Apexes (Aura)

Ships

Apexes (Aura)

• You can only view and unlock the apexes for a particular ship when that ship is fully upgraded (to 6-6-6).
• Every ship has 2 apexes.
• You can buy both apexes, but only one of them is usable at any point in time.
  
  • You can switch between apexes, or switch back to the base form of the ship at any time.
• Apexes can be seen as cosmetic changes, like skins in other free-to-play games.
  • In fact, as confirmed by the devs, the price of apexes are hand set based on the appearance of the apex instead of the apex's re-adjustment / enhancement.
• Some apexes have useful changes, others not so much.
  • There are some apexes that are necessary to secure Best of Best or (specialist) Best of Best badges due to the fact some apex enhancements improve the speedrunning capabilities of the ship.

• The greek alphabet of the apexes only determines the apex price. It does not determine the re-adjustment / enhancement of the apex.

  Apex	Cost
  Alpha (α / Α)	¢5.000
  Beta (β / Β)	¢10.000
  Gamma (γ / Γ)	¢15.000
  Delta (δ / Δ)	¢20.000
  Epsilon (ε / Ε)	¢25.000
  Lambda (λ / Λ)	¢30.000
  Sigma (σ / Σ)	¢35.000
  Tau (τ / Τ)	¢40.000
  Phi (φ / Φ)	¢45.000
  Omega (ω / Ω)	¢50.000

• An easy way to remember the prices of the apexes in ascending order (since the next apex is simply an increase of ¢5.000) based on the name is through the following:
  ABCDE LoST Phoenix Order
  • The C is replaced by G for Gamma, but "Camma" sounds quite close, so it sort of works.

You may refer to this website to search up the apexes of every ship in the game: https://elegater.github.io/

This section is a generic section describing how the apex might help and/or hinder you. Main weapon upgrades or apexes for exclusive Auras / Zens available to only one ship will not be listed here, but under Ship Details itself.

An overall rating from C - X is also given to each apex.

• This rating is only a general guide.
• There are times that the apex may be more/less useful on other ships, which may boost/lower its rating.
• The first rating refers to its usefulness in daily / specialist missions.
• The second rating refers to its usefulness in community missions .
• Take these ratings as an extremely rough gauge and refer to the Advanced Tier List for the specific apex in question to get the accurate rating.

The general increase that each apex has on all of the tier categories, namely Survivability, Speedrunning & Fun Factor are also given.

• These increases are given with respect to daily / specialist missions.
• It is not the final rating applied to all apexes that are of this boost, so how the apex works with the ship will change the boosts accordingly.

The way this rating works is through a generic addition system, which is as follows:

• A "-" means there is a minor decrease the apex provides in the tier category to the sub-letter tier rating. For example,
  • A+ to A
  • A to A-
  • A- will remain as A- (special case)
• A "--" means there is a major decrease the apex provides in the tier category, likely knocking it down one letter tier rating. For example,
  • A+ to A-
  • A to B+
  • A- to B- / B / B+
• A "=" means there is no change the apex provides in the tier category, or the change is such a minor boost that there is not even an increase of the sub-letter tier rating for a ship.
• An increase of "+" means there is a minor boost the apex provides in the tier category. This means that it is likely that the apex will see an increase of the sub-letter tier rating. For example,
  • A- to A / A+
  • A to A+
  • A+ will remain as A+ (special case)
• An increase of "++" means there is a noticeable boost the apex provides in the tier category. This means that the apex will see an increase of the letter tier rating. For example,
  • B+ to A-
  • B to A-
  • S+ to X (special case)
• An increase of "+++" means there is a significant boost the apex provides in the tier category. This means that it is likely that the apex will see an increase in BOTH the letter and sub-letter tier rating. For example,
  • B- to A- / A (excludes B- to A+)
  • B to A / A+
  • B+ to A+
  • S- / S to X (special case)
• An increase of "++++" means there is a game changing boost the apex provides in the tier category. This means that it is likely that the apex will see an increase in AT LEAST 2 letter tier rating. The examples become too many to list, but here are some notable ones:
  • B- to A+ (special case)
  • Any rating to X

Take note that boosts to Beginner Friendliness or Uniqueness Factor will NOT be mentioned.

• The reason is apexes are NOT catered to beginners.
• Also, since these are generic rating boosts, uniqueness can't be applied to a collective group of apexes.

Bullet EMP Apexes

Increased Stun

• Mirage Omega

Increases the maximum stun duration from 0.6s to 1.2s.

• The extra stun time is useful against turrets that fire fast bullets such as darts or boomerangs , so that you have more time to reposition yourself at another side of the field to take out these dangerous turrets first.
• The increased stun duration also saves you a Bullet EMP on a laser infested wave to reset laser turrets as mutliple Bullet EMPs used on such a wave will stack up enough stun time to take out these lasers quickly enough before Aura runs low.
  • In between wave transitions, if the field is infested with bullets, use Bullet EMP to clear the field.
  • Then quickly swipe down to charge a long charging offensive Zen if the turrets firing fast bullets are not too downfield.
• The slower the bullets, the more this apex helps.

Extended Range (BEMP)

• Shinova Alpha
• Tempest Beta
• Mirage Delta

Increases the maximum radius of Bullet EMP from 450 to 500.

• The energy requirement to reach the new maximum radius is the same, which translates to a quicker increase in Bullet EMP radius.

• Quite useful for the quicker increase in radius .
  • This means that you can get a usable Bullet EMP with less particle uptake.
• It can be a big deal for offensive ships that rely on Bullet EMP for positioning purposes.
• Needs less particles to have a big size Bullet EMP
  • Faster to get a big enough Bullet EMP to cover dangerous turrets such as spinners or MIRV Bloomers, which can make all the difference in survival.
• With this apex, generally, use Bullet EMP more often as the maximum 500 range of this extended range Bullet EMP is not very useful.

