Ship Details (Part 3)

Ship Details (Part 3)

Czar

Strong against: Shuriken/Pellet/Laser, Lasers Only, Laser/Pellet, Laser/Shuriken
Weak against: Shuriken/MIRV

Ship Class: Double Defence
+

Main Weapon: Fission Slammer

• Average DPS = 21.25
• Target Tracking = Instant
• Weapon Class = Uninterruptible Burst
  
  • (Invader Triggered - Synchronous)
• Reload Time = Medium
• Instant tracking beam that locks on to a target point until the invader is dead or after 2s of firing
  

Survivability (Daily Missions): B-
Survivability (Community Missions): B

• (+) As a ship with no need to care about aiming, all you need to care about is dodging.
• (+) SEMP is used as per standard, either at the start of the wave (especially when there's lots of Sparrows!), or just before lasers and spinners are about to go off.
• (+) TP helps you get in position to maximize a SEMP that is not full and hit as many turrets and invaders as possible, TP in the middle of the action and launch it.
• (+) While the invaders are stunned, this allows you to move around with better freedom. Use this chance to try and maximize the Fission Slammer.
  • If the Fission Slammer is targets a bigger invader such as a Heron or above, try to line it up with a Sparrow or Raven such that the smaller invaders go down quickly. Target switching for Czar takes time and you lose DPS.
• The largest invaders are always for last. After Ravens, destroy the Herons, and then the Eagles, and finally the Vulture.
• Particle management is extremely important for Czar, as a bit lesser will result in lesser stun time which may mean you may run out of time to eliminate invaders before they start firing again. Don't allow SEMP to overfill, launch it just before it reaches full.
• Circling around Vultures and Eagles is a very common technique for Czar so that you don't get trapped in one corner of the field.
• You would want to start the next wave with at least more than half of a full size SEMP, so that all Sparrows can be eliminated. At the end wave, only large invaders should remain, so try not to use SEMP to stun the large invader unless it has very deadly turrets like MIRV Bloomers or Spreads.
• (+) TP will then take care of the rest of your survival against larger invaders.
• (-) Unfortunately, Czar has a pretty horrible targeting system and this makes turret popping extremely unpredictable, so don't count on it to pop turrets. There is just absolutely no way you can direct the main to hit the turret you want.
• (+) Use SEMP to reset spinners and MIRV Bloomers to cover for Czar's weakness of turret popping, even if the SEMP is pretty small.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): B-
Speedrunning (Community Missions): B

• (-) The Fission Slammer's targeting is pretty much random. However, it has a very slight tendency to target whatever the Fission Slammer previously targeted before it stopped (either because the burst time has ended, or the invader is destroyed).
  • Thus, it is a bit more likely to target something that is closer in terms of the angle of the last Fission Slammer.
• (-) There's just no way you are speedrunning with the lowest DPS in the game, and a Zen that doesn't do damage.
• (+) The Aura does help to clear out Sparrows, but the Fission Slammer DPS is so low there's just no way this ship is going fast.

Fun Factor: B-

• (+) SEMP to wipes out a whole bunch of Sparrows.
• (+) Easy reactor position
• (-) The Fission Slammer is easily the worst part of Czar since it's completely uncontrollable and trying to understand what is its next target is impossible.
• (-) Czar is a ship that works, but it's just extremely boring to play.
• (-) Boring Fission Slammer impact sounds.

Trivia

• The base form of Czar was designed by Romano Molenaar, while the apexes were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Czar used to have guns in the design of the pre-alpha version of Phoenix 2, as shown below:
  
• At some point in time, Czar's Fission Hammer was two beams instead of one:
  
• Czar used to be one of the most reliable ships to clear missions before the v3.5 update due to the powerful SEMP that lasted a whole 5 seconds. However, ever since the SEMP nerf, it has sadly fallen out of meta, although it is still viable.
• Before the v4.0 update which introduced Apex forms, the Lambda Apex of Czar was teased on the Phoenix 2 Reddit:
  
• While unclear whether it is a reference to DC Comics, Czar Lambda looks like the Batman logo.

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Apexes

Lambda (Teleport Explosive Arrival) - ¢30.000

Value: S-
Cost vs Utility: S

Survivability (Daily Missions): B [+]
Survivability (Community Missions): B+ [+]

• (+) The SEMP + Explosive TP combo immediately destroys Shielded Ravens. No more Ravens to deal with.
  • Any size of SEMP, even the smallest size works since Explosive TP deals 30 damage, and Shielded Ravens have 31 health in total.
• (+) Since Czar is quite free to go where it pleases due to SEMP, you don’t really need TP when stun is in effect.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): A+ [+++]
Speedrunning (Community Missions): A+ [+++]

• (+) In early Acts, use Explosive TP to get rid of Sparrows. This prevents the Fission Slammer from keep on having to re-target something else, wasting precious time.
  • Use the time slowdown from the charged state of TP to wait for Sparrows to converge so that you can destroy 2 or 3 Sparrows in one TP.
• (+) Using SEMP + Explosive TP on Ravens mean less re-targeting on the Fission Slammer, thus increasing effective DPS.
  • Similarly, wait for 2 or 3 Ravens to converge so that you can destroy 2 or 3 Ravens in one TP.
• (+) Down the shields of Herons and Eagles first before using Explosive TP on them to maximize Fission Slammer SB nature.
  • Get the Fission Slammer to target an Eagle, then swing around a Heron to have the Heron get some of the Fission Slammer damage. Then double TP onto the Heron to take it down immediately.
  • However, always prioritize Ravens and Sparrows first, don't double TP if TP is taking more than one second to charge.
• (+) Pop in an Explosive TP here and there on larger invaders such as Vultures and above to deal some extra damage.
  • Be careful not to overwork TP to the point where it is difficult to use Explosive TP on the next wave. Allow TP to recover when left with one huge invader.

Fun Factor: A+ [+++]

• (+) Using SEMP + Explosive TP on Ravens mean less frustration from the unpredictable Fission Slammer targeting.
• (+) The SEMP + Explosive TP to wipe out Ravens is very fun.

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Delta (Double Teleport) - ¢20.000

Value: C+
Cost vs Utility: B

Survivability (Daily Missions): B- [No significant change]
Survivability (Community Missions): B- [No significant change]

• (+) Increases defence against MIRVs.
• (+) Using the smallest size of SEMPs, you can TP near a deadly spinner before it starts to fire, fire SEMP, then quickly TP back to safety.
  • With a small bit of grazing, it's easy to always fire the smallest SEMP.
• (+) Allows you to confuse dart spreads.
  • Use the first TP to an upper corner of the field.
  • Wait for the dart spreads to fire.
  • Then TP back down and the downfield will be a bit more manageable.
• (-) However, since both SEMP and TP causes a time slowdown, after using an SEMP on the first TP and then allowing the second TP to charge immediately, you'll need to TP back down very quickly. Otherwise the second TP will cancel very quickly due to the lack of time slowdown.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): B- [No change]
Speedrunning (Community Missions): B [No change]

Fun Factor: B- [No significant change]

• (+) Double TP on Czar has the interesting application of stun resetting any desired turret.
• (-) However, due to the conflict between a second TP slowdown and SEMP, this can be difficult to pull off.

