The Rookies
Starter Tutorial Team for RA2, does have some rather bad bots however some can help you with learning the basics:
(L) Sting Ray
Even if it's just a rammer it's somewhat decent, only big flaw is not enough batteries, so you will be barely moving at the end.
(M) Forkie
Despite what the wiki says I've been able to flip bots(for example Alarm) with it, however servo lifters sadly don't work well in RA(did they work in beta?), while it has a lot components put into it(good example on how to use space) you should never take turns too sharp, as not only does the ground clearance cause problems with getting flipped, it makes it very easy for the both to fall over and be immobilized. Since a simple T connector is the only thing holding the flippers it's very easy for it to get broken off, in the end it's a nice bot concept on paper that just doesn't work out.
(M) C.R.U.S.H
Probably the best Rookie robot, shows you well on how to build a basic robot, only suffers from low battery power so you won't be swinging that hammer at the end of the match.
(M) BOT-CHOY
I have a feeling that this was supposed to be a clamp/crusher, however in the end it's just a simple rammer that doesn't seem to work out well.
(M) Atom Smasher
Interesting concept for potential good damage, however it has high ground clearance, doesn't work both ways up(seriously, just put the drive motors a big higher and you don't have the clearance/upside down driving problem) and has too weak motors for it's weapons(again probably because Snapper 2's used to be stronger)
(H) Walrus
Ok idea on paper but a rather boring bot that's only heavyweight because of the extra weights put on it. Not a good example on how to build a bot and it feels like the devs just needed a HW for the Rookies.
Since most import bots are the same from the stock versions I'll be covering the other ones here:
(L) Scrap Harper
Not actually in the game and just on a box screenshot, looks halfway decent since it can drive upside down, however the long spikes make them an easy target.
(M) Spin Bonker
Not too bad, however it has way too many parts that can break off giving you an easy 20 minute fixing time on it, worst part about this is that the other components attached to said component won't be back until two matches, then again this is an issue most spinners have to face, but the extra parts on this don't help it. Another big issue is that there's nothing which shows the direction of the bot, making it hard to control at times, so you have to "guess" what's forward.
(H) BarberShop Chop
Looks like a decent HW but sufffers from a lot of issues: High Ground Clearance and sticking out wheels, blades swing into the opposite direction, seems to do close to no damage for some odd reason.
(M) Tailwhip
Pretty much Arc Pounder except that it seems to fall easier apart and with a ramming plate.
Red Zone
A Security themed team and the one that the player will most likely see first, not too dangerous.
(L) Scout
The flipper seems to be rather weak most of the time, however it did surprisingly well also one of the bots with low almost to zero ground clearance. Overall OK, but the bad AI makes it lose almost every match...
(M) ALARM
Higher ground clearance than Scout, it's not a bad poker, can deal decent damage if it gets you into a corner and thanks to it's strong piston it still counts as moving until it starts running low on Co2.
(H) Sentinel
A bot that suffers from control issues thanks to the powered streeing unit, looks like it's supposed to be a lifter while it's actually a flipper, like Scout it's not too strong but it can still flip, no self righting, exposed wheels and bad driving it's one of the easiest HW's.
Red Zone isn't that strong of a team.
Prehistoric
Ancient Stone Age based team
(L) Roly Poly
Lightweight rammer that's suprisingly big and seems to commmonly roll over back on it's wheels, however it's not that threatening,ok bot.
(M) Saber Tooth
While having a rather boring pantjob it does have an interesting(but somewhat ineffective) way of attacking.
(H) Grog the Warrior
One of the what, 3 hammer clone bots? This one has the biggest axe which deals some damage and should be avoided, it can self right if it's axe isn't fired but not if the axe's already out, somewhat dangerous.
A somewhat decent team that does have little threats especially in their heavyweight and middleweight bots.
Good Ol' Boys
(L) Catfish
The possibly most boring and second ineffective LW bot.
(M) Mud Runner
Interesting use of Motors creating that Monster Truck design while having the team logo on it, double axes are also rather dangerous, however the exposed motors at a high ground clearance make it an easy target, I remember playing on the Compressor Arena with Alarm and Mud Runner on one side, when I came over to see what's going on I saw a mess of motors and wheels with a wheel less mudrunner trying to stay mobile. It's axes do allow it to self right if it has enough power.
Technically a HW.
