General

General

Beginner's Guide

Only your core can be hit.

Your first ship and your first few Warp Gate activations may not always give you the best ships. Do not upgrade whatever you are given on impulse.

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

• 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 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, get a ship with a high survivability rating for the long run. This would allow you to get to the highest Marshal rank, or at least, the second highest Commander rank quite easily.
  • This approach is more likely for you as a beginner to have a slightly tougher time when ranking up.
    • You may 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 bit 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.

It is better to get a ship with a Shield Breaker weapon first (that deals with Shielded missions), then a ship with an Armor Piercing weapon (to deal with Armored missions), and lastly, a ship with a High Impact 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 good beginner friendly or high survivability 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, play until you unlock Campaign Mission #8 first. This allows you to clear all the daily missions for a huge number of credits. Finally, try to clear as many campaign missions as you possibly can.

• The difficulty of campaign missions slowly go up until about Major rank. Thus, if you can clear a huge number of campaign missions in your early days of the game, you will get very far.
• 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.
  • Refer to the List of Communities for a community you can join.
• It is recommended to try and rank up until you reach Captain rank.

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.

• Refer to the All Ships (Alphabetical Ordering) in order to find the ship you want to upgrade , and a YouTube video of the ship's gameplay can be watched when you click on the ship.

Here are some tips on ship upgrading. Preferably, do these steps in order:

1. Focus all your upgrades into that one ship you picked.
2. Do not spend your credits on more than one ship at a time.
3. Even if you get another better ship, continue to upgrade that ship you were focused on.
   • If you have only invested 1-4 upgrades into your current ship, it is justifiable to abandon it for the better ship.
4. After you have upgraded your first chosen ship to 5-6-6, you should have already gotten a lot of other ships. Hopefully, many of them should have a high survivability rating reflected in the Basic Tier List.
   • Focus on diversifying your ship collection instead of buying apexes.
     • This means getting a Shield Breaker ship if your first ship upgraded is an Armor Piercing ship, or vice versa.
     • If your ship is a High Impact ship, focus on fully upgrading (to 5-6-6) a Shield Breaker ship next, then finally an Armor Piercing ship.
   • Focus on staying in Captain rank suiciding at 5-4 on a 3rd mission, and fully clearing the other 2 missions if necessary).
5. Once you have the 2 (or 3) ships upgraded, you can look to buying and fully upgrading (to 5-6-6) ships with an X Tier for survivability when they appear in the shop.
   • Remember to save up at least ¢3.000 so that you can buy the ship once it hits the shop.
6. Once you have access to at least one ship for each group specialist mission in the gold ranks , continue to improve your rank to Commander .
   • Refer to Appendices B1, B2 & B3 for the ships you can have. Alternatively, refer to Appendix C for a customized solution to buy the least number of ships.
7. Finally, once you have upgraded at least one ship to comfortably tackle all group specialist missions, you can challenge the highest Marshal rank.
   • Refer to Appendix B4 for the recommended ships to upgrade, or refer to Appendix C for a customized solution to spend the least amount of credits.
   • But be prepared, fellow pilot, as Marshal rank is a whole new level of difficulty out there. The difficulty increase is significantly higher than the increase from Captain to Colonel (which is already quite a jump).

Finally, if you are on social media platforms for Phoenix 2, don't be afraid to ask for help as many are happy to help! Refer to External Links / Resources for some of these social media platforms.

Firi Account

Creating a Firi Account allows you to always preserve your precious ship upgrades , apexes and credits.

• Even if you delete and reinstall Phoenix 2, or if your device with Phoenix 2 is no longer accessible, you can use back the same progress on a reinstalled Phoenix 2 app.
• It is also possible to play the same Firi account on 2 separate devices without them interfering with each other as all player stats and any new records will be updated accordingly.
• To create a Firi Account:
  1. To create a Firi Account, at the main screen, tap on the Pilot tab.
  2. Under Firi Account, tap on Sign In.
  3. Tap on Register and fill in the email address and password as desired.
     • 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 log out of your Firi account, you can do the same way as previously.

