A Portable Tips and Recommended Units v3

General Tips:
- Use EWAC. If your unit isn't in an EWAC then unless it has tons of money thrown onto it, it's not going to be very effective. EWAC will not stack with itself - only the highest bonus counts. However, EWAC will stack with Quattro's ACE Bonus.

- You need at least one level of Shield Defense to utilize shields on Mechas who have them. Any higher tends to be gravy. There's a surprising amount of characters who doesn't have it. In terms of skill part distribution this is probably one of the most cost effective decisions you can make to give them one.

After that, Shield Defense activates every time you defend including Support Defense and the unit will only take around 30% of its usual damage. This makes just about any Shield users an amazing tank if they defend on enemy phrase.

- As a general rule, most Supers do better if everyone has no-low upgrades (so early game), but IMO the good Reals come up better in the long run if you invest your money into them. Essentially, once you upgrade weapons, the Base Damage difference between a Super and Real starts to thin, and the nice features of Reals such as better sustainability start to shine through. Before that point though it's totally Supers land.

- Unlike just about every other SRW game, Accuracy is overly important. You have a lot of EWAC parts and you pretty much need to make sure that everyone's in an EWAC (unless they're a top tier character/unit with lots of money invested) and even the 10% accuracy parts tend to be valuable rather than crap like in most other games. 10 SP Strike characters are probably better than Newtypes!

- So with that in mind, make sure you field at least 1 or 2 characters with Attune once you have access to them. This goes doubly true if you're trying to use a team composition where some characters lack Strike.

Six pilots get Attune. Four (who is mutually exclusive with Rosamia, but Four's probably the better choice), Maria, Kirika (recruitable, but probably better off dead for her Megagenerator drop), Miyuki, and Keiko (Zambot sub). Out of these choices, Keiko is probably the best due to her Attune costing only 20 SP. Whoever you choose, be sure to toss all your SP parts on them.

The last character who gets Attune is Schwarz, who is a one scenario only character, so that's not in consideration.

- Learn how Distortion Fields work! This will save you a lot of trouble bashing your head against Nadesico grunts. Distortion Fields have different effects based on the weapon used against them.

For Beam attacks, DF completely negates any Beams below 3000 damage. However, if the damage exceeds that amount, the unit will take full damage.
Gravity attacks work the same as beams, except the threshold is 5000 instead.
For every other type of attack, Distortion Fields cut damage received by 1/2.

The significance of these rules are as follows: you want to prioritize your attacks as such -
Barrier Pierce weapons OR Combo Attacks (which pierces barriers innately)
Strong Beam Attacks
INSERT VERY HUGE POWER GAP HERE
Everything else
Weak Beam Attacks & Gravity Attacks for the most part.

Giving a unit with a Beam attack weapon upgrades can be very helpful in pushing it over the threshold to get it penetrating Distortion fields. The same might be said of Gravity attacks but the threshold is high enough that it might not be reasonably reachable.

- The upgrade priority goes Weapons -> EN if needed -> Mobility for Reals -------> Armor for Supers.

Weapon upgrades raise Base Damage by pretty high amounts in A Portable, like 2 times even (though the actual final damage results is less than that). It serves the dual purpose of making sure you don't die to boredom to some of the later HP bloat grunts and also "offense is the best defense" because the faster you kill stuff, the less damage you're taking.

I put Armor for Supers at a really low priority because of how the damage in the game seems to scale. It's almost D level really. Even with Evasion Decay, it's still more worth it for your buck to pump your cash into Mobility if you're trying to build something to tank than trying to build an Armor tank.

A few pips in Armor upgrades does help early game, but late game Supers mostly tank through Iron Wall spam.

- Most FUB are "traps" that aren't even remotely worth the amount of money it takes to get them if you take into account that most units aren't going to use all 4 possible stats. The handful of units that break the mold will be noted later.

- 4 levels in Infight/Gunfight gets you +1 Move/Range
7 levels gives you +2 Move/Range.
This is probably the stronger effect rather than the increase to damage. Consider giving Gunfight parts to range-crippled characters even if they don't use a lot of attacks which rely on that stat.

- Enemies cannot "see" defensive abilities and do not take it into account when deciding attacks. This is mostly relevant for Daimos with ACE Bonus and Jammer-equipped units, who can tank certain units with impunity as the AI is too dumb to realize that they shouldn't use e.g Missiles against them.

- If you're having trouble with the early Akito LEEROY JENKINS mission, leave some near-dead enemies near Akito for him to finish off instead of killing them all. Yes, I know it feels miserable to have NPCs sucking up your money and kills, but this prevents him from running off to the middle of the enemy battleships and getting into bigger trouble.

- HOW TO KILL DON SAUZER: Don't bother, he's on a route split with a secret that isn't as good as the one on other split anyway. You can skip the guy. But maybe you want to do it for bragging rights anyway or your finger slipped and then you accidentally saved the game or something or you really want Tsukumo and his Daitetsujin.

