Ship Details (Part 6)

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FAQ (IOS) by light_rock_zz

Version: 4.4 | Updated: 11/18/2024
FAQ of the Month Winner: January 2020 | Highest Rated Guide

Detailed Stats & Strategies for Below Ships & Apexes (Part 6)
Saber	Valkyrie	Proteus	Yigothu	Torrent	Orion	Exarch	Njörun	Boxer	Sonah

Saber

Strong against: Dart/Pellet, Shuriken/Pellet, Shuriken/MIRV, Dart/MIRV, Dart/Boomerang/Pellet, General - No Lasers, Shuriken/Boomerang, Dart/Boomerang/Laser, General/Boomerang, General, Dart/Pellet/Laser, Shuriken/Pellet/Laser
Weak against: None in particular

Ship Class: Safer-FO
+

Main Weapon: Nova Blaster

Average DPS = 31.25
Homing = Minor
Weapon Class = Interruptible Burst
Rate of Fire = Fast
Projectile Speed = Fast
Reload Time = Medium
10 successive alternating left-right, slightly homing projectiles that are fired slightly inward towards the center

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

(+) Both Vorpal Lance and Reflex EMP clears bullets.
- Of course, Reflex EMP does the job better, but Vorpal Lance can be used for desperate means if Reflex EMP has not cooled down.
- Use Vorpal Lance to cut a hole in front with Vorpal Wake and ride up the Vorpal Lance.
For survivability, it's best to use Reflex EMP defensively.
(-) Notoriously difficult to handle Nova Blaster.
- The inward angle of the Nova Blaster, along with the slight randomness in the angle, makes projectiles come out from alternating sides in an awkward way.
- It's easy to miss Sparrows because of the awkward angles.
- If you move around too much, it is also easy to miss Ravens .
  - But if you stand still while firing the Nova Blaster, it should be able to hit quite reliably.
  - Obviously, this is not practical because of the need to dodge fast.
(+) Despite an unwieldy Nova Blaster, it's quite good at turret popping on a Vulture .
- Stand about 3-4 times the height of Saber to a Vulture's turret to focus fire and take it down.
(-) The interruptible burst nature of the Nova Blaster makes Saber more difficult to handle, since Reflex EMP acts fast which is used at the moment rather than waiting.
- This means the Nova Blaster often gets cut out when using Reflex EMP opportunistically.
- After exiting Reflex EMP , the remaining burst can be very little projectiles left and thus awkward to use.
- Controlling the Nova Blaster such that every burst finishes is difficult, and is usually easier between Act transitions.
- Thus, there's no need to ensure the Nova Blaster finishes one burst before charging Reflex EMP , at least for survivability.
(+) If not, Vorpal Lance can be used to take out dangerous turrets quickly
- You can focus less on using Vorpal Lance on Ravens , which are less likely to have dangerous turrets.
For waves with Eagles , throw your Vorpal Lances against them, waiting for either the Eagles to line up, or for Ravens behind to line up with the Eagles.
- It is important to take out Eagles as soon as possible.
- Try to wait for 2 Eagles line up so that 3 Vorpal Lances will destroy them immediately.
(+) Lasers are usually not a big problem for Saber due since Vorpal Lance rapidly takes out at least half of the screen before Ravens can fire them.
Aim to take out Ravens immediately once they are fully on field to reduce chances of them moving apart for a less ideal Vorpal Lance sweep.

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

(+) With double AoE damage, Saber wipes crowds very quickly.
(+) Primarily, use Reflex EMP against Sparrows .
Generally, no point to use Reflex EMP against Ravens only.
- There's no point to go behind a Vulture to use Reflex EMP against a bunch of Ravens hiding behind because Vorpal Lance is more efficient to get rid of them.
- But if there are Sparrows behind, using Reflex EMP is worthwhile.
(+) The Nova Blaster's annoying interruptible burst nature can be well exploited.
- In waves where there is only one Raven and Sparrows , allow most of the burst to go off first.
- Then go up close to the Raven , and launch Reflex EMP .
- Allow the rest of the burst to go off.
- This will kill the Raven quickly, while resetting for the next burst of Nova Blaster in the next wave quickly.
- To pace the Nova Blaster such that only the last 2-4 projectiles of the Nova Blaster are left, fake charge Reflex EMP .
Saber is one of the ships that absolutely requires prior planning for when to use Vorpal Lance or Reflex EMP for optimization.
- Vorpal Lance and Reflex EMP are competing AoE damage means which must be carefully allocated.
It is very tempting to use Reflex EMP as a wave opener like other Reflex EMP ships.
- Unfortunately, it is not always optimal to do so.
- Analyze if a wave requires Reflex EMP .
- If using Reflex EMP does not result in less Nova Blaster bursts used, do not use Reflex EMP.
- As a guide, the Nova Blaster can take out 2 Ravens in one burst.
  - In early waves with 2 or 4 Ravens , there is no point to use Reflex EMP .
  - If these Ravens are mixed with other Invaders, it may be worthwhile to use Reflex EMP .
- If there is an odd number of Ravens , it is worthwhile to use Reflex EMP since Reflex EMP + one burst of Nova Blaster takes out the 3 weakened Ravens.
- For dense waves with a lot of Ravens (5 or more), it's usually good to use Reflex EMP .
  - Use Vorpal Lance to take out as many of these weakened Ravens , and use the Nova Blaster to take out the rest with one burst.
  - After charging Reflex EMP , retreat so the Nova Blaster can spread its projectiles among the weakened Ravens .
Run through the mission once with Saber, but using Reflex EMP more as defence and positional tool to land the Nova Blaster properly.
- Note down which waves can be done faster with Reflex EMP .
- From there, start planning out how to allocate Vorpal Lance and Reflex EMP .
(+) For waves with many Sparrows , Reflex EMP is worthwhile to use since the Nova Blaster has difficulty hitting Sparrows.
(+) A good combination to use, especially in heavy waves, is to use Vorpal Lance in the middle of the field, ride up with Vorpal Wake , then immediately charge an Reflex EMP .
- This ensures a safe offensive Reflex EMP .
- Don't ride up more than half the screen because you can't move fast enough to catch up to the Vorpal Lance .
Just remember for speedrunning, Reflex EMP for Sparrows , Vorpal Lance for Ravens .
- Everything else, use a combination of both.
(+) Saber is one of the ships that can succeed well in speedrunning Shuriken/MIRV and Dart/MIRV missions.
- Vorpal Lance takes out deadly MIRV turrets quickly.
- Reflex EMP is a very good backup for fast firing MIRV turrets.

Fun Factor: S-

(+) With double AoE damage, Saber is a ton of fun.
(-) Saber's Nova Blaster is annoying since its projectiles come out angled towards the center of the ship. (The left right alternating is less of an issue here, it's more of the awkward angles)
- Coupled with only minor homing, it can be very frustrating to hit Sparrows .
(=) Average Nova Blaster impact sounds.
(-) Saber's ship core positioning is a little strange.

Trivia

The base form and apexes of Saber were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
Saber was only introduced into Phoenix 2 at v2.1.
Saber is VERY SLIGHTLY asymmetrical. If you zoom in to the dark grey protrusions and the blue mini platings/protrusions just below the dark grey protrusions, you can see that the white blotches on these protrusions are slightly different on the left and right sides.
While all ships bank / tilt to one side when moving, Saber has a reduced degree of banking compared to most other ships.
Saber's Nova Blaster used to be High Impact before it was changed to Armor Piercing in the v3.0 update.
Different 3D perspectives of Saber were seen in the background of Prometheus Array. Some of it were featured in Phoenix 2 promotional posters, some of it were old cover banners of the Phoenix 2 Reddit.

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Apexes

Epsilon (REMP Extended Range) - ¢25.000

Value: A+
Cost vs Utility: S

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

(+) Increased viability in bullet heavy missions, especially Shuriken/MIRV and Dart/MIRV missions.
(+) Increased bullet clearance allow better horizontal space to launch Vorpal Lances between wave transitions.

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

(+) Catches more Invaders in the range of Reflex EMP .
(+) Increased maneuverability means easier to re-position yourself to land hits from the Nova Blaster or fire Vorpal Lances .

Fun Factor: S- [No significant change]

(+) Significantly more leniency in piloting a difficult ship like Saber.

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Beta (VL High Capacity) - ¢10.000

Value: B-
Cost vs Utility: A

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

(+) Store up excess Vorpal Lance counters for heavy waves that require a mass burst of Vorpal Lances to get rid of them.
- This can help against Eagle dense waves, since the Eagles sometimes separate from each other.

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

(+) Can be useful for very dense waves, since particles from these waves can be stored up for gradual use throughout later waves.
- Applies more for community missions .

Fun Factor: S- [No change]

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Valkyrie

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

Ship Class: Defend to Attack
+

Main Weapon: Tachyon Projector

Average DPS = 31.25
Weapon Class = Interruptible Burst
Rate of Fire = Fast
Projectile Speed = Very Fast
Reload Time = Medium
5 successive sets of 3 side-by-side fast forward firing projectiles

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

(+) Valkyrie's Tachyon Projector is pretty good at sniping turrets due to its rather highly focused fire.
- However, bear in mind 1 projectile stream out of 3 is unlikely to hit the turret due to the distance between streams.
- This is acceptable since one burst of the Tachyon Projector (after the shield is downed) takes down Vulture's turret.
(+) Phalanx is an important tool to allow easy and effective navigation around the field.
- Use diagonal shovels to move around effectively.
(+) Always deploy Phalanx before charging Mega Bomb .
- To be safe, charge somewhere about 1/4 from the bottom border.
(=) The interruptible burst nature of the Tachyon Projector is slightly annoying, but not a huge issue due to how strong and fast the projectiles move.
- It is easy and high recommended to fully exhaust a burst of Tachyon Projector before charging Mega Bomb .
(-) Phalanx is ineffective against lasers .
- Against lasers , shovel diagonally to get away from lasers.

