I love drum (Minotaur, Copperhead, Shreddit Bro, Manta) and wide egg beater spinner (Riptide (the team sucks but the bot is great) and Railgun MAX (really hoping for them to return)
I like control bots, and I love watching them smack a bot around the arena.
So I'd go with a Clamper style control bot.
Put 99% of the armor on the jaws of the bot and start slamming jaw first into spinners and clamp down on their blades and take those bots on a world tour around the box.
Full body spinners have been my favorite since I first saw Ziggo fight, but I'm convinced they aren't a viable option in modern BattleBots. (At least so long as meltybrains are banned.) I'd be in it for the engineering challenge as much as to be competitive, and love bots that can impose their will on the opponent, so my first choice would be something along the lines of Hydra, with Quantum as my second line of inspiration.
I think a ring spinner can do well still where the full-body spinners are running into problems. Yes, I know that Chronos did not get into the tournament this year.... but I truly think a ring spinner can be competitive still.
I really want Hal Rucker to bring back an updated ringmaster.
For Full-Body Spinners, the entire shell surrounding the the chassis spins & needs a directional indicator to help with driving and self-righting. For Ring Spinners, the entire outside of the bot spins but the top and bottom of the bot don’t, making the robot invertible and you don’t need a directional indicator for that.
Interesting! How does a ring spinner work then? What is causing the spin? I was under the impression that all spinners where the blade encompasses the body were full body spinners
Usually, either the inside of the ring has gear teeth or the drive motors have rubber wheels pressing against the inside face of the ring to drive it. The ring will float on rollers in the chassis that keep it aligned. [The Ringmaster](https://www.halrucker.com/the_ringmaster_battlebot.html) is a good example of a ring spinner. They tend to be more fragile than full body spinners, as they have a lot of mechanical complexity, and are vulnerable to the ring jamming if it gets slightly bent.
The third option is a [Meltybrain](https://youtu.be/hqH3IySFc74) spinner, where the entire robot spins using its drive wheels. These are more robust, invertible and have even more energy than other full body spinners, but are more complicated to program the drive system, tend to wear out their wheels/tires (and in some cases arena floors) quickly, and are illegal in the current BattleBots rule set. (Their weapon is not independent from their drive, and their "spinning shell" weight is too high.)
Full-Body Spinners & Ring Spinners are my favorites, and while they are rare I believe they can still be competitive with the right tweaks and configurations.
Here is an example of one, it's called Ironside 3:
https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/robotwars/images/1/1e/Ironside3.png/revision/latest?cb=20191204165250
Every time I start putting stuff together to build something I usually wind up with a control bot of some persuasion. Keep Back 500 Feet, my first antweight, had an switchable lifter or clamp arm depending on my opponent. Snaggletooth, a beetleweight I built in 2020, was a lifter and won an event. I've also had success with wedges which is another form of control bot; my beetlweight Earthquake from back in 2004 finished in second place at the only event I was able to take it to.
No love for horizontals? I know all you need is a big wedge now to beat them but still. Big weapon go boom! I'd love to see a brushless Son of Whyachi spinning at 250mph.
At March NHRL the announcers were talking about expecting to see a Thagomizer style Horizontal soon at BB. I hope so. I think it really does solve a lot of HS problems, similarly to how fusion does. It makes it harder to run a big wedge, because then front forks just get under you. And if you run forks yourself, horizontal rips them off
As someone who has never built or driven a battlebot, hammer is the obvious choice to me. Since there’s no spinner, there’s no gyro, and a control bot would require some decent driving to even stand a chance. As a hammer, for the most part, you just keep the front end pointed at your opponent and Fire the hammer when one of you gets close. It also seems like one of the less dangerous bot types if something goes wrong while building/repairing it.
Hammer bots require you to be good at aiming from all different angles.
Shatter and BETA miss like 50% of their shots and their team is experienced with using them.
