Ship Details (Part 6)

Ship Details (Part 6)

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 VL and REMP clears bullets.
  • Of course, REMP does the job better, but VL can be used for last minute desperate means to escape if REMP has not cooled down.
  • Use VL to cut a hole forward with Vorpal Wake and ride up the VL.
• (+) For the purpose of survivability, it's best to use REMP defensively.
• (-) Notoriously difficult to handle Nova Blaster. The inward angle of the Nova Blaster makes projectiles come out from alternating angles 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 and some points.
• (+) Despite such an unwieldy Nova Blaster, it's actually quite good at turret popping on a Vulture. So long you stand close enough to the Vulture (about 3-4 times the height of Saber), you can focus fire down a turret quite easily by standing in front of it.
• (-) The interruptible burst nature of the Nova Blaster also makes Saber even more difficult to handle, since REMP is a quick acting mechanism which is used at the moment rather than waiting.
  • This means the Nova Blaster often gets cut out when using REMP opportunistically.
  • After exiting REMP, the remaining burst can be very little, which is frustrating and difficult to use.
  • While this is frustrating, to control the Nova Blaster such that the burst finishes is difficult, and can only generally be done between Act transitions.
  • Thus, there's no need to mandate that the Nova Blaster finished one burst before charging REMP, at least for the purposes of survivability.
• (+) If not, you can always use VL to take out dangerous turrets as quickly as possible instead of using it on Ravens, which are less likely to have dangerous turrets.
• For waves with Eagles, throw your VLs 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 VLs will vaporize them immediately.
• (+) Lasers are not a big problem for Saber due to its VL which can rapidly take out at least half of the screen before Ravens can fire them. Always aim to take out Ravens immediately once they enter the screen to reduce the chance of them moving apart for a less ideal VL strike.

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

• (+) With double AoE damage, Saber wipes crowds very quickly.
• (+) Use REMP against Sparrows primarily.
• Generally, no point to use REMP against Ravens only.
  • There's no point to go behind a Vulture to use REMP against a bunch of Ravens hiding behind because VL is a more efficient solution to take care of them.
  • But if there are Sparrows behind, then it is still worthwhile.
• (+) Despite the Nova Blaster's annoying interruptible burst nature, this properly can actually be well exploited.
  • In waves where there is only one Raven and Sparrows, you can allow most of the burst to go off first.
  • Then go up close to the Raven, and launch REMP.
  • Allow the rest of the burst to go off.
  • This will kill the Raven quickly, while resetting the next burst of Nova Blaster for 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 REMP.
• Saber is one of the ships that absolutely requires prior planning for when to use VL or REMP for best optimization since VL and REMP are competing AoE damage means which must be carefully allocated.
• It is very tempting to use REMP as a wave opener as with many other ships with REMP. Unfortunately, it is not always optimal to do so. You must analyze if a wave actually requires REMP. If using REMP does not result in less amounts of Nova Blaster bursts being used, there is no point to use REMP.
  • As a guide, the Nova Blaster can take out 2 Ravens in one burst. Thus, in early waves with 2 or 4 Ravens, there is simply no point in using REMP. In contrast, if these Ravens are mixed with other invaders, it may be worthwhile to use REMP.
  • On the other hand, if there is an odd amount of Ravens on field, then it is worthwhile to use REMP as one REMP + one burst of Nova Blaster takes out 3 weakened Ravens.
  • For dense waves with a lot of Ravens, as a good guide, it's a good idea to use REMP against them. However, continue to use VL to take out as many of these Ravens as practically possible.
    • To do this, retreat so that the Nova Blaster can spread its projectiles among the weakened Ravens. Then use VL opportunistically.
• It is usually a good idea to just run through the mission with Saber, using REMP only as defence and positional tool to land your main properly. Note down which waves can be done faster with REMP.
• (+) With waves that have many Sparrows, REMP is worthwhile to use due to the fact that the Nova Blaster is hard to aim at Sparrows.
• (+) A good combination to use, especially in a heavy (and perhaps dense) wave is to use VL in the middle of the field, ride up with the VL, then immediately charge an REMP. This ensures you a very safe offensive REMP.
• Above all, just remember, REMP for Sparrows, VL for Ravens in speedrunning. 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, due to the fact VL can take out deadly MIRV turrets quickly, and REMP 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 not much of an issue here, it's more of the angle)
  • 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.
• Saber's main weapon used to be HI before it was changed to AP 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 VLs between wave transitions.

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

• (+) Catches more invaders in the range of REMP.
• (+) Increased maneuverability means easier to re-position yourself to land hits from the Nova Blaster or fire VLs.

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 VL charges for heavy waves that require a mass burst of VLs to get rid of them.
  • This can help against Eagle dense waves, where sometimes the Eagles will frustratingly separate from each other.

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

• (+) Can be useful for waves that are very dense, since the particles from these waves can be stored up for gradual use throughout later waves.
  • Applies more to 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 one stream of bullets will likely not hit the turret correctly due to the spread.
  • This is acceptable since one burst of the Tachyon Projector (after the shield goes down, obviously) takes down a turret on a Vulture.
• (+) Phalanx is a very important tool to enable Valkyrie to navigate the field effectively. Use diagonal shovels to move around effectively.
• (+) Always deploy Phalanx before you charge MB. To be safe, you can charge somewhere about 3/4 from the top 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 to exhaust a burst of Tachyon Projector before charging MB, and you should aim to do this all the time.
• (-) Phalanx is ineffective against lasers. Against lasers, you have to shovel diagonally to get away from lasers.

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

• (+) Phalanx allows to go up pretty close to the center of the field to pull off an MB.
  
