Guide Specific Questions

Miscellaneous Questions

Guide Specific Questions

Q1: Survivability/Speedrunning Ratings

Why is there a difference of survivability/speedrunning ratings for daily/community missions?

Daily Missions tend to be a bit heavier, with the presence of some dense waves, while community missions tend to be a lot more dense in waves. This is the reason, as some ships are better at single target damage, while others are better at crowd control.The difference in mission layouts can sometimes be enough to differentiate between a rating of a minus (-) grade of a higher letter grade in one mission type, but a rating of a plus (+) grade of a lower letter grade. E.g. A survivability rating of A+ in daily missions but a survivability rating of S- in community/specialist missions.

Some ships also excel much better at specific daily mission types, but don't do well in General type of missions. The most obvious case is some ships are much better at surviving a slow bullet hell mission type which is Shuriken/MIRV missions, but don't do too well on General type of missions, which are community missions.

This goes back to the way the tier rating system works. Even though the difference looks like only one grade of difference, the actual rating, if we give a rough point system for the ship for both types of mission, the point difference will be pretty large. This comes back to the definition of each of the letter grades. I can tell you for one, that the difference between the S and A letter grades are huge, compared to that between A and B. I also do not give out X ratings very easily, causing a pretty huge gap between X and S letter grades as well. The plus (+) and minus (-) grades are only intended to make some ships in the same tier stand out a bit more and a bit less.

It's most important to note that the Tier List is not linear. Sub-grade divisions are not equal in spacing, and neither are the letter grades.

Q2: Different number of letter grades for Survivability Tier

Why are there X, S, A, B, C, D & F ratings for survivability tier but only X, S, A, B, C & D ratings for speedrunning and fun factor tiers?

This is a very valid question. Unfortunately, it comes down to a bit of an oversight when the tier list was being revamped. When designing categories of any kind, it is my personal rule that one category should not have disproportionately way too many more elements than the second highest "batch" of categories. This is why the ship class also got a revamp and ships were redistributed, because the Balanced class got too overcrowded at some point.

During the revamp, I had already decided to redistribute the ships into Tiers X, S, A, B, C & D. However, after the first round of all the ships were being reclassified, too many ships were initially cramped into Tier B for survivability tier. Thus, i had to redistribute Tiers A and B into Tiers A, B and C for survivability tier, and push Tiers C and D downwards to Tiers D and F.

With only one ship in Tier F, you might think why would it not be possible to combine Tiers D and F. The answer is, the ship in Tier F has characteristics that make it way worse than the ships in Tier D, thus it cannot compare to ships in Tier D at all. Therefore, there unfortunately had to be just one tier for that ship.

The same problem did not exist for speedrunning and fun factor tiers. After the ships were redistributed for survival tier, looking at the speedrunning and fun factor tiers, the tiers were quite evenly distributed so it was too difficult to redistribute Tiers A and B into Tiers A, B and C.

If there were to be another revamp for the tier list, then hopefully this would not happen again, as i prefer to standardize the number of letter gradings for each category.

Q3: Why letter grade tier ratings?

Why do you use a letter grade system, rather than a point system?

It is very difficult to assign an arbitrary number to survivability, speedrunning & fun factor. Yes, it is possible to use a 1 to 10 point scale, but that makes it no different from letter rating already used in this guide. In fact, it makes it even worse because numbers are generic and harder to differentiate from letter ratings. Imagine I tell you that on a point scale of 1-10, i rate 7. What does 7 mean? Average? Good? Great? If I told you that it is an A+ rating, it would be easier for you to interpret it. Also, if I use numbers, then I have to define for you, maybe 1-2 is bad, 3-5 is average, 6-7 is good, 8-9 is great and 10 is exceptional. Instead, if I just told you C is bad, B is average, A is good, S is great, and X is exceptional, it's a lot easier to remember compared to remembering number ranges. Anything larger than a 10 point scale is a huge headache to assign points. Other guides like p2myth.club are able to use a point system because it is an average of several different players grading the ships. This guide's tier list is built by one person - myself - so there is no average.