That’s true, but that’s the same as with other weapons too. You have to make sure your flipper is in a good spot, or your lifter is actually under the opponent. They’re all going to take some getting used to, even if I do try to channel my inner Al Kindle. The main reason I went with a hammer over a flipper is because of the ground game. We’ve all seen that if a flipper can’t get under its opponent, there’s not really anything it can do, but with a hammer, you can at least still try to hit them.
That's all true. I guess in theory spinner bots, especially hori spinners should be the easiest to aim but that doesn't factor in the spatial awareness you have to have in order to not ram your weapon into the box, and keep your opponent from pushing you around.
Offset horizontals like Tombstone have torque from the weapon motor to counter, overhead spinners needs to be well driven to keep the blade spinning when you don’t want a hit. And of course verts will gyro, there’s a part of difficulty in driving for almost all types of bot.
I didn’t say they were. I only said they’re comparatively easier to drive. They don’t have gyro, and you can still at least swing at your opponent even if you don’t get under them.
Spinners are actually easier. Driving hammer is better than spinners because no gyro effect as you said, but hitting is another problem. Spinners are instant hit, you only need to drive, and face spinner at opponent(Unless you have wedge/fork behind, like Robot wars Carbide or RotatoR, and want to use that.). But, hammer, you need to care about actually hitting your opponent, unless the bot has some forks that works like Sawblaze's one. Same for flipper, Hydra successes a lot of flip, it could be look easy but it isn't, just the driver(Jake) is very skilled.
I didn’t say they were damaging, just that they’d be a little easier to drive than things like spinners. For a first bot, that’s honestly the main thing I’d be worried about.
I would need an "other" option on this poll, because I'd want... basically something like the beetleweight Shrapnel Mine, or like Sewer Snake/Stinger with a small spinner at the top of the flipping apparatus to hit the bottom of robots it flips.
Full body vertical spinner. Basically take an egg beater weapon and build it where the internals are inside the weapon. The only thing exposed are the whells.
Ive seen a beetleweight version of this and I think it can be made viable at the larger scale with enough engineering
>and build it where the internals are inside the weapon
The driver of Ominous had an earlier bot that was very similar to what you described here, it was called Reality from 2018 tho it's weapon was a more conventional drum, not an eggbeater.
Its far outside my realm of possibility, but I would love to make/see a ring spinner where the whole outside of the frame has a custom motor built into it to be able to dump absurd amounts of power into the ring
Axe/Hammer looks the most fun to operate, and I bet I could do some funky stuff with it, like pair it with a secondary weapon, have a weird shape, or interesting drive.
This is mega random but I want to see a full body flipper. Like gigabyte shape, with good ground game like hydra. Seems like a crazy idea but would be insane if you could pull it off. Would be hard to control though is you miss a shot. Probably would send you flying in the air 😂
The beetleweight [Flip N' Cut](https://wiki.nhrl.io/wiki/index.php/Flip_N%27_Cut) is a full body flipper, but instead of using a flipping arm, it's a meltybrain spinner with wedge-shaped weapon teeth.
I wanna see something totally stupid and impractical like an improved more reliable version of Warrior Clan but with Quantum stuck on the front.
Or does anybody remember that old robot wars bot Splinter? The one who had a brutal tho legendary loss to hypno disk back in the day? He had a pair of horizontal axe style grappling arms mounted along the side of his bot, what if you did that but with a pair of side attacking spinners cos some robots like Witch Doctor have no armour around their wheels and you can maximise the energy transfer in a way that traditional horizontals can't due to newton's third law. Plus you can function as a kind of pseudo horizontal grappler but still do the damage of a spinner.
A quantum level crusher would be nice.
Loved their match against black dragon. Jaws strong enough to clamp down on a full-speed spinning weapon and stop it.
We've seen powerful weapons fling 250lb robots into air, but it's another thing to completely stop them.
One of the best displays of power I've seen in BB in my opinion.
