For fans of the long-running franchise, Gundam Evolution puts players into the cockpit of their favorite mobile suits. While the launch has been rocky, with numerous bugs, aggressive disconnects, and a controversial microtransaction system plaguing the new game, Bandai-Namco’s new hero shooter has been making waves with its fans through its high speed gameplay and unique take on classes.
To help you navigate the giant-mech-filled warzone (and figure out where to spend your Capital points) we’ve made this list of the best mobile suits you can use in Gundam Evolution.
If you’re looking for more FPS games, here’s a list of the best competitive FPS games to play in 2022.
1. Gundam Barbatos
Gundam Barbatos is easily one of the strongest mobile suits you can learn to play. It can two-hit every character in the game and has enough mobility to get into the enemy team, pulverize a target, and leave with little consequence.
Barbatos’ terrifying melee tools are what allow it to rip Gundams apart. Its chargeable Mace, deals 700 damage on hit and stuns when it lands. Long Sword stuns enemies and deals 800 damage to Gundams directly below Barbatos. When combined together, Barbatos can unload 1500 damage on a single victim. For reference, the tankiest mobile suit in the game, Sazabi, only has 1400 health.
But the combo doesn’t end there. After a kill, Barbatos’ powered leap is reset from its cooldown whenever you get a kill. This allows Barbatos to immediately retreat before your opponents can retaliate and start the entire cycle over again.
2. Gundam Exia
Exia is similar to Barbatos in that they’re both agile, melee-oriented suits. However, Exia lacks the raw power of Barbatos, usually struggling to finish off mobile suits after its combo of Rush Slash and Spin Slash unless it’s in TransAm (Exia’s G-Maneuver). However, Exia’s speed and flexibility more than makes up for its lack of brute force.
Exia’s skills allow it to appear in almost any location, shave off chunks of health from enemies then pick them off from long range. Its combination of Rush Slash, three boosts, and Quick Step means you’ll handily outmaneuver the entire cast. Its main weapon fires three projectiles that deal 115 damage on each body shot and 230 on each headshot with no damage falloff, making it a dangerous suit at every range.
Its only weakness is its low health pool at 800HP, and Exia’s the need to juggle cooldowns. These factors make Exia a demanding Gundam for any pilot to use well.
3. Pale Rider
Overwatch fans will be familiar with Pale Rider’s kit since it’s similar to Soldier 76. However, compared to its Overwatch counterpart, Pale Rider rewards players more heavily for their good aim.
Its assault rifle deals a massive amount of damage at mid to close range and, if the player can track well, it will shred through enemies that are out of cover in a single magazine. Frag and EMP grenades are flexible tools that can be used to punish enemies hiding from Pale Rider’s onslaught, or cover Rider’s escape if it needs to boost out of a bad situation. Its healing beacon will heal an entire team when everyone is grouped together.
The only thing Pale Rider has to worry about is getting too close to the melee suits. But with two dashes and a few headshots, Pale Rider players still have options to keep distance and deter head-on approaches.
4. Zaku II
In Gundam Evolution, Exia, Barbatos, and Zaku-II are the best flanking mobile suits to play. What makes the Zaku-II stand out from its competition is how it has similar tools to the melee suits (three boosts and a disengage skill) while still holding a short-ranged automatic rifle. The result is a highly mobile mid-range suit with more potential damage than Exia and more range than Barbatos.
Much like Exia, Zaku-II requires smart management of its skills to mitigate its weaknesses. There are two main weaknesses holding the Zaku back – its small 800HP health pool and its long reload time relative to how small its magazine size is. Smart usage of smoke grenades and knowing how to safely retreat to med packs will help skilled players make the most of the Zaku’s low health. The Zaku’s G-move will close out close-range fights and automatically reload its gun, bypassing the Zaku’s long reload.
5. Sazabi
The Sazabi is a massive mech that can carry a team in the right situations. It’s able to reveal enemy locations, fly to allies to protect them, and its shotgun and shield combo allow it to easily destroy any mobile suit up close. That shield also increases Sazabi’s health by an additional 1600HP for a total of 3000 health, making it the tankiest mobile suit in Gundam Evolution.
Despite how powerful the Sazabi is, it still has some glaring problems. Melee attacks and stuns will bypass its shield and deal damage directly to it. This means Sazabi players must play around melee suits with its one boost (two if you count its axe throw) and mobile suits like RX-78 which will naturally cause headaches with their stun abilities. However, Sazabi can still overcome these problems with good aim, smart boosts, and efficient skill usage.
