Today I’m going to talk about one of Red Solstice’s 2’s most complex and confusing classes: Terminators. This class can be difficult, both to configure and to play as, but they offer great power in exchange.
Terminators are energy-weapon experts, having several skills that deal in energy attacks. This is a useful niche as this damage type is otherwise rare, limited to one-off skills on other classes (like Assault’s Buckshot) or items (like Plasma Explosives), or special weapons including the HPV Viking.
But that’s not all that Terminators can do, and indeed, if you only engage with that part of the kit… you’ll find them really underwhelming. Several skills won’t even trigger, even though it says you have energy to use them. What sets Terminators apart from their fellows is the Energized Stack system.
Energized Stacks
Some skills, like Dio Striker 71, XICS, and Forcefield create Energized Stacks. Every stack reduces the cooldown on Terminator’s abilities by 1%. Dio Striker 71 grants stacks upon shooting enemies with your main weapon, Forcefield when enemies approach you, and XICS will steadily grant them over time.
These stacks can be used in a few different ways. Some skills can only be used when you have Energized Stacks to power them (e.g. All the Exhaust Skills, which we’ll talk about), most skills become stronger based on how many Stacks you have. As such, you should build your Terminator with a mix of skills that gain and expend Energized Stacks.
Understanding how skills benefit from Energized Stacks is key to getting the most out of the Terminator class. Sometimes this is just a buff to a skill based on the current stack count, which will show as “Damage (or) Duration Per Energized.” Some skills will have additional effects if enough stacks are being held when used. For example, Energy Shield, a short-lived but powerful defensive shield, will instead protect the entire squad if using it while carrying 10 stacks or more.
Unintended Consequences
It’s not all good news though. You may have noticed the ominous nuclear power symbol at the far end of the Stacks gauge. Your suit has a limit to how many stacks it can carry. If you ever exceed 20 stacks, your suit’s reactor overloads, and you only have a few seconds before you detonate in a (small) nuclear fireball.
On top of that, all these stack-generating skills have a very obvious weakness: They apply a debuff to your energy regeneration. The lower-ranked these skills are, the higher the drain, often to the point of making it impossible to recover energy if moving faster than a walking pace. Energized Stacks themselves decay after 20 seconds unless further stacks are gained, so you need a consistent source of them to be effective, which further stresses your energy output.
Well, that won’t do, now will it? Having shorter cooldowns means nothing if you’re constantly scrabbling for the energy to actually use them. While items like Power Cores, Energy Batteries, and the rare Tokugawa Overload found in missions will make these more tenable, you can’t rely on random drops to keep your class working.
Exhaust Skills
Enter the Exhaust Skills. These include Combat Exhaust, Agility Exhaust, and Exhaust Energized Stacks. These skills are dual-purpose: They burn off excess stacks before the user becomes overloaded, and they provide passive buffs that stabilize their energy regeneration. Surge is something I also place in this category, as it gives you a net-gain in energy with every use in exchange for burning a whopping 10 Energized stacks.
Combat Exhaust and Agility Exhaust lose half the extra regen you get from Exhaust Energized Stacks in exchange for also increasing weapon stats or movement speed for you and your allies. Like Energized Stacks, these Exhaust buffs also stack, up to 5 times, and decaying 1 stack per 10 seconds.
How to Play Terminator
As you play, your goal should be to steadily build Exhaust and Energized Stacks, using their benefits to snowball into a very capable soldier. What that means for you is ultimately dependent on how your build it. Maybe you use a combination of Nanite Swarm and Plasma Gun Module to dish out heavy Energy damage directed towards high-priority targets. Or you take Energy Capacitors and Weapon Overload to massively improve your own guns. Maybe you use Energy Shield and Combat Exhaust to empower your squadmates.
Heck, maybe you use the increased Self-Destruct damage of XICS and intentionally explode to clear areas of enemies and biomass.
Final Result
What this means is that Terminator is a feast-or-famine class built around risky play. When things are going well, you’re packing ridiculous energy output and short skill cooldowns, able to dish out ridiculous amounts of damage or provide powerful bonuses to your team. When things aren’t going well, you’re constantly losing stacks, compromising your output. Or worse yet, you’re exploding because you can’t vent them as fast as you’re gaining them.
Conclusion
In summary, Terminators can provide varied benefits or advantages depending on their skill loadout. Their powerful effects are balanced by requiring careful management of their abilities. When playing Terminator, bring skills for both building and consuming your Energized Stacks. Use Exhaust skills to manage your current Stack level and energy regen. Use these Stacks to support your team through powerful skills or buff effects.
Zeph's Den 