GN-001

GN-001 Gundam Exia

Technology & Combat Characteristics

A 3rd-Generation Gundam, Exia is designed to be a close quarters combat (CQC) type mobile suit (MS). The unit is the successor to GNY-001 Gundam Astraea and one of the predecessors to GN-0000 00 Gundam. Much of Exia's design was heavily influenced by the Astraea Gundam. What this means is that even though Exia's weapons are specialized for CQC, its basic performance is still that of a general purpose mobile suit. This is mostly evident as Exia is the only Gundam out of the four main 3rd Generation units that retain a MS frame that has human-like range of motion. The lack of this range of motion on the other three units is not considered a weakness but rather because it was deemed unnecessary.^[1]

Gundams (and by extension other GNMS) benefit from the weight reducing effects of GN Particles, and this effect can also be used for weight alteration of various body parts. Because of this, the pilot can freely control the suit's inertia, influencing maneuverability when it is in the airborne. In space, this ability is transformed into Active Mass Balance Auto Control(AMBAC). As such, the legs actually never need to "walk" when moving.

Armaments

• GN Beam Sabers
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Mounted on the back of the shoulders. The beam saber is a hilt with the ability to activate a beam blade by generating a positron field filled with GN Particles. While the beam saber has a high power rating, one disadvantage is that their performance can be decreased by surrounding atmospheric conditions or methods of beam diffusion.

• GN Beam Daggers
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Attach to Exia's waist, the GN Beam Daggers shares the same basic system as that of the GN Beam Sabers but are adjusted to have a shorter blade length that makes them harder to diffuse.Setsuna has developed a habit of throwing them at distant enemies while in combat. This weapon type became obsolete in the future as the ability to manipulate beam saber length blades was achieved.

• GN Long Blade & GN Short Blade
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Named as GN Long Blade and GN Short Blade respectively, these are Exia's customized solid swords that differ in size from the main GN Sword and are the weapons that had the longest development time among all of Exia's armaments. Because the GN Sword has difficulty doing damage without a certain amount of swing and space due to it's size, these were designed in order to give the Exia solid blades that can be used in a variety of situations that the GN Sword has difficulty with. They were stated to possess the ability to cut through 2 meters of conventional E-Carbon armor. Like the GN Beam Daggers, Setsuna occasionally uses the GN Short Blade as a throwing knife.

• GN Shield
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A shield mounted on Exia's left arm that is made out of extremely strong and durable E-Carbon At first glance, the shield can be thought of as unnecessary as it is made of the exact same material as of the body's main armor. However, due to the flexibility of the arm, the mounted shield can help to absorb shock from attacks. On the surface of the shield, a GN Field can be generated that would confer better defenses to the user.As long as Exia continues to receive GN Particle energy supply, conventional weapons would not be able to penetrate the GN Shield.The shield also possesses an "expansion" mode where the left and right blue sections move outwards and increase the defense area the shield covers, but the drawbacks of this mode are increased particle consumption as well as a decrease in the overall defense property of the shield due to the increased area that GN Field element covers. Although the shield is extremely effective against conventional weapons, its strength is not enough to defend against stronger attacks such as GN beam weapons and as a result, has been destroyed by these attacks on a few occasions.

• GN Sword

A solid GN blade attached to a miniature forearm shield, which serves as the Exia's primary weapon, and the largest blade amongst the Seven Swords. It works by applying GN Particles over the solid sword which greatly increases the sharpness and cutting power though the sword can still be used when there are no particles applied to it. Although the blade is considered to have great destructive power,there are situations where it cannot be used due to its size. The GN Sword can also be used in Rifle Mode, whereby the blade returns to its idle folded state exposing the muzzle of a beam rifle. The Rifle Mode was created to avoid the equipping of excessive armaments on Exia, and thus enhance the ease of movement which the unit's systems depend heavily on.

• GN Vulcan 

Small guns installed in both arms of Gundam Exia. Purely secondary weapons, these low powered weapons are equipped with main purpose of diversion.While the GN Sword's Rifle Mode has high power, it requires a transformation action and can't response instantly, thus the GN Vulcans were installed to counter this weakness. Though the power of their beams are weak, their high firing rate means that they can be a threat to conventional weapons that lack E-Carbon armor. This is also very useful when engaging small, fast, maneuverable targets such as GN Fangs and missiles.

• Proto GN Sword

As its name suggests, it is a prototype of Exia's GN Sword, and is the first GN particle-lined physical blade created by Celestial Being. Even at the time of the construction of this weapon, it has already been planned for a rifle function to be included and the "Proto" part of the name refers to the incompleteness of the weapon as its still in development. It was used by Exia during its basic performance test as the GN Sword had yet to be completed.