Ship Details (Part 4)

Ship Details (Part 4)

Arietis

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

Ship Class: Close Combat
+

Main Weapon: Particle Disruptor

• Average DPS = 34.375
• Spread = Very Wide
• Weapon Class = Continuous Stream
• Rate of Fire = Very Fast
• Projectile Speed = Fast
• 2 sets of 6 diverging projectiles constantly being fired on each side
  

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

• Because dart spreads are dangerous at close range, stand back about 1 times of Arietis' height so that you can retreat to safety.
• (-) Arietis' extremely wide spread Particle Disruptor means it's impossible to pop turrets off.
  • On a frontline Vulture, using ML is usually impossible since charging ML is only just enough to down its shield.
  • While you can use the Particle Disruptor to strip off the shield first and then charge ML, doing so is very difficult due to the amount of bullets already on field and PD being also low from getting close to the Vulture.
  • This is however, more practical for upfield Vultures that are further away from you if you decide to charge ML. Get rid of the frontline invaders, then strip the Vulture's shield, and use ML.
    • This also means the Vulture would immediately go down after the ML. Depending on the next wave, you could immediately charge another ML.
    • Or, if it's just a light wave, then just flood the field with the Particle Disruptor.
• (-) The extremely wide Particle Disruptor also means Arietis is one of the harder ships to inflict the full 34.375 DPS on invaders, which makes Arietis into something more like a 31.25 DPS +/-, without the turret popping capability as well.
• (-) Arietis takes time (~1s, yes, the transition is quite long) to transit back from charging MLs to firing its main again, which is a bummer since DPS is lost.
• In Shuriken/MIRV missions, where there are less shuriken launchers, Arietis can be viable. Simply charge ML and make sure it hits the Eagles that carry these turrets.
  • If there are 3 or more Eagles carrying shuriken launchers, you will have to fire ML twice that wave. ML clears bullets which allows you to get past the shuriken cloud. Using PD to clear out the shuriken cloud will very quickly cause you to be severely backed into a corner.
  • With shuriken launchers eliminated, aggressively use PD to eliminate MIRVs before they even get to explode.
  • It is a common mistake to push up aggressively to eliminate these MIRVs. Instead, slowly push yourself up after an ML is fired so that you can collect the particles and give time for the Aura to increase in size and eliminate the MIRVs before they get into explosion range.

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

• (+) PD is meant to be used as an offensive tool, constantly spamming it so that you can get up close to the invaders and deal maximum damage from the Particle Disruptor, otherwise a sit back playstyle will result in not enough damage being done.
• (+) Because of its close combat gameplay and thus utilizing much of its DPS, Arietis has the capability to go quite fast.
• (-) Because of how wide Arietis' Particle Disruptor is, for Ravens, it is better to only utilize one side of the Particle Disruptor rather than going face-to-face with Ravens as more of the Particle Disruptor would hit.
• For Herons, you should utilize one side of the Particle Disruptor and also as much of the other side as possible.
• (-) However, when faced with larger invaders such as Vultures, the extremely wide spread main means that it is inevitable that the corner streams leak, wasting some DPS.
• Always spam tap PD, because that is how Arietis is supposed to be like when speedrunning.
• Because of the close combat gameplay of Arietis, you should go right up to invaders, even if the wave is ending with the last few invaders.
  • As you do this, you collect the particles from the dead invaders. This sustains PD even at the end of the wave.
  • After you have eliminated the last invader, quickly swipe back down to the bottom of the screen to charge ML. The field should had been clear of bullets when you used PD to get close to even the last of the invaders on field. This portion, in particular, wastes a bit of time going all the way upfield to as downfield as possible to charge ML safely enough.
  • Estimating when the last invaders are going to die, and thus swiping down at the right time will take a lot of practice. This is an essential skill to master. If the estimation is wrong, you will waste time trying to fire off small bursts of Particle Disruptor in order to kill the last invaders.

Fun Factor: A+

• (+) Arietis is one of the most close combat ships, since maximizing the Particle Disruptor's DPS means getting very close to invaders.
• (+) Pretty satisfying Particle Disruptor sounds, which complements the PD sounds it makes frequently from close combat gameplay.
• (=) You will probably hear a lot of "dang dang dang" because there's nothing left for PD to eliminate either because it's out of range of bullets, or there's just no bullets left to eliminate.
• (-) Because Arietis' Particle Disruptor is so wide, it's also hard to handle properly.
• (-) It can get a little bit frustrating to finish off invaders, especially if you have mis-estimated the damage dealt, since it can sometimes take a few rounds of re-engaging touch to fire off small bursts of Particle Disruptor and releasing touch thinking you have done enough to kill the last invader.
• (+) Easy ship core position.

Trivia

• The base form of Arietis was designed by Romano Molenaar, while the apexes were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Arietis' Particle Disruptor used to be one of the loudest in the game before it was toned down in a subsequent update.
• Before the v4.0 update which introduced Apex forms, the Epsilon Apex of Arietis was teased on Twitter:
  
• Arietis is featured in an old game preview video of Phoenix 2, appearing at 15s.

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Apexes

Lambda (PD Bullet Detonator) - ¢30.000

Value: S
Cost vs Utility: S

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

• (+) Makes Arietis much more viable for Shuriken/MIRV and Dart/MIRV missions.
• (+) Eliminates invaders faster because of the close combat style of Arietis, allowing it to more easily deal damage compared to some other PD Bullet Detonator apexes.
• (+) The fact that Arietis almost always depletes its PD all the time also means it is nice to use PD for damage as well.

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

• (+) The close combat playstyle of Arietis closely synergizes with the encouraged aggression from PD Bullet Detonator.
• (+) Just by playing Arietis close up like in the base form of Arietis, this apex already helps out a lot in additional damage.
• (+) For even more fun, go for some turret riding which fully maximizes all of Arietis' DPS and PD Bullet Detonator apex ability.

Fun Factor: S [++]

• (+) The close synergy between maximizing the PD Bullet Detonator apex ability and the close combat style of Arietis severely enhances how much more quickly this apex's damage capabilities can be realized.
• (+) Invaders going down a lot more quickly from the tons of damage caused by their own bullets is laughable, yet enjoyable as to how fast invaders go down.

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Epsilon (ML Focused Beam) - ¢25.000

Value: B
Cost vs Utility: B

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

• (+) Increase in ML damage helps plow through larger invaders faster.
  • This means less MIRVs on field in Shuriken/MIRV and Dart/MIRV missions.
• (=) Allows for desperate ML riding where the massive graze from thin ML riding can allow it to regain some PD when threatened with too many shuriken launchers. This is particularly demonstrated in 5-4.
  • The skill of thin ML riding is VERY difficult, however.

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

• (+) Higher damage from ML means going a bit faster.

Fun Factor: A+ [No significant change]

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Atlas

Strong against: Dart/Pellet, Shuriken/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: Attack & Retreat
+

Main Weapon: Autocannon

• Average DPS = 31.25
• Weapon Class = Continuous Stream
• Rate of Fire = Very Fast
• Projectile Speed = Fast
• 4 forward firing lanes of bullet shells that fire in alternating patterns
  

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

• (+) PS makes Atlas great for laser heavy missions to deal counter offensive damage by reflecting off lasers.
• (+) Atlas' Autocannon focused, which makes it great for taking out turrets.
• (-) However, the Autocannon takes quite a while to take out turrets due to how rapid firing it is.
• (+) While the Autocannon has technically 3 streams, the streams are so tightly packed it's almost like one stream of bullets. The continuous firing of the Autocannon also makes it easy to handle.
• (-) The Autocannon is also an issue due to the highly concentrated and forward directed nature, as it can become hard to navigate around the field when being trapped.
  • This means invaders that are not in front of you are hard to destroy. For invaders with spread turrets, this can become a problem since their weaponries can reach you but you can't reach them.
• The Divide and Conquer technique of MS is one of the most relevant for Atlas. At the start of the wave, fire off MS and then quickly strafe over to the other side to prevent yourself from getting trapped.
  • This will hopefully destroy a good portion of invaders on one side, so that when you are on the other side, you won't need to face so many invader weaponries firing at you from where you started from.
• (-) Shurikens are one of Atlas’ biggest weakness. Eliminate these turrets if possible.
• (+) PS is a great tool when you are faced with a shuriken cloud headed toward you with very little space to escape. Allow it to activate, then exit PS and use Phase Out to get past the shuriken cloud.
  • Note that PS Phase Out is not effective in crossing large distances, so make sure you figure out the shortest path to escape such shuriken clouds. Usually, this is the area that is most downfield.
  • Attract all the shuriken launchers to one side in order to thin out the shuriken cloud at one end of it which is in range of the field. This means retreating to the extreme side of the field, before you use PS to Phase Out to escape the shuriken cloud.
• (+) PS can help against defending yourself against pellets released from Caged MIRVs, especially since MS will usually eliminate most of the Sparrows, allowing you to clear an entire wave of pellets released from Caged MIRVs.