Bullet Detonator (BEMP)

• Disaris Omega

Makes every bullet cleared by Bullet EMP deal a blast damage of 2 in a blast radius of 50.

• Using this apex is a satisfaction like no other in the hells of Shuriken/MIRV missions.
  • Particularly, using this apex against any kind of pellet spinners simply obliterates the Invaders around it.
  • Against shuriken spinners would work rather well too.
  • Using against Dart spinners also have this effect, but to a much lesser extent.
  • Pellet MIRV Bloomers? Yet another heaven. Simply get close enough to them to trigger as many MIRV explosions as possible and fire Bullet EMP.
• This apex is extremely powerful against Condors and Rocs that have high tier spinners or MIRV Bloomers
  • It even completely obliterates them with just one full Bullet EMP with 2 T4 pellet spinners.
  • Combined with turret riding / inside graze, the potential of this apex against pellet spinners is beyond comprehension.
• The only problem with this apex comes outside of Shuriken/MIRV missions.
  • Because Bullet EMP is a one-time use, it's most optimal usage is when there are lots and lots of bullets stacked on screen.
  • It is difficult to wait for such a scenario to occur outside of Shuriken/MIRV missions since you would be cornered by then, reducing the coverage of Bullet EMP Bullet Detonator.
    • This is especially so in missions with predominantly fast moving bullets.
    • It becomes hard to deal effective damage with this apex.
  • Firing Bullet EMP at the right time, such that it is most effective, is very difficult.
    • This is unlike Point Defence Bullet Detonator where you can determine with good accuracy where are the bullets going to detonate, making it easy to deal effective damage.
    • Instead, it is like firing an inaccurate chaingun into the open field.

Destructive Wave

• Shinova Delta
• Phoenix Delta
• Juggernaut Lambda
• Lyova Tau

Deals a maximum AoE damage of 10 to all Invaders that are within range of the Bullet EMP when fired.

• The damage scales with radius , just like Stun EMP .

• Extremely useful under all circumstances.
• Bullet EMP now becomes a viable speedrunning tool that can massively improve the speed of the ship.
• A mid size Bullet EMP wipes out all Sparrows , similar to an Stun EMP .
• Using Bullet EMP offensively at the start of the wave not only eliminates Sparrows , but also clears out bullets. It's a valuable double edged sword.
  • This also means getting the particles from Sparrows quickly.
  • You can then decide whether to launch more offensive Bullet EMPs, or use it defensively when faced with the remaining larger Invaders.
• Like Stun EMP , even if you didn't manage to catch all the Sparrows , no worry. A second round of Bullet EMP can often be fired off later after regaining some Aura from destroyed Sparrows or grazing to eliminate the remaining Sparrows.
• You can see Bullet EMP Destructive Wave as a more advanced use of Stun EMP in some sense; fire pre-emptively to destroy some Invaders, then destroy some Invaders, fire it off again. Rinse and repeat.
• You'll just have to deal with bullets in-between Bullet EMPs since the stun duration of Bullet EMP is short.
• This also means like Stun EMP , destructive wave Bullet EMP allows more leniency in target switching.
  • In fact, you can even heavily damage Raven(s) and swap to the next target.
  • Using the collected particles and a bit of grazing, fire off yet another Bullet EMP to finish off the heavily damaged Raven(s) .
  • The denser the wave, the easier is it to use Bullet EMP to finish off Ravens , switching between Ravens even more quickly (just remember to kill a few of them, otherwise you won't have particles to fire off Bullet EMPs).
• There are times when you are hanging around with a near full size Bullet EMP and don't know what to do with it, since the remaining turrets on field producing bullets are so easy to dodge.
  • The AoE damage from this apex also means you can deal massive damage to Invader crowds.
  • This apex turns many ships into potential speedrunners, even for ships that were originally nowhere near speedrunning standards.
• This apex turns Bullet EMP into such a versatile tool - one that does everything imaginable - clearing bullets, resetting turrets (sometimes a full Stun EMP duration is not necessary, particularly for spinners and lasers), and dealing damage. It's triple treat!

Stun EMP Apexes

Extended Range (SEMP)

• Mist Star Gamma
• Torrent Alpha

Increases the maximum radius of Stun EMP from 450 to 550.

• Encourages you to use Stun EMP in smaller bursts more often.
• Stun EMP partially reverts to its level 1 status where you use Stun EMP purely as a reset tool.
  • This is very useful against dangerous spinners, low Mk MIRV Bloomers that take a long time to fire, or even Doomsday weapons.
• However, be careful as the Stun EMP duration does not change
  • For the same radius of Stun EMP, the turret(s) that were stunned stay stunned for a shorter time.
  • Thus, it is a bad idea to stand near tracking dart turrets after launching an Stun EMP.

Strong Stun

• Mist Star Lambda

Increase the maximum stun time from 3s to 4s.

• Possibly makes a difference in heavier waves since such waves do not give you a lot of particles to work with.
• After stunning all the Invaders, you have more time to take out Ravens and Herons so that you can re-stun the rest of the Invaders on field.
• In other types of waves, it's not as useful since there would be a good supply of particles.

High Damage (SEMP)

• NC-150 Gamma
• Cinnri Tau
• Photurius Tau
• Nimbus Sigma
• Zimitr Delta

Increases maximum AoE damage dealt by Stun EMP from 10 to 15.

