Ship Details (Part 7)

Ship Details & Strategies

Ship Details (Part 7)

Corsair

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

Ship Class: Blitzkrieg
+

Main Weapon: Rocket Pods

• Average DPS = 31.25
• Weapon Class = Interruptible Burst
• Rate of Fire = 0.1s (Fast)
• Projectile Speed = 100 to 1000 with an acceleration of 1200 (Slow, then Medium)
• Reload Time = 0.8s (Medium)
• Projectile Hit Circle Radius = 3
• 10 successive sets of 2 side-by-side slowly accelerating forward firing rockets
  

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

• (-) Absolutely no defence at all.
• (-) Poor turret popping capability since the Rocket Pods are slow moving and difficult to handle.
  • The Tracking Minigun also has a slight spread, making it a bit difficult to pop turrets with.
• (+) Pretty fast charging Tracking Minigun .

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

• (-) Because of having absolutely no defence, Corsair relies purely on throwing out as much damage as it possibly can.
• Ironically, the Tracking Minigun and Missile Swarm are actually the main forms of damage for Corsair.
  • The Rocket Pods are nothing more than supporting damage.
• (-) Tracking Minigun and Missile Swarm are competing damage means.
• Thus, always aim to have the Tracking Minigun going as much as possible.
• In early Acts, the Tracking Minigun can last as long as 2.5 - 3 waves of an Act.
  • This means when the next Act starts, the Charge Time of Tracking Minigun would be quite long since it has not completely cooled down.
• (+) For Tracking Minigun to activate again for the next Act, use Missile Swarm and a burst of the Rocket Pods to eliminate the first wave of an Act.
  • While Missile Swarm is finishing off the wave, head downfield and charge Tracking Minigun .
  • Ideally, Tracking Minigun would fire just in time as the next wave arrives, keeping up Corsair's DPS.
  • This slightly de-conflicts the competing damaging means between Tracking Minigun and Missile Swarm .
• To maximize DPS from Tracking Minigun , sweep Invaders from left to right (or vice versa), so it's easier to re-align the Tracking Minigun to the Invader in front of you.
• (-) Lots of dodging around, including looking for the tiniest possible gap to dodge through.
  • If it's not possible to dodge through, circle around the Invader(s) from upfield.
  • This particularly applies to Condors and Rocs .
• (-) The Tracking Minigun has a strange Charge Time unlike any other Zen.
  • At the start of any Act, when the words start to exit the screen, start charging Tracking Minigun for the perfect timing.
• Use Missile Swarm as often as you can.
  • When using Missile Swarm , go to the center of the field and release Missile Swarm to maximize Missile Swarm coverage..
  • Then go back to where you were previously and sweep from one side to the other to optimize Tracking Minigun .
• It may be justifiable to charge Tracking Minigun in the last wave of an Act if the wave is heavy enough and you are running low on Missile Swarm Aura .
  • You can then use Missile Swarm to finish off the first wave of the next Act.
• When facing off against a Condor , try to charge Tracking Minigun mid-wave if the Condor still has more than half of its health.
• Against Rocs , 2 Tracking Miniguns can be pulled off successfully.
• Ignore the interruptible burst nature of the Rocket Pods.
  • In fact, Rocket Pods are not the main focus for Corsair.
• If Tracking Minigun ends just before the end of a wave (leaving behind at most 2 Ravens ), it would be better to use the Rocket Pods to finish off the wave.
  • This gives you time to charge Tracking Minigun for the next wave.
• In the final wave, if the wave is dense and/or heavy enough, even if Tracking Minigun just ended at the end of the last wave, try to charge it one last time for a final increase in DPS.
• (+) If you need to quickly pop off some deadly turrets, the most reliable way is to use Missile Barreling.

Fun Factor: S

• (+) Tracking Minigun is very fun to watch in action, watching the minigun itself turn towards its targets.
• (+) The activation of Tracking Minigun is a sound that triggers an increase in adrenaline. It's like, it's GO time!
• (+) You can have no idea what you are doing most of the time except flailing about wildly, spamming Missile Swarm and having Tracking Minigun up and running almost all the time. But hey, everything is destroyed, so that's great, right?
• (+) Despite being a Full Offence ship that is not particularly powerful, Corsair is just a ship that is really fun to speedrun with.
• (-) Difficult to use Rocket Pods.
  • Honestly it doesn't really matter since it doesn't do much damage anyway.
  • Even in early waves, the bulk of damage comes from Tracking Minigun .
• (+) Easy to use Tracking Minigun , and easy to aim with.
• (+) Lots and lots of fast dodging with Corsair.
• (+) Just throwing out every damage means you can is just a ton of fun.