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

• (+) MS coupled with a potentially offensive PS means Atlas can go reasonably fast.
• (-) As mentioned above, Atlas can run into severe maneuverability issues due to the strictly forward firing nature of the Autocannon.
• To prevent this, try to launch as many MS as possible, even if they are smaller sized MS, to clear out space quickly.
  • However, do not overkill on MS if the MS cannot clear out the last invaders in a wave.
• Use PS to jump across lanes of either darts or pellets (the latter usually more likely) so that you can quickly reposition yourself after killing off one of the larger invaders.
  • Try not to do this unless the path is really blocked, as using PS means losing the Autocannon DPS.
• Before the start of the next wave, go as downfield as possible to avoid overeating particles and overfilling on Aura.
  • After the next wave fully arrives, quickly place yourself in the middle of the whole field to launch MS.
  • Then, quickly retreat back downfield.
  • The only time when you don’t need to do this is when you are faced with either Eagles or a Vulture in front, otherwise always try to be in the middle in order for MS to have maximum coverage.
  • This can be tough especially when transiting from a wave that pumped in so many shurikens.

Fun Factor: A

• (+) Watching lasers reflect off PS is definitely quite a sight to behold.
• (+) Pretty satisfying Autocannon sounds. It sounds like a woodpecker.
• (+) Easy to handle Autocannon.
• (-) Gets stuck in corners quite easily due to forward firing Autocannon, and also MS being not easy to fire off constantly.
• (=) Average ship core positioning, it is in the middle but because Atlas is quite tall, it is not the easiest to estimate.

Trivia

• The base form of Atlas was designed by Romano Molenaar, while the apexes were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Atlas is one of the only ships whose main weapon's name is only one word, where most main weapon names are two words.
• Prior to the v4.2 update, Atlas was deemed as the quake machine or the typewriter (the latter probably also due to how the main weapon sounded like), due to the excessive amount of screenshake caused by the Autocannon, and because it's so rapid and each shot has a small screenshake upon impact, it resulted in the screen constantly shaking by a very noticeable amount. Playing it for some time can probably result in headaches or dizziness. However, the screenshake from the Autocannon was completely eliminated in v4.2 onwards.
• Atlas was featured in an old game preview video of Phoenix 2, at 10s.

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Apexes

Delta (MS High Explosive) - ¢20.000

Value: A-
Cost vs Utility: A

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

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

• (+) Helps in denser waves, but the impact of this apex can be difficult to feel.

Fun Factor: A [No change]

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Alpha (PS Supersize) - ¢5.000

Value: A
Cost vs Utility: A

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

• (+) Useful against pellets released by Caged MIRVs, as more of these can be eliminated. This means less dodging between the mess of pellets.
• (+) Much more effective in escaping shuriken clouds.
• (+) Increase in laser catch rate for laser reflection, especially from laser spreads. This means a bit more reflection damage.

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

Fun Factor: A [No significant change]

• (+) Makes Atlas a bit more maneuverable, making Atlas easier to play.

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Essin

Strong against: Dart/Pellet, Shuriken/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: Balanced
+

Main Weapon: Cyclone Cannon

• Average DPS = 31.25
• Spread = Medium
• Weapon Class = Continuous Stream
• Rate of Fire = Very Fast
• Projectile Speed = Medium
• Many slightly homing shurikens being continuously fired in a general forward direction, each with a slight randomness in the angle of release
  

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

• (+) PS shields against bullets and lasers alike.
• (+) Launching LS just before using PS is extremely useful. You can stay safe and let LS and PS Laser Reflect do the work
  • You can then wait for a bit more invaders to be killed, or bullets to be cleared out before exiting PS.
• (+) Using PS Phase Out, you can clear a bit of bullets on your way out, which is useful for hopping bullet lanes.
• (-) The Cyclone Cannon is a bit inconsistent due to the slight spread. This makes a few of its shots miss.
• (-) The somewhat inaccurate Cyclone Cannon also means that it is not easy to pop turrets off.
  • It is also somewhat difficult to go near to invaders since Essin isn't exactly a very high DPS ship, even with LS active.
• (+) Otherwise, pretty easy to handle Cyclone Cannon.
• (-) Unfortunately, as Essin only has PS as its defence, it has very limited defence against bullets, which can become an issue in bullet heavier Laser/Pellet missions.
• (-) Shurikens are one of Essin’s biggest weakness. Eliminate these turrets if possible.
• (+) PS is a great tool when you are faced with a shuriken cloud headed toward you with very little space to escape. Allow it to activate, then exit PS and use Phase Out to get past the shuriken cloud.
  • Note that PS Phase Out is not effective in crossing large distances, so make sure you figure out the shortest path to escape such shuriken clouds. Usually, this is the area that is most downfield.
  • Attract all the shuriken launchers to one side in order to thin out the shuriken cloud at one end of it which is in range of the field. This means retreating to the extreme side of the field, before you use PS to Phase Out to escape the shuriken cloud.

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

• (+) Essin is one of the most consistent ships around, due to it always dealing damage, even while shielded in its own PS, since it would be using LS to deal damage while inside PS. The constant stream of the Cyclone Cannon also means consistency.
• Sweep the field with the Cyclone Cannon so that most of the frontline invaders have their shields stripped (for smaller invaders such as Herons or Ravens) before you launch LS and PS into action so that you take advantage of the SB main. With frontline Vultures or Eagles, their shields go down pretty fast too for you to launch LS into action.
• To deal against the somewhat slow moving nature of the Cyclone Cannon projectiles, in early Acts, you have to go right up to invaders to maximize DPS and minimize DPS leak from the spread.
• At the end of the wave, after eliminating the last invader by going up to it, quickly head all the way downfield. This is to stack the Cyclone Cannon projectiles, as you once again dash forward for the next wave.
• Most of the time, it is safe to simply just activate LS at the start of a wave. Do not activate LS at the end of the wave, especially at the end of an Act. Unless, there are too many particles on field so that you can refill LS to full again very easily (not by going upfield to purposedly refill it, of course)
  • In very specific waves, it may be a good idea to delay LS slightly to allow the Cyclone Cannon to strip off the shields of invaders since LS isn't SB. However, this use case is extremely rare. It only makes sense to consider this if you need to finish off the last invaders with exclusively your Cyclone Cannon, and the size of the LS Aura is too big in that some of LS duration would be wasted between wave transitiobs.

Fun Factor: A

• (+) Essin's Cyclone Cannon is a spectacle to watch, watching actual shurikens (and not those boring red shurikens from invaders) being thrown at invaders.
• (+) LS is also a spectacle to watch as well.
• (+) Generally, easy to handle Cyclone Cannon. The slight spread makes some of it miss, but a good majority of it still hits.
• (+) Essin's Cyclone Cannon impact sounds are pretty muted, but since it hits constantly, it's kinda quite soothing to hear the Cyclone Cannon keep hitting invaders
• (+) Essin is just a very fun ship to play, generally speaking.
• (-) Essin's core is a little more forward than usual, making it a little strange, but still quite manageable since the reactor isn't obstructed by the ship details.

Trivia

• The base form of Essin was designed by Romano Molenaar, while the apexes were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Essin used to have guns in the design of the pre-alpha version of Phoenix 2, as shown below:
  

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Apexes

Alpha (Main Weapon Improved Optics) - ¢5.000

Value: A+
Cost vs Utility: S

This apex improves the homing capabilities of the Cyclone Cannon.

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

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

• (+) Slightly less leakage from the Cyclone Cannon.
• (+) Switching targets is more effective, especially when it comes to strafing to avoid lasers.
• (=) Doesn't really change the speedrunning style of Essin to go near to invaders to deal more effective damage, but at least less of the Cyclone Cannon leaks.

Fun Factor: A [No significant change]

• (+) A bit more fun to play since the Cyclone Cannon is slightly easier to handle.

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Gamma (PS Super Reflect) - ¢15.000

Value: A-
Cost vs Utility: A

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

• (+) Deals against dangerous Rocs and Condors with fast tracking lasers, since the Super Reflect destroys them easily.
• (-) Difficult to land Super Reflects since the LS sounds can mask the sound of invaders firing.
  • To alleviate this, you can activate LS only just before using PS for Super Reflect.

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

• (+) Very powerful apex against waves with many lasers situated upfield, this apex can deal against heavy waves very effectively.
• (+) Any laser heavy wave is bound to be vaporized, especially if the lasers are coming from upfield.
  • Be always alert however, since sometimes the super reflected laser goes straight back to the turret and eliminates the source of the super reflected laser.
• (+) On some occasions, it can even be beneficial to instead stress charge Super Reflect such that it destroys heavier waves faster. This usually applies against waves with laser MIRVs as you can sit on top of a laser MIRV as it is triggered to Super Reflect all of its 5 or 9 lasers. This requires experimentation, and obviously, a lot of skill to know when to charge a PS Super Reflect that has not cooled down completely.

Fun Factor: A [No significant change]

• (+) Being able to completely destroy Condors and Rocs in one Super Reflect is just so satisfying.
• (-) Difficult to land Super Reflect due to how LS can mask the sound of invader lasers firing.
  • This is one of the harder Super Reflect apexes to play.

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Ex04239

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

Ship Class: Full Offence (FO)
+

Main Weapon: Meson Projectors

• Average DPS = 37.5
• Capacity = 500ms
• Weapon Class = Uninterruptible Burst
• Reload Time = Medium
• 2 side-by-side forward firing beams that lasts a short while
  

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

• (-) No defense other than ML.
• (+) Extremely easy to handle Meson Projectors. These Meson Projectors are among the most consistent main weapons out there with a very easy to catch rhythm.
• (+) The high DPS of Meson Projectors, how easy it is to handle and the forward firing nature, makes Ex04239 easy to take out turrets.
• (+) ML also takes out turrets if necessary.

