Swap Force

Free Ranger is a new Swappable Air Skylander for Skylanders Swap Force. Free Ranger is a bird who spent his early years chasing storms. He chased hurricanes, rode lightning and spun inside tornadoes. That’s how he perfected his spin ability. One day he was chasing a dark and ominous storm when Master Eon caught him and taught him of the darkness in Skylands. Free Ranger then became a protector of Cloudbreak Islands by becoming a Skylander Swap Force member. Free Ranger’s figure embodies his backstory. His legs are in a constant spinning vortex and his hair is in a lightning bolt shaped pony tail. His light blue, yellow and orange coloring complement his character well, by just making him look light. He also carries a couple of Stormblades in his hands to give him a powerful spinning attacks.  Overall, he fits the image you might have for an air element Skylander. He is a bird who spins and has several lightning and tornado based air attacks. Free Ranger comes with the 3DS version of the game. He also has a special Legendary version which changes his paint scheme to the legendary black and gold.

Free Ranger starts with a couple attacks you would expect from looking at his character. He has a fast melee attack with his Stormblades in both hands, and a spinning attack that sucks enemies in to damage them. After some upgrades Free Ranger will be able to shoot bolts of lightning from his eyes, and his Stormblades will send a wave of air shooting at his enemies. His spinning will become faster, more powerful and pull in enemies from farther away.

As a swappable character there are two different upgrade paths to choose, one for his body and one for his legs. The body paths let you focus either on stronger Stormblade attacks by adding combos or a stronger lightning attack by being able to charge the bolts of lightning he can shoot. The leg paths are actually pretty powerful for Free Ranger. One path allows you to add lightning bolts to your tornado attack to further damage your enemies. The other path adds the ability to shoot out a tornado once your normal tornado spin attack ends. None of Free Ranger’s attacks are super flashy or unique. They are pretty much what you would expect from a spinning air element character. However, that doesn’t make him weak or not fun to play with. Sucking up enemies in tornadoes and firing lightning is very satisfying.

Also as a swappable character he has two soul gem abilities. Neither are very exciting or creative which is a bit of a disappointment for such an expensive upgrade. Most soul gem abilities offer some new crazy attacks. For Free Ranger though, one upgrade increases the damage of the Stormblades by adding lighting damage to them, while the other upgrade fills the tornado attack with lightning damage.

All in all, Free Ranger is a very solid character. He is sort of the stereotypical air elemental “storm” character with tornado and lightning attacks. He’s still worth owning, especially if you want the 3DS version of the game.

7 out of 10

Free Ranger’s Stats

Card Stats			In Game Stats
Attack:	115		Max Health	280
Defense:	150		Speed	43
Speed:	110		Armor	18
Luck:	100		Critical Hit	8
			Elemental Power	25

Legendary Free Ranger’s Stats

Card Stats			In Game Stats
Attack:	115		Max Health	280
Defense:	150		Speed	42
Speed:	110		Armor	18
Luck:	100		Critical Hit	8
			Elemental Power	25

Free Ranger’s Attacks

Body Attacks
Stormblade Slash	Press Attack 1 to slash at enemies with powerful Stormblades.		Free
Eyes of the Storm	Press Attack 3 to shoot a bolt of lightning from the eyes, stunning the first enemy and chaining to others.		300 Gold
Charged Blades	Press Attack 1 to slash with more powerful Stormblades that do increased damage.		800 Gold
Gale Slash	Press Attack 1 three times to send a wave of powerful air at enemies.		1000 Gold
Wind Slasher Path
Slicing Storm	Hold Attack 1 to charge Stormblades, release for a devastating combo attack.		1500 Gold
Feathered Fury	Slicing Storm does increased damage.		2000 Gold
Storm Focus Path
Lightning Strikes Thrice	Hold Attack 3 to charge Eye of the Storm, release to shoot a larger bolt of lightning.		1500 Gold
Charged Gigawatt Bolt	Lightning Strikes Thrice does increased damage. More powerful than lightning.		2000 Gold
Soul Gem Ability
Storming Stormblades	Press Attack 1 to attack with more powerful Stormblades that deal extra lightning damage.		3500 Gold
Leg Attacks
Ride the Wind	Press Attack 2 to become a tornado and damage nearby enemies.		Free
Approaching Storm	Hold Attack 2 to become a tornado, speed is increased while the tornado is active		300 Gold
Wind Powered	Becoming a tornado will last longer		800 Gold
Tornado Vacuum Boost	Tornadoes now pull in enemies from further away.		1000 Gold
Lightning Linquist Path
Lightning Nova	Blast all nearby enemies with a powerful lightning bolt when becoming a tornado.		1500 Gold
Nova Flash	Lightning Nova does increased damage.		2000 Gold
Tornado Thrower Path
Wild Tornado	When becoming a tornado ends, a powerful tornado is shot out, damaging all enemies in the way.		1500 Gold
Twisted Twister	More powerful tornadoes are shot forward that do increased damage to enemies.		2000 Gold
Soul Gem Ability
Charged Winds	Hold Attack 2 to become a tornado filled with lightning, dealing damage to all enemies in the way.		3500 Gold

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