6. GM Sniper II
GM Sniper II is the go-to long-range mobile suit in Gundam Evolution. A headshot with its rifle deals 1100 damage, disabling the majority of mobile suits in the game with a single shot. This makes the sniper an oppressive unit to fight against on most maps.
GM Sniper shines best when it plays near an objective. Its targets will be pre-occupied with GM Sniper’s teammates or too distracted securing the objective to pay attention to the Sniper. In game modes like Destruction, where a mobile suit has to stand still to defuse a bomb, GM Sniper has the potential to save the game with a single bullet by picking off opponents attempting to defuse or plant.
Its biggest weakness is its weak close range options, but the ability to stop most mobile suit with a single shot makes this weakness a more manageable.
7. Zaku II (Melee)
Next to Sazabi, Zaku II (Melee) is Gundam Evolution’s next tankiest mobile suit. Unlike Sazabi, Zaku II (Melee) fairs much better against other melee suits. Its Guard ability reduces the damage it takes and, with full rage meter, Zaku II (Melee) can reach 1700 total health. Its skill, Survival, also adds to its tankiness by making the Zaku immobile and invulnerable for a short duration.
While it’s a similar to the other melee suits, Zaku II (Melee) lacks the mobility of its competition. This makes it harder for it to catch up to its targets and vulnerable to aggressive kiting.
In exchange, it gets more health, a projectile that pierces through enemies, and one of the most powerful G-Maneuvers in Gundam Evolution. This allows the Zaku II (Melee) to become a dangerous combatant in team fights since its rage mode will build up faster when it hits multiple enemies, and its G-maneuver is capable of clearing entire enemy teams.
8. GM
GM is one of Gundam Evolution’s generalist mobile suits (the other being Pale Rider who leans more on the DPS side). It can heal itself and teammates with its healing grenade, tank damage with its 1300 HP shield, and deal a good chunk of damage through its pistol and detonator bomb. This sets it apart from the other mobile suits because it can fill any weaknesses a team may have.
Despite its generalist tools, GM also stands apart from other suits through its shield usage. Similar to Sazabi, GM is able to shoot while hiding behind its shield, but GM’s pistol has far more range than Sazabi’s shotgun giving it a larger threat range. GM can also dash forward and bash enemies with its shield, creating space for teammates or acting as an extra burst damage. This is particularly useful against the melee suits when you either need the damage or extra space.
9. Unicorn Gundam
Out of all of the mobile suits in Gundam Evolution, Unicorn Gundam is the strongest contender for the title of “best mobile suit.” There’s very little this Gundam can’t do. Its primary purpose is supporting other mobile suits through its Psycho-frame Resonance skill and Psycho-field (Armor). Psycho-frame Resonance constantly heals nearby teammates, while Psycho-field (Armor) provides its team with 200 armor on top of their current health. In effect, this encourages teammates to cluster around Unicorn and create death balls that will trample over enemy teams.
Along with these amazing support skills, Unicorn Gundam is still able to unload a devastating amount of firepower through its G-Maneuver, Beam Magnum. Unicorn only gets five shots, but each Beam Magnum shot deals 550 damage, effectively three shotting even the tankiest mobile suits in Gundam Evolution.
Its only downside is its massive size, which makes it easy to shoot, and how little damage Beam Gatling Gun does.
10. RX-78
The original Gundam is a simple, but powerful mobile suit. RX-78 has a bomb it can sling to stun enemies and break shields. Its other skill is a shield to protect itself with. However, unlike GM and Sazabi’s shields, RX-78 can’t shoot while its shield is out. Instead, it can boost around with its shield, giving RX-78 safe passage back to a nearby medpack or a mobile form of protection for a teammate.
RX-78’s biggest allure however is its high-damage Beam Rifle and its powerful G-Maneuver. Its Beam Rifle deals 460 damage in a single headshot, effectively two-shotting 800 health mobile suits and three-shotting 1100 health suits. Its G-Maneuver has the Gundam throw a bomb that creates a massive explosion after a short delay, melting anything caught in the blast. These straightforward but powerful abilities allow RX-78 to have a tool for every situation.
Don’t forget to check out the best fighting games with rollback netcode and our guide to getting better at fighting games.
