Gundam Battle Gunpla Warfare: [Pre 1.2] Arena Tips and Strategy

GBGW Arena Guide

This guide is now old after they changed the Battle Assessment formula post-1.2 patch.

- Overkill your opponents. Use "Power A" Ex Skills and stat buff skills. Soften your opponent with weak attacks.

- Gunpla Attributes (Power, Speed, Tech) actually help here.

- In-Fighters and Defenders don't want to be your friend; target Shooters if you can. 

- Try not to take damage; it lowers your score.

GBGW Guide Series

Gundam Battle: Gunpla Warfare - Arena Edition

    Hey there, Pilots!  Are you ready to crush your enemies?!

    Arena in Gundam Battle: Gunpla Warfare can be very tricky, it seems, and a question that has been on all of our minds is "How do we increase the Battle Assessment for a higher arena score?".  There is a lot of speculation about the mechanics behind this feature, but we have only been able to prove or disprove a small selection of them.  

    Today, I hope we can shed some light on some of these extremely confusing points, and get you to the top of the leaderboards in no time!  Really, you're looking to obtain a post-match Battle Assessment (BA) of 1.3 to provide you with the highest gain of points that we have been able to find, per match.  I have yet to see any confirmation of a score of 1.4 BA or greater, but I don't doubt that someone may have found a way.

Here's a short breakdown of things confirmed to affect post-match Battle Assessment

  • Overkill damage

  • Sustaining damage from your opponent, or not taking damage

  • Time spent inside your match

    As you can see, the information is relatively scant.  We're going to get into a more in-depth breakdown moving forward, but first I would like to note some things we have confirmed do not affect your score, but are confusing enough to make you think they may, such as:

  • CPWR
  • Player Rank/Player Level 

  • Word Tags/Part Traits/Stat Modifiers

    Again, these factors mentioned directly above do not affect your score at the end of your match, so attempting to alter the results by inflating something like CPWR will only leave you in a potentially tight spot.

KEY POINTS

    The most common strategy that people have been employing reliably in arena is a simple one: make sure your last hit does as much overkill damage as possible. There are several ways that you can do this, but the easiest is to set your EX Skills up in a sort of "buff, buff, bang" arrangement; two offense-boosting skills, and one of the "Power A" damage Ex Skills (like Bisect, Last Shooting, Fatuum-00, Shining Finger Sword, etc). One clean hit, especially with an attached buff, should be enough to maximize the damage on your final blow. The maximum Battle Assessment multiplier the player can obtain with overkill is reached when dealing damage approximately 29 times of your opponent's Armor.

    There are some multi-hit attacks like Shining Finger Sword (Burning Red like the East!) that are not as effective as Bisect (the overkill king) in obtaining higher Arena scores.  Shining Finger Sword lacks a very valuable component in a hit-confirm, so enemies can dodge, be knocked out of it, or could be missed completely. This causes the Shining Arms to be less valuable for Arena, and stands out as a particular multi-hit attack that has a difficult time overkilling.

    Something to note, however, is that an attack like Trans Am Raid (Exia Backpack) has a single hit-confirm that locks your opponent into a combo attack. This ensures your overkill damage will be maximized, and prevents the oppoenent from dodging or being miss by your attack so long as you land the first hit.  Most other multi-hit attacks like Rapid Thrust (Aile Strike, Strike Rouge, Force Impulse) will kill the target before the attack finishes, completely robbing your overkill, because they lack that hit confirm.

    There are definitely some other modifiers that are worked into the post-match "Battle Assessment", and we have only been able to confirm some things about that.  Overkill damage adds the most, like stated before, but also it seems that if you take damage from your opponent, your assessment will also suffer.  In each match that I have been able to record the results of, either by myself or others, the Battle Assessment seems to have been affected with approximately 0.001~0.010 depending on the % of your Armor remaining. It appears that taking damage may be only negative factor that can be avoided during combat when determining your Battle Assessment.

    The one thing that we currently believe to have the least effect on your post-match Battle Assessment is the time you physically spend within your match.  This is a more difficult thing to track unless intentionally spending greater-than-necessary amounts of time in your match, or actively avoiding the overkill strategy, as you generally move for the overkill at the time your attack is available.  Most Arena matches are completely over within the first 30 seconds, and it appears that you receive a lower BA for each increment of 5 seconds you spend within the match (approximately 0.001 per 10s).  The testing on this last part still needs much refining, and I don't feel that we have enough examples at the ready to definitively state how much it affects the score either negatively, or positively.

    The combination of dealing damage 29x of your opponent's Armor, no damage taken and executing "Power A" Ex Skill ASAP after 30s will net you around 1.337 Battle Assessment. To reach the highest Battle Assessment of 1.340, you must use Ex Skill like Shining Finger Sword to finish the match within 10 seconds.

GENERAL STRATEGY

    The strategy mentioned before of using 2 Buff type EX Skills and 1 "Power A" ability, again, is the most common and proven effective.  Some of these "Power A" abilities were mentioned above by name, but to clarify, "A" is the power rating on the abilities, meaning they receive the highest multipliers of damage than any other attacks in the game.  At this time, we can only assume the damage increases, but it's rumored to be so significant that your stats are only even a slight factor.

    Essentially, you spend most of the match "strafe shooting" to soften up your opponent and bring them as close to defeat as possible.  During this, you'll hit your Buff EX Skills to ramp your damage stats while avoiding your opponent's shots or advances.  Then, when your big finish is available (roughly between 20 to 30 seconds, depending on EX Skill, or if you have Mikazuki as Pilot), you can move close to your opponent and fire off.  This is to reduce a potential counter that will take you out of your attack and likely cost you the match.

    Right now, the AI is extremely easy to fool in certain areas and completely pales in comparison to manual, human players.  The easiest targets for any class is going to be a Shooters with Rifle LR Weapon for an opponent, of any flavor.  This enables you to casually strafe while the AI gets locked into repeatedly firing time-consuming charge shots your way, and gives you all the time in the world for this setup.   Most players do refresh their opponent selection to find these players.  The next easiest opponents to employ this against are Supporters and Out-Fighters, just don't let them try too close. Defenders and In-Fighters don't take your guff, though, and they'll chase you all around the arena.  That... doesn't actually give you a lot of space to set things up, but if you can play keep-away long enough, they'll be in the closest range when you fire your lasers. 

    You'll want to fit the buffs in at moments the opponent can't move in order to prevent taking damage, yourself. Sidestep gun fire or keep strafing; knock your opponent down or stagger them with some gunfire if they're getting too close. If your opponent fires something like Bisect before you, you can avoid it by dashing backwards to extend range (these attacks only travel so far), or fire your own. Keep in mind, the attack used second gains priority, so if you time it right, you can protect yourself even in the tightest jams. 

    Lastly, there is one other thing to remember when shooting for that spicy 45,000 damage hit to finish your opponent, and it's a game mechanic that doesn't get enough notoriety: Gunpla Attributes.  The Power, Speed, and Technique markers that give your Gunpla a specific "Attribute".  The reason why these would even matter at all, is that in the right match up (Power beats Technique beats Speed beats Power), you will receive a damage bonus against your target with the Attribute that is weak to yours, effectively increasing your potential damage by just switching your loadout some.  This feature just never gets talked about enough to really be on anyone's mind when playing for Arena points.

    Remember to stay patient and let your skills come off cooldown, keep your distance until the end, be aware of Attribute effectiveness, and be ready for your opponent to pull the same tricks. Do that, and we'll see you at the top of the ladders, soon! 

Author(s)

Writing for Gamepress since September 2019.  Mostly cranking out Gundam and bringing the community together in whatever way possible.

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