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Havoc

Strong against: None in particular
Weak against: Shuriken/MIRV, Dart/MIRV

Ship Class: Full Offence (FO)
+

Main Weapon: Mass Driver

• Average DPS = 31.25
• Blast Damage = Low
• Blast Radius = 80
• Weapon Class = Interruptible Burst
• Rate of Fire = Fast
• Projectile Speed = Fast
• Reload Time = Medium
• 4 successive forward firing projectiles in a slight alternating left-right
  

Survivability (Daily Missions): D
Survivability (Community Missions): D

• (-) No defense other than ML.
• (+) Decent turret popping capability.
• (-) However, it is difficult to get into position to pop turrets, given very little cues on when the next burst of Mass Driver is going to fire. It takes some experience with Havoc to catch its rhythm which is not easy.
• Use an LS at the end of a wave so that you can begin charging ML while LS does its job.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): A
Speedrunning (Community Missions): A-

• (+) Chaining LS after ML at the start of a wave works to take out either Vultures or one side of the invaders rather quickly.
• (-) The problem about Havoc is, it's not particularly powerful, compared to its other cousin Fujin. This means that Havoc doesn't take out invaders that quickly. Since it's difficult to position ML properly to hit the cockpit of invaders, that means that ML often doesn't deal the full damage to armored invaders.
• (-) Havoc's slightly unpredictable cooldown between Mass Driver bursts makes it difficult to estimate the best time to start firing LS for the next wave, since it's difficult to use one last burst before letting LS finish off the wave.
  • In particular, the somewhat unpredictable timing the Mass Driver means it's difficult to hit the remaining Ravens in the wave.
• (-) Since the blast damage of the Mass Driver is quite insignificant, often, you would need to either take out the remaining Sparrows with the Mass Driver or use LS to do so. As mentioned, taking out Sparrows with the Mass Driver is difficult, and even more so with smaller Sparrows.
• (+) 2 MLs in a heavy wave may be possible, so always look out for such opportunities. However, the awkwardness of Havoc's Mass Driver may make transiting to the other side difficult.
• (-) Although Havoc's Mass Driver burst is short, take note it is possible to cut it off halfway, especially when charging ML. If you are using the Mass Driver to finish off part of the last invaders of the wave, remember to exhaust the full burst before charging ML.
• (+) In lighter waves, use LS to finish off the rest of the wave and charge ML early. Just one full burst of the Mass Driver would do, then deploy LS and start charging ML.
• ML becomes fully cooled down after 4 cycles of the Mass Driver.

Fun Factor: A-

• (+) Going fast can indeed be quite fun, although Havoc isn't per say very fast.
• (-) The Mass Driver is pretty annoying to use, being bursty and very thin.
• (-) It's hard to understand Havoc's Mass Driver weapon. Sometimes the full burst is fired, but sometimes only partial burst is fired and after you charge ML, the rest of the burst continues, which is usually very little left.
• (-) Difficult to determine the cooldown interval of Havoc, unless you play with Havoc a lot. Havoc is a difficult ship to get into.
• (-) Havoc's reactor position is very awkward being at the back of the ship, and the shape of Havoc is another massive hindering factor to piloting it.
• (=) Average Mass Driver impact sounds. It's kind of in-between sounding powerful and sounding average.

Trivia

• The base form of Havoc was designed by Romano Molenaar, while the apexes were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Here's an early sketch version of Havoc:
  
• From the above initial drawing of Havoc, the dev immediately fell in love with it. However, when it was sent for coloring, it lost a lot of the power of the original design. The dev then tried to give it a cool strong weapon, but it never really worked out.
• At the v5.5 update, the Blast damage for Havoc's Mass Driver is scaled according to rank. This means it now deals slightly more damage at higher ranks.

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Apexes

Alpha (Main Weapon Volatile Mass) - ¢5.000

Value: A+
Cost vs Utility: S

This apex increases the blast radius of its Mass Driver projectiles. There is no visual difference in the weapon for this apex.

Survivability (Daily Missions): D [No significant change]
Survivability (Community Missions): D [No significant change]

• (+) Takes out Sparrows more easily.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): A+ [+]
Speedrunning (Community Missions): A+ [+]

• (+) Less need to chase down Sparrows. The bigger blast radius means more Sparrows will go down naturally just by targeting the other invaders.
• (+) It also helps against Ravens especially in denser waves, dealing more overall damage.

Fun Factor: A [+]

• (+) Being able to take out Sparrows more easily is fun.
• (+) Less need to use the difficult Mass Driver weapon to aim down Sparrows.

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Gamma (LS Tac Moons) - ¢15.000

Value: C-
Cost vs Utility: B

Survivability (Daily Missions): D [No significant change]
Survivability (Community Missions): D [No significant change]

• (+) The concentrated LS allows Havoc to deal against larger invaders a bit more efficiently, popping off their dangerous turrets quickly before bullets can flood the screen.
  • This is somewhat useful since the burst of Mass Driver is difficult to land properly.
  • Also, one burst of the Mass Driver may not be enough to pop off a turret on a Vulture. The Tac Moons allow you to move on to the next turret after landing one burst on a Vulture's turret.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): A [No change]
Speedrunning (Community Missions): A- [No change]

Fun Factor: A- [No change]

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Geist

Strong against: Dart/Pellet, Dart/Boomerang/Laser, Dart/Pellet/Laser, Shuriken/Pellet/Laser, Lasers Only, Laser/Pellet, Laser/Shuriken
Weak against: Shuriken/MIRV, Dart/MIRV, Shuriken/Boomerang

Ship Class: Offensive
+

Main Weapon: Quantum Blast

• Average DPS = 37.5
• Spread = Wide
• Weapon Class = Uninterruptible Burst
• Rate of Fire = Fast
• Projectile Speed = Medium
• Reload Time = Slow
• 3 successive sets of 8 diverging projectiles fired in a general forward direction
  

Survivability (Daily Missions): B-
Survivability (Community Missions): B-

• (-) Very little turret popping capability. Kill invaders in their entirety.
• (+) Easy to understand Quantum Burst. It even has visual cues to tell you when it is going to fire so you can position yourself properly.
• (-) PS is its only defence.
  • Use PS early in the wave against boomerangs where necessary, usually in the first burst. This is because you would want all the boomerang turrets to go off at the same time.
  • Then, after the boomerangs are blocked off, use PS Phase Out to push forward so you can avoid subsequent bursts of boomerangs.
• (+) Of course, on the flip side, PS deals very well against lasers.
  • It's a different story for lasers compared to boomerangs. You would want to go in close to deal damage first, then retreat downfield and let all the lasers come and find you.
• (-) Difficult to deal against MIRVs. PS is the only defence against them, and rapidly firing MIRV Spreads will cause a huge problem. Unfortunately, you just have to kill that offending invader quickly.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): S-
Speedrunning (Community Missions): A+

• (+) Geist absolutely wrecks Rocs due to its high Quantum Burst DPS combined with damage from MS.
  • Obviously, in the presence of heavy lasers, Geist does even more damage.
  • Destroy the initial wave of invaders before the Roc arrives with an MS. Grab their particles for a full MS for the Roc and leave particles floating around from the previous wave. When the Roc arrives, launch the MS, and rush forward to grab the particles you left behind and immediately fire a second MS. The Roc will go down in no time, particularly if the Roc has lasers to use PS for additional laser reflect.
• In early Acts, especially on waves with a lot of Sparrows, stand back so that the Quantum Burst can catch all the Sparrows. There's a fair bit of RNG involved so it'll not be always perfect.
• (+) A small size MS (up to about half size) will take care of lighter waves. The Quantum Burst doesn't always need to hit something as it can be difficult to do so on lighter waves.
• (+) Since Geist's Quantum Burst is uninterruptible, a very good combo is to let the Quantum Burst be primed (when the main is about to fire, you can see a pinkish glow in front of the ship), and then deploy PS. The Quantum Burst continues to fire while the PS reflects lasers. Just be careful not to deploy PS too late, otherwise the lasers will kill you.
• Remember that Geist rewards aggression. Getting up close to the larger invaders when you can will ensure no DPS is spilled. Use PS if you need to push upwards to get up close.
• In heavier and/or dense waves, it is generally not too much of an issue to stand back.
• Try to finish off waves with an MS. This is because if the waves has only a few Ravens and/or Sparrows, it is difficult to use the Quantum Burst to get close to them. Getting close to them also means going upfield and running the huge risk of overfilling your MS Aura.
  • If this is not avoidable, it's better to simply use the Quantum Burst to finish them off instead of MS as there will be too much overkill damage with MS.

Fun Factor: S

• (+) Geist has the highest potential damage per main weapon burst, coming in at ≈70-75 damage, not accounting for crits.
• (+) PS is very fun to use against laser heavy missions, and to watch invaders destroy themselves really just puts a smile on your face.
• (+) The highly bursty Quantum Burst is actually really fun to use, due to its suitably wide spread, which means that you are almost guaranteed to hit some invader no matter what.
• (+) Very satisfying Quantum Burst impact sounds.
• (-) Geist reactor position can be a little awkward, partially because of its dark green design.

