Ship Details (Part 5)

Ship Details (Part 5)

Vani-Vith

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

Ship Class: Offensive
+

Main Weapon: Spark Fusor

• Average DPS = 31.25
• Weapon Class = Uninterruptible Burst
• Projectile Speed = Medium
• Reload Time = Fast
• 3 forward firing slow moving projectiles in an upward chevron pattern
  

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

• Vani-Vith's playstyle is that of moving around constantly to deal Spark Fusor damage to invaders.
• (+) TP aids the positioning of firing the Spark Fusor too.
• (+) In particular, this is what aids Vani-Vith in lining itself up with turrets for turret popping. Annoying bullets like MIRVs force you to retreat momentarily, but TP puts you back in position quickly.
• (=) The Spark Fusor does take 2 hits to take down turrets of a Vulture.
• (+) However, one VL is enough to take down a turret if required. Try to wait for a turret and some upfield invaders to line up properly.
• (+) VL + TP is one of the best Aura Zen combinations. Wait for the invaders to line up, then quickly TP there to use VL immediately and make optimal use of VL's piercing capabilities. You can pre-charge TP in anticipation for this. Bear in mind you will lose some DPS if you hold on to TP for too long.
• (+) TP is also a great escape tool, particularly from tracking lasers and boomerangs. This is what makes Vani-Vith such an all rounded ship, being able to use TP both offensively and defensively.
• (=) VL's Vorpal Wake to clear bullets is generally not used much, since TP covers the the escape function that Vorpal Wake also does.
• (-) The Spark Fusor is able to pop off difficult-to-reach turrets on a Condor or Roc, but due to the slow moving nature of the Spark Fusor, this can be difficult to aim properly.
  • Thankfully, TP helps a bit in keeping yourself aligned to try your best to pop it off.
  • This technique can be helpful against deadly turrets that are essential to take down.
• Vani-Vith also moves around the field a lot from side to side to aim its Spark Fusor and VL, which means Vorpal Wake isn't terribly useful since there isn't a lot of up and down movement.

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

• (+) The Spark Fusor is somewhat piercing as each burst consists of 3 projectiles. It can hit 2 Sparrows in a column (maximum 3, but it's quite rare). Use this fact to try to line up 2 Sparrows in nearby columns. This really helps in early wave speedrunning.
• (+) Similarly, 1.33 bursts of the Spark Fusor (in other words, 4 projectiles of the Spark Fusor) also kills an Unprotected Raven. Use this fact in order to aim down 2 Ravens in 3 Spark Fusor bursts.
• (+) Where necessary, abuse TP to change position very quickly if the Sparrows and/or Ravens are too far apart. Using TP also makes sure that when you land, a Spark Fusor burst fires so the positioning can be more accurate.
• At the start of Acts, know where the Sparrows and Ravens are going to be, and you can use TP to manage when the next burst of Spark Fusor is going to go off, as well as position yourself properly.
• The slow moving nature of its Spark Fusor means that in order to optimise it, Vani-Vith has to go right in front of invaders to take them out quickly in early Acts.
• In later Acts, VL now takes over the job and it’s Spark Fusor becomes simply a support tool to deal damage to larger invaders. However, in the end wave where there are very few small invaders left on field, you need to go close up to these invaders again to take them out.
• (-) Unfortunately, because the Spark Fusor is slow and can be difficult to hit invaders, as well as VL depending on RNG, speedrunning with Vani-Vith can get annoying as times will fluctuate a lot.
• (+) The "Tele-frag" kit is a major plus to its speedrunning ability, being able to consistently pull off many optimal VL shots.

Fun Factor: S-

• (+) VL action for satisfying piercings.
• (+) Extremely fun Aura-Zen combination. The "Tele-frag" kit (VL + TP) is definitely one of the most satisfying to pull off, as you can get maximum satisfaction from a real "peek-a-boo" surprise.
• (=) Somewhat kinetic ship, Vani-Vith moves around a fair bit.
• (-) Mundane Spark Fusor. Moves slowly, and has a very dull impact sound.
• (=) Average ship core positioning.

Trivia

• The base form and apexes of Vani-Vith were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Vani-Vith was only introduced into Phoenix 2 in v2.0.
• Vani-Vith is VERY SLIGHTLY asymmetrical. If you zoom in to the arms of Vani-Vith, there is a slight shine on the left shoulder that is not present on the right side. There is also a slight shine on the right elbow that is not present on the left elbow.
• Vani-Vith's main weapon used to be SB before it was changed to HI in the v3.0 update.
• A 3D perspective of Vani-Vith is featured in the TouchArcade of Phoenix 2, alongside with Saber in Prometheus Array. This image was designed by Rogier van de Beek.
  

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Apexes

Epsilon (Vorpal Lance Twin Lance) - ¢25.000

Value: A+
Cost vs Utility: A

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

• (+) Takes out a few more Ravens a bit more easily with the same amount of VLs.
• (+) Doubling of VL width increases bullet clearance range, especially useful in bullet heavy missions.

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

• (+) Makes chasing down Sparrows and Ravens significantly less frustrating.
• (+) Takes out a few more Ravens and Sparrows a bit more easily with the same amount of VLs.

Fun Factor: S- [No significant change]

• (+) More enjoyable due to less frustration from less need to chase down a few more Sparrows and Ravens.
• (+) Just a good quality of life apex.

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Sigma (Teleport Extended Clearance) - ¢35.000

Value: B-
Cost vs Utility: B

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

• (+) Opens up viability for Vani-Vith to be used in Shuriken/MIRV missions, as the increased clearance range can mean a lot to eliminate more MIRVs on screen with one TP.

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

Fun Factor: S- [No change]

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Zephyr

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

Ship Class: Defensive
+

Main Weapon: Photon Rails

• Average DPS = 31.25
• Weapon Class = Interruptible Burst
• Rate of Fire = Fast
• Projectile Speed = Fast
• Reload Time = Fast
• 2 inner forward firing side-by-side projectiles, quickly followed by 2 more outer forward firing side-by-side projectiles
  

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

• (+) Synergy between PD and Kappa allows you to spam PD a lot.
• (+) The capability to generate PD with Kappa means that if played correctly, with the exception of boomerangs, Zephyr is actually quite invincible in any mission with purely bullets. You can simply graze past darts and then use the smallest size PD to get you out of any bullet tight situation.
• (=) The interruptible burst of Photon Rails is a bit strange to handle. Thankfully, the downtime is pretty limited.
• (-) The interruptible burst of Photon Rails, and the strange spread of the Photon Rails means it does not work very well with Kappa.
• (=) The slight spread of the Photon Rails mean it can be slightly difficult to align all 4 shots of the Photon Rails on a turret to pop it off.
• (+) Fortunately, PD backed up by Kappa allows you to hold your place quite well enough to ensure the turret is popped off before moving on to the next one.
• (+) Against Boomerang heavy missions, use Kappa to carefully graze dart streams, as well as dodge boomerangs and between pellets released by MIRVs.
• (-) No laser defence. Make sure you have enough PD Aura to strafe and escape the lasers that are aiming for you.
• (+) PD allows you to quickly eliminate the first wave of MIRVs that come your way.
• (-) Unfortunately, after that, the shurikens start flooding in which becomes too much for PD to eliminate.
• Start on one side of the field in Shuriken/MIRV missions. Use PD to try and eliminate all the bullets, until you see the shuriken launchers locked on to you. Then, slowly inch the other side.
  • Use PD to eliminate the rest of the shurikens and pellets (from launchers and from MIRVs that explode) that come into the lane towards you. Only use PD when these shurikens are at point blank range, otherwise you will waste unnecessary Aura.
  • When in the shuriken cloud made by T4 shuriken launchers, don't bother to burn PD to eliminate MIRVs before they explode. Let them explode. Only use PD to eliminate MIRVs after the shuriken cloud has almost completely dispersed from the field.
  • Prioritize the elimination of MIRV Bloomers if they exist, otherwise, kill the Ravens with rapid firing MIRV launchers.
  • If there is not enough Aura to eliminate MIRVs even after the shuriken cloud has dispersed, don't be afraid to simply stay on the emptier side and simply let Kappa run to generate Aura for you. It is faster than diving right in and exploding MIRVs since you don't need to dodge the pellets released.
• Use Kappa between waves, or when you need more Aura to eliminate bullets to escape a tight spot.