• Helps when you are faced with massive Invader crowds
  • The continuous stunning of Invaders after killing just a few more Ravens or Sparrows helps a lot in the DPS
  • This kills off the remaining Invader crowds much faster.
• Also very useful in early waves where a significantly smaller Stun EMP is able to kill Sparrows .
• For many Stun EMP ships with this apex, they also rely on Stun EMP damage to quickly destroy the Invaders
  • Stun EMP doubles up as a very effective huge AoE damage tool, rather than simply being a tool to stun Invaders.
• It becomes incredibly effective in dense waves, where the buff provided by this apex can be easily felt.

Barrier Apexes

Reinforced Lining

• Razor VI Beta
• Predator Alpha

Increases the strength of the Inner Lining by 30%.

• The Inner Lining can now withstand 65 bullets.

• Improves survivability.
• Allows for some chaining of offensive Zens , such as Mega Laser or Mega Bomb .
  • In fact, you may even be able to charge 2 of such Zens consecutively before the both the inner linings and outer barriers fade.

Reflector (Barrier)

• Tillat'Or Gamma
• Gorthaur Beta
• Heechi Delta
• Qhelqod Gamma
• Stinger Epsilon

Causes lasers that hit the outer edge of the outer barrier to reflect back to a random target, with a DPS of 20, similar to Personal Shield's Laser Reflection Ultimate .

• Bear in mind that even though lasers are reflected, the barriers will still take damage from the lasers per normal
• The inner lining will still fade as per normal if the outer barrier dies first.
• Lasers that hit the inner edge of the outer barrier, or the outer/inner edge of the inner lining will NOT be reflected back to Invaders as damage.

• Big game changer for many ships that are unable to handle daily mission types with lasers very well, or just have a lack of defence against lasers which puts them slightly further down in the Basic Tier List.
• Extremely capable of handling many laser heavy missions.
  • Even the smallest barriers can reflect lasers .
  • You can deploy a thick stack of small barriers, all around yourself in order to defend yourself against lasers.
  • Each burst of lasers firing only has the capability to destroy one barrier since barriers have a Phase Out time.
    • This makes for near infinite defence against lasers.
    • Just beware that your thick stack of barriers will fade away after some time even though they are not taking damage.
    • Thus, deploy each barrier slowly after each other where possible (unless you are overflowing on particles).
• Barrier Reflector apexes are also incredibly effective against speed lasers
  • Due to how quickly speed lasers reload, Teleport is an impractical tool to deal against them.
  • Being able to move about freely within your downfield barriers also make speed lasers extremely trivial.
• The only issue now is bullets, which can quickly destroy your barriers since you no longer have the advantage of the Ultimate , the inner lining which is supposed to provide more defence.
  • However, the pure offensive power of laser reflection from these barriers decimates Invaders so fast, you hardly need to contend with many bullets at all.
  • Just be careful to conserve one deployable barrier at hand as barrier Phase Out is not entirely reliable in keeping lasers out.
  • You can then deploy the barrier you at hand to defend yourself against any possible laser leak.
  • If you are out of barriers but still have the deployable barrier at hand, deploy the barrier at the last minute just before the lasers fire yet another round, since the smallest barriers can last one full burst of lasers.
• Unlike Personal Shield , the catch area of laser is much wider with barrier.
  • This usually makes for much larger reflection damage compared to Personal Shield since some T1 low Mk lasers that have poor tracking ability may not be able to target your ship core in time.
• Because of the presence of Doomsday Lasers in daily missions
  • Be careful to place barriers such that Doomsday Lasers will not hit them, or reserve barriers at hand until one round of Doomsday Laser has fired.
  • Be sure to have a barrier up at the start of each wave as Doomsday Lasers take very long to fire and one round of lasers is definite to go off first.

Laser Storm Apexes

Tac Moons

• Havoc Gamma
• Ogon Beta

Modifies Laser Storm such that now there are only 2 laser moons shooting 2 highly concentrated lasers on turrets, popping turrets significantly faster.

• As per usual Laser Storm Ultimate , it will switch targets once the turret is destroyed.
• Total damage remains unchanged.
• This means that the DPS of each of the 2 laser supermoons is 12.6.
• It will also preferentially target turrets in front of you, rather than random targeting, allowing you to more effectively pop turrets.

• Helps ships that have difficulties in main weapon usage to direct their shots onto turrets.
• Tac Moons significantly improves the speed of turret popping, increasing survivability.

Shield Breaker (LS)

• Elyon Lambda
• Xaniea Tau
• Reaper Tau

Laser Storm now deals 2.5 times the normal damage to Invader shields, just like Shield Breaker main weapons .

• Makes Laser Storm ships faster in Shielded missions.
• While it's easy to see the effects of this apex, it's difficult to properly feel the effects of this apex.
  • By this statement, you can visually see Invader shields go down faster
  • But it's difficult to feel that you are going faster because there are too many things happening on screen, making it difficult to track how fast Invaders are going down.
    • You just "know" that Invaders are going down faster, but its hard to really tell how much faster.
• The bigger the Invader, the easier it is to feel the effects of this apex.
• On smaller Invaders such as Ravens , it's hard to tell you are actually killing Invaders faster.
• Since Invader shields go down faster, it is also faster for your main weapon (coupled together with Laser Storm) to pop off turrets.
  • However, this still relies a lot on your turret aiming skills.
  • Since Laser Storm Shield Breaker no longer deals bonus damage when the shield is down, it now performs the same as normal Laser Storm.

High Power

• Fujin Sigma
• Buhloo Epsilon
• Elyon Beta
• Lokie Delta

Reduces the maximum duration of Laser Storm to exactly half of it's original duration (2.25s).