1. Tap on the Pilot tab
2. Tap on Sign Out.

To log back in:

1. Tap on the Pilot tab
2. Click Sign in
3. Click Sign In again.
4. Type the email used for your Firi account.
5. 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.
6. 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 want to change your password, you can do so through the form in this link:
  https://proxy-users.firigames.com/change-password
• If you forgot your password, please contact the dev directly through Discord (Server Nickname @el) or email support@firigames.com
• If you want to change your email address for the Firi account, please contact the dev directly through Discord (Server Nickname @el) or email 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 Discord (Server Nickname @el) or email support@firigames.com . You need to remember the pilot name you used.
  • 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.
    
  • Prepare an email and a separate password (doesn't need to be your email password) that can be used as the lost account retrieved by the devs will be associated with an email for the recovery process.

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 like Extra Life tokens when you die, allowing you to resume play at the start of the Act you died on.

• You need to be at least Pilot Level 20 to have access to revives.
  • You will then receive the following transmission from Operator Mian which will unlock the usage of revives:

    You can now use Phoenix Revives to help you clear a mission. Go ahead and activate them.

• To activate revives,
  1. Tap on the revives icon to the left of the Play button.
  2. Tap on the number of revives you want to bring to the mission, from 0 - 5.
  3. Tap outside the Phoenix Revives pop-up and click Play.
• When the number of revives chosen is between 1 - 5, if you die on 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 revive, the field will be completely clear of bullets and particles.
  • This means you don't have to deal with leftover bullets from the wave you died on.
  • All barriers and the active phalanx deployed (if any) will also disappear.
  • You have to accept your particle and barrier/phalanx penalty in exchange for a clean field.
• There will be a time penalty added to your final clear time for every revive.
  • The time taken on the Act you died on is added to your time (the timer "continues to run").
  • However, unlike leaderboard timings for non-clear runs which only record the time of entry into say, 5-3, the 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.
    • This means if you died at say, 5-3, then the time taken on 5-1 and 5-2 is added to your time.
  • On top of this, 5 seconds is added for each revive.
• When you have used up all the revives you have chose to bring to the mission (between 1 - 5 as chosen only before starting a game, 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.
• 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.

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.

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	Earned when you are first (#1) in the daily mission leaderboard of the highest rank and league, Marshal S4, when the daily mission has reset.	Earned when you are first (#1) in the specialist mission leaderboard of a Marshal Specialist S3/S4 mission when the specialist mission has reset.	Earned when you have cleared a mission that has a less than 3% clear rate on any Marshal mission (S2, S3 & S4). This is based on the high scores being set on the leaderboards, not the total number of attempts made by all pilots (which is unlike the Wave Completion %).	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.	An exclusive badge awarded to players who played the retail demo version of Phoenix 2, took a photo of the retail device clearing the demo mission, and send 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 would also obtain a physical Phoenix 2 pin upon completing this challenge (as well as a few other small goodies, which differed depending on the season), sent to the player's physical home address. The pin is 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.	An exclusive 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!

Campaign

Badge Icon
Badge Name	Campaign Mission Complete!	Par Time Beaten!	Firi Games Time Beaten!
In-game description	Completed a Campaign mission	Beaten the par time of a Campaign mission.	Beaten the developers' fastest time of a Campaign 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 100,000 players. Specifically, Daily Mission #213 had 111,126 players. 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 is 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 was 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.

Phoenix 2 VIP

A pass which only lasts for 30 days from the time of purchase. After 30 days, the perks given by the pass expire.

• It costs US$5 to purchase.
• Note that unlike most game passes, the Phoenix 2 VIP is not a subscription model. You will NOT be automatically charged after the 30 days. Instead, it would simply expire and the perks would wear off.
  • You will need to manually renew the Phoenix 2 VIP near the end of the 30 days.
  • Every time you renew VIP, you will go to the next level of VIP, which unlocks additional perks (other than having access to more player tags, other benefits are not well known yet).

Perks of the Phoenix 2 VIP:

• Warp Gate recharge reduces from 12 hours to 9 hours.
• You get a one-time reward of ¢1.000 for every activation of the Phoenix 2 VIP.
• Customizable Player Tags. These show up in all leaderboards you have participated in only while the Phoenix VIP is active, and are very easy to spot.
  • Leaderboard entries made prior to buying this Phoenix 2 VIP or entries made after the expiry of the Phoenix 2 VIP are not affected.
  • It does not affect the player details card when a player taps on your leaderboard entry.
  • As your VIP level increases, you get access to more Player Tag options.

