, and add +2-+3 cqc defense.

Meteorian Weapons do not require power armor to wield.     

Power Armor options:

Meteorian Shield, forged from almost solid Meteorian, this incredibly powerful, super heavy shield is the ultimate in simple, effective, billion dollar hunk of metal technology. +3 HP, +3 physical defense, +2 energy defense, has two starting build options, though adding 1 credit to the purchase price will equip it with both. Armor spikes, allows the shield to bash for 2d4 base, and grants +1 cqc defense, or aiming brace, which gives the shield a flatter base, and a few cut outs to place a gun, functioning as a portable tri-pod of sorts. This translates to a +2 bonus to hit and +1 range, as long as the warrior hasn't moved and is on the ground. (Not flying) Requires super strength to wield. (Power armor) This model built for Hercules power armor is bigger, costs 1 credit more, adds +1 HP, deals 2d6 on shield bashing, and adds +2 to cqc defense if spiked.

Energy Glaive, a super powerful experimental weapon, which forms a blue energy 'blade' for a short period of time, (3-4 seconds) before dissipating. The energy that is created however, cuts through essentially anything. This weapon can be activated during a grapple, it can energize on either arm, each arm having 3 'emitters' to project the energy from different points for different situations. (on back of the wrist, one under wrist, and one elbow is default set up.) 4d8+4 base damage, ignores all DR. This ability has unlimited uses per mission, but using it twice in a row forces the reactor to make a save or shut down temporarily to reboot. This is possibly the only weapon that is powerful enough to harm Kaiju as human sized. (Blows right through Kaiju DR)

Accessories: (Each person has 1 accessory slot naturally, some gear will grant an additional slot or two, like power armor.)

1 credit options, (All grenades have range 5 base)

Fragmentation Grenade, not that different from the grenades used by the modern military. does 1d6+1 base damage to a 3x3 area, range 5 base, 3 per mission. Save vs. AOE damage for all but the primary target, (if hit) primary target still must make a save if near miss.

Proximity Mine, essentially an easier to set up, with better sensors, claymore land mine. Placed as a stealth trap. Deals 2d4+1 base to a 5x5 area. Save vs AOE damage all in the area, with a -4 penalty if successfully hidden.

(Still deadly after all these years...)

Smoke Grenade, covers a 6x6 area, anything in the cloud gains a 50% concealment bonus, meaning a 50% miss chance. 2 per mission. (Example: A covenant grunt is shooting at you in the cloud with its plasma pistol. He hits your energy defense, there would then be a roll, say even or odd, and if I get even, I would hit, if off, I'd miss. An incredibly useful buff.)

(Many colors available!)

Flash Bang Grenade, a slightly intensified version of what we have today, all in a 5x5 area must make 2 saves, 1 vs. blind, and 1 vs. stun. Blind imparts a -4 penalty on all defense types, attack rolls, and a 50% miss chance. (see smoke grenade above.) Stun is like it sounds.. just sit there, not moving, attacks instantly hit. Each effect lasts 1d3+1 rounds, you get 3 grenades per mission.

Storage Satchel Rank I, custom gear to distribute more accessories around the body. Contains 2 accessory slots. 

Med-kit, field surgery kit, requires 3 ranks of combat intelligence to use, 1d4 healed base, must be done at melee range. 3 uses per mission.

Nano-weave Vest, an experimental silksteel armor weave, that which initially appeared promising, was abandoned for further study of alien alloys. This is worn under armor, and grants +1 HP and +1 physical defense. (Stacking with armor of course.)

Stun Gun, an advanced taser, Range 3. There is no attack roll with this weapon, the target makes a save vs stun, with a modifier based on its health, (higher health, more resistant) and if it succeeds, nothing happens. If it fails however, it is completely incapacitated, and not for some number of rounds like with a flash bang grenade. For many hours, more than long enough to properly bind and store the target. This weapon also has no limit on uses, but it requires 1 round to recharge in between uses.

2 credits, Rocket Launcher, highly destructive long range explosive weapon. Deals 1d10+1 base damage in a 5x5 area, same rules as frag grenade for saves/to hit. Has 2 rockets per mission, and this weapon has a range of 15.

3 credits, Support Equipment Package, this contains several of the above accessories, and advanced Communications equipment used to call in air strikes, jaeger strikes, etc. from nearby supporting countries/X-Com resources. Contains 1 proximity mine, 2 smoke grenades, 2 flash bangs, a 2 use med-kit, 2 extra clips for all equipped weapons, and a bonus slot for extra accessories. The communication equipment imparts a mission specific bonus, that will depend on both region and role play. (Example, you're in a mixed format battle, Kaiju attack Paris with Overseer ground and air forces reinforcing. Poor role play/pissing off who you're talking to will give you 1 air strike from French Air Forces, good role play/efficient target painting will potentially let you perform an air strike as often as every other round.) This accessory package requires 3 empty equipment slots. (The average player will have to spend 2 extra credits on storage just to carry this all around.

Power Armor Accessories:

1 credit options

Tesla Field Rank I, a weak prototype energy shield technology, has 1 HP base, and while active grants +2 energy defense. This shield does grow in strength with other built in 'Tesla' equipment though. (Like Tesla knuckles.)

Speed Boosters, powerful mini-rockets placed in the hip, knee, heel, shoulder and elbow area, that allow for incredible boosts of speed. Triples movement speed, allowing for great leaps and jumps, doubles charging bonus from +2 to +4 to hit and damage. This ability has a 3 round cool down, and enough fuel for 3 uses per mission.

2 credits, Armor Spikes, places strategic, and visually impressive, spikes in offensive and defensive areas around the power armor. This grants a +1 to physical defense, an unarmed attack of 1d4+1 base, and grants a +2 bonus to grappling damage, and a +1 bonus to total grappling score. This ability stacks/empowers a few others, like Tesla Knuckles.

Infinite Resource Options:

3 credits, Deflector Shield, a super advanced energy shield, discovered in the process on researching the Energy Glaive, creates a shortly sustained, incredibly powerful energy shield. This ability reflects all energy attacks for 1 round when activated, with a 50% chance of reflecting the attack directly back at the attacker. It also grants a +2 physical defense while activated, and 2 physical DR, absorbing some from non-energy based attacks. This ability requires 2 rounds to cool down, and activating it more than twice in a mission requires a save for the reactor to keep functioning. 

3 credits, The Solar Package, adds several strategically placed, advanced solar panels (covered in super strong clear lacquers/polymers) around the body. This provides some energy to the armor itself, empowering several other abilities and providing some EMP resistance, and it comes with 2 of its own attack forms, weak eye beams and a blinding flash of light, called the solar flare. 

(I'm 100% original. Yep yep.)

Stats: Eye beams, 1 round cd, partial action, (maybe fired while grappling, shooting a vortex cannon, etc.) 1d4 base, Solar Flare, (Save vs. Blind) empowers tesla field, empowers deflector shield, empowers tesla knuckles, empowers energy glaive, no spikes though. EMP resistance +2.



And that completes our personal gear section. Many things say 'Rank I' on them, and that is because as the game progresses, characters might unlock research to improve gear.