Mechatalk Final Gear: PN26 Illeheath - Black Blossom

 Proceeding according to schedule, as a part of pet project of mine to have some kind of relic archive for Final Gear before its eventual end-of-service. I will be doing a series of Mechatalk Post for Final Gear and for the second Mechatalk, The mysterious Gasmask wearing Redhead beauty, PN26 is the candidate I picked this time. This also will be the first of the several UR units that will be covered in this blog post series

 

 Once a cheerful young maiden living with her caring families. No longer bearing her former name, PN26 Illeheath is the gloomy pilot of Black Blossom Exoskeleton unit working under Paranoia Mercenary group. PN26 gained her power of manipulating dimensional rift after going through tragic series of event in her past, being kidnapped from her family and then being horribly experimented by Sinister group. At some point PN26 being recruited by Paranoia Mercenary group leader, Haela after a fateful encounter which the latter probably saved her from a certain situation. Fitting the theme of  suffering and torment, PN26 pilots her Sinister Black Blossom unit and destroy anything stood in her path using tentacle-like appendages that form Giant hands summoned through dimensional rifts.

 

 

  In Final Gear Universe there are several mercenary factions other than the Player's main faction Blackark which have their own mecha design aesthetics. Paranoid group is one of those Mercenary groups which sports Sinister mecha designs in darker color schemes. Lead by their enigmatic yet charismatic leader Haela, Paranoia is mercenary group whose members consist of young girls with traumatic and/or sinister pasts who use their torments as their source of power. In-Game Paranoia is one of the two factions that have 2 natural UR units. In terms of storyline, what's notable from Paranoia Group is that Haela had a close encounter with Coral, who is the best friend of the game's main heroine, Evelynn.

 In Final Gear PN26 served as SR Demolisher unit, a mid ranged class that either served as DPS or Support which PN26 served as the latter. Being one of the starter unit that is obtained once you finish beginner mission, PN26 is not exactly good unit with her subpar DPS. PN26 Support effect is barely noticable either considering she doesn't provide any offensive buff and her healings are overshadowed by Top tier healer Supports like Iris or Arlene. 

  PN26 is one of the SR Pilots that gains UR Upgrade and I think she is one of the earliest UR batch as well. Her UR Upgrade amplifies the healing power and supposedly give energy recharge to allies which make PN26 great support for PVP but when pitted against OP units like Zero or Ruby, the value she brings to the team is barely negligible. Despite her low performance against top tier units, UR PN26 still serve as good Tank unit against other SSR melee units and reliably tarpit them until the DPS is free to go for the kill. Lastly her UR at least still gives quite meaty BP boost if you are aiming for Leaderboard.

 Despite her underwhelming performance in her role, I quite like PN26 to the point of bothering to raise her into UR. The sole reason would be her gap moe from her gloomy mode and her cheerful version is good enough for me to commit the effort to raise her. Among non-UR waifus, PN26 have a top tier design when her Skin costume version being taken into consideration. For the next Mechatalk post, I will be preparing for DPS Shooter Renata.