Video Game / Titanfall 2

Transferring control to pilot...

Protocol 1: Link to Pilot
Protocol 2: Uphold the mission
Protocol 3: Protect the Pilot

— Excerpt from the single-player campaign trailer

Titanfall 2 is a Sequel to the 2014 Competitive Multiplayer First-Person Shooter Mecha Game Titanfall, developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. Unlike the original game, Titanfall 2 was released for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, with Respawn promising new Titans, more Pilot/Titan customization, a deeper player-progression system for multiplayer and a dedicated single-player campaign. The game was released on October 28, 2016.

The story of the campaign features Jack Cooper, a Frontier Militia rifleman who desires to be part of the elite Titan Pilots. By accident, Jack is forced to be the Pilot of a Vanguard-class Titan "BT-7274" when his original Pilot is killed-in-action. Left behind enemy lines on the planet Typhon, Jack and BT must work together to complete the latter's mission.

Released 3 years later, Apex Legends continues the story where Titanfall 2 left off.

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Titanfall 2 contains examples of:

• Absent Aliens: The wolf-like prowlers from the first game return, albeit as actual enemies this time, as do the dragonoid Flyers (albeit primarily as background scenery), but sapient life remains unseen. However, it's implied the power source for the IMC's Fold Weapon is some sort of Imported Alien Phlebotinum, as it was uncovered by ARES Division in the Frontier.
• Action Bomb: "Ticks", red spider-like bots armed with explosives that will detonate when in the player's proximity; in multiplayer, Ticks are available as one of the game's many Kill Streak-esque "Boosts". The Nuclear Explosion pack returns for Titans as well, though it's trickier to pull off, unlike the previous game - here, being in a doom state to detonate the core makes you vulnerable to getting executed.
• Action Girl:
  • Commander Sarah Briggs of the Militia; like the first game, she participates with Jack in her own Titan when the Militia storm an IMC base on Typhon.
  • Gates, the commander of the 6-4 freelance Pilots, also participates in one of the campaign missions.
  • Sloan, one of the Apex Predators.
  • The female Pilots in multiplayer, as in the original Titanfall.
• The Ahnold: One of the Apex Predators, Richter, talks in an exaggerated Austrian accent mimicking - who else - Arnold Schwarznegger and curses in German. His build is also tall and muscular. Killing him earns you the achievement "See you at the Party." which refers to a line from Total Recall (1990), where Quaid kills Richter and says "See you at the party Richter"
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Averted; BT-7274 is the most advanced Titan A.I. of the Militia and will follow through the three protocols to the end, the latter of which is Played for Drama.
• A.K.A.-47: The Flatline is a pastiche of multiple AK family guns, as its proper name (the VK-47 Flatline) hints: it has the AK's distinct wooden parts, curved magazine, fire selector lever, and the bullpup "magazine behind the grip" layout that one AK variant uses.
• All Your Powers Combined: In the campaign, BT's unique Vanguard chassis allows it to utilize the loadouts of contemporary Titans, emulating their core abilities and using their weaponry without restrictions.
• Animesque: More apparent than the first game, which had a design rule to avoid typical mecha tropes. The setting, the more outlandish Titan designs and abilities, the use of the Pulse Kunai, shurikens in the grenade slot, subtly more bizarre weapons such as the Alternator, Jack being a rookie who fell into the cockpit after the death of his mentor, and the over-the-top action against an evil corporation and their Quirky Mini Boss Squad certainly give off the vibe of a mecha and action anime at times. Japanese script even shows up on some textures. One of the cut weapons was an anti-mech katana.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Like in the first game, Titans automatically bypass low cover or minor obstructions like Grunts' drop pod.
  • When in the doomed state, ejection requires a triple-press of the Use button, making it far harder to accidentally activate the self-destruct button. Similarly, disembarking from a Titan requires the button be held down, and activating the ejection prompt when not doomed requires pressing a different button first.
  • The chapter selection for the campaign allows players to choose which part of the missions they want to play, with start points for each loading screen of the level. Relatedly, the tutorial mission features an option to skip straight ahead to The Gauntlet.
  • In the multiplayer, only Pilots can pick up Titan batteries, a decision done to encourage teamwork and help keep Pilots relevant even when Titans are around. In the singleplayer, BT-7274 ignores this rule and can heal with batteries without forcing Cooper to disembark, helping to keep the pace up and avoid lengthy healing breaks if there are multiple batteries around.
• Artificial Stupidity: A minor example, but the enemy AI seems to have a very, very poor understanding of the MGL's projectile behaviour, and will blindly fire at the player, regardless of whether their projectiles are dropping out of the air before they get anywhere near their target.
• Arc Words: "Trust me."
• Are These Wires Important?: The new Rodeo mechanics more closely resemble this than in the prior game, with Pilots yanking the exterior-facing batteries out of enemy Titans.
• Back Stab: Holding the melee button behind enemy infantry or Pilots will trigger a brief execution from a third-person perspective. These executions are:
  • A Neck Snap.
  • Knocking the target to the ground and putting a Data Knife in their face.
  • Grabbing the target's pistol and shooting them, once In the Back and five times in the head.
  • Two kidney punches and a right cross to the face.
  • Springboarding off the target's leg and kneeing them in the face.
  • Using Phase Shift to Telefrag the target.
  • Using Stim to unleash Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs.
  • Using the Grapple to curb-check the target after punching them into the air.
  • Leaping up on the target's shoulders and driving a Pulse Blade into their face.
  • Kicking the target in the back, activating the Cloak, and knifing them in the face while they're caught unaware.
  • Using the Holo Pilot to throw a target off guard, then headshotting them.
  • Throwing an A-Wall at a target's head, then shooting them through the resulting wall.
• Badass Boast: While most Titans in multiplayer will recommend various defensive options when you're outnumbered, Legion has other ideas.
  Legion OS: "Outnumbered three to one, ammo systems nominal."
  • Justified. Legion is a sturdy but slow Titan, with few maneuvering options. As such, when outnumbered the best course of action for a Legion is often to stay and fight.
• Back from the Dead: The multiplayer Faction profiles indicate that the multiplayer takes place after the single-player campaign, and that Ash is still around because the IMC rebuilt her after her defeat at your hands in the campaign. Which is quite a trick, considering her Titan got blown up, then the facility she was in got blown up, and then the planet it was on got blown up shortly later. Not to mention that she's the first enemy Pilot who can be executed by BT, meaning she can potentially be crushed into scrap metal before all the previous events happen.
• Balance Buff: The rodeo mechanics have been streamlined in comparison to the first game. Instead of shooting barely-effective small arms into the cockpit, the pilot will automatically pull out Titan's battery, or put a grenade into battery slot if it was empty. In addition to taking out a sizeable chunk of the Titan's health and finishing off doomed Titans, the Pilot gets a battery that can be given to allied Titans to grant them a shield, replenish some health, and charge their Core meter.
• Battleship Raid: The mission "The Ark" takes place entirely in the sky over Typhon's jungles and mountains, with a Militia ship detachment chasing down an IMC transport vessel before it can reach its destination. Cooper must move between smaller and larger ships in the air, moving up and disabling turrets on the escorting ships so the fleet can catch up to the transport without being shot down. It even ends with a boss fight against a flying Titan while standing on the outer deck of an IMC cruiser.