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

• (-) No offensive Aura or Zen.
• (-) Zephyr's Photon Rails are easily interrupted by Kappa. This means you have to try not to use Kappa where possible, which can be quite difficult for a ship that only has its main weapon as the damage dealer. Cutting DPS from the Photon Rails is inevitable when you need to get out of sticky situations.
• (-) The straight firing nature of Zephyr means it is difficult to switch targets quickly. The slight spread of the Photon Rails, allows it to catch Ravens and Sparrows.
• (-) 2 projectiles of the Photon Rails are required to kill a Sparrow. This means chasing down Sparrows can be a pain.

Fun Factor: C+

• (-) Kappa means usually slow gameplays.
• (=) Average Photon Rails impact sounds.
• (-) Kinda strange handling of the Photon Rails.
• (-) No offence at all, so slow gameplay.
• (=) Normal reactor position.

Trivia

• The base form and apexes of Zephyr were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Zephyr was only introduced in Phoenix 2 at v2.0.

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Apexes

Beta (Kappa Antigrav) - ¢10.000

Value: C-
Cost vs Utility: A

This apex makes Zephyr slightly less of a pain to play as you can burst fire PD for a brief moment whenever you kill an invader to aid your sideway movements to another invader.

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

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

Fun Factor: C+ [No change]

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Epsilon (PD Bullet Detonator) - ¢25.000

Value: A+
Cost vs Utility: B

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

• (+) Deals damage against smaller invaders in front to eliminate them faster if used at the right time.
• (=) Otherwise, Bullet Detonator apexes don't increase survivability for ships that don't really go into close combat.

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

• (+) Very powerful against bullet heavy missions, especially Dart/MIRV missions.
  • In Shuriken/MIRV missions, also deals heavy damage against invaders, but it is easy to run out of PD fast. You need to be precise in knowing when to start spamming PD such that all the bullets eliminated are on top of invaders. This is usually tough since shurikens that are fired by front row invaders tend to take up a lot of Aura, especially if they are T4 shuriken launchers.
• (+) Get up in the face of invaders to maximize this apex, but be prepared to retreat since PD will run out fast, and the only other damaging means is the Photon Rails which isn't particularly powerful.
• (-) The relatively lackluster damage of the Photon Rails, which makes it quite hard to keep up the PD Bullet Detonator. Kappa only helps between waves to start with a bigger PD Bullet Detonator Aura to expand.
• (+) Beyond that, Kappa may be used after downing a huge invader like a Vulture to get rid of the remaining smaller invaders via PD Bullet Detonator.

Fun Factor: A- [++++]

• (+) Being able to generate lots of PD Bullet Detonator means a lot of opportunities to deal damage against invaders at the start of a wave.
• (-) However, the lackluster Photon Rails damage means PD Bullet Detonator is hard to sustain after the first few seconds or so.

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Baqlor

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

Ship Class: Defend to Attack
+

Main Weapon: Serrator Laser

• Average DPS = 31.25
• Capacity = 450ms
• Weapon Class = Interruptible Burst
• Reload Time = Medium
• 3 lasers on both sides angled away from the vertical in increasing angles, the inner ones being fired before the outer ones
  

Survivability (Daily Missions): X
Survivability (Community Missions): X

• (+) Easiest MB ship to use. Ever. You hardly need to worry about wrong positioning due to CF. Just drop in a CF, and charge MB such that MBc hits the biggest invader on screen. That's all. It's so easy to use.
• (+) Use MB every medium wave and above. MB can run into long charge times but it doesn't matter because CF protects you very well.
  • You can say that Ravens and Sparrows practically don't exist in such waves.
• If you don't feel comfortable, you can choose not to charge waves that do not contain Eagles, or has only 1 Eagle as the biggest invader and all other invaders are merely Ravens and Sparrows. 1 Eagle with Herons should still be a good opportunity to charge MB.
• (+) Use smaller CF to exit safely from the bullet mass if you are unable to get out of the mess of darts built up from the previous full size CF. But remember to quickly plan your escape route to a safer spot.
• (+) Use CF to aim the Serrator Laser at invaders. Deploy CF such that it compasses at least 2 columns of invaders.
  • Deploy the CF at least the midfield rather than downfield, as the Serrator Laser is not effective downfield.
• (-) Since Baqlor has no means of bullet clear, the field can get pretty messy with bullets when MB charge times get very long.
• While less viable in Shuriken/MIRV missions, you can still use CF to continuously Chrono Hop to a safer spot. Try to charge at a spot which has less Ravens so that you won't be faced with so many MIRVs exploding.
• (=) Baqlor's spread Serrator Laser is slightly more difficult to pop turrets with. However, CF allows you to stay at point blank range with the turrets to pop them off easily. It usually takes 2 bursts of the Serrator Laser to pop off a Vulture's turret.
• Then, use the CF particles collected from the MB to Chrono Hop to the other side of the Vulture to deploy a second CF and eliminate more turrets.
• (+) Baqlor's capability to destroy difficult-to-reach turrets on Condors and Rocs is surprisingly excellent. Simply just stay on one side of the field, and poof, unknowingly, these turrets disappear after a while. Be sure to graze off some bullets to pull off small CFs where needed, otherwise conserve CF for the next wave (if applicable).
• Baqlor's only negative comes in its main, where the interruptible burst nature of Serrator Lasers make it slightly awkward, as not allowing the burst to complete will result in subpar damage (from the corner lasers which makes it even more awkward) after exiting an MB charge. This should be overcome by allowing the burst to complete, or fake charging MB to pace the weapon properly. This flaw, however, does not stop Baqlor from becoming one of the most survivable and speedy ships out there.

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

• (+) The capability to spam MB makes Baqlor go very fast. Use MB every medium wave and above.
  • MB can run into long charge times but it doesn't matter because CF protects you very well.
• (+) The capability of Baqlor to always land MBc on larger invaders boosts its speed even further.
• Optimizing the Serrator Laser is of essence to cut off several seconds. Ensure one burst of Baqlor fully completes before charging the next MB.
  • Otherwise, the last part, which is the outermost 30° Serrator Laser will go off, which is difficult to land on invaders.
• One burst of the Serrator Laser takes out 2 Unprotected Ravens.
• One burst of the Serrator Laser can take out up to 4 Sparrows. Usually, if the 4 Sparrows are spread throughout the field, it is very difficult to eliminate them all. But if they are on one side of the field, then it is possible to eliminate the Sparrows.
• A crit will take out one Unprotected Heron, but a non-crit will require 1.5 bursts of the Serrator Laser to take out an Unprotected Heron.
• One burst of the Serrator Laser can take out 2 Unprotected Sparrows and 1 Unprotected Raven.
• Energy management is a very important part of playing Baqlor. While you should always land MBc at the most optimal spot, this does not mean that you should just absorb all the particles.
  • Particularly, if lots of invaders have died because of the MB, deploy a second CF before Aura overfills.
  • When done correctly, you get more time inside the CF to destroy invaders/turrets that you want to, but you also get a big enough size of a CF to charge MB for the next wave.
• (+) CF's Phase Out allow you to peek outside the CF to catch that pesky Sparrow or heavily damaged Raven that tried to run away. Do this very quickly and then jump back into the CF.
• Deploy CF as central as possible so that you don't have to Chrono Hop from one side of the field to the other side of the field. Although Chrono Hopping is a great skill to get around, doing so wastes particles which may not allow you to set up MB for the next wave.
• Most of the time, it is only necessary to destroy one side of the Vulture's turrets. This is to allow you to stay on that side safely without using another CF, and only deploy CF just before the Vulture goes down.
• Also, where MB will not be used the next wave, fake charge an MB if required so that the burst does not go off when there are no invaders around. You don't want the cornermost lasers to suddenly go off when the next wave fully arrives.
• There is a 1s cooldown between Serrator Laser bursts. You can thus still continue to engage touch for about 0.5s after the cornermost laser fades. The reason is because fake charging MB where it is not necessary will not allow MB to cool down, resulting in unnecessarily longer MB charge times.
• (-) Speedrunning can get a bit frustrating with Baqlor since MB charge times can get very long, which means that sometimes invaders run away from the MBc. This can involve quite a lot of RNG.
• In the presence of pellet MIRVs, try to explode all of them at the same time so that you can use Phase Out to deal with the wavefront of all pellets being emitted from the MIRVs.