In addition, even if i go the extra mile to rate on say, a 100 point scale, then every ship would have a distinct ranking on the tier list. We could find out the #1 ship, the #2 ship, the #3 ship, the #10 ship, the one ship right at the center of the rankings, and even the ship in absolute last place. That is NOT the objective of this guide. The Tier List is designed to try to help you to find A suitable ship to conquer your missions based on your objectives, not THE ONE ship to conquer your missions. The different tier lists are also designed to help you explore other ships as well.

Q4: Beginner Friendliness Tier

About Beginner Friendliness Tier

Some of the recommended options detailed in this guide are going to be disagreed by other veteran players, or by different players in the community. I will not say that what this guide has to say is the absolute. It's always best to find out why they feel other ships are more/less beginner friendly, if you decide to consult forums to ask about what ship to pick up to learn certain aspects of Phoenix 2.

Here are some of my justifications on some of the ships. You are welcome to feedback on other ships that might be more appropriate or ships in this guide's list that are not as appropriate.

• Njörun, as a beginner friendly ship to learn CF - Yigothu is without a doubt, the easiest CF ship to pick up. However, using Yigothu to learn CF is not ideal, as a defensive Yigothu simply deploys REMP when CF expires to clear the bullets stacked up in the CF as well as a lot of other bullets around. That type of playstyle doesn't teach the main selling point of CF; to abuse Chrono Hopping. It is important to learn the Chrono Hopping skill to use CF effectively.
• Prime X, as a beginner friendly ship to learn MS - While Trireme has the same Aura-Zen combination and is an auto-aiming ship, the SB nature of Trireme makes it more difficult, since beginners often fire MS at first opportunity, making the usage of MS less worthwhile. The main weapon of Trireme is also weak, so using MS at the start of the wave also reduces the SB advantage of its main weapon. It is much easier to be overwhelmed using Trireme than using Prime X. Geist and Atlas are both very aggressive ships with limited defence from PS, which are much more difficult to use compared to Prime X.
• Barret, as a beginner friendly ship to learn IC - While Sonah is auto aiming and features REMP to clear space to enable easier positioning, Sonah's weak main weapon means it can be difficult to throw ICs at the intended target (to disable dangerous turrets) since it is difficult to go close to invaders to fire ICs. Meanwhile, Barret can simply TP right where you need and throw ICs effectively to disable the intended turrets.
• Orion, as a beginner friendly ship to learn TP - While Aurora has the best Aura-TP combination, the main weapon is difficult to handle. Aurora is also a slightly difficult ship to use in missions outside of Shuriken/MIRV missions, due to the difficulty to aim the main weapon, while trying to dodge faster bullets and lasers. Because of how slow the Quantum Nuke is, the nuke may miss frequently if not handled properly. Instead, Orion offers a stress free way to learn positioning with TP without worrying about aiming.
• Torrent, Nimbus & AB8/Klyn as less beginner friendly ships - SEMP, REMP & PS are all slightly more advanced abilities which are not as suitable for beginners to pick up the basics of the game. They are indeed quite easy to use ships, but there are just easier ships to use for the basics. They are both good ships to use for training how to use SEMP, however.

Q5: Too many Tier Lists

Why so many Tier Lists? There are 5 of them in this guide!

Every player has different needs and has different objectives. There are some that just want to have fun, or some want to get better at the game and feel the sense of accomplishment when they finally complete a Marshal S4 daily (non-specialist) mission (and maybe even consistently). Some want to take the next step after getting good at completing missions to go fast, to try to get more prestigious badges like Top 1%, Top 0.1% or even BoBs and sBoBs. Some are looking for something different to play, because they are bored with the current hangar of ships. Some are just starting out and want to learn the game basics better. The list is not exhaustive.

This guide tries its best to accommodate to as wide of an audience as possible. It may be a bit confusing to look at 5 different tiers, so I have tried my best to separate it as best as I can.

To try and identify the best ship is NOT this guide's objective. If you insist however, there are resources for that in the External Links / Resources section of this guide.

If there are other categories you think are worth considering, do let me know and I'll consider your suggestion.

Q6: Ships that are not Unique

Why did you leave out [Ship X] in the Unique Ships section?