• Benevolent A.I.: BT-7274 will uphold the mission and protect his pilot even at the expense of his life.
• BFS: Ronin utilizes one of these in all of his abilities, sans Phase Dash. Htis melee attack is an overhead sword slash, in contrast to the usual hard-hitting Titan punch.
  • Titanfall: Assault revealed that a Pilot-sized version of Ronin's sword also exists.
• Bittersweet Ending: The Fold Weapon is destroyed and the Militia's home planet of Harmony is saved, but at the cost of BT sacrificing itself to destroy the "Ark" that fuels the superweapon. However, it's implied the AI is Not Quite Dead (see below).
• The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In: The "Pulse Blade" Tactical Ability for Pilots doubles as not only an Enemy-Detecting Radar, but a throwing knife; if it hits any enemy infantry (Including other Pilots), it becomes a One-Hit Kill.
• Blade Run: A BFG variant: during the campaign's final mission, embarking into BT's new chassis has a unique animation in which Jack Cooper runs atop BT's minigun before jumping into the cockpit.
• Booby Trap:
  • Northstar can deploy a "Tether Trap" to prevent enemy Titans from pursuing her, keeping them locked in place until the anchor is shot or it breaks.
  • The Laser Tripwire ability for Ion: a trio of conspicuous mines that can be placed at chokepoints to prevent enemy infantry and Titans from making a push without destroying them first.
  • Arc Mines return in Frontier Defense.
• Boss Battle: Several throughout the campaign, courtesy of the Apex Predators.
• Boss in Mook's Clothing: Reapers are essentially mini-boss battles when you're forced to fight them on foot in the campaign. You only fight about 4 Reapers this way throughout the entire campaign.
• Boss Subtitles: The Apex Predators all get an intro cutscene with their names in giant white text just before you fight them.
• Brain Uploading: According to The Art of Titanfall, Simulacrum are human minds in robot bodies. These characters include Ash and every Stim or Phase Shift Pilot in multiplayer. Whether that means this or Brain in a Jar isn't quite clear in this game nor in the book, but Apex Legends elaborates on this and shows via its character Revenant that the human mind is copied to a Simulacrum's body.
• Call-Back:
  • At the unscheduled end of the tutorial sequence, you call in a Vanguard designated FS-1041. Later on, after BT's primary/current chassis is rendered inoperable, the replacement you call in is also designated FS-1041 prior to receiving BT's datacore.
  • The very first time BT performs a Fastball Special with you, he reassures you with "trust me, I have done the math". This line is repeated at the very end of the game when he reassures Sarah that you will be at the rendezvous point even though she doesn't see how he could make it, foreshadowing that he will perform a Heroic Sacrifice and throw you to safety.
• Catch and Return: The "Vortex Shield" returns as an exclusive to the Titan Ion, catching projectiles sent her way and sending them back. Successfully pulling off the latter and the return fire back at enemies will increase the damage dealt by the cluster.
• Charged Attack:
  • Grenades can be cooked by holding down the button. Get the timer just right, and it'll blow up the moment it nears an enemy. Hold it for not enough time, and it'll miss or give enemies an opportunity to escape. Hold it for too long, and it'll kill you instead.
  • Northstars can charge up their Plasma Railgun's damage by aiming down sights.
• Chekhov's Boomerang: When Cooper travels through time, BT copies his AI functions into his helmet to continue providing guidance even when separated by the time rift. As the stinger shows, BT's copied AI survived in Jack's helmet, creating a Sequel Hook.
• Chekhov's Gun: In the training mission, after Jack is ejected from the simulation, one can see Captain Lastimosa putting a knife into the "head" of BT-7274 before handing it to BT's chassis and letting him attach it. The "head" is BT's SERE kit, and Lastimosa not only had the previously-shown Dataknife but also a Smart Pistol in it, which come really handy during a sticky weaponless situation late in the campaign.
• Chest Blaster: Ion's Core Ability fires a powerful beam of energy from her chassis.
• Collection Sidequest: The assorted Pilot Helmets scattered across the levels, usually requiring advanced Le Parkour skills to get them.
• Colossus Climb: Climbing onto Titans (or "rodeoing") returns, but works differently in Titanfall 2. Rather than firing into an enemy Titan's internal components to deal damage, Pilots yank batteries out of the Titan or toss grenades inside the socket (if they're already carrying a battery), then automatically hop off. This does a set amount of damage, and will instantly kill a Doomed Titan. Rodeoing enemy Titans not only provides a substantial boost to a player's Titan Meter, but Pilots taking enemy Titans' batteries can hop onto allied Titans (or embark into their own) to give them an energy shield and restoring armor.
• Competitive Balance: Like in the first game, Titanfall 2 has a few of these going on.
  • A Titanfall cannot occur on rooftop of smaller buildings despite available space. However, map designs have been largely reworked in regards to building heights to facilitate play between each Titan's abilities, such as Northstar's flight mode or Tone's homing missiles.
  • The Titan roster have been expanded from original three to seven, each with fixed loadout, abilities, strengths and weaknesses. This makes them more readable at a glance and allows player to adjust their tactics accordingly.
• Corralling Vacuum: The Gravity Star is a grenade that pulls enemies in a short radius together and holds them there for a few seconds before a moderately powerful explosion.
• Competitive Multiplayer: "Attrition" (Team Deathmatch with AI-controlled Mooks on both sides), "Capture The Flag" and "Last Titan Standing" (a round-based elimination mode) return for the sequel, with a few new modes.
  • "Pilots vs Pilots": Not a "new" mode per se. It's pretty much Team Deathmatch with no Titans.
  • "Bounty Hunt": A variation of Attrition, players earn bounty by destroying AI-controlled units (both Mooks and Titans) arriving in waves and must deposit any earnings into a bank that opens and closes during wave intervals to win the match. Players who kill enemy Pilots take half their earnings; if killed, they lose half.
  • "Amped Hardpoint": Similar to "Hardpoint Domination" from Titanfall, players can remain in a captured hardpoint's location to "amp" it, doubling the amount of points it'll produce. If left alone, an amped hardpoint will gradually return to normal.
• Conservation of Ninjutsu: Titans in Multiplayer are ultimately disposable war machines that get blown apart and abandoned routinely. Naturally, BT tears through legions of mooks piloting their own Titans, while the Apex Predators do things like the resident pilot blasting enormous battleships from the sky. It's noted and heavily implied in-universe that the Vanguard type of Titan (which BT is) are Ace Customs stacked with cutting-edge technology, which allows BT to be smarter than any other Titan seen in game and pack more weapons and armor.
• Continuity Nod: Several.
  • The ship Cooper and BT start off on is the James MacAllan, the leader of the Militia of the last game.
  • Once again, a Justified Tutorial consisting of a hijacked Hammond Industries pod is the first thing the player goes through.
  • The Apex Predators make a return, once again lead by Blisk, but lacking the "I kill you, I'm better" shoulder patch.
  • When on the way to repair the damaged Beacon, Jack and BT come across a destroyed Militia Titan and its dead Pilot. BT mentions the Pilot fought bravely in the Fracture fuel raid, a reference to the first map of the single player "campaign" of the original Titanfall. This could be interpreted as indicating the dead Pilot is the player character from Titanfall. BT also mentions that Jack was one of the Grunts fighting on the ground during Fracture, but took a nasty head injury and can't remember it all that well.