Fun Factor: S

• (+) Abusing MB to no end is just a lot of fun.
• (+) Baqlor has a pretty dull but soothing Serrator Laser sound.
• (-) The Serrator Laser can be frustrating to use because of its interruptible burst nature. If not terminated properly, this will cause the cornermost lasers to go off after exiting MB, which is frustrating.
• (=) Average ship core positioning.

Trivia

• The base form and apexes of Baqlor were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Baqlor was only introduced in Phoenix 2 at v2.0.
• Baqlor is VERY SLIGHTLY asymmetrical. If you zoom in to the space just above the Baqlor's core, you can see that the white marks on both sides of the ship is a bit different. The right side's mark is slightly more white and slightly larger than the left side.
• The Phi Apex of Baqlor, being one of the most popular apexes, is commonly referred to Phiqlor in Phoenix 2 communities.
• A 3D perspective of Baqlor was featured in the Instagram page of Firi Games in a promotional poster, alongside with Saber in Prometheus Array.
  

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Apexes

Lambda (MB Fast Charge) - ¢30.000

Value: S+
Cost vs Utility: S

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

• (+) The faster MB charge times mean that you can get out of charging MB much more quickly.
  • This means energy management is a bit more forgiving, as a smaller size CF can still sustain through the shorter

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

• (+) It becomes worth it to charge MB even in smaller, earlier waves.
  • Particularly, you may even find it worthwhile to charge in waves as small as one Eagle and only several other Sparrows, 2 Herons or 3 Ravens with Sparrows around.
  • Obviously, this requires a lot more experimentation on whether it is worthwhile to charge MB on smaller waves.
  • Note that the charge cooldown times add up quite exponentially. Thus, if you really find some waves taking longer than around 4s to charge (with the exception of Rocs and Condors since it will take a reasonably long time to down them anyway, allowing MB to fully recover by the time you destroy them), you might want to consider to take a look if there is an MB that you should cut away.
• (+) Easier to catch invaders before they run away from MBc, especially Herons.

Fun Factor: S+ [+]

• (+) Even more MB spamming.
• (+) Less frustration on invaders avoiding MBc.

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Phi (MB Shield Breaker) - ¢45.000

Value: X
Cost vs Utility: S

Survivability (Daily Missions): X [No change]
Survivability (Community Missions): X [No change]

• (+) Extremely viable in all Shielded missions.
  • Even Shuriken/MIRV missions are well doable due to how the strong Baqlor is at surviving, although it will take a bit more skill than normal.
• (+) Instantly wipes all Shielded Ravens on field with an MB
• (+) Wipes Shielded Herons with MBc is landed on them.
• (+) Extremely good synergy between SB MB and Serrator Laser. SB MB ruthlessly tears down the shields of invaders very quickly, and the Serrator Laser is able to deal crit damage on the invaders with their shields stripped away.

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

• (+) Land an MBc on a Shielded Roc, then after 3-4 bursts of the Serrator Laser, charge yet another MB to land MBc on the Shielded Roc. The full advantage of the SB nature of the MB is realized, and it is extremely worthwhile in the name of speedrunning.
• (+) By landing MBc on a Shielded Vulture, less than one burst of the Serrator Laser is required to down the shield. If MBc should not be landed on the Vulture (if there are 2 Shielded Herons/Eagles), then 2 bursts of the Serrator Laser is required to down the Vulture's shield.
• One burst of the Serrator Laser can still take out 1 Shielded Raven & 2 Sparrows.
• One burst of the Serrator Laser can take out 4 Shielded Sparrows in one horizontal line.
• (+) Very easy to land Top 1% in Marshal missions with this apex, which is insane for a ship that is not an FO. This becomes very easy to get these badges since FO ships can be difficult to pilot well for a good enough result.

Fun Factor: X [++]

• (+) Expanded viability in Shielded mission types.
• (+) Ruthlessly decimates Shielded invaders.

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502-Q8

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

Ship Class: Defend to Attack
+

Main Weapon: Plasma Compressor

• Average DPS = 31.25
• Weapon Class = Uninterruptible Burst
• Projectile Speed = Very Fast
• Reload Time = Fast
• Single, fast, forward firing projectile fired once every 0.5s
  

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

• (-) Difficult to handle Plasma Compressor. It's fast, doesn't have a good visual cue on when it's firing, and is very thin.
• (-) Particularly, this makes hunting down Sparrows a nightmare.
• (+) The fast moving Plasma Compressor makes popping turrets quite easy.
• (-) However, it takes 2 shots of the Plasma Compressor to down one turret. This is quite a lot to ask, given you still need to down the shields of Vultures and above.
• (+) Phalanx allows you to clear out bullets for survivability.
• (+) Phalanx is also your only mobility tool to move around to target different invaders.
  • This will require you to do tons of diagonal shoveling.
• (+) Phalanx allows you to charge ML a bit more safely.
  • Deploy Phalanx just before you snipe down the last invader on screen, and then as the Plasma Compressor projectile moves forward, swipe back down to charge ML.
  • If it misses, try again and repeat this process.
• (-) Terrible against lasers. Phalanx is not a good defence against lasers

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

• (-) Considerably long intervals between bursts of Plasma Compressor. It is best aimed at larger invaders.
• Use ML to try and take out smaller invaders like Ravens and Sparrows.
  • Ensure that there are larger invaders behind to absorb the rest of the damage from ML where possible. Thus, it is a good guide to charge ML slightly offset center to one side and adjust from there.
• Optimizing the Plasma Compressor is key.
  • This involves lots of moving around and diagonal Phalanx shovelings.
• (-) Very slow against Sparrows. If there are quite a lot of Sparrows, charge an ML and pray that the ML takes out as many Sparrows as possible
• (-) Almost impossible to break shields before firing ML due to how fragile Phalanx is. It doesn't help that the Plasma Compressor is a very slow main weapon that takes a lot of time to strip off shields.

Fun Factor: B-

• (+) Constantly moving about the field using Phalanx means 502-Q8 has pretty high mobility.
• (+) Slightly dull but soothing Plasma Compressor impact sound.
• (-) Slightly difficult ship core position due to the fact 502-Q8 itself is blue, and is a tall ship.

Trivia

• The base form and apexes of 502-Q8 were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• 502-Q8 was only introduced in Phoenix 2 at v2.0.
• 502-Q8 is VERY SLIGHTLY asymmetrical. If you zoom in to the bottom of the ship, you can see that the intricate wirings at the thruster is asymmetrical.
• 502-Q8's main weapon used to be AP before it was changed to SB in the v3.0 update.
• 502-Q8 was named after the dev EL thought of a theme for the name, looking back at existing names. Then the name 502-Q8 just popped up since it sounds cool and fits the themes.
• 502-Q8 is amongst the cheapest ship to fully ult and get both its apexes, coming in at only ¢24.800 (¢500 for buying 502-Q8, ¢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).

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Apexes

Beta (Double Phalanx) - ¢10.000

Value: B+
Cost vs Utility: A

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

• (+) Slightly safer to charge up ML due to more bullets being able to be abosrbed.
• (+) Allows for slightly more bullet clearance for slightly better mobility

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

Fun Factor: B- [No change]

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Alpha (Main Weapon Volatile Plasma) - ¢5.000

Value: A
Cost vs Utility: X

This apex gives 502-Q8’s Plasma Compressor low blast damage. 2 indirect blast damage kills a Sparrow. Here's how the impact blast of this apex looks like:

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

• (+) Gets rid of pesky Sparrows more easily, especially those with lasers.

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

• (+) Eliminates Sparrows much faster.
  • 2 blast damage kills a Sparrow.
  • Helps out significantly especially in early waves of some Acts.
• Aim down cornermost Sparrows first, so that some of the Sparrows at the center get affected by the blast damage, and can be taken out by aiming at other Sparrows
• Aim down Ravens first as well, since Sparrows get also get affected by the blast damage. By taking down Ravens, you may kill another one or 2 Sparrows along with it.
• (+) A bit faster overall due to additional blast damage being dealt on top of the impact damage of Plasma Compressor.

