Popup

• Real Life Examples: None
• In Game Examples: None in Stock, but a good bunch of them in notable AI packs located in the downloads page)

A popup is a wedged bot that gets under a bot using preferentially burst motors and small wedges on them, and then when under the bot, uses very short hammers concealed in the body, Gut-ripping their underside.

Have a high ADC.

There was no such thing as a popup in the beginnings of RA2. The first popup was built by Omegaforce. The design was then improved on and popularized by Jimxorb.

A good popup needs to have a strong drive train but also a very good wedge and if you can, frontal armor. The best weapons used on popups are razor tips for optimal dps, while true popups may consist of more durable weapon options, like iron spikes to withstand impact from vertical spinners or opponents boasting weapons that may directly strike the popup's crucial weapon systems.

Pyscolone is a popup specialist.

Building a popup

The popup building theory is easy, but not the practice.

You need a bot with a slope at the front. A rectangle shape is enough though you might want to add more sides to minimize empty space.

Add front defense with a little side defense (best choice would be Caster armor, mainly on HW's). Then, add some snapper wedges (one at the middle or the bot or two at the left and right of the bot).

You need a powerful drive train and no underpowering (1 Nifty or Supervolt for a LW, possibly either 1 Supervolt, 2 Niftys or sometimes 2 Supervolts for a MW, and 2-4 Supervolts for a HW depending on how many burst motors you have). HPZ attached to the chassis with Rubber wheels is a good choice, because of lowered ground clearance, although you can use Shiny Hubs too if you're short on weight.

It's time to add the weapons. It's basically razor-armed very short hammers under the front plating. They must be set up to travel a good distance and the start position must be inside the bot. Then, you must make sure the razor's end position is sufficiently outside the bot to do easily damage 2 razors on a Snapper2 or 4 razors on a DDT are a good rule, although there have been succesful HW popups using 6/8 razors on a DDT. Use DDTs if you can (means almost only DDT's on a HW) because they are comparatively better than snappers.

In DSL, most popups now use BSG's (notably the lightweight and middleweight ones) or JX Burst motors (Heavyweight, though some successful HWs use multiple BSGs, as an example Hope no More 4). DSL MW popups are increasingly becoming generic, and there is somewhat of a race between Ounce, Pwnator, Naryar, R0B0SH4RK and Reier for making the best wedge.

True popups

The majority of popups are front-hinged, but several popups fire upward just like a rear-hinged flipper, making them a good choice in low-walled arenas as well as closed ones.

The best example of this is the DSL AI MW SlashBack.

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PROS

• Very damaging - several popups can KO their opponent in one hit
• Quick and agile
• Good frontal defense
• Can render most opponents helpless by sliding under them
• Can self-right
• Competitively, the most effective bot type

CONS

• 1 vs 1 specialists - much less suited to rumbles
• Cannot be made invertible
• Highly dependent on wedge quality to win matches
• Like Rammers, extremely dependent on their drive train to win matches
• Easily outweaponed
• Vulnerable to high chassis bots.
• Cannon fodder to anything with rotational mass capable of making contact with their weapons. Face Spinners are especially threatening as pinning them doesn't stall the weapons and striking an active Face Spinner anywhere other than any defenseless component is likely to result in damaged or fractured weapons.

Popups are good against most robot types, but anti-gut-ripper builds such as TRFBD's and Crawlers are a guaranteed loss in most cases.