If you plan on many stages in a row, you will not be able to rely on the plane’s overdrive. Factors to consider are therefore:
- armor
- strength
- brobots’ clear screen and ace killing abilities
- brobots’ reload speed
Under all circumstances you should select one reload speed enhancing brobot. Menace, Legatus, Risk, Hazard – anyone of these are good choices with decent clear screen, and boss killing.
Especially if you have an A rank Laserbite (with four laser beams), that is an obvious choice. As Laserbite will keep the screen pretty empty, you can then go for a second brobot which primarily is a boss killer, like Nayad, Cetus, Scarab, Kraken, or Beetle. Select to your taste, depending on what emphasis you want on armor, power, etc.
Blitzer, Defender, Katyusha, and Greataxe all perform OK to well in arcade. But select brobots with care depending on current development level on the plane, and which brobots you have.
Later in the game, Wraith is very nice to run Arcade with. Wraith will constantly enter invulnerability mode and spew bullets in every direction. A good boss killer for sturdy bosses is all you need.
Most other later planes in the game – Patriot, Sniper, Hellfire, Avenger perform well in Arcade. We haven’t really tested Havoc, and Eagle is not really a top choice for Arcade.
When reaching levels closer to 100, and even more so, when nearing 200, very good screen clear is necessary, along with armor regeneration and strong power. Building armor makes very little difference – you just have to dodge pretty much anything, as it will take very little to killed you, no matter how much armor you carry.
Laserbite + Legatus + Nicolas XXS is a splendid combination.