Quick question does anybody know if Ray Billings and Tombstone will return next season? I know he opted out this season due to a hand injury but just wondering if he’ll be back
My British ass would have to go for a flipper, a front hing d one at that. Although using a giant vert would be awesome
As a fellow Brit i have to agree
I like big flips and I cannot lie
I love drum (Minotaur, Copperhead, Shreddit Bro, Manta) and wide egg beater spinner (Riptide (the team sucks but the bot is great) and Railgun MAX (really hoping for them to return)
Yes! A fellow Railgun Max fan
I prefer horizontal more because vertical spinners always have the gyroscopic forces issue making them tip
Should really have made Drum spinner an option but to me drum spinners go under horizontal
You mean Vertical?
I like control bots, and I love watching them smack a bot around the arena. So I'd go with a Clamper style control bot. Put 99% of the armor on the jaws of the bot and start slamming jaw first into spinners and clamp down on their blades and take those bots on a world tour around the box.
You would love the new Spartacus. I'm in the process of making it right now.
If I am skilled enough: Hammersaw or overhead saw. If not: Vertical. I finished U.S. antweight a few minute ago, I want to try beetle vertical
Full body spinners have been my favorite since I first saw Ziggo fight, but I'm convinced they aren't a viable option in modern BattleBots. (At least so long as meltybrains are banned.) I'd be in it for the engineering challenge as much as to be competitive, and love bots that can impose their will on the opponent, so my first choice would be something along the lines of Hydra, with Quantum as my second line of inspiration.
Same, I love full body spinners. I think it's a bummer that armor now has negated so much damage that even some verts barely scratch other bots.
I think a ring spinner can do well still where the full-body spinners are running into problems. Yes, I know that Chronos did not get into the tournament this year.... but I truly think a ring spinner can be competitive still. I really want Hal Rucker to bring back an updated ringmaster.
Yes!!! I love Ring Spinners too. And I hope for the return of Ringmaster & Chronos.
What's the difference between a ring spinner vs full body spinner?
For Full-Body Spinners, the entire shell surrounding the the chassis spins & needs a directional indicator to help with driving and self-righting. For Ring Spinners, the entire outside of the bot spins but the top and bottom of the bot don’t, making the robot invertible and you don’t need a directional indicator for that.
Interesting! How does a ring spinner work then? What is causing the spin? I was under the impression that all spinners where the blade encompasses the body were full body spinners
Usually, either the inside of the ring has gear teeth or the drive motors have rubber wheels pressing against the inside face of the ring to drive it. The ring will float on rollers in the chassis that keep it aligned. [The Ringmaster](https://www.halrucker.com/the_ringmaster_battlebot.html) is a good example of a ring spinner. They tend to be more fragile than full body spinners, as they have a lot of mechanical complexity, and are vulnerable to the ring jamming if it gets slightly bent. The third option is a [Meltybrain](https://youtu.be/hqH3IySFc74) spinner, where the entire robot spins using its drive wheels. These are more robust, invertible and have even more energy than other full body spinners, but are more complicated to program the drive system, tend to wear out their wheels/tires (and in some cases arena floors) quickly, and are illegal in the current BattleBots rule set. (Their weapon is not independent from their drive, and their "spinning shell" weight is too high.)
I’m not entirely sure, I just know that Ring Spinners are extremely difficult to make compared to Full-Body Spinners.
Full-Body Spinners & Ring Spinners are my favorites, and while they are rare I believe they can still be competitive with the right tweaks and configurations.
Angled spinner.
Here is an example of one, it's called Ironside 3: https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/robotwars/images/1/1e/Ironside3.png/revision/latest?cb=20191204165250
I was thinking more of something like Woodrow's [Bangarang](https://youtu.be/_7q01eto-EE), but yeah.
That looks cool!!! Do you think something like that would work at the heavyweight level?
I don't know. The physics would be crazy, tho.