• All other sizes of Laser Storm also have their duration halved accordingly.
• However, total damage dealt remains the same.
• There are now 8 laser moons instead of 5.
  • The shortening of the duration also means that each of the 8 laser moons now deal 6.2 DPS.

• Extremely useful for all Laser Storm ships, since one of the biggest problems with Laser Storm is it lasts so long. By the time normal Laser Storm ends, your Aura is full again, which means a waste of particles. This apex fixes that problem.
• Particularly benefits speedrunning ships since you always need a higher DPS in speedrunning.
  • The speed of many speedrunning Laser Storm ships is fast enough that you kill all the small Invaders so quickly, so there is a high risk of particle overflow.
• Increased DPS of Laser Storm High Power means turrets get popped off faster.
  • Stripping turrets quickly is a lot of fun, and seeing naked Invaders without turrets become more commonplace.
• Despite killing smaller Invaders much faster, Laser Storm High Power is still not on level with other speedrunning ships.
  • This apex allows speedrunning ships to still have a full Aura spam at all times even with the shorter Laser Storm time, which still wastes a bit of particles.
  • Offensive power wise, this apex brings Laser Storm closer in par with Missile Swarm .

Missile Swarm Apexes

The top left shows normal Missile Swarm, the top right shows Missile Swarm High Explosive, the bottom left shows Missile Swarm Ion Warheads, and the bottom right shows Missile Swarm Armor Piercing (Notice while similar to normal Missile Swarm, the warheads are slightly thinner).

Below, top left shows normal Missile Swarm (Ultimate Level), the top right shows Missile Swarm High Explosive, the bottom left shows Missile Swarm Ion Warheads and the bottom right shows Missile Swarm Armor Piercing (Note that there is no difference in the targeting reticule for Missile Swarm Armor Piercing compared to normal Missile Swarm at Ultimate level).

High Explosive

• Geist Sigma
• Atlas Delta
• Corsair Tau
• Uhb Delta

Makes each missile deal 2 impact damage to targeted Invader, and 1 blast damage to all Invaders within a blast radius of 50.

• Very difficult to actually judge how much of an impact this apex makes.
• You just have to trust that this apex allows Raven and Sparrow crowds to be cleared out a bit faster.
• The blast radius of the missiles is very small, making it very difficult to actually reach neighboring Invaders.

Armor Piercing (MS)

• Trireme Gamma
• Von Braun Delta
• Prime X Epsilon
• Kibarrax Lambda

Makes each missile of Missile Swarm Armor Piercing .

• Deals the full 3 damage (for a total of 138 damage since there are 46 missiles, assuming all hit) to Armored Invaders.
• Thus, increases the offensive power of Missile Swarm significantly (in fact 43%, since it is increased from 70% damage to 100% damage).

• No longer need to go right up to the cockpit of Armored Invaders and do a missile barrel on them, since that is extremely difficult due to the point blank range.
• Very powerful and very viable for speedrunning, making Armor Piercing ships with this apex significantly faster and able to compete against base form speedrunning ships.

Ion Warheads (MS)

• Geist Phi
• Ex04239 Sigma

Makes each missile stun any turrets in a radius of 50 at the point of impact.

• The stun durarion does not stack with multiple missiles affecting the same turret.
• The energy usage is still the same, Aura radius increase per particle wise.

Increases the minimum Aura energy requirement to fire off Missile Swarm from 30 to 40 (which equates to an increase in the minimum radius of 135 to 180).

• Even with such a short stun duration, the equivalence of this apex is that of Bullet EMP Ultimate , a reset tool.
  • Resetting turrets is extremely useful, especially when it comes to spinners and sometimes even lasers .
  • Also delays MIRV Bloomers from pumping in more MIRVs onto the field, allowing for significantly better survivability and maneuverability.
• The smallest Missile Swarm can cause a stun reset.
  • Given the Fire and Forget nature of Missile Swarm, you can head straight up to an Invader with dangerous turrets, fire Missile Swarm, and head back down and it would be of much less of a threat for some time due to the turrets that got a reset.
  • This process can be repeated ad infinitum, since you can simply graze some bullets to get a large enough Missile Swarm Aura size to fire off yet another Missile Swarm.
  • Compare that to Bullet EMP where it is only able to reset turrets that are in range of its Aura , furthermore, both have the same max radius .
• The reasons why Missile Swarm Ion Warheads is so powerful doesn't stop there.
  • Bullet EMP is a one time launch, which means it strictly lasts for 0.6s.
  • However, since not all missiles impact a turret at the same time, this means that the 0.6s of stun doesn't start until the last missile hits the turret.
  • This means that the time a turret is stunned is much longer and actually tangible enough for a mini Stun EMP launched against it.
• Be careful though, as some turrets will come out of their stun much earlier than others
  • due to the RNG nature of Missile Swarm which causes some turrets to not be hit when the last few missiles hit.
  • This can spell trouble for turrets that fire immediately when their respective Invader first fully arrived.
  • Some turrets may also not be affected if you do not fire Missile Swarm at the right position.
    • They will continue firing, causing desynchronization of turrets.
    • This can be difficult to detect with all the screenshake, explosions and missile trails going on.
  • Be careful to respond to bullets.
    • Also look out for white laser lines that did not disappear for a moment.
  • Try to be as close to the middle of the field as you can to avoid this.
    • The main problem would usually be dart tracking turrets, although pellet launchers and spreads may pose a problem as well.
• The only potential problem with this apex is when you have a frontline Vulture and both the Vulture and back row Invaders have lasers on them, which throw the lasers off sync.
• A less known fact is that the minimum radius required to be able to fire off Missile Swarm Ion Warheads is bigger than normal Missile Swarm. The comparison is shown below, with Normal Missile Swarm on the left and Missile Swarm Ion Warheads on the right:
  

Point Defence Apexes

Sentinel

• Yoth-Hola Epsilon
• Vuxine Gamma
• Proteus Beta

Fires one Point Defence laser beam once every 0.5s that consumes no Aura energy.

