General

General

Beginner Tips for just starting out in this game, General Survival and Speedrunning Tips + Miscellaneous

Note that the word reactor is now replaced by ship core.

Beginner's Guide

After the first 2 training missions of the game, you will be placed into one of 4 ranks by Instructor Crubbs (pictured below). What rank you end up in depends on how many times you died during the 2 training missions. You will be placed accordingly:

1. Acerank if you did NOT die in BOTH training missions at all
2. Sergeantrank if you died ONCE cumulatively in BOTH training missions
3. Ensignrank if you died 2 - 3 times cumulatively in BOTH training missions
4. Cadetrank if you died any more than 3 times cumulatively in BOTH training missions

For some reason, self destructing your ship by choosing to quit in-game counts as one death, and any subsequent self destructs stop counting towards the death count for the purpose of rank placement after completing the training missions. Also, if you die a LOT of times during the training missions but get good times, you will instead be promoted to Ensign rank. It is not inherently clear what are the criterion, but a good guide is the number of deaths accumulated in both training missions.

Your first few Warp Gates may not always give you the best ships. Do not upgrade whatever you are given on impulse. This goes against Operator Mian's recommendation, which will keep bugging you to upgrade after every game played, until you buy at least one upgrade. If you find this transmission from Operator Mian (pictured below) annoying, just choose to unlock the Zen, purchasing the level 1 upgrade, which helps the most.

Depending on your comfort, there are 2 ways you can proceed with your ship upgrades.

• You can pick a beginner friendly ship to upgrade and master the basics of the game such as dodging and using your Aura and Zen. Getting a beginner friendly ship may only get you to a mid-high rank, which are the golden ranks, before you might get stuck trying to advance further up the ranks. If you choose to go with this approach, the Beginner Friendliness List will help you out.
• Alternatively, you can get a ship with a high survivability rating for the long run, which means getting into the highest Marshal rank, or at least, the second highest Commander rank. This approach is more likely for you as a beginner to have a slightly tougher time as you progress through the ranks, which may mean you might get stuck at some ranks or even demote ranks on some days. This is because mastering some of the higher survivability ships may take a lot more practice. If you prefer this approach, get a ship with a survivability tier of at least S- in daily missions in this Basic Tier List. If you don't feel like waiting any further, a survivability tier of A or A+ in daily missions will also get you far, although the learning curve will be slightly steeper.

If you are particular, it is better to get a ship with an SB weapon first (that deals with Shielded missions), then a ship with an AP weapon (to deal with Armored missions), and lastly, a ship with a HI weapon that deals with Unprotected missions. This is because there are more shielded missions than armored missions. The number of Unprotected missions are the least. If you are unable to find such a ship, play the game without upgrades, putting utmost focus into survival (looking at your core at all times). You should be able to get to at least Ace rank if you dodge well enough.

On the first day or first few days you play the game, you should grind through the daily mission several times, even if you cleared it. The purpose is to level up quickly and thus gain more credits. Also, join a community mission so that you are able to gain additional credits from community missions. It is recommended to try and up your rank as high as possible, until you reach Captain rank, where you can hang around there for a bit.

Be sure to search up for videos of the ship you are intending to upgrade, before actually upgrading it, to make sure it fits your playstyle. If you are on social media platforms for Phoenix 2, don't be afraid to ask for help as many are happy to help!

Focus all your upgrades into that one ship you picked. Do not spread your credits across more than one ship. Even if you get another better ship, unless you have only invested 1 or 2 upgrades into your current ship, continue to nearly completely ult that ship you were focused on.

Once you have upgraded your first chosen ship to 5-6-6, you should have gotten a lot of other ships already, many of which should have a high survivability rating in the Basic Tier List. Focus on diversifying your ship collection instead of buying apexes. This means getting an SB ship if your first ship upgraded is an AP ship, or vice versa. If your ship is a HI ship, focus on ult-ing an AP ship next, then finally an SB ship. Focus on staying in Captain rank suiciding at 5-4 on a 3rd mission, and fully clearing the other 2 missions if necessary).

Once you have the 2 (or 3) ships upgraded, you can look to buying and ult-ing some of the best of the best survival ships out there once they appear in the shop, meaning those with an X Tier rating for survivability. Remember to save up at least ¢3.000 so that you can buy the ship once it hits the shop.

Once you get a ship for each group specialist mission in the gold ranks, you can continue to improve your rank to Commander. Finally, once you have all the ships available for the solo specialist missions in Marshal, you can challenge the highest rank. But be prepared, fellow pilot, Marshal rank is a whole new level of difficulty out there. A much higher difficulty bump than from Captain to Colonel (which is already quite a jump).