Trivia

• The base form of Geist was designed by Romano Molenaar, while the apexes were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• In a pre-alpha version of Phoenix 2 that was showcased in GDC, Geist was shown as a ship with a main weapon that was the generic weapon for all ships in a very early pre-alpha version, one that seemed to become stronger the longer you used Geist without using the Aura. Using the Aura would reset Geist's main weapon back to its initial state. Click to watch the gameplay of pre-alpha Geist at GDC (Fast forward the video to the 6:50 mark).
• Geist's main weapon used to be SB before it was changed to HI in the v3.0 update.
• As a teaser to the apex update (v4.0), the devs released a teaser screenshot on Discord.
  
• Geist was supposed to get an apex that was chrome in color. Unfortunately, the devs felt it did not fit Geist since the apex lost the feel of Geist altogether, although they feel it was "very slick". Only a small part of this scrapped chrome apex was shown to the Discord.
  
• At v6.0, the screenshake brought upon by the impact of Geist's Quantum Blast weapon was reduced. In fact, the screenshake of the Quantum Burst had been reduced in a previous update as well.

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Apexes

Phi (MS Ion Warheads) - ¢45.000

Value: A-
Cost vs Utility: B

Survivability (Daily Missions): B [+]
Survivability (Community Missions): B [+]

• (+) Helps in getting up close to invaders.
• (+) Particularly, after the first burst of bullets, since you would deploy PS to avoid them, after that, the Ion Warheads allow better maneuverability as you use PS Phase Out to go nearer invaders.
• (-) Easy to cause desynchronization between lasers of different rows. Not recommended to use this apex against laser heavy missions for this purpose

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): S- [No significant change]
Speedrunning (Community Missions): A+ [No significant change]

• (+) Being able to get closer to invaders with less trouble means easier to deal more effective damage.

Fun Factor: S [No significant change]

• (+) Easier for high adrenaline, close combat gameplay.

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Sigma (MS High Explosive) - ¢35.000

Value: A-
Cost vs Utility: B

Survivability (Daily Missions): B- [No change]
Survivability (Community Missions): B- [No change]

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): S- [No significant change]
Speedrunning (Community Missions): A+ [No significant change]

• (+) Helps in dealing a bit more damage in denser waves.
• (-) Unfortunately, you just have to trust that more damage is being done. The damage increase can also be quite difficult to observe.

Fun Factor: S [No change]

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Juggernaut

Strong against: Shuriken/Pellet, Shuriken/MIRV, Dart/MIRV
Weak against: Dart/Boomerang/Laser, General/Boomerang, Dart/Pellet/Laser, Lasers Only, Laser/Pellet, Laser/Shuriken

Ship Class: Attack & Retreat
+

Main Weapon: Devastator Cannon

• Average DPS = 31.25
• Blast Damage = Low
• Blast Radius = 140
• Weapon Class = Uninterruptible Burst
• Projectile Speed = Very Fast
• Reload Time = Slow
• 2 tightly packed side-by-side forward firing projectiles
  

Survivability (Daily Missions): S-
Survivability (Community Missions): S-

• (+) BEMP gives it a lot of survivability in Dart/MIRV and Shuriken/MIRV missions, where bullets get extremely dense.
• (+) You can launch multiple BEMPs to keep on clearing the field. Particularly, make sure you launch a BEMP just before or when the current wave ends, so that you can reliably set up MB for the next wave.
• (+) After MB goes off, look for larger invaders to land your main on, as the heavily damaged Ravens from the MB will get destroyed by the blast damage of the main.
• If there are no large invaders, try to aim slightly offset the mid-line of the field so that the blast damage will eliminate as many Ravens on that side of the field.
• (+) It's powerful Devastator Cannon can wipe out Ravens when both shots land on it, as well as Sparrows nearby. A Sparrow needs 2 blast damage from the Devastator Cannon projectiles. Thankfully, the blast radius of the Devastator Cannon is quite big.
• (+) A single well landed Devastator Cannon shot can destroy a Vulture's turret, meaning both shots hit the turret. This is especially useful to take out MIRV Bloomers or Spreads.
• However, if you are faced with a front heavy wave, then you must go upfield and charge MB so that MBc lands on them. Particularly, landing MBc on frontline Eagles is essential otherwise BEMP will not last you long enough to destroy the front Eagles to eliminate their entourage of shurikens. This move of landing MBc is risky but has to be pulled off, otherwise you will not survive.
• Against MIRV Bloomers, you must be brave and go up close to the frontline of MIRVs and launch BEMP pre-emptively so that you can catch the released pellets before they spread out towards the bottom of the field.
• BEMP's stun allows you to set up MB if BEMP is huge in other mission types aside from daily missions. Simply use BEMP, swipe to the bottom of the screen and begin charging MB.
  • Beware of boomerangs and darts however, if they are sufficiently well behind it should be quite safe to charge MB. This technique works very well on Eagles and above.
• In the case of a mis-estimation and the last invader is not yet destroyed, wait for the next burst to be fired and restart the MB charging.
• (+) The Devastator Cannon projectiles move fast, so you can be downfield at all times and you can hit invaders with great accuracy.
• (+) Therefore, use BEMP pre-emptively to allow easy re-positioning so that you can aim the Devastator Cannon properly.
• (+) The visual cues from the Devastator Cannon helps a lot too, since it will glow just before firing.
• (-) BEMP is your only means to deal against lasers that are headed straight for you. Use BEMP wisely when threatened by lasers.
• Try not to use BEMP as a last minute resort, but instead as a repositioning tool to allow you to destroy invaders quickly.
• The 2 points above can be used in conjuction - you can reposition yourself to hit another invader while avoiding tracking lasers.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): A
Speedrunning (Community Missions): A

• (+) The powerful Devastator Cannon coupled with blast damage can wipe Sparrows clean, without even explicitly aiming at them. All you need to do is to focus your fire on Ravens and other larger invaders.
• (+) MBs heavily damage Ravens enough in that you no longer need to aim at them to take them out, the blast damage will wipe them clean. This is very useful in Raven heavy waves where the entire cluster of Ravens can be eliminated just by aiming in the center of the crowd. Of course, it benefits waves with larger invaders around as well, though it can get annoying to get past these fast moving Ravens.
• (-) It is difficult to utilize its MBc other than during long transitions, however, the blast damage of the Devastator Cannon is able to kill off the severely weakened Ravens very well.
• (-) However, it is a problem when you have a crowd of Ravens in front of bigger invaders behind, as there is no way to get past them without wasting one main shot after using MB to take out most of them to access the back row invaders.

Fun Factor: S

• (+) The Devastator Cannon is easy to handle due to its quick firing yet bursty nature.
• (-) However, the impact area is quite small and may be slightly difficult to land a shot.
• (+) Extremely satisfying Devastator Cannon sounds.
• (+) MB may not kill the Ravens, but the Devastator Cannon is able to take them out quickly. Watching them go BOOM from the immensely satisfying Devastator Cannon really just makes your day.
• (+) Watching sparrows go POOF without you even aiming at them is just icing on the cake.

Trivia

• The base form of Juggernaut was designed by Romano Molenaar, while the apexes were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Juggernaut is one of the dev's favourite ships, since he has the most flights on it at some point of time.
• The visuals behind the Devastator Cannon, Juggernaut's main weapon, is based on battleships as mentioned by the devs, as shown below. This image which was also posted by the dev on Discord, happens to be the US Navy battleship USS Iowa.
  
• The name of the main weapon, Devastator Cannon, is a homage to Devastator, a vehicle driven by House Harkonnen in the Dune II games, as mentioned by the dev. Here's an image of how the Devastator looked like in the original Dune II:
  
• Here's a sketch version drawn by the dev himself with iPad Pro & Apple Pencil 2.
  

