Welcome to the guide. So lets get this out of the way. Basically this is really meant for those that want to know whats going on and may not be able to find out as much because of not having time or going through the Discord server for all the info on M.A.S.S. Builder. Some people have answered questions while others the Devs have answered as they were the only ones that know.

I'm zap and I'll work with this part of the guide and try to maintain it to minimize the questions that may/will be asked a plenty. Hopefully, not only does this answer your questions, but if someone does ask for something that is already covered, maybe you can steer them to this guide so that all of it can be answered :)

Pretty much this is just for the important changes that has occurred to the FAQ. If there is any, it will be put here. Note that I will for the purposes of keeping track, put the date as U.S. MM/DD/YYYY so as not to confuse anyone that does the Day is the start of the date.

Happy Holidays, Commanders! I updated some things based on 0.9 and a few touchups in certain other areas. See! I am around!

I was also surprised to see basic MP added in 0.9, but unfortunately, I had been very busy with life so I have yet to have a real chance at MP so I can't really add to that just yet, but I will at some point!

Hey Commanders! I know its been a while. I still am around and sometimes do play from time to time or look at the models some amazing people in the community has built.

I added a performance related question in the troubleshooting area towards the bottom as well as clarified my PC specs as of now because I no longer feel I can accurately compare to another's system on the lower end thanks to being on at this point, a high-end system. I can only apologize if I can't assist with your graphic performance issues with MASS Builder.

I am personally awaiting 0.9! I just wish that the multiplayer component wouldn't be possibly delayed to 0.10 (as of recent AMA understandings). I was a participant in a community tournament, it would be great to represent as one of the Valkyrie participants.

Until next time, Commanders!

Hello Commanders! You are probably wondering why I haven't updated to 0.7x status. That is mostly because it has been a trying time for me. In short, roughly 2 weeks after my last post on this notes section, my close friend passed and aside from those trials, one of the things I had to work on is the business that we developed has to go to me. As such, it has had me VERY busy. Even at launch of 0.7, I have spent all of 2.5 hours from 70-76, partially because that has been my hecticness and people trying to keep my mind focused.

So that said, I think its pretty clear that I may scrap the damage calculations for a few reasons. 1 of which is that the Unofficial MASS Builder discord has had plenty of whiteboard data on maths with the entire community helping out. As this was never meant to be a data challenge document, but an answer to many questions that pop up. This can allow me to focus on just that.

So there is updates that will happen from here on. Until next time, commanders!

An update (at least!), commanders! I know I have alot to do and already started updating various sections of the FAQ as we hit the 0.6.X era. For starters, I got a newer system and updated the small section in the crashes FAQ to reflect this. I've seen Varien on the Community server become the admin of the server and has done a great job with the upkeep for this community as well as Starbreaker Zed and all other volunteers involved. So great job people!

New builds have come along and node changes, but my focus is still maintaining the community elements of questions to the game and its connections to other community specifics. To that extent, since Varien has made a numbers run down on damage, I almost am considering dropping that project altogether on my end because it is difficult to try to track and me be satisfied with the explanation (I often am more detailed which I feel for explanations require more conclusive results). I'll partially leave it up to you to decide.

And even added another post for history of the M.A.S.S. builder game and development by Seanspeciale. So if you want more, check the community links!

Hello commanders! So I will be archiving the old information that was in the roadmap as its not going to be relevant and will take up more space. Instead of cluttering it up, it will be added to the doc archive that I have. In addition, I need to set about working more on all the delicious stuff of updates and possibly refining a couple of questions. So that is todays updates.

Well this was great to see in an e-mail. Thank you all for the awards!
Small update is if you've been wondering if I had the info, why haven't I had a chance to update. Short answer is I didn't have the info. it was all setup, but then I experienced a loss of a family member recently. Needless to say, that was put on hold until I am feeling fully up to the task to do that study further. Also, I ended up becoming a streamer for a game community. And of course, work has me just as busy so gotta keep up with it. Again, apologies for the M.A.S.S.ive delay, but I'll have it all for you. This doesn't stop the main point of the guide though in my opinion so as long as I gather the important information, it will be put in here.

Hello all and now for an update. In order to accommodate the update, I also had to remove old news posts so here we are. As of yesterday, I managed to complete collecting every single melee around and now will begin the biggest challenge of all: Setting up the testing unit for melee.

Here is how it will work and you will soon understand my methodology behind the test and why I needed to redo anyways.

Everything on the first 2 development node categories passively increases a stat. So with knowing that, the biggest thing I needed was to figure out "optimal" for the melee in order for the numbered results to come in correctly. This is important because from my understanding with the talks from Xsi, much of the "math" is calculated in a complex way and has previously been shown. Having the maximum possible Physical stat will mean we're talking about the maximum damage at the time and may not fully represent late tier results later nor potential node equips. So I needed a base to work with. Thanks to the newer patch, we could get to a tier that this is possible with the right equips. So my aim is to overcharge the Acceleration first and foremost. This way, no matter what I equip, the speed will stay maximum. This will also show the pinnacle of speed in relation to the attack.

