Battle Armor

The Battle Armor is an armor type found in Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddon. While using the Battle Armor, the player is tougher and can use heavier weapons at the cost of reduced speed.

Description
Earth Defense Force Insect Armageddon describes this armor as follows:

"Battle Armor is the heaviest armor available to the soldiers of EDF. It provides the most protection of any armor type, but at the cost of speed and agility. The Battle Shield and its various upgrades help to offset the Battle Armor's lack of mobility, allowing it to repel damage from up-close enemies as well as use very high explosives at short range without harming the user. The powered exo-frame of the Battle Armor allows the user to carry some of the most devastating personal weaponry ever developed."

"Primary Roles"

"Close Combat, Heavy Assault Weaponry and Explosives"

"Damage Mitigation: High"

"Movement Speed: Low"

"Special Attributes: Battle Shield"

"Weakness: Diminished mobility"

"Defensive Move: Dodge"

"Weapons: Machine Guns, Flechette Shotguns, Mortar Launchers, Rocket Launchers, Missle Launchers"

Shield
The primary ability of the Battle Armor is to generate an energy shield that deflects damage: the "health" of this shield is represented by an energy bar on the right of the screen, similar to that used by the Jet Armor. This bar regenerates slowly even if the shield is held up as long as it is not taking hits, and much more quickly if it is not held up. If it is completely depleted, it will turn red and the Battle Armor will be unable to raise the shield again until it is fully restored, in the same manner as the Jet Armor's boost mechanics.

While the shield is active the Battle Armor takes no health damage at all, with all damage shifted to the energy bar instead. The Battle Armor also cannot be knocked down while the shield is up.

Damage cannot overrun the shield's energy, so no matter how powerful an attack is, the shield can always repel at least one hit from it before being depleted: this even applies to attacks that would normally be instant death like a Hector meteor landing on the Battle Armor or being caught in the blast radius of a Pesticide Weapon.

Heavy Body
While all Armors will destroy certain objects while sprinting, the Battle Armor destroys a far wider selection than any other; as well as metal fences, the Battle Armor can destroy for-some-reason-tougher wooden fences, along with most other small obstructions. This is something of a double-edged sword, however, since the Battle Armor will also destroy cars, which will explode and deal damage.

Upgrades
The Battle Armor only has two upgrades, both of which are accessed with a selection menu that appears on the right when holding up the shield.

The first of these is the Bug Zapper. This energizes the shield, causing it to give off arcs of lightning that strike enemies at close range. While it is active, the energy bar constantly depletes, with an additional drain every time the shield generates a lightning arc; this only happens when an enemy is in range. The arcs have a full 360-degree coverage, so even enemies behind the Battle Armor are not safe from it. The damage is mediocre and it is no replacement for a firearm, but it is very useful for dealing with weaker enemies that try to swarm the Battle Armor: for as long as it is active, the Battle Armor is effectively immune to being attacked by Tickers, though it cannot be used to damage a Ticker that is already attached.

The second power is the Shockwave. This pours the entire energy bar into a circular blast centered on the Battle Armor, dealing the same amount of damage regardless of how much energy was in the bar when the attack was initiated. The attack is devastating, more than capable of destroying an Anthill and most of its occupants at the same time, and can tear a huge chunk out of the energy of most bosses; it will also destroy any Tickers attached to the Battle Armor. Unfortunately it is just as good at taking down other members of Strike Force Lightning, so some care is needed in using it.