Choo-Choo Charlessees horror fans engage in a train deathmatch unlike any other, pitting them against a ‘half train, half giga-spider from hell’. Thatlegendary monster, known rather plainly as ‘Charles’, will hunt the player for the duration of the entire game, periodically showing up to wreak havoc on their plans.
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It’s fortunate then, that the player can fight back at the helm of their trusty rail engine, although without making any improvements, their resistance won’t last very long. Players must spend scraps wisely and make sure to unlock certain new armaments to stand a chance at defeating Charles once and for all. Here are all the possible train upgrades, ranked by usefulness.
9Pimp My Locomotive
Paint Cans can be found scattered across the island of Aranearum, usually in notable locations like caves or buildings, and sometimes in chests that must be unlocked to loot their contents. There’s a total of eleven different paint cans players can discover in the world, although they won’t be easy to find.
While applying a fresh coat of paint to the train does let players ride around in style, it’s purely an aesthetic decision and makes no difference in the struggle against Charles. However, if painting the train in a coat of cyan blue or lime green boosts morale, there’s no reason for players not to flaunt their colors.
8Weapon - Derailer
While not necessarily an upgrade, as the player already starts with this weapon mounted on the back of their train, the Derailer mounted machine gun is one of the four weapon choices available to the player when taking on Charles.
It’s an all-around average weapon, decent at everything but not particularly great at any one quality. It’s also worth noting that the Derailer can overheat fairly easily, causing the gun to momentarily stop working, and losing the player precious time in the middle of a fight. Still, it’s not a bad gun and can serve players well even beyondthe early game.
7Upgrade - Armor Level
Upgrading the train’s armor does what it says on the tin – it allows the train to take more punishment from an enraged Charles. This is useful, but while it should be taken if there’s scrap going spare, it’s not entirely crucial.
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It won’t provide a massive amount of protection, and Charles will still do significant damage to the train whether it’s upgraded or not. It’s better to invest in higher damage to kill Charles quicker, ormore speed to outrun him. Despite all that, upgrading the armor level of the train does give some nice visual improvements to how the train looks, which is always nice.
6Weapon – Bob
Ever wanted to mount an Anti-Tank Cannon on the back of a locomotive? Well, now it’s possible. Bob is a better choice than the Derailer, with better damage and a much farther range, specializing in landing hits on Charles over a long distance.
The main downside is thatCharles usually closes the gap rather quickly, making the range advantage pretty redundant, meaning the player would be better served using a higher-damage weapon with a shorter range. Oh, and Bob overheats as well – overall not the greatest choice of weaponry.
5Upgrade – Damage Level
The Damage upgrade increases the amount of damage put out by all weapons – in essence, it kills Charles faster. This should be a priority, as more damage output equals less damage taken before Charles runs off, which in turn, reduces the number of scraps that need to be spent on repairing the train.
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Of course, it also requires a good amount of aiming to get the shots to land, aswhile Charles might be a humungous entity, he’s quite speedy and jittery, making it surprisingly easy to miss shots. If that’s the case, players might be best balancing damage with a bit of armor as well, to prolong survivability and get more shots off.
4Weapon – Bug Spray
Burn, baby, burn… is whatChoo-Choo Charles’s silent protagonist might have said when wielding this weapon. The Bug Spray has quite a low range and damage output, but it does excel in setting Charles on fire and slowing him down.
This buys the player valuable time in the middle of a battle – maybe they’ll use it to switch to a more damage-heavy weapon, or spend scrap to repair the train. Either way, the Bug Spray is more of a utility weapon and can come in very handy during the player’s encounters with Charles.
3Repair Train Health
Throughout the game, players can repair the train by spending 1 scrap to get 10% of its health back, something they can do an unlimited amount of times until they run out of scrap. This comes in handy in the aftermath of an attack by Charles, as the player can lick their wounds and prepare for the next encounter, not to mention the scrap cost being super cheap compared to some of the later upgrades.
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All of this is nice, but by far the most powerful aspect of repairing the train is how players can do it during combat. It allows them to take a momentary break from shooting Charles and quickly heal their train, keeping them (and their locomotive) in the fight – afeature that has no doubt saved many a monster hunter.
2Weapon – The Boomer
The last of four weapon choices, the Boomer is a rocket launcher like no other. It deals the most damage out of any of the armaments, and just the right amount of range to be effective most of the time.
It may have a horrendously slow reload speed (and a janky reload animation to match), but it’s still the most powerful weapon the player has in their arsenal. Just be sure to land the shots, as missed rockets are costly and will quickly give Charles the upper hand, likely inflicting a swift death on the player.
1Upgrade – Speed Level
Increasing the speed of the train is one of the most useful upgrades inChoo-Choo Charles. Not only does it make traversing around the island a lot faster, which is useful from the start of the game right up until the final boss battle, but it makes fleeing from Charles that much easier.
The player is able to create distance between them and the gigantic train spider chasing them, allowing them to deal more damage and avoid more direct hits. This upgrade should be prioritized as soon as possible, as it will be endlessly useful in the ultimate goal ofending the reign of terror imposed by Charles.