Don Sauzer isn't really hard in a tactical/strategic sense, he's just a huge Gear Check - he has no MAP attacks, no Status to inflict (not that they are any in AP), and he doesn't have Double Move. He's just a big pile of HP and Armor with practically unlimited EN so you can't run him out of EN like you can with certain other bosses. Either you have enough Weapon Upgrades and killing him is easy, but still tedious or you don't and killing him is more painful than getting a root canal.

Mostly, set up your units so you can take advantage of Heavyarms and whatever unit you put Char in to make use of their Support Attack Lvl 4. If you invested Support Attack into anyone else, set them up too. This is the key to squeezing out as much damage as you can to mitigate Don's HP Regen.

First off, when Koros appears, don't use any Spirits except maybe for cheap Strikes against her, just Support Attack her to death. However, before she goes down, position yourself and take up all the good terrain so that Don will be forced to spawn elsewhere instead of benefiting from them.

Then do the same thing with Don, except now you can use your Spirits, although I would only use Valor/Soul when you know you can absolutely finish him off in favor of more casts of Strike.

Main Character/Mecha:
Axel > Lamia.
No debate about it. Axel has 10 SP Strike, Lamia doesn't. Lamia has Flash for 10 SP (standard price), Axel has Invincible also for 10, but that Spirit tends to come at a higher price elsewhere. Just about everything else concerning their stats is the same. Plus A's Axel is a cool guy.

Their character specific mecha doesn't really matter in this analysis. They aren't really the strongest choices. In fact, Angelg is kind of in the running for the worst choice.

Soulgain (Axel only):
An Oifey, Soulgain is strong early game and slowly peters out because Axel and its strengths don't flow well as the game progresses.

Early game, with its high armor, 20% HP Regeneration and the highest base damage, it makes the early game extremely easy.

However, later in the game, damage scales very high and coupled with Axel's ho-hum Defense stat, its defensive strength starts to wane and HP Regen becomes almost an empty slot. In addition, Soulgain's finisher is Range-1 only, which makes it very hard to take advantage of his Natural Lvl 4 Support Attack.

However, if you FUB it, it gains a really strong 30% damage reduction bonus that can get it tanking again, though it is very expensive to do so.

Angelg (Lamia only):
The only main character unit that's "dual-attack stat" dependent (both Melee and Range). Not particularly strong defenses for either Dodging or Tanking. Lackluster Base Damage. The AngelG does have a Barrier Piercing attack, but it's a Range 1 Melee attack (i.e wrong off-stat) so yeah it's not that practical.

The only bright side to the whole thing is that Angelg has a decent special defense load-out, most importably Bunshin, but also the less relevant Sword Cut and Beam Coat. Unfortunately, this does not make up for being Lamia only and the loadout is still worse than what you would get on the Vysaga.

Vysaga:
Pretty good. It starts off weaker than Soulgain but grows to be much stronger. Because its Finisher is Range 1-2, it can be increased with Range parts. Good enough Base Damage even with minimal upgrades and high crit rate offers an unreliable yet welcome damage boost.

Vysaga also has the best special abilities out of all the main mecha: Bunshin (Mirror Image) and Shield. Bunshin is a really good defensive special ability especially on a Super though it's quite unreliable at the start where Vysaga's armor is still a little fragile. Note that the main character does not start with Shield Defense so give it to them ASAP.

The Vysaga has a sustainable P attack with Barrier Pierce. If you really hate Nadesico grunts, this might be a decision maker for you.

Quite possibly the best beginner's choice.

Ashsaber:
This is another pretty good choice for beginners. It's pretty much a Funnels-equipped Gundam with the serial numbers filed off. It has amazing movement speed and range (even on its P attacks!) meaning it has a lot of "reach." It's a pretty sustainable unit all and all.

It does have some weakness. Its weapons loadout is a weird combination of Ammo and EN so it might be a little hard to manage and itemize its parts slot. It can't fly naturally, so you'll either have to give it a Flight Module or FUB it, which is cheap at around 4m but that's still 4.7m that you could have put somewhere else. Base damage is a little low, but as stated earlier, once you put money into its weapons the difference will fade away.

The Ashsaber has both Beam Coat (not that great) and Jammer (a good ability which it shares with the Laz Angriff), but that being said one could probably argue that a Dodge tank doesn't really need them with enough Mobility. Comparatively speaking, Ashsaber's probably one of the "lowest mainentence" out of all the main character choices.

Ashsaber is another main character unit with a practical Barrier- Piercing weapon available to them. In Ash's case it's the Gunrapier, which is sadly non-P but it does have higher range (1-5) so it's better on Counters.

Laz Angriff:
While it is potentially very powerful, the Laz Angriff is very finicky. Let's start with its weaknesses.