I have a specific set of ships which I feel should not make the cut into this section. If you have a ship in mind that is not below but you feel that it is unique enough, please send in your choice of ship and reasoning!

• Krillou & Nimbus: Both their Aura + Zen damage combination wipes out Ravens of their respective matching invader affinity. You can even include Zimitr if it is put against Unprotected Invaders just like Nimbus.
• Buhloo, Proteus & Lorilou: All of these ships are able to set up their Zens early and have it charged before the next wave comes in due to their long uninterruptible burst main weapons (or the delayed firing mechanism for Proteus). As a side note, this is the same reason why Veil has a very low uniqueness factor, one that only stems from its rare opportunity to pop all the turrets off the remaining Vulture, and even this feat by itself isn’t as easy as it seems.
• Essin: Its Cyclone Cannon may look fun but it’s not really that unique as it’s very similar to most continuous stream weapons. The slight homing is not exactly very observable (Unless you have the Alpha Apex). The main may be SB and it is ideal for Essin to use the SB weapon to strip the shields before LS (and PS if doing laser reflection) goes into action. However, there's nothing really observable about using LS and PS to deal damage after stripping the shield. If you try using LS at the start of the wave anyway, and just use PS whenever the lasers are about to fire, you won’t notice too much of a difference. While it is more ideal to strip the shield with the main first, which does entail a slightly more unique playstyle compared to just spamming LS, the difference is negligible to be considered for uniqueness factor.
• Arietis & Exarch: For Arietis, its Close Combat style is not unique. For both, they do have ML and are SB, thus stripping the shield before firing ML would be ideal. However, the opportunities for these are quite rare, and per say, it’s nothing like Razor VI’s uninterruptible burst going off at almost the same time ML starts charging.
• 502-Q8: On the surface, it looks like Razor VI because of the same SB weapon type, and also a bullet/laser blocking Aura with ML. However, while Razor VI can start charging right after the first burst hits the invader, 502-Q8 must fire off a couple of Plasma Compressors in order to strip the shield and then fire ML. As each Plasma Compressor projectile is fast moving, there is not a lot of advantage in charging ML as compared to Razor VI. Also, unlike Razor VI, 502-Q8 cannot sweep the field to mass strip off the shields of several frontline invaders, which means 502-Q8 can realistically only use the Plasma Compressor to strip off the shields of one invader before charging ML. This only becomes worthwhile when you are talking about stripping off the shields of an Eagle or Vulture before charging ML. Once again, like Essin, even though there may be a slightly more unique playstyle in using the main to strip the shield before using ML, the synergy between the main and Zen just isn’t there for it to be considered for uniqueness factor.
• Corsair: The Zen may be unique, but it behaves just like many other FOs, dishing as much damage as possible before you get overwhelmed. It may probably be the FO ship that requires the largest amount of flailing about the screen, but that's the case with most FOs anyway, just to a lesser extent. Corsair is undeniably fun, but it doesn't mean that its unique enough.
• Zimitr: At surface level, Zimitr looks like a Yigothu counterpart as it should also strip its invaders of its shields before REMP goes off. However, unlike Yigothu, SEMP doesn't grant Zimitr invincibility, which doesn't allow it to simply run all over the invaders due to a high chance of turret collision, especially in dense waves. This, along with the fact that you cannot control which invaders will its Arurus Satellites hit, means that while Zimitr should try its best to strip invader shields, more often than not it will not have a success rate as high as Yigothu.

Q7: No community content

Why does this guide not feature community content?

It is not the direction of this guide. This guide represents primarily my work, with only some help from the community. This guide is also envisioned as a technical guide, not an end-to-end documentation of the game.

By this, i do not mean to disrespect or undermine the efforts of the community to keep this game alive. They are what keeps this game going. Without them, this guide would not have existed. Because without a community, this guide would be for nobody, which is pointless.

In addition, community content are made all the time. Unfortunately, i just do not have the time to update the guide so frequently to capture all community content.

But if you are looking for community content, you can go to the Phoenix 2 Wiki which is p2myth.club for that, or refer to the External Links / Resources for communities that are out there. I believe that is what the Wiki and the community forums are for, for community content to thrive.