Trivia

• The base form and apexes of Corsair were designed by Romano Molenaar.
• While all ships bank / tilt to one side when moving, Corsair has a reduced degree of banking compared to most other ships.
• Corsair was only introduced into Phoenix 2 at v2.4.
• The Sigma Apex of Corsair, being a rather well known apex, is sometimes referred to Sigsair in Phoenix 2 communities.
• Corsair is one of the 5 ships that got brought over from Phoenix 2's predecessor game, Phoenix HD.
• Here's how Corsair looks like in Phoenix HD:
  
• Corsair is asymmetrical, unlike most ships. The mount on the left side is the tracking laser while the one on the right is its Tracking Minigun .
• Corsair's Zen, Tracking Minigun , is unique.
• The Corsair in Phoenix HD is faithfully replicated in Phoenix 2. In Phoenix HD, Corsair fires a huge assortment of weapons.
  • Corsair's main weapon Rocket Pods in Phoenix 2 are the exact faithful replication of the forward accelerating dumbfire missiles in Phoenix HD.
  • The wasp missiles launched in a fanned out manner in Phoenix HD is equivalent to the current Missile Swarm Aura ability of Corsair in Phoenix 2.
  • The minigun in Phoenix HD is also replicated as the Tracking Minigun , although the Phoenix 2 version tracks rather than simply firing forward in Phoenix HD.
  • The barrage missiles when Corsair locks on to a turret in Phoenix HD are replicated in the Ultimate upgrade of Tracking Minigun , although the barrage missiles are not straight firing but have a slight curvy pattern to them.
• Ships in Phoenix 2 no longer have descriptions, but since Corsair was brought over from Phoenix HD, the description given to Corsair in Phoenix HD is: Missile cruiser with the special ability to lock on turrets for an extra deadly barrage.
  • This description is quite accurate in Phoenix 2 since the Tracking Minigun locks onto turrets.
  • However, in Phoenix HD, you have to manually lock on turrets by standing under it for about 3 seconds.
  • This is unlike in Phoenix 2 where Tracking Minigun locks onto a turret by itself.
• The Tracking Minigun on the right side of Corsair is not initially present in gameplay when you first unlock Corsair.
  • This is also reflected when you first unlock it in the warp gate, or receive a main weapon / Aura upgrade to Corsair while Tracking Minigun is not unlocked.
  • The Tracking Minigun only appears in gameplay after you unlock it as a Zen .
• Before the v4.0 update which introduced Apex forms, the Sigma Apex of Corsair was teased on the Instagram page of Firi Games:
  
• Corsair Sigma's Tracking Railgun was buffed in v4.0.1, shortly after the release of apexes in v4.0. The buff increases the damage of each railgun shot without increasing the firing rate.
• The shell casings for the minigun (left) and the railgun (right) are different, the shell casing for the railgun is bigger (and less frequent, obviously, since the fire rate of the railgun is lower)
• 
• You can also view some additional renders and versions on Corsair in the following link: https://www.behance.net/gallery/2423450/Corsair
• Corsair is featured in an old video preview for Phoenix 2, appearing at 7s.
• Corsair even has its own shorts video released by Firi Games.
• In an early pre-alpha version of Corsair in Phoenix 2 which was never released but teased in Firi Game's FaceBook, it re-used the old model from Phoenix HD:
  

_{Back to All Ships}

Apexes

Sigma (Railgun ) - ¢35.000

Value: S-
Cost vs Utility: S

This apex turns the Tracking Minigun Zen into a Tracking Railgun, which fires at a slower rate. The total raw damage (disregarding damage from a second or subsequent hit for the railgun shots) is reduced from 210 to 180. There are 30 railgun shots, translating to 6 damage per shot. However, each shot pierces through Invaders like Focus Lance .

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

• (+) Able to deal against upfield Invaders where it was previously not possible. Ravens in particular, are much easier to deal with.
• (+) Disarms upfield Invaders if aimed at certain angles, which is normally not possible with the Tracking Minigun .
• (-) A bit less capable to deal against heavier waves since the damage isn't focused downfield to clear out downfield Invaders to allow for more maneuvering space.