Speedrunning (Daily Missions): X
Speedrunning (Community Missions): X

• (+) The single, highest single target damage dealer out there among all ships.
  • Ex04239 is powerful enough in single target damage, that it can even be among the fastest even in Unprotected missions.
• (+) The highest DPS in its class, together with 2 extreme burst damage from both MS and ML, means this ship takes out almost all invaders with ease given you have the capability to dodge through some amount of bullets. You hardly have to worry about deadly turrets.
• (+) A half full MS and an ML kills a Vulture instantly.
• (+) A good idea is to push forward with the ML in order to allow a full sized MS Aura to lock on to invaders behind the Vulture so that the DPS is not wasted.
• ML should almost always be charged as downfield as possible.
  • You would want to charge upfield is if the frontline invaders are not able to turn behind to shoot at you, so you can shove the ML into a Vulture's or Condor's cockpit.
  • You may also want to charge upfield if you need to instantly eliminate a turret on a Condor or Roc that is very deadly.
    • If you are doing so on a Roc, then after firing the ML, you can head over to the other side to launch an MS such that it will destroy the 2 difficult-to-reach turrets on the other side.
    • This may not always be possible since it is hard to aim properly, but usually at least one of the difficult-to-reach turrets would be gone. Use the Meson Projectors as you head back downfield to eliminate the other difficult-to-reach turret on the same side.
• In the presence of a Vulture, change at the center of the field so that the ML will hit its cockpit to deal maximum damage.
• Only fire MS when nearer to the frontline Vulture to allow MS time to lock on to the invaders behind.
• Don't be too near to invaders as you use MS to kill off the last invaders of the next wave as while the MS clears out the last of invaders, this allows you to charge ML for the next wave.
  • Don't be afraid if there is quite a bit of overkill damage since charging ML is more important.
• If you do not intend to charge ML for the next wave, it is better to use the Meson Projectors to finish the job.
• It is also better to go up close to invaders if you are not charging ML for the next wave, as you can minimize the travel time of MS to kill invaders.
• Charging ML where possible is not always a good idea even with the above technique of letting MS finish off the last of invaders. Sometimes, it is better to simply use Meson Projectors and MS to finish off the next wave, even if the next wave is sufficiently dense or heavy.
  • This is to allow ML time to cool off.
  • Generally speaking, if ML takes more than 2.5s to go off, it's a sign to let ML cool off and use the Meson Projectors and MS to deal with that wave instead.
• Offset ML to one side if needed, if the middle of the field does not have enough invaders in the column.
• ML can be fired twice against a Roc, where possible.
• Depending on whether or not you have enough MS Aura, it is not always a good idea to ride the ML to collect the particles.
  • However, riding it partially to the midfield may be a good idea such that MS can target enough invaders so that it is not wasted.
  • Of course, if you don't have enough particles, riding the ML is always a good idea.
  • The momentum is to always fire ML then fire MS, unless in early Acts where one burst of Meson Projectors is enough to finish off that wave.
• Do a speed sweep in early waves that have Sparrows. While 4 sparrows on screen can possibly be completely destroyed with one proper sweep, it usually takes 2 sweeps. It's better to be safe and do 2 sweeps since doing an incomplete sweep means that the 2 remaining Sparrows may become too far apart in that you waste 2 more bursts to take both of them down. You should aim for only one sweep if it's only 3 sparrows.
• If there are only 2 Ravens on field on early Acts 1-2, just use the Meson Projectors to finish them off and don't bother firing an MS since MS takes time to travel to the other Raven.
• Ex04239's Meson Projectors is a bursty main weapon, so you can charge ML as the Meson Projector fires. This property is still very useful for many cases, especially when the remaining invaders in the wave have too low health left to justify an MS to finish it off.
• For waves that do not need ML, you can also fake charge ML, such that when the wave fully arrives, engage touch again to maximize the burst of Meson Projectors. Do this when required, but bear in mind this also means not being able to let ML cool down.
• Because Ex04239 kills so fast, when a Roc arrives, they may be a lot of particles in front of you. As such, always charge ML as downfield as possible unless you need to eliminate difficult-to-reach turrets urgently.
  • As you fire off the first MS, slowly grab the particles such that you don't overfill.
  • In some cases, it can be possible to launch up to 3 full size MS.

Fun Factor: X

• (+) Extremely easy to handle Meson Projectors. This is one of the factors that make Ex04239 a lot more consistent and easy to speedrun with.
• (+) Very satisfying and impactful Meson Projectors. The sound matches the high DPS of the Meson Projectors.
• Ex04239 is probably one of the only times that you really start complaining about the random circling nature of MS. Due to how fast Ex04239 is, the smallest amount of RNG from the annoying circling of MS will really annoy you.
  • However, not that this issue isn't present in other MS ships either, just more so on Ex04239.
• (+) Even if you are not really into speedrunning, the pure speed that stems from its DPS, Aura and Zen is extremely satisfying, even if you choose to take it quite slow. You could always destroy most of the wave very fast and then slow down at the end to let the bullets cool off before proceeding to the next wave.
• (+) Instantly vaporizing a frontline Vulture is very satisfying.
• (+) Ex04239 is one of the highest adrenaline ships to play, due to how much it has to move around the field.
• (+) Easy ship core position.

Trivia

• The base form of Ex04239 was designed by Romano Molenaar, while the apexes were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• The Sigma Apex of Ex04239, being one of the most popular apexes, is commonly referred to SigEx0 in Phoenix 2 communities. There's another shorter form of the Sigma Apex of Ex04239, which this guide will not mention due to the fact it can be inappropriate.
• Despite the oddly specific code number to the ship, the devs have said that the number has no meaning behind it, and is simply for cadence.
• It was initially thought that both E & X were supposed to be UPPER CASE before the v5.0 update (because it made more sense). Between the v5.0 and the v6.1.6 update however, the actual casing of the individual letters now appear in the shop under the Warp Gate tab, so it is confirmed that only the E is capitalized.
• Before the v4.0 update which introduced Apex forms, the Phi Apex of Ex04239 was teased:
  
• Ex04239 used to have guns in the design of the pre-alpha version of Phoenix 2, as shown below:
  
• In a pre-release version of Phoenix 2 (which could never be played), Ex04239 was seen having Barrier as its Aura ability instead.
  
• It was also seen having an unknown Aura ability in a pre-release version.
  
• Ex04239 Phi is featured in the new game preview video for Phoenix 2.
• Here's an adorable representation of Ex04239 made by a user Phoenix Private, which the dev liked so much that he saved it into his folder and found it one day to repost it:
  

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Apexes

Sigma (MS Ion Warheads) - ¢35.000

Value: X
Cost vs Utility: X

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

• (+) Less bullets from invaders from the stun effect from MS.
• (+) Able to reset deadly spinners and DD weapons just before they fire, severely increasing survivability especially in waves with upfield Vultures, or against Condors and Rocs.
• (+) The ease to launch MS after MS means it's easy to stun lock invaders for a long time, so it becomes very difficult for invaders to pump bullets onto the field.
  • This severely increases the maneuvering capability of Ex04239, and thus, the survivability.
• (+) Works to reset lasers too, but this function is seldom seen because Ex04239 kills too fast.

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

• (+) Better maneuverability of Ex04239 in many bullet heavier missions.
  • The maneuverability helps Ex04239 land more effective damage with Meson Projectors.
  • It also allows MS to lock on to more targets so that missiles don't just fly off for no reason.
• (+) Helps in ML setups during wave transitions as MS takes care of the remaining invaders, so you don't get unexpected darts or boomerangs firing and killing you.
• (+) Possible to use Ex04239 on Shuriken/MIRV missions, although it will still not be an easy task.
• (-) The increase in minimum Aura size to launch MS means not being capable to launch MS in early Acts 1-2, which can become an issue in speedrunning in early waves.

Fun Factor: X [No significant change]

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Phi (ML Twin Laser) - ¢45.000

Value: A
Cost vs Utility: A

This apex fires 2 MLs side-by-side, with a tiny gap in the middle. The damage from both MLs add up to 200 damage.

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

• (+) Allows Ex04239 to take out 2 Vulture turrets side-by-side, increasing survivability slightly.
• (-) However, landing ML on the cockpit of an armored Vulture with normal ML does more damage than the ML Twin Laser fired upon the turrets of an armored Vulture. It is definitely a better idea to just kill the whole Armored Vulture than to pop off its turrets.
• (+) This apex is however, useful against Unprotected Vulture, or larger invaders. It can also be useful against Shielded invaders, although an SB ship is much more suited for the job.

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

• (+) Increases the speed of Ex04239 further.
  • However, to do so on armored invaders, make sure that both Twin Lasers land on the Vulture's, Condor's or Roc's cockpit.
  • On very heavy Unprotected missions with much lesser dense waves, Ex04239 Phi can become extremely potent since you can land the ML Twin Laser anyway without consequences so long the damage leak is minimized.
• (+) Also increases the horizontal reach of ML. It can become easier to catch invaders who try to escape the ML before it punches through the frontline invaders.
  • This is especially for earlier waves where Sparrows can be quite spread throughout horizontally.

