Gigantic Unloader Barga


 * "Now we have to risk our lives to recover it? Why do we get all the stupid missions?"
 * —Alpha Team's second in command voices his skepticism regarding Barga.

Gigantic Unloader Barga (ギガンティック・アンローダー バルガ, Gigantikku Anrōdā Baruga) is a giant vehicle introduced in Earth Defense Force 5. It is very similar to Walking Fortress Balam from Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair, being a gigantic robot used to combat kaiju-type enemies.

Description
Gigantic Unloader Barga is a 47 meter-tall humanoid construction vehicle. Barga was developed as part of an initiative from the Japanese government, and astronomical funds were put into its completion. However, once the program was completed with some eleven examples built, there were numerous safety and cost concerns regarding the vehicle's operation. They were deemed unusable and transferred to the Earth Defense Force, who kept them in storage, with ten partially scrapped or not completed. However, the EDF found a use for the only Barga operable at the time when faced with the seemingly invincible Archelus. While Barga was not developed for military purposes, the EDF was able to repurpose it for combat and deployed it into battle.

Like the Nix, Barga can be piloted by all four soldier classes, while many other vehicles can only be piloted by Air Raiders and Rangers. There is initially only one Barga in the game, which is orange-yellow in color, but after Archelus' defeat the EDF begins mass-upgrading the remainder to produce grey "War Bargas." The Air Raider can unlock Barga variants as vehicle drops: as the first variant is level 46, this is only first possible towards the end of Hard mode.

Missions
Barga is first seen in the tutorial mission, in the room where the Sergeant gives the civilian instruction on handling firearms. It is abandoned when Base 228 falls to the Primer invasion

After the Earth Defense Force determines that "a crane" would be the perfect weapon to combat Archelus (this is not the easiest chain of logic to follow), Alpha Team, Grim Reaper and Spriggan are sent to Base 228 to recover it. The EDF forces break through the perimeter defenses and fight their way down to Barga's hangar, despite some of the Ranger team being unsure if Barga will even work, describing the vehicle as a "piece of junk" that was palmed off between bases for a long time because nobody wanted the hassle of fixing it.

In the following mission, the Tactics Officer succeeds in rebooting Barga's systems and modifying them to allow it to serve as a combat vehicle. Finally, Barga is delivered to an industrial area to face off against Archelus. The machine successfully kills Archelus, finally proving that the creature can be defeated. Modified military "War Bargas" are subsequently deployed against a massive group of Erginus trying to force entry into one of the remaining human cities. The Bargas are successful in defeating their enemies, but are suddenly set upon by an army of Archelus...es. More Bargas are airlifted into the battlefield, including one without a driver.

Strategy
The player controls Barga using the joysticks like a normal character: R1 triggers a punch with the right hand and L1 a punch with the left hand. Due to its size, Barga is incredibly slow, though it also possesses a great deal of endurance, making it difficult to destroy. Like Balam, Barga is most effective against kaiju such as Erginus and Archelus, and will most often see action against them. It is also well-suited to attacking Colonists and Cosmonauts, which are just tall enough for Barga's punches to connect with them. Unlike every other attack in the game, Barga's punches can destroy a Cosmonaut's armor and damage the alien underneath in a single blow.

Barga is intended for combat against very large enemies, and as such is less effective against giant insects. In missions featuring NPC Bargas, the player character will sometimes be expected to kill any giant insects or other smaller enemies that attack them while they are battling larger enemies.

Barga's punches, executed using the L1 and R1 buttons, can be blended into combos, like Balam's. Barga is capable of a larger variety of combos, and instead of a "guard" move like Balam, it has a "charge" move, bound to L3 (even if the default controls are changed it will still be on L3, so be wary of this), that can be followed up by a punch with either arm to execute a special attack. It does not seem to have Balam's knockdown recovery move. Barga's combos are as follows:

L1 (Jab) > L1 (Chop) > R1 (Hammer Punch)

R1 (Jab) > R1 (Straight) > L1 (Double Uppercut)

L3 (Charge) > L1 (Typhoon Punch)

L3 (Charge) > R1 (Double Slam)

The final hit of each of these will knock a kaiju to the ground, while the chop and straight tend to stagger one heavily. Double Uppercut deals the most damage to such an enemy, since both fists have a hitbox and it can potentially deal damage to the same target twice. However, since the combo moves level out Barga's torso automatically, they cannot be performed at a downward angle. Double Slam and Chop hit smaller targets fairly consistently, but the others are unlikely to do so. Chop and Hammer Punch are also effective against airborne enemies.

Alternate L1-R1 or R1-L1

This causes Barga to perform an endless combo of sweeping alternating hook punches in front of it. It hits faster than other combos, and, provided the player tilts the camera down to make Barga stoop forward while using it, is quite good at striking Colonists and Cosmonauts. It is best used to defend Barga against smaller opponents.

Besides punching, Barga can also execute a stomping attack using L2 or R2. This attack deals relatively low damage and the animation takes several seconds, during which Barga is incapable of doing anything else, but has a sizeable blast radius. It is faster than Balam's version and the area of effect is larger, as well as not having Balam's issues with actually dealing damage. It should be used primarily to soften up swarms of giant insects. Alternating L2 and R2 or vice versa will cause Barga to walk forward while constantly stomping.

Operating Barga reduces the player character's item collection radius to 0: it is necessary to get out in order to collect items. Since enemies aim for Barga's center of mass, getting out to unleash a strike, fire a weapon or request a vehicle and immediately boarding again is eminently possible, as they will take a moment to target the character. Because Barga is so large and Colonists and Cosmonauts have to see a player character leave an occupied vehicle or they will continue to treat it as occupied, these two enemy types will sometimes fail to spot a player character leaving and keep attacking the empty Barga.

Like Balam, Power Posts have no effect on Barga's physical attacks, and since no Barga variant has a projectile weapon they have no effect on it at all.

Barga's fairly flat head means it is quite possible for other characters to ride on it if it is only moving forwards, and the rockets mounted on its back will tend to prevent things falling off as it walks. This can even allow a Nix with good jump thruster capabilities to ride around on Barga.

Variants
All Bargas have a crew of 1 and cost a minimum of 11,761 Reload Credits when fully upgraded, a surprisingly low amount (less than one-third of an EMC, slightly more than a B651 Titan and less than a BMX10 Proteus). The Strike Barga can only be unlocked by playing DLC 2 missions on Inferno difficulty.

The variants are respectively orange-yellow, green, grey with EDF markings, and purple with the word "ULTIMATE" on the chest.

As well as these variants, there are difficulty-scaled controllable Bargas dropped in several missions: the one in the Inferno version of Mission 100 is very slightly tougher than the Strike Barga, with 1,253,229 HP and presumably slightly scaled-up damage too. Oddly, the Barga variants found in mission 83 are the weakest, with those in 82 slightly better.

Notably, because the HP display maxes out at 999,999, a Barga with more than this amount of HP will appear to not be taking damage until it is reduced to 999,998: the health shown in the armor bar will decrease, but the number will not. Since for the Strike Barga this requires enough damage to kill the level 46 version twice over, it is important not to proceed under the erroneous assumption that it is invulnerable.

Trivia

 * It probably takes its name from the Barga Mongols, an ethnic group originating near Lake Baikal in modern-day Russia and today mostly located in China.
 * In Mission 100 (99 online), if there are multiple players, multiple Bargas will be dropped. Oddly, while their stats are identical, the additional Bargas dropped are visibly grey War Bargas rather than the standard orange Barga dropped for the first player.