Next is the attack combo. My aim is to just focus on one attack combo and that will be the basic of them all. Each combo has a different damage variance attached so its hard to just do, say, 1 slash with the basic sword and call it a day as that only tells how much on average of that 1 attack, but because of damage variances between weapon and weapon types, that would change quite a bit.

I will leave out "group" attacking because group numbers skew the results which can show favoritsm. Part of the reason is that polearm types have far easier reach where as the smallest of brawler types will only have the almost same aoe if one does the "back" swing attack which also changes the combo.

Dual wielding is going to be the hardest to cover in my opinion as that changes many things, but I will see what I can do.

The process WILL take a while so please have patience.

The game launched as Early Access on September 13th, 2019 (yes, a Friday the 13th scenario) starting on version 0.1.0. The game will have many changes coming, some that may change what you know, some that may need to be reworked, and some pipelines that might start as an experiment to stuff before finalizing it down the road. But you will hear it first:

NOTHING IS FINAL YET!

That said, they are always watching feedback in which you can check their discord for. You can always leave it in the feedback section of the Discussions, the M.A.S.S. Builder section of the discord[discord.gg], and the bugtracker[massbuilder.nolt.io] for bugs and suggestions.

A: I'll just leave the exact words from the Kickstarter dev post:

Originally posted by Kickstarter Project post by "Nontawat":

So, the most important question... or the second most to some, is: "When is the full release of the game?" To answer that, we can say that we expect the project to still be in Early access by the end of 2020 itself. This is due to the sheer amount of contents that we decided to work on and the stretch goals that we've reached but we'll continue working on all of it diligently we promise.

What we are looking to working onward to that point is completing the first part of the game for everybody. What we mean by that is we need to have every type of contents for everyone to look forward to. That is why we put Multiplayer which will take months to complete right in the middle of the single player story, but only after half of the missions are done (there is planned 26 story missions).

A: So lets be fair. There will always be hiccups with developments and scope and that doesn't change from game company to game company. But also recall that initially, the pandemic did cause a few small issues for time. Please respect that moment in addition to the development cycle of a game developer.

So obviously we had a roadmap that went from September 2019 to July of 2020. Many things has changed, from launch times of versions to additions that were put in. For instance, 0.4 had Accessories phase 1 implementation... but that obviously was "internal" as it was not ready for the community to try and subsequently, 0.5 also had no accessories so here we are. To this effect, I am adding the current known thanks to the roadmap update on October 17th which brings us what is potentially coming over the next versions as well as time frames.

Early Access 0.6.0

• Repeatable Missions Mode: Challenge Modes
  
• Rework mission select UI
  
• New Armor Sets
  
• New Weapon parts
  
• New enemy Units and Behavior improvement

Released in March

Early Access 0.7.0

• Accessories part system
  
• A LOT of accessory parts [Thanks Devs for the humor in your roadmap!]
  
• New weapon parts
  
• New enemy units

Released in June

Early Access 0.8.0

• Energy launchers rework
  
• New armor sets
  
• New bullet launcher parts
  
• ...and more

The new information is taken from the Kickstarter development roadmap post .

Obviously we lack 0.9 and 1.0. This also assumes that that will be the last point before we are on 1.0 where things should be finalized and what could happen after. Most likely, 0.9 will be the final stuff to really test before 1.0 launches where we get the remainder of story content and a few other elements. One could guess that the "and more" in July could means multiplayer elements if all goes right, but we shall see.


The old information was taken from the Kickstarter roadmap post.

Again, any of these could change to come earlier or later in time.

The Demo is currently 0.6.2 version. This makes it much more representative of the current game, but is not representative of 1.0

The Demo is not going to be a full representative state of the game until it gets closer to final version. What the Early Access users have access to is constantly changing and it has been stated by one of the devs that the demo may get one more real update when it gets closer to launch. It is also possible that they may update it when it gets to a certain time frame as well if they deem it ready. That may mean that when people start doing some interesting stuff and you're only trying the demo and wondering why you can't do it in the early points, well that may either be because you don't have the tech or you're still on a much older version.

TL;DR: Do not judge too harshly on the EA Launch demo.

As its been growing, I figure to compile all community related links as well. If you feel something is missing, feel free to request it and I'll see if it applies.

Sekai Project Discord[discord.gg]
The publisher's Discord for all things including Mass Builder talks section.

M.A.S.S. Builder bug tracker[massbuilder.nolt.io]
A bug tracker location including suggestions.

M.A.S.S. Builder Community Server (Unofficial)[discord.gg]
The community server for all your needs! Also of note, they are doing some competitions in designs in case you're interested. Since the game is all about customization, why not look into it! Maintained by Varien.

MASSBuilderSaveTool[williamjcm.ovh] (formerly wxMASSManager)
Found in the FAQ, this is a M.A.S.S. Builder save file import and exporter for your M.A.S.S. units. The best way to do a transfer of MASS units between users at this current time (and technically for yourself if you do more designs than the alotted space). This can allow for editing things such as company name as well so you don't have to start over just to change the name. Done by community member WilliamJCM.

