Earth Defense Force 4.1 - Why I love the Fencer.

Showcasing Mission 23: Giant Robots, on Normal difficulty with minimum armor. This mission is one I've seen make newbies unfortunately ragequit as it's one that really demands you test out and understand your class's weaponry. All classes can do this mission solo online, which scales the enemies to be almost 2.5x as tanky and damaging, but only the Fencer has sustained mobility and damage to do it easily even at minimum armor, and with relatively low level weapons (chosen more because they're really good despite being low level).

Blasthole Spear is insanely good, giving you dashing, decent range compared to other options, piercing, and heavy stagger on Hectors. Hammers and Swords sadly do not cause stagger on Hectors, so you can't throw off their shots with those.

The heavy class of shields is always best. The increased deflection radius and reduced damage more than makes up for the slightly awkward aiming. The same is true in EDF 5 where you can use accessories to increase mobility and shield statistics, or simply go all in on shield boosters to become nigh-unstoppable. Tower Shields here take a while to reload, but that's not an issue with a bit of planning.

While dual-wielding Gallic Cannons is capable of insanely good DPS, you're a sitting duck during the recoil, and for survival purposes it's almost always better to use a dash capable weapon alongside a Gallic Cannon. When they become available, Force Axes are the fastest dash weapon you can use by mashing the uncharged shot, but a Spine Drive or Blasthole Spear also works well. Flashing Spear sucks for damage due to the awful range, but it allows fast dash cancelling, so I use it here for that while sniping with the Gallic Cannon. The Gallic Cannon hits hard, staggers, and pierces, making it insanely good. You can also dual-wield Powerdynes, a weapon that hits ridiculously hard, pierces, and is pinpoint accurate, but it can't be reloaded, so missed shots really hurt. It's great for clearing the second wave of fast enemies.

This mission all comes down to how well you handle the rush of very fast Hectors on the second wave. A solo Ranger will need to dual-wield Stringers or use a Stringer and a Fusion Blaster. Wing Divers have no issues and can fly around with a Rapier and a Thunder Bow, but their low armor means mistakes are punishing. Air Raiders can do this mission solo but only realistically by playing offline and getting a few later weapons that don't drop yet but are in the weapon limit. Namely, there's a version of the Gigantus tank that has like double the health of previous versions, and you get ZE-Guns, which dual-wielded can easily clear the map by themselves.

If you're playing 4 players online, a group of Rangers can simply take Fusion Blasters and essentially wipe the map without issue. Each Fusion Blaster has enough ammo easily for 5-6 Hectors.