Strictly speaking, theyre quite decent as AR equivalents and I sometimes wonder how SF never won. Honestly they have passable all-round performance.

Practically speaking their skill is awful and you have other options, so raising them is kind of a waste unless you already have lots of everything else

The armor helps it a bit, even if its Evasion is lower compared to the unarmored Dinnergates. Its low HP is an issue, but it's surprisingly decent as a tank, and its damage is actually not bad. Also, its extra swarms are actually not bad either. The really big issue is it's a 2-star unit, so have fun getting finished ones done.

Her skill is hit or miss (+damage early in the fight, though its a BIG number so it can be worth it) but her big thing is just continuous DPS. Unlike G&K MGs, she never runs out of ammo. Otherwise, quite similar to G&K MGs with basic AP loads. Surprisingly low cost too.

1 downside is she mostly gets replaced by her SWAP version.

Weirdly, they're classed as melee units, despite having guns. Their big thing is -50% Enemy Evasion. YMMV

You get her just for unlocking SF Capture, which is good because you need a ringleader to make an effective SF echelon. Also makes her the only one you can get off her normal season. This is still good, because she's actually fuckin good for utility + has good combat stats, and because Executioner fucking sucks. Far from the strongest ringleader for combat, but she's serviceable enough to handle most enemies.

Overall: Surprisingly really good for general use. Synergizes well with chips that drive her into enemy territory and lets her capture areas there with Shadow Predator without having to bring a second echelon. Overall super good utility if you can get creative.

Almost across the board, it's an improvement for the Vespid. However, its a pain to get a full formation of them because its a 2 star base unit, and as a DPS unit you want it at full stacks. Also, it's not really significantly better than stuff like Jaegers and Strikers. They're not useless, but there are just much better SF units to spend effort and slot points on.

The SWAP Striker has higher offensive stats, better multipliers, and notably higher accuracy than the base version, so it can actually hit things. The main downside to this is it costs 6 instead of 4 to put into your echelon.

The most ridiculous SF tank in the game. She doesn't have Armor, but she has high Evasion, and her second skill works off your echelon setting. In defense mode, every time she loses a link OR her main skill activates, she gets a 9999 power distortion barrier that lasts for a few seconds, meaning that no matter what, she's going to buy you some time. In other modes, it becomes an attack buff that contributes a bit to DPS. And that's her passive. For her active, it triggers her passive and defense mode gives her a considerable 120% Evasion boost, on top of the barrier. In other modes she gets an attack boost that stacks multiplicatively with her passive.

If an SF team needs something ridiculous tanked and you absolutely need to buy time, she is currently the last word in.

The buffs are actually quite usable and it costs about as much as a 1 star prowler. Will you actually use these? Who knows, but they can help melee units a fair bit. The thing about SF units is that half the time, you can braindead your way through 99% of encounters using Manticores.

Yeah, she's not the worst unit, but she's a 2-star (so good luck finishing her), and she's not exactly exceptional. Most pros and criticisms of the Guard still apply. The most common use for her is stacking her shields to tank AoE shots (like Typhon lasers), but otherwise, ehhh.

Unlike the basic Dragoon, this one has an infinite (until shot at) duration shield that replenishes itself at regular intervals. She also has higher stats than the basic version, and the 2nd skill reduces enemy stats.

Basically, if your enemies ignore Armor making AEGIS unsuitable for your frontline, these might work out better. SWAP Rippers are broken, but sometimes these will last longer depending on the specific fight you're gearing up for.

Same skill 1, way better skill 2. The really big thing is the shields will absolutely stop the hit that breaks them, so they can take a Goliath to the face and be absolutely fine as long as their shields were up at the time. Also, you get damage reduction for having more units left. The main thing to note about them is they lose their offensive stats (considerably worse RoF, slightly worse Firepower) in exchange for this tankiness, so you'd better have the rest of your echelon be tanky.

You know what I like? SMG performance when I pay SG-like costs.

Strictly speaking, their evade is quite high, and their performance is on the high end of SMGs, but you have other options for tanks. YMMV. Personally I've never used these, and frankly there's a better thing on the way anyway (the SWAP Rippers)

This, my friends, is why you don't send ricecookers to war.

It's flat out awful. Weirdly, the SWAP version is actually really fuckin good.

She has map utility and can buff allies, rather than simply being overwhelmingly strong on her own. However, unlike the map utility things used by Agent or Scarecrow, she isn't so much going to let you control a map as much as let you buy time in case of nasties you can't deal with or something needs to be delayed (perhaps on a ranking map).