Rhotuka are spiner-like objects, which can be formed from a personal physical energy of an individual. The ability to form Rhotuka is universaly shared by all protodermis based biomechanical life forms, in other words most residents of the Matoran Universe.
Because the Rhotuka is derived from the personality, its effects are unique to each individual. The power level of the spinner depends on the amount of energy put into it. The user can charge up the spinner to achieve greater power. The minimum energy required to form a functional spinner results in what is called an uncharged Rhotuka - less powerful, but requires less time to produce due to lack of charging.
Toa Hordika were a special case when it comes to Rhotuka spinners - their powers happened to match their elemental power. That said, because they were Rhotuka, these were still made from physical energy rather than elemental energy of a Toa. Toa Metru lost access to their elemental powers after their transfromation. But the Hordika developed tools via their mutation, which had the ability to charge objects with their (otherwise inaccessible) elemental energy, including (and most prominently) the Rhotuka. This allowed Toa Hordika to charge up their spinners without wasting their physical energy and make use of the elemental pool they could otherwise not utilize. We know that with practice, Hordika could master their Rhotuka to the point that any elemental feat ththey could do as a Toa could be replicated.
However, the point of this topic is to analyze the capabilities of the uncharged Rhotuka. Aside from the power, I am especially interested in the speed at which they can be fired. Because there is no downtime for charging, the uncharged spinners can be fired in close succession.
We know there are variants to the rhotuka launchers - natural and artificial launchers do exist. Of particular interest is the launcher of Dark Hunter Ancient, who is said to posses rapid fire rhotuka launcher. This got me thinking: if his is rapid fire, how fast is regular one? It is for this reason I have chosen to analyze firing of uncharged spinners, because no time is wasted between shots.
So what we need for this analysis is some piece of media where several uncharged rhotuka are launched in close succession by a single person with an unmodified launcher. That list of requirements would normally be a tall order, but luck is on our side because there is one piece of obscure media that is perfect for the job.
The DVD bonus features of B3 Web of Shadows included a animated version of the comic Shadow Play, where static images are given life and action: BIONICLE 24: Shadow Play - BIONICLEsector01
Here, charged and uncharged Rhotuka are clearly differentiated: when a spinner is charged, the Hordika always clasps it between their tools and charges it up. In cases of uncharged spinners, they just fire multiple from their launcher without any additionsl actions. The other advantage specific to this version is that the spinners are given light effects indicating when and where they are fired. By counting the number of flashes in each scene where rapid firing takes place and measuring the amount of time this takes, we can figure out the rate of fire for the uncharged Rhotuka.
There are 4 total shots where this can be done: 2 for Nuju and 2 for Whenua. I analysed all of them, but for the purpose of the analysis I chose the first Nuju scene where we get the highest numbers. Another criterion was that Nuju here is in the right state of mind without his Hordika side interfering much or at all. He also shows no strain in his voice meaning what he does is probably within his usual capabilities. None of this can be said about Whenua scenes where he goes berserk with anger, which is why I chose Nuju instead.
The results are tallied in the table below. The video in question ran at 30 fps:
As we can see, the highest rate of fire is from Nuju in scene 1 where he fires 39.69 spinners per second on five separate trajectories. That is quite impressive, especially considering the apparent ease at which Nuju performs this feat. I think it is safe to say we can round to the full spinners and declare the rate of fire as 40 spinners per second. This is the highest we have seen across all the media available, and as it is unlikely we will ever get any new source with higher proovable rate, we can consider this the maximum rate of fire for an unmodified rhotuka launcher. And beacuse the spinners are uncharged, the rate cannot get higher in that regard.
With this in mind, the Ancient’s launcher needs to have higher rate than that, enough so that it would be considered “rapid-fire”. Unfortunately we have no way of knowing the exact or even approximate number.
So 40 spinner/sec on 5 trajectories is what is possible for uncharged spinners, then what about their power? Would this be a case of quantity over quality? In some extent certainly, but would this hamper the viability of the spinners or would they be still good enought to do the job? Once again my choice suits our needs - Nuju’s power is ice and it is the only element that has an equivalent in the raster of the 8 basic Kanoka disks - freeze disks. This will serve as a point of reference for the uncharged ice Rhotuka power level.
Do we know anything about how do uncharged Rhotuka and Kanoka compare? Yes, we do! Greg commented on this specificaly in the past:
Q: How powerful would you say an uncharged Rhotuka is, compared to Kanoka power levels? Five, six, seven?
A: Hmmmm … on a scale of 1-10, I would say about a 5 or 6.
That is very concrete, but we need a quick adjustment first. Greg used arbitrary scale of 1-10, but Kanoka power levels go from 0-9, so we need to shift one back, meaning that on the Kanoka scale, uncharged spinner would be at power level 4-5.
Ok, great, but what can a level 5 freeze disk do? Lucky for us, we do have two examples of this exact kind of disk in action:
„This was a level 5 freeze disk. Better still, the disk had been made in Ko-Metru, which meant it carried an extra surprise for the Morbuzakh vines. Vakama rolled, came up in a crouch, aimed, and let the disk fly. As he expected, the Morbuzakh vines reacted instantly, swiping at the spinning object. But Ko-Metru disks were made to swerve at high speed to avoid any obstacle. The Morbuzakh grasped only empty air as the disk flew onto its target. Impact! The disk hit the gears above the vat head on, freezing them solid and stopping the tilt. The vines snaked back up to the vat but recoiled violently when they touched the ice.Vakama took the hint. He launched another disk at one of the vines. When it struck, veins of frost began to travel the length of the blackened tendril. The other vines writhed frantically in the air, then all of them retreated back through a crack in the ground.“
Level 5 freeze disk are apparently sufficient enough to stop heavy machinery by freezing it solid and even freeze Morbuzakh vines forcing them to retreat. Not bad, having the opportunity to do this 40 times per second is certainly a potent ability to have.
So there you have it, the rate of fire and power of uncharged Rhotuka spinners!
This one is actually less broad and more focused. I’ve edited the title to reflect that.