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So I've been wanting to make a few new Pacific Rim profiles, but our old ones really need some fixing up, first. This post will address a few important things in regards to lore, AP, and combat speeds.
Trespasser
For those who don't know who Trespasser is, it was the first Kaiju ever encountered by humanity, long before the Jaeger program existed. It appeared in the San Francisco bay area, going on a six day rampage while everything the military threw at it proved ineffective. It was finally put down by the combined power of three nukes dropped directly on it. His current rating for AP is "At least Large Building level, possibly Small Town level" (the former I assume due to being comparable in size to the Golden Gate Bridge), with "At least Multi-City Block level, likely Town level" for durability. Neither of these make much sense, and as I have found out are actually extreme lowballs.
First off, in terms of AP, in a "blink and you'll miss it" moment, Trespasser actually has a feat of causing a magnitude 7.1 earthquake simply from its movement along the ocean floor towards the bay. This is confirmed by the in-universe news footage from the day of its arrival. This was used for the viral marketing campaign, but is canon to the film itself, and can be seen in the opening. Causing an earthquake of this magnitude with its movement alone is a ridiculously casual High 7-C feat (above 476 kilotons) according to our Earthquake Power Chart. The three nukes that were required to actually kill it were strong enough to wipe out all of Oakland, as well as surrounding areas, which is in itself high-end kiloton range, supporting this level for durability, as well.
Why is this important?
Because Trespasser is canonically one of the weakest Kaiju in the entire series.
Over time, the Kaiju sent to attack Earth by the Precursors became stronger and stronger, adapting to what humanity threw at them, leading to an even more notable boost after the development of Jaegers. Keep in mind, the sheer force of a Jaeger was compared to a nuclear bomb by the man who invented them, in the first place.
So what does this mean for scaling?
Like I said above, the weakest known Kaiju was halfway through High 7-C simply by moving too quickly towards San Francisco. It wasn't until several Kaiju attacks later that the first Jaegers were built, and when they were, Brawler Yukon, who was just a prototype not built for actual combat, absolutely curbstomps a Kaiju who should be well above what Trespasser was.
Prototype Jaeger not built for actual combat >> Karloff > several other previous Kaiju => Trespasser, who is nearly Large Town level+ just by moving. This should put the absolute lowest rank Jaegers at Small City level, considering the Large Town level feat was from the absolute weakest Kaiju encountered just moving towards its target.
On top of that, you have greatly superior Jaegers and Kaiju. Gipsy Danger, a powerful Jaeger built much later down the line for actual combat, was nearly destroyed by Knifehead, a category III Kaiju, when he got too careless. Considering how small Low 7-B actually is, I would think that category III Kaiju like Knifehead should be "At least Low 7-B, possibly 7-B"
Beyond those, you have have strong category IV Kaiju, like Otachi and Leatherback, who tore the high-end Jaegers Crimson Typhoo and Cherno Alpha to pieces. I'm not sure if they should be "At least Low 7-B, likely 7-B" or just "Likely 7-B".
Regardless, very notable upgrades.
Slattern and Striker Eureka's Self Destruct
Next up on our list, we have an extreme upgrade for a few characters. Striker Eureka's self destruction was initially assumed to just be 1.2 megatons (Low 7-B), as the nuke strapped to it was stated to be that level, in the movie. However, Kaltias recently took the time to actually calc the feat, which ended up being a minimum of 7-A (121 megatons), with the possibility of being High 7-A. Even with a lowball, the actual explosion yielded a hundred times more energy than it was stated to in the film, so that's quite the increase in power.
If accepted, this would scale to a few things. Most obvious is Slattern's durability, as he tanks this explosion to the face and survives in fighting condition. To a notably lower extent, it could possibly scale to Striker Eureka's blades, which did inflict minor damage to Slattern, but this is uncertain. It definitely scales to Gipsy Danger's nuclear vortex, as while Slattern shrugged off Striker's self destruct, the vortex tore through him like wet tissue paper.
Would possibly scale to the category V Kaiju and Mega Kaiju in Pacific Rim: Uprising. However, they didn't seem to be portrayed quite as strong as Slattern, so it would be a "possibly/likely".
Reaction Speed
Finally, we get down to speed. All Kaiju and Jaegers are currently Subsonic by virtue of sheer size. This is fine for movement, but their reactions and combat speed are likely higher. In Pacific Rim: Uprising, Gipsy Avenger dodges missiles from the rogue Jaeger Obsidian Fury at close range after they've been fired. Even without a calc, I'm fairly certain this would be in the Hypersonic range. Unfortunately, I don't have footage of this on hand, but if anyone finds it in one of the trailers, please let me know. This would scale to pretty much everything, with the only possible exception being Kaiju who never fought a Jaeger, but even then would have a "likely".
Brief Summary
- Everyone gets a tier bump
- Potentially 7-A or High 7-A Slattern, Striker Eureka via self destruct, and Gipsy Danger via nuclear vortex
- Reaction speed upgrades for the entire verse