Fun Factor: X [No significant change]

• (+) More damage = More fun

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Aurora

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

Ship Class: Double Defence
+

Main Weapon: Quantum Nuke

• Average DPS = 36.5
• Blast Damage = High
• Blast Radius = 200
• Weapon Class = Uninterruptible Burst
• Projectile Speed = Very Slow
• Reload Time = Very Slow
• Very slow moving forward travelling projectile fired once every 2s that explodes with a large blast radius
  

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

• (+) The BEMP + TP allows for a super charged Arrival EMP TP.
  • The best usage for Aurora is to TP in the middle of the action, and then fire the BEMP just a millisecond later after arriving (since the TP Arrival EMP does give a small grace time).
• In light waves, TP in front of the Ravens (or Heron) so that your nuke will hit them, since continually missing the nuke will soon make you run out of Aura as you have to keep clearing the field of MIRVs, their pellets and perhaps even the shurikens emitted by Sparrows.
• (+) Especially in Shuriken/MIRV missions, TP to the middle of the field, and then wait until you are almost going to die. Then fire BEMP to make use of the full 360° of BEMP.
  • You can even TP to explode all the MIRVs emitted from MIRV Bloomers. If you can, try to graze off the pellets released by the MIRVs and slowly push back. This earns you additional BEMP Aura if done correctly. At the worst, you will still collect some particles.
  • The latest time you should ever fire TP is before you reach the lowest 1/3 of the screen.
• (+) Thus, TP is used more as a positional tool to allow the most optimum usage of TP.
• In other waves, medium ones and above, there's little reason to care about aiming because invaders are almost everywhere. Just don't be at the side of the field as that is just jeopardizing your chances for your nukes to miss for no reason. You'll just need to care when it comes to the end of the wave where you need to chase down the last few invaders like those in a light wave.
• (+) Aurora's huge blast radius quickly does massive AoE damage to many invaders on field at once, and this is pretty automatic since there's so many invaders running about. The best result is in dense waves where the amount of damage dealt is insane.
• (=) The Quantum Nuke even deals decent against front heavy waves since the blast radius is enough to damage invaders hiding behind the larger invaders in front.
  • However, against the larger invaders themselves, it might take a bit of time to burn through them.
• (+) You can TP right into any mess of bullets in the middle of the field, even if everywhere has MIRVs exploding. Just look out for pellets coming from behind, and fire BEMP before they get way too close to you (a good guide is before they touch the visual body of Aurora itself).
  • Doing so allows you to grab particles to increase the size of BEMP as well.
  • If the BEMP is very small, do be careful as you retreat if the BEMP is not able to clear all the bullets downfield.
  • A small size BEMP may not be able to reset MIRV Bloomers and Spreads.
• NEVER go behind a Vulture to take Ravens behind as that is very likely to backfire instead. You need to eliminate the Vulture in front asap instead because it has more dangerous turrets. The blast damage from Aurora is more than enough to wipe out Ravens hiding behind Vultures.
• (+) A very good technique if you are low on Aura is to pre-charge TP. While the time slowdown is active from a ready-to-use TP, you can carefully graze off the many bullets (particularly from MIRV Bloomers) to charge your Aura. Each graze is quite significant as BEMP is a huge aura.
  • Just be very careful not to exceed the time slowdown period.
  • Just as time starts to speed up, TP to your new location.
  • You should be using the time slowdown to also decide your new arrival spot.
  • Don't try this unless you are relatively close to some bullets otherwise you are just wasting your time.
• (-) Unfortunately Aurora is bad against Condors and Rocs. You are going to have a long fight and you'll need to probably use the graze then TP technique mentioned above quite a lot during these fights.
  • That's not to say that Aurora can't deal against them, but it may take quite a lot of skill. Aurora may not be the best on such days.
• (-) You can use Aurora on Shielded Shuriken/MIRV or Dart/MIRV missions, but one missed shot means invaders have a chance to regenerate their shields.
• (-) Fast paced missions are difficult to play on with Aurora. It becomes difficult to aim the Quantum Nuke at invaders. Missing one Quantum Nuke can become all the difference between surviving or not.
• (-) In laser heavy missions, BEMP may not always be enough to reach so far to reset all lasers, which becomes a huge problem. If there is not enough Aura to reset most of the lasers, then it is also difficult to aim the Quantum Nuke to destroy the invaders so as to survive less rounds of laser fire.
• (-) Difficult to aim Quantum Nuke due to how slowly the nuke moves.
• (-) Very difficult to pop turrets off since the Quantum Nuke fires infrequently and 2 Quantum Nukes are needed to pop a turret off. Fortunately, the number of invaders and thus turrets left on field is usually very little after the Quantum Nuke takes care of small invaders easily.

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

• The impact damage of a single Quantum Nuke is estimated to be 10. The blast damage is estimated to be 20.
  • As the blast damage is also dealt to the invader which the Quantum Nuke hits, the damage dealt to the invader hit by the Quantum Nuke is thus estimated at 30 per nuke impact.
• Use TP as your positioning tool to get right in front of the invaders you want to destroy. Fire off BEMP in front of them where necessary such that they are temporarily stunned so you don't die being shot at point blank range.
• Always aim to have the Quantum Nuke hit the largest invader on screen.
• Clear from front to back. In other words, clear the most downfield invaders first.
• The Quantum Nuke's blast radius is enough to affect downfield invaders if it explodes at the center of the field.
• Next, if multiple invaders of the same largest size appears, hit the one that is most central.
  • Down the other smaller invaders first, before switching your focus to hit the other invaders of the same largest size.
  • For example, if we have 2 Eagles and many Ravens, focus down on the Eagle that is more central so that it can hit as many of the other Ravens.
    • If the Eagles separate to the left and right sides of the field, then alternate between hitting the left and right Eagle.
    • Doing so allows the Eagles to go down at the same time, while downing all the Ravens before the Eagles go down.
  • Generally speaking, it becomes difficult to focus fire in later Acts. For example, if the wave is a upfield Vulture and 2 downfield Eagles, then just get rid of the Eagles first.
  • If the largest invaders are only all the way upfield, then focus fire on the next largest invader at the center of the field or downfield so that all the invaders downfield are eliminated first.
• Against a frontline Vulture with many upfield Ravens behind it, TP on the Vulture such that you are just slightly above the turrets of the Vulture. You want the Quantum Nuke to explode just slightly above the turrets of the Vulture, but not too far up until the Quantum Nuke misses the Vulture.
  • Focus fire on the left side of the Vulture, between its 2 left turrets, 2 times before all the Ravens on the left go down
  • Then focus fire the right side of the Vulture between its 2 right turrets, such that the right side of Ravens go down.
• (+) Scoring a crit makes even the blast damage of the Quantum Nuke take out Unprotected Ravens immediately. Unfortunately, you can only react to this as fast as possible to re-adjust your plans.
• (-) Because of random invader movements and random crit chances, speedrunning with Aurora can vary a lot, with time gaps of approximately at least 10s apart even with a very similar run, hitting the same invaders in both runs.
• Aurora's Quantum Nuke blast damage has a cap on how many invaders can be affected (but the blast damage is still dealt equally to all of them), as confirmed by the devs.
  • If the number of invaders within the blast range of the Quantum Nuke exceeds the cap, then only the invaders closest to the blast epicenter will be dealt the blast damage.

Fun Factor: S-

• (+) Aurora's Quantum Nuke is definitely the most fun thing going for it. The satisfaction of watching so many Ravens being blown to smithereens just makes your day.
• (-) It's random as to whether the blast damage will kill on the first impact for other Ravens (this depends on whether the damage dealt by the blast damage is critical. YES, Aurora's blast damage can deal crits.)
• (+) Watching Ravens blow up just by hitting that Vulture in front makes fun of these cowardly Ravens.
• (+) The feeling of diving right into the action and then releasing a huge BEMP to clear so many bullets is incredibly satisfying.
• (-) It's quite easy to miss a Quantum Nuke since it is difficult to handle, especially in early waves.
• (+) Easy ship core position.

Trivia

• The base form of Aurora was designed by Romano Molenaar, while the apexes were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Aurora is the only HI ship with blast damage.
• Aurora is the only ship with a max DPS of 36.5. In fact, it is the only ship with an inaccurate DPS, as the nuke itself does not deal 36.5 DPS, rather, the DPS is an average of the Quantum Nuke's impact damage and the blast damage dealt to an averaged number of invaders affected by the blast damage, as determined by the devs. The impact damage of a single Quantum Nuke is estimated to be 10, while the blast damage is estimated to be 20.
• Aurora used to have guns in the design of the pre-alpha version of Phoenix 2, as shown below:
  
• Aurora was one of the "Horsemen" in early versions of Phoenix 2, as its nuke traveled much faster and thus was a lot easier to hit.
• Aurora is the only ship that suffered an extremely targeted nerf.
• In v3.5, the limit of blast damage to 8 targets was removed. This in particular, means Aurora now got a buff after suffering from a nerf from its main. This removal of the restriction appears to only significantly affect Aurora, while other ships with blast damage weapons don't quite benefit.
• Before the v4.0 update which introduced Apex forms, the Lambda Apex of Aurora was teased on the Phoenix 2 FaceBook:
  
• The devs had some fun and made a little GIF on Discord showcasing what it was like to have Aurora's Quantum Nuke fire rate upped like crazy, and the result was quite dizzying when nukes after nukes exploded on a test Eagle that had infinite health. Because the GIF is extremely disorientating, here's just a little image of how crazy the firing rate looked like, and the massive spill of the nukes exploding:
  

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Apexes

Lambda (Teleport Extended Clearance) - ¢30.000

Value: C-
Cost vs Utility: C

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

• (+) Helps in lengthy Roc battles where particles become very scarce.