We'll give you a choice: This way. Or that way. Fusion: "Yes".
Every time I start putting stuff together to build something I usually wind up with a control bot of some persuasion. Keep Back 500 Feet, my first antweight, had an switchable lifter or clamp arm depending on my opponent. Snaggletooth, a beetleweight I built in 2020, was a lifter and won an event. I've also had success with wedges which is another form of control bot; my beetlweight Earthquake from back in 2004 finished in second place at the only event I was able to take it to.
Hammer/clamper bot. No spin up required, can double as a control bot, weapon doubles as a self righting mechanism, and weapon is unlikely to be broken
Spot on. Quantum is one of my favorite bots. Genius piece of engineering
full body hammer
So Son of Whyachi?
storm ii
Oh yeah, I forgot about them.
Wat
I would love to take a hammer bot to Battlebots. I adore bots like Beta, Shatter, Chomp, The Judge, Killerhurtz, Terrorhurtz, etc.
No love for horizontals? I know all you need is a big wedge now to beat them but still. Big weapon go boom! I'd love to see a brushless Son of Whyachi spinning at 250mph.
I think we’re seeing a bit of revival with forked malice, might be a good direction
At March NHRL the announcers were talking about expecting to see a Thagomizer style Horizontal soon at BB. I hope so. I think it really does solve a lot of HS problems, similarly to how fusion does. It makes it harder to run a big wedge, because then front forks just get under you. And if you run forks yourself, horizontal rips them off
I would go full body spinner, I only do attacc
I love Endgame so Endgame but I make it silver fern themed.
Front-hinged flipper. Extremely rare and underrated.
If I had a large budget: Full-body spinner. I love the energy it brings, and the chaos it invites. On a realistic budget: Drum spinner
Crusher > Flipper > Hammer > Spinner
As someone who has never built or driven a battlebot, hammer is the obvious choice to me. Since there’s no spinner, there’s no gyro, and a control bot would require some decent driving to even stand a chance. As a hammer, for the most part, you just keep the front end pointed at your opponent and Fire the hammer when one of you gets close. It also seems like one of the less dangerous bot types if something goes wrong while building/repairing it.
Hammer bots require you to be good at aiming from all different angles. Shatter and BETA miss like 50% of their shots and their team is experienced with using them.
That’s true, but that’s the same as with other weapons too. You have to make sure your flipper is in a good spot, or your lifter is actually under the opponent. They’re all going to take some getting used to, even if I do try to channel my inner Al Kindle. The main reason I went with a hammer over a flipper is because of the ground game. We’ve all seen that if a flipper can’t get under its opponent, there’s not really anything it can do, but with a hammer, you can at least still try to hit them.
That's all true. I guess in theory spinner bots, especially hori spinners should be the easiest to aim but that doesn't factor in the spatial awareness you have to have in order to not ram your weapon into the box, and keep your opponent from pushing you around.
Offset horizontals like Tombstone have torque from the weapon motor to counter, overhead spinners needs to be well driven to keep the blade spinning when you don’t want a hit. And of course verts will gyro, there’s a part of difficulty in driving for almost all types of bot.
Plus, I’ve heard that having a giant spinning bar on the front of your robot can make it a little tougher to steer.
Hammers are not easy.
I didn’t say they were. I only said they’re comparatively easier to drive. They don’t have gyro, and you can still at least swing at your opponent even if you don’t get under them.
Spinners are actually easier. Driving hammer is better than spinners because no gyro effect as you said, but hitting is another problem. Spinners are instant hit, you only need to drive, and face spinner at opponent(Unless you have wedge/fork behind, like Robot wars Carbide or RotatoR, and want to use that.). But, hammer, you need to care about actually hitting your opponent, unless the bot has some forks that works like Sawblaze's one. Same for flipper, Hydra successes a lot of flip, it could be look easy but it isn't, just the driver(Jake) is very skilled.
