Blacker

The Blacker is, of course, painted green.

Blacker is the name of a series of vehicles in Earth Defense Force 5, equivalent to the E551 Gigantus in previous games.

Description

Blackers are main battle tanks, though since they only have a single primary gun with no coaxial machine gun they are more like self-propelled guns in practical terms.They boast a good combination of speed, armor and hitting power. They are re-tuned compared to the Gigantus: the low-ranked models are not nearly as slow as their equivalents, and have faster turret rotation speed as well. However, a Blacker carries less ammunition than an equivalent-level Gigantus.

Any class can drive a Blacker that is summoned in or pre-spawned in a level as a drivable vehicle. Driving a Blacker increases the driver's pickup range for items by 300%, indicated by a white circle on the ground around the vehicle.

Blackers that spawn in missions always have the performance of the E1 type in terms of turret rotation and handling, with only their HP and damage scaling by difficulty: their HP can be anything from 857 to 17,365 depending on the mission and difficulty. Pre-spawned Blackers are sometimes found in underground missions where they could not be summoned under normal circumstances: like Nixes spawned in such levels, this comes with the drawback that they have no headlights.

Variants

All Blacker variants have a crew of 1. Their reload credit requirement generally varies depending on their level, maxing out at 3969 Credits for any variant that can have its reload credit requirement reduced. Most Blacker variants are unique to the Air Raider, but the Blacker E1 can also be called in by the Ranger as well, while the Blacker 4.1 is exclusive to him.

Three main variants of the Blacker exist; the Blacker E-Series is the most basic, armed with conventional explosive ordnance and is useful for general combat against hostile forces.

The Blacker A-Series is instead equipped with armor-piercing ammunition that fires on a flatter trajectory and has improved muzzle velocity: they are effectively a replacement for the Epsilon Armored Railgun in the Air Raider's vehicle list, trading some of their damage and their secondary weaponry for improved speed and maneuverability. A-series tanks boast superior armor to other Blacker variants, carry slightly more ammunition and have faster turret rotation. They trade splash damage for the ability to penetrate multiple enemies if they are lined up.

The SP-series are E-series tanks which have an A-like gun, but with increased recoil and still firing explosive rounds, though with slightly decreased damage compared to near-level E models. The E4 and E10 models mount an SP-type gun, but lack the recoil effect.

Additionally, there are the promotional Blacker 4.1 and Blacker 5, for the Ranger and Air Raider, respectively. These have the same stats as the basic Blacker E1, but wildly different primary weapons and a nifty promotional EDF paintjob.

The Blacker E10 is a special variant exclusive to DLC 2: like all weapons with a level greater than 100 introduced in the DLC, it can only be acquired from weapon crates while playing the DLC missions on Inferno difficulty.

Level	Name	Health	Armament	Ammo	Damage	Attack radius (m)
6	Blacker 4.1	500	Dispersal Howitzer	15	63 x 20	6
6	Blacker 5	500	Timed-Grenade Cannon	40	56	12
6	Blacker E1	500	105mm Howitzer	25	245	8
7	Blacker A1	1000	90mm Smooth-Bore Gun	30	437.5	N/A
16	Blacker E2	1550	120mm Howitzer	25	680	11
17	Blacker A2	1600	90mm Smooth-Bore Gun	30	595	N/A
18	Melt Buster	1700	Melt Gun	160	27.0 x 8	N/A
24	Blacker SPC	2000	115mm Long-Range Howitzer	25	600	11
25	Blacker E2D	3000	120mm Howitzer	25	1200	11
40	Blacker A2D	6200	90mm Smooth-Bore Gun	30	1960	N/A
48	Blacker E3	7000	130mm Howitzer	25	2800	13
53	Blacker SPS	8500	125mm Long-Range Howitzer	25	2550	13
58	Blacker A3	13100	90mm Smooth-Bore Gun	30	3675	N/A
62	Blacker E3G1	11000	130mm Howitzer	25	4400	13
71	Blacker E3G2	16500	130mm Howitzer	25	6600	13
78	Blacker E4	23000	135mm Long-Range Howitzer	25	6900	15
86	Blacker A9	32000	110mm Smooth-Bore Gun	30	8750	N/A
87	Blacker E9	25000	140mm Howitzer	25	10000	15
106	Blacker E10	32000	140mm Long-Range Howitzer	32	12800	15

Trivia

• It appears to be based on the German Leopard 2A6 tank.
• Despite being called a "Tank", the Blacker has no variants with secondary weapons, meaning it is actually classified as a Self-Propelled Gun.
• Most Blacker variants use a "Howitzer" as a main weapon, however, shots are more Direct-fire than Arcing-fire, meaning it is technically more of a Cannon or Gun than a Howitzer; A long-range, plummeting-shot cannon, in-between an actual artillery cannon and mortars.
• It should be noted that, as impossible as it seems, high-level Blackers can actually drift... Don't ask me how that's possible with treads.