darkSpyro

Just curious, which is the best Swapper released so far, and why? I ask because I'll probably only get a few initially (since I'm saving for a used PS3 when the PS4 comes out).
Rattle Shake and Hoot Loop, especially, how are they?

hoot loop is my favorite so far his teleportation skill is highly useful and powerful his top half with the hypontize along with deja vu combines great with other swappers, especially with magna charge bottom half

So far my favorite combo is : Rattle Ranger. This is based on solo play.

Rattle Shake
Top part has very good abilities: fast shooter that can be charged for multi-target and snake turret. I picked the snake turret path but the other one should be useful as well. My favorite top part so far.
Lower part ability is good for knocking down small enemies when they get close. I only tried the charging path which wasn't as useful as I expected since it requires charging. Not sure about the bone snake path.

Hoot Loop
Top part abilities are OK. The hypnosis is nice but range and slowing effect could be longer even on upgraded path to make it great. The missiles are homing, decent damage. The laser beam upgrade has great damage but using it only spawns the additional missiles once.
Bottom teleport ability is great for platforming and avoidance.. It deals damage on exit but would be more useful if it's on the entrance since it's used for escaping instead of offense.

Free Ranger
Top part melee has ranged component, the lightning attack is great for stunning opponents before you get close. The lightning path has nice area, range and damage but takes too long to charge. Havent' tried the melee path.
Bottom part is very useful for crowd control and very easy to use. I picked the aura path and very useful to get away when surrounded. Curious abuot the tornado path though. My favorite bottom part so far.

Magna Charge
Top part fast firing gun is offset by cooldown. Tried the gun path and it's nice damage boost but I'm wondering if the magnet path is better... hmm...
Bottom part is on paper better than Ranger but it's harder to use. Haven't quite mastered it yet. I think either path is not that different but I only tried the stun path though.

Blast Zone
I should like him on paper but I don't. His abilities seem cumbersome to use for not that much damage.

Wash Buckler
I thought I wouldn't like him. After playing a bit, I ended up liking the bubble and tentacle attacks! Need to play him more though.

For me, Free Ranger top is the dominant top of the released Swaps...his damage is just too good, and the areas he hits with the wind cone and the eye blast are just too good.

As for bottom, I've been using mostly Magna Charge's (Legendary Free Charge). It's ability is real good early on. Hoot Loop's bottom is real fun, but the noise gets REAL annoying. MY wife was going to walk away if I didn't change the bottom because she was tired of the noise hehe.
-Unreall

Thanks for the info!
Still not sure who I'm getting first...

Im digging Magna Charge. I was playing the Tower of Time level on Hard and some of the enemies

take a while to kill. So i figured out with Magna Charges Magnetic move you can pick them up and

throw them off the sides to instantly kill them.

Instant KO moves, huh? Nice.
So what are the full effects of HL's hypnosis? Enemies damaging each other and less speed?

Rattle Charge is sooooo GOOOOOOD

I grabbed wave 2 swappers earlier but only tried Night Shift and Grilla Drilla.

Seems like Shift bottom part with vortex upgrade is even better than Ranger and Charge for escape. It leaves damaging vortex at the start and slows enemies on exit! Going to test it more later. I think this could be the best bottom part!

Night top part is medium range melee and feels solid especially with vampire path. Gold path is useless really.

Drilla bottom part has potential.. it spawns two turrets and mines. The banana turret path is best for farming gold trick. I racked up 7k+ per diamond use using it.

Grilla has pretty strong melee and fun homing monkeys but not particularly strong since homing monkeys arent spammable.

Can't wait to try out Fire Kraken and Boom Jet later... Although I think Fire Kraken would be one of the weakest swapper.

Quote: Doomslicer

Instant KO moves, huh? Nice.
So what are the full effects of HL's hypnosis? Enemies damaging each other and less speed?

Hoot Loop hypnosis just slows down enemies while damaging them. Fully upgraded, it deals 44 damage per tick (~2 ticks per second) vs 34 normal. Or maybe it's 48 not 100% sure. It has pretty short range in cone shaped. Not that strong really.

Edit: yep Magna Chare magnet moves can insta kill smaller enemies.. there are areas where you can throw them off the cliffs or into pits.

FYI, I've been playing on Hard. I think lower difficulties may distort power level. E.g. escape abilities aren't as useful in lower difficulty levels.

Quote: xatria

I grabbed wave 2 swappers earlier but only tried Night Shift and Grilla Drilla.

Seems like Shift bottom part with vortex upgrade is even better than Ranger and Charge for escape. It leaves damaging vortex at the start and slows enemies on exit! Going to test it more later. I think this could be the best bottom part!

Night top part is medium range melee and feels solid especially with vampire path. Gold path is useless really.

Drilla bottom part has potential.. it spawns two turrets and mines. The banana turret path is best for farming gold trick. I racked up 7k+ per diamond use using it.