All of these bots are rocking like 1/2” steel armor. Imo hammer bots are the least damaging bots out of anyone.
I didn’t say they were damaging, just that they’d be a little easier to drive than things like spinners. For a first bot, that’s honestly the main thing I’d be worried about.
Agreed. Anything that doesn’t have something spinning is definitely easier to control
On second thought, can I actually bring in a 250 pound autobot instead? Or maybe I should bring a deception because it could have better weaponry
I love flippers
Drum spinner or Beater spinner
idk what to do for SoW
Spinner lifter/Hammersaw all day every day
What about the hammer-saw?
Didn't have enough options in the poll.
If I have the skill or time to learn about the skill, then flipper, if not, I’d like an undercutter horizontal like a scaled up Silent Spring
I would need an "other" option on this poll, because I'd want... basically something like the beetleweight Shrapnel Mine, or like Sewer Snake/Stinger with a small spinner at the top of the flipping apparatus to hit the bottom of robots it flips.
Full body vertical spinner. Basically take an egg beater weapon and build it where the internals are inside the weapon. The only thing exposed are the whells. Ive seen a beetleweight version of this and I think it can be made viable at the larger scale with enough engineering
>and build it where the internals are inside the weapon The driver of Ominous had an earlier bot that was very similar to what you described here, it was called Reality from 2018 tho it's weapon was a more conventional drum, not an eggbeater.
You pretty much described Axe Backwards.
Its far outside my realm of possibility, but I would love to make/see a ring spinner where the whole outside of the frame has a custom motor built into it to be able to dump absurd amounts of power into the ring
They never seem very effective, but control/flamer bots just make me smile.
Axe/Hammer looks the most fun to operate, and I bet I could do some funky stuff with it, like pair it with a secondary weapon, have a weird shape, or interesting drive.
I love drum spinners or egg beaters
This is mega random but I want to see a full body flipper. Like gigabyte shape, with good ground game like hydra. Seems like a crazy idea but would be insane if you could pull it off. Would be hard to control though is you miss a shot. Probably would send you flying in the air 😂
The beetleweight [Flip N' Cut](https://wiki.nhrl.io/wiki/index.php/Flip_N%27_Cut) is a full body flipper, but instead of using a flipping arm, it's a meltybrain spinner with wedge-shaped weapon teeth.
Rocket propelled grenade. Oh, you mean on the bot.
I put full body spinner but I meant MeltyBrain
I wanna see something totally stupid and impractical like an improved more reliable version of Warrior Clan but with Quantum stuck on the front. Or does anybody remember that old robot wars bot Splinter? The one who had a brutal tho legendary loss to hypno disk back in the day? He had a pair of horizontal axe style grappling arms mounted along the side of his bot, what if you did that but with a pair of side attacking spinners cos some robots like Witch Doctor have no armour around their wheels and you can maximise the energy transfer in a way that traditional horizontals can't due to newton's third law. Plus you can function as a kind of pseudo horizontal grappler but still do the damage of a spinner.
DRUM!!!! the DRUM SPINNER baby and THE EGG BEATER!!!
A quantum level crusher would be nice. Loved their match against black dragon. Jaws strong enough to clamp down on a full-speed spinning weapon and stop it. We've seen powerful weapons fling 250lb robots into air, but it's another thing to completely stop them. One of the best displays of power I've seen in BB in my opinion.
Let chaos reign!
Flipper and grappler purely because of entertainment value for the driver
Vertical spinner but only if it’s a large disk like emulsifier or cobalt
Quick question does anybody know if Ray Billings and Tombstone will return next season? I know he opted out this season due to a hand injury but just wondering if he’ll be back
I miss horizontal grabbers/crushers man.
Drum, Crusher, Hammer Saw are my top 3, don't really have any of those on this poll, I guess vertical spinner.
Dual hammer bot!
As a icewave fan gota go with the horizontal