How a shot's damage is worked out
Every gun in ROBO ARENA is hitscan: the server traces a line from your robot's eye and the first robot or wall it meets takes the shot. Damage is the hero's base damage, times 1.5 for a headshot (2 for Lens), times a distance factor. The factor stays at 1 up to the weapon's full-damage range, slides down to a floor at its maximum range, and is 0 beyond that, because the shot simply stops there.
Each shot also kicks your aim upward a little, up to a cap, and the kick wears off over time. Long held bursts climb; short bursts land where you aimed. Melee (F, 40 damage) is the one attack with no falloff and no headshot bonus.
The figures below, worked out from the game's hero table, assume every shot hits the body within full-damage range. Real fights land less, but the ranking holds.
- Spark: 20 per shot every 0.13 s, about 154 damage a second. Magazine 24 (480 damage), reload 1.3 s.
- Bumper: 40 every 0.28 s, about 143 a second. Magazine 12 (480), reload 1.65 s.
- Lens: 96 every 0.78 s, about 123 a second. Magazine 6 (576), reload 1.8 s.
- Volt: 27 every 0.25 s, about 108 a second. Magazine 16 (432), reload 1.65 s.
- Pop: three-shot bursts of 19, 0.09 s apart, then 0.38 s before the next burst; about 102 a second. Magazine 24 (456), reload 1.45 s.
- Bloom: 16 every 0.22 s, about 73 a second. Magazine 20 (320), reload 1.4 s.
Spark: get in, shoot, get out
Spark has the highest damage per second and the lowest health but one (180). Its gun keeps full damage to 20 m and drops to 55% at 42 m. Vector Dash (Q, every 6 seconds) moves you 6 m instantly in the direction you are looking, and Turbo Jump gives you one extra jump in mid-air. Overcharge (E) makes you fire 60% faster for 6 seconds, which takes Spark to roughly 246 damage a second.
Use the dash to arrive at a new angle, not to run away from the whole enemy team. Nine body shots down a Spark or Bloom, ten a Pop or Lens, and fourteen a Bumper. Against Spark, the game's own tip is to stand and shoot back rather than retreat; Pop's slow and Bumper's missiles both punish a dash.
Volt: the robot that holds the core
Volt has 260 health and the shortest gun: full damage only to 12 m, down to 50% at 32 m. Quick Repair starts its regeneration after 4 seconds without damage instead of 5, at 14 a second instead of 12. Iron Guard (Q, 3 seconds, 13-second cooldown) halves damage taken. Aegis Field (E) plants a 5 m circle for 6 seconds where every ally in sight of its centre takes 30% less damage.
Aegis stays where you fire it. It does not follow you, so open it on the core, not on the way there. Volt's head target is its visor, and it only counts from the front, so a Volt facing away from you can only take body shots.
Bloom: keep the team on the core
Bloom has the lowest health (165) and the lowest damage, but the steadiest gun: full damage to 30 m and never below 70% out to 55 m. Recovery Pulse (Q, 12-second cooldown) restores 55 health to Bloom and every ally within 7 m who is in line of sight. Life Garden (E) plants a 5 m circle that heals allies inside it, Bloom included, by 18 a second for 6 seconds. Photosynthesis gives Bloom back 15% of whatever it heals on teammates.
Pulse healing also fills your ultimate, at 0.15% per point actually restored, but Life Garden healing does not. Healing a robot at full health restores nothing and charges nothing, so wait until teammates are hurt. If you are fighting a Bloom, the counter tip in the game is to go for Bloom first or push within 12 seconds of its pulse, while the pulse is still cooling down.
Pop: slow them, then win the duel
Pop has 190 health, full damage to 18 m and 55% at 38 m. One press of fire sends a three-shot burst, and each burst uses three of the 24 rounds. Bubble Trap (Q, 9-second cooldown) leaves a trap under your feet that lasts 10 seconds and slows enemies who come within 2 m by 35% for 2 seconds, then pops. You can have only one trap; placing another removes the first. Pop Zone (E) plants a 5 m circle that pulses once a second for 6 seconds, and every pulse slows the enemies it reaches.
Slowed robots move at 65% speed, and a slowed Spark's dash covers only 3.9 m. Bubble Boost lets Pop jump about 40% higher than the others: about 1.4 m against 1.0 m, enough to reach ledges the others need stairs for. Pop's weakness is range, so against Pop, back off past 18 m and keep shooting.
Bumper: heavy fire from a planted position
Bumper is the toughest robot (270 health) and the slowest (5.2 m/s). Its twin cannon hits for 40, keeps full damage to 24 m and 60% at 48 m. Missile Barrage (Q, 9-second cooldown) lands one second after you fire it, where your aim meets the ground or a wall, up to 30 m away; aimed into open air, it drops to the floor at 30 m. It deals 75 at the centre, falling to half at the 3 m edge, and walls block it. Aim at feet, not heads. Siege Mode (E) locks your legs for 6 seconds: no moving or jumping, 50% faster fire (about 214 damage a second), 25% less damage taken, and no recoil build-up.
Siege where enemies must come to you, such as the edge of the core, never in an open lane where a Lens can see you. When you see an orange circle on the ground, you have one second to get more than 3 m from its centre.
Lens: one shot, if you can see them
Lens carries six rail shots of 96, keeps full damage all the way to 60 m and still deals 85% at 80 m. Its headshots deal double damage, so one Lens headshot does 192, enough to down a full-health Spark, Bloom, Pop or Lens. Volt and Bumper take three body shots. Scan Pulse (Q, 10-second cooldown) reveals every enemy within 12 m of your aim point, up to 45 m away, through walls for 4 seconds, and the whole team sees them. Piercing Rail (E) makes every shot for 6 seconds pass through walls and every robot in line, each taking 25% more damage.
Lens has the longest gap between shots (0.78 s), so a miss is costly. Scan the core before you peek. Against Lens, the game's advice is not to stop in long straight lanes and to close in from cover to cover.
Which defences stack
Damage reductions multiply, with one exception: Iron Guard replaces Aegis instead of adding to it. A Volt using Iron Guard inside its own Aegis takes 50% damage, not 35%. Siege Mode and the 25% combo-ultimate link do stack with each other, so a linked Bumper in Siege takes about 56% damage, and a linked Volt under Iron Guard takes 37.5%.
Three other details apply to everyone. Health packs on the flanks heal 75 and come back 15 seconds later, and only a damaged robot uses one, so you can walk over one at full health without wasting it. After respawning you cannot be hit for 2 seconds (1 second after a core-chip rebuild), but firing or swinging ends that protection at once. Pop's traps and pulses ignore robots that are still protected.
Picking a hero against bots and with friends
The AI plays each hero to a simple rule. Volt bots in a fight raise Iron Guard below 70% health, Bloom bots pulse when a hurt ally is within 7 m, Pop bots drop a trap when you come within 8 m, Bumper bots fire missiles at targets 7 to 28 m away, and Spark bots use the dash to travel when no enemy is in sight. Bots in live matches never use melee, so close range is safer against them than against people. A charged ally bot within 7 m fires its ultimate with yours, so solo players can still land combo ultimates.
With friends, plan pairs. Aegis or Life Garden under a Bumper in Siege gives the planted cannon cover, and both circles stay put, so fire them on the spot you mean to hold.
For balance testing I ran bot-against-bot matches on all six arenas at Normal. In the October 10 run each hero won between 44% and 58% of its games. That measures the bots' play, not human win rates, so pick the robot whose range suits you.
Play it yourself