Most of Laz attacks are non-P (except for its terrible off-stat knife melee), so you need Hit & Away to do anything (and skill parts are at a premium in this game). With its base stats, its not as tanky as a super or dodgy as a real. F Solid Cannon has a minimum range of 3, which can be awkward to use. Some of its attacks can be affected by Jamming - however this is only an issue with Lamia, as Axel has a cheap Strike that can override it.

(Interestingly enough, the Player version of the Laz has different weapon ranges compared to the enemy version to its advantage - the enemy version is much easier to take down with more blind spots at close range)

However, there are some really powerful advantages too. Laz Angriff is the best mech suited to taking advantage of the main character's LVL 4 Support attack with its long range. Its final attack is entirely Ammo based and can be doubled with a Large Magazine or its FUB, maybe it both hit very hard and being much more sustainable than the Supers. Said Final Attack also has a whooping +50 Hit Rate, making it a pretty good choice if you really want to use Lamia (although Axel's Strike is still good for it)

Laz Angriff has very good special abilities: Jammer gives it complete immunity to certain kind of missile attacks - niche but shines at the time you need it. It comes with a Shield, however, both main characters do not have Shield Defense or Support Defense and thus you will need some skill part investments to utilize it.

Laz Angriff offers a lot of power, but only after some major investment into it. It is only recommended for players with stronger strategic skills.

RECOMMENDED UNITS
LOW MAINTENENCE:
Units listed in this category can be used with minimal upgrades. As such they are better off when you've just started the game, on a first playthrough and do not have much resources to spend.

This is not to say that you don't want to upgrade them though, just about everyone could use more weapons upgrades! Indeed these units mostly remain strong throughout the game and its valid to field them for the entire game.

DRAGONAR 3: The only unit in the game with a natural large EWAC - that's a 30% increase to Hit and Dodge which is almost like getting a free Focus as long as you stay in the region! Because of that, D-3 is about the only unit in A Portable which I can say is an absolute "must-deploy", which is amazing considering its a support unit.

Not to say its his only feature. D-3 comes with Repair which he will probably spend most of the time doing. Early in the game, he's part of the Dragonar team combo although as the game goes on, his role in that will slowly fade out. Like all other Dragonar units, D-3's final upgrade is the Light Bazooka, a powerful B weapon that can be a useful tool in fighting against Nadesico grunts.

The D-3 doesn't really need major upgrades, a couple of points into Mobility and some survivability parts will do fine for him.

DRAGONAR 1: Solid, though not that outstanding compared to others, availability is its greatest strength. You will need to use D-1 to get Meio and MAFFU Falguen as a secret anyway. Early in the game, spam the D-Team's combos and later transition to spamming combos with Meio.

Note that Kain has both Sword Cut and Shield Defense, so D-1 is actually a lot more survivable than it looks. Consider Support Defense skill parts if you plan to use him. Also gets the Light Bazooka, but he'll be comboing a lot and it runs off Range so it has less use for him.

MAFFU Falguen: Basically D-1, except that it comes with a lot of free upgrade bars and Meio has very good stats/spirits. The MAFFU Falguen makes the D-1 a lot more flexible because unlike the D-1/2/3 team they don't drag each other behind by having differing roles in battle: both Kain and Meio wants to get close into the enemy's face and use their melee attacks.

GOD/MASTER GUNDAM: Nigh-invincible even with minimal upgrades, amazing base damage coupled with high pilot stats leads to obscene final damage, coupled with combos with each other that can raise it even higher! Perhaps their only weakness is having lackluster counter options due to Range issues, but Gunfight skill parts can fix that if you're willing to spend them (although there are probably much better uses for those parts.)

Master Gundam does have an additional weakness, in a sense - he requires a very specific and long-term course of route choices and actions that locks out a lot of other secrets (such as Gai). On the good news, the secrets that he locks you into are the ones that are the best anyway, but if you play SRW games just to use units that you like instead of going by sheer power level then that might be a disadvantage enough to not use him.

Special mention of Fuunsaiki - outside of his spirit bank, its main use is to combine with either God or Master. Due to the way EN works by splitting the average of the two when combine/decombined , you can use this to "refill" your EN without reducing Morale.

DAIMOS: Amazing base stats and damage, Daimos starts off strong and will remain that way all the way throughout the game, especially if you get his secret Finisher. Its pilot Kazuya has some really strong niches - he gets Valor extremely early (level 10) making him one of the early contenders for boss killing and his ACE Bonus is just ridiculous: 100% chance of Sword Cut activation. This makes him completely invincible to attacks such as missiles and Funnels. Daimos can tank certain enemies and laugh maniacally as they counterattack feebly.

SHIN GETTER: Amazing stats, amazing attacks (Shin Getter 2 has a 3-7 P attack for crying out loud!) and 3 Spirit banks. Not much to say, it's just good, use it and abuse it.