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

• (+) Less damage competition between Missile Swarm and Tracking Railgun .
  • Missile Swarm deals against downfield Invaders while Tracking Railgun primarily deals against upfield Invaders.
• (+) Helps against dense waves a lot, significantly.
• (+) Makes Corsair much more versatile in dealing damage, since it now does both piercing and single target damage.
• (-) A bit less capable to deal against heavier waves since the damage isn't focused downfield to clear out downfield Invaders to allow for more maneuvering space.
• (-) A bit harder to handle the Tracking Railgun since it's not a continuous stream of bullets.
  • The railgun shots aren't as visible as a stream of minigun bullets, so it can be a bit more difficult to direct the Tracking Railgun properly.
• (+) Against Condors and Rocs , the Tracking Railgun can deal more damage than the Tracking Minigun.
  • Most railgun shots actually hit the Condor or Roc twice (usually once on the body or cockpit, and another on a turret).
  • If most railgun shots hit twice, the DPS of the Tracking Railgun actually exceeds that of the Tracking Minigun.

Fun Factor: S+ [+]

• (+) A different, unique charging sound of the Tracking Railgun , which sounds cooler than the Tracking Minigun.
• (+) Piercing damage is awesome.
• (-) A bit more difficult to handle the Tracking Railgun since it doesn't fire so frequently and is more difficult to see the railgun shots.

_{Back to All Ships/Apexes}

Tau (MS High Explosive) - ¢40.000

Value: A
Cost vs Utility: B

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

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

• (+) Gains some AoE damage from Missile Swarm High Explosive, which helps out in denser waves.

Fun Factor: S [No change]

• (=) Given Corsair's already rather high damage output, it's quite difficult to feel the effects of this apex properly.
• It's more of a "nice to have" apex than one that's really needed, just to feel like you can go a tiny bit faster, which matters a lot for Full Offence ships.

_{Back to All Ships/Apexes}

Antioch

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

Ship Class: Offensive
+

Main Weapon: Proton Crystallizer

• Average DPS = 31.25
• Target Tracking = Limited (-10° to 10°)
• Weapon Class = Continuous Stream
• Rate of Fire = 0.1s (Fast)
• Projectile Speed = 400 with an acceleration of 400 (Medium)
• Projectile Hit Circle Radius = 6
• Single file of projectiles that fire in a general forward direction, with a slight angle deviance (maximum deviance is 10°) from the vertical as determined by the target tracked
  

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

• (-) The Proton Crystallizer likes to troll players.
  • It has slight target tracking properties, but does NOT have homing properties.
  • This means once a projectile of Proton Crystallizer is fired, it goes in a straight line.
  • But Antioch TRIES to fire the projectiles in the direction of the target it was aiming at.
  • This is especially when very near to 2 target points, which include anything from turrets, cockpits and even the sides of a large Invader like a Vulture .
• To maximize the target tracking property of the Proton Crystallizer, do not line up yourself with smaller Invaders such as Herons and below.
  • Instead, aim slightly left or right of them.
  • The Proton Crystallizer will then track the outermost turret and you can get slightly closer to hit the Invader.
• (=) The target tracking properties of Antioch can help and hinder in turret popping.
  • On one hand, if the correct turret is targeted, you can let the target tracking stay on the turret.
  • On the other hand, if Proton Crystallizer targets the wrong turret, you need to swipe across your target turret.
    • However, you cannot go too far away from the target turret as it may not target your intended turret properly.
• (+) Even if Proton Crystallizer doesn't want to cooperate, Vorpal Lance is a good backup to pop off turrets.
  • Throw one Vorpal Lance and slowly sweep across the turret to take it down.
  • Vorpal Lance is a very good solution to pop off dangerous turrets quickly.
• (-) Almost impossible to pop off difficult-to-reach turrets of Condors and Rocs due to the target tracking properties of Proton Crystallizer.
• (+) The target tracking of Proton Crystallizer allows you to target Sparrows quite safely.
  • Getting underneath Sparrows can sometimes kill you by being shot point blank.
  • Also useful against Sparrows with lasers or endless dart streamers equipped.
• (-) Unfortunately, the Proton Crystallizer projectiles aren't very fast so Sparrows can escape quite easily.
  • For reliable Sparrow hunting, go very near them.
  • At least you don't have to be right underneath them and risk getting shot point blank.
• (+) No problem against lasers .
  • Let them come find you, then use Personal Shield to reflect the lasers back at Invaders.
• (+) Even if you can't use Personal Shield (due to cooldown) to reflect lasers , Vorpal Lance quickly takes out laser turrets especially on Ravens .
• (+) Not really weak against shurikens since you can either use Personal Shield Fade Out to get past them, or ride up Vorpal Lance to escape them.
• Generally, use Vorpal Lance to eliminate Ravens but reserve it for dangerous turrets where needed.

