Standard MOAs are identified by their green color and are the weakest, most common type of MOA. They will often attempt to overwhelm players with sheer numbers.
They make screeching sounds when alerted, and their main method of offense is to rush forward in relatively small groups, firing once its target is within range. They are essentially bipedal turrets. MOAs are immune to elemental stuns, although staggers and knockdowns work on them. MOAs rarely, if ever, take cover; they rely on their fairly thin shields for additional protection.
Whilst standard MOA do not pose a significant threat at lower levels, high level units can cause very serious damage in a short amount of time due to the high rate of fire on their plasma gun, and the improved damage and accuracy they gain from being high level. It is especially important to keep them away from the Defense objective as a result, as even a lone unit can easily cause critical damage to the objective.
MOAs can recover from knockdowns with a quick kick-up, though additional knockdowns soon afterwards will result in a slower recovery, as additional knockdowns while they are recovering will cause the animation to reoccur (possibly a bug).
Eximus MOAs are sent as a syndicate death squad by The Perrin Sequence.
Tactics
- MOAs, and all its other variants, are the fastest common land-based enemy fought in the game.
- MOAs engage targets by flanking them and gunning them down with rapid laser fire. It is advised to keep moving while engaging them to avoid getting flanked and swarmed.
- They are commonly the frontline units of a Corpus group, backed with Crewmen.
- Unlike their Crewmen masters, the MOAs fire constantly, making quick work of shields.
- MOAs need to stand still before they fire, meaning they are safest to take down while they are still moving.
- Their erratic screeches can signal whether they are alarmed.
- They are the first enemy the player will encounter that cannot be Stealth attacked.
- Its torso is located at the middle section of the MOA's body. Shooting the MOA's turret will deal 50% less damage.
- They can spawn indefinitely in some cases from MOA Cabinets .
- MOAs can fire their guns indefinitely, so move out of their range or line of sight and stay mobile to decrease their opportunities for opening and sustaining fire.
Trivia
- The Moa were several species of flightless bird that were indigenous to New Zealand.
- MOA is believed to be an acronym, but due to the nature of the in-game UI, it is hard to distinguish if it is fully capitalized or not.
- However, in the menu for The Perrin Sequence's ranks, the negative ranks have the description "Hunted by Eximus Moa Squad/Platoon"
- The standard MOA is the smallest of its kind, dwarfed by the other variants that players will encounter.
- The shape of the MOA from the waist down is very similar to the design of the Stalker in Dark Sector.
- MOAs can be summoned as temporary followers to aid the Tenno, if one hacks a MOA Cabinet Spawner.
- Earlier designs of the MOA had more organic-looking legs, as opposed to the obviously robotic design currently in use.
- There is a unique variant of the MOA found sole to the Infested Ship tileset on Eris , it is named "Corpus Walker" bearing the same model as the regular MOA with the exception of it shares the Shockwave MOAs shockwave, has a unique description of "Heavily Armored" and will never exceed level 1.
- Oddly, despite their description of "Heavily armored", they seem to possess identical armor ratings as a regular MOA.
- They may also be scanned, however it will yield no scan entry into the Codex.
- Syndicate MOAs can exclusively crouch and move if their summoner is also crouched, enemy MOAs will only walk or run with long strides if they are required to move from a crouched position.
Bugs
- If an ability augment is used on an allied MOA (Such as Ember's Fireball Frenzy), the additional particle effect will be in the middle of the MOA in line with its feet, as the MOA does not possess a separate weapon for the effect to become attached to.
- If a Loki casts Radial Disarm against a MOA, The Stun Baton will be on its weapon.
- Despite this, the MOA uses weak kicks to continue attacking enemies.
- In the codex, there is a chance that any MOA will glitch his movements and camera (100% of glitch with the Eximus)
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