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

(+) Phalanx allows to go up close to the center of the field to pull off an Mega Bomb .
- A good technique is to shovel up to the ideal Mega Bomb position.
- If Phalanx is not broken, try not to deploy another Phalanx as that might affect later waves.
(-) Dart spreads are a huge problem since Phalanx does not cover you in all directions.
- In the presence of dart spreads, Mega Bomb may have to be charged further down so that the dart spreads are above your Phalanx .
(+) Landing Fusion Core on Eagles and Herons is not difficult unless they contain dart spread turrets.
- Otherwise, it is safe to land Fusion Core on them.
(+) Optimizing the Tachyon Projector is not too hard.
- With diagonal shoveling, you can re-position yourself easily.
Generally, allow a full burst of Tachyon Projectile to complete before charging Mega Bomb .
- Otherwise, it'll be very awkward transiting out of Mega Bomb .
- There are a few exceptions, such as in Acts 2-3.
- You can allow some of the burst of Tachyon Projector to be intentionally fired.
- Then, charge Mega Bomb for transition to the next Act.
- When Mega Bomb goes off, use the rest of the Tachyon Projector burst to wipe out the heavily damaged Ravens .
- Make sure you know how much of the Tachyon Projector burst you need.
- Generally, a full burst is needed if there are 3 or more Ravens spread throughout the field.
- If there's only one side of the field to eliminate (if Fusion Core can eliminate one side of the field), slightly more than half of the remaining burst could be enough to wipe out the rest of the field.
- This technique helps shave off half a second or so.

Fun Factor: A

(+) Impactful Tachyon Projector sounds.
(+) Pretty easy to handle Tachyon Projector despite its interruptible burst nature.
(+) Easier Mega Bomb setups compared to several ships, allowing you to pull off Mega Bomb a bit more.

Trivia

The base form and apexes of Valkyrie were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
Valkyrie was only introduced into Phoenix 2 at v2.1.
Valkyrie is the only ship in the game which is made from multiple parts, held together not by physical connections but the forces of nature. (Electromagnetic forces? Electrostatic forces? Was Valkyrie created by Thor's magical powers? I guess we'll never know.)

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Apexes

Gamma (Phalanx Reflector) - ¢15.000

Value: A+
Cost vs Utility: S

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

(+) Deals very well against lasers , on top of bullets.
- This is especially against Shuriken/Pellet/Laser missions.
(+) No more need to hide against lasers , just let them come.
- Be sure to replace Phalanx before it breaks.
- 3 Phalanxes are sufficient to survive a heavy onslaught of lasers .
- 2 Phalanxes for less laser heavy scenarios.
(+) Very effective against speed lasers since they don't do much damage to Phalanx but still deals damage back to Invaders, so you can survive well against them.

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

(+) Laser Reflection damage increases speed on laser heavy and Shuriken/Pellet/Laser missions.
(-) Not able to effectively catch lasers from laser MIRVs .
- Try to trigger those near you for maximum damage. But don't count on them for damage.
- Instead, gather all the tracking lasers onto you, and slowly head upfield to catch as many lasers from laser spreads as possible.
Don't count on laser reflection damage on missions outside of laser heavy and Shuriken/Pellet/Laser missions to deal damage, as maneuverability is more important.
- Deploy them as per normal and allow lasers to track you, but don't specifically focus on using the Phalanxes for laser reflection damage.
- Instead, just focus on landing your Tachyon Projector shots, but replace Phalanx where necessary under laser fire.

Fun Factor: A+ [+]

(+) Very fun against Shuriken/Pellet/Laser missions since this apex is well rounded against both bullets and lasers .
(+) The laser reflection is a spectacle to watch.
(-) Slightly difficult to catch the rhythm of deploying 3 Phalanxes , one after each other to sustain the laser reflection and not die.

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Delta (MB Compressed Blast) - ¢20.000

Value: A-
Cost vs Utility: S

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

(-) The decreased range of Mega Bomb make it hard to reach Invaders upfield.
- This is already a problem with Valkyrie since charging upfield can be difficult since Phalanx may not hold up well.

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

(+) Excellent against heavier waves that have Herons or Eagles spaced apart from each other.
- This is especially for 4 Herons in a row, or Herons and/or Eagles on different rows. The Compressed Blast will deal the full 70 damage to all of them.
(-) The right positioning at the dead center of the field will hopefully still be able to catch all Ravens on field.
- However, RNG at play here means some Ravens may escape.
(-) The perfect positioning is needed since the radius is so much smaller.
- This means being at the center of all Invaders, which risks the chance of turret collision.

Fun Factor: A- [-]

(-) Very difficult to get satisfying Mega Bombs from this apex since Mega Bomb setups aren't exactly the easiest with Valkyrie.
(=) Eliminates heavier waves faster, but still requires a sweep of the Tachyon Projector to do so, especially against a horizontal row of 4 Herons .

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Proteus

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: Offensive
+

Main Weapon: Photon Detonator

Average DPS = 31.25
Blast Damage = Medium
Blast Radius = 110
Weapon Class = Interruptible Burst
Rate of Fire = Fast
Projectile Speed = Stationary, then Very Fast
Reload Time = Slow
6 projectiles being deployed on field in quick succession, resting for about 0.5s before accelerating forward

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

Proteus' Photon Detonator is unique, which can be described as "Delayed Positional Deployment".
- The main weapon is first set down at a position, allowed to "charge up" for a while, before it fires straight ahead to hit a target.
(+) In heavier or dense waves, stay downfield and simply spread the projectiles around as much as possible.
- Most if not all the projectiles can still hit some Invaders.
(+) Great against larger Invaders.
- The blast damage of the Photon Detonator is rather significant as there are many projectiles per burst, which adds up the blast damage.
- On Condors and Rocs , Proteus downs them a bit faster than other 31.25 DPS ships.
(=) Deals quite well against dense waves as well, since the number of projectiles spread around allow most Invaders to go down rather quickly.
(-) The only problem is during the end of a wave since it is hard to aim the Photon Detonator.
(+) Since the Photon Detonator projectiles take a while to move off after deployed, stay downfield.
- Just pray for the best to let the Photon Detonator projectiles to hit the last of Invaders while you charge Mega Laser .
- If it fails to hit, just deploy a few more projectiles and try again.
(+) Point Defence can be used to cut across shuriken clouds and pellet lanes.
- Also useful against boomerangs .
(+) Only 1 Mega Laser for most waves is usually needed.
- On heavier waves, you can use 2 Mega Lasers .
(-) Since Point Defence doesn't shield you, make sure there is always enough time to charge Mega Laser for the next wave.
(+) Point Defence can be used at the end of a wave to set up for Mega Laser reliably.
(-) No laser defence.
- Conserve Point Defence to use it to quickly cut across bullets and dodge lasers .
(-) Weak at turret popping due to the difficult firing mechanism of Photon Detonator.
- Vultures might drift a bit and the projectiles may not hit turrets properly.
(-) The interruptible burst nature of the Photon Detonator make it very difficult to manage the burst.
- There are so many projectiles per burst, it is hard to determine how long more to allow a burst to complete.
- It is easier to simply not bother managing the burst.

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

(+) The troublesome aiming of the Photon Detonator can be somewhat bypassed.
- If a projectile is deployed on top of an Invader, it does damage immediately.
- Point Defence can now be used as an offensive tool.
- Go right up to the Invaders, leaving a slight gap (since the projectiles spawn in front of Proteus) while spam tapping Point Defence at all times.
(-) If going near an Invader is not possible, go as near as possible to Invaders.
- This can be particularly frustrating for Ravens and Herons with T3 Dart Spreads since they are small enough to run away before the projectiles accelerate, but going up close to them is difficult.
(+) Each projectile of Photon Detonator has a rather large blast radius which catches Sparrows quite easily.
(+) At the end of a wave, use Point Defence aggressively to destroy the last of Invaders.
- If it's against Ravens or Sparrows , deploy the projectiles such that they spawn right on top of them to kill them immediately.
- If it's against Herons , you can take a risk to deploy projectiles near them and quickly swipe back downfield to charge Mega Laser .
- Any other Invaders, just deploy the projectiles downfield and charge Mega Laser .
(-) This makes Mega Laser setups difficult for Ravens and Sparrows , and potentially Herons .
(+) Very powerful against large Invaders.
- The blast damage adds upon the impact damage of the projectiles.
- Blast damage from smaller Invaders can also affect large Invaders.
(-) Difficult to manage the interruptible burst of Photon Detonator.
- Unless there are only 1-3 more projectiles in the burst, it's best not to care about letting the burst complete, unless it's between Act transitions.
- Knowing when to complete the burst or not requires a lot of experience with playing with Proteus.

Fun Factor: A-

(+) Proteus features a hugely beneficial playstyle where Point Defence can be used offensively.
(-) Extremely difficult to handle Photon Detonator.
(-) Sparrows are a nightmare to hunt down when you don't have enough Aura to use Point Defence aggressively.
(-) The positioning of the projectiles when released is hard to grasp, making catching Sparrows as they just spawn is difficult.
(-) Slightly weird ship core positioning, being a bit more forward than usual.
- Proteus is also blue which sometimes make it hard to see the ship core.

Trivia

The base form and apexes of Proteus were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
Proteus was only introduced into Phoenix 2 at v2.1.
At the v5.5 update, the blast damage for Photon Detonator is no longer scaled according to the main weapon level. This means the blast damage is no longer reduced at higher main weapon levels.

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Apexes

Beta (PD Sentinel) - ¢10.000

Value: D+
Cost vs Utility: A

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

(+) Very situationally useful in Shuriken/MIRV missions where bullets are slow.
- Needs a sufficiently large Point Defence Aura .
- Makes Mega Laser setups slightly easier since some shurikens and pellets can be eliminated before they kill you.
- Less need to care about precise Mega Laser positioning to avoid stupid bullets from hitting you.
- This is especially for pellets released from MIRVs and shurikens since their paths can be hard to figure out.