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Apexes

Delta (MB Fast Charge) - ¢20.000

Value: B-
Cost vs Utility: B

Survivability (Daily Missions): S- [No significant change]
Survivability (Community Missions): S- [No significant change]

• (+) Allows you to charge MBs more easily, especially in missions with faster bullets.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): A [No significant change]
Speedrunning (Community Missions): A [No significant change]

• (+) Allows some MBc damage to be landed when previously not possible due to how fast the last invader goes down from the fast moving Devastator Cannon projectiles. Particularly on Eagles.
• (+) Chain MBs together more easily and practically in earlier Acts.

Fun Factor: S [No change]

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Lambda (BEMP Destructive Wave) - ¢30.000

Value: X
Cost vs Utility: X

Survivability (Daily Missions): S [+]
Survivability (Community Missions): S [+]

• (+) No more Armored Ravens to deal with since MB + Destructive Wave BEMP wipes them clean.
• (+) No more Sparrow to deal with on Act 2 and above since Destructive Wave BEMP also wipes them clean.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): S+ [+++]
Speedrunning (Community Missions): S+ [+++]

• (+) MB + Destructive Wave BEMP decimates Armored Ravens. No more pesky Ravens hiding behind Eagles or larger invaders, so no more cleaning up after the larger invaders are dead.
• (+) By standing between 2 Ravens, allow one shot of the Devastator Cannon to land on 2 Ravens. Then use Destructive Wave BEMP, and POOF, both Ravens are gone.
  • This new interaction allows Juggernaut to go significantly faster since you can eliminate Raven crowds significantly faster. In fact, only almost half the time is needed if the RNG is good to line the Ravens up so that this can be done.
• (+) Similarly, if you land MBc on Herons, the MB + Destructive Wave BEMP combo decimates Herons.
• (+) Significantly less Sparrows to deal with also means much less chasing down Sparrows.

Fun Factor: X [++]

• (+) The new interactions that result from MB + Destructive BEMP makes Juggernaut so much more satisfying to play. If making things go POOF isn't already satisfying, making more things go POOF instantly is easily why you play this game.

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Tillat'Or

Strong against: Shuriken/MIRV
Weak against: Lasers Only, Laser/Pellet, Laser/Shuriken

Ship Class: Double Defence
+

Main Weapon: Gatling Cannon

• Average DPS = 31.25
• Weapon Class = Continuous Stream
• Rate of Fire = Very Fast
• Projectile Speed = Fast
• A stream of bullets firing in a general forward direction with a tiny random angular deviance from the vertical
  

Survivability (Daily Missions): B+
Survivability (Community Missions): B+

• (+) A common technique to employ is to use TP first, then upon arrival, activate barrier. In some ways, this acts as an extended clearance range of TP, if you are able to avoid the bullets inside the barrier after you land. This technique is more useful in Shuriken/MIRV missions.
• (+) Otherwise, this technique can be useful for threat containment, where you TP upfield to place a barrier around either a dangerous region of bullets, or around a dangerous turret. This is more useful in General/Boomerang missions.
• When placing a barrier to contain the threat by bullets, be sure you are able to exit the barrier safely. You'll need to consider the size of barrier and the location of your arrival. Keep the barrier small otherwise you are going to have more trouble getting out.
• And even after getting out, be sure you are actually safe to retreat back to the bottom of the screen. If it's not safe, you can use any other barriers already deployed to let bullets outside the barriers to cool off.
• From there you can choose to TP back down, or move back down after things have cooled. Just remember the inner lining won't last long at all so be quick in deciding.
• If you are using the barrier to contain the threat of a turret, make sure the turret isn't going to fire once you TP in. After TP-ing and placing the barrier, quickly extract yourself from the barrier.
• (+) TP may help in getting you out after placing barrier upfield at the start of a wave, but usually it's just easier to quickly swipe down instead of waiting for TP to charge and risk dying.
• (=) The Gatling Cannon is weak and takes a while to pop off turrets.
• (+) Fortunately, both Barrier and TP allow for easier positioning.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): C+
Speedrunning (Community Missions): C+

• The Gatling Cannon can be optimized to hit your targets at nearly all times with both defensive options.
• Only use TP to change targets if there are bullets blocking the way. Otherwise, it is more efficient to simply manually re-position yourself.

Fun Factor: B

• (+) The Gatling Cannon is pretty satisfying to hear.
• (+) Easy to handle Gatling Cannon.
• (+) Easy reactor position given it is in the center of the main body.
• (-) Not much for Tillat'Or, given it's a Double Defence ship.

Trivia

• The base form of Tillat'Or was designed by Romano Molenaar, while the apexes were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Tillat’Or doesn’t use thrusters to fly unlike most ships. Instead, it uses a Vertical Take Off Landing (VTOL) lift fan to keep itself afloat.
• As a teaser to the apex update (v4.0), a small part of Tillat'or Gamma was being shown on the Discord.
  

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Apexes

Gamma (Barrier Reflector) - ¢15.000

Value: A-
Cost vs Utility: S

Survivability (Daily Missions): A- [++]
Survivability (Community Missions): B+ [No change]

• (+) Enables viability in laser heavy missions.
• Deploy barriers downfield so that lasers can be reflected off the barriers around yourself
• (-) Can be difficult to sustain barriers, given TP doesn't do much to help out in taking out invaders faster.
• (+) Since Tillat'Or isn't a strong ship as a whole, it doesn't get to use its Barrier upfield at all times. This apex is just good use of that fact since you don't even have to bother deploying Barriers upfield anymore, which can be risky.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): A- [++++]
Speedrunning (Community Missions): C+ [No change]

• (+) Goes significantly faster in laser heavy missions.
• Deploy barriers in a row so that you can move horizontally effectively to aim down invaders.
• (+) Use TP to go upfield to mass activate all the laser MIRVs. Then head back to safety inside the barriers. Be careful of bullets on your way down.

Fun Factor: A- [++]

• (+) Opens up new viability in laser heavy missions.
• (+) Reflecting many lasers off barriers which act like a significantly bigger PS back to invaders is extremely satisfying.

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Epsilon (Teleport Extended Clearance) - ¢25.000

Value: B
Cost vs Utility: B

Survivability (Daily Missions): B+ [No significant change]
Survivability (Community Missions): B+ [No significant change]

• (+) Easier to tackle Shuriken/MIRV missions.
• (+) Able to delete more MIRVs in one TP.
• (+) More flexible to find a spot to TP, such that your arrival location will not be greeted by MIRVs exploding in your face due to the insufficient clearance space normal TP provides.
• Be sure to deploy a small barrier immediately when you arrive after TP so that you wouldn’t be greeted with more pellets in your face.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): C+ [No change]
Speedrunning (Community Missions): C+ [No change]

Fun Factor: B [No change]

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Elyon

Strong against: None in particular
Weak against: Shuriken/MIRV, Dart/MIRV, Dart/Boomerang/Laser, Dart/Pellet/Laser, Shuriken/Pellet/Laser, Lasers Only, Laser/Pellet, Laser/Shuriken

Ship Class: Blitzkrieg
+

Main Weapon: Blaze Laser

• Average DPS = 31.25
• Capacity = 280ms
• Weapon Class = 3 successive Uninterruptible Bursts
• Reload Time = Fast, Medium, Slow
• A short burst of 2 forward firing lasers, followed by a small pause, then a longer burst of the same 2 lasers. There are 3 stages of Blaze Lasers, which are detailed from left to right:
  

Survivability (Daily Missions): D
Survivability (Community Missions): D

• (-) No defense at all.
• (+) Kappa allows you to carefully dodge between dart streams, but there's absolutely no way to clear them, and you just have to resort to clearing fast. And LS isn't the fastest way to do that either.
• (-) Quite difficult to pop off turrets with the Blaze Laser.
• (-) Difficult to handle Blaze Laser. It fires in 2 short bursts, before one long burst. 2 short bursts combined can't eliminate a turret on a Vulture, only the long burst can.
  • This means it's pretty awkward that you have to wait for the long burst to go off to pop off the turret
  • You can use 2 short bursts on one turret, then use the longer burst on the other turret. Let LS finish off the job of the first turret.
• (-) Struggles against slow moving bullets, particularly shurikens and MIRVs. There is just no way to deal against them.
• (+) Does better against fast moving bullets like darts and boomerangs. Kappa allows you to dodge them quite effectively.
• (-) Zero defence against lasers. You can only avoid them.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): B+
Speedrunning (Community Missions): B

• (=) The LS does help in clearing invaders out a little faster, but LS is generally lackluster in its slow damage
• (-) While Kappa does help to refill LS very fast, this leads to an extreme overflow of particles in daily missions, which leads to massive wasted DPS.
• (-) Unfortunately, the LS + Kappa combo works very badly together. The long duration of LS means you have no idea how much Kappa to use, and overusing it means a wastage of particles which severely affects your speed.
• Eliminate turrets as much as possible to allow yourself more maneuvering space so you can hit the Blaze Laser on invaders more frequently.
• Use Kappa to pace the Blaze Laser in early Acts such that the bursts are not wasted.
  • Generally, the shorter bursts should be used on 2 or 3 Sparrows, while the longer bursts on Ravens.