  • Sarah Briggs and Barker return - and Barker's as much of a raging alcoholic as ever.
  • "Wanted" signs for James MacAllan are still plastered all over the Angel City map (along with new ones for Cooper).
  • A Tiffany's Coffee "store" shows up once again.
• Cool, but Inefficient:
  • Pilot Executions are incredibly cool, ranging from a wide variety of selectable animations to showboat as you kill an enemy player from behind. Practicality wise though, they're inferior to simply meleeing someone, since Executions can only be done if you connect a normal melee attack and they lock you into an unskippable animation during which you can potentially get killed by someone else, possibly saving the life of your victim as well.
  • Titan Terminations are a shade more practical since the initiator becomes invincible during it and they instakill doomed Titans, even if they have shields built up prior. Nonetheless, going for a Termination against someone who isn't already in range for it is extremely risky, especially if they know you're already there.
• Cranial Processing Unit:
  • Decapitating a Spectre or Stalker will kill it immediately. Particularly important with Stalkers, as they can take a relatively large amount of damage otherwise.
  • The campaign shows that (at least for Vanguard-class Titans) the glowing lens of a Titan's main "eye" is actually their A.I. core.
• Cyber Cyclops: All titans appearing in this game (excluding the Ogre-class titans Scorch and Legion) utilize this design.
• Dare to Be Badass: Zigzagged; In-Universe, Jack is a simple Militia Mook, but must step up into the role of a Pilot, the equivalent of "special forces" in Titanfall, yet the campaign's prologue level explicitly indicates Jack has been given extensive Pilot training from his mentor Captain Lastimosa already.
• Dark Action Girl: Ash and Slone, the two female members of the Apex Predator mercenaries. Sloane is introduced executing captured Militia members, and Ash is a cold, quiet psychopathic AI who self-destructs a facility in an attempt to kill Cooper.
• Deadpan Snarker: Some of Jack's dialogue options when speaking with BT are littered with this; likewise, depending on how players want Jack to respond to BT, the Titan starts adopting similar mannerisms, often being Literal-Minded.
  BT: "I would accompany you, but unfortunately my chassis will not fit through the door."
  Jack: "Lucky you."
  BT: "I detect sarcasm."
• Deployable Cover:
  • The one-way "Particle Wall" energy shield returns as a defensive Titan ability, exclusive to the Titan Tone.
  • The "Amped Wall" Tactical Ability increases the damage of outgoing weapons while blocking incoming fire from reaching Pilots.
  • Legion can deploy a small "Gun Shield" in front of his Predator minigun.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • Ash comments that Pilots who use Cores are "weak" if you use one. She will also taunt you if you unleash your Core immediately upon fighting her, stating that you must be so afraid of her to do that.
  • During the last leg of the Arc Tool recovery, falling to your death in front of the Militia causes them to panic as they watch you go splat.
  • If you approach General Marder when he's giving his New Era Speech in the past segment of "Effect and Cause", your interruption appears in the speech's present day audio log exactly when you interrupted.
  • Also in Effect and Cause, if for some reason you approach The Ark on foot without using BT to storm past the hellfire raining down on you, BT will be missing from the stopped time segment that follows.
  • There are obvious and conventional ways to defeat rodeoing pilots as a Titan, like deploying Electric Smoke or shooting Scorch's thermite at a wall and then forcing the pilot into the thermite. Using Northstar's VTOL Hover to crush them between your chassis and a ceiling, on the other hand, is quite the opposite of that.
• Difficult, but Awesome:
  • The "slide-hopping" technique allows players to maintain momentum by "sliding" in mid-air and keep on jumping as they land. It requires some practice before they can perform it consistently at the right moment, but once they do, Pilots can swoop across a map at much higher speeds, similar to bunny-hopping in other First Person Shooters.
  • The "Kraber-AP" Sniper Rifle: although it shares one of the lowest magazine capacities of all bullet-based, non-Anti-Titan weapons in the game (4 rounds) and the slowest rate of fire for all sniper rifles, not to mention having noticeable projectile travel time a new bullet drop to compensate for on the fly, it deals a whopping 100 damage. To translate, that means that if you manage to hit a human-size target in any part of their body at any range they WILL die.
  • It's incredibly easy to misuse the "Grappling Hook" Tactical Ability, what with its two-round use and lengthy cooldown time. Mastering it, however, allows players to pull off insane movement tricks normally impossible in some situations.
    • Combine Grappling Hook with Gravity Star and some well-timed jump and you're in for some high-flying high-speed insanity.
  • The Scorch Titan is what happens when you combine sluggishness with tricky, short-ranged weapons that only do damage in short bursts. Use him right however and it's possible to turn full health Titans to molten slag in only 2-3 seconds.
  • On the other end of the scale we have Ronin, a Titan with a sword as its primary means of attack...while being a Fragile Speedster. You gotta learn to pick fights or you're going to die really fast.
  • When you drop your Titan, it will one-hit kill anything it lands on top of, even enemy Titans. It feels amazing to get a kill this way, but the delay it takes for a Titan to hit the ground makes this incredibly unreliable unless you've predicted your target's movements ten steps in advance. The Warpfall kit brings the difficult part down one notch and the impractical up one, since using Warpfall means your Titan will be completely vulnerable to enemies while you're boarding it.
• Doppelgänger Spin: The "Holo Pilot" Tactical Ability sends out a holographic duplicate of a Pilot when activated. The boost "Holo Pilot Nova" does the same, but sends three holo pilots out at once.
• Double Tap: The SA-3 Mozambique is based on the real-life "Mozambique drill", meaning shooting a target twice in the chest and once in the head. Sure enough, its three-pellet spread will do exactly that on a target at the right distance, when aiming for center of mass.
• Dual-World Gameplay: The basis of the level "Effect and Cause". Cooper is warping between the ruins of an IMC testing facility packed full of Prowlers, dysfunctional Stalkers, and burning debris, and its pre-destroyed state in the past, teeming with IMC grunts, turrets, and laser doors. Avoiding dangers from one point in time often means having to confront things in the other.
• Due to the Dead: After Lastimosa dies, Cooper completely covers his body in a mound of stones.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Until the Glitch in the Frontier update, for some reason Gates' multiplayer model was a recolored Jack Cooper instead of the one she uses in the campaign.
• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: The Fold weapon is stated to be capable of causing this, and General Marder seeks to use it as a weapon on Militia-held worlds one by one until the rest unconditionally surrender, starting with Harmony. In the very end, when BT overloads the Ark at the cost of his own existence to destroy it for good, the resulting explosion obliterates the planet Typhon that it was on, breaking it into several smaller chunks just like Demeter in the first game.
• Easter Egg:
  • Loch Ness plushies can be found in the various levels. One particularly easy one to find is in the multiplayer map "Relic", hiding inside a toilet. On the opposite end of the scale, a plushie from the campaign level "Into the Abyss" requires scaling up a rock face not on the intended path and eventually climbing on top of the underground building you're supposed to enter.
  • The G2 has a secret reloading animation which loads the magazine in from the top a-la the M1 Garand, as opposed to its usual reload animation which loads the magazine from the bottom.