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

Fun Factor: A- [No significant change]

(+) Slightly less frustration from dying from stupid bullets when charging Mega Laser .

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Gamma (Main Weapon Unstable Photons) - ¢15.000

Value: S-
Cost vs Utility: S

This apex increases the blast radius of the projectiles of Photon Detonator from 110 to 130, an 18% increase. There are no visual changes to Photon Detonator.

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

(+) Significantly easier to take down Sparrows .
(+) More blast damage overall, taking down Invaders a bit faster.

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

(+) Very powerful against Sparrows .
- One burst of the Photon Detonator is definitely enough to clear out all Sparrows on field, given enough of the projectiles hit them.
(+) Thus, early waves are a lot faster.
(+) Ravens get caught by more blast damages and potentially go down faster too.
(+) More blast damage overall, generally making taking down Invaders a bit faster.

Fun Factor: S- [++]

(+) A HUGE quality of life change apex which makes playing Proteus so much more fun to play with.
(+) Much less hunting down of Sparrows .
(+) BIG BOOM from bigger blast radius of the Photon Detonator.
(+) The bigger visuals from the bigger boom is a lot more pronounced and is a visual spectacle.

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Yigothu

Ship Class: Versatile
+

Main Weapon: Zatha Probes

Average DPS = 25
Homing = Very Good
Weapon Class = Continuous Stream
Rate of Fire = Fast
Projectile Speed = Very Slow
Very slow moving homing projectiles fired in a general forward direction that moves in sine waves

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

(+) Best Aura Zen combination ever.
- Chrono Field slows down the bullets and stacks them up
- Meanwhile, Reflex EMP clears the mess of stacked up bullets.
(+) One of the easiest ships to use in the game.
(+) Deploy Chrono Field when you are unable to dodge.
(+) At the end of the Chrono Field , charge a Reflex EMP to clear all bullets. Rinse and repeat, and WIN.
(+) Aiming is automatic by the Zatha Probes. Just focus on survival.
Be sure to maximize Reflex EMP's bullet clearing capabilities.
- Know when Chrono Field is going to end.
- Only charge Reflex EMP just before (give and take ~0.5s) Chrono Field ends.
- Mastery of this timing is key to the ultimate survivability in your hands.
- Don't start charging too late. Being early is better than being late. (Sounds familiar in life?)
- Fortunately, it won't take too much time with Yigothu to grasp this timing.
(+) Be as close to the center of field as possible when releasing Reflex EMP .
- Because you would likely be backed into a corner when surviving, head to the edge of Chrono Field closest to the center of field when you use Reflex EMP , so that the bullet clearing capabilities are maximized.
- You can still use Reflex EMP even in the smallest of Chrono Fields deployed.
  - Reflex EMP only takes 0.6s to charge. and Chrono Field Phase Out is already 0.5s of invincibility.
  - This assumes that Reflex EMP is at base Charge Time .
(+) If you can't deploy Reflex EMP safely due to the Charge Time being too long, simply Chrono Hop to the other side of the field, or somewhere safer, even if it's just outside the cluster mess of bullets.
(+) Because Chrono Field's maximum duration is 5s, and Reflex EMP's cooldown time is 5s, you can usually consecutively pull off this combo if you collected enough particles during the Chrono Field time for another full Chrono Field.
- Generally speaking, unless you are faced with Condors or Rocs , you should always have enough particles.
Try not to deploy consecutive full size Chrono Fields after one another.
- Attempt to dodge a bit after the last Chrono Field ends.
- Remember that when the Chrono Field ends, you have enough space to dodge for a while due to the cleared space provided by Reflex EMP .
- If you are struggling to pull off a Reflex EMP , Chrono Hop away from the mess of bullets.
Kill Invaders behind a Vulture first.
- Deploy Chrono Field on top of a Vulture while ensuring the edge of the Chrono Field is just above the Vulture .
- Doign so allows you to get particles from destroyed Invaders behind the Vulture to deploy new Chrono Fields .
(+) Yigothu has a slight bit of burst damage that comes from the slow moving Zatha Probes already on screen between act or wave transitions.
- This helps out in killing a bit faster, although not very significant.
(+) Although the Zatha Probes are bad at turret popping due to their random targeting nature (and they move slowly as well), you can drop Chrono Field on top of Invader turrets and hover over the turrets to pop them off.
- This is a more offensive style that is harder to pull off.
- Exiting from being so far upfield may not be easy unless you have another Chrono Field on standby.
- But popping off deadly turrets is viable and important for survival.
(-) However, Yigothu will struggle at Rocs due to lackluster damage (and Reflex EMP doesn't help much in damage).
- With a Roc with only bullets it can survive with sufficient dodging and grazing to pull off small Chrono Fields .
- But with a Roc that carries fast tracking lasers and bullet spinners / MIRV Bloomers, Yigothu will struggle a lot due to its inability to deal with so many rounds of lasers.
- Your only hope is to aggressively graze off bullets and to Chrono Hop like crazy as the lasers fire to avoid it.

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

(+) Even though Yigothu can be played defensively, it can also be played offensively quite well.
- It may not be the fastest ship out there, but it can get decent times just outside the Top 1% range.
(+) Reflex EMP can be optimized to be set off many times due to how easy it is to charge Reflex EMP in the Chrono Field .
Reflex EMP only if >4 Sparrows .
Reflex EMP only if >4 Ravens .
- Before using the Reflex EMP , deploy a Chrono Field in the middle of the Ravens .
- Then run all over the Ravens to strip their shields before launching Reflex EMP .
Deploy Chrono Field as centrally as possible.
Then, go around the field to strip off as many shields as possible, especially on Herons , then Eagles .
- Ravens are not too important but ideal as well.
- This is because even if their shield is not fully stripped off, they can still die by the Reflex EMP .
- Charging Reflex EMP takes a bit of time, so a few more Zatha Probes might hit the Ravens and strip their shield just in time for Reflex EMP to kill them (remember that Shielded Ravens, after losing their shield, have 18 health left).
This can sometimes involve jumping in and out of the Chrono Field , which makes Phase Out so important.
- 0.5s of Phase Out is not a long time, but enough to emit one Zatha Probe in the face of a Raven , making a difference between stripping their shield or not.
Keep track of which unshielded Invaders have not been receiving damage for some time.
- The Zatha Probes may have downed their shield, but remember Shielded Invaders can regenerate their shield after 4s.
- Cover all ground evenly by always moving around, except when you need to fire Reflex EMP .
- In particular, Herons are unlikely to die after an Reflex EMP because they have more health, even after their shields are downed.
- Take special note of these pesky weakened Invaders that can get away.
On some heavier waves, such as 4 Eagles with other Invaders as well, it is possible to pull off Reflex EMP twice.
- If you need to pull off Reflex EMP twice, you can choose to only strip off 2 Eagles side by side first, then launch the 1st Reflex EMP.
- Then head to the other 2 Eagles to strip off their shields, and launch the 2nd Reflex EMP .
For the highest level of speedrunning, between Act transitions, remember how the first wave of the next Act is.
- Go to the spots where larger Invaders will appear (Eagles are priority, followed by Herons ) to pre-fire the Zatha Probes.
- For Eagles , sit there for like slightly <1s and then head over to the next spot.
- For Herons , sit there for like <0.5s and then head over to the next spot.
- Finally, as the wave starts to arrive, deploy Chrono Field at the center of the field.
- Doing correctly will strip off the shields of Eagles and Herons significantly faster.
(-) In the mid-wave however, if some Invaders cannot have their shields downed, there'll be a lot of RNG involved.
- The further Invaders are away from the center of the field, the harder is it to damage them with the Zatha Probes.

Fun Factor: A

(+) A huge visual treat from the Zatha Probes that have many different colors.
(+) A hugely defensive ship means that you can really admire the visual color spectacle by the Zatha Probes on screen.
(+) Gameplay wise, launching many Reflex EMPs allow you to deal massive AoE damage .
- If you managed to down the shields of Ravens , they will all be destroyed in an instant.
- Sparrows will all also die together, making launching Reflex EMPs very satisfying, just like an Mega Bomb .
(-) Quite a laidback ship unless you want to go speedrunning with it.
- Yigothu can get boring if you are playing it just to clear missions after a while.
(-) Speedrunning can involve quite a lot of RNG since Invaders can run far away from you, requiring you to chase after them.

Trivia

The base form and apexes of Yigothu were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
Yigothu was only introduced into Phoenix 2 at v2.1.
Yigothu could have gotten its name from a combination of Yuggoth and Cthulhu. Cthulhu is a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind, as written by H. P. Lovecraft.
Yigothu is one of the only non-full offensive ships that have gotten a Best of Badge badge back in the extremely tough Daily S4 Mission #891 (There were no ranks back then, only leagues).
- It featured a very difficult Shielded Roc that carried 4 pellet MIRV Bloomers and 6 T4 tracking lasers that de-synchronized after the first burst of lasers.
- There were no apexes at that point of time (so no Super Reflect to destroy the Roc quickly).
- 5-3 was also a very dense and heavy wave that was almost impossible with any Ion Cannon ship (which stunned only the Invader it hit back then).
- The only evidence of this extremely tough mission is documented here.
Before the v4.0 update which introduced Apex forms, the Omega Apex of Yigothu was teased on the Phoenix 2 Reddit:
Here's a representation of a sneaky Yigothu made by one of the game artists, Romano Molenaar:

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Apexes

Omega (REMP Serenity) - ¢50.000

Value: B
Cost vs Utility: B

The Omega Apex for Yigothu increases the Reflex EMP radius by 25%. It also makes Reflex EMP into a manual trigger instead. It is similar to that of Mega Laser or Mega Bomb , where Reflex EMP only effects when you re-engage ship control, provided the time to charge Reflex EMP (including any Charge Time Increase from previous usages) has been lapsed.