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

• (+) Personal Shield for great counter offence damage in laser heavy waves.
• In less laser heavy waves, sweep with Vorpal Lance .
• If there are many lasers on field (generally, more than 10 lasers), hold off Vorpal Lances until after the first round of laser reflection .
  • Use Vorpal Lance to take out useless Ravens that either only have useless T1 or T2 laser turrets, or have other turrets that don't help out in laser reflection damage.
  • A Raven with 2 lasers that can be reflected back is still worth keeping around.
• To destroy Sparrows quickly, go right up to them but offset diagonally to one side.
• For Ravens , try to get closer to them, and aim for either turret rather than their cockpits.
  • It is difficult to determine if the target tracking wants to target the left or right turret of a Raven if you aim for their cockpits.
• Use Vorpal Lances opportunistically.
  • No need to rush to exhaust Vorpal Lances if there are other larger Invaders around that needs Proton Crystallizer to clean up.

Fun Factor: A

• (-) Very troll and annoying Proton Crystallizer.
  • Sometimes, the Proton Crystallizer will suddenly veer off to the other side, because it thinks the other target point is nearer.
  • This is due to Invader RNG movement.
• (+) Vorpal Lance is fun to use for sure. Easy to do Vorpal Lance sweeps.
• (+) Fun to use Personal Shield to reflect lasers in laser heavy missions.
• (=) Average Proton Crystallizer impact sounds.
• (=) Quite manageable ship core position, since it's in the middle of the chevron shape of Antioch.

Trivia

• The base form and apexes of Antioch were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Antioch was only introduced into Phoenix 2 at v2.5.
• Antioch is VERY SLIGHTLY asymmetrical. If you zoom in to the left and right bottom edges of Antioch, the black line on the left side has some reflective glare on it, while the black line on the right side does NOT have the reflective glare on it.
• The Delta Apex of Antioch, being one of the slightly more popular apexes, is sometimes referred to Deltioch in Phoenix 2 communities.
• Before the v4.0 update which introduced Apex forms, the Delta Apex of Antioch was teased:
  
• Antioch is one of the only ships in the game whose main weapon has a very mild target tracking capability.
• While much less visible, Antioch is featured in the cover banner of the Phoenix 2 FaceBook page alongside Hunter and Exarch. It can be identified by its thrusters in the background, below Exarch. Only a brief silhouette of Antioch can only be seen.
  

_{Back to All Ships}

Apexes

Delta (VL Twin Lance) - ¢20.000

Value: A+
Cost vs Utility: S

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

• (+) Easier to use Vorpal Lance as defence since Vorpal Lance riding is easier.

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

• (+) Easier to catch pesky Ravens that like to run away from Vorpal Lances .
• (+) Also catches more Sparrows along the way, eliminating the need to go right up to them to take them out.
• (+) Potentially one less Vorpal Lance to lance sweep a wave.

Fun Factor: A+ [+]

• (+) Less need to chase down annoying Sparrows with the annoying Proton Crystallizer.
• (+) Less frustration in Ravens running away, thus easier Vorpal Lance lineups.

_{Back to All Ships/Apexes}

Beta (VL High Capacity) - ¢10.000

Value: C+
Cost vs Utility: B

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

• (+) Useful in heavier waves such as 4 Eagle formations where separation of the Eagles are quite likely.
  • You can thus stockpile Vorpal Lances and quickly kill or weaken the Eagles significantly.
• (+) Sometimes useful in laser heavy missions if you prefer to just stand back and let Personal Shield do most of the damage work for you.
  • Then use 5 Vorpal Lances to wipe out a wave quickly here and there so you can get to reflecting lasers again.

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

Fun Factor: A [No change]

_{Back to All Ships/Apexes}

Uhb

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

Ship Class: Safer-FO
+

Main Weapon: Blast Laser

• Average DPS = 25
• Spread = -30° to 30° (Narrow)
• Target Tracking = Instant
• Weapon Class = Uninterruptible Burst
• Capacity = 150ms
• Reload Time = 0.3s (Fast)
• Beam Width = 2
• 3 independent instant tracking beams that can only track up targets up to a maximum angle of 30° from the vertical, but always fire anyway even if out of cone range
  

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

• The Blast Laser has a targeting cone from -30° to 30° with respect to the vertical.
  • This targeting cone sometimes makes Invaders hard to hit.
  • The Blast Laser will still attempt to hit a target outside its cone.
  • Since the Blast Laser lasts a while, you can shift yourself closer to hit something.
• (-) The lackluster DPS of Blast Laser, as well as the rapid RNG movement of Sparrows , may allow Sparrows to sneak past the Blast Laser damaged but not destroyed.
• The Blast Laser isn't actually one beam, but 3 independent beams.
  • The 3 beams can target different targets such as a different turret so you can sometimes see the separation.
• (-) Difficult to pop turrets since the targeting nature of Blast Laser is random.
  • Even targeting cornermost turrets on a Vulture is difficult since the cone range is quite wide.
  • You can sort of force Uhb to target difficult-to-reach turrets on a Condor by being on one side of the Condor, with your ship core diagonally between the 2 easier to reach turrets on that side.
• Be a bit more downfield with Uhb since the Blast Laser has a limited cone range, so it can always hit something.
• (+) Reflex EMP can be used for defence and some offence where comfortable.