(H) BEAR
It's weapons make it a rather strong opponent, and even if it has the powered steering unit on it's back it's still driving surprisingly well(minus the few times where it falls backwards and gets immobilized)
This team does have somewhat dangerous robots in Middle and Heavyweight, however both can still be beaten.
Team Dragon
Ninja Team
(L) Ninja
Sometimes it's saws just get stopped where other times they're able to chew away the armor, exposed weapon motors that don't seem to get damaged that much, sadly it can't drive upside down but I'd say it's still somewhat decent.
(M) Bushido
Strong Blade that can quickly get rid of discs or armor, HS beware of this bot. According to the wiki it's actually a HW. can't self right due to the odd blade position but is otherwise rather strong.
(H) Ronin
If you saw the other two you'd expect somethign damaging here, however ronin is just a normal wedge but with decent pushing power, the ability to run upside down and rather useless spikes on it's sides. The fact that it can't be immobilized that easy does give it a few extra points that it lost for it's weapons.
A ok team, MW is strong but the others aren't that big of a threat.
Black Storm
A team with a lot of mixed robots.
(L) Bot 204
Not that bad and can do constant damage, sadly it needs the caster for the sticking out sawblade which gives it a rather high ground clearance.
(M) Devil
Weaponless bot... The spikes are just there for decoration but it does have a halfway decent wedge and decent drive. the horns do give it an advantage as it's a bit hard to flip.
(H) Coal Miner
Oh yes, the bot that looks similar to Tornado(mostly because it's a basic invertable bot with a weapon attached), while it's main weapon isn't that powerful it can still use it as a rammer and is decent with that. This and the ability for it to run upside down make it a somewhat dangerous bot, but out of the two HW invertable bots it's the one that gets stuck on the sides easier.
Overall a rather good team except for the middleweight.
Team Spark
The team that will destroy you
(L) Jackpot
Clever design, the weapon is rather stong and the wedge helps it, it does have some self righting problems so it can only self right sometimes.
(M) The Boxer
Thank the original creators that this bot isn't invertable because it can quickly deal a lot of damage with it's piston boxing fists, luckily the pistons are exposed and once it's upside down it will just continue moving in a funny way.
(H) EMERGENCY
While it is defeatable I still find this one of the most annoying bots in the game, it has often cost me matches because it managed to get my invertable/self righting robots stuck/just got into the way or by flipping me off of the tabletop arenas...
As if the flippers weren't worse, it also starts ramming your bot once it loses them, flipping it is possible however the bot is heavy and once in a while gets a lucky powerful flip resulting in it landing on it's back where it can do a simple flip to land on it's wheels again, so immobilizing it permanent is difficult unless you push it under the flame jets in the bridge arena. Bots with high damage(my MW spinner made it but was heavily damaged in the end) can still do a decent job against it, as long as they can run upside down/self right).
Do I need to say anything? They're the best team in the game, while their HW is the best bot, the LW and MW aren't exactly bad either.
Spike Heads
Spike Themed Team
(L) M.A.D.
Might not lok like it, but it's actually a decent rammer with sadly exposed wheels.
(M)Dementia
While the wiki calls it one of the worst Stock MW's, I've seen it do decent pushing around, not giving the other robots any chance to do something, so don't underestimate this bot.
(H) Little Metal Friend
Oh the Bot that the team wanted us to meet, it's an interesting clamp, however for some reason they didn't bother AIing it correctly so it's just a bigger invertable Sabertooth. Runs both ways up making it a bit hard to immobilize, interesting design, sometimes deals a good bit of damage.
An ok team, don't underestimate them but don't worry too much either.
North Polers
Arctic themed team
(L) MiniBerg
The worse version of the two mountain bots, nice design however everything seems to oversized to the hammer, somewhat ok LW with a good way of dealing damage.
(M) Iceberg
The better of the two, the chassis here looks better fitting to the weapon even if it's way bigger, also wheels no longer stick out. The hammer here is dangerous, so once
again spinners, look out for it. Once again a HW(even if it's just by a tiny bit) cheater...
(H) SnowJob
Another one of those cases where you expected a completely different robot as a HW, this time another hammer bot, however all you get it SnowJob, possibly the best pusher
in the game but with no means to deal damage(and a really questionable name).
The North Polers have decent Light and Mediumweight bots with good damage output, however their Heavyweight is one of the worst bots if it isn't in tabletop.
High Voltage
Electricity based team
(L) Flapjack
While it might not look too strong and like a bot that suffers from the common "flipper/hammer without self righting" problems it's actually decent, doesn't have the wheels at zero ground clearance level but it's still hard to get under it, except for the front where the caster wheel is.