In-game Tips

After each game, at the leaderboards screen, the game gives you a random tip. I have roughly categorized the tips in categories. The above categories are generally more important than the tips in below categories.

Gameplay

• The glowing circle around your ship shows the range of your Aura. Unleash it by tapping with a second finger.
• A good opportunity to charge up powerful abilities is between waves.
• Clear one side of Invaders first, and use that space to retreat.
• Moving slow and deliberate is often better.
• Elite pilots upgrade their ships and use the two abilities, Aura and Zen, very often.
• Fly close to enemy bullets to earn bonus energy, this is called grazing.
• Only the blue blinking core on your ship can be hit.
• Homing weapons hit more easily, but deal less damage.
• Invaders glowing yellow are armored. Hit their cockpit or choose a ship with an Armor Piercing main weapon.
• Invaders glowing blue are protected by shields. Choose a ship with a Shield Breaker main weapon.
• Charge Mega Laser and Mega Bomb at the center of the screen to have a better chance of hitting Invaders.
• Sometimes offense is the best defense. Aggressively destroy Invaders first, before they unleash bullet hell.
• Fly an offensive ship aggressively and target dangerous Invaders first.
• Use defensive abilities to remove bullets, like Bullet EMP, Point Defense and Reflex EMP.
• Keep an eye on empty locations to retreat. Some ships can teleport.
• Tap with a second finger to unleash your Aura Ability.
• Shield yourself from enemy bullets and lasers using Barrier, Personal Shield or Phalanx.
• The timer on top of the screen when you beat a wave shows how fast you are compared to your previous attempts.
• Survive first, worry about Invaders later. Some ships target Invaders automatically.
• Success depends on tactical use of your ship's special abilities.
• You can destroy individual turrets on enemies. Take out the most dangerous first.
• Trigger MIRVs early by moving close to them, then retreat. Spread out bullets are easier to avoid.
• Use your ship's special abilities often. They charge up quickly again.
• You can wait until most bullets are gone before you destroy the last invader.
• Don't collect energy when your Aura is already large. It would be wasted.

General

• Apex forms are more than a paint job. They enhance abilities and open up even more strategies.
• Apex forms also enhance the abilities of a ship, and add new strategic value.
• Ships have very different abilities. Try them out and see how far you get.
• Get new ships from the Warp Gate. Different ships offer new strategies to defeat the Invaders.
• Your favourite ship can become even more powerful once you upgrade it completely.
• Completely upgrade a ship to see its Apex forms.
• Find your style and try other ships.
• Choose a ship with a main weapon that is best for the mission. Invaders can have shields, armor or are unprotected.
• How far you get and how fast you get there determine your position on the Leaderboard.
• Tap on the mission icons in the Play tab to see leaderboards, your score and mission Intel.
• Get new Ships from the Warp Gate. The offer changes every few hours.
• Completing S4 with Ogon on the leaderboard should be rewarded.
• You can earn more credits by playing Community and Specialist Missions.
• Inspect a ship and see what abilities you can upgrade and unlock.
• Some ships have powerful extra weapons, can teleport or create shields. Try them out.
• 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!
• Make sure to unlock the Zen Ability of your ship.
• Unlock everything on a ship to see its advanced Apex forms.
• Tap on a ship in the Ships tab or Play tab to view upgrade options.
• Don't forget to upgrade your ships.
• You can always review mission intel by tapping on the mission icons in the Play tab.
• Unlock the Zen ability and lift a finger to charge it.

Miscellaneous

• Watch ads in the Warp Gate tab. They replenish after a while.
• It is possible to get an Apex from the Warp Gate.
• Create a Firi account in the Pilot tab to backup your progress.
• The best pilots can complete a mission with any ship.
• Everyone around the world plays the exact same Daily Missions. There are new ones every day.
• Don't miss out on new ships, free upgrades and supplies by visiting the Warp Gate tab.
• There will be a new mission waiting for you tomorrow.
• Visit the Pilot tab to review stats, previous mission results and your scores.
• Even when you don't complete a mission, you earn rewards for beating waves you haven't beaten before.
• Use your Firi account to play on multiple devices with the same pilot.
• If today's mission is too challenging, try again tomorrow. There will be a new one.
• There is a new and unique mission every day.
• Inspect a ship by tapping on it on the Play Screen.
• Watch ads in the Warp Gate tab for extra credits and revives.