M.A.S.S. Builder Wiki[mass-builder.fandom.com]
It is the wiki for all things M.A.S.S. Builder done by the community!

M.A.S.S. Builder Chronicle[docs.google.com] - Done by community member Seanspeciale, if you wanted the outside lore of how M.A.S.S. Builder came to be in a timeline, this is the place to check into. Please respect the author in not reposting.

So this is pretty much the big F.A.Q. that you may be wanting since it does come up often on Discord or the Discussions. To make it easier, I'm going to only update with the common questions as they come.

A: Officially, nope. There will be too many changes for the demo to even keep up with. Unofficially and theoretically, it may be possible with the community import tool.

A: As of 09/13/2019, XsiChan has confirmed that it will progress.

Originally posted by XsiChan:

Saves will be upgraded and we won't delete progress

If it was to change, I'm sure we will be told ahead of time.

A: Alright, there kinda is and it will be better explained in-game at a later time that we've been assured. But there is stats. The weight is actually a stat. Here is a quick statement:

Originally posted by XsiChan during 0.1.X:

higher weight = higher defense + Slower movement + burns a bit more fuel that you might not notice at all.

This is to have an effect on Armor and Acceleration. The heavier you are, the more Armor you have, but the less acceleration you'll have. The lighter you are, the less armor you have, but the more acceleration you'll be able to achieve. The Acceleration will also affect your melee swing speed and your shooting. As pointed out, it may not be as apparent between 500 and 800, but at 800-1000, it is a bit more noticeable. At under 200, it is real noticeable. (There is more to this if you check the 1-handed vs 2-handed Section)

The main reason there is no "stats" in the traditional sense on the armors is that Vermillion Digital feel its better to customize your M.A.S.S. based on how you want it to look and not feel compelled by the stats of the equipment. If you've ever played Armored Core, you'll know that that was one of the harshest things to deal with at times if you wanted to make something based off of another mecha world, and if you used it, it was probably ill-efficient compared to something that was setup to be balanced or a min-max setup.

This has slightly changed in version 0.2 in terms of raw value, but the basic concept itself has not changed.

A: Yes! Refer to the roadmap. It is doubtful the multiplayer will come any sooner than the estimated time.

A: Yes. During the Kickstarter, the stretch goal was achieved so it should come out later on.

A: During the old roadmap from a post:

Originally posted by Kickstarter Project post by "Nontawat":

There might be minor changes, small update releases, or some deviation through each passing month but this is the roadmap that we'll try to stick to in our development until the end of Q2 2020.

Though yes, it is now funny that the "July" info still holds true for the new roadmap. But as had been seen (for those following along), yes there were some changes and the devs didn't expect and certain things seemingly didn't change. In this case. the question can better be asked why only till 0.8.0? Because it is unknown what could be added from then on or changed until we get there. Plus from a dev cycle, it is easier to meet goals easily obtainable and add on the stuff that may not have been as targeted in release time without messing with other content and assets.

A: Of course there will be! In fact, the "accessories" that are referred to in the roadmap is as stated:

Originally posted by XsiChan:

basically smaller pieces that are attached to armors like spikes, vents, etc.

In fact, as seen in one of thew newer updates, you can change the color of the melee weapon's effects.

A: Even the devs aren't fully sure if they will do that or not. Not saying it won't happen, but not saying that it will happen either.

A: During Kickstarter, there was an option to pledge for custom decals designed by the pledger and developed with the dev team. From a dev...

Originally posted by XsiChan:

backer-designed decals can be used by everyone, exclusive decals can only be used by backers

So yes, that does mean that those that are backers will be known a bit more down the line as they will have some things exclusive to them that you may not be able to obtain. But the custom decals... everyone can have it! In fact, some of them have already been released during these Early Access days.

A: The Elements (Now fully explained in the game in terms of damage types) are as folllows

• Freeze - Chance to Stop an enemy in ice
  
• Shock - Weakens a target for more damage
  
• Heat - Add fire damage over time

In addition, they can each have more or less damage to certain target enemies. Be advised that the damage also differs in calculation over the raw damage numbers. Currently, property weakness isn't applied yet as all Quarks have some resistance that is equal. I.e. If a quark has a resist of 250 to Fire, it also has 250 to Shock and Freeze. Hence not one thing is stronger or weaker than the other by that rule. So feel free to experiment away.

A: What about them? Oh sorry, you mean in terms of difference from elements? Oh come now, I gotta joke sometime!
Well as far as we know (and it could change later):

• Physical - Representing the non-element Melee attacks.
  
• Piercing - Representing physical weapons like non-element ballistics and explosions such as nuke missiles, swarm missiles, gatling guns, high speed bomb shots.
  
• Plasma - Representing the energy-based weapons such as the En-Weapons (weapons set 3) and the drones.