• This Point Defence laser works like regular Point Defence and eliminates only one bullet (or MIRV).
  • Impossible to eliminate an sMIRV because the maximum Point Defence Aura range is smaller than a sMIRV's trigger range.
• The Sentinel Point Defence laser only activates when bullets are within the current radius of the Point Defence Aura .

• Not very useful due to the pure density of bullets in this game (well, you are playing a bullet hell game, what do you expect?)
  • Bullets are often extremely bunched up together
  • Bullets also may overtake other slower bullets.
• The effect of this apex is unfortunately very minimal in later waves such as Act 4 and above.
• It may help when you are trying to charge Mega Laser or Mega Bomb , but only against a bullet sparse field with only either pellets or shurikens.
  • Such a situation only occurs if you allow cooldown time at the end of a wave.
• In earlier Acts, it helps more, but the bullet density is small enough in that it's not difficult to simply position yourself correctly.
  • You are simply better off learning positioning yourself properly.

Trivia: In the predecessor game Phoenix HD, there is a single-use boost called the Point Defence Drone, which operates identical to this Sentinel Apex, with the Point Defence Drone having roughly the same fire rate of this Sentinel Apex to eliminate bullets.

Bullet Detonator (PD)

• Tar'Cah Lambda
• Wrackr Epsilon
• Arietis Lambda
• Zephyr Epsilon
• Widget Tau
• Luna Tau

Makes every bullet cleared by Point Defence release a small blast radius of 30 that deals 2 damage each.

• Changes the way you use Point Defence since you are now using it for offence.
• However, this apex is only for more experienced players since this eliminates one source of defence
  • For some of these ships with this apex, this means no other defensive options remaining.
• Point Defence Bullet Detonator is effective in 2 cases:
  • Against large crowds of small Invaders in front of other Invaders with higher tier turrets
    • A lot of RNG involved.
    • Sometimes Invaders line up properly and they all vaporize.
    • At other times they dodge the bullet explosions and you are still left with quite a number of Invaders to deal with.
  • Against large Invaders in front with many backline smaller Invaders behind.
    • More consistent
    • Can even be used against that large Invader's own bullets fired.
• Timing of when to fire Point Defence is very important for this apex since the wrong timing means the apex becomes useless and you waste your Point Defence for no reason.
• There are also some extremely crazy things you can try with Point Defence, such as turret riding.
  • For a start, try riding spinners and MIRV Bloomers.
  • You can move on to ride pellet spreads, dart tracking turrets and more!
  • You want to be somewhere on top of the turret itself, but towards the edge of the turret visually.
  • At the same time, you want to be JUST behind the spawn point of the pellets, darts or MIRVs.
  • Done correctly, you will be just outside the turret hitbox so you will not die.
  • Spamming Point Defence when this happens results in not only you grazing off these bullets, but also have the capability to deal damage due to how quickly the bullets are eliminated while they are just emitted and still on top of the Invaders, resulting in significant Bullet Detonator damage.
• Compared to Bullet EMP Bullet Detonator, the nature of Point Defence being a more precision based Aura makes it more effective in most missions that feature a mix of faster and slower bullets.
  • However, in the hells of Shuriken/MIRV missions, the Bullet EMP Bullet Detonator absolutely triumphs over Point Defence Bullet Detonator.
• The blast radius is shown in the image below:
  

EMP Laser

• Tar'Cah Delta
• Orion Delta
• AB8/Klyn Delta
• Pandora Tau

Fires only one Point Defence laser beam at a time. The targeted bullet releases a small Bullet EMP that clears out other bullets around it in a small radius of 55.

• Fires the one laser at 0.1s intervals, just like regular Point Defence.
• Decreases the efficiency (in terms of Aura energy consumed per laser beam fired) of Point Defence from 0.5 to 1.0.

• Biggest game changer for Shuriken/MIRV missions.
  • Point Defence used to be rather lackluster in eliminating bullets due to the number of bullets which are able to be cleared, since Point Defence depletes purely based on the number of bullets on screen.
  • With this apex, the number of bullets which are able to be cleared is unlimited!
  • This brings it on par with Bullet EMP since it has also unlimited bullet clearing capability.
  • Since Point Defence is not a one-time use, depleting slowly, this apex is superior to Bullet EMP since you often do not need the full Bullet EMP radius to continue navigating around the field or surviving.
• The technique to use the Point Defence EMP Laser apex is to rhythmically tap to use it.
  • Do not hold it down or spam tap it.
  • This is because you need to allow a small time frame for the previous Point Defence laser to fully exert its impact as the Bullet EMP triggered by the cleared bullet takes a short while to fully take effect.
  • With a bit of experience in timing the intervals between taps, this apex is so useful, you can practically clear ANY Shuriken/MIRV mission in your FIRST ATTEMPT, no matter the difficulty, even with the hardest Rocs .
• Outside of Shuriken/MIRV mission usage, this apex is only useful based on situation.
• This apex suffers from waves that feature different types of turrets that fire bullets of different speeds
  • The small Bullet EMP is unable to catch the faster darts coming at you on time which may result in your death.
  • You will need to spam Point Defence when faced with such circumstances.
  • Do not rely on this apex to save you from darts in a mess of other slower moving bullets such as pellets or shurikens.
  • In particular, this apex suffers a lot against boomerangs , since the Bullet EMP is usually not able to clear out boomerangs fast enough.
    • Be prepared to dodge boomerangs.
  • The efficiency of bullet clearing in such waves is usually lower than normal Point Defence.
  • The reduced efficiency of this apex, which sometimes feel like you are back to using a level 1 Point Defence (which really sucks), is what might make this apex difficult to recommend outside of Shuriken/MIRV missions.
  • However, it will work well on very tough Dart/MIRV missions that feature lots of MIRV Bloomers or Spreads in a single wave, or on a Condor / Roc .
• The reason why it works so well in Shuriken/MIRV missions is because all the bullets are slow, and roughly the same speed, which stacks so many bullets together in a very tight space, making bullet clearing with this apex so efficient.

