Kickback

Kickback
Class	Scout
Faction	Decepticon
Origin	Generation 1
Release Date	March 15, 2018

Bio

Intelligent and deceptively persuasive, Kickback's power to manipulate minds is only ever a ploy to gain access to the information or resources he seeks. Like all Insecticons, Kickback feels the urge to continuously consume all material around him and is capable of chewing through even the toughest Cybertronian metal.

Story

Weapon of Mass Consumption

Max Stats

• 2-Star:
  • Health: 1,470
  • Attack: 179
  • Max Rating: 559
• 3-Star:
  • Health: 3,608
  • Attack: 379
  • Max Rating: 1,294
• 4-Star:
  • Health: 9,378
  • Attack: 984
  • Max Rating: 3,515
• 5-Star:

Rank/Level	Health	Attack	Rating
1/1	5,040	529	1,372
1/10	7,949	834	2,162
2/20	10,354	1,086	2,876
3/30	13,470	1,413	4,049
4/40	17,508	1,836	5,440
5/50	22,767	2,387	8,520
6/60	32,533	3,880	+17,017

+Forge and 4-Star EMI Module

Game Abilities

Basic Abilities

• Power Leak
• Evade
• Consume
• Bleed

Abillities

• Critical Hits:
  • 100% chance to inflict Power Leak, draining 4.8~9.6% of an opponent’s power over 10 seconds. (Max: 5 stacks)
  • Kicking attacks have +30% Critical Rating.
• Power Leaking Opponents:
  • Kickback’s Melee hits against Power Leaking opponents have +50% Power Rate.
• Opponent Avoids a Dash Attack:
  • 30~38% chance to Evade Melee Attacks for 2 seconds.
• Heavy Attacks
  • When Kickback transforms he has a 100% chance to Consume all Shock, Power Drain, Power Lock, and Power Rate Debuffs on himself and generate 1~5% of his Max Power over 2 seconds for each debuff removed.
  • When Kickback lands a Heavy Attack he has a 100% chance to Consume all Power Rate and Power Gain Buffs from the opponent and generate 1~5% of Max Power over 2 seconds for each buff removed.
• Enemy Heavy Attacks:
  • (v8.4) 55% chance to Evade Melee Heavy Attacks.

Rank	Power Leak	Evade	Consume	Bleed
1	4.8%	30%	1%	20%
2	5.6%	32%	2%	23%
3	6.4%	35%	3%	26%
4	8%	36%	4%	29%
5	9.6%	38%	5%	32%
6	12%	40%	6%	35%

Signature Ability

T-Cog Sabotage

Kickback’s attacks can be modified to infect his opponent with T-Clog. This cyber virus attacks the bot’s sensitive electronics that control their ability to Transform.

• Heavy Attacks: 35~80% chance to infect an opponent with T-Clog, lowering the opponent’s Power Rate by -30% for 10 seconds. If the infected bot uses a Heavy Attack, T-Clog is removed and their Transformation fails, Stunning them for 2 seconds.
• +about 0.4% per level

Level	Chance
1	35%
5	35.5%
10	37.8%
15	40.2%
20	42.5%
25	44.9%
30	47.2%
35	49.6%
40	51.9%
45	54.2%
50	56.6%
55	58.9%
60	79.5%
65	63.6%
70	65.9%
75	68.3%
80	70.6%
85	73%
90	75.3%
95	79.5%
100	80%

Special Attacks

1. Shock in the Wounds - Kickback uses a shocking blast to turn insult to injury.
   • 100% chance to Inflict Shock for each Power Leak on the opponent, dealing 40% of Attack over 5 seconds.
2. Lacerate - Those wings aren’t just for looks.
   • 100% Chance to gain a Critical Rate Buff, increasing Critical Rating by 30% for 8 seconds.
   • 100% chance each Critical Hit of Kickback's Wing Blades to inflict Power Leak, draining 4.8~9.6% of an opponent’s power over 10 seconds.
   • 100% chance to inflict Bleed on Critical Hits, dealing 20~32% Attack over 7 seconds.
3. Need to Feed - Hope? Kickback ate that first.
   • 100% chance each Critical Hit to inflict Power Leak, draining 4.8~9.6% of an opponent’s power over 10 seconds.
   • For each Power Leak on the opponent Kickback Repairs 3% of his Max Health over 5 seconds.

Synergy Bonuses

• Allies - Soundwave, Bludgeon, Cyclonus - 2~3~8% Armor.
• Enemies - Prowl, Grimlock, Jetfire - 2~3~8% Attack Rating.
• Enforcers - Motormaster, Ramjet - Debuffs last 20~25~40% longer and cannot be Purified.
• Leadership (5-Star) - +10% Critical Rating.

Strategy

Player

Kickback is an obvious counter to most Tech bots. Consuming power gains, shocks, power leak, power locks, and typically most buffs/debuffs Tech bots gain/inflict. Gaining power and inflicting power leaks will fuel your assault. Heavy attacks will give you the chance to inflict more critical hits.

Kickback is an especially good bot in raids. Bots that utilize the Robot Resource or bots that somehow have Tech Consoles, Super Conductors or Transwarp Cells will be easy prey for Kickback.

Opponent

As long as you don't have power buffs/ debuffs and inflict shocks, nor transform (if you're T-Clogged), you'll do good against Kickback. It is also noted that Kickback will evade bots with heavy melee attacks so you cannot use heavy attacks on Kickback if you are using bots with heavy melee attacks unless you are a Warrior as the precision buffs will not allow Kickback from evading while using heavy attacks.