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

Fun Factor: S- [No change]

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Tau (Main Weapon Homing Module) - ¢40.000

Value: D
Cost vs Utility: C

Makes the Quantum Nuke have homing capabilities. The homing capability is roughly Medium. Here's how the Homing Quantum Nuke looks like:

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

• (+) Easier to sit back and just let Aurora do all the work for you. It is an extremely lazy apex.
• (-) Sometimes, the homing Quantum nuke ends up missing due to the imperfect homing capability.

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

• (-) Attempting to control the homing Quantum Nuke can become counter-intuitive as this might make the nuke miss instead since it has a different idea of what it wants to hit than what you want to hit.
  • Shouldn't be a problem if you go point blank with invaders. But then again, if you do that, there's just no point in getting this apex.

Fun Factor: A+ [--]

• (+) Sit back and relax as the homing does quite a bit of the job for you.
• (-) Can stupidly still miss invaders even it is homing onto them. Sometimes it makes you wonder if aiming yourself is just better.
• (-) It even can miss Rocs entirely.

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Von Braun

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

Ship Class: Blitzkrieg
+

Main Weapon: Daisy Cutter

• Average DPS = 37.5
• Homing = Minor
• Blast Damage = Medium
• Blast Radius = 80
• Weapon Class = Uninterruptible Burst
• Projectile Speed = Very Slow, then Medium
• Reload Time = Slow
• 2 slightly homing huge missiles simultaneously fired from both sides of the ship
  

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

• (-) Absolutely no defense.
• (=) Kappa allows you to dodge through tight gaps, but there's absolutely no way to clear them, and you just have to resort to clearing fast.
• (+) Fortunately MS is a very good solution to clearing fast. Its high burst damage clears invaders out really fast.
• (-) Unreliable turret popping capabilities. The random targeting nature of the Daisy Cutter makes it difficult to focus down on deadly turrets.
  • MS is also not reliable to pop off turrets.
• (-) Extremely difficult to handle Daisy Cutters. Random targeting, and subpar homing capabilities make it miss Ravens and Sparrows very easily.
• Von Braun's Daisy Cutter takes care of the bigger invaders, while the constant MS spam deals with the smaller invaders. The spillover of MS from smaller invaders helps out in dealing damage to bigger invaders.

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

• Von Braun is a very unique ship that relies heavily on Kappa. Particularly, keep Kappa engaged at all times, and only release Kappa momentarily to release a burst of Daisy Cutter.
  • This requires knowledge on how long it takes to recharge one burst of Daisy Cutter. It takes roughly 4-5s of having Kappa engaged to recharge one burst of Daisy Cutter.
• (+) Kappa generates a lot of MS Aura to clear out invaders quickly.
• Wave memorization and Positioning are of utmost importance to Von Braun.
• The only most frustrating part is Wave 1-1 where hitting 2 Ravens/Sparrows could be difficult.
  • After hitting 2 Sparrows or 1 Raven, if there are 2 more invaders, use Kappa and then MS to finish off the rest
  • If one invader remains, then just use another burst of Daisy Cutter to finish the last invader off.
• In every wave, be positioned on the field such that Von Braun is on the hull of the largest invader on field (of course, don't be on top of the invaders' turrets).
  • This allows the Daisy Cutter to hit with 100% accuracy.
  • 1 Daisy Cutter missile kills an armored Raven. If there are more than one armored Ravens in that wave, position yourself just slightly off to one side of the Raven such that one of the Daisy Cutter missiles hit the Raven, while the other would accelerate towards the other Raven which is in the middle of the field.
    • If the Ravens are side-by-side, just pick any Raven and it does not matter if both Daisy Cutter missiles hit one Raven.
    • Use MS as soon as possible to eliminate the other one, using Kappa where required.
    • This is usually the scenario on early Acts.
  • 2 of the Daisy Cutter missiles are required to kill an armored Heron. Thus, just be on top of the Heron itself, at its cockpit.
  • The Daisy Cutter takes 1s after touch is engaged to start moving. It also takes a bit <1s to accelerate, so there's a 1s time grace in order to release the Daisy Cutter and hit the desired invader
• Against Eagles, go as close as possible to them. Allow both missiles of the Daisy Cutter to hit, then fire off MS to finish it off and the rest of the invaders in the wave.
• Don't worry about Aura overfill for Vultures and below. Kappa generates a lot of MS Aura so MS overkill is very normal for Von Braun. The powerful Daisy Cutter or the MS Aura generated makes up for the wastage in MS Aura.
• If the Vulture is the last of the invaders to go down in that wave, be sure to missile barrel the Vulture, or be right on top of the hull of the Vulture so it goes down very quickly due to zero travel time of the Daisy Cutter or MS.
• 4 Daisy Cutter missiles and a full Aura of MS will destroy a Vulture very quickly.
  • Using this fact, you can pre-fire one burst of Daisy Cutters downfield, and then go close to the Vulture to fire off the second burst, and finish off with MS.
• Use MS to missile barrel on difficult-to-reach turrets of Condors and Rocs to destroy them instantly so that surviving these dangerous invaders could be possible.
  • If possible, use the first MS to deal general damage, then use the leftover particles from the previous wave to use a second MS to missile barrel. Aura overfill is a problem for Condors and Rocs.
  • If the difficult-to-reach turrets are too fast firing, then just missile barrel immediately to get rid of them.
• Try to stay on one side of Vultures, Condors and Rocs where possible. This is to allow the Daisy Cutter and MS to get rid of the turrets on one side of them.
  • Then, go on top of these invaders so the travel time of the Daisy Cutter is practically zero, taking them down much more quickly.
• For even more tips on how to speedrun with Von Braun, refer to this website:
  https://p2myth.club/docs/Cookbook/Von%20Braun

Fun Factor: A

• (-) Extremely frustrating Daisy Cutter. Misses Sparrows and Ravens very easily. This means early waves are extremely frustrating since going near to them makes them miss easily when they run off a bit, and even firing downfield is unreliable to hit them due to their movement speed.
• (+) Von Braun is THE missile ship. Its really fun to watch all kinds of missiles fly around the screen, including the big ones from its main, and the constant spam of small missiles from its MS + Kappa combo.
• (+) Very quick to vaporize Vultures, and take down Condors. Rocs also go down rather quickly.
• (-) Because Von Braun has Kappa engaged almost all the time, the gameplay of Von Braun is pretty slow, which is ironic for a speedrunning ship.
  • And when the missiles of Daisy Cutter miss, more time is wasted.
• (=) The blast damage is quite negligible to observe though, particularly when maxed, as one Daisy Cutter's blast damage no longer kills a Sparrow.
• (+) Pretty intuitive ship core position, given it is in the middle of the chevrons marked by the 2 wings.

Trivia

• The base form of Von Braun was designed by Romano Molenaar, while the apexes were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Von Braun is the only ship that shares the highest DPS of 37.5, and yet has blast damage. The 37.5 DPS does not account for the blast damage.
• Von Braun's main weapon, Daisy Cutter, is the name of a missile used in real life to clear foliage and vegetation.
• Von Braun's name may be a reference to the German aerospace engineer and space architect. More specifically, Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun was the leading figure in the development of rocket technology in Germany and a pioneer of rocket and space technology in the United States.
• Von Braun Beta is one of the only apexes in which the design of the main weapon itself is also different from the base form.
• Before the v4.0 update which introduced Apex forms, the Beta Apex of Von Braun was teased on the Instagram page of Firi Games:
  

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Apexes

Delta (MS Armor Piercing) - ¢20.000

Value: S
Cost vs Utility: S

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

• (+) Being able to eliminate invaders significantly faster due to Von Braun's reliance on Kappa to generate lots and lots of MS Aura improves survivability.
• (+) Particularly, Armored Sparrows go down significantly faster.
• (+) Sometimes, Sparrows will go down even if MS isn't locked on to it because the missiles that fly off may hit the Sparrows and destroy them.

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

• (+) Able to clear off early waves significantly faster with much less Kappa time means significantly faster early wave times.
• (+) Even in later waves, the AP MS deals so much more damage to invaders, reducing the number of MS fired to eliminate even later waves.
• (+) Very useful when doing missile barreling, since it is very difficult to missile barrel on the cockpits of invaders. This is particularly so since it is better to stick to one side of larger invaders so you can go on top of these invaders more safely.
• (+) Able to take down smaller invaders in denser waves such as Ravens and Sparrows much faster so that the way is cleared for Daisy Cutter to hit larger invaders.

Fun Factor: A+ [+]

• (+) Much faster gameplay, so less Kappa time.
• (+) Killing invaders faster is more fun.

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Beta (Main Weapon Improved Thrusters) - ¢10.000

Value: A+
Cost vs Utility: S

This apex improves the homing capabilities of its Daisy Cutter. This is how the improved Daisy Cutter looks like:

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

• (+) The capability to take down Ravens much more reliably improves survivability against rogue Ravens, particularly those with laser spreads.

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

• (+) Allows early waves to be a bit faster.
  • However, in the hands of skilled Von Braun players who would hit the Daisy Cutter at point blank range, there's just not much benefit for them.

Fun Factor: A+ [+]

• (+) Significantly less frustration in taking down Ravens and Sparrows. Particularly, Ravens are almost a guaranteed hit if you are all the way downfield. Sparrows may still miss, but if their movement happens to be not too fast, the Daisy Cutter will hit.
  • This makes the end of every wave much easier and early waves much more bearable.
• Recommended for casual players who enjoy Von Braun's many missiles but don't want to take Von Braun speedrunning too seriously.