Chrono Field Apexes

Deep Field

• Yigothu Sigma
• Njörun Lambda
• Trinity Phi

Increases the maximum radius of Chrono Field by about 20% to a radius of 200. Also slows down all turrets which are inside the Chrono Field to 30% of their original firing speed.

• This means they fire bullets slower and have a longer turret cycle of 3.33 times the original cycle length (it takes longer for the next burst to fire, if the turret is in its cooldown state and not firing any bullets).

• Encourages a very pre-emptive usage of Chrono Field, rather than simply using it for last minute defence.
• Rewards an aggressive playstyle, going upfield to deploy it and then staying upfield yourself.
• Benefits ships that require manual aiming of the main weapon due to the increased safety range.
• The slowing of turrets can work to both your advantage and disadvantage.
  • It works very well against spinners and bloomers, particularly when they are in their cooldown state.
  • However, putting it on laser turrets can be disaster as this will throw the lasers affected by Chrono Field off sync to those that are unaffected (unless you are able to cover all laser turrets, which is unlikely due to the small Chrono Field radius , even with the radius increase).
• The denser the waves are, the more significant the slowing effect.
• You can deploy Deep Field and start popping turrets that are most dangerous first.
• Moving up to pop dangerous turrets refills your Aura quickly, potentially allowing for a second Chrono Field after the first one expires.
  • This allows enough time to pop off all dangerous turrets.
  • Since you would be going upfield to deploy the Deep Field, you should deploy it quickly since you might eat particles while being upfield.
• The deep purple color of the Deep Field mean that it can be hard to see where you are inside the Chrono Field, especially when there are many smaller Invaders inside the Chrono Field as well.

Vorpal Lance Apexes

High Capacity (VL)

• Saber Beta
• Exarch Epsilon
• Antioch Beta
• Wraith Gamma
• Icarus Delta

Increases the maximum number of counters for Vorpal Lances from 4 to 5.

• No change in energy requirement to gain one counter of Vorpal Lance.

• In community missions, this apex only benefits ships that kill so fast.
  • Sometimes there's no reason to use more Vorpal Lances which runs the risk of particle overflow.
  • For other Vorpal Lance ships, even those in the Offensive class, the rather fast rate of killing actually comes from Vorpal Lance itself.
    • Not using Vorpal Lance will instead more likely result in your death.
  • For a speedrunning context, the cases are very rare that you will run into a situation of particle overflow, as a good speedrunner will never save up their Vorpal Lances.
• There are cases where it is a good idea to stockpile and fire all 5 Vorpal Lances to push through a difficult and heavy wave containing many large Invaders with dangerous turrets.
  • However, these situations are rare, making this apex too situational.
• For ships that are unable to kill at such quick speeds, this apex is useless.
• If you need this apex because you are overflowing on particles for offensive ships, do read up on how to use Vorpal Lance by reading the Vorpal Lance section.

Trident

• Naya Tau
• Warden Phi

Splits a single Vorpal Lance projectile into 3. The 3 smaller Vorpal Lance projectiles have a different trajectory.

• Each smaller Vorpal Lance projectile deals 13.2 damage .
• The hit circle of each smaller Vorpal Lance Trident is a little smaller, reducing from a radius of 15 to 10.
• The spawn positions of all 3 Vorpal Lance Trident projectiles with respect to the ship core are [-8, 0], [0, 0] & [8, 0].
• The firing angle of the left and right smaller Vorpal Lance, with respect to the vertically fired Vorpal Lance, is about 8°.
• The firing pattern of Vorpal Lance Trident is shown below:
  

• Loves to strip Unprotected Invaders of their turrets, which improves survivability.
  • You don't have to particularly aim, just sweep from left to right and this would naturally happen.
  • Particularly, it likes to strip Ravens and Herons of their turrets.
• However, because of how weak each Vorpal Lance projectile is, it is difficult to eliminate even Ravens .
  • Being able to land 2 of the split up Vorpal Lance only deals 26.4 damage which is insufficient to kill any affinity of Raven .
  • However, it is likely to be able to strip a Raven of both its turrets.
    • This means that the Raven(s) can be left alone to self-destruct.
    • But this also means that it is easy to waste some of your main weapon's damage on these heavily damaged Ravens .
• This apex is meant for Vorpal Lance to be used in at least bursts of 2 or 3.
  • Throwing a single Trident Vorpal Lance rarely helps, as it is difficult to eliminate Ravens which is one of the strongest points of Vorpal Lance.
  • Usually 3 Vorpal Lances are required as 2 Vorpal Lances are unlikely to destroy Ravens completely.
  • Throwing 2 Vorpal Lances might be useful in Sparrow dense waves, especially for ships that struggle to take down Sparrows quickly.
  • Splitting the lance into 3 means each Vorpal Lance covers more area, which may deal more effective damage, especially against Sparrows and Ravens which like to dodge your normal Vorpal Lances.
• The catch rate of Trident Vorpal Lance is impressive, but Trident Vorpal Lances need to be used in packs of at least 2 - 3 as mentioned.
• However, you have to take the sacrifice of using Vorpal Lance as a less reliable last minute escape out of jail card.
  • Vorpal Wake is more difficult with Trident Vorpal Lance, due to how each lance is slightly thinner.
  • Therefore, riding with the Vorpal Lance is not always guaranteed to get you out of being trapped in bullets.