Now, the early game forms are not that impressive, but on the good news as a modern SRW game at least the upgrades carry over properly.

Now, I personally don't think carting around the single-pilot Getter units is worth it even for the combo attacks, as strong as Stoner Sunshine Spark is, they really tie Shin Getter down... YMMV.

HEAVYARMS: Trowa has every skill and spirit he needs to be the best Sniper/Support Attacker character to exist in A Portable. Between his H&Away, Level 4 Support Attack, 10 SP Strike and access to Iron wall, I don't think there's anything else his character archetype needs! Gunfight maybe but that seems overkill.

Heavyarms's Double Gatling Gun is either as strong as or more powerful than most Gundam Wing's finishers (3900 pre-upgrade) with much better range. It has 16 ammo which is the point where you might actually consider Large Cartridges to be complete overkill.

Someone really liked Heavyarms. Contender for the best Real/Pilot combination in the game.

GREAT MAZINGER: The most usable out of the Mazinger Trio, I feel. For whatever reason, Great has a higher weapons upgrade rate compared to his brothers (3100 vs 2300) and a much better EN/damage ratio for sustainability. Great Booster is basically Cosma Nova - helpful in the early game because it's a "I can use this at any time" 1-shot high damage finisher and less useful in late game because you want more sustainability in your finishers.

Now, the pilot Tetsuya is a mixed bag. His biggest weakness is a B in Space - get ready to slap a Space terrain part onto him or use Attune. Tetsuya has Support Attack Level 4, which would probably be more useful on Reals with more sustainable attacks - Tetsuya will definitely not be using 4 Thunder Breaks supports if he wants to actually have EN to do anything else! However, having access to 4 extra Atomic Punches is still solid.

Alternatively, you may wish to replace Great's pilot with some other character from the series, such as Duke (who is the only Mazinger character with access to Soul) or Maria.

There's also survivability issues - as a single pilot unit he can't really afford to spam Guard, but unless you get the FUB, Great's armor is not that strong for late-game - try to keep him out on the frays instead of in the thick of things.

If you wish, you may want to team him up with Grendizer, which is actually more helpful for Gren than the other way round for a combo attack. I personally don't feel that adding in Mazinger Z is worth it.

GP03: The Gundam unit that pretends that its a Super, because it's one of the only few in its category, Gundam characters who have the misfortune of being built like a Super pilot shed a single tear of sadness when they are passed over for piloting it.

Despite being massive in size, the GP03 can still dodge if you put around 4-5 upgrades into its mobility, giving it amazing survivability. It's one of the few Gundam units that actually has high base damage and is thus usable in a No-Upgrade Run if that's your thing.

Due to his 10 SP Strike and Support Atk Lvl 4, Kou is a perfectly fine pilot for the GP03 and it covers up his issue of survivability. However, there are many other good choices such as (Chuck) Norris Packard with his -50% EN ACE bonus and his good stats/OK spirits (with access to Soul). You could also put Quattro if only because Quattro goes with anything.

SAZABI: S Ranks in all relevant categories. 2000 Base Armor. Ridiculous stats overall. The Sazabi's only weakness is the middling damage on its weapons and only having 6 funnel shots. It's still far and away the best Funnel unit in the game and one of the perfect place to slot Quattro into (well, it's his unit anyway)

GUNDAM MAXTER: Chibodee has 10 SP Strike and the Maxter itself has very solid, ranged P attacks thus giving it great reach (not Ashsaber level, but still pretty good). Chibodee's ACE bonus is actually pretty ridiculous - outside of the Morale bonus (making him reach 130 faster), he also gets +50% to Counterattack damage. That's practically like getting half a Valor for free just for Countering!

Strangely enough, it loses its Shield when it goes into Super Mode, so don't bother giving Chibodee Shield Defense.

VOLTES/COMBATTLER V: Close to being the same mech that I don't feel the need to really differentiate them. They have 5 pilots, that's what makes them good, need I say anymore? Make sure to have Flash, Invincible up about 24/7, and Iron Wall when you need to. Due to that, they can do well with less upgrades because you can Spirit Bank your way through stages.

Field both of them at the same time because they get combo finishers and get both their ACE Bonus because -EN Cost is great for that purpose.

Ok, here's an interesting difference: Voltes' pilot has Gunfight while Combattler's has Support Defense. Ironically Combattler has the better ranged weapons for counterattacking between the two units, though Kenichi having Gunfight makes sense because he's a Marksman in the Anime. At least he enjoys the extra range on his Tops.

Most of the time, people won't get the finishers because they're getting Master Asia which is okay, because their combo finishers are much stronger anyway. However, if you feel like being a cool rebel, Gran Dasher (Combattler) is actually a pretty good attack for counterattacking mid-range units. Voltes Choudenji Ball just sucks major goat balls.

ZAMBOT/DAITARN: Both of these units have terrible weapons loadout except for their combo attacks so if you're going to use them, use them both. However their true strengths lie elsewhere...

