Hector

Hectors are giant robots used by the Ravagers in Earth Defense Force 2017, Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon, Earth Defense Force 2025, and Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair. They appear to be a replacement for the Daroga tripod (well, quadrupod) walkers seen in Monster Attack and Global Defence Force.

The name Hector for a malicious robot appears to be taken from the 80s sci-fi film Saturn 3.

Earth Defense Force 2017
In Earth Defense Force 2017, the Hectors, called Hector Walking Arms, are large metallic machines armed with different weapons. They came in two varieties, the large Hector which was the first encountered by the EDF and the later smaller Hectors which seemed to have been designed to be deployed from Carriers and have slightly decreased health. They were armed with two weapons of any combination: plasma cannons, plasma repeaters, or plasma chainguns.

Attacks
The Hectors are one of the difficult enemies in 2017. They are very large, and they use a heavy machine gun that penetrates armor easily or a more precise plasma weapon. They later use a strong plasma artillery cannon. They are also known for their incredible flinching.

Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon
In Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon, the Hectors return with a very different appearance, first appearing far earlier than in other installments, with one appearing in Chapter 1 Mission 1: Invasion Alert. They still come in two varieties, large and small, but the small ones are more comparable to the big ones from the last game. The bigger one is called the Hector Mk 2 and has a variety of weapons. The Insect Armageddon Hectors are also considerably stronger.

MkI Attacks
In Insect Armageddon the Hector plays the same role as before, but every small Hector uses the same attacks: a rapid fire energy gun, a spread rocket launcher, a heavy energy cannon/mortar, and stomping on the player.

The Hector's main armor is very strong and immune to small arms fire (i.e. assault rifles, shotguns, Mech/Turret chainguns, etc.) except for the red glowing parts on the chest, but explosive weapons like rockets, missiles, and vehicle cannons can damage Hectors no matter where they hit. Auto-lock and manual-lock weapons will track several valid 'sub targets' on the Hector, ensuring they can deal full damage to it. The Hector explodes on death; this explosion is not particularly large or dangerous, but care should be taken to avoid it as it will still knock soldiers down on top of dealing damage.

When Hectors are badly damaged, they will stop to make a sort of roar or howl of rage, and may attack more aggressively afterwards.

MkII Attacks
In Chapter Two of Insect Armageddon, a much larger and stronger version called the Hector MkII appears. This version uses a stronger version of the energy gun that fires a thick hail of shots, a rapid-fire version of the spread rocket-launcher, and an incredibly powerful blue beam cannon. It can also launch explosive energy projectiles like the Hector, usually three in fairly rapid succession.

On occasion, the Mark II may stop to attack buildings with its energy mortars or beam cannon instead of attacking EDF troops, sometimes going as far to ignore multiple troops firing upon it to knock down a small and irrelevant structure. So far, no reason beyond 'wanton destruction' has been discovered for these outbursts.

The Mark II's strongest attack is a slow-charging energy shockwave that knocks players back great distances, and deals a lot of damage even on Normal. The slow charge-up gives players a brief window of opportunity to get as far away as possible to reduce the damage they take. The Mark II can also stomp on the player if it gets the chance to, and will deal damage to any vehicles and turrets it steps on in this manner.

The Hector MkII is completely invincible to all weaponry unless they are aimed at the "weak" spot on the chest; auto-seeking projectiles will lock onto this spot, as will manual-lock launchers. The Mark II explodes in a blinding flash when it is defeated, and can badly hurt anyone caught in the blast radius.

Mark IIs will stagger and raise their arms to protect their "weak" spot when their health sinks below a certain point. The weak spot also becomes darker as the Mark II takes damage, much like the 'health indicator' spots on Carriers and the Daddy Long Legs.

Hector
The standard Hector is essentially the same as the one in 2017, a massive, gangly chrome-silver robot with weapons mounted on its silly noodly arms. Unlike 2017, there are no small Hectors: in addition, the explosion effect for Hectors is rather toned-down, and as with most enemies they make far less sound than they used to.

They are a large enemy and will destroy any destructable terrain they encounter just by touching it, simply walking through buildings without even slowing down.

As before, they are armed with any combination of two weapons: Particle Gatling Guns, Spark Launchers, or Plasma Cannons. Since 2025 and 4.1 have Havok physics, they are also armed with the awesome powers of the physics engine, and can hurl ground vehicles ridiculous distances if they stand on them.