A: Since this question gets brought up often, here is a direct statement:

Originally posted by XsiChan:

weight ties to acceleration and acceleration ties to melee swing speed

Since as has been stated before that Weight has some variance to stats, this is one of em. So the heavier you are, the slower your acceleration. But that also means that your melee will be just as slow. I'm sure some people would have wanted high speed with their bulky M.A.S.S., but we aren't the villains here :P

A: Well we can give several answers including the "git gud" but that wouldn't be fair of the spirit of the community. Truth be told, yes, the "git gud" approach is kinda true if you're mastering everything the game has. However, simplest way is gonna be:

• Make sure you have the best possible tuning you can equip
  
• Go as much damage as possible
  
• For the ammunition is not precious types, unfortunately, this mission makes it so. Suggest losing ammo at a minimal.
  
• Currently, the AoE weapons (sans Rays) do more damage to the crystals than autos. This is probably because they do more damage per shot and has an innate defense armor that makes auto use a bullet sponge on a single target.
  
• Try to dodge and attack just the crystal since you can't damage the enemies before hand.
  
• During boss fight, kill all the minions but try your best to NOT pickup any item until you need resupply.

You may find the new enemy in mission 8 in a different form of difficulty. In that ones case, just suggest to keep moving. This might be a situation to learn about the advanced hover targeting.

A: There is some people in the community working on that. That said...

Originally posted by XsiChan:

Currently, there are a set list for each mission to where each one drops, weapons behave a bit differently but there's a set list as well.
Whenever you drop a blueprint, it randomizes a number to see how much percentage you get, sometimes if you're lucky it adds by a 100. The more a blueprint is nearing completion, the higher it drops, when completed droprate is extremely lowered, but you can still get dupes.

In other words, you can keep going on each mission, but you may eventually be tapped on all associated parts of that mission and have to look elsewhere. Just keep in mind that it is a work in progress. 0.2 had an update to Hunting Grounds 2 to add an armor that wasn't there before.

As of 0.6 with the challenge missions, it is far easier to get many blueprints at once and faster per session.

On the M.A.S.S. Builder Wiki, some people put together their findings of all drops over time. It is being maintained by the community.
https://mass-builder.fandom.com/wiki/Loot_Tables

A: There has been no guarantees. Right now, the focus is getting the game towards 1.0 status so anything about that is completely up in the air among other factors. If you need a recent quote:

Originally posted by XsiChan stated on 01/07/2020:

consoles are still on study, they also required for a more finished product first

A: Welp, officially, no. Unofficially, yes! An awesome community member made a great import tool for people to import other players' M.A.S.S. units, but to do so, requires some communication (with other players of course) and of course the tool to do it. This was made by community member William JCM so if you should see him, thank him!
https://williamjcm.ovh/git/williamjcm/MassBuilderSaveTool/releases

A: So Achievements have been sorta asked. Since many of us that kickstarted the game knew the roadmap and saw that achievement system would be implemented in 0.6.0 (pre Roadmap version 2) that it wasn't going to be a normal question to ask. But there was some confusion that people had gotten 2 achievements...

So to explain, that is kinda expected as it was early start of the achievements before talking about how to really implement it. So much of the current achievements are placeholders. I mean just 100 to 10000 is quite simple on a new game alone by simply the... 2nd mission (Not sure if tutorial mission credit was removed yet). Since they wanted to make achievements not just a simple placard reward, but also a reward in general (i.e. Exclusive emblem, Exclusive pattern type, etc), they didn't want to put it in now without the rewards and then figure out if some will work or not, especially as unbalanced at the start it would be. So unless otherwise stated, it won't be finished up until at least 0.6 release (which is confirmed to be later than that).

A: It has been discussed within the community and in a post about the difficulty, especially after 0.9 (This may or may not age well). Understand, balances still need to be done and in some cases, those balances are affected for a long while between patches. Let me clarify a few things:

Some community members (even a few I have talked with who can show their skill levels) can verify quite a bit works, but the pitfalls in alot of the situations you setup for.

Also, with a statement, Vermillion Digital would prefer to balance everything based on Normal difficulty. Previously, many of us could beat Very Hard without a breaking too much of a sweat, though some of us did do some interesting builds in some cases to pull it off. In fact, when a tournament was held, that was really when certain bugs and balance issues were found. The tournament was actually meant to help pull this out from various players' skill.

During the tournament, I made a vow that I was going to be the Storm user and make it all work somehow. Despite in some cases being heavily unoptimized, I still pulled some interesting times.

With 0.9, Elements sorta got boosted despite being basically found as a bug because the mathematical formula made Pure builds (Physical, Bullet, Energy) less relevant since Elements were basically added ON TOP OF the weapon type. Such, 6500 Physical is more or less trumped by a 5200 Physical + 2300 Elemental which would be total 7500 (reduced by a certain resistance that still often won't get under the pure 6500 Physical). Until that is resolved, Pure Builds aren't as strong.

This also means that you have to take a closer look at the tuning as certain things will boost better when done correctly instead of throwing things together.