Daitarn 3 is massive. With its LL size and high base damage and Banjou having access to Soul, anything it hits, it destroys. Problem is, with its LL size, it won't be hitting much either unless you toss a lot of parts onto him. For offensive purposes you really need to baby it with an Attune caster unless you're going to just use him for a boss killer. Daitarn's 3 also has a Shield despite being a LL super - this makes him quite possibly the best Support Defender in the game if you're willing to invest the Skill parts into him.

Banjou's ACE Bonus is notable - it allows Valor/Soul'd attacks to get crits! If you're willing to spend Skill Parts on him, Banjou can utterly demolish bosses if he gets lucky. It's not that practical for normal grunt bashing.

As for Zambot 3? Its main strength is ironically, in its sub-pilot Keiko. Keiko has just about every support Spirit Command you could ever want, including Attune for a whooping cheap cost of 20 SP! She's a high candidate for someone to dump all your SP parts to. Because it's a 3-pilot unit, the other two pilots can spend their SP keeping her alive to do her job, just don't expect great combat utility.

And for Zeormyer of the Heavens sake, don't FUB Zambot-3, its Ion Cannon is just terrible. It uses the wrong Off-Stat (Ranged) and it sucks up more EN than a ghost vacuum. Don't do it, seriously.

FA ZZ GUNDAM: Basically only usable with Judau because of his ACE Bonus - which basically allows you to use MAP attacks Post Movement. The FA ZZ is perfect for smashing through packs of closely packed grunts to break Support Defense formations and makes several missions a lot easier and less tedious because of that. With the Full Armor upgrade, it basically also has two lives and a free EN refill in case it gets shot down so be sure to get it. It does need a couple of Weapon Upgrades to do its job, but you were probably going to do that anyway.

APSALUS II: An alternative to FA ZZ Gundam - it has a MAP attack that can also be used Post Movement with Judau at the helm. In comparison to the ZZ's, the APII's Map is longer and deals a bit more damage, but the "beam" is much thinner and less wide. However, it lacks the "two lives" factor of the FA ZZ. Still, it can make a change of pace and APII comes earlier so you can get a bit more out of it even before Judau joins but I do not believe it to be worth using outside of a NG+

GOUF CUSTOM: YOU DONE GOUF'D! Ok, it's a glorified Grunt Mech and (ChucK) Norris is actually better off piloting somewhere else because the Gouf doesn't really have any expensive EN attacks to speak of. There are lots of units that are much more worth it to sink your cash on.

That being said, it's not bad and it comes with a lot of free upgrade bars. Depending on how you've spent your money, it COULD be worth it in the same way you would use a Pre-Promote in Fire Emblem, because the Gouf does have features like Shield and cost effective attacks.

HIGH INVESTMENT:
Some of these units may be usable without upgrades, but as a general rule they only show their real power if you sink money into them.

GM CUSTOM: Stats are shit, attacks are shit, this is bad, right...? Then you look at the FUB bonus: -10 Morale to whatever it hits and your jaws drop. Put someone with a level 4 Support Attack in it and watch as you drop 50 Morale from a boss every turn (although they'll regain some of it due to boss morale gains). Candidates include Kou, Burning and Quattro if you really want to waste a Newtype for some reason.

But yeah, before it gets its FUB its crap, so if you don't plan on upgrading it, don't field it.

ALTRON GUNDAM: Without proper setup, Altron's basically Dragon Gundam without a Super Mode and Finisher, might as well use that unit instead. It's still semi-usable because of its cheap 1-5P attack, which is the perfect thing to trigger Support Attacks from your other units... but yeah Dragon has that too.

What makes Altron powerful is its FUB bonus - "Survive with 1 HP after using Self-Destruct." Anyone who has some familiarity with SRW will probably have a Light Bulb flash over their heads now - give Wufei Prevail skill parts (he only tops out at lvl 5 naturally) and then Self-Destruct. Congratulations, he has now transformed into Mini-Chirico. Unless you let a vast amount of enemies mob him, most enemies will hover at 0% hit rate and in return he'll probably hit most of them even without an EWAC. Cast Focus if you want to be super safe.

RX 78-2 GUNDAM + G-FIGHTER: First off, the G-Fighter is a much better secret to get than the Full Armor Gundam (which has the most unfortunate acronym ever). The... um, FA Gundam is just an average sniper-ish bot.

The RX 78-2 Gundam has a Shield and its FUB bonus makes all attack pierce barriers, though it does have access to Beam weapons so that's slightly less of a priority compared to something like Daimos. It has a ton of weapons which makes it a really flexible unit.

The G-Fighter is a resupply unit that can combine with the Gundam and has its pilot available as a sub. If you're silly enough to want to fight Don Sauzer for no good reason the G-Fighter is the ONLY resupplier available on that route.