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Gorthaur

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

Ship Class: Double Defence
+

Main Weapon: Barrage Cannons

• Average DPS = 34.375
• Spread = Very Wide
• Weapon Class = Continuous Stream
• Rate of Fire = Fast
• Projectile Speed = Fast
• 2 successive sets of 16 projectiles in a general diverging pattern, with some randomness in spread
  

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

• (-) Barrier and PS don't exactly complement each other.
  • In fact, Barrier is an obstruction to PS' function of reflecting lasers since the barriers will block the lasers needed for laser reflecting.
• (+) PS is used as a counter offensive tool against lasers, particularly in its mission type where lasers are abundant.
• (-) The wide spread of the Barrage Cannons mean that it is very difficult to pop off turrets, affecting it's survivability.
• Before the next wave starts, as the current wave starts to die down with the last 1 or 2 invaders, deploy your barrier upfield. However, knowledge of the next wave is key as you want all the invaders to be enclosed by the barrier. No turrets should leak any bullets outside the barrier.
• Then when the next wave comes in, get rid of as many front row invaders as you can.
• Fight as close to the barrier as you can when faced with an onslaught of bullets, otherwise head inside the barrier to go head on with them to maximize the Barrage Cannons' damage.
• As you fight for a while, the inner lining starts to fade off, and now the lasers are ready to fire the first round. As the lasers are going to fire, literally throw yourself inside the barrier. It is difficult to catch the timing as using the laser cue sound is too late you will not be able to fully maximize the laser reflection damage. This needs practice as going in too early means you waste DPS.
• At this time, the inner lining should have faded off and almost all the tracking lasers will be locked onto you, thus hitting your PS and reflecting off. This is how PS is to be used as an offensive tool.
  • It is very awkward nevertheless as you run into the danger of destroying yourself if you don't throw yourself in properly.
• (-) Unfortunately, you don't have long left until the barrier fades after you reflect off the first round of lasers. This is when Gorthaur starts to struggle as it has very little means left to defend itself, especially after exhausting PS for damage.
• (+) As Gorthaur has no Zen that requires charging, at the end of the wave, go up to the invader's face to finish them off
  • This also allows you to place a Barrier for the next wave.
• (-) Gorthaur needs help from laser reflection to survive. Without many lasers on screen, the barriers will break and Gorthaur would be left with very limited protection.
• (+) Use Barrier to block off faster bullets like darts and boomerangs when the upfield barriers have faded.
• (+) Use PS to block off slower bullets like pellets and shurikens. As you exit PS, you can also use it to cut across dart lanes.
• (+) Both Barrier and PS are effective at blocking out boomerangs.

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

• Go as close to the barrier as possible to optimize the wide spread of the Barrage Cannons to hit the invaders.
• Gorthaur speedruns differently, based on whether you are speedrunning in a bullet heavy mission or a laser heavy mission.
• In a bullet heavy mission,
  • Keep barriers as small as possible to be able to stay near to invaders where possible.
  • Deploy many barriers of different sizes upfield where possible. Doing so allows you to adjust where you are on the field and stay close to invaders you want to get up close and personal
    • The easiest way is just to deploy a barrier upfield whenever possible. This usually results in different sizes of barriers.
    • If not, if all the barriers are becoming too small, then deploy barriers at a different vertical height. Doing allows different layers where you can sit at different safety points.
• In a laser heavy mission, when using barriers, there are 2 possibilities:
  • If there are a lot of laser spreads, then deploy a large barrier downfield. Before the lasers fire, head upfield beyond the barrier and as close to as many laser spreads as possible to laser reflect them.
  • If there are more tracking lasers, it is possible to deploy a massive barrier somewhere in the midfield. Get close to the edge of the barriers to let the tracking lasers come find you. Then before the lasers fire, throw yourself inside the barrier so that PS is deployed inside the barrier so the tracking lasers will all fire at the PS.
• In the case where there is a balance between bullets and lasers, it is usually safer to go with the bullet heavy option of deploying smaller barriers since the Barrage Cannons tend to deal more damage than laser reflection.

Fun Factor: B+

• (+) PS can be fun to use when there are potentially many lasers to reflect.
• (+) Popping inside the barrier to watch all the laser converge on you and then reflecting off your barrier is strangely pretty satisfying.
• (+) Gorthaur's Barrage Cannons are quite satisfying from the compounded sounds from each projectile hitting the invaders.
• (=) Average handling of Barrage Cannons. There's a gap between bursts and the bursts are scattered a bit randomly sometimes.
• (=) Average ship core positioning.

Trivia

• The base form of Gorthaur was designed by Romano Molenaar, while the apexes were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Gorthaur is the cheapest Rareship to fully ult and get both its apexes, coming in at only ¢25.800 (¢1,500 for buying Marauder, ¢9,300 for fully upgrading, ¢5,000 for the Alpha Apex & ¢5,000 for the Beta Apex), assuming you buy everything with your own credits (including buying to unlock the ship itself).
• Prior to the v4.4.1 update, Gorthaur Beta (Laser Reflector Barrier) is one of the most powerful Laser Reflector Barrier apexes, due to the fact that BOTH PS and Laser Reflector Barrier are able to reflect the lasers even when the lasers are all incident on the barrier, with none leaking through it. This means that the laser reflect is actually TWICE the damage it was supposed to be (since there are supposedly no lasers reflecting off PS).

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Apexes

Beta (Barrier Reflector) - ¢10.000

Value: S-
Cost vs Utility: A

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

• (+) Improves survivability of Gorthaur in laser heavy missions since PS is not able to reflect as many lasers as the bigger Barrier Reflector.
• (+) In the case where there are not enough barriers to sustain laser reflection, PS is able to be the last backup option. With the laser reflection damage from both sources, it should be enough to keep up laser reflection damage all the time, even in heavier waves like Rocs.

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

• (+) Significantly more laser reflection damage from Barrier Reflector.
• You can still go right in the face of invaders to deal effective damage from the Barrage Cannons.
  • Deploy the barrier downfield first before heading upfield to deal damage.
  • Be careful on laser heavy missions with slightly more bullets such as Laser/Shuriken missions, as you no longer have protection from barriers upfield.
  • There's no more need to use PS since deploying PS wastes DPS from the more damaging Barrage Cannons.
    • If possible, head above all the laser spreads and to a spot probably between some tracking lasers to continue doing close up damage with the Barrage Cannons as all the lasers fire.
    • If not, head back downfield into the safety of the downfield barriers.
• Deploy barriers downfield at different layers such that as many laser spreads upfield are being caught, yet the lasers don't get blocked by the barriers' inner linings.

Fun Factor: A+ [++]

• (+) Resolves the awkwardness between Barrier and PS, since Barriers previously blocked the function of laser reflection from PS.
  • Barrier takes over the laser reflection job from PS for this apex.
• (+) Significantly more laser reflection, resulting in much more satisfying speedy destructions of invaders.
• (-) Not able to use PS for laser heavy missions for this apex. However, this is not a huge issue since Barrier Reflector does the job so much better.

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Alpha (PS Focus) - ¢5.000

Value: A
Cost vs Utility: A

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

• (+) Much more resilient against boomerangs or pellet MIRVs.
• (+) Allows Barrier and PS to be used in alternate turns comfortably (i.e. Barrier, PS, Barrier, PS, and so on) to relentlessly block them off (unless the barrier is too small to last)
  • Deploying Barrier at the right time, just before the boomerangs or MIRVs approach in close range allows enough time for PS to cool down after being used before the Barrier, and thus, making PS available for the next wave of MIRVs and/or boomerangs.
  • Even if the barrier is of minimum size, 2 such barriers deployed will allow PS to recover and be used again to block off these dangerous threats that many ships struggle with

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

Fun Factor: B+ [No significant change]

• (+) Makes bullet heavy missions much easier to play with.
• (+) Constantly alternating between Barrier and PS is very fun.

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Heechi

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

Ship Class: Defensive
+

Main Weapon: Quantum Seekers

• Average DPS = 25
• Homing = Very Good
• Weapon Class = Uninterruptible Burst
• Projectile Speed = Fast
• Reload Time = Slow
• 18 homing projectiles fired from each side of the ship, curving towards their targets
  