  • A good technique is to shovel upwards to the spot you want to charge MB. If the Phalanx is not broken, try not to deploy another Phalanx as that will affect later waves a lot.
• (-) Dart spreads are also a huge problem because Phalanx does not cover you in all directions. In the presence of dart spreads, you may have to charge MB further down such that the dart spreads are above your Phalanx.
• (+) Landing MBc on Eagles and Herons is not difficult unless they contain dart spread turrets. Otherwise, it is safe to land an MBc on them.
• (+) Optimizing the Tachyon Projector is not too hard. With diagonal shoveling, you can re-position yourself easily.
• As a general guide, allow a burst of Tachyon Projectile to complete before starting to charge MB. Otherwise, it'll be very awkward transiting out of MB.
  • There are a few exceptions, which occurs in early Acts such as Act 2-3.
  • You can allow some of the burst of Tachyon Projector to be intentionally fired.
  • Then, charge MB for the transition to the next Act.
  • When MB goes off, use the rest of the Tachyon Projector burst to wipe out the heavily damaged Ravens.
  • Make sure you estimate well how much of a burst you need.
  • As a general guide, a full burst will be needed if there are 3 or more Ravens spread throughout the field.
  • If there's only one side of the field that is required to eliminate (which happens more frequently, especially when MBc can be landed on some invaders properly), then using half of the remaining burst is a good idea to wipe out the rest of the field in that wave.
  • This technique helps shave off around half a second or so.

Fun Factor: A

• (+) Impactful Tachyon Projector sounds.
• (+) Pretty easy to handle Tachyon Projector despite its interruptible burst nature
• (+) Easier MB setups compared to several ships, allowing you to pull off MB 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.
  • But be sure to replace your Phalanx before it breaks. 3 Phalanxes are sufficient to survive a heavy onslaught of lasers, 2 for less laser heavy scenarios.
• (+) Extremely effective against speed lasers since damage will be dealt back to invaders, yet you can survive against speed lasers very well with Phalanxes. Speed lasers don't do much damage compared to normal lasers.

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 to you for maximum damage, but don't count on them for damage.
  • Instead, gather all the tracking lasers onto you, and then slowly head upfield to try and catch as many laser streams from the 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 Phalanxes 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 MB means it's very hard to reach invaders upfield.
  • This is already a problem with Valkyrie since charging upfield can be difficult as 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 them all.
• (-) The right positioning at the dead center of the field should be still able to catch all Ravens on field. However, there could be RNG at play here and some Ravens that are usually frontline may escape.
• (-) The perfect positioning is needed since the blast 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 MBs from this apex since MB 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", where 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, you can simply stay downfield and simply spread your photons all around where possible (otherwise one part of the field is fine), and still have almost all of the photons hit something.
• (+) Excellent against larger invaders. The blast damage of the Photon Detonator is quite significant given how many photons are there per burst, which adds up. Especially on Condors and Rocs, which goes down a bit faster than other 31.25 DPS ships.
• (=) Deals quite well against dense waves as well, since the number of photons spread around allow most invaders of the wave to go down quite quickly.
• (-) The only problem is of course, during clean-up of the wave since it is hard to aim the Photon Detonator.
• (+) Since the Photon Detonator takes a while to move off after they are deployed, stay downfield and just pray for the best to let the Photon Detonators hit the last of invaders while you charge ML. If it fails to hit, just deploy a few more photons and try again.
• (+) PD can be used to cut across shuriken clouds and pellet lanes. They are also very useful against boomerangs.
• (+) Only a single ML for most waves is usually needed. On heavier waves, you can use 2 MLs.
• (-) Since PD doesn't shield you, make sure there is always enough time to charge ML for the next wave.
• (+) PD can be used at the end of a wave to set up for ML reliably.
• (-) No laser defence. Conserve PD to quickly cut across bullets and dodge lasers.
• (-) Weak at turret popping due to the difficult firing mechanism of Photon Detonator. The Vulture might drift a bit and the photons might not hit a turret properly.
• (-) The interruptible burst nature of the Photon Detonator make it very difficult to manage the burst. There are also so many photons per burst it is hard to determine how long more you need to allow the burst to complete.
  • Unfortunately, this is too hard to manage and it is easier to just not manage this.

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

• (+) The troublesome aiming of the Photon Detonator can be somewhat bypassed. If a photon is deployed on top of an invader, it explodes immediately.
  • PD can now be used as an offensive tool.
  • Go right up to the invaders, leaving a slight gap (taking into account where the photons actually spawn in front of Proteus) while spam tapping PD 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 because they are small enough to run away before the photons accelerate, yet being close to them is difficult.
• (+) Each photon of Proteus' Photon Detonator has a rather large AoE which allows Sparrows to be caught in the blast radius quite easily.
• (+) At the end of a wave, employ PD aggressively to destroy the last of invaders.
  • If it's against Ravens or Sparrows, deploy the photons such that they spawn right on top of them to kill them immediately.
  • If it's against Herons, you can still take a gamble to deploy it near to them and then quickly swipe back downfield to charge ML.
  • Any other invaders, just deploy the Photon Detonators downfield and charge ML.
• (-) This will make ML setups difficult for Ravens and Sparrows, and potentially Herons.
• (+) Very powerful against large invaders. The blast damage adds upon the impact damage of the photons, and blast damage from smaller invaders can also affect the large invader.
• (-) Difficult to manage the interruptible burst of Photon Detonator. Unless there are only 1-3 more photons 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 is the one of the only ships that features a hugely beneficial playstyle where PD can be used offensively.
• (-) Extremely difficult to handle Photon Detonator.
• (-) Sparrows are a nightmare to hunt down when you don't have enough particles to use PD aggressively.
• (-) The positioning of the photons when released is kind of hard to grasp, making catching Sparrows just as they spawn is difficult.
• (-) Slightly weird ship core positioning, being a bit more forward than usual.
  • Proteus is also blue which can sometimes make it hard to see the 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 Proteus' Photon Detonator is scaled according to rank. This means it now deals slightly more damage at higher ranks.

