Gundam Versus Better Know A Mobile Suit: Nu Gundam
500 Points — Nu Gundam (MS Gundam: Char’s Counterattack)
Pilot — Old Amuro Ray. Has seen and suffered too much. Resorts to rolling around in the grass with Char.
Type — All-rounder specializing in ranged fire.
Pros: Great reach with excellent mid to long-range tools, including funnels; great at keeping enemies away and laying down cover fire
High mobility and slippery evasive tricks
I-Field allows Nu to briefly ignore enemy fire to either push close-range offense or retreat as needed
Cons: High cost
Priority target to enemies to chase down
With a long red lock range and a powerful ranged arsenal, Nu Gundam is equally comfortable pushing enemies back from a distance and pressuring them up close.
Funnels (the sub weapon) are an outstanding tool for any unit — note that few characters actually pack them because they’re so potentially powerful. Once sent out, these convenient bits chase down the opponent and fire while you act independently of them.
Hold down the sub weapon button to send more funnels, and cancel out of the animation with a boost dash or boost dive. Because this move leaves you stationary for so long you’ll probably want to dash out of it: enemies will see it and take free shots at you.
Nu’s funnels force your opponent to deal with them for an extended period of time. You can dodge a beam and be done with it, but funnels remain locked and chasing for a short time. Your opponents can only run or take the hit, and there is no benefit for them in taking the hit.
In any fighting game it’s a great option to be able to force your opponent to do what you want. Even if it’s only for a moment, forcing your opponent to retreat is one moment where they can’t help their teammate.
Don’t forget about your funnels in the heat of the match and try to keep throwing them out there steadily, in varying amounts, to keep your opponents off balance. Of course, you are vulnerable while sending out funnels, so make sure you’re in the clear for a moment before you commit to using them. (Depending on the map, launching funnels from behind cover can be surprisingly effective.) The timing is tricky, but putting funnels right over a downed opponent as they start to stand up is an annoying tactic.
Make note of Nu’s charge weapons; you’ll be holding down these buttons a lot. Due to the nature of charge weapons, this will be a trade-off between charging and using several of your other attacks, including funnels. Remember that you can still use your attacks while you charge by releasing, tapping, and holding down the button again.
Nu has a standard charge shot; it fires faster than a regular beam shot and knocks down. This is extremely useful for sharpshooters to quickly take down one half of the team and immediately get to work on the next. When you aren’t using funnels, you should be charging up a rifle shot and waiting for your opening.
Nu’s charge melee is a long-range missile volley that allows the machine to drift on its momentum. You’ll especially notice this if you use it while boost dashing backwards, as Nu gets pushed extremely far back. This might be useful as a last-ditch escape.
In fact, many of Nu’s tools allow it to play keepaway, or make a safe escape. This is important, because as the 500-point unit and a long-range one at that, enemies are going to consider you a high-value target and chase you down. As soon as they get hit with that first funnel volley, opponents realize how much trouble you’re going to be and try to nip it in the bud. It’s really important to keep track of where the enemy is to avoid getting flanked.
In particular, the bazooka (special ranged) allows you to dodge while firing by pressing a direction at the same time as you press the button. The reload on this weapon is very fast, so you can cover a lot of space by abusing the dodge part of the attack to move while attacking for very little boost meter cost. However, the bazooka shot itself is not very accurate at shorter ranges, so you have to be pretty careful about where you use this.
The I-Field (special melee) is also great for defense as it briefly renders Nu invulnerable to ranged fire, allowing you to run away safely in a pinch. Keep in mind that since the fin funnels form the I-Field, you can only use one funnel at a time while the field is up.
However, there’s another side to the I-Field. If you’re invulnerable to ranged fire, that means you have a huge opening to rush in and do big damage with melee attacks. Nu delivers excellent melee damage as well, so if you time it right, you can also employ the I-Field aggressively to attack. Keep in mind that the I-Field does nothing to shield Nu from melee attacks, so many opponents who are familiar with it will close the distance and charge in on you. Lead enemies like this in: run backwards and see if you can get a shot in.
Nu has a wide range of melee combos, but I like doing two hits into a dodge and then side melee: this knocks the opponent up into the air, forcing them out of action for even longer than a typical knockdown. I like to finish my ranged combos with a bazooka shot for the same reason. These combos are a little short of maximum theoretical damage, but in most cases I’d rather get that long knockdown.
Partner considerations: Nu is good at playing the front line and good at covering its teammate. Like most 500-point units, it can do a bit of everything and functions as the anchor of the team. Though I’ve emphasized Nu’s long-range tools, it’s a versatile unit that will play a strong game up close as well. It’s important to observe the battle, understand when conditions change, and communicate.
But as a high-cost unit, how Nu fits into the point system is a different story. 500/500 teams are at a big disadvantage in the cost system, so unless you’re really that much better than your opponents you might want to reconsider this plan.
500s are also really screwed with the typical online random teammate who picks a 300-point melee unit and rushes to the front. They will almost certainly die first and screw you over. They might die two times by the time you die once. This is why I have a horrible team shuffle ranked record. See this article on cost and death order.
500/400 works out pretty well in the current meta. You get three full-HP lives and a lot of firepower out there from the start. The idea is to overwhelm the opponent quickly with your two powerful units, which works well against most other team compositions. However, the cost-over state will leave you with extremely low HP for your last life, and whoever gets hit with it needs to be extremely cautious in this state. This team build needs to get the job done quickly.
To wrap up, Nu is probably my first “main” in this game and part of my learning process has been leading up to being able to write a guide like this and feeling pretty good about it. Nu is probably one of the easier suits to pick up, and if you like holding people off I think you’ll enjoy it.
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