Strong Match-ups

• Anyone who spams heavy attacks will face the consequences of using a heavy attack while T-Clogged.
• Shockwave would find this matchup to be illogical as his Shock charges will be quickly consumed by this voracious Insecticon and his range attacks are physical so he won’t be able to gain shock charges.
• Once Megatron (ROTF) has been infected with T-Clog his proclivity to fire off Heavy Attacks while enraged could leave him Stunned and vulnerable.
• Soundwave’s buffs and debuffs mean he's a buffet for the Insecticon making him the perfect counter to Megatron’s most loyal decepticon.
• Despite the type disadvantage, Hot Rod is also suceptible to Kickback's diet. Hot Rod's acceleration buff and deceleration debuffs count as power buff/debuffs respectively. Buffs that the insecticon can consume. Though the deacceleration will prevent him from evading though.
• Wheeljack will be Kickback's favorite food. Shocks and Power Leaks will only be consumed, and T-Clog will prevent him from Upgrading. However, be wary not to get stunned.
• Cheetor’s power rate buff will be consumed and he will be left with less power and if he thinks he can uses his heavies to ram or evade while the opponent tries to counterattack, the T-Clog sabotage will put a stop to that idea.
• Ramjet loves to recklessly ram his opponents which will lead his way to win but Kickback’s signature ability will teach the crazy rammer a lesson that spamming heavies will be a big mistake when he’s T-clogged.
• Megatronus will be hampered as the power leaks will delay relic switching and it will prevent him from getting to his true power.
• Windblade's Special 1 Stormfall Blast is both a Shock and a power debuff that will be turned into Kickback's diet.
• One of Motormaster's ram debuffs that Kickback can purify is the Power Rate debuff. Putting a T-Clog on the Road King will be also this Insecticon's advantage to ensure that he will never reduce Attack Rating or Armor Break.
• Necrotronus - In a rare chance for a Scout to be superior to a Warrior, Kickback will spam consuming the Power Rate debuff every time he has more power than Necrotronus.

Mods

• Robot Resources are on the menu, Kickback can eat up the Power gain, leaving enemies without passive Power.
• Tech Consoles will be Kickback's appetizer. He can also eat Shocks inflicted on him.
• Transwarp Cells are also on the menu; Kickback will T-Clog Base Defenders more often, which means more Stuns.
• Utility Module: Stagger will make the enemy Bot use Heavy Attacks more often. T-Clogging them will Stun them more.

Weak Match-ups

• Hound's ability to inflict Critical Rate Down with his Special Attack 1 will leave Kickback unable to inflict Power Leak with his basic hits.
• Optimus Primal will completely negate Critical Hits, disabling much of Kickback's ability set that revolves around Critical Hits.
• Grindor's frequent Critical Rate Down debuffs will end with a squished Insecticon.
• Mirage - Power Burns are instant debuffs which will ignore Consumption despite the class advantage.
• Cheetor will not leak any Power even with the debuffs on him.
• Grimlock will purify the bleeds and shocks that Kickback throws at him while having to be careful with T-Clog. War of insecticons and dinobots begin. Though the blends and shocks won't be purified if he has Enforcers Synergy.
• Prowl - The good cop's suppression doesn't generate Power buffs at all.
• Awakened Bonecrusher's power debuff is mainly a Bleeding type rather than Shock, which Kickback's Consumption has no answer to.

Recommended Modules

Increase Kickback's diet with these modules!

• Scout's Sentry / Nightbird's Mark – Increasing Kickback’s Critical Rate and ability to Evade will ultimately help him survive while dishing out those potent Critical Hits.
• Transwarp Cell – Ensuring Kickback routinely slams into his opponent with Heavy Attacks will allow him to take great advantage of his Consume and Signature abilities.
• Superconductor 1000 - A quick, ranged Special 1 is more likely to hit an attacking Commander's bot.

Obtainment

• Consumption Crystal
• March 2018 Bot Chips
• Bot Crystals (added 6/27/2018)

Gallery

Note the icon of Kickback in the Raid Store is different from the main icon.

Updates

• Shorty after release, the Enforcers Synergy that Kickback has with Motormaster and Ramjet was fixed so that it will no longer stack if duplicate Bots that possess the Synergy are placed on the same team. The Highest Tier of Bot will always be the one that activates the Synergy.
• April 2019, 8.0 update
  • Added +3.6% base Critical Rate.
  • Added +10% base Critical Damage.
  • Special 2 Critical (blade) hits now inflict Bleed.
• April 2020, 8.4 update
  • Chance of 60% increased to 100% chance to inflict Power Leak, draining 4.8~9.6% of an opponent’s power over 10 seconds. (Maximum 5) (Max was previously 3)
  • (NEW) Opponent Heavy Attack Transforms: 55% chance to Evade Melee Heavy Attacks.
  • (ADJUSTED) Signature Ability increased upper limit to 80%
• Old Signature level was at 35~70%

Level	Chance
1	33.5%
5	35%
10	36.8%
15	38.7%
20	40.5%
25	42.4%
30	45.2%
35	46.1%
40	47.9%
45	49.7%
50	51%
55	53.4%
60	55.3%
65
70
75
80
85
90
95	77.7%?
100	70%

Notes

• Kickbac's design is unique to this game; He has different beast mode proportions, barbs on his appendages, and a faceplate.