There's a lot of tricks with it, such as seperating it to refuel, then recombining it to get access to Spirits. Also good for leveling up Gundam support characters by having them piggy-back on a main character killing a boss.

One issue - the G-Fighter has terrain values of - outside of Space. This means you got to give it a terrain part to use it in atmosphere - either Dustproof or Flight Module. Still, the Gundam gets the benefits of the G-Fighter parts when it combines anyway, so it's not like its a wasted slot.

DAITETSUJIN: Tsukumo's ACE Bonus is kind of broken - it doubles the effects of Prevail. The Daitetsujin can get an upwards of 5000+ Armor when it happens and just shrug off everything thrown his way.

However, the unit has some sustainability/damage issues and the most annoying part is that Tsukumo will carry over his ACE Bonus to NG+... as an enemy! Because of this, I only half-heartedly recommend using him.

Also he's on the route split with Don Sauzer. He also sort of conflicts with the FA ZZ Gundam's secret, HOWEVER, because getting the FA ZZ depends on Judau's Kill Count which carries over in NG+, there is no conflict if you get the FA ZZ secret first and get Tsukumo on later playthroughs.

BOSS BOROT: Borot isn't exactly in his J/W/L form where he was one of the best characters after full upgrades. However, he does have niche uses in a NG+ with lots of money available right from the start. First off, Borot has a ridiculous upgrade rate with a fully upgraded finisher with a base damage of ~8100. Boss also gets Valor really early so this is a great way of speeding up the early game.

Weaknesses? Yeah, it's still got a bunch. First off, even when FUB, the Boss Borot can't tank. Boss can't hit the broad side of the barn and he gets Strike as his LAST command, although Borot's FUB and his ACE Bonus both mitigate that somewhat if you get them. It also has no real range without his Borot Pressure Punch secret... but that would require taking a harder route, losing Master Asia and really isn't that worth it.

However, an unupgraded Boss does have a use - for whatever reason Boss is a HUGE enemy magnet and they will go out of their way to kill it. Put it next to some Support Defenders and he can be an excellent decoy for other more important members of your team (like D-3)

GUNDAM ROSE: Pre-FUB, a subpar semi-sniper unit.

Post FUB (all weapons become P), turns into Ashsaber but with a P MAP. In fact, FUB'd Gundam Rose is one of the two units in the game with a P MAP attack, which is a useful niche to have. The other is ZZ Gundam, so if you have the money to spend on it, Rose is definitely available much earlier in the game to abuse.

ZETA GUNDAM: This unit tends to be forgotten when the GP03 rolls about and all the funnel units start rolling in - the Zeta isn't attractive compared to the big girls, it seems. Unupgraded, the Zeta is still actually one of the best units to put Quattro in while he earns his kills for the Sazabi.

Zeta does have problems with being dual-stat and requiring Newtype for its finishers. Kamille is basically the only free NT with balanced Melee/Ranged stats to use it (the other is Judau, he'll probably use the ZZ), which is good because he's pretty well suited for it with his ACE and Soul.

But Zeta really shines after it has been FUB'd with full weapons upgrade. It gets access to Waverider Crash, a Post-Movement attack with affordable EN cost, high base power (7800~ fully upgrade), massive hit and crit bonuses (around +40% each) and 1-2 range which can be increased further with ranged parts! In addition, the Waverider Crash can be used in both normal and Waverider form, giving the Zeta some flexibility in what modes it can choose to remain in and still have access to a finisher.

However, the Zeta's not cheap to both FUB and fully weapon upgrade, and it's pretty pointless to upgrade WR Crash if you don't already have full upgraded weapons... I suggest it on a NG+.

AESTAVALIS UNITS: Aestavalises (is that the plural form?) have weird usuability curves. Early in the game, they're very useful even with little upgrades because of their essentially free combo attacks, but they slowly peter out over time as more units are able to break their barriers etc...

Unless you upgrade them, in that case they remain useful. If you think about it, because their Distortion Field cuts most attack damage by 50%, they are essentially gaining double value from upgrading their stats, along with raising their threshold such that Beam attacks won't penetrate through it. It doesn't hurt that they're surprisingly cheap to FUB which adds S Ranks to terrain, making them nigh-unkillable.

However, Aestavalis weakness is that they're superglued to the Nadesico (not really that much of a problem, there aren't any Turn Limit Skill points), and you basically have to use Combos or they won't do much damage, which kind of limits movement Because of that, they tend to take up a lot of deploy slots which limits your options if you're the sort who wants to "fit in as many favourite characters" as you like. Since you have to deploy them in groups, ironically while they are individually cheaper, the total cost of upgrading multiple of them might be more expensive than upgrading just a strong singular unit.