Firi Account

Creating a Firi Account allows you to ensure your precious ship upgrades, apexes and credits are saved no matter what. Even if there's something wrong with your Phoenix 2 app, your device, or whatever other problems you may face accessing the game, which necessitated the deletion and re-installation of the Phoenix 2 app. (You may sometimes need to delete Phoenix 2 because it is taking up too much space. This accumulation of space may occur because you failed to press stop recording before force closing Phoenix 2, causing the videos you recorded to remain as part of the Phoenix 2 app.) It also allows you to use back the same progress on other devices. It's entirely possible to play the same Firi account on 2 separate devices without them interfering with each other, all player stats and any new records will be updated accordingly.

To create a Firi Account, at the main screen, tap on the Pilot tab. Then under Firi Account, tap on Sign In. Tap on Register and fill in the email address and password as desired. As simple as that, your Firi Account is created. While the email doesn't need to be a valid email (So long it fulfills the format _@_._), it is highly recommended you create a Firi Account with a valid email which makes the sign in process significantly easier.

To logout of your Firi account, you can do the same way as previously. After tapping on the Pilot tab, tap on Sign Out. To log back in, tap on the Pilot tab, click Sign in, then click Sign In again. Type your email used for your Firi account. Once your Firi account email is entered in correctly, the game sends an email, so check your email on the same device. It might go to your spam folder so do check there as well if you do not see it in your inbox. Click on the sign-in link in your email, and it should automatically open up Phoenix 2 app again to successfully log you into your Firi Account. Note that if you keep entering the same email address to the Sign In process but fail to successfully sign in 2 times, it will trigger an error pop-up on the 3rd time which makes you enter both the correct Firi Account email & password, so make sure you have the password recorded down somewhere. A password manager would be a good idea since you rarely need to key in this password.

• If you do forget your password, you can change your password through the form in this link:
  https://proxy-users.firigames.com/change-password
• If you want to change your email address for the Firi account, please contact the dev directly through support@firigames.com
• If you lost your account, whether is it a local account which only exists on your current device (without a Firi account), or your Firi account, contact the dev in the same way as above to retrieve it, through support@firigames.com . If you remember your pilot name that you used, it would help the dev a lot.
  • It would be a good idea to record down your User ID, especially if you are not using a Firi Account. You can see your User ID by tapping the Firi Games icon at the top right corner. Under Phoenix 2 window, you may see your 6 alphanumeric User ID. Note that is caSe-sEnsiTive. This way, it'll be easier for the dev to retrieve your lost account with your User ID.
    

NB: If you already created a Firi account in Phoenix HD, the predecessor game of Phoenix 2, you can skip the account creation process and simply log in as usual using the account you had in Phoenix HD.

Phoenix Revives

Revives are a way to make missions less of a grind. You die in Wave 4 of a difficult act. Do you want to go though all of those Acts again? Probably not. You want to clear so you want to hop right back in, so that's where revives come in.

You need to be at least level 10 to have access to revives. To activate revives, tap on the revives icon to the left of the Play button. Then, tap on the number of revives you want to bring to the mission, from 0 - 5. Then simply tap outside the Phoenix Revives pop-up and click Play.

Note that it is better that you do not use revives unless:

• You are horribly stuck with certain waves;
• The transition between wave 4 of the previous Act to wave 1 of the current Act is too brutal, or;
• You are in a bit of a rush of a time to clear the mission.

When the number of revives chosen is between 1 - 5, when you die in any wave from Act 2 onwards, you will be automatically thrown back to the start of the act you died on, at Wave 1. Dying in 1-1, 1-2, 1-3 or 1-4 simply ends the game. You will revive with the amount of Aura energy JUST as you kill the last invader in wave 4 of the previous Act. Particles picked up after that during the Act transition will not be accounted for when you revive. Thus, it is better to collect enough particles to completely refill your Aura before killing the last invader if you know that you are going to need revives for the next Act.

When you have used up all of the number of revives you have chose to bring to the mission (which is 1 - 5, not the total number of revives you have), you will be informed that you have used up your last revive. If you die again without completing the mission, the game ends. Note that the number of revives you have brought is for the entire mission, so the number of revives does not reset when you reach the next Act.

When you revive, the field will be completely clear of bullets and particles. This means you don't have to deal with the leftover bullets from wave 4 of the previous. All barriers and phalanxes deployed will also disappear. You have to accept your particle and barrier/phalanx penalty in exchange for a clean field. There will also be a time penalty added to your final clear time each time you revive. The time taken on the Act you died on is added to your time (the timer "continues to run"). This means if you died at say, 5-3, then the time taken on 5-1 and 5-2 is added to your time. However, unlike the leaderboard timings for non-clear runs which only records the time of entry into 5-3, whatever amount of time between the instance you enter 5-3 (the wave you died on) and the instance of death is also counted into your time. On top of this, 5 seconds is added for each revive.