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

• (+) Quite a well balanced damage dealer since Missile Swarm is good raw single target damage, while Reflex EMP deals decent AoE damage .
• (+) Open up a wave with an Reflex EMP (only with sufficient Ravens and Sparrows around).
  • Go behind larger Invaders if you have to.
• After charging Reflex EMP , fire off Missile Swarm .
  • Be careful when firing Missile Swarm because it is easy to unintentionally do Missile Barreling on Invaders.
  • Be sure to give yourself a bit of space away from an Invader before firing Missile Swarm , if necessary.
  • The Reflex EMP + Missile Swarm combination is very potent, and can eliminate quite a lot of Invaders when opening a wave.
• Finally, head downfield for Blast Laser to clean up the field.
  • If enough particles are collected, go to the center of the field again to fire Missile Swarm .
  • Fire Missile Swarm as frequently as possible.
  • Some overkill damage is ok since waiting for Blast Laser to finish the job can be quite slow.
• (+) Missile Barreling is a valid tactic for Uhb to get faster times to finish off the last Invader on field.
  • It is useful especially against Herons and Eagles .
  • Start from downfield, then quickly head up to your target Invader to do Missile Barreling to avoid wasting Missile Swarm Aura .
  • It's ok if there's still 1 or 2 Sparrows on field after that as Blast Laser can take care of that.
• In early Acts, spam small sizes of Missile Swarm since the Blast Laser damage is lackluster and quite unreliable.
  • Basically, Blast Laser is just supporting damage.

Fun Factor: A+

• (+) A well-pulled off Reflex EMP + Missile Swarm combo wrecks crowds quickly.
• (-) Risk of unintended Missile Barreling from setting up good positioning for Reflex EMP .
• (-) Frustrating to use Blast Laser since small Invaders can slip past its aiming.
• (+) Better than average Blast Laser impact sounds.
• (-) Slightly forward ship core positioning.

Trivia

• The base form and apexes of Uhb were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Uhb was only introduced into Phoenix 2 at v2.5.
• Uhb is the only ship that starts with the letter "U".
• Uhb is VERY SLIGHTLY asymmetrical. If you zoom in to the upper half of Uhb, the stain marks on the left and right sides of Uhb are a bit different.
• It was initially thought that the spelling U-H-B was supposed to be some kind of unknown acronym before the v5.0 update.
  • Thus, all 3 letters were thought to be UPPER CASE.
  • This was not only because Uhb as a word sounds weird, but all ship names were in UPPER CASE before the v5.0 update.
  • Between the v5.0 and v6.1.6 update, the actual casing of the individual letters appear in the shop under the Warp Gate tab, so it was confirmed that only U is capitalized.
  • Someone on the Phoenix 2 Reddit brought up the discussion that Uhb's name is not actually all UPPERCASE, which was how we got to know this fact about Uhb. Some pronunciations of Uhb were suggested, such as "Ub" and "chub". The link to this thread is as follows:
    https://redd.it/escxxz

_{Back to All Ships}

Apexes

Delta (MS High Explosive) - ¢20.000

Value: A-
Cost vs Utility: S

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

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

• (+) The close combat fighting style of Uhb makes Missile Swarm High Explosive quite potent especially in dense waves.
  • Releasing Missile Swarm in the middle of the field quickly hits Invaders for more AoE damage before they can separate.

Fun Factor: A+ [No significant change]

_{Back to All Ships/Apexes}

Epsilon (REMP Extended Range) - ¢25.000

Value: A
Cost vs Utility: A

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

• (+) Increase in bullet clearance range.

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

• (+) Increase in coverage for Reflex EMP AoE damage , since it can be difficult for Uhb to go to the middle of the field to deal AoE damage.
• (+) Allows you to stay behind some larger Invaders rather than going above them to have Reflex EMP cover the smaller Invaders upfield.
  • This means not wasting Blast Laser's DPS.
    • The narrow targeting cone may not allow Blast Laser to hit some smaller Invaders upfield properly.
  • Staying behind a larger Invader means being able to optimize Blast Laser more effectively.

Fun Factor: A+ [No significant change]

• (+) Easier to land Blast Laser while charging Reflex EMP in front of larger Invaders instead of being above them.

