Charge Mech is a Brute-class mech in Into the Breach.
Team[ | ]
The mech is available as part of the Zenith Guard squad.
Strategy[ | ]
The Charge Mech has strong damage and decent mobility, thanks to its Ramming Engines weapon; it essentially acts as a Combat Mech with the Dash upgrade by default. However, it also comes with the drawback of damaging itself after hitting a target.
The pilot Abe Isamu is a good choice for the Charge Mech, because his passive Armored ability protects the Mech from 1 self-damage of its Ramming Engines weapon. With this Mech, you will use his special ability defensively AND offensively.
The weapon Ramming Engines' self damage is also considered an attack against terrain and will cause terrain effect on the tile it ends the attack on; this notably includes lighting forest tiles on fire and breaking cracked tiles. The pilot Mafan can be used alternatively to absorb the self-damage with his shield, which prevents the terrain effect from activating as well.
The Charge Mech can be used with other pilots too, such as Ariadne with her additional boost to HP allowing the Mech to survive; or any pilot with the Technician ability as well. In a Custom Squad, the Charge Mech can also be paired with mechs such as the Nano Mech to provide it a way of repairing itself without the need of specific pilot abilities. As long as the self-damage is mitigated, the +1 Damage Each upgrade should be gotten as soon as it's reasonable, as it is a cheap upgrade for an important increase in damage to ensure that the Charge Mech kills its target.
Despite its good damage output, the Charge Mech lacks potential to resolve multiple targets; it is capable of neutralizing two enemies in one turn with bump damage or by pushing another enemy into another attack, but this requires some luck with enemies lining up. With this in mind, the Charge Mech will benefit from a secondary utility weapon that can let it resolve more targets at once, when Ramming Engines isn't sufficient.