As a veteran, I can vouch that HP and Defenses have gotten significantly higher with the added difficulty. If you can't complete Hard, get better nodes. If you are hard stopped on the nodes, reduce difficulty to Normal and go from there. There is no shame reducing difficulty.

A: Yes, there was a tournament basically managed by Hino! We all had videos posted in some manner to show off the skills as it was basically time based (Mission completion) with certain restrictions. Each of us got different rewards for participating and depending on placements as well.

Unfortunately, I was not top 3, but that is fine. It did help find alot of issues that just weren't seen prior which in some ways got resolved. As a participant, A custom MASS was made by Hino that with the placement icon shown on the chest which is a Valkyrie-based MASS.


A: In the spirit of the tournament, I will not give out the Valkyrie. Someone could if they wish including the top 3 who had even cooler Valkyrie flare than the ones below 3rd place, but I think for MP reasons, our Valkyries will be a bit more special when used in that space.

A: While the question is subject to opinion, I assure you that neither is 100% better than the other. Melee in some ways is easier, except if you focus too hard on whats in front of you, you're gonna get destroyed by the hits you didn't see prior. Range is decent for maneuvering if you use all the maneuvering options out there, but in some versions, yes, there is differences on punch that each type provides (not just bullet or energy, but also the weapon type). It may change again come the next version. Yes, in my case, I didn't notice as a preferred shotgun/Ray ranged user myself, not knowing that those 2 weapon types just happened to be further powered up in 0.9, but 0.8, Ray had a specific advantage that I utilized when it came to elements.

A: That is way too many to explain. That and I'm sure as the game updates, there will be more in-game explanations outside of what is already available.

Each Weapon is divided into Categories and each has its own sub-category if you will.

#1 which is Melee has the most options. This has

• 1-Handed
  
• 2-Handed
  
• Double-Ended
  
• Dual Wield

Each weapon is figured based on what you equip on its base AND its Assaulter. 1-handed melee however allows using a Shield (different from the defense recharging energy shield). These melee weapons are tied to the Physical stat as well.

#2 is the Ballistics. These are physical damaging weapons that is used by the Piercing stat. These use Magazines which means when its over, it needs time to reload. To better understand each, here is the following and what they do

• Single Shot - As the name implies.
  
• Auto - Think like an assault rifle style.
  
• Shotgun - This fires a burst of physical shots in a short range.
  
• Detonator - Slightly functions like Single Shot, but after a delay when attached to either surface or enemy, it will explode in a wide area.

Depending on your choices, you can also make it 1-handed or 2-handed. Dual Wielding is unavailable currently.

#3 is Plasma/Energy based weaponry. This is where your Plasma stats are tied too. These recharge over time on their own and do not need to be actively equipped to let it recharge.

• Single Shot - As the name implies.
  
• Auto - Think like an assault rifle style, but in more Sci-Fi pew pew
  
• Ray - They are consistently fired energy beam that can stay in fire as long as you hold the attack. This shines more with elements.
  
• Wave - The energy-version of Shotgun.

Depending on your choices, you can also make it 1-handed or 2-handed. Dual Wielding is unavailable currently.

#4 is your Missiles. These are normally covered under Piercing stat as well. These do recharge based on sets and you always will have at least 2-points of fire.

• Multi-Missile
  
• Single Missile

#5 is your Drones. In a way, they are sorta like Bits if compared to Gundam shows. They automatically attack targets based on your target lock and/or whom you attack. They can be turned off to be "passive" but then functioning basically ceases until you re-activate. They recharge over time as long as they have reserve ammo, but when depleted, they simply just stick by you until they have ammo again.

• Beam

They mechanically help with slight additional damage during battle since you only control who they go after, not necessarily when. These use your Plasma stat.

A: So elements modify visually and mechanically several aspects for your weapons. Each element has a chance to do something whether it is to cause DoT, Freeze, or make targets vulnerable to more damage. However, each can also increase or decrease damage against opponents depending on the resistance that the opponents have. As of 0.3.0, this has been implemented.

Rays has been mentioned that elements work better here and lets explain why. One of the mechanics of the rays is that as long as a target is in the attack, it can keep damaging them. It also causes a higher rate for elements to do their effect on the targets. In other words, it is easier to make them burn with fire element on a ray than it is to blow them in the face with a shotgun.

A: This is my findings so far:
When you use a shield, you do stop moving. However, anytime you block something, depending on the usefulness of it, it gives a damage reduction in the form of a field.
The max damage reduction seems to be 75%. Given that damage is calculated based on your defenses, this can be a good thing because things like the increase defense while using your shield will mean that the damage reduction is applied AFTER the bonus is applied.
I have also noticed that the shield tends to work best based on impact reaction. In other words, if you try to use the shield as the attack is about to hit, it has better results than simply waiting for an attack to hit. I have confirmed this to be the cased with the Hopper boss in Mission 8.
**Update**
So Xsi managed to confirm the shields work the way they intend, but not fully how I thought in testing. I have an idea then why it was seemingly like that and its about angles. But as he has stated:

Originally posted by XsiChan:

Shields are not based on anything except direction, we calculate to see the direction of the impact on your M.A.S.S. starting from 75% reduction from the front to a much lower percentage on the back. Yes it works best on impact reaction as we decide to give it instant use and instant guard lowering (you can spam it). It reduces your movement speed by a lot, but you can still move. Precise blocking with a defensive playstyle can lower some damage to 0.