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

• (-) The way Heechi's main works is very interesting. Due to the curved nature of it's main, it tends to hit invaders upfield instead of those right in front of you.
  • This usually works to your disadvantage as you will have to keep up with the bullets shot at closer range.
• (-) For frontline Vulture waves, the Quantum Seekers does hit invaders hiding behind the Vulture.
  • However, a fair portion of the Quantum Seekers still hit the Vulture instead.
  • This means that it still takes a very long time to eliminate the invaders behind the Vulture.
• (+) Being able to quickly generate barriers works well to defend it from an onslaught of darts and boomerangs.
  • The Phase Out time of barriers work very well here and stacking continuous barriers prolong your safe time inside the barriers.
• (-) The lackluster DPS of the Quantum Seekers poses a huge problem.
• (-) The Quantum Seekers are inconsistent, splitting themselves across all invaders on field. This ends up not killing invaders fast enough, so it's difficult to grab particles fast enough to keep barriers up.
• (-) You end up trying to rely on Kappa to save you mid-wave as you struggle to generate enough Aura to sustain barriers so that the Quantum Seekers can finally kill some invaders to get you particles. By then, it might be too late.
• (-) Quite difficult to determine when the burst of Quantum Seekers is going off since the visual cue is not very well shown and the burst interval is quite short.
• Kappa dodging is of essence in later waves.
• (-) Needing to deal with frontline invaders mean that the angle of the bullets fired can be vary wildly, which makes it much harder to dodge.
• The best solution would be to let the darts from spinners or dart spreads through, and only deploy barriers very precisely, when MIRVs are about to approach you, or when boomerangs are about to hit you. Remember to deploy earlier for boomerangs because they are very fast.
• (-) Zero laser defence. Using Heechi on laser heavy missions is extremely difficult.
• (-) Because of the constant barrier spam, and the danger to go upfield to deploy barriers, you are wasting the inner lining of barriers.
• (-) Turn the situation around, and have most of the invaders at the frontline as crowds of smaller invaders and the behind invaders as larger invaders, it starts to become a question mark whether Heechi will survive since the Quantum Seekers might choose not to target the smaller invaders to sustain the barrier deployments.
• (-) Extremely limited turret popping capabilities. You are at the mercy of the RNG of the Quantum Seekers when they decide they want to destroy a turret.
• (-) Good luck facing Condors and Rocs. The best way to survive these larger invaders is to graze as much as you can to get off minimum sized barriers.
• Be very careful with your Kappa usage, and only use Kappa if you do not have enough particles for a barrier deployment. Otherwise, let the particles come to you.
• When met with DDLs, keep your barriers very small, and simply spam deploy the smallest possible barriers. When met with DDMBs, deploy barriers as usual, but have a large enough barrier on standby to deploy after the DDMB goes off. Of course, if there's enough space to spam deploy the smallest possible barriers such that the barriers are not in range of the DDMB, do so like with DDLs.

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

• (-) There's no way you are speedrunning with a homing main weapon and defensive Aura and Zen.

Fun Factor: C+

• (+) The massive amounts of Quantum Seekers are very fun to watch. Their unique curved path is also a sight to behold as well.
• (+) Fun to constantly spam barriers. To see concentric circles of barriers or very thick barrier walls is a sight to behold.
  • Sometimes it even becomes an obsession of how many barriers can you keep on the field at one go.
• (+) Easy to handle Quantum Seekers, just let them do their thing.
• (-) Can't control what it hits, so a lot of frustration trying to pray that the Quantum Seekers take down what you want to even continue playing with this ship.
• (-) Slow Kappa gameplay due to the constant need to spam Kappa to keep up barriers.
• (=) Average ship core position.
• (-) Boring ship otherwise.

Trivia

• The base form of Heechi was designed by Romano Molenaar, while the apexes were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Heechi doesn’t use thrusters to fly unlike most ships. It simply floats about.
• Heechi used to have guns in the design of the pre-alpha version of Phoenix 2, as shown below:
  

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Apexes

Beta (Main Weapon Quick Charge) - ¢10.000

Value: D+
Cost vs Utility: B

This apex reduces the interval time between each burst of Quantum Seekers fired, with each burst containing lesser projectiles. Overall DPS of the Quantum Seekers is unchanged. Here's how the Quantum Seekers now look like:

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

• (-) Kappa is less easy to spam with shorter intervals. In fact, the interval is so short, it is not even enough for Kappa to even go through one "tick" to generate particles, so Kappa can't even generate particles properly.

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

Fun Factor: C+ [No significant change]

• (+) Fun to hear the constant bombardment of Quantum Seekers like a busy archery range with quantum weirdness.
• (-) Even more difficult to catch the rhythm of Quantum Seekers to use Kappa.

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Delta (Barrier Reflector) - ¢20.000

Value: A
Cost vs Utility: S

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

• (+) Opens up viability of Heechi in laser heavy missions where it was previously not viable in such missions.
• (+) The need for Heechi to stay downfield closely synergizes with Barrier Reflector apexes' playstyle of deploying barriers downfield.
  • There's no need to change how you play Heechi, yet you benefit massively from their apex, unlike most other Barrier Reflector apexes where you need to charge the playstyle drastically.
• (+) The new source of laser reflection damage from barriers are able to usually supply Heechi with the particle it needs to constantly keep the Barriers up.
• (-) Heechi may still struggle against Rocs. You may sometimes need to sacrifice firing the Quantum Seekers to engage Kappa to quickly generate the smallest possible barrier to block off the tracking lasers. You should also graze of any bullets, or even lasers from laser MIRVs where possible so that the tracking lasers don't kill you.
• (-) Buller heavy waves with few lasers may still be a problem, but at least some laser reflection damage will help you to cut down the time needed to survive through those waves.

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

• (+) The new source of laser reflection damage severely boosts Heechi's speed.
• (+) Kappa allows it to quickly deploy large downfield barriers to catch as many laser spreads as possible where required.
• Use Kappa to pull in particles to deploy bigger barriers where required, but be careful not to overfill on particles.

Fun Factor: B+ [++]

• (+) Capability to use downfield barriers for a much more useful reason in laser heavy missions.
• (+) Watching invaders die to their own lasers is very fun, compared to base Heechi where this wasn't possible.
• (+) A much better visual spectacle as both Quantum Seekers and laser reflections fill the screen with pink-ish visuals.

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Prime X

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: Attack & Retreat
+

Main Weapon: Vulcan

• Average DPS = 31.25
• Weapon Class = Uninterruptible Burst
• Rate of Fire = Fast
• Projectile Speed = Fast
• Reload Time = Medium
• 10 successive projectiles fired forward with a slight sine wave firing pattern
  

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

• (+) TP is a great saving grace which gets you out of sticky situations. There is leniency since both the Vulcan and MS are burst fire.
• (-) Prime X's Vulcan is JUST short of damage to kill one Armored Raven.
• (+) MS takes cares of the smaller invaders like Ravens and Sparrows, and sometimes even Herons.
• When a wave starts, head to the middle of the field to fire MS straight away.
• Then use the Vulcan to clean up the smaller invaders that are heavily damaged by MS.
• (+) Focus the Vulcan on bigger invaders. Particularly, the Vulcan is very good at popping turrets off, as 2 bursts of the Vulcan is all that is needed to eliminate one Vulture turret.
  • Since the time between bursts of Vulcan is short, this means that it is quite fast to pop off turrets.
  • After one turret is popped off, you can quickly either swipe over to another turret. Or simply TP there while the Vulcan recharges for another burst.
  • This means very quick and efficient target switching.
• (-) The Vulcan has a small spread, which means try not to stay within a reasonable distance to the Vulture. By reasonable, try not to be more than 2 heights of Prime X away from the turret.
• While Prime X cannot deal with lasers, the same turret popping strategy can be done for bigger invaders to eliminate the lasers rather quickly.
• For Ravens and Sparrows that have lasers that love to hide behind the Vulture, simply TP over to a top corner, and use an MS to quickly dispose of them. You can also avoid the lasers fired at you by hiding at one corner as the lasers fire, and use the opportunity to fire off an MS. Just be careful not to get too near Ravens that have dart turrets. You can TP over to an emptier space in that case.
• The combination of MS and TP means that Prime X has a very high level strategy that you can employ: While T3 and T4 dart tracking turrets are locked onto your reactor and firing away, quickly TP behind them and burst out your MS to instantly destroy a dangerous turret you desire. This is often useful for Condors and Rocs.

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

• (-) Prime X has a burst of 0.75s which means each burst does 31.25 × 0.75 = 23.4375 damage. This is just not enough to kill an Armor Raven. This is a pain to optimize in earlier waves.
• Look out for MS damaging Ravens at all times. Any damage to Ravens mean that one full burst of the Vulcan will kill it.
• Optimizing the Vulcan in early waves are of absolute key. This is not too hard considering how consistent the Vulcan is. A few vulcan bullets will inevitably leak as you switch targets.
• Try to TP near to invaders so that you can get a better MS coverage, otherwise you might waste your MS. However, after MS is released, quickly retreat so that you don't eat too many particles and quickly overfill.
• Destroying key turrets and frontline invaders are also important as this gives you better freedom to move around, in order for MS to target more things. This allows MS to not go to waste.
• (+) Prime X is one of the most consistent speedrunners due to its consistent Vulcan and MS. It may not be the absolute fastest, but in the hands of the skilled, it can comfortably get you high places on the leaderboards.

Fun Factor: S-

• (+) The pacing of Prime X is actually very fun to catch. The Vulcan has a nice rhythm to it.
• (+) The MS-TP "Tele-frag" kit is quite fun to pull off, and gives invaders a "peek-a-boo!"
• (+) Prime X is a very kinetic ship, meaning it moves around quite a lot.
• (=) The Vulcan is quite satisfying to hear, although it is a bit short to enjoy fully.

Trivia

• The base form of Prime X was designed by Romano Molenaar, while the apexes were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Prime X is one of the only ships whose main weapon's name is only one word, where most main weapon names are two words.
• Romano Molenaar made some art that included a generic pilot drinking from a bottle that is in the shape of Prime X, and the dev vectorized it. Here are the final results:
  
• Here's a rare full body shot of a generic pilot with the Prime X bottle, although not colored:
  

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Apexes

Tau (Teleport Extended Clearance) - ¢40.000

Value: B-
Cost vs Utility: C

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

• (+) The increased clearance in space allows you to delete more pellet MIRVs in Shuriken/MIRV and Dart/MIRV missions and thus find a safer spot to land at so that you won’t be greeted with too many MIRVs exploding in your face.
  • It particularly helps in long battles such as during the Roc at 5-4 in the video shown below.