_{Back to All Ships/Apexes}

Trinity

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: Double Defence
+

Main Weapon: Warp Ripper

• Average DPS = 31.25
• Weapon Class = Continuous Stream
• Rate of Fire = 0.08s (Fast)
• Projectile Speed = ∞
• Projectile Width = 12
• 2 side-by-side infinitely fast forward firing projectiles
• 

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

• (+) The capability of Chrono Field and Trinity Teleport to protect you from threats so well are just the reasons why Trinity is such an invincible ship.
  • Individually, they are just some of the best defensive Aura and Zen .
• (+) Like most Chrono Field ships, Chrono Field is the primary defence.
• (+) Use Chrono Field when being unable to dodge bullets.
  • It is a much better option than charging Trinity Teleport since Trinity Teleport's Charge Time is not negligible, which might make you die to boomerangs and darts.
• (+) Use Chrono Field if you need time to decide where is the best spot to go to.
  • Trinity is a good ship to learn Teleport as well, since Chrono Field is a very good backup.
• (+) Because Chrono Field has Phase Out , it's like Trinity has 2 forms of Teleport since Phase Out also serves the same purpose of being able to re-position yourself at another spot.
  • Just that Chrono Field's Phase Out is a "weaker" form of Teleport since it is harder to direct from you want to go (since you need to swipe to the location instead of tapping on the location) and does not clear bullets when arriving at your new location.
• (+) Deploy Chrono Field when lasers are just about to fire.
  • This is much more efficient than using Trinity Teleport to avoid lasers .
  • However, when low on Chrono Field Aura , Trinity Teleport can be the backup.
• (+) Trinity Teleport can be used when you are faced with an incoming thick wall of shurikens. Simply Trinity Teleport away. Problem solved.
• (+) If you feel like you are being backed into a corner, use Trinity Teleport to go to the other side of the field.
  • Remember to charge Trinity Teleport early in General/Boomerang missions since bullets move very fast.
• (+) Use Chrono Field if particles are simply overflowing.
  • Try to deploy Chrono Field as centrally as possible.
  • This allows you more flexibility to move around, since you need to aim the Warp Ripper.
• (-) The need to aim the Warp Ripper can make it challenging to pilot Trinity well.
  • Being too concerned with survival can make you forget to destroy Invaders.
  • Although Trinity can be invincible, it is only so when used correctly.
    • If you are too focused on survival, you might need a bit more time to familiarize yourself with Trinity or the game.
• (+) Easy to take out turrets with Trinity's Warp Ripper.
  • This is when Trinity Teleport works so well.
    • Trinity Teleport yourself in front of the dangerous turret so that the damage from Darkfire Shot will make turret popping even faster.
  • Then use Warp Ripper to take out the turret.
  • If needed, deploy Chrono Field to keep yourself in place to ensure the turret is taken out.
• (+) If there are multiple turrets that need to be popped off, Trinity Teleport between the turrets you want to take out, and deploy Chrono Field .
  • Doing so will not be able to deal damage from Darkfire Shot to the turret, so it'll take slightly longer to pop off a turret.
  • A full size Chrono Field will only last long enough to allow you to pop off 2 turrets.
• If forced to use Chrono Field due to dangerous circumstances, make sure you have a safe exit after Chrono Field expires.
  • If not, you can use Trinity Teleport to get out of there.
• (+) Popping off difficult-to-reach turrets is very easy.
  • Trinity Teleport in-between 2 of those turrets on one side for a Roc .
  • Deploy Chrono Field , and use the Warp Ripper to pop off the 2 turrets.
  • There should be enough time to get job done.
  • By Trinity Teleport-ing upfield, while popping off the turrets, you may get enough particles for a second Chrono Field to pop off a turret or 2 on the other side too.
  • If you don't get enough for a second Chrono Field , you can eliminate the middle 2 difficult-to-reach turrets instead.
  • Shuriken launchers are of no issue since you can simply Trinity Teleport away from the shuriken cloud they create.
  • You can use Chrono Field Phase Out to get back downfield.
    • If you need a bit more time to pop off a target turret, Trinity Teleporting back downfield works fine too.
  • Popping off dangerous difficult-to-reach turrets on Condors and Rocs make surviving these long battles trivial.
  • The same can be done on Condors , although you can also opt to go for the cornermost top row of turrets which can also be dangerous.
• (-) Because of Trinity's forward ship core position, there is slightly less time to respond to dodging bullets if you Trinity Teleport without a Chrono Field .
• (+) One of the highest level of invincibility tactics for Trinity is how well Trinity Teleport's time slowdown and Chrono Field Phase Out works together.
  • In the last 0.1s of Phase Out , it is possible to graze to gain Aura for another Chrono Field.
  • Executed well in MIRV Hell missions, by pre-charging Trinity Teleport before Chrono Field expires, you can safely graze tons of bullets, giving you enough Aura during this 1s (in real time, since Trinity Teleport slows time by 90%).
  • When you arrive at your new spot, another Chrono Field can be deployed immediately.
  • You can repeat this process ad infinitum to survive.
    • Just don't do it consecutively since Trinity Teleport still needs to recover.
  • 1s in real-time is a lot of leeway time so you can afford to make use of only 0.5s just to be safe and still graze tons of bullets to be able to deploy another Chrono Field .
  • This tactic requires lots of practice but once mastered, makes Trinity simply invincible.
• (+) Because of Chrono Field's Phase Out , yet another technique is possible.
  • You can Trinity Teleport anywhere outside of the Chrono Field , and quickly head back into the Chrono Field to make use of the Phase Out time.
  • This technique is very useful if you want to get rid of some turrets on smaller Invaders such as Herons and Ravens , or get rid of severely weakened Invader entirely, since the Trinity Teleport's Darkfire Shot does damage .
  • Because Trinity Teleport needs to cool down, don't do this more than twice in a single full size Chrono Field .