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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]

• (+) Only sometimes useful in Shuriken/MIRV missions where bullets are slow.
  • Needs a sufficiently large PD Aura.
  • Allows setups of MLs a bit more easy since some shurikens and pellets that may be headed straight for your ship's core can be eliminated before they kill you.
  • Less of a need to care about precise ML positioning to avoid stupid bullets from hitting you.
  • This is especially so due to the difficult paths of pellets released from MIRVs and shurikens.

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

Fun Factor: A- [No significant change]

• (+) Less frustration from dying from stupid bullets when charging ML.

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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 generally 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 them hit something.
• (+) Thus, early waves are a lot faster.
• (+) Ravens get caught by more blast damages and go down potentially more quickly too.
• (+) More blast damage overall, taking down invaders generally 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

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, Lasers Only, Laser/Pellet, Laser/Shuriken
Weak against: None

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.
  • CF slows down the bullets and stacks them up
  • Meanwhile, REMP clears the mess of stacked up bullets.
• (+) One of the the easiest ships to use in the game.
• (+) Deploy CF when you are unable to dodge
• (+) At the end of the CF, charge an REMP to clear all the bullets. Rinse and repeat, and WIN.
• (+) Aiming is automatic by the Zatha Probes. Just focus on survival.
• Be sure to maximize the REMP clearing capabilties.
  • This requires knowing when the CF is going to end and thus only charge REMP just before (give and take ~0.5s) it ends.
  • Mastery of this timing is key to the ultimate survivability in your hands.
  • Just be sure not to start charging too late, being early is better than late.
  • It doesn't take too long to grasp this timing, so just playing Yigothu for a while (less than a week or so) is more than enough.
• (+) Always be as central as possible when you release REMP. Because you would likely be backed into a corner when surviving, head to the upper edge of the CF (or wherever is closest to the middle of the field) when you use REMP, so that the bullet clearing capabilities are maximized.
  • You can still use REMP even in the smallest of CFs deployed, since REMP only takes 0.6s to charge. and Phase Out is already 0.5s of invincibility. This of course assumes that REMP is cooled down.
• (+) If you can't deploy REMP safely due to it not being sufficiently cooled down, simply just Chrono Hop away to the other side of the field, or just to somewhere safer, even if it's just outside the cluster mess of bullets.
• (+) Because CF's maximum duration is 5s, and REMP's cooldown time is 6.5s, you can usually consecutively pull off this combo if you gather enough particles during the CF time for another full CF. Generally speaking, unless you are faced with Condors or Rocs, you should always have enough particles.
• Try not to deploy consecutive full size CFs after each other.
  • Attempt to dodge a bit after the last CF ends.
  • Remember that when the CF ends, you have enough space to dodge for quite a while due to REMP.
  • If you are struggling to pull off an REMP, immediately Chrono Hop away from the cluster mess of bullets.
• Remember to kill invaders behind a Vulture first (deploy CF on top of a Vulture) so that you get the particles from the destroyed behind invaders to keep yourself safe.
• (+) Yigothu has a slight bit of burst damage that comes from the slow moving Zatha Probes that are already on screen in-between act or wave transitions. This helps out a little bit killing faster, although it's generally not very significant.
• (+) Although the Zatha Probes are bad at turret popping due to their random targeting nature (and slowly they move as well), you can drop CF on top of invader turrets and then just hover over the turret to pop them off.
  • This is a more offensive style that may not always work out very well, as an exit from being so far upfront may not be easy unless you have another CF on standby. But it is viable against very deadly turrets.
• (-) However, Yigothu will struggle at Rocs due to its lackluster damage (and REMP doesn't help obviously). With a Roc with only bullets it can survive with sufficient dodging and grazing to pull off small CFs.
  • But with a Roc that has 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 aimed directly at it.
  • 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.
• (+) REMP can be optimized to be set off many times due to how easy it is to charge REMP in the CF.
• REMP only if >4 Sparrows
• REMP only if >4 Ravens. But before you do that, deploy a CF in the middle of them, then run all over them to strip their shields before launching REMP.
• Deploy CF 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 REMP since while charging REMP, a few last Zatha Probes might hit the Ravens and strip their shield just in time for REMP to kill them (remember that Shielded Ravens, after losing their shield, have 18 HP).
• This involves sometimes jumping in and out of the CF, and this is where the Phase Out property of CF is so important.
  • Remember 0.5s is not a very long time, but enough for you to emit one Zatha Probe in the face of a Raven, making a possible difference between stripping their shield or not.
• You'll need to keep track of invaders on field and who has not been receiving damage for some time, as the Zatha Probes may have downed their shield, but remember that shielded invaders can regenerate their shield after 4s. Remember to cover all ground evenly by always moving around, except when you need to fire REMP.
  
  • In particular, Herons are unlikely to die after an REMP because they have more health, even after their shields may be downed. Take particular note of these pesky weakened invaders that can get away quite easily.
• On some heavier waves, such as 4 Eagles with other invaders as well, it is possible to pull off REMP twice.
  • If you need to pull off REMP twice, you can choose to only strip off 2 Eagles side by side first, then launch the 1st REMP.
  • Then head to the other 2 Eagles to strip off their shields, and launch the 2nd REMP.
• For the highest level of speedrunning, between Act transitions, remember how the first wave of the next Act is. Then go to the spots where larger invaders will appear (Eagles are priority, followed by Herons) in order 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 CF 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 are not able to have their shields downed, there'll be a lot of RNG involved as the further invaders are away from the center of the field, it may not be possible to reach them, or it'll take a longer time.