Fun Factor: B [+]

• (+) Less hunting down of Sparrows, which is the biggest annoyance of 502-Q8.

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Dragonfly

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

Ship Class: Offensive
+

Main Weapon: Twin Miniguns

• Average DPS = 31.25
• Spread = Medium
• Weapon Class = Continuous Stream
• Rate of Fire = Very Fast
• Projectile Speed = Fast
• Spray of bullets in a general forward direction with some randomness in spread
  

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

• There are 2 ways to pull off an MB for Dragonfly:
  • MB just as the wave fully arrives.
  • Unload a stockpile of ICs on invaders with dart launchers/spreads and other turrets that would kill you, then charge MB.
• (-) Obviously, the first way is a lot more ideal since you don't have to unleash ICs. However, this is frequently very difficult for Dragonfly since its Twin Miniguns are continuously firing.
  • It doesn't help that because it has so many individual projectiles, it is very hard to estimate how much left is required to eliminate the last invader on field.
• (-) With the first way, it is also possible to use IC as the finish off damage to the last invader on field.
  • However, this wastes one charge of IC.
  • In addition, an IC does very little damage. Thus, you run the real risk of that IC not being able to finish off that invader, and may have to either use another IC which is a huge waste of Aura, or use the Twin Miniguns to finish off the job which allows very little time to charge MB properly.
• (-) The second way is to let the wave arrive fully, then very quickly go around the field to stun invaders.
  • This can be very difficult if too many dart launchers/spreads are around.
  • To go around and stun very quickly is already, by itself, a very difficult task since IC has a stun radius.
• Target to stun only turrets that are dangerous at that very moment.
  • These include dart launchers/spreads, MIRV Spreads/Bloomers and possibly shuriken launchers/spreads that can be considered at point blank range.
  • Pellet Spreads are usually not dangerous at this stage.
  • Boomerangs and lasers (even the speed lasers) are not considered dangerous. Speed lasers can be avoided quite easily.
  • Spinners of all kinds, EXCEPT pellet spinners (wall) are not considered dangerous for this stage of stunning invaders.
• After stunning all the turrets that are considered dangerous, find the most suitable spot to charge MB such that MBc can be landed on.
• (+) All Ravens should be dead after MB goes off, and some Herons may also go down by landing MBc on them.
• (+) At this point, even though you had previously exhausted all, if not most of your ICs, you should be able to get them back.
• With these newly stocked ICs stun the other dangerous turrets such as spinners and finish off the wave.
• The second way of setting up MB tends to be a bit more common due to the better ease to do so
• IC is only useful against larger invaders. Try to get them to hit Vultures, then Eagles. You may have to go around Herons and Eagles to stun Vultures.
• Because of the thin spread of its Twin Miniguns, despite stunning one side of the field, it is very difficult to transition over to the other side to stun the other side. This results in a lot of navigability issues and a lot of dodging is needed.
• (+) The slight spread of the Twin Miniguns mean it's slightly difficult to pop off turrets. However, ICs allow you to get up close to turrets of any kind, even difficult-to-reach turrets on Condors and Rocs. This negates the spread of the Twin Miniguns and allow you to get up close to the turrets for turret popping.
  • In fact, turret popping is a huge part of Dragonfly's survivability, and is relatively easy to do so.
• If you are faced with a Condor or a Roc, you can pop off all their turrets. Instead of continue to fire your main weapon, charge MB wherever is most appropriate for the next wave (obviously, skip this if it is the last wave). The Condor or Roc will self-destruct, and the MB will definitely be ready for the next wave.
  
  • You can do this on a Vulture too, but you cannot land MBc on it first.

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

• As a general guide to charging MB, the first option mentioned above (use ICs to finish off invaders of a wave) is preferred.
• However, if there are dart launchers/spreads or high tier pellet spinners (wall), then you would definitely require the second approach of charging MB.
• To compare the approaches, always figure out what is possible for the first approach. If the MB position is ideal enough, then the first approach is good to go.
• However, if the second approach allows you to land MBc on 2 more invaders (obviously, Heron and above) compared to the first approach, then the second approach is the way to go.
  • Landing MBc on 2 more invaders mean an additional 80 damage, which is higher than what 2s of the Twin Miniguns would do if you didn't charge MB beforehand.
  • Not to mention, it is also the safer option. This can sound ironic, but even though speedrunning is less about safety, the safer option means better consistency in speedrunning which is better overall.
• Because landing MBc on Vultures mean that you cannot eliminate all the Vulture turrets before the Vulture itself dies, it can sometimes be a better option not to land MBc on the Vulture.
  • If that's the case, strip all the turrets from the Vulture, and once that is done, immediately charge MB to land it correctly.
• For Rocs and Condors, even though you can strip all their turrets and allow them to self-destruct while you charge MB for the next wave, you should continue to deal 1-2 more seconds of Twin Minigun damage to them so that they will seld-destruct slightly faster.
• In lighter or medium waves, use IC to deal damage to invaders where appropriate. Remember to always keep enough if you need to use approach 2 to charge MB (use ICs to stun invaders before charging MB)

Fun Factor: A

• (+) Because Dragonfly's Twin Miniguns and ICs are both forward firing damage mechanisms, you will have to move around a lot, and very quickly. Because IC stuns invaders, this allows a good degree of freedom when moving around.
• (+) To stun invaders quickly to allow for this degree of freedom, you have to move very rapidly at first. Dragonfly can be a rather high adrenaline ship, especially so in the beginning of waves.
• (+) The rapid firing Twin Miniguns means you will score a lot of crits, which is definitely pretty satisfying to hear.
• (=) Average ship core positioning.

Trivia

• The base form and apexes of Dragonfly were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Dragonfly was only introduced in Phoenix 2 at v2.0.
• Dragonfly's wings are slightly translucent, allowing the background behind Dragonfly to be seen.
• Dragonfly is VERY SLIGHTLY asymmetrical. If you look at the crystal dome just above Dragonfly's core, you can see that the extreme right side of the crystal dome has a slight dark stain on it.
• Dragonfly Epsilon is one of the few apexes with an additional hidden change as well, changing its main weapon into a sort of rainbow colored laser gun, tightening the spread of the main.
• It's funny that this ship is named Dragonfly when it looks much less like a real life dragonfly than another ship in Phoenix 2, which is Reaper.

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Apexes

Epsilon (IC Blast Amplifier) - ¢25.000

Value: S-
Cost vs Utility: A

This apex also changes its Twin Miniguns to a spread of lasers, that has a tighter spread. The lasers are like beams with instantaneous/zero travel time. I will refer to the main weapon for Dragonfly Epsilon as Twin Laserguns. Here's how the Twin Laserguns look like:

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

• (+) Helps to clear up lighter and medium waves more quickly where MB is not practical.
• (+) Tighter spread of the Twin Laserguns allow for slightly easier turret popping

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

• (+) Particularly effective against Herons and Eagles, since they should be killed anyway.
• (-) A bit more difficult to use ICs against Vultures, and yet still be able to let the Vulture self-destruct and charge MB.
• (+) Kills off Condors and Rocs more quickly since they have excess health even after destroying all their turrets.
• (+) Tighter spread of the Twin Miniguns (actually, more like Twin Laserguns) allow for easier handling and less spillage.
• (-) Might be a bit more difficult to set up MB, only if you choose to use the Twin Laserguns to finish off the last invader.
• (+) Much faster in cleaning up waves of Ravens and Sparrows especially in early Acts where MB is not practical.

Fun Factor: A+ [+]

• (+) Significantly more prominent IC damage dealt.
• (+) The rainbow colored Twin Laserguns are easily a spectacle that is worthwhile.

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Gamma (IC Overcharge) - ¢15.000

Value: D-
Cost vs Utility: B

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

• (+) Stuns all turrets of Condors with only 1 IC, making Condors a lot more survivable.
• (+) Possible to stun all turrets of a Vulture with only 1 IC, but this requires very precise positioning. Given their lower health, it's easier to simply stun the whole Vulture with 2 ICs.