You can buy Phoenix Revives at the following prices. However, it is strongly advised against buying Phoenix Revives since they do not make you a better player (unless you are stuck at Marshal specialist missions), and they are not worth the credits.

• 5 revives at ¢600
• 25 revives at ¢2.500
• 125 revives at ¢10.000

Pilot

You are able to earn different types of badges as a pilot, which show up on your profile when you or another player taps on it. Below shows the different categories of badges that can be obtained:

Special Badges

Badge Icon
Badge Name	Best of the Best	Best of the Best	Against All Odds	Ogon is Fine	Pin Challenge	Pin of Excellence
In-game description	Became #1 in the leaderboard of the hardest league!	Became #1 in the leaderboard of the hardest league of a Specialist Mission!	Was among the few pilots who completed a very difficult mission.	Complete an SSSS league mission with Ogon on the leaderboard.	Completed the Phoenix 2 Pin Challenge!	Achieved special recognition for community efforts.
Additional description	This badge is earned when you are first (#1) in the daily mission leaderboard of the highest rank and league, Marshal S4, when the daily mission has ended.	This badge is earned when you are first (#1) in the specialist mission leaderboard of a Marshal Specialist S3/S4 mission when the specialist mission has ended.	This badge is earned when you have cleared a mission that has a less than 3% clear rate on a Marshal S4 mission. This is based on high scores being set on the leaderboards, not the total number of attempts made by all pilots (which is unlike the Wave Completion %).	This badge is earned when you have cleared with Ogon (any of the 3, base ship, Beta Apex or Phi Apex are acceptable) in a Marshal S4 mission, and retain that leaderboard position as Ogon until the mission is reset. It does not matter if it is a normal daily mission or a specialist daily mission.	A badge awarded to players who played the retail demo version of Phoenix 2, took a screenshot of clearing the demo mission, and sent it to the dev via email. It is no longer possible to obtain this badge as the retail demo of Phoenix 2 no longer exists. Don't try sending an email to the dev to ask for this badge, you WILL be ignored. Players also would had obtained a physical Phoenix 2 pin upon completing this challenge (as well as a few other small goodies, which differed depending on the season), sent physically to the player's physical home address, as shown below: Here's the link to the details of the now discontinued Pin Challenge: https://redd.it/83u8zr/ NB: You can't have both the Pin Challenge and the Pin of Excellence badge together.	A badge awarded to players who have actively contributed to the community, as determined by the devs. NB: You can't have both the Pin Challenge and the Pin of Excellence badge together.

Missions Completed

Badge Icon
Badge Name	Marshal SSSS Mission Complete!	Marshal Mission Complete!	Commander Mission Complete!	Major Mission Complete!	Colonel Mission Complete!
In-game description	Marshal SSSS Mission Complete!	Completed a Marshal rank mission!	Completed a Commander rank mission!	Completed a Major rank mission!	Completed a Colonel rank mission!

Badge Icon
Badge Name	Captain Mission Complete!	Lieutenant Mission Complete!	Ace Mission Complete!	Sergeant Mission Complete!	Ensign Mission Complete!	Cadet Mission Complete!
In-game description	Completed a Captain rank mission!	Completed a Lieutenant rank mission!	Completed an Ace rank mission!	Completed a Sergeant rank mission!	Completed an Ensign rank mission!	Completed a Cadet rank mission!

Leaderboard

Badge Icon
Badge Name	Top 0.001%	Top 0.01%	Top 0.1%	Top 1%
In-game description	Reached the top 0.001% in a leaderboard with at least 100k players.	Reached the top 0.01% in a leaderboard with at least 10k players.	Reached the top 0.1% in a leaderboard with at least 1000 players.	Reached the top 1% in a leaderboard with at least 100 players.
Additional Details	Back in v1.0 - v1.1.3, all Phoenix 2 players were placed in one leaderboard. At some point in time, there were more than 100k players. Specifically, Daily Mission #213 had 111,126 players, and a player called [ Shadowblue ] topped the leaderboards, thus obtaining this prestigious Top 0.001% badge.	Back in v1.0 - v1.1.3, all Phoenix 2 players were placed in one leaderboard, so it was possible to obtain this badge. It was no longer possible after leagues were introduced in v2.0.	-

Badge Icon
Badge Name	Top 10%	Number One	Mission Played	Top 25%
In-game description	Reached the top 10% in a leaderboard with at least 10 players.	Reached the number one position in a leaderboard.	Awarded for each mission played.	Reached the top 25% in a leaderboard.