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

(+) Benefits more for survivability since the increased range in clearance means more bullets cleared.
(+) Allows you to release Reflex EMP at precisely the right time, after 0.5s when Chrono Field has expired.
- This maximizes the bullet clearance capability of Reflex EMP Serenity.

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

(+) The increased range of Reflex EMP allows Yigothu to reach the furthest Invaders from the center of the screen, which can happen on very dense waves.
(=) Because it is already easy for Yigothu to be in the middle of the field, it doesn't benefit much in daily and specialist missions since it is easy to catch all Invaders on field.
(-) Hinders speedrunning due to the need to manually trigger the Reflex EMP .
- The audio and visual cue of Reflex EMP Serenity finished charging is difficult to detect, especially with many bullets inside Chrono Field and other much louder sounds playing at the same time.
- If Reflex EMP has not sufficiently cooled down, given the difficulty in catching the audio and visual cue, it can be very easy to unintentionally cancel Reflex EMP charging.
- Holding on to a fully charged Reflex EMP wastes DPS from the Zatha Probes since they do not fire until you re-engage touch.

Fun Factor: A- [-]

(-) The need to catch the audio and/or visual cue from the complete charging of Reflex EMP is very difficult, and requires you to pay very close attention. Especially when there are a lot of bullets inside Chrono Field .

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Sigma (Chrono Deep Field) - ¢35.000

Value: B
Cost vs Utility: A

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

(+) More useful against larger Invaders.
(+) Yigothu's capability to deploy Chrono Field anywhere easily makes it easy to deploy on top of turrets, especially on Condors and Rocs .
- It's not recommended to deploy on top of Rocs when they first fully arrive since 5s of Zatha Probes may not be enough to fully down a Roc's shield.
- Instead, conserve particles and then use a second Chrono Field on top of the Roc to try and take out the difficult-to-reach turrets on the Roc.
(+) Helps against dangerous turrets of Eagles , Vultures and Condors .
- You can take these turrets out before Chrono Field expires.
- Not much point against turrets of smaller Invaders since they will probably die by Reflex EMP anyway.

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

(+) Can make speedrunning slightly easier.
- A bigger Chrono Field means potentially further reach of Invaders.
- It also means better safety since it is less likely to exceed the Phase Out invincibility time.
This is the more recommended apex if you are looking for speedrunning.
- It's not necessary, but can potentially make speedrunning a bit easier.

Fun Factor: A [No change]

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Torrent

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, Dart/MIRV

Ship Class: Offensive
+

Main Weapon: Quantum Stream

Average DPS = 31.25
Target Tracking = Fast
Weapon Class = Uninterruptible Burst
Reload Time = Medium
Single wide beam that always starts off by shooting straight ahead and then quickly tracking on to a target

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

(+) Very strong Quantum Stream.
- As the Quantum Stream tracks very fast, and is a 31.25 DPS weapon, it is just amazing.
- This implies very little damage leaked when switching between targets.
(-) Sometimes Torrent aims at Invaders that you don't want to aim at.
- Torrent generally aims for Invaders/turrets that are directly in front of it.
- Thus, to get Torrent to re-target what you want, go close to what you want to target, particularly for turrets to pop off.
- Only aim for turrets after all Ravens and Herons are destroyed.
Fire Stun EMP as soon as the wave fully arrives.
Then run around the field to take out Ravens as quickly as possible.
- Then Herons , then Eagles , and so on.
- Be careful not to crash into turrets.
- Go behind larger Invaders if you have to, since they can't do anything when stunned .
(+) As Personal Shield is less used for laser reflection damage compared to other Personal Shield ships (since Stun EMP can also disable lasers ), it can also be used to cut through some impossible bullet walls.
- This is especially useful at the start of waves after using Personal Shield , as leftover bullets from a previous wave can get messy.

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

Best to start from one extreme side of the field.
- Follow the Quantum Stream as it bends towards that side with Invaders.
- Ensure the Quantum Stream is either firing forward or only slightly tilted towards the side with Invaders.
Watch out for critical hits.
- Critical hits kill Invaders faster, which is important for Ravens and Sparrows (in early Acts).
- This means the Quantum Stream may change targets more quickly, so prepare to follow it more quickly.
Stun EMP eliminates the need for the Quantum Stream to hunt down all Sparrows .
- However, in Act 1, optimization of the Quantum Stream is key to wipe out all Sparrows in one burst.
(=) Because Stun EMP disables lasers too, choose carefully between using Invader lasers as a counter offence, or using Stun EMP to disable all turrets on field.
- Generally, in denser waves, it is better to use Stun EMP instead of Personal Shield for laser reflection damage.
- By denser waves, having more than 4 Ravens on field is a good idea to use Stun EMP instead of Personal Shield .
- For heavier waves, such as those with an Eagle , it might be better to use Personal Shield rather than Stun EMP .

Fun Factor: S-

(-) The Quantum Stream can get quite annoying since it may not always target what you want to target.
(+) Very strong and powerful Quantum Stream impact sounds.
(+) Stun EMP for great AoE damage and laughing at Invaders.
(+) Very fun in laser heavy missions due to Personal Shield laser reflection .
(+) Easily visible ship core.

Trivia

The base form and apexes of Torrent were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
Torrent was only introduced into Phoenix 2 at v2.1.
Torrent is VERY SLIGHTLY asymmetrical.
- If you zoom in to the bottom right of Torrent's main body, you can see a stain mark on the right side that does not exist on the left side.
- The winglet at the bottom right of Torrent has some white blotches that are different from the bottom left winglet.
Torrent is the only ship that has its ship core physically separated from the rest of the ship. Why did they design a glaring vulnerability in this ship, it's like saying shoot me here?
Torrent is amongst the cheapest ships to fully upgrade (to 6-6-6) and get both its apexes, coming in at only ¢24.800 (¢500 for buying Torrent, ¢9.300 for fully upgrading, ¢5.000 for the Alpha Apex & ¢10.000 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 (PS Super Reflect) - ¢10.000

Value: A
Cost vs Utility: S

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

(+) Makes difficult Condors or Rocs with deadly T4 tracking lasers trivial.
- Also makes such huge Invaders with limited tracking lasers but lots of other bullet turrets much easier to deal with.
(+) Stun EMP covers up when Personal Shield is recovering due to how quickly waves, or Condors and Rocs . can get wiped out.

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

(+) Very powerful apex against waves with many lasers situated upfield, this apex can deal against heavy waves very effectively, making up for the shortfall in Stun EMP in being not as capable to deal with such waves.
(+) Any laser heavy wave is bound to be vaporized, especially if the lasers are coming from upfield.
- Sometimes the super reflected laser goes straight back to the turret and eliminates the source of the super reflected laser.
(+) It can sometimes be beneficial to 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 a lot of skill to know when to charge a Personal Shield Super Reflect that has not cooled down completely.

Fun Factor: S [+]

(+) Although Torrent is already very powerful against laser heavy missions, being able to completely destroy Condors and Rocs in one Super Reflect is just so satisfying.
(+) Similarly, even against normal waves, even if they only have Eagles and other smaller Invaders, Super Reflected lasers destroying everything is just so satisfying.

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Alpha (SEMP Extended Range) - ¢5.000

Value: B+
Cost vs Utility: A

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

(+) Can help reach upfield Invaders if Torrent needs to be downfield to use Personal Shield to reflect lasers .
- Faster to fire Stun EMP after exiting Personal Shield .
- For missions with more bullets, it makes a bit easier to stun more Invaders/turrets on field.

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

Fun Factor: S- [No change]

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Orion

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

Ship Class: Defensive
+

Main Weapon: Photon Scatter

Average DPS = 25
Homing = Perfect
Weapon Class = Uninterruptible Burst
Projectile Speed = Very Fast
Reload Time = Slow
16 fast moving and fast homing projectiles fired at random angles in a 360° fashion, with some being very slightly delayed

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

(+) One of the easiest defensive ships to use.
(+) In Shuriken/MIRV missions, a very common technique is to camp at the top corner of the screen.
- The only time you need to worry is when there are spinners.
- Doomsday Bombs are also another problem.
- This is a lazy strategy, and may not always work as you will eat particles quickly, which may be important in later waves.
- Try not to employ this strategy in later waves, as spinners and Doomsday Bombs become more common.
(+) Under heavy shuriken and MIRV fire, Teleport into the shuriken clouds with the biggest MIRV cluster.
- Then use Point Defence to clear out space around you and get rid of other pellets released by the exploded MIRVs .
- Slowly back off to a corner and repeat the cycle.
(+) Follow the speed of the shuriken cloud into a corner.
- After fully cornered, Teleport to the opposite end of the field.
- This will confuse the shuriken launchers.
- Beware of Doomsday Bombs that might affect the other side.
(+) In a Roc battle, camping at a top corner is very useful, if the Roc is not equipped with spinners or Doomsday Bombs .
- MIRV Bloomers are no issue since Point Defence takes care of them quickly.
- Just shift or Teleport over to the other top corner when the shuriken launchers slowly turn their way towards you.
(+) In other missions, Teleport is your primary means of escape.
- Retreat slowly and use Point Defence to delay the time you get backed into a corner.
- Don't fully deplete Point Defence if possible.
- Then, Teleport out of tight spots when you can no longer dodge.
- Remember Teleport has a Charge Time .
  - Charge it as soon as threatened and backed into a corner.
Next step is to find a new spot to Teleport to.
- Look out for a spot with less bullets around.
- Time slows when you are ready to Teleport so you have a bit of time (so charge early if possible) to decide.
Once you’ve decided the best spot to go to, Teleport there.
(+) If it’s still pretty crowded, start using Point Defence to clear some space to dodge.
- Otherwise, just dodge while you can.
- Generally stay there for quite some time and allow Teleport to cool down.
- Over some time, if your surroundings get crowded with bullets again, repeat the cycle.
(+) Remember Teleport is quite abusable as it recharges very fast, so don’t be afraid to use it.
- Don't use 2 Teleports right after each other.
- Let Teleport cool for a second or 2 before Teleport-ing again if needed.
Be careful not to burn too much Point Defence Aura .
- Use Point Defence in taps so you can dodge a bit before needing another tap to spend more Aura .
(-) Auto aiming and randomly scattering Photon Scatter means no capability to pop turrets off.
(+) Easy to handle Photon Scatter, just let it do its thing and focus on survival.
(+) Since Orion's ship core is above the location where all Photon Scatter projectiles would spawn, you can align a turret with the spawn point of all Photon Scatter projectiles and immediately destroy the the turret as the Photon Scatter spawns.
- This is particularly useful against Doomsday Bombs on Condors and Rocs .
- It is also useful against situations where the Vulture is right in the middle of the field with Doomsday Bombs on both sides.
- However, a lot of precision is needed, so this technique is only for Doomsday Bombs since Orion has no defence against Doomsday Bombs.