So I am correct in that the 75% reduction does exist and as the sphere of the shield bubble shows, further to the back you are, the lower the reduction. So to simplify, block in front of you, if you are quick, block reactively, not anticipated.

I figure since there will be lots of questions for Dual-Hand mechanics, I want to include them here.

A: They weren't. If you use Knuckle-based Grips and attach anything for its assaulter part, you can make it seem like you're dual wielding at the time.

A: Refer to the Roadmap.

A: There is a node that unlocks it. Once it is unlocked, go to the melee weapon you want to dual wield and it tells you the button you need to push to enable it.

A: Well so far from my finding, not many.

PRO

• Faster attacks
  
• No Weight Penalty
  
• Different attacks (animation and strikes)
  
• Cool Factor

CON

• Can't equip physical shield
  
• Unable to make different elements for each weapon
  
• Can't make different color effects
  
• Can't cosmetically change each one to be different.

There is a question to damage, but I must mess with that first to confirm it.

A: Oh boy there is alot and I have no idea how to explain it all in one shot, so bear with me.

• Brawler has been shifted slightly. Before 0.3.X, if you used any brawler style fighting (i.e. Knuckle grips), it was given to both hands. After 0.3.X launched, by default, all brawler style is "1-handed" but in realiity is more or less 2-handed in that its wielded in both hands. However, it only shows in 1 side. Usually the right side. However, if you equip a shield, this allows you to do martial arts combat with the chance to block. If you choose Dual Wield, you will have more or less pre-0.3.X. style fighting.
  
• Short Knives are held reverse grip if going for katar style.
  
• Just about every weapon can be Dual Wielded including Polearms.
  
• In some cases from my findings, using elements can sometimes affect the endings of some attacks compared to physical. i.e. If using Shock with Brawler, you will in many cases emit bursts on some of the attack types.

Lets face it, we all will have questions in regards to Quantum Break Mode.

A: It is a short burst increase in stats and abilities that enhances mainly melee capabilities at the cost of no ranged attacks (except for drones at this time). During an interview, the dev confirmed it would be sorta like the Trans-AM system found in the series Gundam 00. One must build up while fighting in melee to get access to Quantum Break (after unlocking it). Then you must hold the button and either turn in the direction for what you want or move to that direction of what you want for your mode option.

A: There are 4 at this time.

• Enhancement (Down) - This appears to be an all around increase in power. You get just about every benefit, but that also means it drains just as equal in all aspects, but helps more when you aren't sure of the situation.
  
• Speed (Left) - Your speed increases, but more importantly, your enemies also decrease their movement. The more you move, the faster this goes down.
  
• Devastation (Up) - This is a put all into offense. Your attack is increased dramatically, but the benefits in other areas (aside from techs) is very little. Each melee attack you do not only has a long and wide range shockwave (weapon dependent), but has a massive uptick in the power behind it and in some cases, the speed of the attack. Each attack also, regardless of hitting or missing, will decrease your time in the mode quicker and this already drains more even when idle.
  
• Defense (Right) - This makes your M.A.S.S take alot more punishment overall, including in some cases where you regenerate faster than the enemy can deal. This can last the longest while increasing all other elements at a minimal.

A: In Addition to the above, all modes seem to enhance your weapons to fire waves of energy based on the same energy type that you're using (i.e. Physical melee, then its physical energy waves. If its Fire melee, then its fire energy waves). These waves go quite a distance, usually heading within a 120-160 degree V-arc stemming from your frontal direction of the weapons that you're attacking with. Your speed in attacks is usually quicker as well which is more likely that you have higher acceleration.

A: It seems to last depending on the mode. The Defense type lasts the longest, but it seems to just make it that you can forgo most defensive maneuvers as you basically become Wolverine with accelerated Healing. But you aren't invulnerable. You can still have moments where something can out-damage your energy shields. Devastation type lasts as many strikes as you can deal that damages enemies which means it is proportionate.

A: From the devs, that isn't a thing at this time, despite being shown that we'll be able to do such a thing with our elements. Part of that might be because the modes will be different and there needs to be an identifying color for it. When Multiplayer does come, it would also help knowing which anyone is in if they are in.

A: Unfortunately, we only know for Melee at this time due to how 0.3 is specified as the Melee update. We have no way of knowing for sure if there will be a Range option, but given how much sources they are calling for, chances are you will have a different mode that won't be tied to this mechanic, but may have similar principles.