Fun Factor: B-

• (+) LS is pretty fun to watch in action for sure.
• (-) Needs to abuse Kappa quite a lot for dodging between bullets. This means draggy gameplays.
• (-) Difficult to handle Blaze Laser due to its weird firing pattern, being 2 short bursts followed by one long burst. The intervals between the short bursts and between a short burst and long burst are also different, making it even harder to grasp.

Trivia

• The base form of Elyon was designed by Romano Molenaar, while the apexes were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Elyon doesn’t fly using thrusters unlike most ships. In fact, it’s not even clear how it flies other than the light that keeps running down Elyon’s body, which doesn’t really hint anything?
• Elyon's main weapon used to be AP before it was changed to HI in the v3.0 update.

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Apexes

Lambda (LS Shield Breaker) - ¢30.000

Value: A
Cost vs Utility: A

Survivability (Daily Missions): D [No significant change]
Survivability (Community Missions): D [No significant change]

• (+) Enables viability on Shielded missions, especially on missions without lasers.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): A- [++]
Speedrunning (Community Missions): B+ [+]

• (+) SB LS strips shields quickly, allowing Elyon to go a bit faster compared to using Elyon on Unprotected missions.

Fun Factor: B [+]

• (+) Expands Elyon's viability to easier Shielded missions. Especially those without lasers.

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Beta (LS High Power) - ¢10.000

Value: A+
Cost vs Utility: S

Survivability (Daily Missions): D+ [+]
Survivability (Community Missions): D+ [+]

• (+) Enables Elyon to deal much more effective damage, increasing chances of survival.
• (+) LS High Power also eliminates turrets much faster.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): A+ [++]
Speedrunning (Community Missions): A+ [+++]

• (+) Allows Elyon to dispose of LS more quickly, severely alleviating the issue of Kappa pulling in particles too quickly in that your Aura will overflow.
• (+) Allows Elyon to launch about 1.5 times more LS due to how much more quickly one LS is disposed of. This increases to 2 times in community missions due to the density of waves in those missions.

Fun Factor: B+ [+]

• (+) Being able to hear the strongly compounded sounds of a more powerful LS a lot more frequently is very satisfying.

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Ogon

Strong against: Shuriken/Pellet/Laser, Lasers Only, Laser/Pellet, Laser/Shuriken
Weak against: Shuriken/MIRV, Dart/MIRV, Dart/Boomerang/Pellet, General - No Lasers, Shuriken/Boomerang, Dart/Boomerang/Laser, General/Boomerang, General, Dart/Pellet/Laser

Ship Class: Blitzkrieg
+

Main Weapon: Photon Array

• Average DPS = 21.25
• Target Tracking = Slow
• Weapon Class = 6 independent Uninterruptible Bursts
  
  • (Invader Triggered - Independent)
• Reload Time = Medium
• 6 independent lasers that have slow target tracking fired from the front
  

Survivability (Daily Missions): F
Survivability (Community Missions): F

• (-) No defense.
• (+) Kappa allows you to dodge through tight gaps where needed, but there's absolutely no way to clear them.
• (+) In laser heavy missions, Ogon is able to spend most of its time camping at the upper half of the screen, avoiding all the laser fire.
  • Be careful of turret collision with invaders.
  • Also be careful of laser MIRVs. You will need to dodge the MIRVs themselves, as well as find a spot where it is safe after they go off.
• (-) Absolutely horendous Photon Array. It tracks so slowly, so a lot of DPS is leaked switching targets. Considering the fact it is already the lowest DPS in the game, the slow tracking makes it wayyyyyyyy worse.
• (-) Not to mention, the Photon Array has a horrible habit of switching targets after aiming at one after a short while, making the Photon Array all the more leaky.
• (-) This also means that it is horrible at turret popping.
  • However, in missions where turrets have either long reload times or can't blast you at point blank, you can force all of the lasers in Photon Array to hit the turret by going very close to it.
    • This particular point is a crucial survival point when facing Condors or Rocs. Go right up to the difficult-to-reach turrets to pop them off as soon as possible.
  • Just make sure to aim all the lasers in the correct direction before doing this. Aim based on where the lasers of Photon Array are aiming.
• (=) Due to the horrendously slow tracking, Ogon's Photon Array is not the hardest to control since you can determine roughly where it is going and adjust yourself.
  • The only problem comes when some of the lasers decide to rotate the other way.
  • Thus, if you want to pop turrets with the Photon Array, try to start on one side of the field so that all the lasers of Photon Array rotate in one direction.
• (-) Struggles against slow moving bullets, particularly shurikens and MIRVs. There is just no way to deal against them.
• (+) Does better against fast moving bullets like darts and boomerangs. Kappa allows you to dodge them quite effectively.
• Against T3 and T4 shuriken spreads, hide above them. However, go near enough (towards the left/right side) to them such that they will start firing, so they will stalled in that position for a while to buy more time.
  • In some cases, you may need to make a dash downfield after the shuriken launchers/spreads have finished firing. This could be because the upfield can get overwhelming at times, especially in the presence of MIRV Bloomers and tracking lasers.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): B-
Speedrunning (Community Missions): B-

• (-) A completely horrid main means it is very difficult to go fast. Try your best to always direct the lasers of Photon Array towards one direction.
• (-) The bulk of the damage comes from LS, which is lackluster by itself.
• (-) Unfortunately, the LS + Kappa combo works very badly together. The long duration of LS means you have no idea how much Kappa to use, and overusing it means a wastage of particles which severely affects your speed.
• To go fast, keep LS up at all times, and try to make sure you do not overfill on particles. Use Kappa to collect particles if you sense you do not have enough Aura after LS has finished.
• By tapping once to trigger the main and then letting go, one burst of Photon Array is enough to kill one armored Raven. This is useful if you are running low on Aura.
• (+) You can let the Photon Array do damage while engaging Kappa for around 3s, before re-engaging touch to trigger Photon Array again. This allows Kappa to generate more LS Aura where required, especially mid wave.

Fun Factor: B+

• (+) LS is pretty fun to watch in action for sure.
• (+) The Photon Array, while completely stupid, is a great spectacle to watch when maxed, which is really the main saving grace for its fun factor. Because of its horrible habit of switching targets ever so often, it really looks like a (green) light show.
• (=) Honestly, the Photon Array is just supporting damage given its horrendously low DPS, so it's not a huge deal even if Photon Array doesn't hit all the time.
• (-) Slow gameplays with Kappa.
• (+) Because of the exclusive Ogon Is Fine badge, clearing a Marshal S4 mission with Ogon is a HUGE sense of accomplishment.

