Black Trike (THE GAME)

The Black Trike (ブラックトライク, Burakku Toraiku) is a vehicle that appears in Black★Rock Shooter THE GAME.

Description
The Black Trike is a three-wheeled motor vehicle with two wheels in front and one in back. The one that Stella uses has its powertrain refitted with pre-war parts by Phobos, and according to Rothcall it is difficult to control, but Stella has no problem driving it. It is also equipped with a tracker device so that the PSS can track Stella's location remotely.

The vehicle's maximum speed is throttled at 140km/h. While it can go as high as 360km/h, Phobos has not tested it himself.

Nana Gray has a Black Trike Prototype, which looks almost identical to the Black Trike that Stella uses, with the exception of orange accents and the text "TEST" written on the side.

History
Stella used the Black Trike to drive to Manhattan and divert enemies away from the PSS, who were at the same time traveling to New Jersey to retrieve the Brunhild and Draco.

When the diversion was successful, Stella drove towards the Status Building to be picked up by the Brunhild, but the Black Trike took serious damage on the way and broke down before she could reach the rendezvous point. She covered the remaining distance on foot, and apologized to Phobos for breaking his vehicle when Marion asked for its status.

Nana drove her Black Trike Prototype with Stella riding behind to the Brunhild when they decided to head for Fuji Jukai to find their mother. She later abandoned her the vehicle in Fuji Jukai when she left Stella behind and took off with the Brunhild to meet the aliens in person. Not wanting to lose Nana, Stella took the abandoned prototype and drove to Tokyo to find her. The Black Trike Prototype was abandoned once again within the City Eater in Tokyo when Stella traveled on foot inside to continue her search.

Gameplay
The Black Trike is playable in selected missions on Stage 2: New York City. It always starts with 1,000 HP regardless of Stella's own stats.

With the exception of the extra mission "A Man's Dream", the vehicle's top speed is 140km/h in most missions. Taking damage from enemies or hazardous area reduces the vehicle's speed, and it takes time to accelerate back to maximum value. The player should change lanes to dodge enemy attacks and maintain top speed whenever possible.

A "DANGER" sign ("JUST" in Japanese version) appears when an enemy is about to collide into Stella's vehicle. Changing lane when the sign appears destroys the said enemy with the vehicle's Danger Blade (ジャストブレード, jyasutobure-do), and adds one to combo counter as seen at the bottom right of the screen.

When the combo counter is at 5, the Black Trike's range attack becomes available, which, when activated by pressing the square button, unleashes rapid fire shots and destroys enemies directly ahead of the vehicle for approximately five seconds. The combo counter resets to zero afterwards. Danger Blade cannot be used while rapid fire is active.

In addition to counter, a gauge also appears when the combo counter is between 0 and 5, which slowly depletes if the player does not perform another Danger Blade in the meantime. Depleting the gauge resets the combo counter, therefore the player is encouraged to dodge incoming enemies at the right timing in order to build up the combo and unlock range attack.