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

(-) There's no way you are speedrunning with a low DPS Photon Scatter and completely defensive Aura & Zen .
The only way to optimize it is to use Teleport to pace the Photon Scatter so it fires just as the next wave starts to arrive.
Each projectile of Photon Scatter deals approximately 3.125 damage.
- This totals up to 50 damage per burst.
- This equates to killing only 8 Sparrows per burst.
For the last surviving Invader on field, you can go on top of the Invader such that the spawn point of the Photon Scatter is on top of the Invader.
For some reason, someone created a dedicated compilation of strategies to speedrun with Orion despite its fully defensive nature. Refer to this website for more speedrunning tips with Orion:
https://p2myth.club/docs/Cookbook/Orion

Fun Factor: C

(-) Extremely boring ship.
- Nothing else to do other than to move around a bit and dodge.
- Just pop in Point Defence and Teleport when threatened.
(=) Average Photon Scatter impact sounds.
(-) Slightly weird ship core positioning towards the front of the ship rather than at the center of the ship.

Trivia

The base form and apexes of Orion were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
While all ships bank / tilt to one side when moving, Orion has a reduced degree of banking compared to most other ships.
Orion was only introduced into Phoenix 2 at v2.2.
Orion's Photon Scatter used to be High Impact before it was changed to Armor Piercing in the v3.0 update.
There were unused apex designs for Orion which never saw the light of day. The apex abilities for Orion could had been different too.

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Apexes

Delta (PD EMP Laser) - ¢20.000

Value: X
Cost vs Utility: A

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

(+) Basically invincible in Shuriken/MIRV missions.
(+) Sit at a bottom corner of the field the entire game and just tap Point Defence when a bullet comes near to you.
- Teleport away if the shuriken cloud looks like too much to handle.
(+) Basically a free ticket to ¢200 for every Shuriken/MIRV mission (after you've spent the ¢20.000 of course). You're welcome. ;)

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

Fun Factor: C [No change]

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Lambda (Teleport Extended Clearance) - ¢30.000

Value: C-
Cost vs Utility: C

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

(+) Helps slightly in surviving Shuriken/MIRV missions since more breathing room when teleporting into a mess of shurikens, in order to avoid some pellets released from a few MIRV detonations.
(+) Eliminates more MIRVs on arrival, especially when forward firing MIRVs are in dozens and can be quite spread out at times.
(-) Unfortunately, simply inferior to the Delta Apex since Extended Clearance apexes are only better realized in Shuriken/MIRV missions, but Point Defence EMP Laser just does the job so much better.

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

Fun Factor: C [No change]

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Exarch

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

Ship Class: Full Offence (FO)
+

Main Weapon: Phase Prisms

Average DPS = 34.375
Laser Beams = 18
Capacity = 100ms
Weapon Class = 18 Independent Uninterruptible Bursts
- (Cone Triggered - Independent)
Reload Time = Fast
See the screenshot of the Phase Prisms below:

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

The firing angles of each of the Phase Prisms beams at the front of Exarch, taking upward vertical vector as 0° are: -22°, -17°, -13°, -8°, -4°, -0°, 0°, 4°, 8°, 13°, 17°, 22°.
- There are also Phase Prisms beams at the back of Exarch, taking the downward vertical vector as 0°, the angles are: -22°, -17°, -12°, 12°, 17°, 22°.
- The angular trigger range of each beam of Phase Prism is ±2° of its firing angle, although each beam can only fire at that specific angle as mentioned above.
(+) Very versatile Full Offence ship.
- Both Vorpal Lance and Mega Laser allow Exarch to escape dangerous situations rather well.
(+) Don't really need to aim with Exarch.
- You can concentrate on dodging and looking out for good Vorpal Lance opportunities.
(+) Vorpal Lance riding is a very important skill for Exarch, since it is a great last minute defence for a ship that doesn't have many defensive means.
- Learn to use it well to escape a cluster of bullets.
- This solves many barricade issues and can cut through small shuriken clouds.
In later Acts, because Vorpal Lance sweeps are usually viable after firing Mega Laser , there is no need to ride up Mega Laser.
On lighter waves, you may not need Vorpal Lances and you can conserve Mega Laser too.
(-) Not able to pop off turrets with Phase Prisms.
(+) Instead, for these waves, pull off an Mega Laser so that the shield can go down quickly.
- Then use Vorpal Lance to take out dangerous turrets quickly.
(+) Mega Laser + 2 Vorpal Lances almost instantly vaporizes a Vulture if Mega Laser damage is all inflicted on the Vulture.
- Use this combo as much as possible.
- If you need to take out the Vulture even faster before dangerous turrets go into action, add in a 3rd Vorpal Lance for an instant kill.
- If the Vulture is deadly but you can safely go above downfield Invaders, it may be worthwhile to charge Mega Laser above these Invaders to kill the dangerous Vulture before its dangerous turrets can fire.
(-) Exarch can struggle against Condors and Rocs due to its inability to pop turrets off.
- Be sure to prepare at least 2 Vorpal Lances for such long battles.
- After the shield goes down, immediately pop off 2 of the most deadly front turrets.
- Unfortunately, unless the Roc or Condor is easy, it's very difficult to pop off difficult-to-reach turrets.
(-) Not able to deal against lasers .
- Vorpal Lance is your best bet to take out dangerous tracking lasers , or take out annoying Ravens with laser spreads.
(+) As the Phase Prisms can fire downwards as well, it can continue to deal damage even when above forward firing turrets.
- This allows it to be viable for even laser heavy missions.
- However, a Vorpal Lance sweep is usually enough to eliminate majority of the threat.

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

(+) Exarch's 34.375 DPS is calculated on the case where all front 12 Phase Prisms beams are actively firing.
- This means the 6 rear beams are not counted into the DPS.
- Each Phase Prisms beam has the same DPS.
  - If all 18 beams can be active at the same time, Exarch can achieve an insane DPS of 51.5625.
  - The rear beams can potentially have a DPS of 17.1875.
- However, this is a very unlikely case since it is difficult to utilize all of the rear beams frequently.
- Each Phase Prism beam has a DPS of 2.8646.
(+) Being able to fire backwards allows for some interesting speedrunning techniques.
- In early waves, smaller Invaders like Ravens and Sparrows can be finished off using the Phase Prisms beams that fire backwards.
- Only do this for heavily damaged Ravens and Sparrows that would die by one more Phase Prisms beam .
- Of course, Vorpal Lance sweeps are still more important.
(+) In missions that feature primarily heavier Invaders, especially when lots of Condors and Rocs come into the picture, Exarch is among the fastest out there, beating Proxymar. (However, Jeria is likely still faster.)
- The perfect balance of crowd clearing Vorpal Lance and single target damage Mega Laser means Exarch is very versatile in dealing against dense and/or heavy waves.
- In addition, the high DPS of Phase Prisms coupled with Mega Laser crushes Condors and Rocs .
(-) Not viable in harder Shuriken/MIRV missions because of the lack of bullet clearance.
Optimization of the Phase Prisms is key.
- Always aim to have as many beams active as possible.
- The Phase Prisms are rather sparse at the center of Exarch. Thus, position Exarch in-between Invaders on both sides.
- If there is only one Invader left on field, you can employ different strategies based on the Invader-class.
  - If it's Sparrows , just shake a little on one side to activate as many Phase Prisms beams as possible to kill it.
  - If it's Ravens , cross over from the left side of the Raven to the right side of the Raven (or vice versa).
  - If it's Herons , sometimes the middle turret may be dangerous as you may not know when it might fire again.
    - Thus, you may only want to use one side of the Phase Prisms to finish off the Heron .
    - Try to cross from the left side to the right side of the Heron (or vice versa).
  - Anything larger than a Heron , just stay in the middle and shake around a bit to activate as many of the Phase Prisms as possible.
Fast reactions and wave composition knowledge are what makes Exarch pros so quick.
- As the wave comes in, a Vorpal Lance can be pre-fired milliseconds before the wave fully arrives, immediately destroying some Ravens .
- Quick Vorpal Lance sweeps are also what makes Exarch pros so fast.
(+) 3 Vorpal Lances vaporize an Eagle .
- Wait for at least 2 Eagles to align together and then quickly throw 3 Vorpal Lances to vaporize them.
- If the Eagles separate, consider throwing one Vorpal Lance at each of them to catch another Invader like a Raven or Heron behind it.
- When the Eagles converge again, throw another Vorpal Lance to finish them off.
Try to strip a Heron of its shield before firing at it so it will go down instantly.
Consider charging Mega Laser right in front of an upfield Vulture , if possible to retreat back down.
- Then head back downfield, fire 2 Vorpal Lances to sweep some Invaders and down the Vulture instantly, instead of wasting Mega Laser on some smaller Invaders.
- Don't do this if there are too many Ravens downfield (4 Ravens or below is fine to shove Mega Laser into a Vulture ) since it will take a longer time to kill the Ravens afterwards.
Sometimes, it is ok if you are not able to charge Mega Laser at the start of the wave in the presence of a Vulture .
- Eliminate as many downfield Invaders first.
- After the Vulture's shield is downed, charge Mega Laser mid-wave to kill it instantly.
- This takes advantage of the Shield Breaker nature of the Phase Prisms.
Vorpal Lance RNG is very present with Exarch due to how offensive Exarch is.
(-) Not to mention, because of how Exarch's Phase Prisms work, there is also quite a lot of RNG from the Phase Prisms too.
When faced with a large Invader such as a Vulture or above, get as close as you can to it to maximize the side beams firing as well.
Rarely, after eliminating some Ravens and Sparrows from Mega Laser , the remaining Ravens and Sparrows in front of a Vulture cannot fire backwards.
- In this case, position yourself in between the Ravens and the Vulture .
- This utilizes the Phase Prisms beams that fire backwards to take down the Ravens simultaneously and save on Vorpal Lances .
- Don't do this on Herons or above though, as the Vulture will probably die before the Herons since the Phase Prisms' DPS backwards isn't very high.