(M) BackSlash
Another flipper, this time based on Biohazard?
Ground clearance doesn't seem to be bad(it's not zero through) but since it requires this to go under other bots(unlike Flapjack who has a wedge) it does suffer a bit from it, it's flipper doesn't want to work well most of the time and for some reason breaks off almost every time he tries to self right, poor thing.
(H) Wide Load
Another surprise heavyweight, interestingly it could be faster but is nefed down, no way to drive upside down and it's shape mean it's one of the easier bots to flip, after which it will just move around slowly just like any piston bot. Does have the potential to deal high damage but usually doesn't get all of those spikes to hit.
Hex
Another team which tries to be Spark but isn't as good.
(L) Flame Chopper
Looks decent and has a good weapon for a LW, even sometimes self rights, however the high ground clearance on the front can be trouble.
(M) LugNut
See Catfish, looks like a mix of Catfish with Roly Poly's weapons, however this one is flat as a pancake and doesn't run upside down.
(H) Hanky Panky
Looks like it's a copy of a battlebots bot, while the flipper concept is nice, an iron spike just isn't a good flipper weapon to get under other bots, with that said it can actually flip however that ends up with it itself almost falling over.
Team that isn't too good but does have some nice concepts that work once in a while.
Team Z
"Cooler than you"
(L) Berzerker
One of the only two "full body spinners" in the game, surprisingly there's no heavyweight, a really strong and destructive LW.
(M) Razor
A driving wedge with exposed wheels and spike strips, not really sure what the idea was here(other than getting the robot stuck on top of it) but getting a robot up there with that ground clearance is difficult, overall one of the worse MW's.
(H) Eye Poker
The second, harder to immobilize invertable robot, having long ramming spikes as weapon. Sadly it doesn't really do much damage and has a weak drive.
Ok team
Steelyard Dog
(missspelled as StelYard Dawg in the wiki, even if it's more fitting, I like to call them Steelyard Dogs)
A team of mostly slow pushing bots.
(L) Lil' Dog
Zero Ground clearance(or at least the closest to it) with a wedge and design that stands out from the other two Steelyard bots. No weapons so just hack away at it...
(M) Da Dog
Snowplow adds some nice defense to it and it does have good armor, but that's all it really does, again weak drive.
(H) Big Dog
Using the same drive as the middleweight(and once again being a copy), however it's weight means the drive is even slower, to it's defenses it does have the ram plate at the back, however the paintjob makes it look like it was once supposed to be a flipper(which is also my plan for team Steelyard)
Weak but durable team.
RIOT
Just like Hex, it feels like this team tries to get to team Spark's level but doesn't quite make it.
(L) Civil Disobedience
The cool paintjob is the only good thing on this, weapon never seems to do anything at all so for me it's the worst LW.
(M) REVENGE
Halfway decent, however the exposed motor is an easy target and it's easily possible to jam up it's blade, giving you the chance you need.
(H) Raptor
Possibly the best hammer in the game, as it can self right as long as it's not under half power, double hammers also mean that it does better damage.
Megaton
Boom
(L) Stinger
A really good LW, even if it's not invertible, it's shape and weight distirbution make it a pain to flip and the Razor does good damage just like expected.
(M) Tornado
Full body spinner with odd spikes on top(are those there for self righting) sometimes manages to get on it's feet and can be really damaging. Also does this bot only get called tempest because of the DSL version or was that an early name for it?
(H) DEADBEAT
Sadly another hammer copy, but this time with odd drive and a sledgehammer which rips off components, I'd say it's alright minus the ground clearance.
The Scrappers
Spinner based team
(L) Arc Pounder
It's a bit big for a LW, don't you think? It's huge but I guess that's what it can do thanks to it's low weapon weight, can do some serious damage and since it's invertible it's one of the most annoying LW's. Best to just ram it once it isn't spinning and then pit it/damage it's wheels/weapons/chassis.
(M) Ripblade
Reminds me of Nightmare somehow even if it's not really similar. while it looks decent the blade never seems to do any damage and it's helping wheels can easily be damaged. Another bot that's technically a heavyweight
(H) Backyard Ripper
Looks like something that could do damage however it doesn't seem to do that much and gets it's attachments ripped off easily. If it lands on it's disc it can sometimes spin fast enough to flip it back on it's feet.
Decent ideas but not too destructive.