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

Fun Factor: A [No change]

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Hime

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

Ship Class: Lightfury
+

Main Weapon: Spirit Lash

• Average DPS = 25
• Homing = Perfect
• Weapon Class = Continuous Stream
• Rate of Fire = Fast
• Projectile Speed = Fast
• Fast moving homing projectiles that fire forward with a random initial angular displacement
  

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

• (-) Spirit Lash's DPS is pretty lackluster.
• Hime relies a lot of its ML to deal the bulk of its damage to invaders.
• (+) The lack of a need to aim means you can focus on dodging.
• (+) Extremely intuitive ship core position. This means it's very easy to dodge, you don't even need to explicitly look at the ship core to dodge, given it's in the middle of sort of the X shape of Hime.
• It's best to always deploy a CF before you charge an ML.
  • While it is not always necessary, it will guarantee your safety.
• (+) CF is a great tool against lasers fire just before they fire.
• (=) Hime can pop turrets if required. This requires you to deploy CF on top of the invader turrets you want to pop off. Then go into close combat and pop off the turret. It'll take a bit of time to do so though.
• Try to refrain from going upfield as that will collect too many particles, resulting in overflow.
  • Conservation of particles is key for Hime.
• It would likely be necessary Sometimes you get heavier waves and thus face a scarcity of particles. In such a case, chaining ML is of necessity. Deploying CFs one after the other, each CF for one ML becomes the strategy. Judging the optimal times to start charging the next ML is of key. You need to roughly know how long that size of CF is going to last and start charging ML so that CF would almost just nice fade when ML fires.
• (+) A CF with half the radius of the full CF size is sufficient time to charge an ML, provided ML has cooled down nearly completely.
• (+) 3/4 of a full CF size is sufficient to sustain chaining of MLs. Remember initial MLs require less charging time so a smaller size for earlier MLs is sufficient. The pattern is thus always to charge ML increasingly upfield, starting from the bottom of the screen.
• You can also deploy a smaller CF less than half of full size inbetween bigger CFs so that ML has time to cool down. However, if the next CF is already of that large enough size of 3/4 full, simply deploy it after the previous one fades and charge ML accordingly.
• This is when conservation of particles is of absolute key. You want to grab just enough particles to create the optimal size of CF for such circumstances.
• Important thing is to not panic, and only deploy CFs after making near full use of the 0.5s Phase Out time.

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

• Even though Hime has pretty lackluster DPS, its ML deals a lot of damage and knowing when to use ML and great knowledge of its cooldown is of absolute essence in speedrunning.
• (+) In waves with a Vulture and several other invaders, you can fire ML 2 times if the second ML's damage is not wasted, or if there is a only minimum spillover ML damage.
• (+) In fact, in waves that features Condors, you can even charge up to 3 MLs almost in a row.
• Generally speaking, you shouldn't be charging a 4th ML almost consecutively because it'll take wayyyyyyy too long to fire.
  • Even when dealing against a Roc, a 4th ML will be detrimental to survival or any later waves. The charge time of ML will also get too long in that just using the Spirit Lash will be a bit faster.
• Always aim to hit the cockpit of Armored Vultures and Eagles to maximize damage.
• Aiming at cockpits of Condors and Rocs can get a bit more difficult, especially with multiple MLs chained together due to their slight random movement.
• Charge MLs whenever you can.
  • A good guide is if you have anything more than 1 Heron and 1 Raven in the path of ML, it is a good idea to charge ML.
• (-) As you can't move when charging ML, invader random movement will cause speedrunning to have quite a bit of RNG when some invaders completely dodge the ML.
• While Hime's Spirit Lash is pretty fast, they also can get pretty funky because they curve.
  • This implies that Hime's Spirit Lash has some travel time.
  • This also means that it is possible to charge ML slightly earlier as the last of the Spirit Lashes hit the last of the invaders.
  • Particularly, if the last surviving invaders are Ravens and Sparrows, it is easy to estimate roughly estimate how many more Spirit Lashes are needed to finish them off.
  • You should not charge forward to finish off invaders at close range as the wave ends, as you should focus on charging ML as the last of the Spirit Lashes go off.

Fun Factor: S-

• (+) Hime's Spirit Lash is pretty satisfying to hear.
• (+) The Spirit Lash It is also very fun to watch in action, particularly when maxed as the firing rate is very fast.
• (+) You can spam ML like crazy.
• (+) Hime has probably the most intuitive ship core position in the game, being in the middle of it's X shape. Piloting Hime definitely feels like one of the easiest and a real joy. Dodging is probably one of the easiest with Hime, and anyone looking to learn dodging (at normal speed) should pick up Hime.
• (-) Hime's Spirit Lash actually causes a tiny bit of screenshake (it's actually really hard to notice the screenshake unless you specifically look out for it).
  • But it's so tiny it's quite hard to perceive it.

Trivia

• The base form and apexes of Hime were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Hime was only introduced in Phoenix 2 at v2.0.
• Hime is VERY SLIGHTLY asymmetrical. If you zoom in to the yellow part just above Hime's core, you can see that the line patterns are slightly asymmetrical.
• Hime's main weapon used to be SB before it was changed to AP in the v3.0 update.
• Hime means goddess, which was also mentioned by the dev himself. Specifically, Konohanasakuya-hime is the goddess of Mount Fuji and all volcanoes in Japanese mythology; she is also the blossom-princess and symbol of delicate earthly life.
• Here's a representation of Hime made by one of the game artists, Romano Molenaar:
  

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Apexes

Lambda (ML Armor Piercing) - ¢30.000

Value: S-
Cost vs Utility: A

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

• (+) Invaders go down faster since more effective damage is dealt.

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

• (+) Significantly easier to go faster, especially in denser waves, since ML always does the full damage now.
• (+) No more worrying about landing ML onto Vultures', Condors' or Rocs' cockpit to deal effective damage. Just charge ML wherever is convenient.
• (+) Freedom of positioning anywhere so long ML hits something also aids a left-to-right (or vice versa) ML sweep of invaders when there is a bulky invader behind to absorb the rest of the damage.
  • Allows you to continuously replenish CF to pull off consecutive MLs until the bulky invader is finally destroyed.

Fun Factor: S [+]

• (+) A very good quality of life apex such that you don't have to worry about the specific positioning of charging MLs, given how many times you'll be doing it.

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Epsilon (ML Double Shot) - ¢25.000

Value: S-
Cost vs Utility: A

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

• (+) Use the 2 MLs to snipe off 2 turrets from a Vulture.
• (+) This is enough delay time between each ML to quickly go over from the leftmost to the rightmost turret on a Vulture (or vice versa).
  • This can be particularly helpful for deadly turrets.
  • Sniping off both of these cornermost turrets on a Vulture may become difficult in later waves because you risk the lack of particles and thus dying when moving over to the other turret to snipe off.
  • Even so, you can just get rid of at least one dangerous turret and the turret beside it as well.
• (+) You can deploy the CF at the new location where you snipe the second turret if required.
  • This might require some luck since it may not be easy to get enough particles for it due to the quick turnover as you head over to the 2nd turret to snipe down.
  • This means that you may waste particles since you would leave the old CF behind.
    • However, since the second CF where you snipe the second turret would probably not be very big, you can simply hop back to the first CF.

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

• (+) Deals against dense waves very effectively, particularly waves with only Herons or below, since overflow ML damage is very likely.
  • Simply split the ML into 2 columns, thus increasing coverage in such dense waves.
• Always hit the cockpits of Herons or larger for each ML that goes off for maximum speed. This bypasses the armor reduction.
• For Eagles, don't land both MLs on the Eagle unless there are other invaders Herons or larger. Split one ML to one Eagle, and the other to another invader Heron or larger.

Fun Factor: S [+]

• (+) Potentially very different gameplay style.
• (+) Turret sniping on this apex is easy and really fun.