League V2 Badges

Completion Badge Icon
Completion Badge Name	SSSS League Mission Completed!	SSS League Mission Completed!	SS League Mission Completed!	S League Mission Completed!
In-game description	Completed an SSSS league mission!	Completed an SSS league mission!	Completed an SS league mission!	Completed an S league mission!
Participation Badge Icon
Participation Badge Name	SSSS League	SSS League	SS League	S League
In-game description	Participated in an SSSS league mission.	Participated in an SSS league mission.	Participated in an SS league mission.	Participated in an S league mission.
Additional Details	So long you attempted the mission, meaning you killed at least 1 invader in a mission, you are considered to have participated in that league's mission. These badges are only obtainable when Phoenix 2 versioning is between v2.1 - v4.5.3, as S+ leagues were only introduced in v2.1.

Completion Badge Icon
Completion Badge Name	A League Mission Completed!	B League Mission Completed!	C League Mission Completed!	D League Mission Completed!
In-game description	Completed an A league mission!	Completed a B league mission!	Completed a C league mission!	Completed a D league mission!
Participation Badge Icon
Participation Badge Name	A League	B League	C League	D League
In-game description	Participated in an A league mission.	Participated in a B league mission.	Participated in a C league mission.	Participated in a D league mission.
Additional Details	So long you attempted the mission, meaning you killed at least 1 invader in a mission, you are considered to have participated in that league's mission. These badges are only obtainable when Phoenix 2 versioning is between v2.0 - v4.5.3.

Classic Badges

Badge Icon
Badge Name	Mission Complete!	Act 4 Reached	Act 5 Reached
In-game description	Completed a daily or community mission!	Reached Act 4 of a daily or community mission.	Reached Act 5 of a daily or community mission.
Additional Details	You can only earn this badge when you complete a community mission now.	You can only earn this badge in v1.0 - v1.1.3, as there were no leagues or ranks back then. Everyone was thrown into one single leaderboard. You will only get one of these 2 badges per mission. In other words, if you reached Act 5 in an old mission, you will only get the Act 5 Reached badge, and not the Act 4 Reached badge.

In-game Tips

After each game, at the leaderboards screen (before the credit reward screen, if you gained any credits by clearing new waves), the game gives you a random tip. Some of these tips are generic, some are gameplay specific, while others are ship specific. The tips are roughly categorized as shown below:

Gameplay

• Trigger MIRVs early by moving close to them, then retreat. Spread out bullets are easier to avoid.
• Fly an offensive ship aggressively and target dangerous Invaders first.
• If you struggle with a mission, try it with a different ship.
• The unique combination of weapon, Aura and Zen on each ship can unlock unexpected strategies. Experiment!
• Fly close to enemy bullets to earn bonus energy, this is called grazing.
• Score a top position with an unusual ship to earn respect from other pilots.

Acquisition & Upgrading of Ships

• Completely upgrade a ship to see the Apex forms.
• Unlock everything on a ship to see its advanced forms.
• Your favourite ship can become even more powerful once you upgrade it completely.
• Apex forms also enhance the abilities of a ship, and add new strategic value.
• Some ships have powerful extra weapon, can teleport or create shields. Try them out.
• Ships have very different abilities. Try them out and see how far you get.
• Apex forms are more than a paint job. They enhance abilities and open up even more strategies.
• Find your style and try other ships.

General

• Create your own Community to play with your friends.
• Watch ads in the Warp Gate lab. They replenish after a while.
• Discuss Phoenix 2 ships and strategies with other players via the Community tab.
• Tap on a ship in the Ships tab or Play tab to view upgrade options.
• Use your firi account to play on multiple devices with the same pilot.
• Get new ships from the Warp Gate. The offer changes every few hours.
• Impress other players on the leaderboard with your unique ship choice.
• Watch ads in the Warp Gate tab for extra credits and revives.
• Create a Firi account in the Pilot tab to backup your progress.
• You can earn more credits by playing Community and Specialist Missions.
• Tap on the mission icons in the Play tab to see leaderboards, your score and mission Intel.
• You can always review mission intel by tapping on the mission icons in the Play tab.
• Send questions and love letters to phoenix2@firigames.com.

Warp Gate

When you finish the prologue (does not matter if you skip it or not), you will automatically receive your first ship, which is either one of the 3 below:

• Veil
• Tempest
• Jericho

Your 1st Warp Gate activation comes after 5 minutes of finishing the prologue. It will guarantee a Rare ship.

Your 2nd Warp Gate activation comes 1 hour after your 1st Warp Gate activation. The 3rd Warp Gate comes 6 hours after the 2nd activation.

Subsequently, Warp Gate activations come 12 hours after the previous. Operator Mian only gives you an incoming transmission for the first 5 Warp Gates you activate. Subsequently, she only gives you a transmission if you got a new Super Rare ship from the Warp Gate or got an apex from the Warp Gate. You also get a transmission if you got a ship that is currently in the shop (either you are lucky to get it from the Warp Gate, or you bought it with your own credits).