  • There is a rare chance for the Time Gauntlet to do a unique animation when used.
  • Like last game, Grunts will struggle in melee, but this time, only if they meet in combat and not as scripted events.
  • Also, while you're in a Titan, if you approach Grunts and let them ineffectually shoot their non-Anti-Titan weapons into you, they'll eventually give up and randomly choose between different animations, such as slumping to their knees in defeat or throwing their weapons down in rage.
  • In Effect and Cause, time travelling 88 times in its second chapter causes a door behind a corridor of fire to open. In the present day version of that room, it has two dead bodies: one of them doing the splits across a pair of countertops, and another lying in sparking water, referencing Timecop.
• Easy Level Trick: The achievements "I Know Kung Fu" (kill three enemies in a row while wallrunning in the campaign) and "Power Slide" (kill three enemies in a row while sliding in the campaign) are made vastly easier by using the Smart Pistol you have for the first half of the last level. Killing enemies while making these maneuvers is far easier when your gun is basically a headshot aimbot.
• Eject... Eject... Eject...: In Multiplayer, if your Titan is in its doomed state, triple-pressing the Use key will eject your pilot and self-destruct the Titan; sometimes your Titan will even say the trope name. The ejectee is launched very high up into the air, making them difficult to hit with most weapons.
• 11th-Hour Superpower:
  • Mixed with a subtle case of Ascended Meme: the contested and maligned Smart Pistol from Titanfall returns during the final campaign mission as part of BT's "SERE Kit", retrieved by Cooper after the former's near-destruction. Fittingly, it makes infantry combat during the on-foot sequences laughably easy^note Every shot is a guided One-Hit Kill, and the pistol has unlimited ammo, allowing players to mow down hordes of Mooks at their leisure as they focus on Le Parkour through the installation.
  • In the same level, once BT is fitted into a new Vanguard chassis, players gain the Legion loadout, allowing them to tear through hordes of enemy Titans. Justified since the loadout is crucial to beating the level when the game pits players against four to five Titans at a time.
• Enemy-Detecting Radar:
  • The Pulse Blade can stick to any surface, pinging enemy infantry and Titans in its vicinity for Pilots.
  • "Sonar Lock" for Tone Titans functions similarly, pinging enemies like the Pulse Blade. Additionally, it applies a single lock onto nearby enemy Titans, allowing Tone to more efficiently send out missile volleys.
  • The "Map Hack" tactical ability does this over the entire map for a few seconds.
• Emergency Temporal Shift: One level in the campaign allows you to time travel between the past and the present after a massive accident at an experimental weapons facility warps time. In the past, you have to deal a base full of enemy soldiers and robots, while in the present, the decaying base is filled with prowlers who want to eat you, so whether time traveling will actually save you is anyone's guess.
• Eternal Engine: The mission "Into the Abyss", a giant underground automated manufacturing plant used to manufacture entire landscapes for combat test domes that the IMC use for weapons and tactics research. Jack and BT are forcibly separated during a "shortcut" through here and the mass of moving platforms and assembly waldos present a challenging environment to Le Parkour through, not to mention the changing lines of fire IMC Grunts will be shooting down.
• Exact Words: Blisk wasn't kidding that he was hired to do a job and he means to see it through. Not an ounce more, either.
• Expy: Apex Predator member Richter, the mercenaries' muscle, has a passing similarity in attire and looks to Ull, leader of the Udam clan. Between his heavy German accent, facial structure, and personality, he's also reminiscent of an early movie role by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
• Falling into the Cockpit: Downplayed. Jack Cooper is not a formally trained Titan pilot and had not applied for the Pilot program. However, Lastimosa had given him plenty of informal training and was grooming him to be a pilot candidate some day. Thus, when Cooper was the only one left nearby who had any qualifications to pilot a Titan, and the mission still needed to be completed, Lastimosa transfers BT to Cooper, knowing that a half-shot at completing the mission is better than none at all.
• Fast-Killing Radiation: One section in the campaign has you jump start a reactor that will kill you extremely quickly if you don't complete the section fast enough, but has no lasting effects once you exit the reactor.
• Friendly Fireproof: Your weapons cannot harm your teammates, even if they can harm you if you get caught in their effects. This can lead to situations such as blowing yourself up with a grenade simply because another pilot stepped in front of you just as you threw or fired it. But you can also do tricks like sticking a burning Firestar onto a friendly pilot and having them "give the enemy a hug".
• Good Counterpart: The 6-4 are this to the Apex Predators. Both are groups of freelance mercenary Pilots with distinct personalities and quirks, but the Predators work for the IMC and are all violent psychopaths with no loyalty to each other or their employer, whereas the 6-4 work for the Militia and are all friendly soldiers with a strong sense of camaraderie.
  Gates: The 6-4 is a family, and we'll kick your arse.
• Fastball Special: During certain segments in the campaign, Jack is unable to traverse to another location because of its distance. BT will take the initiative and suggest it hurls Cooper directly there. Lampshaded after doing this multiple times when the maneuver is coined the "fastball".
• Flunky Boss: The majority of boss fights in the game involve battling one of the Apex Predators, who are accompanied by a handful of IMC Titans as backup. Richter's boss fight is the only exception.
• Foreshadowing: Multiple about the Fold Weapon, which doesn't take center stage until the midpoint of the campaign of Effect and Cause:
  • During the cutscene where Cooper is dropping into Typhon's atmosphere, a giant loop-like structure is visible in the distance.
  • Blisk's first lines in the game are about reminding the Apex Predators how much time they have to deliver some object known as the Ark to the Draconis.
  • The first IMC grunts encountered in the game are having chatter about their current assignment. Let them talk for long enough, and the conversation topic eventually drifts to "that thing in the mountains", and that it can cause "a very bad day" for the Militia.
• Game-Breaking Bug: The multiplayer will frequently disconnect the player with the message "Connection to server timed out", making it incredibly challenging to actually get into a multiplayer match. Northstar, a fan-made Game Mod for Titanfall 2, rectifies this by allowing players to connect to fan-hosted servers which don't have this issue.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • The lore for Hemlok BF-R assault rifle states that it is fully capable of firing in full-auto or select 3 or 5 rounds burst. In-game however it can only be fired in 3-rounds burst.
  • In the lore, Pilots are actually intended to have all seven of the multiplayer abilities at the same time. This is hinted at by how the ability-specific executions can be used regardless of Pilot type, and fully displayed in the intro cinematic where Lastimosa uses a Pulse Blade, Grapple, and Holo Pilot in rapid succession. In actual gameplay however, players can only do one of those at any given time.
• Gatling Good: The Legion Titan's weapon is the Predator minigun. Players can also deploy turrets that consist of one as a Boost.
• Genre Shift: More like a Genre Revolving Door, as fighting on foot and fighting in Titans feel radically different — and this is prone to change every time the player calls in a Titan or disembarks.
  • Pilots that fight on foot are agile and can be basically anywhere on the map. Their abilities are very self-focused, such as Stim to run even faster or Phase Shift to escape, with team-oriented effects often being more of a secondary benefit. Combined with the fast time to kill versus enemy pilots, grounded combat feels very reminiscent of early twitch-reaction FPSes in style, where everyone is out for themselves and winning fights often means just pulling the trigger first.