The Aestavalis teams combos are split as follows:
Ryoko/Hikaru/Izumi: The Buttercup Formation girls are very good support/fighter hybrids with access to certain Spirit commands at a discount. Izumi's ACE bonus of 25SP Daunt is especially attractive if you don't plan on abusing the GM Custom. Because of this, if you upgrade them so that they don't have to spend SP to survive, they can use that SP to support your team instead.

Akito/Gai: Takes up 1 less deployment slot, is probably more powerful on an offensive level though with no Support Spirits. Double Gekigan Flare is an extremely powerful and sustainable combo attack which is the big draw of this team. However, Gai and Master Asia are mutually exclusive. Gai also has a weird "Super pilot build riding a Real" thing going on which means he kind of needs upgrades to survive, but if you went all the way to get him over MA you probably are going to favor him anyway.

Without Gai, the best Akito can do is slap on his Lunar frame, be a poor semi-sniper and try to scrouge up 50 kills for his admittingly really good ACE bonus.

Akatsuki: He may have slightly better stats and skills but he's going to die lonely because he has no combos with anyone else. Bench.

TEXAS MACK: With little upgrades, Texas Mack is actually pretty solid, just not outstanding. Jack can't hit the broad side of the barn with his stats, but as a two-seater this is usually a moot point because he can afford to spam Strike while still having SP for defensive commands because of Mary, who also has some nice support Spirits, including Resupply. Has a Shield so defensive side covered there.

I mostly put him here in this category because Texas Mack main strength is that if you plan to play this game a lot more than 2 or 3 times (for some reason...), it's a really good Cash farmer with Jack's ACE bonus. With his natural H&A, Gunfight and FUB (+2! to range!) it can be a pretty good sniper too.

MECHA TEKKOUKI: Tekkouki Oni has "Ignore Evasion Decay" as his ACE Bonus... which is not really useful at base because he's not built for it innately... Mecha Tekkouki has an FUB of -50% damage taken. Now combine those two factors and give Tekkouki a bunch of Evasion skill parts, he can become a hilariously unkillable Support Defender. Before then just bench the dude.

MISC:
Pilots, units that I feel are worth mentioning, whether there's niche uses or things to point out

BATTLESHIPS: You get two of them and are forced to use them anyway so you better get comfortable, Ra Cailum is Bright's final upgrade while the Nadesico (Y-Unit) is Yurika's. Both of them need Strike to hit the broad side of a barn, but aren't that bad as far as SRW battleships go. The Nadesico (Y-Unit) MAP attack is quite possibly the strongest MAP in the game although you may require Rouse support in order to build up Morale for it.

Both Battleships are rather tough, although points go to the Ra Cailum's amazing 33000 Base HP pool which can abuse Repair Kits very well. The Nadesico does have a Distortion Field but that introduces its own set of weakness, such as being overwhelmed (leaving it drained of EN) or pierced but as long as you don't toss it solo in the middle of an enemy pack, it'll usually survive.

BRIGHT: Get his ACE Bonus! You have to go out of your way to do it because he's using a Battleship, but it's amazing and one of the most powerful ACE Bonuses in the game.

THE REST OF THE G GUNDAM CHARACTERS: While perhaps less useful overall than the top tier G Gundam characters, both Dragon Gundam and Bolt Gundam have access to high powered finishers (~8000 when fully upgraded) once they hit Hyper Mode in a game where that is at a premium.

However one issue is that sortieing all G Gundam characters at once will lead to situations where they all want kills to go into Hyper Mode ASAP but this is mostly mitigated once they receive their ACE bonus, as they will start with at least 115 (10 + 5) Morale.

NOBEL GUNDAM is OK if you're willing to tether Allenby to Domon 24/7 to spam combo attacks but meh overall.

RISING GUNDAM has great unit stats (including having a 3300 damage upgrade rate on very good bases) but is mostly pulled down by its pilot Rain, who has a bad melee stat for piloting a dual-stat unit and is one of the two characters with the worse Morale gains in the game (the other is Fa!). She does have a decent Support Spirit load-out, so the Rising can be a fun NG+ unit to play with if you're willing to fix Rain's issue by dumping stat parts onto her.

AKITO: Probably the 2nd best ACE Bonus in the game. Free 50 SP consumables is just nuts. Too bad he's not that useful if you don't have Gai, and you won't have Gai if you are going for Master Asia.

In a certain mission, Akito has to duel alone and survive for a couple of turns so it's probably worth it to put some money into him. If you can actually defeat the boss then, you get one of the only 3 SP Consumption Down parts in the game... but that requires some serious roiding of Akito with both money and stat upgrades. I wouldn't recommend this unless you're a real fanatic who's going to play the game 7 times or something.

AMURO: I actually don't find Amuro THAT impressive in this game, for example I think his Spirit set is subpar with a wasted Mercy with no "support" spirits or access to Strike (!), his ACE bonus is ho-hum and his skill set could be better. However, he is the most "available" Gundam pilot so he's perfect for sinking your Skill Parts into because he'll carry them over to NG+ for the longest time. Outside of that eh, Quattro's better.