Warp Gate activations cannot be stacked. In other words, the timer for the next Warp Gate activation only begins after its previous Warp Gate activation is complete. The next timer starts after you tap the Activate button, so you can admire the warp gate reward however long you like without it affecting the next activation time.

There are 4 types of rewards from activating the 12 hourly warp gate. You can:

• Get a Supply Drop. This rewards you with 2 revives, together with either ¢50, ¢150, or ¢300. Similar to Common, Rare and Super Rare ships, ¢50 supply drops appear more often than ¢150 supply drops. ¢150 supply drops appear more often than ¢300 supply drops.
  
• Get an upgrade for an existing ship you already have. This upgrades any one of the 3 random stats (Main Weapon, Aura or Zen) by one level. It is also possible to get the ult upgrade through this way. A fully ult ship will not be included in the possible pool of ships in this case. There are no distinctions between rarities of ships, so any existing ship you have (even if it's a super rare) has equal odds of being upgraded when you receive an upgrade. However, an upgrade of a higher credit value is less likely to occur than an upgrade of a lower credit value.
  • If all of your currently unlocked ships are fully ult-ed, you will instead receive a very special Supply Drop that gives you only ¢100 without revives instead of a supposed upgrade.
• Get a new ship you never got before (either through previous Warp Gates or buying it yourself with credits). This unlocks the ship forever with a 1-1-0 stat. You cannot get ships that you have already unlocked, through activating the warp gate. New Common ships appear more often than new Rare ships, and new Rare ships appear more often than Super Rare ships.
• Get an apex . This is EXTREMELY RARE. You can get an apex at any time, no matter if you have not unlocked the ship, have not fully ult-ed the ship, or if it is already fully ult. No matter the current stats of that ship, it will become fully ult-ed and the apex becomes unlocked forever. You cannot get apexes that you already own, through activating the warp gate.

Rewards do not get better or worse the further you progress in the game (in terms of ranks or pilot level). It generally appears the rewards get worse, but this is because you would get more and more ships unlocked as you play more, thus you will get less and less chance of a new ship unlocking.

Trivia 1: Supply Drops are just a re-skin of previously getting duplicate ships, which only rewarded you with one-tenth of the ship's buying cost, without rewarding revives either. This was how it was like to get duplicate ships in the past:

Trivia 2: There was supposedly another tier of rarity above Super Rare, which has an icon that looks like this. It was just labeled as "Tier 4".

Special Offer! / Free Items / Credits

You may occasionally get a special offer section which make your real life money spent on the game more worthwhile. If you would like to spend real money on the game, always wait for the US$5 for ¢20.000 offer, as it is the most worthwhile package. This is the only offer that is worth 4 times the normal value (Normally in the Credits section, US$5 can only get you ¢5.000). This offer will only appear once per User ID, and will no longer be available once you have chose to buy any package with real life money. Also, avoid special offers that package both credits and revives, as there will be a price equivalent version of credits-only which is more worthwhile.

You can watch some ads in the Free Items section to get free credits and free revives. Each ad will earn you either ¢125 or 2 revives (but not both). If you are on the iOS platform, the ad service provider is Unity Ads. If you are on the Android platform, the ad service provider is Google Ads.

A new credit ad is available every 24 hours, and you can stockpile up to 3 credit ads. A new revive ad is available every 5 hours, and you can stockpile up to 8 revive ads. The timer continues to run if you have not reached the maximum number of stockpiled ads, so there is no need to worry about watching ads as soon as they appear. This also means if you do not hit the maximum stockpiled amount of either credit or revive ads, once you watch finish every available credit and/or revive ad, it will feel like it takes less than 24 and/or 5 hours before the next credit and/or revive ad is available. This is because the timer for the next ad is already counting down way before you watched the ads. Initially, you can only stockpile up to 2 credit ads and 3 revive ads. As you watch more credit and revive ads respectively, the maximum amount of stockpiled credit and revive ads will increase.

You can always buy credits with real-life currency at any time without any special offers, at the following rates:

• ¢800 for US$1
• ¢5.000 for US$5
• ¢12.000 for US$10
• ¢25.000 for US$20
• ¢65.000 for US$50
• ¢140.000 at US$100

When you buy any credit package from the shop (not just special offers), you get a special supply drop that looks cooler than the normal ones you get from the Warp Gate:

Get Ships

This is where you use credits to buy and unlock the ship you desire without waiting for the Warp Gate's RNG to give you the ship you really want. Just like getting a ship from a Warp Gate activation, the ship you bought from here will be at 1-1-0 once purchased.