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

Fun Factor: S- [No change]

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Epsilon (MS Armor Piercing) - ¢25.000

Value: S+
Cost vs Utility: A

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

• (+) The faster capability for Prime X to clear out invaders, especially in denser waves, makes it easier to survive.

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

• (+) Significantly faster in destroying armored invaders.
• (+) Clearing out invaders faster in dense waves also mean less target switching.

Fun Factor: S [+]

• (+) MS feels a lot more capable and responsive in dealing damage.
• (+) The faster destruction of invaders means more kinetic gameplay, with the pace being picked up.
• (+) Is just a great quality of life apex for Prime X.

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Sakura

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

Ship Class: Defensive
+

Main Weapon: Edge Projector

• Average DPS = 37.5
• Weapon Class = Uninterruptible Burst
• Projectile Speed = Stationary, then Very Fast
• Reload Time = Very Slow
• 11 projectiles that simultaneously spawn side-by-side for 1s before accelerating forward together and then dealing damage
  

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

• Sakura relies on spamming the smallest barriers possible to keep it alive.
• Ironically, big barriers are its downfall. Energy is thus sometimes, ironically your enemy.
• The strategy is to use TP to get you out of sticky situations.
  • When you land at your new spot, deploy your very small barrier where required.
  • After which, go behind the barrier (push closer to the bottom of the screen). The Phase Out of barrier has the capability to block off many bullets.
• This is why you need to keep barriers as small as possible. A large barrier traps more bullets inside and makes it hard to get behind your barrier. It also wastes more particles.
• Be careful of your exit on the way out as MIRVs can explode outside and pellets will head towards where you exit.
• Only deploy your barriers when the spinners or the MIRV Bloomers fire. Deploying early will destroy your barriers and thus deplete your energy on field too quickly.
• Stay donwfield. Only TP a bit further upfield to grab enough particles to deploy another small barrier.
• (-) Very difficult to aim the Edge Projectors.
• (+) Do not worry much about aiming. The high DPS of Sakura will do its job properly. So long you are not at the extreme left or right edge of the field, you should be fine.
• (+) 3 bursts of Edge Projector (with nearly all the swords landing properly) kill an Armored Eagle. Use this to your advantage to eliminate them quickly before they flood the field.
• 2.5 bursts of Edge Projector kill an Armored Heron.
• (-) Very difficult to pop off turrets. Aiming to get rid of turrets is also difficult due to the way the Edge Projector fires.
  • It takes 3 bursts of Edge Projector to take out 2 turrets on one side of an armored Vulture.
• (-) Using Sakura on Armor General missions can be tricky.
  • Use the smallest barriers when faced with laser fire, as the smallest barriers will block out a full laser burst.
  • The high DPS of Sakura should be able to sustain Sakura a steady flow of particles for a constant stream of small barriers.
  • Grazing dart lanes will also work well to get barriers ready for a laser burst.
• (=) Sakura does ok on Rocs, since its double defenses last pretty long and the DPS of the Edge Projectors is high enough so the Roc battle doesn't last too long.

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

• (+) The highest DPS of 37.5 in the game means Sakura has good damage output.
• (-) No other offensive means. This means the pure DPS is it's only way to go fast.
• (+) If the Edge Projectors spawn right on top of invaders, they will deal damage immediately after they are fully spawned, and do not need to be "launched". Use this fact to get up close enough to invaders to deal damage quickly.
  • This is especially so for the last few invaders of the wave. This can save a lot of time.
• In initial waves (Acts 1-3), you can deploy your barriers in the midfield.
  • This also allows you to visualize if the Edge Projectors will hit the invaders or not, in order to decide whether you want to move over to another position to take out the other invaders.

Fun Factor: B+

• (+) Sakura has admittedly one of the coolest weapons in the game, producing neatly aligned and well coordinated swords. The hilts even have a mini Sakura on it.
• (=) Cool Edge Projector impact sounds like actual swords shing-ing, but constantly hearing it can get a bit piercing to the ears.
• (+) Although it looks like it, the swords don't actually do piercing damage, although it would be cool. But the random scattering of swords after they hit their target is also really cool.
• (-) Not able to control the Edge Projector easily.
• (-) Unfortunately, aside from its cool looking Edge Projector, there's nothing much else going for it.

Trivia

• The base form of Sakura was designed by Romano Molenaar, while the apexes were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• According to the dev, Sakura's main weapon is a clear reference to Senbonzakura, swords that are made from sakura blossoms.
• Sakura used to have guns in the design of the pre-alpha version of Phoenix 2, as shown below:
  
• Sakura's main weapon used to be HI before it was changed to in AP the v3.0 update.
• Sakura Phi is one of the 4 apexes that have an additional hidden change to it, reducing the number of swords from 11 to 7, as well as changing the hilts' design to that of a Phoenix.
• The dev initially viewed Sakura as a strong ship. To quote "the delayed fire would make it challenging, but we assumed TP would be one of the better and more advanced abilities".

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Apexes

Epsilon (Double Teleport) - ¢25.000

Value: A
Cost vs Utility: A

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

• (+) Can be invincible in Shuriken/MIRV missions.
• The first TP allows you to very safely go upfield.
  • This allows you to grab JUST the right amount of particles needed for a minimum deployable barrier which is what Sakura requires.
  • Even if there are not enough particles upfield, simply leave yourself upfield for a while after the first TP (let the completed 2nd TP charge run), then look at the barrier Aura size.
    • If you TP into a spot with lots of shurikens, or have lots of MIRVs exploding at once, by letting the TP charge run, the grazing from the slowed time will give you enough Aura for a minimum barrier, with enough reaction time to extract yourself before you die.
  • Once it’s enough, quickly TP back down to place the barrier before it gets any larger.
• (+) Capable to deploy barrier upfield like stronger barrier ships.
  • This allows Sakura to take advantage of a double Phase Out duration of both inner and outer barriers.
  • Remember that the window of time to deploy the large barrier after the first TP and the 2nd TP being ready is very small, thus you have to be very careful not to deploy it before you TP the 1st time, and not be too slow until you miss the 2nd TP.
  • This move is so safe and you can dump the barrier anytime you wish (after one burst of swords has spawned of course).
  • Try to only charge TP after you see one burst of the Edge Projectors go off, as sometimes deploying barrier upfield may cause another burst of Edge Projectors to go off, wasting that burst.
• (+) Able to contain threats very effectively.
  • Double TP is able to precisely place barriers wherever you want and then quickly get out.
  • This means you can find a spot with the highest density of bullets and place a barrier inside there to contain the threat.
  • Place barriers around high tier turrets to stop their threat very briefly.
  • In addition, while diving in to place a barrier to contain dart tracking turrets, in order to avoid getting shot point blank, you can TP in, place the barrier, and quickly swipe out of the barrier so that you have time to decide where you will land after the second TP.
    • This takes practice but is extremely useful, as demonstrated in Act 5 of the below video.

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

• (+) Using Double Teleport, you can use the first TP get near to invaders such that the sword of the Edge Projector will spawn right on top of them and deal damage instantly. Then use the second TP to get out safely.
  • This is especially helps for invaders with dart launchers/spreads or shuriken launchers/spreads.

Fun Factor: A [++]

• (+) Once you catch the rhythm of using the first TP to go right into the thick of the action, deploy a barrier and then TP out, it's a very fun gameplay loop that can be easily abused.
• (+) You can even do some fun things like swipe outside the barrier or into other spots to confuse tracking turrets

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Phi (Teleport Explosive Arrival) - ¢45.000

Value: A+
Cost vs Utility: A

This apex also tightens the spread of its Edge Projector, reducing the number of swords per burst from 11 to 7, making each sword deal more damage. Here's how the new Edge Projector looks like:

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

• (+) Capable in damaging Ravens heavily. This only helps by reducing the number of Edge Projector swords needed to kill a Raven, which is not terribly helpful.
• (+) However, in Unprotected missions, this can make a lot of difference when the Explosive Arrival TP can kill the Unprotected Raven.
• (-) Usually difficult to use on Sparrows since this will likely make the Edge Projectors miss other Sparrows.

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

• (+) Instantly kills Unprotected Ravens and Sparrows.
• (+) The tighter spread of Edge Projector is able to make it so that one sword of the Edge Projector now kills a Sparrow.
• (+) The tighter spread of Edge Projector mean that if an armored Raven is fully destroyed after if the burst of Edge Projectors fully envelops a Raven.
• (+) Good synergy between the Edge Projector and Explosive TP.
  • TP onto 2 - 3 Ravens, but offset about slightly more than 1/2 of Sakura's height below them.
  • By doing so, you heavily damage them.
  • Then, then Edge Projector spawns right on top of these Ravens, taking them out almost instantly.
  • This requires good timing as TP-ing at the wrong time means some time is needed before the next burst of Edge Projectors spawn in.
  • A good time will generally be just as the previous burst of Edge Projector is well formed, and ready to launch.
• (+) Doing an Explosive Arrival TP helps on a Heron since one burst of Edge Projectors is never enough to kill a Heron.

Fun Factor: A+ [++]

• (+) Because one sword of the Edge Projector now kills a Sparrow, it is less annoying to deal against Sparrows.
• (+) Explosive Arrival TP is fun on Unprotected Ravens.
• (+) Near instant destruction of Armored Ravens if you land Explosive Arrival TP and have the Edge Projector spawn in almost immediately after, which is very satisfying.
• (+) The hilts of the upgraded Edge Projectors are cool.

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