QUATTRO: Jeez, talk about favoritism, guess we know who's the better between Amuro and Char. Quattro gets Support Attack Lvl 4 and his ACE bonus is ironically vital despite essentially being a Leadership Aura, which is +10% to Accuracy and Evasion for units within 2 squares. It really says something about A Portable design when a skill that's basically gravy in most other games is considered good enough to be an ACE bonus in this one.

ROUX: With ACE bonus, Roux is Amuro with less accessibility but better Spirit/Skills. Not the strongest, but pretty usable anyway.

SHIRO: Shiro's a little overlooked because his canon unit is the Ez8, which is extremely ho-hum in this game. In addition, his skillset and spirit build is completely ill-suited for it, painting him as more of a Super pilot rather than a Real. This leads to most people forgetting about him in favour of Newtypes.

However, said spirits are pretty amazing - he STARTS with Friendship making him a great wingman for your Supers or Battleship, and his ACE Bonus turns him into Irm with a 45 SP Love.

There are several good choices for Shiro, mostly involving units with Shields so he can put his Support Defends to good use (note: he doesn't start with Shield Defense). Of course, he also likes the GP03, but everyone and their dogs from Gundam is fighting over it. A solid choice is the RX78-2 with its G-Fighter combination - Shiro works fine as the Main pilot (it has a Shield) or he can play the Sub and help another Gundam pilot achieve ACE status with his spirit bank.

FOUR: Four's ACE Bonus is reducing her Enable cost from 80 to 55, which can be useful for some specialized strategies. She's ok as a combat character so getting it isn't pulling teeth like with certain other support characters (cough Fa Yuiry).

PURU/TWO: Most people kill them for their Haro drop. I usually do that too. However, Puru's ACE Bonus is basically a free Valor when Support Attacking with Puru Two if you think about it. The big problem is with the Gundam series in general: There's a lot of good pilots but not enough good units to spread for all of them!

The MP Qubeleys aren't bad, but there are much better units. Still, if you're wililng to go through with some non-canon placements and put them in other units, they can probably do fine enough.

HIKARU (from Grendizer not Nadesico): Like Four, but for the Mazinger series units.

AINA/FA: Some other good Gundam support Spirit Bank pilots.

DRAGONAR 2: Useful early game for D-Team combo and Resupply. However the final upgrade removes its Resupply ability, thus removing a lot of its use and ironically making it worse!

GALVA FX-II: Nice resupply unit with EWAC and some nice Spirit Commands split between its two pilots. Terrible weapons though and dies if anything sneezes on it so it needs Mobility.

GP01 FB: I really underestimated this one but I think it does some strong niche uses. First off, I would like to note that this is final form of the GP01: its early forms are rightfully pretty sucky. When GP03 rolls around most people just forget about it and bench it.

This unit has S Rank in Space, and it also has a Shield so it's surprisingly survivable. Its Long Barrel Rifle is a B weapon with enough power to penetrate Battas Distortion Fields even without upgrades, so if you need to field more units against Nadesico grunts it's usable. I would probably field someone like Shiro in it if I'm using it.

MINERVA X: Has S Ranks on a bunch of terrains if you FUB it.

DEATHSCYTHE: Like in just about every game he appears in, Deathscythe is good for Grunt Bashing, especially Nadesico grunts as Beam Scissors has Barrier Pierce. Not great at killing bosses.

Duo himself has a cheap Confuse if you need more casts of it. He has access to Invincible as a Real which is also a thing he has going for most SRW games, but it's not as unique here.

TALLGEESE III: It's slightly above average and certainly usable, mostly due to Zech's good stats, but as a dual-stat unit I think it's not the best for investment.

KEROT: "Mutually exclusive with Master Asia" is a phrase that will scare off most people. But assuming you're still here, Kerot's the only unit in the game with BOTH Repair and Resupply and is a two-seater with decent Spirits. However, it has bad weapons and horrid base stats in just about every category including slow movement speed that isn't Flight...

Unless you FUB which grants it access to its Armored Carrier form, which gives it 2 lives and some decent weapons. Despite being cheap, is it worth spending money on a support bot anyway? I'll leave that answer up to you.

GETTER DRAGON (SINGLE PILOT): As stated in the Shin Getter section, the single-pilot Getter Dragon grants you access to what is possibly the strongest combo attack in the game in the form of Stoner Sunshine Spark, at least as far as base damage goes. However, due to its high EN cost and the fact that the choices for piloting it on the Getter Dragon side are questionable, the practicality of having access to this is debatable.

Miyuki is a pilot with good support spirits, including Attune if you plan to just leave her in the back being tethered to Shin Getter to cast Spirits.
Tekkouki Oni is probably the best combat pilot choice.
Musashi has Terrain issues.

Overall, I still don't think it's really worth it to field this unit, but YMMV.