The shop refreshes every 6 hours, specifically, at the times (with respect to UTC/GMT +0) 12am, 6am, 12pm & 6pm. Or 0000, 0600, 1200 & 1800 if you prefer 24 hour clocks. The selection of 3 ships depend on the rank you are on:

• If you are in the bronze or silver ranks, then the 3 ships available for sale follows a set cycle, as shown in Appendix A: Shop Cycle.
• If you are in Marshal rank, or the gold ranks, then the 1st 2 ships available for sale follows a set cycle different from the bronze and silver ranks, as shown in Appendix A: Shop Cycle. The 3rd ship will either be:
  • One that can be played in the specialist mission. Because the shop changes every 6 hours, up to only 4 ships of the specialist mission will be used.
    • If there are only 3 ships available in the current specialist mission, then the supposed 4th ship of the specialist mission (in the table below) will be the 1st ship of the specialist mission. The supposed 5th ship of the specialist mission (in the table below) will be the 2nd ship of the specialist mission.
    • If there are only 4 ships available in the current specialist mission, then the ships will appear in order of 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th ship of the specialist mission at the times of GMT+0 of 0000, 0600, 1200 & 1800 respectively.
    • If it is a solo specialist, then the ship from the specialist mission will be always the solo ship for the entire day of the solo specialist mission.
  • If the 3rd ship (according to the xth ship of the specialist mission) is the same as one of the first 2 ships are already available to use in the specialist mission, then the 1st ship of the next 6 hour cycle period will be available to buy instead. Refer to a cut-out of the shop cycle table below for the 2 bullet pointers that are just after this cut-out:
    

    Neni	Baqlor	(5th ship in specialist mission)
    Geist	Elyon	(1st ship in specialist mission)

    
    
    • For example, the first 2 ships in the current shop cycle are Neni & Baqlor respectively. The 3rd slot is supposed to the 5th ship of the specialist mission, which is also Neni. In this case, the 3rd slot will instead be Geist, the first ship of the next shop cycle.
    • On the next 6 hour shop cycle, the cycle resumes as per normal. Even though the first ship of this new shop cycle has already appeared in the previous shop cycle, it will appear again in this new shop cycle. Using the example above, the previous shop cycle was Neni, Baqlor & Geist respectively. So this new shop cycle will be Geist (repeated from previous shop cycle), Elyon & the 1st ship of the specialist mission.

Tapping on the ship in the shop gives you a pop-up to buy the ship. Ships that are common will always cost ¢500, ships that are rare will always cost ¢1.500, and ships that are super rare will always cost ¢3.000. There is also a Preview button which allows you to use the ship at main weapon level 3, with no Aura and no Zen available. If you have already bought the ship, you can still tap the Preview button which will strangely still showcase the ship at main weapon level 3 no matter the current upgrade level of your unlocked ship's main weapon.

Occasionally, when a new update is introduced into Phoenix 2 with new ships, a 4th ship slot will be available that will cycle through the newly released ships. After some time (usually about a week), the 4th slot will no longer be available, and the whole shop cycle will change to integrate the newly released ships into the cycle.

As the table is extremely long, please go to Appendix A: Shop Cycle.

General Survival Tips

The more beginner survival tips are at the top while more advanced survival tips are below.