Fun Factor: A

• (+) A huge visual treat from the Zatha Probes that has many different colors to it.
• (+) A hugely defensive ship means that you can really admire the visual spectacle of colors by the Zatha Probes on screen.
• (+) Gameplay wise, launching many REMPs 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 REMPs very satisfying, just like an MB.
• (-) 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 fair bit of RNG due to invaders running 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 BoB back in the one and only extremely tough Daily Marshal S4 Mission #891. It had a very difficult Roc that had 4 pellet MIRV Bloomers, and 6 T4 tracking lasers that are 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), and 5-3 also had a very dense and heavy wave that was basically impossible with any IC 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 range by 25%, as well as making Reflex EMP into a manual trigger instead. It is similar to that of Mega Laser or Mega Bomb, which means it will only activate when you re-engage touch on screen, provided the time to charge REMP (including any 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 REMP at precisely the right time, which is after 0.5s when CF has expired.
  • This maximizes the bullet clearance capability of Yigothu.

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

• (+) The increased range of REMP allows Yigothu to reach the furthest invaders from the center of the screen, which can happen on quite a number of very dense waves.
• (=) Because of already how easy is it 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 REMP, since the audio and visual cue that REMP has finished charging can be very difficult to detect, especially when there are too many bullets in the CF and too much going on.
  • If REMP has not sufficiently cooled down, given the difficulty in catching the audio and visual cue, it can be very easy to unintentionally cancel REMP charging.
  • Holding on to a fully charged REMP also wastes DPS from Zatha Probes since they will 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 REMP is very difficult, and requires very close attention. Especially so when CF can stack up a lot of bullets.

_{Back to All Ships/Apexes}

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 CF 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 CF on top of the Roc to try your best to take out the difficult-to-reach turrets on the Roc.
• (+) Helps against dangerous turrets of Eagles, Vultures and Condors since you can take these turrets out before CF expires.
  • Not much point against turrets of smaller invaders since they will probably die by REMP anyway.

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

• (+) Can make speedrunning slightly easier since a bigger CF means potentially further reach of invaders, or better safety since it is less likely to exceed the Phase Out invincibility time.
• This is the more recommended apex is you are looking for speedrunning just for "safety" purposes, although you don't really need it.

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 main weapon.
  • The fact that it tracks very fast, and is a 31.25 DPS weapon, is just amazing.
  • This implies very little damage leaking when switching between targets.
• (-) Sometimes Torrent has other plans and aims at invaders that you don't want to aim at.
  • To alleviate this, 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 so for turrets you want to pop off.
  • Bear in mind you should only aim for turrets after all the Ravens and Herons are dead.
• Fire SEMP as soon as the wave arrives fully.
• Then quickly run around the field to take out Ravens as fast as possible. Then Herons, then Eagles, and so on. Just be careful not to crash into any turrets.
  
  • Go behind larger invaders if you have to, since they are useless when stunned.
• (+) As PS is less used for laser reflection damage compared to other PS ships (due to how SEMP can also be used to disable lasers), it can also be used against bullets to cut through some impossible wavefronts of bullets.
  • This is especially useful at the start of waves after using PS, as leftover bullets from a previous wave can sometimes get quite messy.

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

• It is best to start from one extreme side of the field.
  • Follow the Quantum Stream as it bends towards that side with invaders.
  • Ensure the beam is either firing forward or only slightly tilted towards the side with invaders.
• Watch out for crits. Crits will kill invaders faster, which is of particular mention when it comes to Ravens and Sparrows (in early Acts). You will need to follow the Quantum Stream more quickly.
• SEMP eliminates the need for the Quantum Stream to hunt down all the Sparrows. However, in Act 1, optimization of the Quantum Stream becomes key to wipe out all Sparrows in one burst.
• (=) Because SEMP will disable lasers as well, you have to choose carefully between using invader lasers as a counter offence, or using SEMP to disable all other turrets on field.
  • Generally, in denser waves, it is better to use SEMP instead of PS for laser reflection damage. By denser waves, having more than 4 Ravens on field is a good idea to use SEMP instead of PS.
  • After there are less than 4 Ravens on field, it becomes a good idea to start using PS to reflect lasers.

Fun Factor: S-

• (-) The Quantum Stream can get pretty annoying since it may not always target what you want to target.
• (+) Very strong and powerful Quantum Stream impact sounds.
• (+) SEMP for great AoE damage and laughing at invaders.
• (+) Very fun in laser heavy missions due to PS 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. Furthermore, 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 ship to fully ult 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 & ¢5,000 for the Beta Apex), assuming you buy everything with your own credits (including buying to unlock the ship itself).

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Apexes

Beta (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.
• (+) SEMP covers up when PS is recovering due to how quickly waves, or simply 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 SEMP 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.
  • Be always alert however, since sometimes the super reflected laser goes straight back to the turret and eliminates the source of the super reflected laser.
• (+) On some occasions, it can even be beneficial to instead stress charge Super Reflect such that it destroys heavier waves faster. This usually applies against waves with laser MIRVs as you can sit on top of a laser MIRV as it is triggered to Super Reflect all of its 5 or 9 lasers. This requires experimentation, and obviously, a lot of skill to know when to charge a PS Super Reflect that has not cooled down completely.