Grilla has pretty strong melee and fun homing monkeys but not particularly strong since homing monkeys arent spammable.

Can't wait to try out Fire Kraken and Boom Jet later... Although I think Fire Kraken would be one of the weakest swapper.

Thanks, I was about to ask about Wave Two.
I have high expectations for Fire Kraken, he looks quite spammable.

Ok managed to spend few hours reviewing upgrade paths..

Free Ranger
Free top melee path is much better than the lightning path! Lightning path does have 150 damage and long range but it takes too long to charge so not that practical. Melee combo is faster to charge and deals 25 four or five times with finishing slash 100. Each slash can be directed to different enemies within medium area. It looks pretty awesome (think of Wolverine super attack or something). Unfortunately soul gem upgrade does not increase its damage.

Have not tried the Tornado path but Aura path is nice complement for melee.

I think Free Ranger has shot up to my favorite list. Even though he's melee, he's very agile so it's easy to maneuver him around to avoid being hit.

Magna Charge
Magna Gun path adds decent damage 45 but it only shoots every overheat which is not that often. The magnet path is more useful because you can use head magnet to knock down surrounding enemies.

Charge
OK the charge path is much more useful than the stun path. You can keep on dragging enemies, shoot them and keep on dragging. The stun path drops enemies right in front of you and stuns them for very short duration. If you shoot them to the wall, it kinda knocks them down anyway. However, I can see the stun path is useful with other melee top part.

Similarly with Free Ranger, I like Magna Charge better with those paths.

Grilla Drilla
Grilla
Monkey path upgrades from 2 monkeys to 4, damage from 19 to 26 each so overall it's 270% more damage. The punch path also has good damage boost from 42 punch and 21 drill to 48 punch and 28 drill. However, drill punch requires him to stand still which makes him vulnerable unlike Free Ranger. The monkey path is easier to use but it's not spammable. Overall I think this top part is pretty weak.

Drilla
Only tried the banana path which shoots very fast but only 5 damage. It's awesome for farming gold as I said.. need to evaluate coconut path next. 2 turrets + 1 mine are definitely good abilities. You will be giving up mobility though.. need to think what top is good match.

Boom Jet
Boom
Air strike path upgrades from 44 damage to 52 + bomb 20.. decent but it's not spamable. The storm bomb path does not upgrade the super football bomb damage (40) but spawns decent size cloud that deals 10 damage for 19-20 ticks which is nice if the enemies stay within the cloud. The cloud will not spawn unless charged though.
Either way, both aren't that great really. I think Boom is one of the weaker top part because his abilities aren't spamable.

Jet
Rocket path upgrades the propeller from 3x15 damage medium range to 2x24 long range. It's just OK. The cloud path is even weaker.. it spawns cloud trail that deals 12 damage for only like 2-3 ticks before disappear. With soul gem upgrade, the dash deals 150 damage which is nice but overall it's still pretty weak I think.

Fire Kraken is very different than other characters... need to spend more time on him.


Anyway, I really enjoy trying out these swappers.. So far, the strongest ones I think are
Top: Rattle > Free > Magna
Bottom: Ranger = Charge > Shift

I was wrong about Shift.. while still very useful, Ranger and Charge beat it because they can drop enemy defense/shield. Although Shift is better for mobility...

weakest:
Top: Grilla < Boom < Night = Hoot
Bottom: Jet = Zone (maybe)

to be evaluated: Fire Kraken, Wash Buckler and Blast Zone

I think Night Shift is the best for survivability of any Skylander ever. He has the ability to restore his life, and his bottom piece can bring him back to life up to 2 times depending on which path you take.

In terms of pure power and damage, I think Grilla Drilla seems to be the best. His punches are great damage, and have good range. The monkeys can be used while you are running up to something without slowing you down. The drill turrets are great to place down while you wait for more enemies to arrive. All of his skills are useful and he can really dole out massive damage. It seems people are disagreeing with me on this one, though, at least for his top.

Really? Because GD is on my buy list later on in the year (as Rubble looks dull by comparison, though if he has good attacks I might), so thanks for the info!

I tested using solo survival arena on Hard difficulty. On this setting, crowd control, avoiding hits and simply dealing lots of damage to many enemies are premium.

Grilla punch does do a lot of damage but the range is short and he is rooted in place. He can spin around while drilling but he can easily be hit and knocked back, stopping his drill punch. Monkey attack is quite good upgraded but not spamable. You can pair with Bottom part with good mobility, e.g Shift he would do better. However, Free Ranger top part melee is much more versatile I think.

I would still buy him for the bottom part, Drilla which has unique bottom part turret ability.

I've been impressed with most swappers.
The only one who doesn't impress me is Magna Charge.