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

• (+) Chrono Field can be used as a positional tool to line up the Warp Ripper to kill Invaders.
  • Deploy as centrally as possible with respect to what's left on field.
• (+) Trinity Teleport adds additional DPS.
  • Each Darkfire Shot does 15 damage (You read that right. Not 8 like what the game says).
  • Use Trinity Teleport just before the next wave arrives fully.
  • The Darkfire Shot can deal additional first strike damage on top of the Warp Ripper.
  • Be careful not to overdo it if Trinity Teleport is overused.
• (-) No other means to deal additional damage.

Fun Factor: B+

• (+) Trinity Teleport is one of the most satisfying to pull off due to the extremely satisfying pop sound the Darkfire Shot gives off when it hits.
  • It is a unique sound to Trinity.
• (-) Boring Warp Ripper rattling impact sounds.
• (-) The invincibility of Trinity, is part of why Trinity is generally a more boring ship to play since it's easy to play Trinity half awake once you know how to use Chrono Field properly.

Trivia

• The base form and apexes of Trinity were designed by Romano Molenaar.
• Trinity was only introduced into Phoenix 2 at v2.5.
• Before v5.0, the Darkfire Blast Apex ability reduced the AoE damage of Trinity's Darkfire Shot to 7.5 while having the same blast radius. This was changed in v5.0 where damage from the Darkfire Shot is unchanged, but simply added on the blast radius .
• Trinity is one of the 5 ships that got brought over from Phoenix 2's predecessor game, Phoenix HD.
• Although Trinity technically has a unique Zen , if Teleport is selected under the Zen filter, Trinity also appears as one of the filtered Teleport ships.
• Unfortunately, quite a huge part of Trinity is not replicated in Phoenix 2, when coming over from Phoenix HD.
  • The Warp Ripper in Phoenix 2 is replicated from the first of Trinity's weapons in Phoenix HD, and Trinity's Darkfire Shot after teleporting to its new location is also replicated.
  • Unfortunately, the orange railgun and the purple flak (homing orbs) from Trinity in Phoenix HD are completely not replicated in Phoenix 2, not even in its apexes.
• Ships in Phoenix 2 no longer have descriptions, but since Trinity was brought over from Phoenix HD, the description given to Trinity in Phoenix HD is: Experimental ship that slows down time and can teleport over short distances. From the description, it may be the reason why Trinity was assigned the Aura of Chrono Field , since Chrono Field can slow bullets down (unfortunately, not time).
• Trinity has its own shorts video showcase on Firi Games FaceBook.
• Trinity was teased in the Firi Games' FaceBook by only showing the Warp Ripper's impact on Invaders:
  https://www.fb.com/watch/?v=10154501797046078
• Here's how the unique Trinity Teleport looks like in action. Previously, before v3.6, Trinity Teleport's effect is identical to normal Teleport (blue color).
  