Fun Factor: 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 PS to reflect lasers.
  • Faster to fire SEMP after exiting PS. For missions with more bullets, it makes it 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.
  • DDMBs are also another problem.
  • This is a lazy strategy, and may not always work as you will eat particles very quickly, which may be essentially in later waves.
  • Try not to employ this strategy in later waves, as spinners and DDMBs become more common.
• (+) Under heavy MIRV fire, if backed up by shurikens, TP right into the shuriken clouds with the biggest MIRV cluster
  • Then use PD to clear out a bit more space around you, as well as to get rid of the other pellets released by the MIRVs that exploded around you.
  • Slowly back off to a corner and repeat the cycle.
• (+) Follow with the shuriken cloud into a corner.
  • When you are being cornered, TP to the opposite end of the field.
  • This will make the shuriken launchers confused.
  • Be careful of any DDMBs that might be affecting the other side.
• (+) In a Roc battle, camping at a top corner is very useful, if the Roc is not equipped with any spinners or DDMBs.
  • MIRV Bloomers are of no issue as PD takes care of them very quickly.
  • Just shift or TP over to the other top corner when the shuriken launchers slowly turn their way towards you.
• (+) In other missions, TP is your primary means of escape.
  • Retreat slowly and use PD to delay the time you get backed into a corner.
  • Don't fully deplete PD if possible.
  • Then, use TP to get you out of tight spots where you can no longer dodge. It needs some anticipation because you cannot TP instantly after you release your hold on the screen. Release as early as you feel threatened and are backed into a corner.
• Next step is to find a new spot to TP to. Look out for a spot with less bullets around.
  • Time slows when you are ready to TP so you have a tiny bit of time (which is why release early if possible when you see an impenetrable wall of bullets) to decide.
• Once you’ve decided the best spot to go to, TP there.
• (+) If it’s still pretty crowded, start using PD to clear some space to dodge.
  • Otherwise just dodge while you can.
  • Generally you would stay there for quite some time since it’s the least bullet heavy spot.
  • Over some time, the part of the field you are at will get crowded again, so repeat the cycle.
• (+) Remember that TP is quite abusable as it recharges very fast, so don’t be afraid to use it
  • Do not use 2 TPs right after each other. Let TP cool for a second or 2 before TP-ing again if needed.
• Be careful not to overspend PD
  • Use PD in taps so that you can dodge a bit before necessitating another tap to spend more PD.
• (-) 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 surviving.
• (+) A very useful technique is since Orion's ship core is above the location where all the Photon Scatter projectiles would spawn, it is possible to align a turret with the spawn point of all Photon Scatter projectiles such that the turret is immediately destroyed as the Photon Scatter are about to spawn.
  • This is particularly useful against DDMBs on Condors and Rocs.
  • It is also useful against situations where the Vulture is right in the middle of the field with DDMBs on both sides.

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

• (-) There's no way you are speedrunning with a perfect aiming main and completely defensive abilities.
• The only way to optimize it is to use TP to pace the Photon Scatter such that it fires just as the next wave starts to arrive.
• Each projectile of the 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 PD and TP when you are 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.
• Orion was only introduced into Phoenix 2 at v2.2.
• Orion's main weapon used to be HI before it was changed to AP 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 PD when a bullet comes near to you.
  • TP 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 PD 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]

_{Back to All Ships/Apexes}

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 angles of each of the Phase Prisms 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 at the back of Exarch, taking the downward vertical vector as 0°, the angles are: -22°, -17°, -11°, 11°, 17°, 22°.
  • No angular range of each its prisms, it only fires at that specific angle.
• (+) Very versatile FO ship. VL and ML allow Exarch to escape dangerous situations rather well.
• (+) Don't really need to aim with Exarch.
  • Thus, you can concentrate on dodging and looking out for good VL opportunities.
• (+) VL riding is a very important skill for Exarch, since it is an excellent last minute defence. Learn to use it well to escape a cluster of bullet mess headed your way. This solves many barricade issues and can cut through small shuriken clouds.
• In waves of later Acts, because a VL sweep is usually still viable after firing ML, there is no need to ride up the ML.
• On lighter waves, you can opt to just not use any VL and conserve ML as well.
• (-) Not able to pop off turrets with Phase Prisms.
• (+) Instead, for these waves, make sure to pull off an ML so that the shield can go down quickly. Then use VL to take out dangerous turrets quickly.
• (+) An ML and 2 VLs almost instantly vaporizes a Vulture if the full damage of ML is inflicted on the Vulture. Use this combo as much as possible.
  • If you need to take out the Vulture even more quickly before dangerous turrets go into action, add in a 3rd VL for an instant kill.
  • In some cases, if the Vulture is deadly but the invaders downfield are not able to reach you by being behind them, it is worthwhile to charge ML behind these invaders so that the dangerous Vulture can go down before its dangerous turrets can go into action.
• (-) Exarch will struggle with big invaders such as Condors and Rocs due to its inability to pop turrets off. Be sure to prepare at least 2 VLs for such battles.
  • After the shield goes down, immediately get to work by popping 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.
  • VL 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 while completely dodging most of the forward firing turrets and being all the way at the top of the field.
  • This allows it to be viable for even laser heavy missions.
  • However, a VL 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 lasers are actively firing, This also means that the 6 back lasers are not counted into the DPS.
  • Each laser has the same DPS (verified by the devs), thus if all 18 lasers can be active at the same time, Exarch can achieve an insane DPS of 51.5625.
  • Of course, this is a very unlikely case since it is difficult to utilize all of the back lasers frequently.
• (+) The fact that the Phase Prisms can also fire backwards is a very important aspect in speedrunning.
  • Particularly, in early waves, smaller invaders like Ravens and Sparrows can be finished off using the Phase Prisms that fire backwards.
  • Thus, try to be in the midfield after the initial part of a wave to end off the wave.
  • Of course, VL 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, discounting Jeria and outcasting Proxymar. With its perfect balance of crowd clearing VL and single target damage dealing ML, it is incredibly versatile in dealing against dense waves that come by, yet the high DPS of Phase Prisms coupled with ML 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 laser prisms 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 type.
    • If it's Sparrows, just shake a little on one side to activate as many Phase Prisms 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 your best to cross from the left side to the right side of the Heron (or vice versa).
    • If it's 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 VL can be pre-fired milliseconds before the wave fully arrives such that the Ravens immediately be destroyed. Quick VL sweeps are also what makes Exarch pros so fast.
• (+) 3 VLs vaporize an Eagle. Wait for at least 2 Eagles to align together and then quickly throw 3 VLs to vaporize them. If the Eagles separate, consider throwing one VL at each of them to catch another invader like a Raven or Heron behind it.
  • When the Eagles converge again, throw another VL to finish them off.
• Try to strip a Heron of its shield before firing at it so it will go down instantly.
• Consider charging ML right in front of an upfield Vulture where possible, if it is possible to retreat back down.
  • You can then head back downfield, fire 2 VLs to sweep some invaders and down the Vulture instantly, instead of wasting ML on some smaller invaders.
  • Don't do this if there are too many Ravens downfield (a good guide is 4 Ravens or below is fine to shove ML 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 ML at the start of the wave in the presence of a Vulture. Eliminate as many of the downfield invaders first, then once the Vulture's shield is just downed, or is very close to being downed, you can charge an ML mid-wave to kill it instantly, or near instantly.
  • This has the advantage of taking advantage of the SB nature of the Phase Prisms.
• (-) VL RNG can get very real with Exarch.
• (-) Not to mention, because of how Exarch's Phase Prisms work, there is also quite a lot of RNG around 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 prisms firing as well.
• Rarely, the remaining Ravens and Sparrows in front of a Vulture, after firing an ML, are not able to fire behind themselves.
  • In this case, you can wretch yourself in between the Ravens and the Vulture. This allows you to utilize the Phase Prisms that fire backwards on Exarch to take down the Ravens simultaneously and save on VLs.
  • 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+