Magna Charge is pretty good on his guns path. I thought his throwing path would be better, but I like how when he's powered up, his overheat meter actually becomes a special attack meter - he shoots a huge blast every time he overheats. This lets you run and gun with him without having to worry about the overheating. He can dash around really quickly and when he picks up an enemy he effectively neutralizes it permanently until he throws it again. The throw can be used to toss stuff off a level more often than not.

After some more playing I'm not quite as in love with Grilla as I was, though I do think he's really good for a melee character overall. I like Wash Buckler now a lot more. I got his soul gem and the giant ship he can shoot is just devastating. It charges pretty quickly and with it he becomes a really strong ranged attacker. That ship is HUGE and goes through walls. Nothing can stop him when he's in his elemental zone shooting giant ships at stuff.

Good to know, I like MC, glad to know his overheat isn't too crippling with the right path.

Finally finished the game and played a bit more on Arena. Hard difficulty.

I really enjoyed playing Free Shift. Shift bottom with strong melee is just awesome. I tried Grilla (monkey path) and Shift and he rocked hard.. Played angry plant arena and the two middle desert arenas, he went from level 1 to 9 straight without dying/failing. Shift is on the vortex part but he didn't even die once, didn't use the resurrect ability. Shift is fine with extra resurrect path as well I think because the main advantage for melee is its instant teleport and slowing effect. Vortex path just give a bit of more damage and crowd control.

Using Shift allows Grilla to apply his powerful melee attacks at safe position. The double drill punch path is harder to use the monkey path but I think with Shift, Grilla does fine with either. His punch actually moves him forward a little bit so you can move him a little bit by pressing attack 1 again in different direction. Just not as quick as Free top.

Tried Drilla bottom part with Rattle. Although three turrets are awesome, the loss mobility is painful. Drilla needs a top part that has good crowd control I think.

Magna charge, no question.
I feel like his gun is awesome except that it has overheats and that the magnet comes in handy from time to time.

my fav is dark blast zone he reminds me of the demoman from tf2 with the sticky bomb upgrade

I gotta say rattle shift is the best swapper combo so far. Top half for me is on the snake ally path because i hate charge attacks. Shift is on the teleport path, the not-extra-lives one. Having a primary ranged attack with a good rate of fire, higher crit with soul gem, and slowing and damage post teleport makes him a savage combination. I'd be hard-pressed to believe any other combination will out-do Rattle Shift.

Quote: bobafett222red

Magna charge, no question.
I feel like his gun is awesome except that it has overheats and that the magnet comes in handy from time to time.

The overheating on the gun becomes a non-issue once you get the skill that creates a super blast any time it overheats. With that skill it's actually totally fine to overheat.

Nice!
So, any word of Fire Kraken?

I'm really liking (Nitro) Magna Charge and Grilla Drilla. I've only dabbled with Free Ranger and Night Shift, but they seem pretty good too. The others (I have all of Wave 1 and Wave 2 swappers) are kind of situational.

I've been loving Night Shift so far. His attacks are great.

Dark Blast Zone is also quite fun.

My favorite thus far has been Grilla Loop. It is really hard to argue with Magna almost anything though. My favorite Magna combo has been Magna Jet.

Magna charge is a close second though, for sure

Got Fire Kraken soul gem and played him a bit.

Fire top normal attack is pretty good.. 44 and pretty fast. Its charge attack path isn't as useful as Dragon Parade path for sure. The parade knocks down small enemies but shielded enemies can stop it. I pretty much just spammed the parade during the Angry Plant arena and won it handily. The upgrade path gives the parade 24 damage homing missiles. Soul Gem also turn the parade into a slow moving projectile.

Kraken bottom seems to be designed as damage while moving ability. You have to light up the big one on every cooldown to make the best use of it. It's interesting design but doesn't go well with Fire parade path. Either upgrade path doesnt seem to change the playstyle significantly. Although the one with speed upgrade I think is a bit more useful.

Overall I feel he has interesting design and his top is as capable as other melee top parts. Edit: although I still like Free the best for his Wolverine-style attacks.

So far for me, it is wash zone. Simply because the speed of the bottom as well as once you have upgraded wash buckler's top, his sword attack does 70 damage and add the gun to that, hes doing 40 to 70 damage every single time he hits someone.

Ugh, I can't decide if I should get Grilla Drilla or Fire Kraken. I don't have enough for both right now so can someone give more details on their pros and cons? Even after reading the reviews above i'm still undecided

I doubt'll get Fire Kraken (I'd rather have RS for my bounce), but I may get his Jade variant. Which will hopefully have unique-colored fire-works.

Do they both have good melee attacks? Does grilla drilla have to stop walking every time he punches?

Night Shift & Magna Charge are really fun to play. Boom Jet is cool too.

Thanks for all the info gang!
Say, what about cores? I've got my eye on that blazing beauty, Smolderdash, how's she? And GC...