Fun Factor: S+

(+) Loud and very satisfying Phase Prisms impact sounds.
(+) Very appealing Phase Prisms visuals as well.
- It's literally a laser light show where lasers are fired in apparent random sequence.
- When the lasers are desynchronized, it looks even more awesome in terms of both audio and visuals.
(+) Relatively easy to use Phase Prisms since it's quite automatic.
(+) For the amount of defence Exarch has, and the automatic firing nature of the Phase Prisms, Exarch is quite an easy ship to pick up speedrunning.
(+) Vaporizing a frontline Vulture almost instantly/instantly with a Mega Laser and 2 (or 3 for instant) Vorpal Lances is incredibly satisfying.
(+) Vorpal Lance is already incredibly satisfying.
- Given how quickly waves are generally cleared, Vorpal Lance influx is pretty fast.
(-) Lots of RNG associated with this ship when speedrunning with it, since all of Phase Prisms, Vorpal Lance and Mega Laser involve a fair bit of RNG. Especially, Vorpal Lance.
(-) Slightly more forward ship core positioning, which isn't terrible but slightly strange.

Trivia

The base form and apexes of Exarch were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
Exarch was only introduced into Phoenix 2 at v2.2.
Exarch is VERY SLIGHTLY asymmetrical compared to most other ships.
- If you zoom in closer to the "wings" of Exarch, you can make out asymmetrical wear marks on it.
- You can also see one of its Phase Prisms (the 2nd from the bottom on the upper right side) also has some slight wear.
Exarch's Phase Prisms is the only main weapon that can fire backwards and does not have homing properties.
Exarch has probably the loudest main weapon , particularly when nearly all of its front beams fire at the same time.
The capacity of the Phase Prisms beams at level 1 is 350ms, as verified by the devs.
Before the v4.0 update which introduced Apex forms, the Omega Apex of Exarch was teased on the Phoenix 2 Reddit:
Exarch is featured in a 3D perspective in the banner of the Phoenix 2 FaceBook page, alongside with Hunter & Antioch in an alternate war-striken background of Ceres Major.
Here's a representation of a cool Exarch made by one of the game artists, Romano Molenaar:
In fact, Exarch is a heavily featured ship in official materials of Phoenix 2. It even appears in both an old and the newest game preview videos of Phoenix 2.
It even has its own shorts video on Firi Games showcasing gameplay of a rather skilled pilot using Exarch.

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Apexes

Epsilon (VL High Capacity) - ¢25.000

Value: C+
Cost vs Utility: B

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

(+) Helps slightly in heavier waves with many Eagles for high burst damage before dangerous turrets from the Eagles can fire.
(+) Particularly, quite useful on Condors and Rocs since a few Vorpal Lances can be used on them to down their shields faster so you can start popping off turrets faster.

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

Fun Factor: S+ [No change]

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Omega (Main Weapon Phase Refraction) - ¢50.000

Value: S-
Cost vs Utility: A

This apex allows each beam of Phase Prisms to fire within an angular range of ±2° of the angle they were originally fixed at.

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

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

(+) The better Phase Prisms catch rate makes gameplay a lot smoother.
(+) Alleviates the problem where small Sparrows slip between Phase Prisms. Easier to kill Sparrows in particular.
(+) More action from the cornermost Phase Prisms, since their rather slanted angle makes it difficult for them to deal damage, even to bigger Invaders such as Vultures .
(+) Overall, a respectable increase in Phase Prisms DPS.

Fun Factor: X [++]

(+) Much less frustration trying to chase down Sparrows that can slip between Phase Prisms.
(+) The capability of the Phase Prisms to fire at different angles make for interesting variations in the laser light shows.

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Njörun

Ship Class: Double Defence
+

Main Weapon: Wave Cannons

Average DPS = 31.25
Blast Damage = Low
Blast Radius = 100
Weapon Class = Interruptible Burst
Rate of Fire = Fast
Projectile Speed = Medium & Slow
Reload Time = Medium
2 successive sets of 2 forward firing side-by-side projectiles, quickly followed by a single middle forward firing projectile that deals blast damage, followed by 4 successive sets of 2 forward firing side-by-side projectiles

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

(+) Chrono Field and Personal Shield are very capable of covering different threats, from bullets to lasers .
- Minor overlap between Chrono Field and Personal Shield .
- Njörun is extremely capable of surviving anything thrown at it with ease.
(+) Chrono Field is the primary defence.
- When threatened, Chrono Field is the first response to deploy.
(+) Njörun relies quite a lot on Chrono Hopping.
- If it is not possible to find a safe spot to Chrono Hop to, literally flick yourself away from the fading Chrono Field .
  - Meaning, use your finger / stylus to make a very quick swipe and lift it off the surface of your device.
- This allows the activation of Personal Shield while still moving, clearing out a bit more bullets than normally possible.
- Hide in Personal Shield as long as you need.
- Just don't stay too long until Personal Shield expires.
(-) Personal Shield is not as reliable in clearing out bullets.
- Thus, better to use even the smallest Chrono Field to Chrono Hop to a safer spot rather than using Personal Shield against bullets.
- If the whole field is completely filled with bullets with no empty pockets of space, using Personal Shield Phase Out to clear out some bullets could be viable.
(+) Using the short Phase Out time of Personal Shield in bullet dense missions is key in using Njörun.
- Learn to utilize it to clear a small region of bullets.
(+) The Wave Cannons' DPS is usually sufficient to sustain a small size of Chrono Field .
- Try to swap between destroying smaller Invaders to get some particles and damaging large Invaders so you can get a constant influx of particles for Chrono Field .
- Usually not a huge problem if you eliminate from downfield to upfield.
(-) Learn a fair bit of dodging to be able to continuously use Chrono Hopping.
- Although Chrono Hopping indefinitely is possible, it is hard to master.
(+) Excellent laser defence from Personal Shield .
- However, don't always use Personal Shield to deal against lasers .
  - Remember Chrono Field is enough to negate lasers .
- You can even use Chrono Field to Chrono Hop away from lasers if the Chrono Field deployed is too small.
- Don't rely on Chrono Field's Phase Out to negate lasers .
- This is why Chrono Field and Personal Shield work so well together hand-in-hand.
  - Chrono Field is better at handling bullets, while Personal Shield is better at handling lasers .
  - However, they cover each other's function well too.
It is ok to use Personal Shield inside of Chrono Field especially when reflecting lasers .
(+) Against Rocs and Condors , if you can keep grazing tightly, Chrono Hopping can be sustained indefinitely.
(=) Average turret popping capability.
- The Wave Cannons, side-by-side, can pop off 2 turrets on a Vulture at the same time.
- However, it takes 2 bursts of the Wave Cannon to do that after the shield is downed.
(+) Pretty easy to handle Wave Cannon.
- Relatively straightforward and acceptable travel speed.
- The only problem is the middle projectile.
  - Don't need to explicitly try to make it hit Invaders.
(=) The interruptible burst nature of the Wave Cannons is a bit annoying.
- However, with Chrono Field , it is easy to allow one full burst of the Wave Cannons to complete.
- Personal Shield also charges quickly so it's easy to exhaust one full burst of Wave Cannons before charging Personal Shield.
- If you need to exhaust one full burst of Wave Cannons and the lasers are already going to fire, it's fine to deploy a Chrono Field , even if the Chrono Field is big to delay reflecting lasers.
- It is fine to interrupt the Wave Cannons burst for Personal Shield laser reflection without a Chrono Field .
- There are pros and cons to each approach, and both approaches will still allow you to survive very well.

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

(-) One full burst of the Wave Cannons is short of killing a Shielded Heron .
Chrono Field is used as a positional tool to optimize the Wave Cannon to land as many of its projectiles on Invaders.
- This will involve lots of tiny Chrono Field deployments and Chrono Hopping.
Knowing how to spread the Wave Cannon projectiles among Invaders in early Acts is key to speedrunning.
- It requires 2 projectiles of the Wave Cannon to kill a Sparrow .
The blast damage of Njörun from its one and only middle wave projectile in its burst is negligible.
- There's no point trying to optimize it.
- It has the capability to reduce the kill requirement of several Sparrows to 1 wave projectile, but don't count on that middle projectile.
Use Personal Shield for laser reflection if there are more than 6 lasers that can be reflected by Personal Shield.
- Otherwise, it's better to use the Wave Cannons to go faster.