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Hunter

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

Ship Class: Double Defence
+

Main Weapon: Hyper Blaster

• Average DPS = 31.25
• Weapon Class = Uninterruptible Burst
• Projectile Speed = Very Fast
• Reload Time = Fast
• 2 fast, forward firing, side-by-side projectiles
  

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

• (-) As the Hyper Blaster is side-by side, it can be hard to pop turrets off.
  • It takes 3 well landed Hyper Blaster bursts to pop off a turret from an Armored Vulture.
• (+) TP should be used to delete MIRVs.
• (+) Phalanx is a very important backup and helps shovel away many bullets to allow breathing space.
  • Push forward with the Phalanx.
  • This may sometimes need to be done more than once, especially in Shuriken/MIRV missions.
  • The shoveling helps Hunter deal with spinners pretty well.
• Hunter relies on extreme mobility around the side of the field it is on. It also relies on keeping that side of the field clean since the Hyper Blaster's forward firing and the RNG movement of invaders will require lateral space.
• (+) The speed of the Hyper Blaster projectiles allows you to be downfield.
• (-) As Phalanx breaks quite easily, this is a good reason to be downfield so you won't get showered with too many bullets at close range.
• (+) Use TP to change sides of the field after you are done eliminating all the invaders up to a Heron on that side of the field.
• To look for a suitable spot to go to, first charge TP in advance.
  • While in time slowdown, look for the MIRV cluster as downfield as possible.
  • Do not just look for the region with the most number of MIRVs.
  • Ensure that to the side of this MIRV cluster, there are not too many other MIRVs around.
    • This might require you to wait a while and let the TP charge run until the MIRVs to the side exit the bottom of the screen.
• After the arrival spot is deemed safe, TP there and immediately deploy Phalanx, and shovel everything else away. You must be quick since there will be a lot of MIRVs in front of you which will likely explode as well.
• You may need to do this twice because some MIRVs explode on your way to shovel upwards. However, try your best to only use a single Phalanx because Hunter is slow and you may not have enough particles to replenish your Phalanx charges, so dodge the remaining pellets released by these MIRVs.
• In other mission types, use TP and Phalanx in alternate turns.
  • In other words, use TP first.
  • Then deploy a Phalanx to create breathing space around yourself.
  • Try to survive for a while in this situation with the cleared out space.
  • Repeat the cycle.
• (-) Lasers are a problem for Hunter. You should use TP to avoid tracking lasers. When arriving at your new location, you may need to deploy Phalanx straight away to clear out more space. But never go head on with tracking lasers as your Phalanx will melt too fast.
• (-) Laser Spreads can also pose a problem. You want to continue to follow them, but use Phalanx to shove away the bullets while moving with the spread lasers. Be careful to retreat back before the spread lasers fire because it can be hard to judge whether your reactor is in line with lasers.
• When faced with straight firing lasers, Phalanx shouldn't have too much of an issue, but do be prepared to deploy another one before the previous one breaks.
• (-) Unfortunately, as all of its defences have a very micro effect, only clearing out that many bullets (Phalanx) or getting you out for only a while (TP), Hunter can be quite easily overwhelmed.

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

• (-) The fast firing Hyper Blaster is terribly difficult to optimize.
  • Try not to have both shots of the Hyper Blaster land on one Sparrow, as only one shot is necessary to kill a Sparrow.
  • Thus, try to split it to have one burst hit 2 Sparrows.
  • Otherwise, the rest is a lot of RNG.
• (-) In Shuriken/MIRV missions, the clean-up after eliminating most of the field is a huge headache. The remaining MIRVs that were fired before most of the Ravens died will be troublesome to deal with which will cause you to waste a lot of DPS in trying to clean them up.
• Bear in mind TP means lost DPS, so avoid TP-ing if you can for speedrunning.
• Unfortunately, optimizing the Hyper Blaster is all you can do, and it has no means to deal additional damage from its abilities.
• Use TP as a positioning tool if getting over from one side of the field to the other is too difficult via movement.

Fun Factor: B+

• (+) Because of the fast firing Hyper Blaster, and Phalanx + TP combination that grant it great mobility, Hunter has a fast paced, kinetic, and constantly on-the-move playstyle which is very fun.
• (+) The Hyper Blaster is also rather satisfying to hear in action.

Trivia

• The base form and apexes of Hunter were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Hunter was only introduced in Phoenix 2 at v2.0.
• Hunter's main weapon used to be HI before it was changed to AP in the v3.0 update.
• Hunter Alpha is often made fun of in Phoenix 2 communities due to how useless it is perceived to be.
• Hunter is featured in a 3D perspective in the banner of the Phoenix 2 FaceBook page, alongside with Exarch and Antioch in an alternate war-striken background of Ceres Major.
  
• Here's a sketch of Hunter drawn by the dev himself with an Apple Pencil:
  
• Here's a rejected apex design of Hunter that never got used. Notice how the ship core isn't added in yet. According to the devs, the ship core graphic is only added in by themselves only after the final drawing is received.
  

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Apexes

Alpha (Teleport Departure EMP) - ¢5.000

Value: D+
Cost vs Utility: A

This apex creates a small BEMP with a radius of 80 (normal TP Arrival EMP has a radius of 50) at the spot it TP-ed away from.

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

• (+) Increase in margin of error when TP-ing to a new location.
  • Given the mess of bullets going everywhere, there may either not enough time to properly decide where to go, or there is no safety zone where MIRVs won't explode around you everywhere.
  • The Departure EMP helps in cleaning up these pellets from the exploded MIRVs when you teleport once again quickly, so that your second new arrival location will not have these pellets coming from awkward angles.
• (+) Acts as a mini pseudo Phalanx, since you can shovel upfront, then TP just slightly behind in such a way that the area of clearance from both departure and arrival EMPs slightly overlap each other, thus creating more vertical clearance space.
• (+) May help in eliminating more MIRVs from MIRV Bloomers/Spreads.
  • Make your way all the way into the Vulture’s cockpit before the MIRVs from its MIRV Bloomers/Spreads fire, and then pre-charge TP.
    • You may also start off the wave with yourself already being in the cockpit of the Vulture to save a Phalanx charge.
  • Wait until the MIRV Bloomers/Spreads fire, then when the MIRVs get close to your reactor, teleport away to either side of the MIRV Bloomers/Spreads, before the MIRVs can explode.
  • This results in a pretty significant MIRV count reduction, allowing for better survivability, and puts you point blank with one of the MIRV Bloomers/Spreads to take it out quickly and give you better breathing space.
    • It is argued however, it would simply be easier to just take out one of the MIRV Bloomers/Spreads from the get-go before it is allowed to fire.
    • This is a valid point, but aiming the Hyper Blasters is difficult.
    • There is also a possibility that the MIRV Bloomers/Spreads are too fast firing.
    • However, this specific technique can only be used once per wave.
    • Also requires extremely good estimation of when the MIRV Bloomers/Spreads are going to fire when they first appear so as to make your way into the Vulture's cockpit at the right time.

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

Fun Factor: B+ [No significant change]

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Gamma (Double Phalanx) - ¢15.000

Value: B+
Cost vs Utility: A

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

• (+) Helps a bit more in faster bullet hell missions since the 2 Phalanxes absorb a bit more bullets which can help especially against darts.
• (+) Also helps very slightly in Shuriken/MIRV missions since a bit more shoveling distance is possible.

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

Fun Factor: B+ [No significant change]

• (+) A bit better than shoveling bullets.

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Gladius

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

Ship Class: Safer-FO
+

Main Weapon: Plasma Missiles

• Average DPS = 25
• Homing = Average
• Weapon Class = Uninterruptible Burst
• Projectile Speed = Slow
• Reload Time = Fast
• 4 rather slow moving and slightly homing projectiles fired in a general forward direction with an initial slight spread on both sides
  

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

• (-) Unimpressive Plasma Missiles. However, even though the aiming is Average, it hits invaders reliably enough. The wide spread of the Plasma Missiles means that smaller invaders such as Sparrows will still get hit.
  • This is useful if VLs didn't manage to get rid of them.
• The Plasma Missiles are just support. The bulk of the damage comes from VLs.
• (-) Poor turret popping capability from the spread of the Plasma Missiles.
• (+) Turret popping can be achieved using VL if required. However, the shield needs to be taken down first.
• (+) The constant VL spam from the VL + Kappa is both offensive and defensive. The offensive aspect is obvious, and this means that Gladius can take out Ravens extremely fast without them even standing a chance to flood the field with bullets.
• Focus on eliminating Eagles first.
  • 2 Eagles side-by-side can be instantly vaporized by 3 VLs thrown at it.
  • If they align, make sure your 3 VLs hit these Eagles first.
  • Then use Kappa to get their particles.
  • Sweep the remaining field of Ravens.
  • Eagles often contain deadly turrets which will quickly overwhelm you if you are not careful. The sub-par main will also deal insufficient damage to eliminate them quickly.
• If the Eagles do not align, then throw 2 VLs at one of them, aligning these VLs with Ravens that are in line (whether in front or behind).
  • If the Eagles later align, throw a last VL to finish off the first Eagle and then throw another one at the other Eagle to align with Ravens.
• Herons are less of a concern and there is no need to use 2 VLs to get rid of them instantly.
• (+) Remember that VL comes with Vorpal Wake. This is a very important defence for Gladius to escape dire situations.
  