Trivia

• The base form of Ogon was designed by Romano Molenaar, while the apexes were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• The Phi Apex of Ogon, being one of the most popular apexes, is commonly referred to Phigon in Phoenix 2 communities.
• Ogon is very slightly asymmetrical, compared to most other ships. The middle line that runs down Ogon, separating the left and right hemispheres is curved in asymmetrical ways.
• Due to its horrendous Photon Array and thus absolutely horrible effective DPS, Ogon has become probably the biggest meme in the game. Players would often tease that Ogon is the best ship, but you know otherwise after reading this. ;)
• Ogon is the only ship in the game which has a dedicated pilot badge, which is the widely known Ogon Is Fine badge. The badge was added in v4.5.
• Ogon doesn’t use thrusters to fly unlike most ships. Ogon looks like some kind of ship kept afloat by its large balloon-like body.
• Ogon is amongst the most expensive Commonship to fully ult and get both its apexes, coming in at ¢64.800 (¢500 for buying Ogon, ¢9,300 for fully upgrading, ¢10,000 for the Beta Apex & ¢45,000 for the Phi Apex), assuming you buy everything with your own credits (including buying to unlock the ship itself).
• Here's a representation of a sad Ogon made by one of the game artists, Romano Molenaar. Maybe you should play Ogon more after seeing this.
  

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Apexes

Beta (LS Tac Moons) - ¢10.000

Value: A-
Cost vs Utility: A

Survivability (Daily Missions): D- [++]
Survivability (Community Missions): D- [++]

• (+) Allows more effective turret popping, making up for the Photon Array's poor capability to pop turrets.
• (+) On particular tough missions, this apex makes a lot of difference in being able to clear or not. This is particularly so with deadly turrets such as T3/T4 pellet spinners (both lane and wall) or DDSMs. Once you pop them off, it is much easier to survive those particular waves.
  • If you really want the Ogon Is Fine badge, you can see the leaderboards on which Ogon apex is being used. Tougher missions tend to feature Ogon Beta more than Ogon Phi, so that is an indication that there are deadly turrets in that mission.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): B- [No change]
Speedrunning (Community Missions): B- [No change]

Fun Factor: B+ [No change]

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Phi (Main Weapon Photon Array Mk3) - ¢45.000

Value: A+
Cost vs Utility: A

This apex massively improves Ogon's tracking speed to Very Fast. There are no visual changes to the Photon Array.

Survivability (Daily Missions): D- [++]
Survivability (Community Missions): D- [++]

• (+) Deals the rightful 21.25 DPS as all other weapons with this DPS does. Thus, kills invaders a little faster.
• (+) Circle around invaders without any more worry about losing DPS.
• (-) More difficult to pop turrets since the lasers keep switching directions randomly, making it difficult to synchronize all the lasers to one turret.
• (+) This is generally the more recommended apex if you are looking for more Ogon Is Fine badges.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): B [+]
Speedrunning (Community Missions): B [+]

• (+) No more damage leaking from Photon Array.

Fun Factor: B+ [No significant change]

• (=) The Photon Array lasers switching targets more quickly means the laser light show is always rapidly changing. Depending on your preference, this might be more fun or less fun.

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Vuxine

Strong against: Dart/Pellet, Shuriken/Pellet, Dart/MIRV, Dart/Boomerang/Pellet, General - No Lasers, Shuriken/Boomerang
Weak against: Dart/Boomerang/Laser, Dart/Pellet/Laser, Lasers Only, Laser/Pellet, Laser/Shuriken

Ship Class: Defensive
+

Main Weapon: Vortex Launcher

• Average DPS = 25
• Homing = Good
• Weapon Class = Uninterruptible Burst
• Projectile Speed = Slow
• Reload Time = Fast
• 6 independent slow and homing projectiles fired in a general forward direction
  

Survivability (Daily Missions): B
Survivability (Community Missions): C+

• (+) Synergy between PD and Kappa allows you to always keep a minimum PD to use.
• (+) The capability to generate PD with Kappa means that if played correctly, with the exception of boomerangs, Vuxine is actually quite invincible in any mission with purely bullets. You can simply graze past darts and then use the smallest size PD to get you out of any bullet tight situation.
• (-) Cannot pop turrets effectively with Vortex Launcher due to their random homing nature.
• (+) However, easy to handle Vortex Launcher since you can just let it do its job.
• (+) Against Boomerang heavy missions, use Kappa to carefully graze dart streams, as well as dodge boomerangs and between pellets released by MIRVs.
• (-) No laser defence. Make sure you have enough PD Aura to strafe and escape the lasers that are aiming for you.
• (+) PD allows you to quickly eliminate the first wave of MIRVs that come your way.
• (-) Unfortunately, after that, the shurikens start flooding in which becomes too much for PD to eliminate.
• Start on one side of the field in Shuriken/MIRV missions. Use PD to try and eliminate all the bullets, until you see the shuriken launchers locked on to you. Then, slowly inch the other side.
  • Use PD to eliminate the rest of the shurikens and pellets (from launchers and from MIRVs that explode) that come into the lane towards you. Only use PD when these shurikens are at point blank range, otherwise you will waste unnecessary Aura.
  • When in the shuriken cloud made by T4 shuriken launchers, don't bother to burn PD to eliminate MIRVs before they explode. Let them explode. Only use PD to eliminate MIRVs after the shuriken cloud has almost completely dispersed from the field.
  • Prioritize the elimination of MIRV Bloomers if they exist, otherwise, kill the Ravens with rapid firing MIRV launchers.
  • If there is not enough Aura to eliminate MIRVs even after the shuriken cloud has dispersed, don't be afraid to simply stay on the emptier side and simply let Kappa run to generate Aura for you. It is faster than diving right in and exploding MIRVs since you don't need to dodge the pellets released.
• Use Kappa between waves, or when you need more Aura to eliminate bullets to escape a tight spot.
• Because you simply camp there, particles come in very slowly. You can sometimes even burn PD and move upfield a bit to collect the particles if the shuriken cloud isn't terribly thick, which completely eliminates the shuriken cloud and also the MIRVs and other stray bullets within the cloud.
• (-) There's just no way to deal with lasers at all. A wave with plenty of lasers is just its doom. You can only hope to use PD strategically to cut a hole in the bullet lanes and then Kappa dodge.
• (-) The lackluster DPS of Vortex Launcher makes it hard to clear waves so you have to survive wave after wave of bullets and lasers.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): D
Speedrunning (Community Missions): D

• (-) With a homing main and both Auras and Zens that don't deal damage, there's absolutely no way you are speedrunning with this ship or optimizing anything.

Fun Factor: D

• (-) A rather lackluster Vortex Launcher damage means you don't kill fast enough, and a lot of bullets will be coming for you, thus necessitating the need for Kappa spamming to get yourself out of tight spots. Which also means, very draggy gameplay.
• (-) The compounded impact of the many projectiles of the Vortex Launcher (especially when maxed) causes a huge screenshake, which is very annoying.
• (=) Average Vortex Launcher impact sounds.

Trivia

• The base form of Vuxine was designed by Romano Molenaar, while the apexes were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Vuxine's main weapon used to be HI before it was changed to SB in the v3.0 update.
• Vuxine has been made fun of in Phoenix 2 communities, which started because of the Marshal solo specialist mission in which it was placed in a very difficult laser heavy mission which was extremely hard to clear. (Naturally, players who clear that mission got an AAO badge.)
• The screenshake caused by Vuxine's Vortex Launcher has been reduced in the v6.3.10 update, because the guide author himself complained about it in this Reddit thread, and the dev acknowledged:
  https://www.reddit.com/r/Phoenix_2/comments/1bq6o9b/comment/kx2febg/

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Apexes

Gamma (PD Sentinel) - ¢15.000

Value: D
Cost vs Utility: B

• The elimination of MIRVs through Sentinel is way too slow.
• it is better to simply use PD to do the job.
• Sentinel, being too slow, also runs a big risk of an MIRV exploding and thus needing significantly more Aura energy to eliminate the released pellets.
• Sentinel is supposed to help you be able to generate PD Aura in desperate times where PD is running low, but it ends being too risky to let Sentinel do the job due to risk of MIRV explosion.