  • Climbing into a Titan changes the game: they're all fairly slow and bulky, limited to larger, open spaces. Titan abilities can be used selfishly, but the slower pace of the combat and explicit team-oriented strengths and weaknesses built into each Titan^note like having limited ways to deal with rodeos outside of having teammate assistance, or being able to build a Monarch kit that actively buffs her teammates encourage grouping up. With the slower time to kill against Titans, making it harder for singular players to demolish multiple enemy Titans at once, Titan combat overall feels more reminiscent of Hero Shooters that incentivize team awareness and cooperation.
• Gimmick Level: There are a couple of these throughout the campaign.
  • "Effect and Cause" has you recover Major Anderson's Time Travel device. You have to think fourth-dimensionally to navigate the complex, but you get to do it for one level before you discard the device, and it doesn't show up again.
  • "The Beacon" involves using an Arc Tool in activating various electronics throughout the level. Like the above example, said gimmick never shows up again in later levels.
  • "Into The Abyss" has you fighting in and traversing a gigantic factory as it assembles environments, while listening to an AI on the radio. It's one big Shout-Out to Portal.
• Grappling-Hook Pistol: Played with. While not an actual pistol, Pilots can opt for a "Grappling Hook" as a Tactical Ability.
• Gratuitous Japanese: Kanji is featured all over the place, whether it's the mildly Tokyo-like downtown atmosphere of Angel City or the far less Tokyo-like desert city Eden. It's placed right next to English text for seemingly no reason, and the presence of the kanji for Yen on posters and the like seems to imply that there's a currency that supplements Credits.
• Gravity Master: One ordinance for Pilots called "Gravity Star" creates a small singularity on impact that sucks in enemy infantry and explosives, including the ones they just threw, before exploding about three seconds later. It also effects non-Hitscan weapons, like Grenade Launcher or L-Star fire. Canny players have learned to use this to curve shots around corners.
• Grenade Launcher:
  • A new class of weapon for Pilots that consists of explosive launchers. It consists of slow projectiles exclusively, making them harder to use against Pilots, but they have higher damage versus Titans. The SMR launcher was moved from the Anti-Titan class to this.
  • The Scorch-class Titan utilizes an incendiary version that blankets his target in thermite.
• Ground Pound: Scorch's "Flame Wall" is initiated by slamming it's fist on the ground, sending a persistent jet of fire out from it. It also has the "Flame Core", a devastating two-fisted slam that sends out a wider wave of fire that incinerates pretty much everything in its path.
• Guide Dang It!: There's nothing in the game to hint that players can drop grenades straight down instead of throwing them. Useful for anyone who wants to put down a frag trap without having to flick their aim downwards to do so.
• Flash Step: The "Phase Dash" ability allows a Ronin to warp into another dimension to rapidly cover some distance without worry of taking damage. Pilots can also utilize this as a Tactical Ability.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Jack is heroic version of the trope. By the end of the game, Rifleman 3rd Class turned Acting Pilot Jack Cooper has established his Pilot credentials, taken out the majority of the Apex Predator mercenaries by himself, defeated battalions of IMC infantry, mecha and Titans, cost the MegaCorp billions of dollars in losses and saved Harmony's 40 million citizens from destruction.
• Hammerspace: You can change BT's loadout in Campaign at any time and he just pulls out his new gun from... somewhere. Likewise when you reload, he just spontaneously generates a new magazine of whatever gun you're using.
• Harder Than Hard: "Master" difficulty, which is essentially Titanfall's version of "Veteran" difficulty from Call of Duty. Enemies do increased damage and also have perfect accuracy; in Titan segments this requires you to engage in more thoughtful, tactical behavior in combat, while on-foot segments devolve into "step out of cover for one second and you die instantly" and ultimately boil down to a lot of camping to stay alive.
• Heal Thyself:
  • Picking up Batteries while in your titan repairs its armor and puts up a small shield. You can also grab batteries while on foot and bring them back to your titan.
  • Monarch Titans can heal themselves by executing enemy Titans. This is shown as your pilot snatching their battery while your Titan mashes the opposing Titan.
• Heroic Sacrifice: BT is heavily injured and captured. He dies, trying to save both Cooper and the day. Luckily, he ejects his data core, and Sarah gives Cooper a new Vanguard to put him in a few minutes later. Then he dies for good when he throws himself into the Ark. Or does he?
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • The Nuclear Core detonation Titan ability can kill the ejecting pilot if they are unable to clear the blast radius themselves.^ExamplesThe usual reason for this happening is because of overhead obstacles, due to the ejection trajectory always being straight up. A properly timed and placed Gravity Star or Grapple can also keep an ejecting pilot from clearing the blast radius as well
  • Vortex Shield, provided a successful Catch and Return from enemy projectiles.
• Hollywood Hacking: Pilots can hack Spectres to automatically attack the enemy once again by stabbing them with a Data Knife. In the campaign, when Jack acquires an "Arc Tool", he can hack offline Stalkers still on their stationary racks to assist him in firefights.
• Hyperspace Arsenal:
  • In multiplayer, while almost all weapons require magazines and thus need reloading, pilots all have Infinite Supplies of ammunition to feed them, unlike in the first game where this tropes only covers the Titans. Explosives also regenerates on their own after they're depleted. Averted for anti-Titan weapons, however, which do have limited ammo supplies.
  • Also averted in single-player, which has limited ammo reserves for all weapons as well as a standard 2-weapon limit. That being said, BT's unique Vanguard class of Titan is somehow able to carry around the weapons and chassis attachments for several different Titan classes all at once and switch between them on the fly. Cooper is also able to stow Titan batteries and at one point an interstellar beacon battery the size of a medium-sized desktop on his person without slowing him down at all.
• I Surrender, Suckers: BT tries to pull this when Blisk demands the Ark, opening his hatch to draw the enemy troops closer to gun them down. He manages to free Cooper, but he is nearly destroyed in the attempt.
• Infinite Supplies:
  • Players have infinite ammo in Multiplayer for the most part (Anti-Titan weapons have limited ammo pools, as does the Smart Pistol); the campaign averts this by giving guns limited ammo.
  • An odd version of it also happens involving Rodeo Attacks in a Schrödinger's Gun way: which form of attack (Are These Wires Important? or Insert Grenade Here) it takes depends solely on whether or not the attacking pilot is already carrying a battery. So multiple pilots can each take turns pulling out the single battery of the same Titan. This also results in a weird inversion of the trope where allied Titans' battery slot is always empty when a player inserts one, even if three other guys just inserted batteries into that same slot just prior.
• Interface Screw: The Radar Jammer boost replaces the enemy team's maps with static.
• Invisibility Cloak: Cloaking returns as a Pilot Tactical Ability. While enemy Pilots can still see the visual distortion from the use of stealth, it renders the user completely invisible to enemy Titans.
• Jack of All Trades:
  • BT's default loadout "Expedition" in the campaign mirrors the generic Titanfall arsenal, making it a good, all-around choice and a useful means of easing players used to the previous game into the current campaign. Subverted in multiplayer; the six Titans are specialized and have a specific theme; their basic abilities and weaponry can no longer be customized. Players can no longer have a Titan using a rapid-fire anti-personnel machinegun as a primary weapon with tracking missiles to use against enemy Titans, for example.