  • This can be useful when facing larger invaders, such as Condors and Rocs. Use a VL to get out of jail, but use it sparingly.
  • While this can be done with shuriken walls, you may need to be careful since it's difficult to predict where the shuriken will go in the left and right of the drilled through hole.
• Use Kappa to slow down and figure out the best way out of a sticky situation where you are stuck, rather than always resorting to using a VL to get out of it.
• (-) No defence against lasers.
  • Take out Ravens with annoying tracking lasers or laser spreads.
  • Laser Spreads on bigger invaders are generally less of a problem as they move around less quickly.
  • Beware of fast tracking lasers from Herons or larger. Snipe down these turrets as soon as possible if you can't dodge them.

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

• (+) The constant VL spam means that when aimed right, Gladius will wreck dense waves easily.
• (-) Because of the Plasma Missiles' wonky aiming, it is much better to go in close to invaders to hit the Plasma Missiles effectively.
• Try to eliminate from left to right fashion (or vice versa) as this will make the Plasma Missiles much easier to aim at invaders.
• Strip the shields of Herons before firing VL where possible. However, prioritize destroying the Ravens behind it.
  • As such, it's a good idea to pre-fire one burst of Plasma Missiles to hit on the Heron before you fire the VL at that column.
• As the wave arrives, immediately get into action by spamming VL across the columns that are worthwhile to throw a VL.
  
  • Make sure to have at least 2 VLs stocked up before the next wave arrives fully. Having the full 4 VLs stocked up is the most ideal scenario.
    • Don't worry about overflow, just so long you disengage Kappa when you reach 4 VLs, it is perfectly fine.
  • Don't bother about the Plasma Missiles at this stage, they are just supporting DPS.
• If the lineup after throwing the first 2 VLs are not ideal, you can try the following strategy:
  • Engage Kappa, but throw yourself in the direction of the other side so that Kappa is active yet you are still moving.
  • Continue to do this as you regain some charges of VL.
  • When the opportunity strikes, immediately throw the VLs.
• Try not to use Kappa midwave as that will cut DPS from the Plasma Missiles.
  • However, this is justifiable if you do not have enough VLs, but you must find a column that is extremely worthwhile to throw a VL later after exiting Kappa.
  • Make sure you have killed enough from other VLs.
  • Generally, if you have eliminated 2 columns worth of invaders, then you have a chance to earn back a VL to throw one more midwave.
• At the end of the wave with only one Raven or 2 Sparrows left on one side of the field, it is alright to retreat back downfield. Don't be on the same side of the field as the remaining invaders to force the Plasma Missiles to turn towards the remaining invaders correctly.
• After throwing all the VLs required, where possible, don't stand far away from invaders. If this is really necessary try to be on one side of the field so that the Plasma Missiles will try to target one side.
  • Being in the center of the field is the worst thing possible because some of the Plasma Missiles will go left, others will go right.
• The end of a wave is also the opportunity to spam Kappa so that you get all the particles required to replenish VL to burst fire them in the next wave.
  • Spam Kappa, but also spam it such that you try not to sacrifice the DPS of the Plasma Missiles.

Fun Factor: A+

• (+) Constant spam of VLs and eargasm of piercing sounds.
• (+) The Plasma Missiles make a strong impact sound, especially when all of them hit the invaders at the same time.
• (+) Kind of a visual spectacle to watch the Plasma Missiles.
• (-) However, the Plasma Missiles' aiming are pretty wonky, which makes it quite frustrating to handle.
• (-) A pretty fast speedrunning ship, yet Kappa makes that feeling of speedrunning kinda conflicting since it makes gameplay slowed down a lot.
• (-) A lot of RNG when speedrunning with Gladius since it is a VL reliant ship.
• (=) Average ship core positioning.

Trivia

• The base form and apexes of Gladius were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Gladius was only introduced in Phoenix 2 at v2.0.
• Gladius is VERY SLIGHTLY asymmetrical. If you zoom in to the region below the 2 vertical lighted lines (which are below Gladius' core), you can see that the lights on Gladius' internal systems are asymmetrical.
• Gladius' main weapon used to be AP before it was changed to SB in the v3.0 update.

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Apexes

Epsilon (VL Twin Lance) - ¢25.000

Value: A+
Cost vs Utility: A

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

• (+) Easier to get out of sticky situations with a wider width of bullet clearance.

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

• (+) Significantly easier to catch more invaders in the initial wave VL sweep.
• (+) The same amount of VLs can destroy more invaders and also deal more damage against some bigger invaders.

Fun Factor: S- [++]

• (+) Less frustration in chasing down invaders since VL can kill more with the same amount of VLs.

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Gamma (Kappa Antigrav) - ¢15.000

Value: A-
Cost vs Utility: A

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

• (+) Easier to get out of sticky situations where the situation is extremely dire since you can gain one charge of VL faster.

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

• (+) Helps in mid-wave where you find a very good opportunity to fire another VL. This apex helps to get that VL mid-wave much faster and fire it before that opportunity runs away from you as the invaders decide to separate again.
• (+) Helps if the next wave arrives too quickly because the VL sweep has already destroyed every invader of the previous wave so the next VL sweep can be carried out with greater haste.

Fun Factor: C- [No significant change]

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Lokie

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

Ship Class: Balanced
+

Main Weapon: Tremor Field

• Average DPS = 34.375
• Spread = Wide
• Weapon Class = Continuous Stream
• Rate of Fire = Fast
• Projectile Speed = Very Slow
• 8 slow moving projectiles fired forward with a slowly increasing divergence from the center
  

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

• (=) A slow burner of invaders. The slow moving projectiles from Tremor Field allow it to stack damage slowly upon invaders.
• (+) Just sit back and relax for early waves and let the Tremor Field clear the field of invaders.
• It's generally ok to just sit downfield and let the Tremor Field deal damage. Only move upfield if you need to collect particles for LS.
• Make sure your LS is big enough to always reach invaders. If not, you might want to head upfield slightly to allow LS to deal damage.
• (+) The Tremor Field's DPS is surprisingly pretty strong so Lokie can kill quite fast. Coupled with LS, Lokie eliminates invaders rather quickly.
• (+) 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 spread of the Tremor Field means it's very hard to pop turrets off. Lokie generally relies on just killing the invader as a whole.
  • However, it is possible to go point blank range with a Vulture's turrets to take out 2 turrets on one side.
• (-) PS as its only defence, which has very limited defence against bullets.
  
  • Luckily, Lokie clears out invaders pretty fast.
• (-) Shurikens are one of Lokie'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

• Always retreat to downfield between waves to allow the Tremor Field to stack.
  • This applies even more so for transitions between Acts.
  • Because of how slowly the Tremor Field moves, you should not retreat all the way downfield. About slightly less than one height of Lokie away from the playable edge of the screen is a good gauge.
• When the first wave of an Act arrives, in early Acts, you should advance forward with the Tremor Field briefly to stack just enough layers of the Tremor Field in order to kill off Sparrows quickly before they start scattering everywhere.
• Advance forward together with Tremor Field for later Acts (probably Act 3 and above) to finish off the last of invaders in the wave. This allows you to collect particles for LS as well.
  • Particle overfill is not a huge issue for Lokie since it kills very fast anyway.
  • Having said that, it is advisable not to go above 2/3 way of the screen to collect too many heavier particles.
• In early Acts, because of how little invaders are there on field, and how small invaders are, it's easier to just sit back and let LS and the Tremor Field do the clean-up work instead of doing it yourself.

Fun Factor: A

• (+) It's really fun to build up projectiles on screen. Tremor Field looks awesome on field.
• (+) One fun thing you can do is to advance forward with the projectiles, creating a nice blanket of projectiles.
• (+) Everything (except PS) about Lokie is golden...literally. The ship is gold, the tremor field is gold, and so is LS.
• (+) Great impact sound by the Tremor Field.
• (=) Average ship core positioning.