• As a complete beginner, concentrate on your core as it's the only thing that matters. Invaders are generally secondary. Once you get better, you can start focusing some attention on the invaders, if you have a main weapon that needs aiming or an Aura that needs aiming.
• Auras and Zens are meant to be used. USE THEM! For Auras, it is better to wait for a decent size (for radius based Auras) before you use them (about 3/4 of full size is fine). For counter based Auras, while it is best to try to leave one counter left for emergencies, deplete them where necessary. You rather die later than earlier. You can always leave one invader alive at the end of the wave to collect all your particles to refill your Aura or counters. Most importantly, abuse Zens as much as you can. You can always adjust your usage of both Aura and Zen accordingly. Point is, don't hold back in using them as you can always adjust your usage later.
• It is better to move slowly than to move fast. Moving fast causes bullets to spray all around the field in apparent random patterns, and lasers to aim everywhere, making it very difficult to dodge them all.
• There is no need to wait for a full size Aura to use it. This is because getting a full size Aura means that you are likely to be wasting particles.
• Offensive Auras and Zens are meant to be used at first opportunity. Don't hold back in using them as that will result in the field getting flooded with bullets quickly!
• Try not to head upfield. Stay below the centerline so that you can conserve particles. Particles come to you rather naturally so you'll usually get quite enough particles. If there is a lack though, push up above the centerline to collect a bit more particles then head back down.
• Try your best to aim at turrets (since your main weapon requires you to manually aim) as popping turrets off will give you an easier time to survive with less bullets or lasers on screen. Always aim at the turrets that are the most dangerous (you'll learn to recognize dangerous turrets as you play).
• Turret priority elimination is very important. Learn to prioritize which turrets to eliminate first. The Invader Turrets Section will tell you everything you need to know about what to eliminate first.
• Don't let the screen shake of invaders exploding bother you. Do not blame the game for its screen shakes and say that is inhibiting your ability to succeed in this game. A proper Aura and Zen usage is enough to clear the highest rank Marshal consistently and you do not need to perform very delicate dodging.
• You may want to readjust your touch once between Act transitions. If not, it might be a good idea to try and offset your finger slightly further away from your ship's core as you start each game. The zooming out occurs from the screen's center. Try not to readjust your touch too frequently, unless you need to Kappa Dodge, or you are using your Zen to pace the main weapon.
• Graze! Grazing is a very important skillset in this game that is almost usually always needed in higher leagues as grazing allows you to gain Aura even if there is a shortage of particles on screen. In particular, it is very useful for defensive radius based Auras such as BEMP, Barrier or PD. It is easier to graze darts. Pellets are also good source of grazing. While it is possible to graze other types of bullets, and even lasers, it is much more difficult.
• Blind Spots. In certain waves, there are certain spots that you can hide in and be safe from a whole mess of bullets approaching you. One way to start finding for the spots is to see the turrets. If there are many spread turrets, there is a high chance there is a blind spot somewhere. Low tier spinner turrets can also mean a blind spot is possible. Shuriken Launchers/Spreads turn slowly so those can be somewhat taken as spread turrets. Just be careful to plan an escape route when they eventually turn to face you if you can't kill on time. The best way to find for blind spots is to record your runs and review them. It is much more difficult to find for blind spots when actively playing instead of passively watching yourself play.
• A ship of higher rarity is not always better than a ship of lower rarity. Consult the Basic Tier List to find out more about the ship you got from the warp gate / going to buy before upgrading it.
• The main weapon is less than half of the picture in terms of a ship's survivability. The Aura and Zen individually, as well as how well everything works hand in hand is extremely important so look out for good Aura-Zen combinations instead.
• While unrelated, it is easier to survive when playing with a stylus than playing with a finger. An Apple Pencil works best for this purpose. If you cannot afford it, a precision disc stylus works very well too. A smooth tip stylus works very well too, like mesh fiber tips. Be careful with silicon or rubber tips as the friction may be troublesome to handle. Using your finger often blocks the bullets behind you which hinders retreating from a wall of bullets.
• Get as big of a screen as possible to play on. (However, I do not suggest using an external screen since you cannot line up your touch with the ship controls.) The bigger the screen, to easier is it to spot tiny gaps in bullets. It is also easier for you to guide yourself through the tiniest gaps.
• While unrelated as well, playing other bullet hell games also helps (but is not necessary). Find games of similar genre such as Bullet Hell Monday, the Danmaku series, bullet hell shooters by Cave, etc. Hell (pun intended), even the original predecessor game Phoenix HD (free!) is very good practice for dodging. (Plus, it is way more forgiving since you have health, and don't die in one hit.) Other types of popular shmups like Sky Force and Air Attack don't help as much as the bullet density is not very high and the concept of only being able to be hit at your core is not present, since the whole ship is essentially the hitbox in these games.

