E651 Titan

The E651 Titan is a giant vehicle that the Air Raider can call on in Earth Defense Force 2025' and Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair. In Earth Defense Force 5 the Air Raider can call on the same vehicle, now called the B651 Titan'''.

Description
At 25 metres long, this gargantuan super-tank is one of the largest vehicles in the EDF's arsenal. Armed with a battleship-grade main gun, it is able to annihilate almost any opponent in a single shot, and quite capable of defending itself from hordes of giant insects with its thick armor and powerful secondary weapons, though it requires a crew of three to be completely effective.

All Titans have six weapons; the driver operates the main Requiem Cannon and a fixed bow-mounted machine gun that fires directly forwards. Other crew operate two smaller turrets mounted on top of the main one that can fire in an arc of a little over 180 degrees on the side they are mounted on; on all but the first Titan, these guns can penetrate through multiple targets. The final weapon varies according to the tank: the first Titan has grenade projectors that fire at fixed locations and can be used against enemies around the vehicle, while the later two have guided missile launchers instead.

The Titan is incredibly slow and turns slowly as well, though its size means it can simply drive through buildings without even slowing down. The main gun is so powerful that when fired it will force the Titan violently backwards.

Strategy
It takes some skill to use a Titan effectively, given its slow speed, long warmup before it can be used (meaning many aggro'd enemies when it comes out) and the odd qualities of its main weapon. The Requiem Gun fires an enormous slow-moving plasma ball in a long arc which takes some getting used to, particularly since the tank sliding backwards makes it difficult to tell where the shot ended up. The projectile spawns partway through the recoiling animation and the hitbox is so large that it will sometimes hit infantry who were standing to the sides of the vehicle, usually killing them instantly. Its bow machine gun is one of the best vehicle-mounted automatic weapons in the game, however, and its broad spread makes the Titan very effective against a group coming from in front of it. Indeed, the Titan M3's bow machine gun actually has better damage per second and range than the Ranger's top-level AF100 rifle.

Unlike the BMX10 Proteus or HU04 Brute, the Titan is effective, though not fully effective, with just a single crewman, since it has powerful weapons accessible by the driver.

The best way to use a Titan is to maintain a steady advance on a specific target, with other players manning the secondary guns as necessary to protect it or ducking inside to take advantage of the protection it offers. The main gun should be saved for tough targets such as tunnel exits, since the secondary cannons are effective against even large enemies.

The Achilles' heel of the Titan is attack from the air at close range; for whatever reason (most likely the fixed firing arc of the grenade / missile launchers), it is impossible to swing the camera for the secondary turrets upwards even though they can be aimed upwards, and so it is only possible to engage aerial enemies at long range or with blind fire. This means it will be destroyed in short order in any mission featuring Dragons, and should not be used against them.

Since the Titan is so huge, it is more or less impossible to get on top of it without using another vehicle or some suitable scenery, which makes equipping it with extra turrets or power / guard posts difficult. It is better to use a power / guard assist gun if the player wishes to power up the tank, since the gun's projectile will move with it no matter where it is placed.

Variants
All Titans have a crew capacity of 3 and require 7,500 credits to drop. They cannot be dropped at the start of a mission and require 4,500 more credits to be accumulated before they can be deployed.

Trivia

 * At 25 metres long, the Titan is two and a half times longer than the heaviest tank ever constructed, the German Maus, and would probably weigh in the region of 800 tons.
 * NPC Titans added in 4.1 have excellent aim with their main guns and infinite ammunition, but do not use their other weapons. They are still extremely powerful allies, especially since their Requiem Cannons have no recoil and cannot damage player characters.