Fun

• Discuss Phoenix 2 ships and strategies with other players via the Community tab.
• Send questions and love letters to phoenix2@firigames.com.
• Fight off Invaders every day.
• Impress other players on the leaderboard with your unique ship choice.
• Create your own Community to play with your friends.
• Praise the Warp Gate
• Toggle music off and back on to cycle between tracks.
• Score a top position with an unusual ship to earn respect from other pilots.

Warp Gate

Receive credits, revives , new ships, upgrades or even new apexes for free!

When you finish/skip the prologue, you will receive one of the following 3 ships below:

• Veil
• Tempest
• Jericho

After which,

1. Your 1st Warp Gate activation comes after 72 hours of finishing the prologue. This is generally trivia since progressing to finish Campaign Mission #3 will allow you to activate the Warp Gate immediately. It will guarantee a Rare ship.
2. Your 2nd Warp Gate activation comes 1 hour after your 1st Warp Gate activation.
3. The 3rd Warp Gate comes 6 hours after the 2nd activation.
4. Subsequently, Warp Gate activations come 12 hours after the previous activation.

Warp Gate activations cannot be stacked. This means the timer for the next Warp Gate activation only begins after its previous Warp Gate activation is complete. The timer starts only 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.

• 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 because you are lucky to get it from the Warp Gate, or you bought it with your own credits).

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 possible to get the Ultimate Level upgrade through this way.
    • A fully upgraded (6-6-6) ship will not be included in the possible pool of ships.
    • There are no distinctions between ship rarities. Any of your existing ships (even if it's a Super Rare ) has equal odds of being upgraded when you receive an upgrade.
    • 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 upgraded (6-6-6), you will instead receive a very special Supply Drop that gives you only ¢100 without revives.
• Get a new ship you never got before (either through previous Warp Gates or buying it yourself with credits).
  • This unlocks the ship forever at 1-1-0.
  • You cannot get ships that you have already unlocked.
  • Phoenix is the only ship which is impossible to obtain from 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, even if you have not unlocked the ship, have not fully upgraded (to 6-6-6) the ship, or if the ship is already fully upgraded.
  • No matter the current stats of that ship, it will become fully upgraded (to 6-6-6) 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:

Operator Mian gives you the following transmissions in relation to Warp Gates:

Condition	Operator Mian's Transmission
First Warp Gate Charged	Activate the Warp Gate to call in your new ship. I am excited to see what you'll get!
Click into the Warp Gate page after First Time Charged Note: This transmission is repeated for every time you go back to the Warp Gate page after exiting out of it without activating it.	Free ships and supplies will be sent through the Warp Gate, activate it whenever you can.
	You can also warp in certain ships and extra supplies on request.
After activating the First Warp Gate	Lucky! That's a rare ship! Try it on your next mission to see how it is.
	Now that you have more ships, you can choose which to fly in the ships selection.
After viewing the first Rare ship you got from the Warp Gate (iOS only)	If you want, I can send you notifications when the Warp Gate is recharged.
Subsequent 4 Warp Gates Charged Note: This is a repeated transmission every time you login if you do not activate these Warp Gates	The Warp Gate has recharged. Go activate it to get a new ship!
Purchase new ship from Warp Gate screen, OR Receive a new ship from a Warp Gate activation that happens to be one of the ships in Get Ships	Great choice! A nice addition to your collection.
	Lovely ship, one of my personal favorites.
	Wow, I've never seen that one before.
	That ship looks awesome!
	Look at those weapons, go get those invaders!
	I love that Aura and Zen Mode combination.
Getting new Super Rare Ship from activating Warp Gate	Wow, that's a super rare ship! You don't get those often!
Getting new Apex from activating Warp Gate	WHOOOOAAAAAA!!! An Apex straight out of the Warpgate! They are incredibly special.

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".

Trivia 3: According to the dev, Warp Gate drops are supplies from other forces whenever they can spare them.

Special Offer! / Free Items / Credits

You may occasionally get a Special Offer section which makes real life currency spent 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
• It will no longer be available once you chose to buy any package with real life money.
• Avoid special offers that bundle 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.
• If you do not hit the maximum stockpiled amount of either credit or revive ads, it will feel like it takes less than 24 and/or 5 hours before the next credit and/or revive ad is available after exhausting all currently available ads.
  • This is because the timer for the next ad is already counting down 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 special offers.