Survivability (Daily Missions): B [No change]
Survivability (Community Missions): C+ [No change]

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): D [No change]
Speedrunning (Community Missions): D [No change]

Fun Factor: D [No change]

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Alpha (Kappa Antigrav) - ¢5.000

Value: C+
Cost vs Utility: B

Survivability (Daily Missions): B [No significant change]
Survivability (Community Missions): C+ [No significant change]

• (+) The faster pull in of particles can sometimes make a difference on whether or not it is possible to PD away MIRVs before they start to explode in your face almost simultaneously.
• (+) This makes gameplay much faster and easier by doing less of the slowed Kappa PD gameplay which can be very painful.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): D [No change]
Speedrunning (Community Missions): D [No change]

Fun Factor: D [No significant change]

• (+) Potentially slightly faster gameplay due to less need to spam Kappa.

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Photurius

Strong against: Dart/Pellet, Shuriken/Pellet, Dart/Boomerang/Pellet, Shuriken/Boomerang, Dart/Boomerang/Laser, General/Boomerang, General, Shuriken/Pellet/Laser
Weak against: Shuriken/MIRV, Dart/MIRV

Ship Class: Lightfury/Close Combat
+

Main Weapon: Photon Charge

• Average DPS = 34.375
• Spread = Wide
• Weapon Class = Uninterruptible Burst
• Projectile Speed = Fast
• Reload Time = Slow
• 6 very fast projectiles fired from the front with a slow divergence rate
  

Survivability (Daily Missions): A-
Survivability (Community Missions): A-

• Always attempt to pull off an ML at the start of a medium (or above) wave.
• Otherwise, SEMP should always be fired immediately no matter what, even though there may be Vultures with spinners at the back. By killing fast, you will refill your Aura quickly enough (from the invaders killed in front) to fire off the next SEMP just as the spinners at the back are about to fire.
• SEMP should be quickly followed by an ML if you are unable to pull off an ML at the start of the wave, after proper re-positioning (accounting for the first burst of bullets which are generally difficult to avoid them coming in).
• (-) Due to its wide spread main, Photurius is unable to pop turrets off.
  • Good thing is, you usually don't even need to do that, since Photurius kills so fast.
• (+) Consistent Photon Charge which is quite easy to handle.
• (-) However, the wide spread of the Photon Charge is quite difficult to land properly, especially on Ravens which require the full burst of Photon Charge to eliminate them after being stunned.
• Photurius can be quite effective to pop off difficult-to-reach turrets on Rocs.
  • For a Roc, you want to fire SEMP as you dash forward and make sure that all the turrets are stunned.
  • Then, collect particles on the way up.
  • You would want to position yourself on one side, between 2 of the Roc's difficult-to-reach turrets.
  • It takes 2 bursts of the Photon Charge to eliminate them both. After which, you want to launch a 2nd SEMP
  • Now head over to the other side of difficult-to-reach turrets to pop them off.
  • At the end of the process, all the back turrets of the Roc should be gone. Watch out for the front row turrets if they can turn behind fast enough to aim at you.
• This process won't be necessary on Condors, as mentioned below.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): S
Speedrunning (Community Missions): S

• (+) A highly damaging Photon Charge, coupled with ML means this beast goes really fast.
• (+) A full burst of Photon Charge eliminates an Armored Raven. After stunning them all, be sure to be brave and go right into the Ravens' cockpits to immediately destroy them.
• Use the time slowdown after firing off an SEMP to reposition yourself, as this allows one burst of the main to go off before charging ML.
• In early waves, stand back to reach all the Ravens and Sparrows. After all the Sparrows are dead, use SEMP (if necessary) and move forward to eliminate the Ravens.
• In heavier and/or dense waves, you should fire a second ML. Start charging the 2nd ML after you launch the 1st SEMP. A general guide is this is necessary for 4 Eagle waves, or anything with an equivalent total health or higher. 3 Eagles is too few and would transit to the next wave too quickly. 2 Eagles and 2 Herons are also not enough since one ML is just nice able to take out 1 Eagle and 1 Heron (if the ML is landed on the Eagle's cockpit, which is quite difficult).
• (+) The freedom to move around after firing SEMP means the freedom to reposition yourself to say, in front of an Eagle's or Vulture's cockpit to deal maximum damage to it such that none of its projectiles are wasted.
• Because Photurius' Photon Charge is pretty infrequent, fake charge ML in the transition to a light wave so that you don't waste the powerful bursts of Photon Charge.
• (+) A third ML in the same wave is just not needed due to the high DPS of Photon Charge. Even for waves with a Roc.
• If you have used 2 MLs in the previous wave, the next wave should have at most only one ML. Otherwise, the charge times will get too long and you will waste too much time.
• (+) One ML, followed by one SEMP, 2 bursts of Photon Charge, and finally one more ML is enough to obliterate a Condor, provided both MLs are aimed at the Condor's cockpit. You can start charging the second ML the moment you see the second burst of Photon Charge is primed. This gives the Condor no chance to even pour out bullets into the field.
  • Be careful of the other invaders around though. This case is generally ideal for a Condor, backed up by 4 Ravens behind it since the Ravens are too far away to do anything to you once stunned.
  • If there are Eagles in front of the Condor, if they can't aim backwards, you can go straight for the Condor first. However, remember that you will likely exhaust your SEMP after destroying the Condor. Since the particles provided by a Condor are very heavy, it'll be difficult to stun the Eagles and go back downfield if the Eagles in front have deadly middle turrets.
• Depending on how deadly the Roc is, you may have to employ the technique above to get rid of the difficult-to-reach turret on a Roc.
  • However, if the difficult-to-reach turrets are not deadly enough, it is better to stay downfield and charge a second ML somewhere mid into the Roc battle so that ML has time to recover properly.
  • You will also save particles for the next wave if you do not go upfield to pop off the difficult-to-reach turrets.

Fun Factor: X

• (+) Photurius has a very satisfying Photon Charge that goes POOF.
• (+) Easy to handle Photon Charge. It's easy to know when it'll go off.
• (+) Instant elimination of Ravens if all of the Photon Charge hits an armored Raven.
• (+) Extremely high adrenaline gameplay, requiring you to go right up to the invaders' face to deal damage. Very satisfying gameplay loop: Fire ML, ride up ML, fire SEMP, blast invaders in their face, fire SEMP again before stun expires, blast invaders in their face, repeat until all invaders are dead, then go back down to charge ML
• (+) The highly spammable nature of SEMP and the highly damaging Photon Charge makes Photurius gameplay very fast paced and very fun.
• (+) Continuous stun with SEMP due to the high damage output from ML and Photon Charge. Invaders are disabled most of the time, which is honestly laughable.
• (+) Continuous firing of SEMP also means a lot of AoE damage.

Trivia

• The base form of Photurius was designed by Romano Molenaar, while the apexes were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Photurius was one of the "Horsemen" pre-v3.5 due to the ridiculously long SEMP stun time (5s) and the ridiculously fast ML recovery time (very fast).
• Here's a few captures of the firing sequence of Photurius:
  

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Apexes

Lambda (ML Double Shot) - ¢30.000

Value: C
Cost vs Utility: B

Survivability (Daily Missions): A- [No significant change]
Survivability (Community Missions): A- [No significant change]

• (+) Allows Photurius to deal against turrets on Vulture or larger.
  • Since a Vulture typically has 2 more dangerous turrets, Double ML allows it to take them out immediately before it becomes too hard for you to handle the bullet mess.
• (-) However, for Vultures, it's usually not necessary due to how Photurius can simply take down the Vulture even before the Vulture has time to pump in dangerous bullets or lasers.
• (+) This apex might be useful for Rocs. In the video below, taking out the 2 front turrets (T4 dart spreads) allowed Photurius to focus on the difficult-to-reach turrets on the Roc. This case could be incredibly niche, however.
  • Another thing you could also do is to charge ML such that the first ML is right underneath one of the difficult-to-reach turrets. Then fire SEMP and use the second ML to eliminate the other difficult-to-reach turret on the same side.
  • Then go over to the other side to eliminate the other 2 difficult-to-reach turrets.
  • This saves the usage of one full SEMP, which can be precious if the previous wave is a heavier wave.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): S [No change]
Speedrunning (Community Missions): S [No change]

• The pause between the 2 MLs may cut Photurius' DPS slightly since the Photon Charge doesn't fire between the 2 MLs.

