Although the Separatist Droid Army was the largest of its kind ever assembled, it was
clear that it was quantity over quality, as a vast majority of the battle droids deployed
were nearly useless as individual units.
But despite this fact, the Separatists did invest a ton of credits into developing powerful
droids to use for special occasions, as well as to replace and upgrade the main units had
the war gone for many more years.
When it comes to the battle droid with the most overwhelming power and defensive armor,
then that easily goes to the Scorpenek annihilator droids.
These guys were absolutely terrifying in battle.
Imagine a droideka that was twice as big, fired blaster bolts powerful enough to penetrate
heavy walkers with ease, and had the shielding that could withstand large scale artillery
fire; that was essentially what the annihilator droids were.
They were developed and deployed during the late stages of the Clone Wars and most saw
tremendous success in action, as it took only a few of these droids to turn the tide of
battles in the Separatists’ favor.
Actually, in one case a single annihilator droid was able to take out over one hundred
clone troopers.
Once this fact became known within the Republic, these droids quickly became among the most
feared within the clone ranks.
While the annihilator droids were nearly unstoppable, due to their insanely high price tag and difficulty
in production, less than one hundred of these droids were ever created.
Another interesting fact about them was that after the Separatist droid armies were shut
down, the annihilator droids were among the very few that were reactivated and used by
the new Galactic Empire.
A few were taken to the Imperial Department of Military Research center, and the rest
were put to use on Palpatine’s secret fortress world on the Deep Core world of Byss, where
they were likely used for defensive purposes.
On the complete opposite end of the power spectrum, were the countless standard B1-
Battle droids.
But despite being some of the weakest droids in the entire army, there were models within
the B1 line that were far more capable than the standard ones.
The strongest B1 model was most likely the B1-A air battle droid.
With far stronger armor plates, two wrist-mounted blasters, a jet pack, and two double edged
blades, these B1s were actually a threat to most troopers even as individuals.
They also had a small shield that was capable to resist direct lightsaber blows to a degree,
which made them among the few separatist battle droids that were specifically designed to
deal with Jedi.
Some Separatist designers had high hopes of mass producing these droids and having them
replace the standard B1s, but these ambitions later disappeared once the droids were known
to lose control if their jetpacks were shot down at specific weak points.
Next we have the B3 Ultra Battle Droid.
As the name suggests, this was the upgraded design of the widely produced B2 Super Battle
Droid and was regarded as one of the deadliest droids produced by the Trade Federation.
The B3 line only made it into the prototype phase, but nonetheless was extremely powerful
and effective in the limited use it saw.
At twice the height of its predecessor, the B3 Battle Droid was a giant that towered over
its enemies, and had a deadly arsenal equipped across its large body.
It included a small flamethrower, two rapid fire blaster cannons, a rocket launcher, and
a plasma cannon, which made it effective against light armored vehicles.
Its large size and weapons made it difficult for even Jedi to fight, but despite its success
it was never mass produced, as there were far too many technical problems that were
never fully fixed before the end of the war.
However just like with the annihilator droids, the few remaining B3 Droids that survived
the war were taken by the Empire and used for training exercises at some of the Imperial
Academies.
We then have the C-B3 Cortosis Battle Droid.
This line of droids were coated with Cortosis armor, meaning they were completely resistant
to lightsaber strikes.
This made them effective at killing Jedi, so effective actually, that Palpatine was
worried that their deployment could have given the Separatists a quick victory during the
war, so he purposely had their development be put to an end.
Not only did the Droids’ Cortosis armor make them nearly unkillable against Jedi,
but they were also outfitted with high intensity laser cannons that were on special rotation
wrists, that made them highly effective in mowing down Jedi knights as they could overpower
their lightsaber defenses.
When early reports of these droids success came in, Palpatine, being the puppet master
of both sides of the war, leaked the origin factory of these droids as well as a small
opening in their armor, which allowed for the Republic to destroy these droids before
they became a too great of a threat.
It was assumed that all of the Cortosis Battle Droids were destroyed following the elimination
of their production factory, as none appeared afterwards.
Next we have the Advanced Dwarf Spider Droid.
Built for use in nearly any terrain it was placed in, this advanced dwarf spider droid
model was quite deadly in every engagement it was placed in.
With heavy armor plating, rocket launchers and and a heavy blaster cannon, this droid
was a massive threat toward many Republic vehicles.
It also was effective against infantry and was capable of fully operating in the dark.
These droids were known to keep marching on toward their objective, no matter what, and
because of their extremely heavy armor plating they were usually made a high priority to
destroy during battle by Republic forces.
Finally for this video we have the V2-Series Commando Droids.
While the standard commando droids themselves were already quite deadly against enemies
they were put up against, the V2-series was just an upgraded version of them across the
board.
With heavier armor plating, the V2 droids were much harder to eliminate and were typically
placed in specific strike zones during battles.
Not much else is known about them, other than the few models that survived the war were
used by mercenaries as advanced security droids.