• (+) Very satisfying Phase Prisms impact sounds. Loud but satisfying.
• (+) Very appealing Phase Prisms visuals as well. It's a literal laser light show where lasers are fired in apparent random sequence.
  • When the lasers are desynchronized, it actually 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 built into Exarch, 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 an ML and 2 (or 3 for instant) VLs is incredibly satisfying.
• (+) VL by itself is already incredibly satisfying, and given how quickly you generally progress through the waves, VL influx is pretty fast.
• (-) Lots of RNG associated with this ship when speedrunning with it, since all of Phase Prisms, VL and ML involve a fair bit of RNG. Esepcially, VL.
• (-) 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 that one of its Phase Prisms (the 2nd from the bottom on the upper right side) also has some slight wear.
• It is the only near 360° main weapon coverage ship that does not have a homing main weapon. A lot of players are unaware of the fact that Exarch has lasers equipped at the back of the ship.
• Exarch has probably the loudest main weapon, particularly when nearly all of its front lasers are fired at the same time.
• The capacity of the Phase Prisms 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 such as those with many Eagles for high burst damage before the dangerous turrets from them can go off.
• (+) Particularly, quite useful on Condors and Rocs since a few VLs can be used on them to down their shields faster so that 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 gives each of the Phase Prisms a small angular range of ±2° instead of simply being fixed at their original angle.

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 Sparrows, given their small size, can slip between Phase Prisms. Easier to kill Sparrows in particular.
• (+) Allows more action from the cornermost Phase Prisms, since their angle is quite wide which makes it difficult for it 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

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

Ship Class: 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

• (+) CF and PS are very capable of covering the different types of threats, from bullets to lasers.
  • Minor overlap between CF and PS.
  • Thus, Njörun is extremely capable of surviving anything that is thrown at it with ease.
• (+) CF is the primary form of defence. When threatened, CF is the first response to deploy.
• (+) Njörun relies quite a lot on Chrono Hopping, essentially constantly using CF's Phase Out time to put yourself into a safer spot.
  • If it is not possible to find a safe spot to Chrono Hop to, literally flick yourself away from the fading CF. 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 PS while the ship is still moving, clearing out a bit more bullets than normally possible with PS.
  • Hide in PS as long as you need (be careful not to stay too long until PS expires).
• (-) PS is not as reliable in clearing out bullets, thus, it is better to use even the smallest CF to Chrono Hop to a safer spot rather than using PS against bullets.
  • This is unless the whole field is too filled with bullets, then the above technique of using PS Phase Out to clear out some bullets could be viable.
• (+) The short Phase Out time of PS is key for Njörun since using PS in bullet dense missions is one of the key success factors of Njörun. Learn to utilize it to clear a small region of bullets.
• (+) The DPS of the Wave Cannons is usually sufficient to sustain a small size of CF.
  • Try to swap between destroying smaller invaders to get back some DPS and damaging large invaders so you can get a constant influx of particles for CF.
  • It's usually not a huge problem if you eliminate from front to back.
• (-) With Njörun, you have to learn a fair bit of dodging in order to continuously be able to use Chrono Hopping, as although Chrono Hopping indefinitely is possible, it is very hard.
• (+) Excellent laser defence since PS deals well against them.
  • However, don't always use PS to deal against lasers, remember that CF is enough to negate lasers as well.
  • You can even use CF to Chrono Hop away from lasers if the CF deployed is too small.
  • Don't rely on CF's Phase Out to negate lasers.
  • This is the whole reason why CF and PS work so well together hand-in-hand. CF is better at handling bullets, while PS is better at handling lasers. However, they can cover the function of each other reasonably well too.
• It is ok to use PS inside of CF especially when reflecting lasers.
• (+) Against Rocs and Condors, if a small bit of grazing can be done, 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. Having said that, it takes 2 bursts of the Wave Cannon to do that after the shield is downed.
• (+) Pretty easy to handle Wave Cannon, quite straightforward and the travel speed is acceptable.
  • The only problem is the middle projectile, in which there just isn't a point to bother trying to land it.
• (=) While the interruptible burst nature of the Wave Cannons is a bit annoying, with CF, it is easy to allow one full burst of the Wave Cannons to complete. PS also charges very quickly so it's easy to exhaust one entire burst of Wave Cannons before charging PS.
  • If you need to exhaust one full burst of Wave Cannons and the lasers are already going to fire, it's perfectly fine to deploy a CF, even if it's a big one to delay reflecting lasers.
  • Of course, the converse is also true, it is fine to simply interrupt the Wave Cannons to just laser reflect without a CF.
  • There are pros and cons to each approach, and both approach will still make you survive very well.