Twin Lance

• Vani-Vith Epsilon
• Gladius Epsilon
• Antioch Delta
• Neni Epsilon
• Jeria Epsilon

Increases the hit radius of a Vorpal Lance projectile from 15 to 20.

• Useful against dense waves.
• Allows ships with this apex to be much quicker due to the better Invader clearing capabilities.
  • This iis especially against very dense waves where each Vorpal Lance can make a huge difference in catching a couple more Invaders.
  • Also, since each Vorpal Lance is wider, you may even be able to conserve 1 Vorpal Lance since 3 wider Vorpal Lances is enough to cover the whole field instead of 4 normal Vorpal Lances.
  • This means speedrunning faster from being able to use 1 Vorpal Lance the next wave where you may not be able to with normal Vorpal Lance.
• Another advantage is due to the wider Vorpal Lance, you also get better bullet clearing capabilities, which improves survivability as well.
• A possible disadvantage, however, is that due to the wider lance, it is slightly more difficult to pop off turrets since you risk hitting the Invader's hull first instead of a turret, which then registers as damage to the Invader itself and not the turret you are aiming for.

Phalanx Apexes

Crisis EMP

• Esperon Epsilon

Clears bullets between the deployed Phalanx and your ship core when Phalanx is deployed by clearing bullets in a radius of 75 around your ship core.

• Especially useful against the hells of Shuriken/MIRV missions.
• Having bullets everywhere means that it is easy to get cornered.
  • It is easy to bring along many pellets with you near your ship core in confusing different directions.
  • Clearing the bullets between your core and Phalanx allows you to confidently shovel without dying.
• In other missions, it's rare you would get cornered with so many slow bullets around your ship's core, so there is very little use for this apex.

Double Phalanx

• 502-Q8 Beta
• Hunter Gamma
• Boxer Alpha
• Lorilou Gamma

Adds a second, smaller Phalanx at the front of the original Phalanx.

• The smaller Phalanx has 1/3 the health of the original Phalanx, or 50% strength .
  • This means the smaller Phalanx would break after 12 bullets.
• Both Phalanxes have separate health.
• The angular coverage of the smaller Phalanx is from -27° to 27°.
• It is deployed at a radius of 72, compared to 60.
• The breaking of the smaller Phalanx works the same way as the original larger Phalanx, there is a Phase Out time (which is shorter at 0.2s instead of 0.3s) where it can potentially clear unlimited bullets in that time.
• Unlike Barrier , the smaller additional Phalanx will still continue to last in the rare case the larger Phalanx breaks first.

• Useful for all Phalanx ships as the amount of bullets you can shove away with both Phalanxes is higher due to double Phase Out time.
• You may also be able to do a double shovel, the first one being less since the smaller Phalanx is much weaker.
• More useful the more bullets on screen there are.
• Also helps in setting up offensive Zens such as Mega Laser and Mega Bomb .

The picture below compares the normal Phalanx (top) with the double Phalanx (bottom).

Reflector (Phalanx)

• Valkyrie Gamma
• Marauder Beta

Causes any lasers that hit the outer (or upper) edge of the Phalanx to reflect back to a random target, with a DPS of 20, similar to Personal Shield's Laser Reflection Ultimate .

• The Phalanx is gold in color and turns red as it takes damage.
• Bear in mind even though lasers are reflected, the Phalanx still takes damage from the lasers per usual.

• Unlike it's barrier counterpart, this apex is not as useful.
• You can only have one Phalanx active at any given time, as a newly deployed Phalanx will replace the old one.
• Lasers also melt Phalanxes relatively fast.
  • The Phase Out time of Phalanx isn't enough for you to wait for a Phalanx to break before deploying a new one.
  • This means that you have no choice but to waste a bit of the current Phalanx's strength to sustain the laser reflection .
  • The inability to stack several Phalanxes together limits the potential of this apex to be a great one.
• Phalanx Reflector apexes are incredibly effective against speed lasers just like Barrier Reflector.
  • Due to how quickly speed lasers reload, Personal Shield is an impractical tool to deal against them.
  • The amount of damage done to Phalanxes by speed lasers is small, making Phalanx Reflector last pretty long.
• While Barrier Reflector can be used with great success in laser heavy missions, Phalanx Reflector is more difficult to use to get success out of it.
  • In fact, the weak strength of Phalanx requires 3 Phalanxes to reflect off a full burst of lasers firing at you.
  • It is possible to only use 2, but you have to be very experienced to pull it off without dying.
• Against a lot of speed lasers , Phalanx Reflector excels as it will almost certainly last against one full burst of speed lasers firing at you at the same time.
  • Unfortunately, when you have a combination of T1 and T2/T3/T4 speed lasers , things can get quite problematic due to different firing intervals.
  • Similarly, if the T2/T3/T4 speed lasers are de-synchronized for any reason, then it becomes more difficult for one Phalanx Reflector to hold against multiple bursts of de-synchronized speed lasers.

Ion Cannon Apexes

Overcharge

• Dragonfly Gamma
• X-81 Gamma
• Polaris Beta
• Xavis Alpha

Increases the stun radius by 15% from 90 to 103.5.