Fun Factor: B

(+) Personal Shield is fun to use in laser heavy missions.
(+) Njörun's Wave Cannon makes a pretty soothing yet satisfying sound.
(+) Pretty easy to handle Wave Cannon.
- Relatively straightforward and acceptable travel speed.
- The only problem is the middle projectile, which isn't very important to land it.
(-) Slightly forward ship core position.
- Because it's in the center of Njörun's main body that is attached to its "wings", it's not too bad.
(-) Slightly annoying interruptible burst nature of the Wave Cannons, but massively alleviated by Chrono Field and the quick charging of Personal Shield .

Trivia

The base form and apexes of Njörun were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
Njörun was only introduced into Phoenix 2 at v2.2.
Njörun is the only ship in the game whose name contains an accented character which is ö.
Njörun used to be one of the biggest meme ships in the game due to the initial version of Chrono Field , which was utterly useless.
- There were no ults when Chrono Field was first released so once Chrono Field faded, you would be immediately vulnerable to bullets and lasers.
- Since Chrono Field slows and stacks bullets inside it, there would be an impenetrable wall of bullets after Chrono Field expires.
- Combined with a useless Personal Shield that also had no laser reflection, it is of no wonder Njörun was seen as useless in the past.
Njörun, especially in its base form, strongly resembles a backwards-flying TIE Striker.
As quoted: "Ever hear of a game called Dark Souls? This ship enables the hidden mode called Phoenix 2: Prepare to Die Edition. Njörun literally has nothing going for it with it's weak, slow firing, short burst main weapon. Additionally it has the two worst abilities to combo together. I don't know what happened here, Njörun is so bad that it's not even fun to use it as a joke. I'm afraid that now that I have said all of this, Njörun will somehow be good one day and be the kid in the class I shouldn't have made fun of after it takes over leaderboards and will haunt me in my dreams forever."
- This guy continued playing after the update that introduced ults , and recognized how powerful Njörun had become.
- But it was a fair statement for Njörun before the update that introduced ults , which made Chrono Field very powerful from being useless in the past.
Njörun is the only Shield Breaker ship with blast damage , until v5.2.
Before the v4.0 update which introduced Apex forms, the Gamma Apex of Njörun was teased on the Phoenix 2 Reddit:

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Apexes

Lambda (Chrono Deep Field) - ¢30.000

Value: B-
Cost vs Utility: B

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

(+) Encourages an interesting, charge forward gameplay where you would take the risk to deploy Chrono Field at the end of the dash up movement, with the dash up performed at the start of most waves.
(+) Helps in Roc battles where the bullet density becomes more manageable during the first Chrono Field which can cover at least 2 difficult-to-reach turrets.
(-) The playstyle is kind of weird against Rocs , since to take full advantage of this apex's ability, you have to be very near or on top of the Roc itself.
- This can potentially eat up too many particles as the battle with the Roc progresses.

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

Fun Factor: B [No change]

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Gamma (PS Super Reflect) - ¢15.000

Value: S
Cost vs Utility: X

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

(+) Very easy to land Super Reflects due to protection from lasers by Chrono Field as well.
- This means it doesn't matter even if you deploy Personal Shield late.
- Significant margin of error when dealing with the Super Reflect timing.
- A slightly late Personal Shield can still land Super Reflect properly, unlike other apexes where a slightly late Personal Shield means you get diced by lasers .
(+) Because Super Reflect is so powerful, it doesn't even matter even if you deploy a full size Chrono Field and deploy Personal Shield on top of Chrono Field to Super Reflect.
(+) Makes difficult Condors or Rocs with deadly T4 tracking lasers trivial.
- Also makes large Invaders with limited tracking lasers but lots of other bullet turrets much easier to deal with.
(+) Chrono Field covers for Personal Shield if Super Reflect wiped out the previous wave too quickly.
- If you managed to survive one round of lasers in the next wave using Chrono Field (which is very easy), Personal Shield can be used again if it is a heavier wave.
- Of course, it's easier to skip using Personal Shield for the next wave since the following wave will probably arrive after a few more bursts of the Wave Cannon,
  - This is just to be safe as you would want to reserve Super Reflect for the first round of lasers .

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

(+) Very powerful against waves with any amount of lasers .
(+) Any laser heavy wave is bound to be vaporized, especially if the lasers are coming from upfield.
- Be always alert however, since the super reflected laser may go back to the laser turret and eliminate the source of the super reflected laser.
(+) It can even be beneficial to 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 a lot of skill to know when to charge a Personal Shield Super Reflect that is not completely cooled down.
- As mentioned, the margin of error is much higher compared to other Super Reflect apexes.

Fun Factor: A- [++]

(+) The most useful apex to learn the timing of Super Reflect.
- Chrono Field allows a huge margin of error when deploying Personal Shield for laser reflection .
- You can deploy late and still won't die because of Chrono Field .
(+) Very easy to learn how to land Super Reflect for different charging times of Personal Shield (if Personal Shield has not completely cooled down).
(+) Crushes Condors and Rocs .
- Rocs can even go down with one Super Reflect.
- Otherwise, it will require just a bit of the Wave Cannons to take it down.
(+) Similarly, against normal waves, even against Eagles and other smaller Invaders, Super Reflect destroying everything is just so satisfying.

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Boxer

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

Main Weapon: Flash Cutter

Average DPS = 31.25
Capacity = 100ms
Weapon Class = Uninterruptible Burst
Rate of Fire = Fast
Reload Time = Slow
1 middle very short burst forward firing laser followed very quickly by 2 very short burst side-by-side forward firing lasers

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

(-) Despite the very short burst with long recharge intervals, the Flash Cutter feels quite weak.
- Without critical hits, you can't take down 2 Unprotected Ravens .
- With critical hits, you can take down 2 Unprotected Ravens .
- Because it's difficult to predict the burst of Flash Cutter, it becomes difficult to take down Ravens with it.
(+) Thankfully, for Invaders larger than a Raven , the Flash Cutter works quite well.
(+) Both Phalanx and Reflex EMP work reasonably well for defence.
(+) Phalanx is used for navigation around the field to take down Invaders with the Flash Cutter.
- It is also the primary form of bullet clearance.
Destroy Invaders column by column before moving to the next one.
When you need to move to the next column, use a diagonal shovel.
(+) Phalanx and Reflex EMP can be used in conjunction to clear a lot of bullets.
- Shovel forward to the center of the field and charge Reflex EMP .
- This technique can be used about once every 3 shovels, assuming you don't shovel consecutively.
- Try not to use Reflex EMP downfield, unless you are really out of Phalanxes , since Reflex EMP won't be able to clear an optimum amount of bullets.
- This skill is particular useful in Shuriken/MIRV missions, where bullets are everywhere and plentiful.
- The resulting Reflex EMP will not only clear a large portion of the field, but can catch a few Invaders to deal damage to them.
(+) In Boomerang heavy missions, shoveling forward can allow you to dodge boomerangs completely.
(-) Weak at turret popping.
- Two bursts of the Flash Cutter are required to pop off turrets on a Vulture . This takes too long.
- A critical hit allows one burst of the Flash Cutter to take out a Vulture's turret. Since critical hits are random, since critical hits are random.
- A critical hit allows one burst of the Flash Cutter to take out any turret on Unprotected Invaders, including on Rocs .

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

(-) Flash Cutter has an very short burst, is forward firing and has a pretty long recharge interval.
- This means that it is difficult to hit Invaders. Especially if bullets are everywhere.
- This is difficult for the mission type which Boxer is viable in, which are Shuriken/MIRV missions with bullets everywhere.
(-) It can be difficult to move to the other side of the field after clearing Invaders on one side of the field because the other side still has so many MIRVs .
- Keep shoveling with Phalanx to try to clean the field of MIRVs where possible.
(-) Very painful to hunt down Sparrows with the Flash Cutter.
- The Flash Cutter fires in sort of 2 short bursts.
- It is possible to hit multiple Sparrows horizontally nearby, about half of Boxer's width.
(+) Phalanx and Reflex EMP work well together to deal good AoE damage .
- Use Phalanx to shovel upwards at the start of the wave.
- As you shovel upwards, throw yourself upwards, and release touch earlier to let the momentum bring you to the mid-field.
- Reflex EMP will start charging as you shovel upwards.
- The Reflex EMP is able to delete many bullets, yet deals AoE damage to all Invaders on field.
(-) Unfortunately, Reflex EMP has only 20 AoE damage , which makes it insufficient to deal against Ravens .
- Thankfully, Sparrows still get eliminated.
- 3 Ravens weakened by Reflex EMP can get taken out with any burst of the Flash Cutter.
  - This can be useful in waves with columns of 3 Ravens.
A critical hit takes out 2 Unprotected Ravens at full health, or one Unprotected Heron at full health.

Fun Factor: A-

(+) Very satisfying bullet clear with Boxer's great synergy between Phalanx and Reflex EMP .
(-) Very difficult to handle Flash Cutter.
- Chasing down BOTH Ravens and Sparrows are a nightmare.
(-) Forward placement of ship core, making it quite difficult to notice and pilot.
(-) The Flash Cutter feels weak even though it feels like it should be powerful due to how infrequent the burst is.
(=) Average Flash Cutter impact sounds.

Trivia

The base form and apexes of Boxer were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
Boxer was only introduced into Phoenix 2 at v2.2.
Boxer is the only ship where only its Beta Apex has a reduced degree of banking / tilt while moving around compared to most other ships/apexes. The base form of Boxer as well as its Alpha Apex has a normal degree of banking while moving around.
Boxer is amongst the cheapest ships to fully upgrade (to 6-6-6) and get both its apexes, coming in at only ¢24.800 (¢500 for buying Boxer, ¢9.300 for fully upgrading, ¢5.000 for the Alpha Apex & ¢10.000 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 (Main Weapon Smart Fire) - ¢10.000

Value: A
Cost vs Utility: A

This apex which makes the 3 Flash Cutters completely independent of each other, each only firing when there is a target directly in front of it. Essentially, this turns Flash Cutter into a Cone Triggered - Independent Type. There are no visual changes to Flash Cutter.