Fun Factor: X [No change]

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Tau (SEMP High Damage) - ¢40.000

Value: S+
Cost vs Utility: S

Survivability (Daily Missions): A [+]
Survivability (Community Missions): A [+]

• (+) Kills Armored Ravens much more quickly

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): S+ [+]
Speedrunning (Community Missions): S+ [+]

• (+) Kills Sparrows in early Acts very easily. A half sized SEMP kills them. Less need to hunt down Sparrows which can sometimes hide behind each other.
• (+) More leniency in eliminating Ravens after stunning them. You can afford to eliminate Ravens even if one projectile of the Photon Charge has missed.
• (+) Able to eliminate armored Ravens with 2.5 full SEMPs. This means that in waves that have a mixture of heavier Eagles and/or Herons coupled with Ravens, you don't even need to care about the Ravens since they will be eliminated purely by SEMPs.
• (+) You can divide the Photon Charge between 2 Ravens and fire 2 big size SEMPs to eliminate them both completely.

Fun Factor: X [No significant change]

• (+) Makes Photurius much more forgiving and also more fun when Sparrows and Ravens go down much more easily.

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Xaniea

Strong against: Dart/Pellet, Shuriken/Pellet, Dart/Boomerang/Pellet
Weak against: Dart/Boomerang/Laser, Dart/Pellet/Laser, Lasers Only, Laser/Pellet, Laser/Shuriken

Ship Class: Offensive
+

Main Weapon: Photon Pods

• Average DPS = 34.375
• Spread = Wide
• Weapon Class = Uninterruptible Burst
• Rate of Fire = Fast
• Projectile Speed = Medium
• Reload Time = Medium
• 5 successive sets of 7 projectiles fired in a general forward direction with a moderate divergence rate
  

Survivability (Daily Missions): B-
Survivability (Community Missions): B-

• (+) While Xaniea does rely on killing fast, it has TP, it's saving grace in times of being threatened.
• (+) Easy to manage Photon Pods with a consistent cooldown time between bursts.
• (+) TP can help in allowing LS to reach a target if you require to kill something really urgently but don't have a big size LS Aura.
• (-) Unfortunately, Xaniea's wide spread means that it is unable to focus fire, thus turret popping is very difficult, making taking out boomerangs difficult. LS does cover this flaw slightly, but due to the nature of LS to switch targets rather quickly, it's not entirely reliable.
• What you can do to partially overcome this flaw of turret popping is to deploy LS first, and then go point blank to the turret you want to pop off. When the dangerous turret fires, retreat. However, it is difficult to eliminate turrets quickly enough before spread turrets force you to retreat.
• Because lasers in General/Boomerang missions can track rather fast, TP is also a means to escape these lasers by TP-ing to the opposite side. This is natural as you would start off a wave a bit more upfield and then retreat towards the bottom of the screen. Just offset slightly to one side so that not too much DPS is being lost.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): A-
Speedrunning (Community Missions): A-

• (+) The rather high damaging main, coupled with an offensive aura, means it can go reasonably fast.
• (+) Use TP to get up close to invaders after being pushed back from bullets. Basically, use TP to go past the wave of bullets. This is particularly so for any kind of spreads.
• (+) Before you charge TP, let the burst of Photon Pods go off so you minimize downtime.
• Use LS whenever possible.
• (-) A bit difficult to deal against Sparrows since the Photon Pods aren't exactly very powerful. The assistance of LS is ideal to get rid of them.
• Start each wave by being as upfield as possible. Leave a bit of gap between you and the invaders so you can respond to threats. You can then retreat downfield as the spread turrets fire. This allows you not to only maximize the Photon Pods, but also potentially pop off turrets.
  • If the turrets are boomerangs, that's even better because they will curve around you.

Fun Factor: A+

• (+) LS is pretty aesthetically pleasing and has pretty satisfying sounds to couple with it.
• (+) Together with the rather aesthetically pleasing Photon Pods, it is a visually appealing ship to play.
• (-) Unfortunately, this also means that the visuals of the Xaniea's offensive means do get in the way of trying to survive.
• (=) Average Photon Pod impact sounds. It kind of sounds like a washing machine.
• (+) Easy to handle Photon Pods.
• (+) Very kinetic ship, meaning quite a lot of movement. Particularly, pushing forward and then retreating is a nice momentum.

Trivia

• The base form of Xaniea was designed by Romano Molenaar, while the apexes were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Xaniea's Photon Pods, look like mini, all-green versions of itself.
• In a screenshot of Phoenix 2, that was on one of the dev's Twitter / X before the game was officially released which you can see here, it was apparent that Xaniea's name was Sentinel. However, the devs have clarified that these names that you see in the placeholder image were never used in development, so the image was just a placeholder with placeholder names.
• In an early pre-release version of Phoenix 2, Xaniea's main weapon was different and looked like a bunch of lasers instead:
  

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Apexes

Lambda (TP Explosive Arrival) - ¢30.000

Value: A+
Cost vs Utility: A

Survivability (Daily Missions): B- [No significant change]
Survivability (Community Missions): B- [No significant change]

• (+) Takes out troublesome Ravens hiding all the way upfield which can easily cause issues when equipped with laser turrets, particularly laser spreads.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): A+ [+]
Speedrunning (Community Missions): A+ [+]

• (+) Explosive TP goes in for the initial damage, and LS then cleans up quickly after the initial damage, killing them near instantly.
• (+) Abusing TP when faced with Raven crowds is very desirable.
• (+) On early Acts, use TP to get rid of Sparrows too.
  • On later Acts, let LS and the Photon Pods do the work to eliminate Sparrows and focus on Ravens instead.
• Remember to activate LS before you start your massacre.
• Flood the field with Photon Pods when the wave fully arrives, activate LS, and then start your massacre.
• (+) This makes LS and the Photon Pods synergise with Explosive TP very well as the weak DPS from LS or the weak damage from each individual Photon Pod is just enough to destroy a Raven after the Explosive TP.
• Allow TP to cool after using it on Ravens. You can occasionally drop in an explosive TP on larger invaders, but remember to allow TP to cool for the next wave.
• (+) On Unprotected missions, this apex is even more powerful since an Explosive TP rids of Unprotected Ravens instantly. No more needing to care about LS or Photon Pods wasting DPS to finish them off.

Fun Factor: S- [++]

• (+) Explosive TP is a lot of fun, especially when using it to take out pesky Ravens.
• (+) This apex can be a lot of fun on Unprotected missions, since the Explosive TP wipes Unprotected Ravens clean unlike Armored Ravens.

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Tau (LS Shield Breaker) - ¢40.000

Value: A
Cost vs Utility: A

Survivability (Daily Missions): B- [No significant change]
Survivability (Community Missions): B- [No significant change]

• (+) Enables Xaniea's viability in Shielded missions.
• Because Xaniea is quite a strong ship, backed up by its rather high Photon Pod's DPS and TP to defend itself, it can be used successfully quite easily, so long the mission doesn't feature too many lasers.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): A [+]
Speedrunning (Community Missions): A [+]

• (+) Despite Xaniea’s AP weapon type, SB LS is powerful enough to rip the shields of invaders off very quickly, and then the main can go to work in taking down the unshielded invaders, which won’t take very long. The Photon Pods are also neutral anyway, so there's no window of time where the Photon Pods are most optimal.
• (+) You can keep spamming LS and still regain them quickly. LS is able to keep up almost all the time.
• This makes Xaniea Tau speedrunning still pretty straightforward like base Xaniea, just in a different setting with Shielded invaders.

Fun Factor: S- [++]

• (+) Xaniea Tau is one of the most aesthetically pleasing apex to play, with a combination of green pods from its main, blue LS from SB LS, yellow/golden from the Aura radius, as well as red from the bullets and lasers on screen.
• (+) Playing this ship feels like mixing everything together on a color palette, especially if you do so on a dark background such as in Gau Prime or Arcology CQ-6.
• (+) Aesthetics alone can simply justify buying this apex for a great visual and gameplay experience.

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