• Makes little of a difference. Under normal usage, you won't be able to see any effect from this apex.
• However, when aimed correctly, an Ion Cannon will much more easily stun an entire Vulture or an entire Condor .
  • That being said, the margin of error is very small, so very precise positioning at the center of the Condor , or on the glowing cockpit of the Vulture is required.
  • Both means require you to be right on top of the Vulture or Condor itself which is a very tough feat without first throwing an Ion Cannon or 2 to stun some turrets first.
  • This means that against a Vulture or Condor , you could potentially save one Ion Cannon charge when re-stunning the Vulture or Condor .
  • To pull off this use case is very hard and requires an experienced pilot.

Blast Amplifier

• Dragonfly Epsilon
• Barret Beta
• Sonah Gamma
• NC-271 Delta
• Polaris Gamma
• Xavis Gamma

Increases the damage blast radius of each Ion Cannon projectile from 50 to 100. Also increases the blast damage of Ion Cannon from 10 to 13.

• Useful for many Ion Cannon ships since most Ion Cannon ships suffer from dense waves.
• The blast radius of Ion Cannon is now significant and 2 Ion Cannons can kill 2 or more Ravens , even if the other Raven(s) are about 3/4 a Raven's height away.
• A useful speedrunning tool in getting rid of pesky Sparrows as significantly more Sparrows can die with each Ion Cannon.
• Turns Ion Cannon into a viable offensive tool.
  • The best defence is usually the best offence, so having a good offence to simply wipe Ravens and Sparrows off the field quickly is simply even better than stunning their turrets.

Goliath Missile Apexes

Proximity Detonator

• Monsoon Gamma

Turns a Goliath Missile into a ball projectile with a radius of 40.

• Impact damage remains at 10.
• The epicenter of the blast radius is at the center of the Goliath Missile projectile, rather than at the point of contact.

• Can be considered as beginner training wheels for players learning to play Goliath Missile.
• The slow traveling speed of Goliath Missile makes them often miss, so this apex significantly alleviates that so that your Goliath Missiles are almost guaranteed to hit.
• This sounds like it'll make the apex more fun, except that the rather large proximity radius of Goliath Missiles makes it almost always detonate earlier than needed.
• The fact that it usually explodes in front of Invaders, rather than to the side of Invaders mean that the full blast circle of Goliath Missiles is often not realized, dealing less overall damage from Goliath Missiles.

High Capacity (GM)

• Starless Epsilon

Increases the maximum number of counters for Goliath Missiles from 4 to 5.

• No change in energy requirement to gain one counter of Goliath Missile.

• In community missions, this apex only benefits ships that kill so fast.
  • Sometimes there's no reason to use more Goliath Missiles which runs the risk of particle overflow.
  • For other Goliath Missile ships, even those in the Offensive class, the rather fast rate of killing actually comes from Goliath Missile itself.
    • Not using Goliath Missile will instead more likely result in your death.
  • For a speedrunning context, the cases are very rare that you will run into a situation of particle overflow, as a good speedrunner will never save up their Goliath Missiles.
• There are cases where it is a good idea to stockpile and fire all 5 Goliath Missiles to push through a difficult and heavy wave containing many large Invaders with dangerous turrets.
  • However, these situations are rare, making this apex too situational.
• For ships that are unable to kill at such quick speeds, this apex is useless.
• If you need this apex because you are overflowing on particles for offensive ships, do read up on how to use Goliath Missile by reading the Goliath Missile section.

Disintegrator Warhead

• Claymore Lambda
• Banshee Phi
• Mistral Tau

Clears bullets in the blast radius (144) of Goliath Missile, as shown below.

• Because of the large range of Goliath Missile's blast damage , the amount of bullets you can clear is very significant.
  • Makes a huge difference for many Goliath Missile ships that have no other defences, as Goliath Missile can now backup as a Bullet EMP when there is excess of particles, particularly when transiting from a dense wave to a heavy wave.
• Remember to not rely on it like Bullet EMP , but use it as a pre-emptive Bullet EMP.
  • If you think you are going to get trapped, launch it.
• Very useful against MIRVs as an entire cluster of them can be deleted straight away.
• Goliath Missile travels quite slowly and thus it takes time for it to actually clear bullets.
• Even more useful against Sparrows equipped with Caged MIRVs , as the Disintegrator Warheads eliminate the threat of randomly dispersed pellets from Caged MIRVs.
• The way you use Goliath Missile with Disintegrator Warhead in heavier waves changes compared to normal Goliath Missiles.
  • For such heavy waves, particularly those that have Invaders with MIRV turrets, fire a Goliath Missile predictively such that before it reaches there, the MIRVs will fire and they would be instantly deleted.
  • For high tier spread and spinner turrets, you can slowly fire a Goliath Missile one by one to create a nice breathing space for yourself later.
  • Note that in dense waves, you should still use Goliath Missile per usual.
  • Goliath Missile helps to break up bullet formations and allow you space to go through the gaps in some difficult patterns.

Tungsten Warhead

• Centurion Tau

Makes both the impact and blast damage of Goliath Missiles Armor Piercing . Also increases the impact damage of Goliath Missile from 10 to 20.

• Makes any ship now capable of handling Armored missions with brutal speedrunning efficiency.
  • In ships that have normal Goliath Missiles, against Unprotected Invaders, the blast damage is able to destroy Unprotected Ravens , but not able to destroy either Shielded or Armored Ravens.
  • This apex fixes the issue for Armored Ravens .
  • This means that your main weapon can quickly go to work on other larger Invaders instead, saving loads of time from finishing off heavily damaged Armored Ravens and switching between Invaders (the latter wastes the most time, in fact).
• Turret colliding with Ravens can be problematic so this apex simply eliminates this issue, allowing you to go point blank with Ravens without fear of turret collision.