Beep Boop!
The Robot is one of the extra characters you can unlock by playing Enter the Gungeon. In this guide, I will explain how to best play this character and, near the end, explain how to unlock it.
What the The Robot Stats With
The Robot starts with Robot’s Right Hand, Battery Bullets, and Coolant Leak. These items are interesting and need a bit of explanation to understand how to use them.
There is also one essential thing to note about the Robot that is not shown on the inventory screen. You start with six points of armor and have no heart bullets. You can not get hearts or pick them. Any item that would give an extra heart container now gives shells (money). Master Rounds now provide a single point of shield.
Robot’s Right Hand Is Great!
Robot’s Right Hand is one of the best starting guns in the game. Since it has a magnitude of 20, it seems to shoot far longer than most early guns. It just keeps shooting! You can’t run out of ammo with this.
How to Use Coolant Leak and Battery Bullets
When I first started playing The Robot Coolant Leak, it seemed pointless. It appeared to do nothing. Well, I am glad I tested the item more (and also looked it up on the wiki), as it is more valuable than it seems.
So first, in most cases, this item acts as water. So you can put out the fire and stop fusing from exploding chests. But that alone would make this a very dull and low-use item.
The actual use of this item is that water can be electrified. Robot’s Right Hand, combined with Battery Bullets, means shooting over puddles of Coolant Leak (and other sources of water) shocks all enemies currently standing in it. Flying enemies can’t be shocked this way.
This item combination means you get a free area of effect attack somewhat often. Somewhat like the Molotov Cocktail, the Convict starts with.
There is also something else to note about Battery Bullets. This item increases your shot accuracy and changes your shots to do slightly more damage (rarely).
Play More Carefully Than Normal
Play as the Robot often, and you learn fast to be more careful. Unlike the other characters in the game, you can’t just heal yourself back up with red hearts left lying around levels.
I have a guide dedicated to how to survive longer. Just keep in mind that any advice on red hearts no longer applies.
Armor points are a rare resource. Often, the only way to get them is to buy them. Some items help find armor more often, such as Armor Synthesizer. But don’t expect to find exact items like this often. You are going to make your health last.
It might be more worthwhile to open all chests and locks. Brown chests often have armor, and locked areas also tend to have them.
Blanks are now more valuable because they can avoid damage at a cheap cost. Blanks are also slightly more common than armor. Items like the Elder Blank and Full Metal Jacket are great items to find as the Robot.
How to Unlock the Robot
Spoilers ahead if you want to figure this out on your own.
Unlocking the robot is quite annoying to do. Thankfully, you only need to do it once.
First, you need to unlock the first shortcut. You must complete quests until the way to the Gungeon Proper is unlocked.
In this room, there is an item called a Busted Television. You need to bring this item down to the Blacksmith in the Forge. This task sounds deceptively easy. It is not.
When carrying this TV, if you dodge roll, you drop it. So you can’t just hide it away and forget about it. The item will permanently take up your use item slot. So unless you are playing as the Pilot or have an item that gives more slots, you will have to go without.
The Resourceful Rat will try to steal this item. So don’t think you can drop the TV in the first room on every floor and go back. I learned this lesson the hard way.
Thankfully, you can drop the TV while fighting in rooms. As long you pick it up afterward.
The hardest issue I had was dealing with pits and moving platforms. Since the TV drops when you dodge roll, you can lose it if you are not careful. If the TV falls off the screen, it’s gone for good.
The only way to keep the TV is to press the use key and throw it.
You can’t use the teleporter. Since you can never drop the TV and go back and get it. It does help you return to cleared rooms, though, I suppose, if you find yourself in a dead end.
Don’t forget to put it down when fighting bosses as well!
Having flight makes this challenge trivial. Unfortunately, few items give you the ability to fly. Wax Wings and Balloon Gun are two of the ones that I know.
So, to summarize.
- Enter a room.
- Drop the TV (but not in a pit!)
- Clear the room.
- Pick the TV back up.
- Toss it over any gaps.
- Keep doing this until you get to the Blacksmith in the Forge.
One tip I read online is to clear the whole second floor first. Then at least you don’t need to carry the TV while fighting everything.