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

(+) Eliminates Ravens and Sparrows faster.
- Helps especially in Shuriken/MIRV missions where Ravens can pump a lot of MIRVs on field quickly.
(-) Harder to pop turrets off since it's quite unpredictable when each of the 3 Flash Cutter beams would go off.
- Sitting underneath a turret or Invader, hoping that something will fire is impractical.

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

(+) Significantly much less leakage of Flash Cutter damage.
(+) Eliminates Sparrows significantly faster as only one of the Flash Cutter beams hit a Sparrow or 2, so one burst of the Flash Cutter can now always kill at least 3 Sparrows.
(-) Much more difficult to know when each of the 3 Flash Cutter beams are going to fire.
- To alleviate this, simply just keep shaking rapidly from side-to-side.
- Ensure that in this oscillating movement, all 3 of the Flash Cutter beams have a chance to be in front of your targeted Invader.
- Because of how quick each Flash Cutter beam hits, you don’t need to worry about your oscillating movements missing your target, just worry about what to target.
This makes using Phalanx as a navigation tool even more important.

Fun Factor: A [+]

(+) Much less frustrating to deal with Ravens and Sparrows .
(+) A new playstyle for Boxer which involves a lot of shaking around. Shake off those worries about the Flash Cutter not hitting!

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Alpha (Double Phalanx ) - ¢5.000

Value: B+
Cost vs Utility: A

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

(+) Boosts Phalanx's shoveling capability, especially in Shuriken/MIRV missions.
(+) Helps in faster bullet hells in absorbing a bit more darts.

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

Fun Factor: A- [No change]

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Sonah

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

Ship Class: Balanced
+

Main Weapon: Firestorm

Average DPS = 25
Homing = Good
Target Tracking = Limited
Weapon Class = Interruptible Burst
- (Cone Triggered - Synchronous)
Rate of Fire = Very Fast
Projectile Speed = Fast
Reload Time = Slow
64 slightly homing missiles fired from both missile pods over 2s, with the missile pods constantly tracking onto a target

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

(-) Sonah's Firestorm works pretty strangely.
- There are times it would still fire after all Invaders in the wave are gone, even between Act transitions.
- It appears that shortly after a full burst of Firestorm is fired, Sonah missile pods would search for the next target to turn towards. This readies the next burst of Firestorm to be fired.
- Once this lock-on is achieved, the next burst of Firestorm is fired after a recharge period.
- It's not really known how long it takes for Sonah to lock before the next burst of Firestorm fires.
- If all Invaders of the current wave are destroyed early into the current burst of Firestorm, the next burst of Firestorm does not go off until the next wave of Invaders have fully arrived.
(-) The inaccurate homing capability of the Firestorm means that projectiles can miss, leading to lost DPS.
- To prevent this, start from the left side and then work your way towards the right side (or vice versa).
  - This allows most of Firestorm projectiles to hit correctly.
- However, this means dealing with more turrets firing at you since switching sides may make the Firestorm projectiles go haywire.
(+) As a ship with no need to really aim properly, you can give quite a lot of focus on dodging.
(-) Stupid targeting system.
- The missile pods lock on to a turret mount point of an Invader and keeps targeting it until the Invader is gone, or the target is out of the targeting cone range.
- This means Sonah can get annoying when the turret you want is taken out and need to swap target.
- To resolve this issue, you need to manually shift yourself a lot to the next turret you want to eliminate.
- This issue is especially relevant for Vultures and above.
- This makes turret popping very difficult.
(+) Luckily, for Condors and Rocs , this targeting nature is alleviated by Ion Cannon , since stunning Condors and Rocs with 2 Ion Cannons allow you freedom to move around easily.
- However, for Condors with Eagles in front, this becomes a problem due to Sonah's weak Firestorm, Ion Cannon and Reflex EMP .
For waves with very few Ravens , reserve Reflex EMP for defence instead.
(+) Ion Cannon allows Sonah to deal with troublesome large Invaders that have dangerous turrets.
(-) All of Reflex EMP , Ion Cannon and Firestorm aren't very strong against dense waves.
(-) Thus, difficult to reach larger Invaders behind downfield smaller Invaders.
Try to throw a few Ion Cannons at one side of the field.
- Then go above them to stun the larger Invaders behind.
Then use Reflex EMP in the middle of the field to get rid of bullets fired by the other side of Invaders, where necessary.
Make sure you go into heavy waves with at least 4 Ion Cannons .
- Stun all Eagles , or one side of Herons .
- You will need to stun them again so make sure you have enough Ion Cannons and particles to work with.

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

A burst of Firestorm fires for 1.6s with a reload time of 1.6s, which implies a burst damage of 80.
(-) Because Sonah's Firestorm fires so quickly, sometimes even before the next wave has arrived, it may not always be a good idea to use Reflex EMP .
- If the wave is primarily Sparrows with only 3 or less Ravens , let Firestorm finish off the wave.
- Any more than that is a good opportunity to use Reflex EMP .
- When using Reflex EMP , swipe up to the mid-field quickly as you want to try and delay the Firestorm projectiles to maximize AoE damage from Reflex EMP.
- It's just an awkward way of using Reflex EMP .
  - All of Firestorm, Ion Cannon and Reflex EMP compete with each other for damage. (Even though one is an AoE damage and one is single target damage.)
If it's a dense wave, you can pre-fire Ion Cannons so that they hit the Invaders upfield.
- Then go in there and charge Reflex EMP .
Fake charge Reflex EMP as much as possible to try and prevent Firestorm from going off.
- Be careful not to let Reflex EMP charge finish because it charges quickly.
To prevent damage means from competing with each other, charge Reflex EMP first.
- Then, quickly go around and fire Ion Cannons right in the face of all Invaders.
- This will cause some missiles from Firestorm to miss, but this is unavoidable in speedrunning.

Fun Factor: A+

(+) Very fun Firestorm weapon.
- Watching the hundreds of missiles (ok, that's an exaggeration) onto the screen and watch them fly around in crazy ways is a visual spectacle to behold.
(+) The constant rattling sound of the Firestorm missiles is very satisfying. It's like a Gatling gun.
(+) A visual spectacle even if some Firestorm missiles become pretty stupid and circle around their missed target.
(+) Unique ship visuals, as the missile pods will physically turn towards their intended target.
(-) Of course, this imperfect target tracking is also a point of frustration.
(-) Very stupid target tracking system of Firestorm to target turret mount points even after the turret is destroyed.
- Also very difficult to have the Firestorm to switch targets.
(-) Slightly forward placement of ship core.

Trivia

The base form and apexes of Sonah were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
Sonah was only introduced into Phoenix 2 at v2.2.
Sonah is VERY SLIGHTLY asymmetrical. If you zoom in to the two vertical gold lines below Sonah's core, you can see a stain mark on Sonah which is asymmetrical.
While all ships bank / tilt to one side when moving, Sonah has a reduced degree of banking compared to most other ships.
Sonah is one of the unique ship in terms of visual aesthetics where its 2 missile pods actually turn towards their target and fire.
Sonah is one of the only ships whose main weapon's name is only one word, where most main weapon names are two words.
At max level, Sonah fires 64 missiles per burst, 32 on each side.
Unfortunately, the turning of the missile pods was a design flaw that initially caused the Alpha Apex of Sonah to malfunction, not targeting active turrets correctly.
- With regret, the devs had to fix the missile pods in place for the Alpha Apex so that it could work correctly in v4.2.
- The devs have commented that they loved this particular character of Sonah that allows its missile pods to turn in order to target turrets.

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Apexes

Alpha (Main Weapon Firestorm Spec B) - ¢5.000

Value: A+
Cost vs Utility: X

This apex makes Firestorm target active turrets only. Once a turret is destroyed, the Firestorm projectiles go for the next active turret. This apex also removes target tracking for Sonah, so the next burst of Firestorm always fire immediately after the reload time. This is unlike the base form, where Sonah may wait for the next wave of Invaders to fully arrive first before the next burst goes off. There is no difference in the appearance of the Firestorm missiles, although the projectiles' paths are no longer sinusoidal.

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

(+) Significantly improves survivability because much more turrets get eliminated.
- Elimination of turrets from the upgraded Firestorm Spec B is powerful enough to strip a Vulture of all its turrets before it dies.
(+) No more manual re-targeting of turrets yourself, which used to incur lot of risk since you needed to shift yourself significantly.

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

(+) Firestorm Spec B tends to spread out the projectiles rather than concentrating them towards one direction.
- This spreads out the damage, allowing Reflex EMP to deal more effective AoE damage , rather than overkilling a few Invaders.
(-) More difficult to control when the next burst of Firestorm goes off since it will always fire after the reload time.
- However, this can be mitigated by fake charging Reflex EMP .

Fun Factor: S- [++]

(+) No more frustration from the Firestorm projectiles stupidly hitting a turret mount point after the turret is destroyed.
(+) Hilarious to see turretless Vultures , Condors and Rocs floating about helplessly.
(-) The missile pods no longer physically turn, which loses some of Sonah's unique character as a ship.

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Gamma (IC Blast Amplifier) - ¢15.000

Value: A-
Cost vs Utility: A

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

(+) Takes out Ravens faster.

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

(+) Throwing Ion Cannons on crowds of Ravens takes them out more quickly.
- Takes 1-2 Ion Cannons to take out Raven crowds instead of much more than that (due to armor damage reduction).
- This depends on how many Firestorm projectiles hit the Ravens after Reflex EMP .
(+) A bit faster against larger Invaders such as Herons and Eagles too.

Fun Factor: A+ [No significant change]

(+) More responsive damage from Ion Cannon .

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Ship Details (Part 6)

Phoenix II —FAQ (IOS)

FAQ (IOS) by light_rock_zz

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