ZeroLenny's apparently beaten the whole game without weapons (just the default punch/kick) and is editing up the video, that'll be interesting to see.
I'd still use the pile bunker on the missions with large bosses like the strider assault or the cleaner just because it's really hard to argue with like 4k+ base charge damage. But yeah, in 90% of cases the laser lance is a clear winner, one of my favorite melee weapons. Importantly, it punts the smaller MTs into the stratosphere like the pile bunker does, which I find hilarious. I also almost never see the AI try to dodge it so I wonder if they messed up programming their response to the lance.
My biggest issue is it's not AC, it's a Souls game. I figured this is what they'd do because they're the "lmao git gud" company now but I'd hoped they wouldn't. The bosses are usually a pretty big difficulty spike from everything leading up to them and I don't find any of them particularly rewarding to fight against. Every boss boils down to hit with high impact -> unload into it. You can 100% trivialize the game by using the grenade launchers or the stun lance you get in chapter 3 and just unloading into them with gatling guns. If you choose not to do that you're just going to slowly and painfully be chipping down its massive health pool while it spams melee and missile or energy attacks. Similar to how you can cheese Elden Ring by taking bleed weapons and stun locking bosses with attacks and the bleed proc. The difference being Elden Ring was fun to play other ways with the exception of Malenia (I played the entire game with a hammer).
Biped builds generally seem to have gotten the short end of the stick. They're versatile, but as you said they can't quite keep up with the lightweight reverse-joint builds, nor do they have the sheer fuck-you firepower and durability of a tank build. The tetrapods have their situationally useful hover and a similar ability to fire charged/heavy hand weapons without bracing as the tanks, which even the heaviest bipeds don't get. They always seem to end up in this awkward middle ground.
It has some really nasty melee combos it adds to its moveset, a flying vertical spin melee attack, and begins using it's extremely powerful melee and heavy attacks far more frequently instead of just spamming beams. It's nasty. I did manage to get it done with double zimmermans on an ultra-fast build, but it was a tough. I'll have to try out your recommendation when I go back through it for S ranks.
I know those are the tranny colors but honestly my first thought was cotton candy at the state fair. I went with red, black, and orange. Didn't have any dog decals though.
But the saddest thing is, all those missions where you one-shot all the shitty mechs are just mind-numbing boring. Then, when you finally face a boss to spice things up it's just a total dick that needs a very specific strat to put down.