  • Double-subverted with the inclusion of the new DLC Titan, Monarch. Monarch is canonically based on BT's "Vanguard" chassis, and gameplay-wise, plays a lot like him, complete with the combo of machinegun and rockets. What makes Monarch different is its unique "Upgrade Core": while it starts off relatively underpowered, as Monarch gains kills it develops new abilities and improves its stats, choosing one of 3 improvements from each of 3 tiers. The right pickups can even give it the familiar homing missiles and extra-deadly electric smoke... Then again, other ones could turn it into a Titan healer, of all things, stealing shield energy from enemies and dispensing it back to its teammates.
• Justified Tutorial:
  • The opening level is Capt. Lastimosa providing some off-the-books training to Player Character Jack Cooper, whom he (Lastimosa) is grooming for a shot at the Titan Corps.
  • The following level has Cooper fighting on foot for the first two thirds of it, unable to use the Double Jump functionality of his newly-acquired Pilot-gear. The justification being that because he just acquired that gear, the gear's on board computer needs to calibrate its boost systems by gathering extensive data on Cooper's weight and movements before it can engage without sending him into an uncontrolled spin.
• Karma Houdini: Marder, by virtue of never being directly confronted. Blisk too; after Slone is killed he simply leaves.
• Kill It with Fire:
  • Scorch in a nutshell: his entire kit is built around burning targets as efficiently as possible, creating walls of fire to ward off enemy movement and launching canisters of flammable gas to create explosions that leave behind pools of fire for continuous damage.
  • Pilots can use the Firestar, a ninja-style shuriken that explodes into sticky thermite on impact.
• Kill Streak: Reworked for the sequel. Like its predecessor, the quicker the player scores kills and complete objectives, the faster they can call a Titanfall. However, players can also activate a Boost requiring a percentage of the Titan Meter earned. These abilities range from "Amped Weapons", using the Smart Pistol, and Pilot-seeking Ticks.
• Lensman Arms Race: The original Titanfall was relatively grounded Military Science Fiction; Titanfall 2 introducing intelligent alien Precursors and Time Travel-based superweapons engineered from their leftover technology is unexpected.
  • It also cranks up the general tech level even further; Titanfall 1 vaguely alluded to some kind of 'regeneration' process for pilots, and that Spectres are not necessarily fully automated. In Titanfall 2, there are gravity-manipulating weapons, explicitly synthetic pilots, dimension-slipping evasion kits for Pilots and Titans, and Hard Light barriers. This seems to slow down by Apex Legends, but maybe not, since even the lore seems to suggest that yes, these guys are killing each other over and over, and think nothing of it.
• Limit Break: Upon reaching 100% of the Titan Meter, all Titans can gain access to their respective "Core Ability". Unlike the first game, for most titans this is in the form of a single powerful attack, such as a Wave-Motion Gun, a Macross Missile Massacre, or a Shockwave Stomp.
• Ludicrous Gibs: Certain weapons and attacks, such as the L-STAR SMG, Grenades, explosives and heavy weapons, as well as most Titan weapons and melee attacks, will reduce organic enemies to a spray of meat and Pink Mist.
• Macross Missile Massacre:
  • BT's standard loadout gives him several lock-on missiles.
  • Northstar's "Flight Core" allows her to unleash a barrage of missiles while hovering in the air.
  • Tone's "Salvo Core" unleashes a cluster of homing missiles.
• Mauve Shirt: Two noteworthy examples:
  • Captain Cole, commander of the 3rd Militia Grenadiers, who's voice is first heard from a crashed lifeboat's radio in the first mission, [[Foreshadowing announcing that he and his squad are holed up by the IMC's interstellar beacon — where the player will eventually encounter them.
  • Barker, the Militia Drop Ship pilot who helps out Cooper and BD in the last two missions.
• Meaningful Echo: In the first mission, after installing the first power cell in BT, Cooper can reassure him that he's "not going anywhere" as he makes his way to the second, to which the Titan responds with a Literal-Minded response^note Since Cooper clearly is leaving him.... Much later as BT loads himself into the Ark Injector to overload the Fold Weapon, Cooper can make the same comment, which BT simply acknowledges.
• Mecha-Mooks: The IMC deploys several varieties.
  • Spectres, cybernetic infantry used by the Militia and IMC; also doubles as Pilots in the sequel for multiplayer. They fight like regular infantry Grunts, only about 50% more durable and with superhuman jumping ability. There's also a lighter armored variant of the Spectre that deploys hoverbots or Ticks and fights with grenade launchers.
  • Stalkers, the most common robot enemy in the campaign, are 7-foot tall robots that stalk relentlessly towards the enemy while firing away with LSTAR energy guns. They're about twice as durable as Spectres and can't be knife hacked, but are also slower and less tactical.
  • Reapers, bipedal walkers about twice the size of a Spectre that fire sprays of rockets, are deceptively fast and manueverable for their size, can use a Ground Pound, can deploy a swarm of Ticks, and will take a swipe at Pilots if they get too close in campaign and multiplayer. They're like mini-Titans and act as Boss in Mook's Clothing enemies in the campaign when you're required to fight them on foot, being able to withstand more than 100 assault rifle rounds or even multiple hits from anti-Titan weapons. Even in multiplayer, a single Reaper can easily kill a player on its own and do serious damage to a Titan if it's close enough, and they tend to drop in pairs.
• Men Are the Expendable Gender: The disposable AI-controlled Grunts are exclusively male, though Pilots can be either sex.
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Captain Lastimosa is a mentor to Cooper and even trains him in how to be a Titan pilot in the tutorial. He gets killed by Apex Predator leader Kuben Blisk within the first ten minutes of the campaign.
• Mission Control: BT provides guidance to Cooper most of the time in the campaign; meanwhile, players can unlock and choose one of six available Factions to have their representative (such as Sarah or Blisk) guiding them in multiplayer.
• Mook Horror Show: Listen to the IMC grunts at the Fold Weapon Research Facility completely freak out due to Cooper breaking through their most advanced security and teleporting all over the place thanks to a Time Travel device.
• Nerf: The suppressor attachment on primary weapons, which made the fast, mobile Pilots nigh-untracable in the first game, is absent in Titanfall 2. Pistol sidearms still retain it, however.
• Negative Space Wedgie: What happens when the Ark is destroyed.
• Non-Action Big Bad: General Marder, leader of the IMC, is only seen via hologram communication; it's Blisk who serves as The Heavy for the campaign. However, Blisk winds up being The Unfought as well.
• Not in My Contract: Near the end of the game, Blisk is positioned to deliver a coup-de-grace on a helpless Cooper and BT, but tells General Marder that since he has already fulfilled his contract^note To deliver the Ark to the Fold Weapon he has no obligation to kill Cooper and the general should have worded the contract a little more carefully if he wanted him to do so - partially because Blisk thinks Marder is a useless, miserly bureaucrat, and partially because Blisk respects the fact Cooper killed all his best men in fair fights. He even gives Cooper a business card.
• No OSHA Compliance:
  • The manufacturing facilities used by the IMC are quite lacking of safety features, even if the facilities are staffed by mostly robots. Ash actually expects the giant underground factory to kill Cooper because of how hazardous the production line is.