As in 2017, the Particle Gatling Gun is the Hector's medium range weapon, taking the form of a huge rifle-like weapon. It rapidly fires small direct-fire energy bolts, which now glow blue. It is rather more accurate than in 2017, producing a focused cone of fire rather than a ragged spread. It only damages with a direct hit, and cannot damage buildings.

The Spark Launcher is the Hector's shortest-ranged weapon, a stubby pointed emitter firing spreads of explosive red projectiles which can hit characters on the ground and juggle them in the air if they are unlucky.

The Plasma Cannon is the longest-ranged weapon a Hector has: a Hector that is aggro'd can target any point on the map with it. It is a tapered cylinder resembling a lance with the end cut off, and fires a huge purple energy bolt that travels in a ballistic arc. There is a charge-up time for the shot, with a humming build-up sound and an increasing glow in the weapon's muzzle being cues that it is preparing to fire; another cue is that the Hector has to aim the weapon during the whole charge-up time This bolt is powerful and has a substantial splash damage radius. A Hector with a Plasma Cannon will try to lead its targets with shots; standing still if moving will often lead to the shot missing its target.

When attacking, a Hector will walk towards whatever they are targeting, and then constantly attack, approaching close to their target and then backing up before approaching again. They will continue walking backwards and forwards until their target is destroyed, and then move on to a new target. They do not deliberately attack multiple targets, though their Spark Launcher has a broad cone of fire and will hit groups: the tighter spread of the Particle Gatling Gun in the 2025 games means this weapon is largely restricted to single targets.

While they have a limited range of upper body motion like a BM03 Vegalta, their flexible noodle arms mean that they can target enemies behind them quite easily, and it is best to consider them to have a 360-degree range of fire.

Hectors are tough, but still retain their heavy upper-body flinch animations, which are physics-based and depend on the strength of incoming hits. Flinching will throw off their aim since their arm positions assume they are not flinching: constant damage will prevent them from returning fire, and a single powerful hit at the right time will cause a Plasma Cannon Hector to fire its shot in completely the wrong direction.

They are best taken on at long range where only Plasma Cannon Hectors can return fire; weapons like the Ranger's Stringer and Lysander sniper rifles, the Fencer's Gallic Heavy Cannon or the Air Raider's Epsilon Armored Railgun are perfect for taking them on. The Wing Diver has the most problems with them due to her lack of heavy-hitting sniper weapons without serious drawbacks; her MONSTER sniper rifles are about the best she has at range, while she can take them on at close range (with some risk) by using an Idunn or Rapier.

Because Hectors are slow and move predictably, they are also easily taken down with the Air Raider's strikes: even laying down C Bombs and waiting for them to wander onto onto them is effective.

Most amusingly, firing a Pure Decoy Launcher shot onto one of a Hector's weapons will completely disable it while it tries to shoot something that is attached to it.

In the city maps (but not so much the town), Hectors will tend to follow the roads to get to the player's location outside of park areas, making them a little easier to predict.

Blue Hector
The Blue Hector is a new variant which first appears in the mission Blue Fighters. They are tougher than standard Hectors and have a shimmering water-like blue shield effect over their bodies, and their sensors are green instead of red.

They are armed with variants of the standard Hector weapons, theirs being more powerful and with new weapon models.

The Solid Particle Gatling Gun replaces the original Particle Gatling: it now actually is a Gatling gun with rotating barrels, and is more powerful and fires faster.

The Power Launcher replaces the Spark Launcher; it now resembles a Wing Diver's Eclat weapon, with a three-petal front section that opens up when it is about to fire; this actually means it has a better about-to-shoot cue than the normal one.

The replacement for the Plasma Cannon is the Particle Stream Gun, a huge weapon somewhat resembling a manta ray turned on its side. This functions very differently to the Plasma Cannon; instead of firing a slow projectile in an arc, it fires a very fast direct-fire projectile, making it more like a rocket launcher than a mortar.

Blue Hectors can also carry Shield Screens, which are lozenge-shaped and resemble the shields of the Quadruped Fortress. They protect most of the Hector's body, but the opposite arm is still exposed and vulnerable; they can also be avoided if Storm Team can get behind the Hector. In some DLC missions they will have two; these Hectors cannot attack, and have no purpose but protecting other enemies.

4.1 additions
Hectors in 4.1 are of the same types and have the same armament, but there are new sub-varieties with slightly different AI: "fast" Hectors have decreased health but move at roughly double speed and are more aggressive, while "slow" Hectors will tend to stay at long distance and have increased health, but decreased movement speed.