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

• (-) Unfortunately, one full burst of the Wave Cannons is just short of killing a Shielded Heron.
• CF is used as a positional tool to optimize the Wave Cannon to land as many of its projectiles on all the invaders. This will involve lots of tiny CF deployments and Chrono Hopping.
• Knowing how to spread your projectiles of the Wave Cannon among the invaders in early Acts is key to speedrunning.
  • It requires 2 projectiles of the Wave Cannon to kill a Sparrow. Bear that in mind when spreading your projectiles.
• The blast damage of Njörun from its one and only middle wave projectile in its burst is negligible and 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 PS to reflect lasers if there are more than like, 6 lasers that can be caught by PS. Otherwise, it's simply better to use the Wave Cannons to go faster.

Fun Factor: B

• (+) PS 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, quite straightforward and the travel speed is acceptable.
  • The only problem is the middle projectile, in which there just isn't a point to bother trying to land it.
• (-) Slightly forward ship core reactor position, but because it's in the center of its 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 CF and the quick charging of PS.

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 CF, which was utterly useless. There were no ults when CF was first released so once the CF faded, you would be immediately vulnerable to bullets and lasers. This means that since Chrono slows and stacks bullets upon you, what you have after Chrono expires is an impenetrable wall of bullets. Combined with a useless PS that also had no ult of 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."
  • Well, this guy continued playing after the ult update, and recognized how powerful Njörun had become.
  • But it was a fair statement for Njörun before the ult update, which made CF very powerful from being useless in the past.
• Njörun is the only SB 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 CF 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 CF 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]

• (+) Extremely easy to land Super Reflects on this apex since you are protected from lasers by CF too. This means it doesn't matter even if you deploy PS late.
  • Significant margin of error when dealing with the Super Reflect timing, since a slightly late PS can still land Super Reflect properly, unlike other apexes where a slightly late PS means you get diced by lasers.
• (+) Because Super Reflect is so powerful, it doesn't even matter even if you deploy a full size CF and deploy PS on top of CF to Super Reflect anyway.
• (+) 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.
• (+) CF covers for PS if Super Reflect has wiped out the previous wave too quickly. If you managed to survive one round of lasers in the next wave using CF (which is very easy), PS can be used again if the wave is a heavier wave.
  • Of course, it's easier to just skip using PS for the next wave since the following wave will most likely arrive after a few more bursts of the Wave Cannon, just to be safe as you would want to try and reserve Super Reflect for the first round of lasers rather than the second round of lasers.

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

• (+) Very powerful apex against all kinds of 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 sometimes the super reflected laser goes straight back to the turret and eliminates the source of the super reflected laser.
• (+) On some occasions, it can even be beneficial to instead stress charge Super Reflect such that it destroys heavier waves faster. This usually applies against waves with laser MIRVs as you can sit on top of a laser MIRV as it is triggered to Super Reflect all of its 5 or 9 lasers. This requires experimentation, and obviously, a lot of skill to know when to charge a PS Super Reflect that has not cooled down completely.
  • 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. CF allows a huge margin of error when deploying PS for laser reflect.
  • You can deploy late and still won't die because of CF.
• (+) Very easy to learn how to land Super Reflect for different charging times of PS. In other words, if PS is not fully cooled down.
• (+) Crushes Condors and Rocs. Rocs can go down with one Super Reflect, or may require just a bit more effort to take it down.
• (+) 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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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 extremely short burst with long recharge intervals, the Flash Cutter feels quite weak.
  • Without crits, you can't even take down 2 Unprotected Ravens.
  • With crits, you can then 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 REMP work reasonably well for defence.
• (+) Phalanx is used for Boxer's navigation around the field in order to strike down invaders with the Flash Cutter, and is 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 REMP can be used in conjunction to clear a lot of bullets.
  • Simply shovel forward to the center of the field, then release to charge REMP.
  • This technique can be used approximately once every 3 shovels, assuming you don't shovel after shovel immediately.
  • Try not to use REMP downfield, unless you are really out of Phalanxes, since REMP 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 REMP 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 crit allows one burst of the Flash Cutter to take out a Vulture's turret, but this is not reliable since crits are random.
  • A crit 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

• (-) Boxer's Flash Cutter has an extremely 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 very difficult for the mission type which Boxer is viable in, which are MIRV heavy missions that features bullets everywhere.
• (-) There are times when it is too difficult to move to the other side of the field when you are done with clearing invaders on one side of the field because the other side continues to pump in MIRVs.
  • The best way to alleviate this is to use Phalanx to try and always clean the field of MIRVs where possible.
  • In other words, constantly keep shoveling.
• (-) Very painful to hunt down Sparrows with Boxer due to how the Flash Cutter works.
  • The Flash Cutter fires in sort of 2 short bursts.
  • With this fact, it is possible to hit multiple Sparrows that are nearby horizontally, about half of Boxer's width.
• (+) Phalanx and REMP work well hand in hand to deal great AoE damage.
  • Use Phalanx to shovel upwards at the start of the wave.
  • As you shovel upwards, throw yourself upwards, so release touch earlier and let the momentum bring you to the mid-field.
  • REMP should have started charging even as you are moving upwards.
  • The REMP is able to delete many bullets, yet deals AoE damage to all invaders on field.
• (-) Unfortunately, REMP has only 20 AoE damage, which makes it insufficient to deal against Ravens.
  • Thankfully, Sparrows still get eliminated.
  • 3 Ravens weakened by REMP can get taken out with any burst of the Flash Cutter. This can be useful in waves with columns of 3 Ravens.
• A crit means you can take out 2 Unprotected Ravens at full health, or one Unprotected Heron at full health. Take note of this.