  • The power station used by the IMC to power a beacon in the level "The Beacon" is also incredibly lacking in accessibility features; much of the facility is unreachable due to a lack of footing, exposed power lines will electrocute anyone who can navigate the facility, and giant cooling turbines will launch people away. It's partially justified since it's maintained entirely by robotic MRVNs, but since it's busted by the time Cooper gets there it's clear that some level of human interaction is needed for upkeep.
• Not Quite Dead: Despite BT's Heroic Sacrifice to destroy the Fold Weapon, it's implied the AI is still "alive". It's mentioned by BT it has reprogrammed a part of his AI into a second version inside Cooper's Pilot helmet during their time at the IMC Fold Weapon testing base. In a post-credits scene, Cooper's helmet glows, implying a part of BT still functions inside of it.
  • It doesn't just glow, it flashes Jack's name in Morse Code. Looks like BT's still worried for his pilot.
• Parrying Bullets: Ronin can use his BFS to block incoming fire, taking partial damage.
• Phlebotinum-Handling Equipment: The Ark needs a shell to contain it while it's moved. Cooper and BT can't move the Ark's shell, so they store it in BT's cockpit instead.
• Pyrrhic Victory: It's entirely possible to, at least in the context of the game's world, suffer one of these in multiplayer by winning the match only to be annihilated by the enemy team, have them all escape, and live to fight another day in the Epilogue.
• Play Every Day: You can earn a Happy Hour bonus once per day by finishing a match during an hour set by your network.
• Press X to Die: After the first half of the final level, you're prompted to call in a new titan so you can restore BT. The game doesn't stop you from advancing past the prompt without doing so, even though it's obviously a bad idea with all the enemy titans around. First, a Titan will instantly spawn on top of you and crush you. If you somehow manage to avoid that (like using a nearby rock) and kill it along the other nearby enemies, trying to cross the bridge will result in the game giving up and simply damaging you until you're dead.
• Purely Aesthetic Gender: You can choose a female model for any of the tool personas in Multiplayer. It's hard to tell even in the heat of combat (females wear the same gear except slightly smaller, not to mention that everything is mostly seen through first-person), so the "aesthetic" part is nearly moot, too. What ends up being the most noticeable difference when playing either sex is the player character's voice when calling out batteries to friendly Titans.
• Quirky Mini Boss Squad: The Apex Predators, Blisk's band of elite mercenary Pilots who serve as the game's bosses.
• Red-plica Baron: The game features a skin for the Ion Titan called "Red Baron". It is unlocked if a save file for Battlefield 1 is located on the same system.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: BT is (supposedly) dead and Jack is left with nothing but a gauntlet of enemies and a Smart Pistol. Do the math.
• Robot Buddy: One of Respawn's goals for the campaign was to highlight the bond and relationship between a Pilot and their Titan. Exemplified when BT establishes a neural link with Jack when the latter uses the Titan for the first time.
• Roboteching: Projectiles can be curved by the pull of a gravity star, and at least one player had killed someone with a curved Kraber shot.
• Schizophrenic Difficulty: This is most noticeable on "Master" difficulty. The first few levels are probably the most difficult, especially during the on-foot segments, as the later levels give you a variety of special advantages or abilities (such as hackable Stalkers, a squad of invincible A.I.-controlled allies helping you out, Time Travel, and a Smart Pistol) that make combat much easier.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Blisk pulls a Villain: Exit, Stage Left at the end of the campaign since he's already been paid, justifying to General Marder he's not been contracted into fighting Cooper. As a token of respect, Blisk leaves Jack the calling card for the Apex Predators.
• Sentry Gun: Anti-infantry and Anti-Titan turrets are available as Boosts in multiplayer.
• Sequel Hook: The stinger after the credits shows Cooper's pilot helmet flickering back on, implying via neural link that BT survived his heroic sacrifice. Also, it's pretty clear that IMC is hardly done with the Militia and their colonists; in particular, Marder and Blisk, the most prominent and story-significant of the antagonists, both survive the end of the game unharmed.
• Shield-Bearing Mook: Besides the regular Grunts, there are also heavy Grunts (referred to as Shield Captains in the level loading hints) with a forcefield projector on their shoulder that creates an energy forcefield in front of them, requiring you to flank them to shoot them. Their heavy armor also makes them about 50% more durable compared to the regular Grunts.
• Shoulder Cannon: Ion comes equipped with a pin-point accurate laser cannon called "Laser Shot" on her shoulder, making up for the Splitter Rifle's lackluster utility at range.
• Shout-Out:
  • The list of protocols stated by BT throughout the campaign is a reference to the three (technically four) directives of RoboCop.
  • Many of the messages seen when ejecting from a Titan reference classic fiction, ranging from Shakespeare to Star Trek: The Next Generation to The Lord of the Rings to Cowboy Bebop.
  • The achievement you get for fighting off a pair of Reapers and their horde of Stalkers and Ticks while trapped in a simulated battleground is called, "I'm not locked in here with you!"
  • The achievement for shooting a Caged Prowler in the Wildlife Research Labs is entitled "It was coming right for us".
  • One of the unlockable MP banners is a Spectre-and-human version of the "you sunova bitch" gesture from Predator.
  • Viper is named after a similarly dreaded character from Top Gun, also a flying ace who'll kick your ass. He also has the quote "in the pipe, five-by-five".
  • Successfully nabbing the Arc Tool earns you the achievement "Unlicensed nuclear accelerator".
  • The achievement for killing Richter? "See you at the party!"
  • While the Hemlok doesn't look like it was designed by James Cameron anymore, the Volt and Devotion both take inspiration from the M41A1 Pulse Rifle from Aliens.
  • The helmet for the Holo-Pilot skins looks suspiciously Mandalorian.
  • One of the featured modes introduced in the Tricks and Treats update gives all players three charges of the Grapple tactical ability. The name of the mode? Attack on Titanfall.
  • Two of the DLC gun skins are the Lead Farmer and Headhunter.
  • The achievement for destroying a Titan with the Sword Core is titled "I have the Power!"
  • The achievement for destroying a Titan with the Flame Core is titled "Flame On!".
  • The achievement for completing the Sideways Town level is titled "Incepted".
  • The unlockable banner "Where's the Kaboom?" depicts M4RVIN wearing the outfit of his Looney Tunes namesake Marvin the Martian. The name of the banner is also a famous line spoken by him.
  • The GEN 7 multiplayer patch bears a certain resemblance to the N7 Stripe of Mass Effect.
  • As confirmed by a dev, there's a subtle shout out to Half-Life in Effect and Cause in the form of a locker containing 3 hazmat suits, with a crowbar next to one of them. Fast forward to the present and the suit with the crowbar is gone, mirroring Gordon Freeman retrieving his own HEV suit in the opening chapter.
  • A Northstar pilot in the single player campaign promises that you will "wish you were already dead."
• Shown Their Work: At one point, BT suggests Cooper embark instead of traversing an area filled with "tungsten-hexaflouride" gas. This gas is real, it's highly corrosive to skin (like Cooper's exposed forearms) and a heavy, dense gas at room temperature, so it's portrayed as ground-hugging. The lightning, presumably, is just Rule of Cool.
• Significant Name Shift: BT-7274 initially refers to the player character Jack Cooper simply as "pilot" before switching to "pilot Cooper" after you spend some time together, and then finally "Jack" after you attach his core to a new chassis after he is destroyed.
