To get a Depth Crawler
I needed to go underground to storm an insect nest. And I planned to do that as an Air Raider.
The only problem is, the only two vehicles that I can bring underground are the Depth Crawler and the SDL1. And the latter is a motorcycle that can be damaged by bumping into a wall, and there is no way for me to ride and shoot with it at the same time. Thus, I need the Depth Crawler.
I started grinding on level 2 on Hard to get weapon drops. How weapon unlocking in the EDF main series games works is as follows: There is a random chance for enemies to drop either a Health Pack, Large Health Pack, Weapon drop crate or Armor drop crate. For every Weapon drop crate you collect, you’ll get a random weapon drop at the end of the match. It’s like lootboxes, but actually free, unlocks things that affects gameplay and is honest about it, and somehow more annoying since I need to depend on the damn thing.
Thus, I began the long grind to get the Depth Crawler. And it was bloody tedious, since I am apparently not a devout enough worshipper of the fickle deity RNGesus. I did not keep count of how long it took me to get the damn thing, but I am pretty sure I spent at least two or three hours doing so.
By the time I got my Depth Crawler, I got these vehicles:
Not too bad a vehicle. Sure, the ability to ferry around three other people is completely useless since I only play solo, but its Smooth-Bore Gun is decent-ish for now and this tank is far better than the starting E551 Gigantus and Armored Vehicle Grape.
It’s a tank with a high-damage primary weapon that one-shots most things I face. The railgun is pretty powerful, and when I drained it’s 25 shots I can still hop off the driver’s seat and use either one of the machine guns at the side. Sure, I can’t drive when I’m in the gunner seat, but having a stationary turret that I can still reposition is pretty good.
Kind of useless for me, really. No guns for the driver. Not to mention the damn thing is about as controllable as a elephant on hallucinogens.
My go-to vehicle when I need to get things done.
The controls for this thing takes a bit of getting used to. When pressing forward, the mech moves in the direction where the legs are facing, not the camera, so I got confused and wondered if the damn thing bugged out when I first piloted it. Not to mention, this thing can be outrun by a moderately hasty tortoise.
Still, this thing is so damn reliable, it’s now my default vehicle for most things. Even when I need something that moves faster.
The combat vehicle of my dreams. Walking Fortress Balam.
The ability to just storm through a bunch of buildings and stomp the bugs to oblivion is extremely liberating, since most of the time those bugs are a fair bit larger than me. Sure, I can still kill those bugs without a mech, but its nice to be looking down on them like the insects they are for once.
It doesn’t have any ranged attacks (as if it needs any), took a lot of effort for me to get enough credits to call for it, and the interval between punches are long enough for me to type this whole paragraph. But it is a giant mech. I do not need to explain why it’s great.
These are just the vehicles that I’ve gotten in my journey to acquire a Depth Crawler. I also got a bunch of other equipment for the Air Raider as well, with the most notable being the giant space laser.
It’s essentially the extreme version of using a magnifying glass to burn ants, and I can direct the space death beam with a handheld laser pointer.
But at long last, I got it. My very own Depth Crawler Flame.
The twin Incinerators makes clearing out tunnels extremely easy since it just floods the whole tunnel. Should I run out of ammo for that, or there are bugs out of my flames’ reach, I still have a Gatling Gun. Aside for that, its flood lights are much better than the EDF standard-issued flashlights. The Depth Crawler can climb on walls and ceilings, and can jump around. In fact, this mech can jump from building to building. Slap a couple of web shooters on it and it’s basically mecha Spider-Man.
Is it good? Not really. It packs less health than the Air Raider himself, the Incinerator ammo always seem to run out two minutes too early, and the camera swings so much it’s rather annoying to run around in tunnels with it unless you stay on the ground and avoid the walls and ceilings. But still, as the only reliable (?) vehicle underground and its decent mobility compared to other ground-based vehicles, it’s alright.
And also, it’s really satisfying to crawl right up to the stupid ant that is perched on top of a tall building, spraying acid down on us, thinking that it is so safe up there and out of our reach…