***This is a work in progress and only reflects back in 0.1.X. Due to both changes in 0.2.X and 0.3.X, this will be undergoing a MASSIVE Change.***

So to show an instance of 1-Handed vs 2-Handed just to end the debate, all I did was change a few things as I wanted to try and keep other stats as close to what was used for the test.
All weapons were set to Physical.
Mission 2 was used against the bigger enemies (for lasting reasons) on Normal
Since going for max damage, Techs used is Tempo Preserver II and Energy Regulator II.
Power 294
Physical 1,238
Acceleration 1000


176.16 TON
https://imgur.com/qJlQ2Fj

Ending result

3,302 Damage

2.63 TON
https://imgur.com/idC6Y1x

Ending result

3,215 Damage

10.89 TON
https://imgur.com/LOy2tag

Ending Result

3,356 Damage

8.98 TON
https://imgur.com/Zr4ld6I

Ending Result

3,214 Damage

11.35 TON
https://imgur.com/FYVOQPF

Ending Result

3,286 Damage
----------------------

As you can see the damage of a nearly 177 TON hammer in full combo does less damage than a nearly 11 TON Katana polearm when it comes to 2 handed. At the same point, a standard 1-handed Assaulter Blade was just over 15 damage difference and it was only 11.35 TON which is slightly more weight than the Katana Polearm. Then finally, the speed. As you saw the Dual Hand Brawl weapon was only 1 more damage over the 1-handed energy Blade for nearly 3/4 less in weight. But, that had faster recovery and allowed speeding off quicker for quick in&out play.

Finally, the core difference and this is where it will vary on play.
While 1 v 1 showed everything to have the most optimal in its damage, the longer weapons had one advantage if you had large crowds. In this case, if there was 3+ enemies in range on alot of the longer weapons, you would see its damage actually be higher because it would include everything hit at once. While the Assaulter Blade has bigger swing, the energy blade has a wide arc, but the Assaulter Blade is gonna hit more targets easier. But the easiest will indeed be with both the Polearm Katana and the Great Hammer.

Keep in mind that having a 177 Ton Great Hammer needing nearly no armor parts just to have 1000 Acceleration means that it isn't the most ideal for anything as melee damage is based on 2 stats mainly and that is Power and Physical in this case. Weight clearly has no effect because if it did, then that hammer should have outright done more than the Katana (also, things should absolutely be flying away by physics).

So please keep in mind right now that when you're building, the melee alone for 1-handed vs 2-handed is gonna vary depending on the style and type with damage dependent on Power and Physical stat alone.* In terms of ranged weapon, it doesn't seem to make that much of a difference to talk about yet.

Note: Update in November coming has a confirmation about melee weight being a factor which can change this entire section.

Originally posted by XsiChan:

This is what's written for now: - Also added a close combat damage formula into weights, now heavier assaulters/grips will deal more damage while also attack faster with the new weight correction on each stats.

Photography mode allows one to make some special setups to your custom M.A.S.S. unit, then take a snap in that state. This can in many cases differ more than the in-game action can offer.

The current state of photography mode differs from the standard of taking a picture with Steam In-Game (if used) or GPU driver screenshots as it takes a snapshot without the interface in the way, but it saves it currently in your local app data folder in your user profile. The simplest way to do this would be to type this in your Windows Search or the Run command or even in the address bar of your folder:

%localappdata%\MASS_Builder\Saved\Screenshots\WindowsNoEditor

This will normally bring you to your windows profile's local data folder where you will find png snapshots of all your pictures you took using the in-game photography mode.

As time goes on, this may change.

Mainly this is Lore F.A.Q. who wants to know some in-universe stuff while its working to be added to the game.

A: From a dev:

Originally posted by XsiChan:

M.A.S.S. standard size is 18meters tall.

A: Several sources indicate that the M.A.S.S. unit is actually piloted by remote technology. This information can be missed, but it is more apparent at the end of Story Mission 7 when an NPC is standing in the room when you're coming out of your pilot seat. It is even stated that the pilot seat is right behind you at the end of the conversation.

Expansion to this: XsiChan has confirmed the lore for us in terms of questioning how its possible for long range remote. I am unsure if I wanted to include the entry here since it will be in the lore page when its thrown into the game. IF you want it, it will be in a double spoiler below.

Final warning before being story spoiled

Originally posted by Vermillion Digital XsiChan on 12/08/2019:

After a few more decades, researchers were finally able to develop a long-range control method of these exoskeletons, allowing a much larger one to be constructed and controlled at the same efficiency of the smaller models, deeming them the Mechanical Assault Skeleton Suit, made especially as a weapon to fight against the Quarks. This is done through a piece of technology called a pilot seat that transfer all the controls done on the seat to a M.A.S.S. unit connected with it. There are many variants of the control schemes being modified as years pass by, ranging from a normal seat with controls, a full body suit that tracks the pilot’s motions, or straight through a helmet that reads brain waves, all with their benefits and whatnot.

This is mainly just for the common crashes if a solution is found, it is posted here.

