Character Profile
- Best attack: Omni-Cannon
- Best team support: Adhesive Foam Grenade
- Best Personal Support: Ammo Drop
- Primary damage type: Projectile
- Secondary damage types: Energy, Fire
- Worst Card: Maintenance Unit
- Nemesis: Iron Legacy
The Indestructible Bunker can offer a lot to a team fighting to defend the Multiverse. His array of weaponry is extensive, and he has some powerful defensive options as well. Bunker can draw a lot of cards over the course of the game, and can put the excess to use powering his various weapons to strong effect.
Attack
Bunker’s biggest attack is his prized Omni-Cannon. Starting the turn after you play it, it can rack up six points of damage a turn, to be redeemed whenever and as often as you feel like it. The real beauty of the Omni-Cannon is that you can charge it up even when you are in Upgrade Mode or Recharge Mode, readying for a massive attack once the conditions are right. The downside is the potential to lose it. Under conditions where equipment destruction is likely, it may be reasonable to use the attack every turn. Though this is less efficient in action economy, damage boosts may make this deal more overall damage.
Bunker has plenty of other weapons. His Flak Cannon and Grenade Launcher are both decent default weapons. If you have a plan for the cards (like Ammo Drop), the Gatling Gun acts like a mini-Omni-Cannon, and you don’t even need to spend an action to do it. This means it can be fired from Recharge Mode or Upgrade Mode, making sure those don’t take you out of the fight. Gatling Gun is superb if Bunker’s damage is buffed, but you should probably let it go if the villains have armor.
External Combustion is Bunker’s flavor of global damage. Bunker hardly feels that drawback, and this is a good way to attack from Upgrade Mode. The fact that it hits all targets is most useful.
Card Draw
As you see, to get Bunker’s guns working properly, you need a massive amount of cards. The best way to do this against most villains is to play Ammo Drop and reap the lucrative rewards as the villain’s cards die. This effect is quite dramatic against villains with plenty of targets, but don’t forget it also works against ongoings, victims, or anything else the villain has that might get destroyed.
Initialize is a good base power. Really! It’s a shame that everybody is getting better versions of it, but Bunker truly needs cards en masse. It allows him to always play a card and then draw two every turn. You will be replacing it with other, more tempting powers very quickly. You have to judge for yourself whether you need the damage right now, or whether you can take an opportunity to get another card to serve the monster that is Bunker’s suit.
Auxiliary Power Source is much more powerful played for three cards than it is for an extra power, but if you need to squeeze in some more damage right now, the versatility is nice. Here’s a trick. Destroy the Auxiliary Power Source at the beginning of your turn to use an extra power, then bring it back into play with Decommissioned Hardware. That way, you can get your three extra cards over a couple of plays while continuing to man the Flak Cannon.
Defense
Nothing too tricky here. Bunker’s armor is Heavy Plating, something you always want to put down. It goes a long way towards making Bunker more Indestructible, especially in tandem with Recharge Mode. These two cards together make Bunker highly resistant to damage.
Maintenance Unit is okay, really. Preventing damage by proactively killing things is just preferable to healing, in most cases. If I’m not firing a gun, I usually prefer to get more cards via Initialize or the Auxiliary Power Source. However, I have seen Maintenance Unit used to keep Bunker alive long past his expiration date, and Bunker is very capable of prospering in such hard slogs.
Utility
Adhesive Foam Grenade’s use is simple, and extremely effective. The environment’s effects vary, but it usually doesn’t have good news for the heroes. Make it shut up. Against Akash’Bhuta especially, this is a great thing to have.
I find Decommissioned Hardware underused. It’s obviously good for getting back your stuff after it gets destroyed, but it’s also nice to use your trash as an extension of your hand. I’ve seen many people choose to lose this card to a discard effect, but you should generally discard any of your equipment before this. This can be any one of them!
Modes
Bunker has an enormous amount of versatility inherent in his three mode cards, but they come with some hefty restrictions. Key to playing Bunker is understanding when to use these cards, and what they can accomplish.
Turret Mode is the most straightforward of the three. Play it when you have a couple of powers and the cards to keep using them, and start cleaving through the opposition. There’s no room for expansion once you have it in play, so hopefully you have time to get Ammo Drop, Gatling Gun, and/or Heavy Plating down before you start gunning. Don’t feel like you have to do this all game – when you have to adjust to a new development or need more cards, get rid of it.
Upgrade Mode lets you get your cards down quicker, but not being able to use powers presents a considerable barrier. I use this one the least of the Modes, since you need a lot of cards and some time to prepare, two things I usually find lacking. One great use for it is getting ahead of card destruction. If a villain destroys a certain number of cards with his effects, Upgrade Mode can help the heroes outpace it. A silver lining in Upgrade Mode is that you should rarely need to destroy this card at the beginning of your turn. Play your first card, then play your next mode, and Upgrade Mode goes away. By switching to Turret Mode in this way, you can get two plays and two powers in one turn.
Recharge Mode is a fine placeholder play. If your weaponry is absent or ineffective, and you have nothing to play, spend a turn or two with this and enjoy the damage reduction. Hopefully, you get cards you can use next round. If you keep this around, you can draw three cards a turn by skipping your play and power phases. Conveniently, this is the number of cards you can load into the Omni-Cannon every turn. Recharge Mode, Heavy Plating, Omni-Cannon, and patience have won their share of games for me.
The Freedom Six promotional Bunker trades Initialize and one hit point for Locomotion. This provides Bunker with some much-needed utility. Ongoing destruction is crucial in many matchups, and Engine of War Bunker has 9 cards that provide it. Just don’t use this guy against villains without ongoings. (To date: Chairman, Matriarch, and the Ennead.) The loss of Initialize can hurt, weakening Gatling Gun and Omni-Cannon slightly. On the other hand, it makes Maintenance Unit that much more useful, and Recharge Mode offers an additional incentive when played for the normal effect.
Weaknesses
Bunker’s primary weakness is his high reliance on equipment. Anything that offs equipment punishes him harshly, as he needs a lot of it to do what he does best. Bunker needs time to work, and against villains that don’t give it to him, his efforts can be weak. He also relies on a lot of projectile damage.
Bunker suffers on a utility level. Adhesive Foam Grenade is fantastic, but he lacks a way to kill environment cards. Engine of War Bunker covers the ongoing blind spot nicely. Bunker doesn’t cover any other sort of team utility other than dealing and absorbing damage.
Teamups
Bunker is another hero that benefits greatly from the help of others. Much like Expatriette, he appreciates extra cards and damage buffs, as well as anybody who can keep his equipment intact. Bunker is a good hero to go last in the turn order. If he needs to kill something, he can, but if he doesn’t, he can take time to prepare. Any hero that can help Bunker get suited up will be rewarded with a durable ally who can deal a lot of damage in a variety of ways.