Fun Factor: A-

• (+) Extremely satisfying bullet clear with Boxer's great synergy between Phalanx and REMP.
• (-) Extremely 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 given 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 amongst the cheapest ship to fully ult 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 & ¢5,000 for the Beta Apex), assuming you buy everything with your own credits (including buying to unlock the ship itself).

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Apexes

Beta (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 of them only firing when there is a target point in front of it. Essentially, this turns its main weapon 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 target 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 you want 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 where it would still fire even after all the invaders in the wave are already gone, even between Act transitions.
  • It appears that shortly after the full burst of Firestorm is fired, Sonah would search for the next target for the missile pods to turn towards, and thus, prime the next burst of Firestorm to be fired.
  • Once this lock-on is achieved, the next burst of Firestorm is then fired after a recharge period.
  • It's not really known how long it takes for Sonah to lock in the need to fire the next burst of Firestorm.
  • If all the invaders of the current wave are gone early into the current burst of Firestorm, then 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 shots can miss, leading to lost DPS.
  • To try to prevent this, try to start from the left side and then work your way towards the right side (or vice versa). This allows most of the missiles of Firestorm to hit correctly.
  • However, this also means having to deal with more turrets firing at you since switching sides may make the Firestorm missiles 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 Firestorm locks on to a turret mount point of an invader and keeps firing at it until the invader is gone, or the lock on is out of its targeting cone range.
  • This means that Sonah can get really annoying when the turret you want is taken out and need to swap target.
  • Unfortunately, to resolve this issue, you have 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 IC, since stunning the Condor and Roc with 2 ICs allow you freedom to move around easily.
  • However, for Condors with massive Eagles in front, this can become a problem due to Sonah's weak DPS and generally weak damage means.
• For waves with very little Ravens, you should reserve REMP for defence instead.
• (+) IC for Sonah allows it to deal with troublesome large invaders that have dangerous turrets
• (-) The issue is the weak crowd clearing capabilities of Sonah since REMP isn't very strong and neither are IC are Firestorm.
• (-) Thus, it can be difficult to get to larger invaders behind these downfield invaders.
• Try to throw a few ICs at one side of the invaders on the field, then get above them to stun the larger invaders behind.
• Then use REMP if you have to from on top to get rid of any bullets made by the other side of invaders
• If the wave is heavy, make sure you go into the wave with a full or near full inventory of 5 or 6 ICs, and stun all the Eagles, or one side of Herons. You will need to stun them again so make sure you have enough ICs and particles to work with.

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

• Each burst of the Firestorm lasts for 3.167s, which implies a burst damage of 79.167.
• (-) Because Sonah's Firestorm fires so quickly, sometimes even before the next wave has arrived, sometimes it may not be a good idea to actually use REMP.
  • If the wave is primarily Sparrows with only 3 or less Ravens, then just let the Firestorm finish off the wave.
  • Any more than that is a good opportunity to use REMP.
  • When using REMP, swipe up to the mid-field quickly as you want to try and delay the hitting of the missiles from Firestorm to maximize the AoE damage from REMP.
  • It's just a pretty awkward way of using REMP generally, since all of Firestorm, IC and REMP competes 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 ICs so that they hit the invaders upfield.
  • Then go in there and charge REMP.
• Fake charge REMP as much as possible to try and prevent the Firestorm from going off.
  • Be careful not to let REMP charge finish because it charges so quickly.
• To try and prevent the competing damage means, charge REMP first. Then after that, quickly go around and fire ICs right in the face of all the invaders.
  
  • This will unfortunately cause couple of missiles from Firestorm to miss, but this is unavoidable in speedrunning.

Fun Factor: A+

• (+) Very fun Firestorm weapon. Watching the hundreds of missiles (ok, maybe 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 all the Firestorm missiles is also 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, on the other hand, this imperfect targeting is also a point of frustration.
• (-) Very stupid aiming 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.
• 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.
• Unfortunately, the turning of the missile pods was a design flaw which initially caused the Alpha apex of Sonah to malfunction and not target 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, it goes for the next active turret. This apex also removes the target tracking for Sonah. The most implication of this is that the next burst of Firestorm will fire immediately after the cooldown time of Firestorm is over, no matter whether there are invaders on field or not. 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 are no visual changes to Firestorm.

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

• (+) Significantly improves survivability because much more turrets get eliminated.
  • The 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 the 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 missiles rather than concentrating them towards one direction.
  • This has the advantage of spreading out the damage, and allowing REMP to deal more effective AoE damage, rather than overkilling a few invaders.

Fun Factor: S- [++]

• (+) No more frustration from the Firestorm missiles stupidly still hitting a turret mount point even after the turret is already 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 ICs on crowds of Ravens takes them out more quickly.
  
  • Takes 1-2 ICs to take out Raven crowds instead of much more than that (due to armor damage reduction).
  • This depends on how much of the Firestorm hits the Ravens after the REMP.
• (+) A bit faster against larger invaders such as Herons and Eagles too.

Fun Factor: A+ [No significant change]

• (+) More responsive damage from IC.

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