Trivia

• The base form and apexes of Lokie were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Lokie was only introduced in Phoenix 2 at v2.0.
• Lokie is slightly asymmetrical, compared to most other ships. On closer inspection, there are intricate wirings that are different on both sides of Lokie.
• Lokie's main weapon used to be HI before it was changed to AP in the v3.0 update.

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Apexes

Alpha (PS Supersize) - ¢5.000

Value: A
Cost vs Utility: S

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

• (+) Catches more lasers for laser reflection damage.
• (+) Improves survivability since the significant increase in distance for PS Phase Out means you can get yourself out of tight situations such as a mess of darts, or even to eliminate pellets from MIRVs.

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

Fun Factor: A [No significant change]

• (-) The whole apex is pretty much blue, which makes it harder to see the ship's core.

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Delta (LS High Power) - ¢20.000

Value: A+
Cost vs Utility: A

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

• (+) Kills invaders much faster.

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

• (+) The high DPS of Lokie is increased even further. This apex can kill really quickly, with a speed that comes close to many speedrunning ships/apexes.
• (+) Very little risk of particle overflow with this apex. Feel free to go right in to kill invaders at point blank range if required for end wave clean-up.

Fun Factor: A+ [+]

• (+) A good quality of life apex which makes Lokie faster and more fun to play with.
• (+) Enhanced visual treat from more golden stuff on field.

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Barret

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

Ship Class: Offensive
+

Main Weapon: Boson Cannon

• Average DPS = 31.25
• Weapon Class = Continuous Stream
• Rate of Fire = Fast
• Projectile Speed = Fast
• Alternating left-right forward firing projectiles
  

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

• Very technical and topsy-turvy gameplay that involves a lot of hit and run. By topsy-turvy, Barret has to either TP upfield to stun priority targets, or head upfield itself to do so.
  • Invaders with spinners are the first priority, followed by those with tracking lasers.
  • Requires very quick thinking and reflexes. It may not be for everyone.
• The idea is to TP behind smaller invaders that may be in front and stun the large invader behind, and then move back in front to deal with the rest of the invaders. The inverse can be done if the Vulture is in front, stun the Vulture immediately, then go behind to take out the smaller invaders (only do this if they are not Eagles though).
• If there are a lot of smaller invaders in front, find tight clusters of invaders to throw ICs on. One IC will stun the cluster of invaders.
  • Then TP behind them to stun the other targets.
  • Always remember to reserve enough for the larger invaders since those tend to have more dangerous turrets.
  • It is ok to leave a few smaller invaders not stunned.
• TP is used to escape tracking lasers.
  • While it is possible to escape misaligned darts your way in more General type of missions, due to their speed, it is generally difficult and requires a lot of anticipation.
  • This is where Barret falls short because even though there are so many charges of IC, it may not always be possible to escape potentially fast tracking lasers from Ravens or Herons.
  • This may quickly put a strain on TP.
• Always prioritize IC on Vultures or above, or Eagles that harbor dangerous turrets such as spinners or fast tracking lasers.
  • If no Eagles are around, you may then stun Herons.
• If there are lots of Ravens downfield, sweep across the Ravens to stun as many as possible, then reserve 1 or 2 charges of IC for larger invaders behind.
  • If it's a Vulture, remember that an IC to the cockpit stuns both the middle turrets. It may not always be necessary to stun the cornermost turrets if they are not dangerous (although cornermost turrets are usually the more dangerous ones, but not always).
  • Eliminate at least one side of the Ravens first so that you have a clear path to the invaders upfield.
  • Before the stun expires, re-stun the invaders behind using the particles from the downfield Ravens.
• (+) The Boson Cannon is pretty good at popping turrets,
  • This is not a priority until all intended targets are stunned, and most of the smaller invaders are down.
  • In fact, it is better to keep targets stunned rather than pop off the turrets because it's easier.
  • Not to mention, the Boson Cannon does take a while to pop off turrets.
  • Thankfully, when the smaller invaders are destroyed, it is easy to get into close combat to pop off turrets since the larger invaders are already stunned.
• (=) As with most IC ships, Barret suffers against crowds but excels in boss invader battles (Condors and Rocs).
  • Since a Condor might come with 4 or more invaders in front, go behind them all and stun the Condor first.
  • Then try to stun the Eagles or Herons.
  • Generally, don't bother to TP behind to destroy the 4 Ravens that can appear behind the Condor since they usually aren't a huge problem if the Condor is kept stunned.

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

• (-) There's not much way to optimize other than to TP or move around to ensure the Boson Cannon is always hitting a target.
  • Particularly for earlier waves, you can TP around to get to Ravens and Sparrows so that the Boson Cannon will miss much less.
• (+) A single IC can clear out 2 or 3 Sparrows clustered tightly together, but it's generally quite rare for you to pull off such a shot due to their rapid random movement.

Fun Factor: A

• (+) Barret is one of the more unique ships to play with, as its gameplay is extremely tactical.
  • You have to TP here and TP there to carry out precision strikes of IC.
• (+) Very fast paced gameplay when a wave first comes in. It cools off after you carry out the initial stunning of invaders on field, so you have time to breathe.
• (-) Kind of annoying to deal against Sparrows and Ravens because IC doesn't do much damage, so you have to take them out with the Boson Cannon, which is quite a slow burner.
• (=) Despite the left-right alternating Boson Cannon, the hit circle of each projectile is quite large which reduces the chances of missing. You just have to aim based on what's directly in front of you and don't care too much of its alternating main.
• (+) Small ship, and quite easy ship core positioning.

Trivia

• The base form and apexes of Barret were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Barret was only introduced to Phoenix 2 at v2.0.
• Barret's main weapon used to be SB before it was changed to HI in the v3.0 update.

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Apexes

Epsilon (Teleport Explosive Arrival) - ¢25.000

Value: S-
Cost vs Utility: B

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

• (+) Solves the issue of dealing against crowds of Ravens and Sparrows. TP on top of them and they are gone.
• (+) Thus, much faster to clear out invaders in front to continuously keep larger invaders stunned.

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

• (+) The Explosive Arrival TP wrecks all Unprotected Ravens and Sparrows alike.
• (+) No more need to stun Ravens. When a wave first arrives, start off with one Explosive Arrival TP, then quickly stun the larger invaders such as Eagles or above (Herons if there are no other larger invaders on field) thereafter.
  • Then, go back to using Explosive Arrival TP on the remaining Ravens.
• Generally, reserve Explosive Arrival TP for Ravens since the Boson Cannon and IC are weak means to deal against them.
• Thus, try to use the Boson Cannon against Sparrows. Ravens are plentiful in this game so don't worry about not being able to utilize Explosive Arrival TP.
  • Of course, still find excellent opportunities to catch Sparrows together with Ravens. If there are 1 Raven and 2 Sparrows in range of the Arrival range of TP, it's a good idea to take advantage of that.
• You can occasionally use an Explosive Arrival TP on a Heron if TP is not too overworked.
• Stress use the Explosive Arrival TP to destroy ALL Unprotected Ravens on field. Then allow Explosive Arrival TP to cool.
  • If there are only Ravens on field, spam Explosive Arrival TP until there are only 1 or 2 Ravens left on field. Finish them off with the Boson Cannon.
  • If TP is taking too long to charge, consider leaving 3 Ravens alive to destroy with Boson Cannon to allow TP to cool.

Fun Factor: S- [++]

• (+) Say goodbye to all your Raven troubles. No more Raven crowds to burn through slowly with your Boson Cannon or ICs.
• (+) Extremely satisfying to watch all Ravens disappear from the field quickly.

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Beta (IC Blast Amplifier) - ¢10.000

Value: A
Cost vs Utility: A

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

• (+) Slightly more effective against Ravens and Sparrows.
• (+) Thus, slightly faster to get to larger invaders for stunning them.

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

• (+) Throwing ICs on crowds of Ravens takes them out more quickly.
  • It now only takes about 2 ICs to clear out Ravens.
• (+) Sparrows get caught in the blast radius when dealing against Ravens a lot more easily as well, taking them out more easily too.
• (+) Effective dealing against Sparrow crowds. Using ICs to clear out Sparrows, especially in early waves is a very good idea.
• Be careful not to run out of ICs as you still need to stun larger invaders.

Fun Factor: A+ [+]

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