Weapons

One way to win a Robot Combat match is to incompacitate your opponent. People use many strategies and techniques in their bots to accomplish this. Some weapons focus on maximizing the damage they can inflict on their opponent, while other weapons are designed to control or invert their opponents so they can't drive. Many people have commented that strategies around weapon types are a bit like playing rock-paper-scissors. Designs that are effective against one type of opponent are less effective against others.

Lifting weapons

These weapons lift the opponent and cause them to lose control of motion.

Wedges

A wedge is a sloped front that might lift an opponent off the ground, even slightly. Many bots have wedges in their design, even if it appears to be only incidental to the bot's operation.

Uses

• Breaking contact between the opponent's wheels and the ground
• Lifting an opponent until their weapon is unable to reach you, or no longer effective
• Lifting an opponent to keep it from attacking your active weapon, assuming your weapon has greater reach than theirs
• Lifting an opponent to feed it into your active weapon
• Armored defense; deflection against attacking weapons
• Crushing opponents against walls
• Pushing opponents into hazards
• Lifting opponents out of bounds or into a pit

Generally the bot with the lower wedge is at an advantage, but imperfections in arena floors and walls can make it very difficult to drive with a ground-scraping wedge.

Types

• Fixed wedges are attached to the body of the bot, or are part of the body. Many insect-weight bots have only two wheels, and a wedge or scoop holds up the front or back of the bot. A fixed wedge slightly above the arena floor can be effective, but may be ineffective against a lower wedge. Wedges that rest on the floor can become jammed due to floor scratches, uneven floors, and damage to the bot, and can be stuck under walls or barriers.
• Hinged or ground-scraping wedges slide on the floor and may be more likely to get under an opponent, and they pivot to discourage jamming on uneven floors.

Wedgelets

Small wedges that are used to get under opponents are known as wedgelets. These can often save weight compared to a larger wedge, but can be difficult to make strong enough to survive an opponents weapon. The 'Wolverine Claws' by BotKits.com are a very effective example of a wedgelet. Wedgelets offer little in the way of armored defense except against low attacks, but they have the benefit of being individually replaced without the cost of renewing a full-sized wedge.

• Passive
• Possible steering toward a damaging main weapon

Lifters

• Possible lift and carry
• Single vs. forks
• Lift with spinner

Flippers

A flipper is a lifter that is strong enough to rapidly flip an opponent upside-down and/or far away. This may be done with a simple servo on small bot. A flipper that is so fast and powerful that it can throw an opponent directly toward the ceiling of the arena is sometimes called a Launcher. These are made with complicated mechanisms that release stored energy from spring-powered, pneumatic, or hydraulic devices.

Uses

• Disorientation and disruption of the opponent
• Causing fall damage to opponents
• Breaking off pieces of opponents
• Disabling opponents if they land upside down, if they cannot self-right or operate inverted

Spinning weapons

Spinning weapons can inflict damage on opponents with a hard, fast impact from a rotating element.

Beater bar

• Drum

Horizontal spinner

• Blades
• Discs
• Bars
• High vs. low
• Gyroscopic effects

Vertical spinner

• Saw arms
• Gyro effects

Full body weapons

Large portions of your bot, or even the entire bot, can be put into motion as a spinning weapon. These are tricky to build It is crucial that the bot be perfectly balanced, with its weight evenly distributed, so that it doesn't lose control or tear itself apart.

Shell spinner

The armor / body of a shell spinner rotates around robot's internal components. When done correctly this weapon can provide 360-degrees of offence and defence which makes it an appealing optio. There can be challenges with stability if the shell isn't properly balanced. Also shell spinners can not operate inverted and will often have a curved bar coming out of the top to aid in self-righting.

Ring spinner

This type of bot has a round, steerable core surrounded by a spinning ring. It is similar to a shell-spinner in appearance but the spinner doesn't rotate on a central shaft. This approach does have the advantage of making it easier to drive the weapon with multiple motors but the integrity of the ring can be difficult to maintain upon impacts which often results in shell spinners stopping their spinning.

Meltybrain

The entire bot spins rapidly, but using computer-assisted controls, it can still be steered. See Melty Brain.

Thwackbot

Any of the above bots, but incorporating a hammer, or an arm with spikes, extending from the side of the bot. It is driven into position and then commanded to spin in place to create a circular zone in which other bots may be damaged.

Full body flail

A variant of the thwackbot that incorporates one or more flails (like a mace, or a chain) which can be whipped around to cause damage. These are more difficult to operate, since the weight distribution of the weapon is not fixed.

Hammer weapons

Hammers inflict destructive shock waves, dents, and puncture damage on opponents.

Horizontal

• Rare

Control weapons

Seize control of opponents and puncture or throw them for damage.

Clamp

• Dustpan

Crushers

• Mandibles
• Spike/scorpion

Ramming weapons

Plows

• Steering opponents
• Articulation

Other

Flamethrowers

• Where permitted

Projectiles

• Cannon