So let me be frank here for a sec so people don't assume I have a powerful PC and don't know much of what I'm talking about for the lower end.
Minimal Requirements:
OS: Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (64-bit versions only)
Processor: Intel Core i5 or better / AMD Phenom II X3 or better
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 or better / AMD Radeon RX 560 or better
Storage: 3 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectSound Compatible

When I started from kickstarter launch, I had the following:

My system (0.5 and before):
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Processor: Intel core i5-4690 (4 Core, 4 Threads, 2014)
Memory: 16GB DDR3-1866
Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 580 w/ 8GB VRAM

As above, this barely is within spec of "minimal" and given that i5 is just listed as i5 or better (could be talking the i5 5000, 6000, or above), then I am either on or below spec. But it can play. If you've come to my Mass Builder streams (thank you!), then you have probably noticed that even I sometimes struggle on certain missions. When not on stream, it was a bit better in those instances.

After November of 2020, I hit a major upgrade and tried the game (0.5 on up):
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X (6 Core, 12 Threads, 2019)
Memory: 32GB DDR4-3600
Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 580 w/ 8GB VRAM

I didn't hit nearly as many lag points which is most likely attributing to the better capability of the computations on the CPU and having more memory to work with, hitting 60 FPS at all times in the hanger where before I would for nearly no reason drop to 55 FPS. Same Graphics card, different CPU and RAM (and motherboard obviously). Unfortunately, this means I no longer have a true baseline for those not on something in the last 3 years.

That said, I had one more upgrade in February of 2021 with just the CPU:
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X (8 Core, 16 Thread, 2020)

In terms of streaming, it seems to need to hit the GPU hard before it can fully affect the stream. If one had an Nvidia RTX 20XX card or RTX 30XX, it shouldn't be as bad. Also possibly an AMD 6700 and above shouldn't have as much of an issue (due to the changes in the GPU architect). As time goes on with patches and optimizations, I'm sure it will improve more.

That all said, I no longer am close to the defacto of checks for PC performance. I had one more upgrade for personal reasons and opportunity:
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X (12 Core, 24 Thread)
AMD Radeon RX 6950XT
1440P 27" 165 Hz screen

Basically at the high end, if it ain't working, I dedicate to find out why.

A: The game is not yet optimized, but there MIGHT be a solution. There is several things to try first:

1. Update your Graphics drivers. This is Unreal Engine 4 so its going to be intense no matter what.
   
2. Make sure your system is not running too hot or more particularly your Graphics card. If the Graphics card is running too hot, it can try to preserve itself by shutting its rendering down. If its fixed by restarting and running for a while, try making sure to clean it out and make sure it has enough cool flow.
   
3. IF YOU ARE ON A LAPTOP WITH HYBRID GRAPHICS WITH NVIDIA then refer to potential fix below.

For the Hybrid Graphics with Nvidia, please double check if your graphics has a feature called battery boost. IF IT DOES, turn it OFF and try again. If this solves the problem, then you're fine until it re-enables itself again if at all. Also, make absolutely sure that the game is added to your Nvidia profiles so the graphics takes it over instead of the onboard graphics. Some recommend if you don't use shadow play or any of the other features, you could try uninstalling just the Geforce Experience and see if that solves it. If nothing else, your laptop may have an option in the BIOS to assist dedicate just the nvidia graphics to be the default graphics used and might alleviate things.

With the AMD GPU (RX 580 8GB), the game does utilize the GPU in its fullest when out in any mission field so far. My old GPU was setup to run at a semi-held back power, and the fan ratio was customized so it doesn't go above 67 degrees Celsius. Power hits towards max allowed for the GPU and VRAM only utilizes about 1.5 GB at 1080p. So in theory, if you only have 3 GB of VRAM, it should not be the issue (Although you would be on really outdated GPU levels).

A: (This is a bug that happened during 0.3.x days and normally doesn't happen any longer, but just in case it comes back, here it is)
I'm assuming you're talking about the bug where when you select your hunting mission, the launch sequence scene shows and when your MASS launches, it usually gets stuck, but the game is still going, even to the point that it gets to a black screen and nothing can be pressed and task manager doesn't believe its "not responding"
That is indeed a bug. This is considered a Frame Lock. For some reason, the game is not completing the Frame sequence request and so the frame of the animation gets locked up until it sees the "next" should be to continue its next set of frames.
To get around this, on Keyboard, press "Enter" key during the start of the launch sequence and it will skip the entire thing.

A: Well that depends. If you are asking if there is anyway to improve your FPS performance due to Graphic limitations, there are options out there. One app I like is Lossless Scaling for the simple reason that it supports AMD FSR (Universal) and to some degree, Nvidia's lesser "DLSS-like" feature (The one that supposedly can work on all Nvidia GPUs regardless of 2000 on up series). If you don't like the idea of running at 720p as an example for your screen, these options are good as you can run it that low, but upscale it and you might only notice a slightly less graphic fidelity for more FPS. In a tournament, that is one thing I did to maintain highest performance to reduce any time-based issues as it also lessened CPU burden in some missions.

Remember, you can freely ask questions on the forum or the discord. The community has so far proven to be valuable help without the devs always needing to be around. If you feel that there should be something added, please let me know and I'll see what I can do.