Tabula Rasa's new Mechs: How do I find them?

by Shawn Schuster Feb 10th 2009 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, Patches, PvP, Tips and tricks, Tabula Rasa

While we gear up for the official release of Tabula Rasa's Deployment 16 onto the live servers, which is rumored to happen later this week, we find ourselves excited for the features coming along with it. These are features we've been awaiting for months, and even if we can only enjoy them for the remaining two weeks, they're fun to play with nonetheless.

One of those features is the drivable Mechs, or Personal Armor Units. These PAUs were announced very early in the game's development and have become almost a joke for the game's skeptics. So we thought we'd take this opportunity to give a quick little guide on how to obtain your PAU on the test server, and eventually the live server.

First, you'll need to find the CELLAR arena, which you can access from several barracks locations across the map. For the sake of ease, we'll access it through the back of the barracks tent in Alia Das. Once you run through the portal, head north past the arena itself to a small hallway with blue portals on each side. The one on your right is the one you want: Edmund Range. Head through that portal into the staging area. From here you'll run north where you'll see red and blue transporters, depending on which color team you want to join. If you just want to play around with the PAUs, you don't need to worry about a side. If you want to battle with your friends in some robot suits, then this is where you would coordinate sides.

Once you enter the red or blue teleporter, your timer will begin. Head west up the flight of stairs to a room with two more transporters and a forcefield gateway leading outside. Run out the forcefield gate and if you're on the blue team, head north. Head south if you're on the red team. Basically you're heading to the base that your team already controls, which houses most of the PAUs. We say "most" because you only have access to a few in your initial base: The Angel, the Vulcan and the AFS Mech. The rest need to be unlocked in the control points throughout the battlefield, including the behemoth Grendel. If you're going at it alone, you may as well forget seeing those other Mechs, because capturing a control point is a team effort.

You have a time limit of ten minutes to experiment a bit with each PAU or Mech. You'll find each one has their own perks, which add a whole new dimension to the game. If you want to exit one to try out another, simply right click on the Mech icon, in the lower left corner of your screen.

Once this D16 patch goes live, we imagine players will be swarming to Edmund Range to check out these new toys. So grab a group, hop in a Mech and enjoy the ride while you can. It won't last long.

[UPDATE: Deployment 16 is now live!]

Tags: destination-games, edmund-range, featured, joystiqfeatures, mech, ncsoft, pau, tabula-rasa, tr-deployment-16

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

JoeK said on 10:27AM 2-10-2009

Excellent write-up :)

However, I would say that if you're going it alone, you can definitely get to the other mechs... if you use one of the mechs from your team's starting CP...

Angel's leech gun is very powerful in that it can steal an enemy's armor points & give them to you. It may be a bit time-consuming with this technique, but you can definitely solo your way past the uncaptured CPs' turrets & Epic simulated Bane troops.

Additionally, the AFS Mech's auto cannon & rocket attack are brutal weapons that can quickly tear through the CPs' turrets & forcefields. Then when taking out the Epic Bane inside, the Mech's ground pound or rocket attach can come in handy to knock them off their feet to give you a little bit more damage time over them.

Using either of these two, I'd suggest a run first for the centrally located CP. There you will find Grendel, and once in that beast, while it may feel like forever to walk to the next uncaptured CP, once you get there the Grendel will quickly tear through anything standing in your way.

NeuroMan42 said on 11:22AM 2-10-2009

Technically they are still the joke of the game since they never happened until the game died. TR could have been one of the best Sci-Fi MMOs, if not for Lord British and his crew dropping the ball and then walking away. respect for them all has been lost for good.

double9s said on 11:49AM 2-10-2009

Ya just don't get it, do ya Scott?

ethereal.wolf said on 9:09PM 2-10-2009

ncsoft pulled the plug, Garriot wanted to continue fixing it. ncsoft also forced release before it was ready, when everyone working on the project wanted to delay. ncsoft execs deserve most of the blame, not Garriot and dev team.

Then Gabe said on 1:34PM 2-10-2009

Rumored to happen later this week? Oh goodie! That gives those poor Tabula Rasa players all of two weeks to play with these toys!

And no, that's not a slam at TR players. But it is a slam at NC Soft.

UltimateQ said on 8:18PM 2-10-2009

I know, its very sad indeed :(

WrrLor said on 9:13AM 2-11-2009

More cool stuff for a game that should have been around much longer than it was.

Cheers to all of the TR players that are still kicking around. Here's hoping that something happens to keep this one around....someday.

Zane Freyz said on 6:54PM 2-11-2009

yeah wrrlor, i hope that something happens to keep it around, and i think that NCsoft tottaly ruined the best mmo ever by forcing an early release and not giving Garriot and his team time to insert the things need to hook player on the game quikly.