Not all 25 (including variants) swappables are released, so I personally can't say who's the best, nor the best combination...

Since you're saving for a used PS3, you might want to pick one up now. Gamestop is listing them all for $150.

Anyways, Night Shift is the swapper I've found most enjoyable so far.

is starstrike anygood i thought she would be op but i cant find out

Quote: Orohu

Since you're saving for a used PS3, you might want to pick one up now. Gamestop is listing them all for $150.

Anyways, Night Shift is the swapper I've found most enjoyable so far.

Actually, their prices will probably drop once the PS4 comes out...

Hoot loop, I love him, he's just awesome looking and his attacks are awesome
GIVE US WAVE 2! >

Personally my Enchanted Hoot Loop is my favorite so far. He moves pretty quick and can deal damage from far distances which has helped me through many levels playing on the hard setting.

Wash Buckler is a pleasant surprise, too. Blast Zone is nifty and Rattle Shake is my boy because I get every Undead skylander (I like to collect all of one type, too expensive to do them all!)

I got some more time in this weekend, and really toyed around with the swappers instead of the new cores. I also got my hand on the rest of the wave 2 swappers for a more complete look at this.

For me there are two bottoms that rock out more than any other, with a third in the distance - 1a. Shift and 1b. Zone with 3. Drilla.

It's tied to how I play for the first two - hyper aggression - Shift is similar to Loop, only faster and easier to ring up damage with (Vortex Path btw).

Zone isn't great 'by itself' - it isn't a 'main damage' option, but going with the fiery aura, you can pretty much boost yourself around while fighting to keep a ball of fire around you that negates all small baddies, and stops the attack animation of alot of the bad guys. On top of that, in 'mid-boss' territory, a full boost does a good 100+ damage (I'm sure I have some elemental multiplier in there but still). So unlike most offensive bottoms, you can use it effectively and constantly, while still using the top half. Compare it to Range - and while its a great affect, you can't do anything else while it's going on, and it has a pretty bad delay to start up.

Drilla - pretty much owns up the money trick, by itself (including Range) you can put some serious money in all the swappers pocket. In terms of effectiveness though, the turrets work real well (banana path)...and similar to how I feel about Zone and Shift - you can use it - without 'getting in the way' of your top half.

As for the top portion, I'm stuck between Free & Night - Free seems more resilient, while Night not only can heal himself, but he hits hard, hits often, and hits from far. Of the mass released tops I find, Hoot to be too slow, Gorilla does GREAT damage against slow or immobile foes, but is 'meh' against groups, Blast is great at mid-range and from far, but the arc on his attack sucks for up-close...which is where his bottom half is best, Fire Kraken is fun looking, but nothing more, Manga can be effective, but just isn't a power house, Boom is exactly like Blast - thinking on it, Blast Jet, is prolly a good long range combo, The octopus does good damage, but simply not as effective...and so on.

My favorite setup so far is Night Zone. I follow that with Free Drilla. Third - mostly for if Night Zone dies - is Blast Shift *runaway bombs!!!*.

Other useful combinations - Fire Shake, Blast Jet, Boom Shift, Free Loop, & Hoot Charge.
-Unreall

Fire Kraken is my favorite, and I don't even swap him most of the time. He can shoot himself into the air and burst down into an explosion of fireworks, and all of his other attacks are powerful as well.

I saw in dev interviews mentioned that Blast fire wall can boost Buckler ink attacks much like his bombs.

So I tried both Jet and Drilla bottoms with Blast top. Sure enough, the fire wall increase the missile damage by 12 per plus 13. The damage pops as up as 2: x+12 and 13 separately instead of x+25. This is huge boost for Drilla banana turrets from 5 to 17+13 a pop. Jet rocket path increased from 24 to 36 + 13 damage.

It's not as OP as it sounds though. Banana turrets have pretty short range and the fire wall doesn't last that long. I personally like it better with Jet rockets since you get some mobility although the damage boost isn't that great.

I used to think that Grilla was the guy to use for the money cheat, but an upgraded blaster on Drobot is the way to go. I have never managed to get less that 10,000 and that is typically for guys who can't do much work on their own. I was able to get 20,000 each using Hex and Drobot one round. Typically though, using a characters' basic attack combined with Drobot will get you 15,000 and that will let you fully upgrade somebody in one turn. Great for figuring out which path you want to use for all these new characters, since you can just reset and upgrade again fast. It's even better for swapper bottom halves as they don't carry a level so resetting only affects their upgrades.

^ Trigger's Machine gun is better for the cheat.

I got rattle Shake but I dun haz swap ofrce. Is he a good character?

Yep.His tail swipe is the best.

YYYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Quote: THGold

^ Trigger's Machine gun is better for the cheat.

Best I have seen so far is Double Trouble and Pop Thorn together. 24k with all the projectiles hitting multiple dummies.