GBO2 Gundam GP01 Aqua: Second coming of Marine Gundam?!
This video contains two recent matches I had with the LV2 GP01 Gundam Aqua on Gundam Battle Operation 2. It is a 550-600 cost general with two instant stuns, two dodge rolls, a fast downswing animation, great midrange DPS and superb underwater ability. Its major weaknesses would be slow walking and boosting speed, but the walking speed becomes better once one of the shields breaks. I downplayed this suits ability in the past because I went off of comparing its stats and theoretical ability to the similar playstyle Stark Jegan and MP Hyaku Shiki Kai, but now my opinion has changed. I consider it at least equal to these suits now for its insane ballistic damage output, multiple stuns and better close range fighting ability while still retaining enough stagger accumulation to stop raids. It basically plays like a combination of Aqua GM, Marine Gundam and GP01. I hope that you enjoy watching!
Its primary ranged weapon at LV2 is a small missile launcher with 475x5 power, 10 ammo, 0.8 seconds cooldown, 10 seconds reload, 0.77 seconds swap time, 355m range and 17%x5 stagger value. This can't stagger in one burst but the reload time is short and it has great DPS ability. You can use this as a follow-up to your stuns to nuke any suit, especially raids. It gets 570x5 power and 25%x5 stagger value while boosting underwater due to the LV2 aquatic mobile shooting skill, so it becomes pretty much overpowered if used correctly underwater.
Its primary melee weapon is a beam saber with 2310 power, 2.5 seconds cooldown, 0.77 seconds swap time, standard combo modifier and 90%x2 downswing modifier. This downswing is different from the standard GP01 but is used the same, it cannot follow up a downswing with another downswing but instead can easily knock down with the fast animation.
Its first sub weapon is a head vulcan with 105 power, 30 ammo, 450 RPM, 7 seconds reload, 0.5 seconds swap, 200m range, 787 DPS and 4% stagger value. This is impractical to stagger with on its own but it is good for finishing off enemies or to finish stun accumulation.
Its second sub weapon is a beam rifle with 1900 power, 4 ammo, 6 seconds cooldown, 15 seconds reload, 0.77 seconds swap time, 400m range and 10% stagger value. This has standard performance for an instant stun beam rifle. You can use it to chain stuns together with your large missile launcher or combo it into the small missiles for DPS.
Its third sub weapon is a shoulder missile launcher with 275 power, 16 ammo, 255 RPM, 10 seconds reload, 0.5 seconds swap time, 375m range, 1169 DPS and 25% stagger value. This has high stagger value and boost fire ability, but the DPS and velocity is low. This is impractical to use unless fighting a very large or stationary suit.
Its fourth sub weapon is a large missile launcher with 2350 power, 2 ammo, 6 seconds cooldown, 15 seconds reload, 1.77 seconds swap time, 250m range and 50% stagger value. This has only two shots and short range, but very high power and huge splash radius. You can start combos off with this because of the swap time.
The LV2 Aqua GP01 has 18500 HP, 27 ballistic resist, 19 beam resist and 20 melee resist. This is pretty average durability with nothing to write home about. Not squishy but not bulky. In terms of defensive skills it has LV2 Emergency Evasion, making it quite slippery in a close range fight or shooting battle.
It also has 125 (128 with ground affinity) walk speed, 200 boost speed, 65 thrust and 69 turning speed. The boosting speed is slow but you get +10% walking and turning speed for each shield that breaks, so your walking speed isn't as bad as it seems. It also gets LV1 Forced Injector and quite rare for an aquatic MS, LV2 Flight Control.
Overall I think that this suit has gotten a lot of unfair criticism, often from people who have not played it yet. I used to be one of those people but changed my mind after getting my hands on it from the recent limited banner. This thing really counters the oh so common raid with low ballistic resist such as Nightseeker Space Type, S Gundam, Geara Zulu EH, Rick Dias II, R-Jarja, Zeta A1 or Hambrabi. Some of these are really common to see so the ability to quickly nuke them with shooting is a real blessing to counter what is usually an overpowered threat in the case of Spaceseeker or S Gundam. On underwater maps it is probably at least as good as the Kapool, while on land it is primarily competing with the Stark Jegan. It has more DPS than Stark but worse stun accumulation, so choosing which one to use is largely preference based. So I can safely say that the Aqua GP01 is one of the top 550 all rounder generals, even being able to compete at 600 cost due to having more midrange output than the Atlas Gundam. I can definitely recommend you roll on its limited banner. Thanks for watching, and I hope you enjoyed it!
Music used:
Yakuza 3, Bruise
Dynasty Warriors Gundam 2, A Good Thing Is Possible