General Speedrunning Tips

• Practice, practice, practice. On the ships that you want to speedrun on. You need to know all about your ship to pull off speedrunning very well with it.
• Prepare to die. A LOT. Especially on stupid stray bullets. Most importantly, if you want to learn speedrunning, never give up, and don't let setbacks like these put you off. Prepare to even face frustration as you may die at the last wave, sometimes even last Sparrow, from the most stupid mistake.
• Know and/or memorize the wave compositions, and plan how to use your Auras and Zens on each wave accordingly. Consistency is one of the most important factors in speedrunning, even with the presence of RNG.
• To deal with RNG, pre-fire your offensive Auras and Zens (at least, those that involve RNG such as VL) just miliseconds before the wave fully arrives so that the invaders have not enough time to separate from each other.
• Never hold back on Auras or Zens. Use them at first opportunity. Ideally make sure that there is less than enough damage being dealt to kill all the invaders on field (with the exception of Acts 1-3 and LS) otherwise you are wasting particles.
• Thus, careful collection of particles is very key. Make sure you try your utmost best not to overfill on Aura, push back to the bottom of field and quickly launch your Aura. Then go back up to collect more particles if fit.
• Know your ship's main weapon. Uninterruptible Burst weapons are highly recommended as you can charge your Zen as the burst starts to go off.
• Predictive killing. For many main weapons, to completely optimize your speed, you must know your ship's main weapon interactions with invaders. This means for continuous stream weapons, you must know how long does each type of invader need to be exposed to your main weapon before it is destroyed, while for burst weapons, it is how many projectiles of the weapon before it dies (or sometimes it is also duration of exposure). Once you know these numbers, you should quickly switch to another invader when you know you have exposed that targeted invader to long enough of your main weapon, with a slight bit of allowance time (<1s).
• The same predictive killing also applies for Auras and Zens, as you can start charging your Zens when you know that the Aura and main weapon (in the case of burst weapons) can kill off the rest of the wave.
• Burst main weapons are also good as you can attempt to charge your Zen between wave transitions to reset the burst. When the next wave fully arrives, you can then opt to cancel charging the Zen if there's not enough time, and the burst will fire immediately.
• It is easier to graze bullets from some turrets than others. Pellets and darts are easier to graze. I do not recommend grazing boomerangs unless they come from a T1 boomerang turret. Do not attempt to graze T1 / T3 lasers as you are more likely to die. Do not destroy these easier turrets are it is a very good opportunity to build up your offensive Auras fast. Basically, kill off only the turrets that cause trouble in dodging.
• Pace regulation. Sometimes, going too fast actually hurts you more. This is because the Zen you have used for offence has not recovered completely when the next wave has arrived, meaning longer charge times, resulting in either more likely deaths or due to the non-linear recovery of many Zens, usually a slower time. If you consistently notice your Zen taking too long to charge for a certain wave, you might want to slow down the previous wave. Of course, you should also consider re-allocating your Zen usage to other waves.
• Lightning Fast Bullet Vector Calculations. You need to be able to very quickly calculate where the remaining bullets on field (after the last invader of the current wave is dead) are headed for and find a safe spot where no bullet paths will intersect your planned core location. This is to charge MBs or MLs safely and very quickly. Obviously, boomerangs are going to be the hardest to master their predictive movement. If you wish to improve in this aspect, try charging MB or ML mid-wave (when the wave has fully arrived and started firing bullets) to practice.
• If you are using an SB ship, try to let your main weapon strip the shield before launching any form of offensive Aura against it. This is because Auras and Zens have no affinity and do not deal bonus damage to shields, unlike SB weapons. Usually, due to the non-zero charging time of Zens, Zens have to be used when the wave first comes in. It is not always true, however, especially for quick charging offensive Zens like REMP.
• Try to aim your Auras and Zens directly at the cockpit of armor invaders since that will bypass armor damage reduction, unless you have an apex that has an AP Aura or Zen. If you are using a non-AP weapon (in the case of community missions), aim your weapon at the cockpit of armor invaders too.
• If you are using a ship that has a very fast Zen charge time like REMP, during wave transitions, push yourself all the way to the bottom of the screen. You can push up when the wave comes where necessary. This allows you to stack your ship's projectiles and boost DPS very briefly during the upward push.
• Grazing a pellet MIRV is possible. If you are right beside an MIRV just milliseconds before it explodes, you can graze all 30 of its released pellets simultaneously and this is enough to charge a near full Aura from an empty Aura. However, it is extremely risky and difficult, so only attempt this if you are a skilled player and looking to further your speedrunning skills.
• Always go as near as possible to invaders, going as far to invader riding. This minimizes the travel time of your main weapon, or how long your offensive Auras and Zens take to reach invaders. Be careful not to overkill however, unless it is desirable due to surplus of particles, or simply being just much faster.
• Always experiment between going upfield to soak up particles and going near to invaders. Sometimes, it may be faster to overflow on particles but achieve a much faster kill rate. At other times, it may be more beneficial to be slightly more downfield.
• A little unrelated to gameplay, but it is generally easier to speedrun with a stylus than with a finger. The best type of stylus is a smooth tip stylus, like a mesh fiber tip. A precision disc stylus works fine too (you find it better as well since you may see your core much more easily than a mesh fiber tip), but beware that contact will break beyond a certain angle for such stylus. Do not use a rubber or silicon tip as those have friction which hinders sliding across your screen quickly. A stylus allows you to move around much more quickly, as well as not potentially hurting your finger from the friction.
• A medium sized screen is better than a huge screen for speedrunning. You need to slide less to make rapid re-positioning moves compared to a larger screen. By medium size, usually the size of an iPad Mini works best. Anything bigger than an iPad Mini will have problems as the screen is too big for you to be able to see all the action happening on the screen at once. Also, a bigger screen means it's harder to calculate bullet vectors (as mentioned above). This is the reason why even though an Apple Pencil works best for speedrunning, because it only works on iPads or iPad Pros, the screen size makes it hard to recommend. If you are intending to use a smaller screen, you have to get a stylus otherwise your finger is going to end up blocking so much that it becomes very difficult to dodge.