Trap Gunner Character Speed Tier List
Elg > Tenrou > Lou > Rem > Van > Tico > Abdoll > Bishous > Dyn
Trap Gunner Character Health Tier List
Dyn/bish>Van/Rem/Lou>Elg/ten/tico*>abdoll
key: ">" means the characters in that tier can (typically) survive one extra switch bomb's worth of damage.
"/" means there's very little difference in health, less than a (typical) switch bomb
Characters are ordered from most health (dyn) to least (abdoll)
* tico is sorta in between tiers, of all the "/" divisions her compared to tenrou is the most signifigant (with tenrou having 3-4 melee attacks worth of health over tico)
In testing this I ran across a few situations where in a mirror match one player seemed to sometimes take less damage. That means it may be that health is somewhat random, rather than damage.
Character weight
This is measured based on how far a character flys when hit by a switch (or any explosion, but switches/bombs are the most common) This info is mostly useless.
abdoll/van/bish/elg*: 2
Tico/lou/rem/ten**: 3
*elg is more like, 2.3. I rounded down.
*ten is more like, 2.5. I rounded up.
Trap Gunner Shot Damage Tier List
Dyn/Bishous* > Abdoll > Tico > Van/rem > lou >elg/tenrou
below is the number of shots it should take to kill abdoll at 1/2 health. Keep in mind that damage is somewhat random, so it can vary by a few shots.
van/rem: 27 shots (they have 5 shots a clip)
elg/tenrou: 43 shots (they have 7 shots a clip)
lou: 34 shots (she has 6 shots a clip)
abdoll: 13 shots (she has 2 shots a clip, they knock down)
tico: 18 shots (she has 4 shots a clip, they knockdown and have slight homing)
bishous: 7 shots (he has 3 shots a clip, each shot fires 3 bullets. this assumes close range (all bullets hit), at long range it'll take 26.)
Dyn: 6 shots (he has 3 shots a clip, each shot fires 5 bullets. This assumes close range, didn't bother testing long range)
Trap Gunner Character information
Boss characters are allowed, they're almost all just better versions of existing characters, but aren't really notably stronger than bishous so they're fair. REM is a better Van, ELG is a better tenro, Dyne is not stronger than Bishous, but he's too different to be considered a worse version.
No character is too bad to function, although Abdoll is pretty bad. Bishous and Rem are probably top 2.
In terms of playstyle the characters more or less break down into: Bishous, Dyn, and Rem/Van who have very strong space control and damage due to access to both switch traps and bombs; Tico and Abdoll who have setups into damage and knockdowns off their shots; and Elg/Tenrou and Lou who have stronger footsies and large clips for their shots, but lack switch traps for effective space control. That being said there's a lot of variety within those archetypes.
character breakdowns
Bishous having 2 switches gives him a lot of control, he can have 2 powerup spots covered by traps and be physically present in a third. He has slow movement speed which makes it harder for him to get initially setup but really high shot damage when close that lets him challenge/avoid being challenged in neutral. His only real weaknesses are his slow speed and that his poison trap doesn't really synergise with his hardcore space control style.
Dyn has only 1 switch, so he can't cover 2 distinct areas like Bishous can, but he has more bombs which means the 1 area he covers can be massive and/or much more damaging. Other than that he's the same as Bishous. While most players agree that Bishous is better, Dyn is still a very strong character and their matchups can be very different.
Rem and Van are the same character except Rem is better. Rem can play the same as Dyn, controling a powerup with a switch + bombs, but she doesn't have as many bombs so the damage off a switch is lower. The trade off is that Rem gets mines as well which along with better movement speed and a shot that doesn't care about being close let her play neutral a little better than Dyn or Bishous. She can basically swap between hardcore space control and lighter space control with a more threatening neutral presence.
Tico has 3 switches, which could let her play like Bishous, but since she doesn't have bombs the damage she gets isn't scary enough to make it a full gameplan. Instead her really strong shot lets her control neutral while her switches can hold down 1, maybe 2 powerup locations, with pits and movement traps placed about and often angled in ways that will let her convert into combos, making her neutral scarrier by it's potential to lead into damage. The avalibility of so many switch traps lets her pivot into a Bishous style gameplan if extra traps allows for it or the matchup lends itself to that.
Abdoll is bad. Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing Boing.
Elg is just better Tenrou. Their sword gives them better range on their melee than anyone else (everyone else is roughly the same) which combined with better movement speed lets them do pretty well in like, normal fighting game footsies. There's no damage from melees really but the knockdown leads to the chance to setup a trap for oki, and a knockdown breaks a unit. Elg's starting trap set is not very good, it's basically a worse version of Lou's, but in terms of stats Elg is probably the best character. Also due to the range on the sword elg can combo shots into sword which is dope.
Lou has a solid trap set for being a menace in neutral. Poison does a grip of health on it's own and Lou is the best at forcing people into poison setups. Once the poison hits movement gets slowed which can lead to some really bad situations. Lou is maybe one of the more volitile characters from a map selection point of view, but no map really hurts her gameplan too bad, it's more that she gets extra good setups on some.
item stuff
Every map has either 3 or 4 power-up spawn locations (except for the EX stages arena and maze with 0, and sky garden with 8. All EX stages however are typically banned from serious play) which will produce a power-up every 20 seconds or so. These power-ups can either give players a small advantage (extra traps, speed bonus), or can dramatically sway the momentum of a match (healer, unit). Since power-ups always spawn in one of these set locations, controlling these spaces on the map is a very important part of high level trap gunner play.
Power ups
Spawn locations
Every map has either 3 or 4 power-up spawn locations (except for the EX stages arena and maze with 0, and sky garden with 8. All EX stages however are typically banned from serious play) which will produce a power-up every 20 seconds or so. These power-ups can either give players a small advantage (extra traps, speed bonus), or can dramatically sway the momentum of a match (healer, unit). Since power-ups always spawn in one of these set locations, controlling these spaces on the map is a very important part of high level trap gunner play.
Item types
Extra trap - The most common power-up, gives a random trap to whoever picks it up
Protect - Less common, gives invincibilty for a few seconds. You can use the invincibilty to activate mines/pitfalls/force panels or to attempt to disarm switch traps without fear of detonation
Speed - Gives a speed boost for a few seconds. Useful in chasing down an opponent or avoiding shots/units
Unit - Typically wont spawn until a minute or two has past. Once you pick it up your normal shot is replaced with the unit, which takes a couple of seconds to charge up, and then homes in on your opponent. Unit shots will disappear after a while if they don't hit anything, if the player with the unit is knocked down, and they can also be destroyed by explosions (mines, switchs, bombs). Unit shots can also be avoided by hiding under a bridge/overhang. If you avoid them this way then the unit will destroy that bridge. Unit shots ignore all invincibility.
Healer - Heals a pretty solid amount of health. Less than a unit shot's worth of damage, but since there is no charge time to healing and it can't be avoided in any way a healer can be more powerful than a unit in some match-ups.
On 3 spawn stages items will always follow a randomly chosen pattern, meaning you can't predict the first location, the second location has a 50/50 chance of being at either spawn the first wasn't at, the third location will always be at the spawn point that hasn't had a power-up yet.
On 4 spawn stages the pattern appears to be more random, but with more testing it may get more predictable.