Topic: PERP101: Which Faction should I choose to train?
Lots of players have discussed with me what Faction's Bots to specialize in, so here is a short guide to help people choose.
1. Compare the weapons:
Damage per second: Firearms>Magnetic Weapons>Lasers>Missiles
Range: Lasers>Missiles (No Line of Sight required)>Magnetic Weapons>Firearms
Accumulator thirsty: Lasers>Magnetic Weapons>Missiles/Firearms
Weight (this affects the slowness of your robot): Firearms>Magnetic Weapons/Missiles>Lasers
There is no overall best weapon. There is a trade-off between the Range, Damage, Accumulator Use, Cycle time(affects crit chance), and need for Line of sight. It is up to you to choose between relative performance in these areas.
You could try out the 3 starter bots, to see which one you enjoy the most.
Note: While Blue users usually use Magnetics, Yellow Lasers and Green Missiles because of their bot bonuses, sometimes Blue/Yellow bot users use firearms instead of Magnetic weapons/Lasers because they find the tradeoff in DPS/low accumulator usage/fast cycle time(increases critical hit chance) to be worth the lack of range and heavy weight.
Green is pretty much confined to missiles as their bots are mostly with missile slots that only accept missile launchers.
2. Compare the tanking style:
Green(Pelistal): Shields (can make a bot almost invulnerable when on, but has to be shut off to fire weapons. Something like an accumulator based temporary invulnerabity.)
Yellow(Thelodica): Resists (buffer tanking?)
Blue(Nuimqol): Armor repair (active tanking)
The main thing is to try on a small shield gen once or twice to see whether shield is your thing or you prefer armor/resists.
3. Compare the E-war:
Green(Pelistal): Energy draining/Energy neutralizing
Yellow(Thelodica): Sensor Dampening (reduces locking range and increases locking time)
Blue(Nuimqol): ECM (chance based lock jamming)
4. Look at the various robot bonuses of each race:
Green(Pelistal): Locking time, Shield Absorption, Missile damage
Yellow(Thelodica): Critical hit chance, Armor Resists, Shield Absorption/Accumulator recharge
Blue(Nuimqol): Armor Repair, Falloff, Magnetic weapons
Green/Yellow if you like shields, Blue for armor, Yellow if you like critical hits.
You can see the bot bonuses on Perpetuum Planner at perpetuum-planner.com or on item info on the market.
After you have compared all four dimensions, it should either be clearer which faction you want to train. [Or you will want to train all of them!!]
Enjoy the game of Perpetuum.