These are the available credit packages:

• ¢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 (bundled with revives, if applicable) package from the shop, you get a special supply drop that looks cooler than the normal ones you get from the Warp Gate:

Get Ships

Use credits to buy and unlock the ship you desire without waiting for the Warp Gate .

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. Check Out Appendix A: Shop Cycle for the full details.

Tapping on the ship in the Get Ships 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.
• 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 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 ship 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 by aiming your main weapon , Aura or Zen .
• 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 .
  • Abuse Zens as much as you can, but only if they are cooled down.
    
    • Be very careful of using a Zen when it is not completely recovered as you are significantly much more likely to die due to you standing still for much longer.
  • 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 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 of particles, 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)
  • 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 Marshal rank 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 needed in higher ranks.
  • 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 Bullet EMP , Barrier or Point Defence . 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.
• Record your every run and review them.
  • By reviewing your own runs, you can often spot stupid mistakes on your own that can be hard to realize when under a bullet hell.
  • If you are in a community, posting your runs can help others spot your mistakes as well.
• Get as big of a screen as possible to play on.
  • However, do not use 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 reduce RNG, pre-fire your offensive Auras and Zens before the wave fully arrives so that the Invaders have not enough time to separate from each other.
  • The amount of time to pre-fire depends on the travel speed of the Aura or Zen .
• Never hold back on Auras or Zens . Use them at first opportunity.
  • Ideally make sure that there is either just enough or just slightly more than enough damage being dealt to kill all the Invaders on field (with the exception of Acts 1-3 and Laser Storm ).
  • Having your Aura or Zen damage deal less than enough damage often wastes time since you need to use your main weapon to finish off the last Invader of the wave.
• Thus, careful collection of particles is very key.
  • Try your 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.
• Know your ship's main weapon .
  • For example, Uninterruptible Burst weapons allow you to charge your Zen as the burst starts to go off.
• Predictive killing.
  • For many main weapons , to optimize your speed, know your ship's main weapon interactions with Invaders.
    • For continuous stream weapons, know how long does each Invader-class need to be exposed to your main weapon before it is destroyed
    • For burst weapons, know how many projectiles of the main weapon (or the duration of exposure when talking about beam main weapons) is needed before every Invader-class dies.
    • 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).
  • 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.
• For Burst main weapons , 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.
  • Grazing boomerangs is very difficult unless they come from a T1 boomerang turret.
  • Grazing T2 or T4 tracking lasers , laser spreads or speed lasers are highly not recommended as you are more likely to die.
    • You can still graze a T1 tracking laser , although the benefit generally isn't that great.
  • 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.
• You don't have to use your offensive Zen every wave.
  • The Zen you have used may not have recovered enough
  • It may be faster to use your main weapon and your Aura to finish off the next wave.
  • A good guide is to abuse your offensive Zen as much as possible first.
  • If you see that you are dying too much when attempting to keep on using your Zen , remove the usage of one Zen and try to re-allocate the usages of the rest.
  • If you manage to complete the run still quite easily, then experiment with taking out one Zen usage and see if you go faster.
• 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 dies) are headed for and find a safe spot where no bullet paths will intersect your planned core location.
  • This is to charge Mega Bombs or Mega Lasers 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 Mega Bomb or Mega Laser mid-wave (when the wave has fully arrived and started firing bullets) to practice.
• If you are using a Shield Breaker 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 Shield Breaker weapons.
  • 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 Armored Invaders since that will bypass armor damage reduction, unless you have an apex that has an Armor Piercing Aura or Zen.
  • If you are using a non Armor Piercing main weapon (in the case of community missions), aim your main weapon at the cockpit of Armored Invaders too.
• If you are using a ship that has a very fast Zen charge time like Reflex EMP , 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 main weapon 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.
• Record your every run and review them.
  • By reviewing your own runs, you can often spot stupid mistakes on your own that can be hard to realize when under a bullet hell.
  • If you are in a community, posting your runs can help others spot your mistakes as well.
• 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.
  • A bigger screen also 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.
    • The Apple Pencil works on iPads or iPad Pros, but the screen size makes it hard to recommend.
  • If you are intending to use a smaller screen, a stylus would be highly recommended, as your finger might end up blocking a lot of the action and make it difficult to dodge.