Nande Nande no Mi/Version 3.0 techniques

Version 3.0: Dreadnought
Mecha Pirate Version 3.0, Dreadnought, is another transformation Dimitri developed for his mechanical systems that was intended to provide much greater attacking power. The result is described by Dimitri as a land-based battleship. Despite being described as an overhaul, it was never intended to be a permanent upgrade, and instead was conceived of as a temporary attacking transformation, as with Version 2.0.

Overview
After encountering several extraordinarily powerful fighters with multiple limbs, including the swordsman Laon de Ryu and the colossal squid fishman Nix, Dimitri decided to try and reverse engineer their abilities, giving himself additional mechanical limbs of his own. This theoretically allows him to launch multiple attacks simultaneously, or carry out rapid combinations of strikes, dealing damage by shear force of numbers.

To initiate the technique, Dimitri rapidly pumped air into mechanisms in his shoulders, which then transformed the air into extendable arms, which then transformed again into bulkier limbs after being extended. This allowed Dimitri to manifest up to twelve additional limbs, six from each shoulder.

In the initial prototype Dreadnought, the weight and size of the weapons limited the scale of the transformation, and Dimitri preferred to create eight limbs only, using the full complement of twelve only when necessary. The completed version overcame this using a powered exoskeleton copied from Jaito Ren to provide more support for Dimitri’s main body. At the same time, the connecting shoulder framework was upgraded into a much larger pair of revolving gears, allowing Dimitri to wield an astonishing thirty six additional weapons simultaneously, eighteen from each shoulder, on top of his normal attacks.

In the completed Dreadnought form, Dimitri is much more imposing. A series of pistons line his legs, and his feet gain wide gripping claws to provide balance and support. Further pistons surround his upper body and support a pair of large rounded gear or shield like structures that connect behind his normal shoulders. Multiple purely mechanical arms extend from the edges of the gears, rising above and behind Dimitri, and dwarfing his normal body.

Needless to say, even with the exoskeleton, the weight of this form is a considerable disadvantage. Dimitri is slowed down by the weight, and with a full payload he is generally unable to move faster than a brisk walk. As a result, Dimitri is a large, slow moving target, and cannot dodge attacks very easily. The additional limbs, being attached to his upper body, also make him dangerously top-heavy and infamously at risk of overbalancing. Furthermore, due to requiring several different stages to complete, fully initiating version 3.0 is the slowest of all of Dimitri’s transformations, and has a significant delay. Despite this, the unprecedented firepower it can provide with the right opportunity can easily turn the tide of a battle, or even end it entirely with a single devastating attack.