Like Sentinels but Worse

One of the biggest draws of Fortuna is the ability to build your own MOA, the two-legged mechanical critters the Corpus normally throw at us and we massacre in droves. MOAs were said to be a cross between Sentinels and Pets, giving you the power of both, while also having their own powers and abilities.

In theory, that sounds bloody amazing. But having used MOAs? I’m not so sure.

There are currently three types of MOA and they all look cute and derpy rather than like killing machines. Even the bog-standard Shockwave MOAs look more menacing than the bulky, lumpy things Legs sells to us. There’s an offensive MOA, a defensive MOA and a utility MOA and honestly only the offensive MOA looks any good, when you use all the smaller parts. As far as I’m aware, the utility MOA, the one I have, is utterly useless. Sure, it could automatically hack things, but I’m a good hacker and most people use ciphers outside of Sorties anyway. I say could, because even with the mod maxed out, I haven’t seen my MOA (named Stardust), actually DO anything. The problem is, while the MOA CAN hack things, I have to wait a billion years for it to work out where it’s going, make its way to the hacking terminal and actually have it hack things. I could do all that myself more quickly.

Most of the time though, I find MOAs trail behind. By a lot. I don’t know how, but they seem to have worse AI than Kubrows, Kavats and most other AI characters, and regularly get stuck in pits. On a Grineer defense mission, Stardust spent 10 waves stuck in a hole, refusing to come out, only being forced out when the platform the defense target was on lowered down and forcefully teleported the MOA out. I think the offensive one is probably better because it’s trying to do stuff, but the utility MOA doesn’t know its ass from its elbow… er… knee. They don’t have arms.

MOAs are also very expensive to build. You need four parts – the head part which controls the type of MOA you get, two parts that determine health, shields and armour in annoyingly small ways and the legs, which are, well, just legs currently. The head parts are what give you Mastery, but the other parts… don’t really seem to affect anything. Mainly because the health mods you’ll stick on your MOA are the Link mods used on Kubrows and Kavats. The single-use blueprints are vaguely cheap, but they have high building costs, requiring a lot of higher tier Solaris United items, but also taking 24 hours to build per part!

I suppose it’s because Sentinels require 24 hours to build and pets require 24 hours to incubate, but that still feels like a long time.

On top of that, you have to level up your MOA twice. Before you can forma it or anything. Because you have to gild your MOA.

Which begs the question, WHY DO I HAVE TO GILD MY MOA? It acts like an animal! Why do I have to give it to Legs so he can give it a coat of spray paint? Guilding actually costs 10k credits plus 10 Training Debt Bonds, making it a tad more expensive than the 2 Cetus Wisps and 5k credits required for Zaws. Sure you get a single ‘free’ forma in your MOA but MOAs are more like companions and need a lot more forma in general, since they only get two precept slots.

What are the upsides? Well, you can revive your MOA just like a companion. Which you’ll need to do a lot because their base stats don’t feel as good as Kavat/Kubrow base stats. If you’re using Nidus or Inaros or Oberon though, your MOA will be fine.

The biggest upside is that you can give them a Sentinel weapon (aside from Helios’s Deconstructor) and they have more freedom to use them. I haven’t bought the ones Legs sells yet, but clan mates say they’re an improvement. You still need duplicate mods though.

I suppose another upside is that they’re cute, but the cuteness comes with a price. MOAs don’t seem to wave back at you unless you buy them a personality for 50 platinum. Otherwise they just stand around and they don’t respond to gestures. Oh, and they can’t wander around your ship the same way Kavats and Kubrows can.

Really, MOAs are kinda like a sidegrade. But they need a lot more work than every other companion for the same amount of use.