• Smart Gun:
  • Activating Legion's "Smart Core" will allow the Predator minigun to automatically track any targets in front of it.
  • The Smart Pistol returns as a Boost in multiplayer, rather than a primary loadout weapon.
• Stable Time Loop: Cooper is tasked to track the source of an explosion at an IMC research facility with the use of a recovered time travel device. However, the research facility in the past winds up panicking at the presence of an intruder, forcing them to immediately test the Ark, which winds up causing an explosion, that Cooper is tasked to track the source of...
• Suicidal Overconfidence: Even the most poorly-equipped IMC Grunt won't hesitate to square up to a Titan, even if they've just seen it reduce several other Titans to scrap metal, suggesting their chances of survival are probably quite slim. A Justified Trope with regards to the IMC's Mecha-Mooks, however, who probably aren't programmed with anything more than a minimal sense of self-preservation.
• Tactical Withdrawal: Just like the first game, once a multiplayer match ends, the losing team must evacuate via Drop Ship. The vessel leaves after a period of time or is destroyed by the winning team. Following a game update, the vessel also now leaves once all living pilots are onboard, even if that number is zero.
• Take Up My Sword: Or My Titan, at any rate. Lastimosa, fatally wounded and knowing he has little time, transfers control of BT-7274 to his protege, Rifleman Jack Cooper, and charges him with finishing the unit's mission.
• Take Your Time: Subverted with a side of Guide Dang It!. The second-to-last playable segment involves Controllable Helplessness as Cooper and BT lever themselves into position to stop the enemy's plans. There is no indication whatsoever that this section is timed, nor any information on where you need to go. It is possible to get a Game Over screen while BT is still explaining to the player what it was you were supposed to have already done.
• Taking You with Me: All Titans in multiplayer can equip the Nuclear Core detonation ability, that causes the Titan to violently explode after the pilot ejects from it. Does large amounts of damage to anything in the blast radius including enemy Titans, players, NPCs, and in certain cases (such as overhead obstructions, as the eject trajectory is always straight up), the pilot that ejected from it.
• Tele-Frag:
  • A pilot coming out of Phase Shift on top of an enemy will kill them, though it's not easy to do this on the fly. One of the executions even has your pilot do this deliberately.
  • Inverted with the Ronin, which will destroy itself if it phases out onto another Titan.
• Three Laws-Compliant: BT's protocols aren't the actual three laws, but the way the AI certainly follows them suggests it must comply with abandon. Taken to its logical conclusion when BT sacrifices itself to destroy the Fold Weapon (Protocol 2) and hurling Cooper away from the blast to evacuate onto a Drop Ship before Typhon breaks apart (Protocol 3).
• Time Skip: Titanfall 2 takes place 5 years after the first game, after the Militia have regained a quarter of Frontier space from the IMC, expanded their fleet and even manufacturing the new Vanguard-class Titan without stealing from the IMC's arsenal of Titans.
• Time Travel: The Fold Weapon the IMC created based on alien technology causes space-time disturbances, allowing Jack and BT to travel back in time when they arrive at the Fold Weapon research base.
• Title Drop: Like with the previous game, "Standby for Titanfall" whenever you get to call your Titan in the multiplayer. In the singleplayer, this only happens at a pivotal moment: the only time you actually get to call a Titan and have it work, when Sarah Briggs prepares a fresh Titan for you to insert BT's datacore into and attack the enemy lines with.
• Took a Level in Badass: Sarah proved her Action Girl credentials already in the first Titanfall by participating in a ground op in Mission 7. When the Militia are Storming the Castle, not only is she a Pilot, but she's the commanding officer of the Militia's elite Marauder Corps.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Blisk in Titanfall 1 was a more of an Amoral Afrikaner, endorsing the IMC's wholesale slaughter of civilian populations to root out the Militia and far more of a psycho who goes after MacAllen out of vengeance. Here, he's openly contemptuous of the IMC involving civilians and trying underhanded tricks, and even spares the protagonist both to spite the IMC and out of genuine respect for the protagonist's skills.
• Two Girls to a Team: Played straight. The Militia has Commander Sarah Briggs and Gates of the 6-4, while the IMC has Ash and Sloane of the Apex Predators. All other characters, including the Mooks, are male.
• Unexpected Gameplay Change: Once Jack acquires Major Anderson's Time Traveling device, players must jump between the past and present to maneuver through the IMC Fold Weapon facility effectively.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: There's nothing stopping you from taking out the helpless MRVNs who dutifully work on infinitely tending to the various levels you play on. One particular MRVN from the campaign chapter "The Beacon" carries the Arc Tool needed to progress; you can either use the interact key on him to take the tool from its hands (after which it'll become visibly sad), or you can melee it to get it to drop the Arc Tool... or even gently take the tool and then melee it after for no reason.
• Violation of Common Sense:
  • Regarding submachine guns, these weapons suffer little accuracy penalties while hip-firing. This means that using the aim-down sights won't make much of a difference, making them practical for firing on the move.
  • Once players go down to critical health while in a Titan, they get prompted to eject from their Titan and launch themselves upwards. Doing so can be useful situationally, but disembarking normally is usually the safer option because being launched high in the sky via an eject will open Pilots up to be goosed out of the air by enemy snipers and most Titans' attacks. Disembarking, on the other hand, turns their doomed Titan into temporary cover and gives them an opportunity to bolt towards any nearby buildings to take cover.
• The War Sequence: The mission "Trial By Fire", after the remains of the Typhon mission's forces are joined by reinforcements from one of the Militia's fleets. What was previously a guerrilla campaign of limited strikes escalates to open-field warfare, starting with a Titanfall operation right outside the doors of a major IMC docking facility.
• Wave-Motion Gun: The Ion Titan's Laser Core.
• We ARE Struggling Together: An enemy version - it's clear the Apex Predators do not care much at all for the IMC grunts, openly considering them Cannon Fodder. Blisk, in particular, loathes Marder (unlike his professional respect for Graves), and lets Cooper go because Marder hadn't paid him to kill Cooper, leading to the Ark's destruction.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Although Sarah Briggs, Barker, and Blisk return from Titanfall, there's no mention of Marcus Graves or Spyglass in the sequel, and Bish is relegated to The Cameo on one multiplayer banner with no elaboration on what happened to him.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • The first IMC Titan you face compliments you when you start doing damage.
  • Later, it's part of the reason Blisk spares you in the climax - you slaughtered his comrades in fair battles, and he considers that an impressive feat, owing to his "you kill me, you're better" philosophy. He decides to let you live another day (to Marder's annoyance, since killing Cooper was Not in My Contract) and leaves you an Apex Predator calling card as a token of respect before he leaves.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: During the Tutorial level, you are given instructions on how to call for a Titanfall. But literally an instant before it touches down, the simulator crashes. This turns out to be a segue into the first mission, as your ship has powered down non-essential systems (such as the simulators) due to a Red Alert combat situation. But the end result is that the part the player and Player Character were most looking forward to—driving a Titan—doesn't occur in the tutorial.
  • Additionally, while you get to drive around in BT frequently during the campaign, there's only one instance of the eponymous Titanfall: during the final level, as a scripted event.