• Here are some 3D versions of Trinity back in the predecessor game Phoenix HD:
  
• And this is how Trinity looks like in Phoenix HD:
  

_{Back to All Ships}

Apexes

Phi (Chrono Deep Field) - ¢45.000

Value: A
Cost vs Utility: A

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

• Encourages aggressive gameplay, going upfield all the time.
  • This takes full advantage of the Deep Field ability to slow down turrets.
• (+) Increases survivability as you could Trinity Teleport right onto a dangerous turret and deploy Chrono Field on top of them to slow them down so that dangerous turrets has less chance to pump out bullets.
  • In particular, while Trinity can survive anything, MIRVs are still a problem for it as Chrono Field does not eliminate the problem (but simply delays it).
  • This is really useful especially against Condors and Rocs that can have really deadly turrets.
• (+) The increase in Chrono Field radius also allows Chrono Field to cover more turrets, so it becomes safe for Trinity to be on top of more turrets to pop them off.
  • The increase in Chrono Field radius is enough to cover all turrets on a Vulture .
  • This is useful since dangerous turrets tend to appear in pairs on the cornermost turrets of a Vulture .

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

• (+) The increase in Chrono Field radius allows Trinity to have more horizontal safe space to take out Invaders with the Warp Ripper.
  • Useful in waves where Sparrows emit continuous dart streams.

Fun Factor: B+ [No change]

_{Back to All Ships/Apexes}

Delta (Trinity Teleport Darkfire Blast) - ¢20.000

Value: A+
Cost vs Utility: S

This apex makes the Darkfire Shot fired upon arrival from Trinity Teleport deal a blast damage of 15 with a blast radius of 80, replacing the 15 impact damage . The blast damage is Armor Piercing if the Invader's cockpit is within the blast radius.

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

• (+) Takes out multiple Sparrows easily.

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

• (+) Respectable AoE damage from the Darkfire Shot.
• It is a great idea to stress fire the Darkfire Shot with blast damage on denser waves where the opportunity arises.
  • Use the Darkfire Shot when at least 3 Ravens are within the blast radius .
  • Good to use even if its 1 Raven and 2 Sparrows , or 3 Sparrows together.
  • Remember to allow Trinity Teleport to cool down.
  • Sometimes, given the need to stress use Trinity Teleport for the Darkfire Shot damage , it is not always worth to start a new wave with the Darkfire Shot since Trinity Teleport needs time to cool off.
• (+) Very beneficial to abuse the technique where you can Trinity Teleport outside Chrono Field to deal blast damage and head back into the Chrono Field.

Fun Factor: A- [++]

• (+) The blast damage on the Darkfire Shot is fun to abuse.
• (+) Watching multiple Sparrows disappear by the Darkfire Shot is satisfying.

_{Back to All Ships/Apexes}

Wraith

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

Ship Class: Full Offence (FO)
+

Main Weapon: Electron Laser

• Average DPS = 31.25
• Capacity = 400ms
• Weapon Class = Uninterruptible Burst
• Reload Time = 0.8s (Medium)
• Beam Width = 11
• Very thin forward firing beam that lasts a short while
  

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

• Vorpal Lance is the only means of survivability for Wraith. It is the last resort get out of jail card.
• (=) The Electron Laser can be used to pop off turrets to some extent.
  • Without critical hits, it takes 2 bursts of the Electron Laser to pop off a turret on a Vulture .
  • With critical hits, it reduces to 1.
    • However, relying on critical hits is unreliable.
• (+) Vorpal Lance can also be used to pop turrets off since most, if not all of the Unprotected Ravens would die from Mega Bomb .
• (+) If you find a few troublesome Ravens that remain after Mega Bomb , Vorpal Lance is an option to eliminate them.
• (-) Difficult to charge Mega Bomb properly without good defence.

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

• The Electron Laser has a cycle time of 1.2s.
• Wraith's Electron Laser takes quite some time to get used to.
  • It is best seen as a slider.
  • Start from one side, then slowly sweep to the other side as Invaders on the side you start from go down.
• Optimization of the Electron Laser is important but annoying in early waves.
  • Under normal circumstances, one burst of Electron Laser will eliminate a Sparrow and a Raven .
  • Capable of clearing up to 4 Sparrows .
• However, the most annoying thing about Wraith is when critical hits are scored.
  • Under critical hit circumstances, the Electron Laser will eliminate 2 Ravens .
  • Under non-critical hit circumstances, it will only eliminate 1 Raven and damage the other Raven.
  • Thus, you must have a lot of experience with Wraith, and react very quickly the very instance you hear the critical hit sound.
  • This is more so in early waves.
  • In later Acts, Vorpal Lance takes care of Ravens .
• (-) Electron Laser and Vorpal Lance are competing damage means.
• (+) Vorpal Lance and Mega Bomb mean insane crowd clearing capabilities.
• Learn to slot the Electron Laser between throwing Vorpal Lances .
  • Easier said than done however. The only way this comes about is through lots of piloting experience with Wraith.
• It is not always faster to charge Mega Bomb .
  • If a wave can be mostly eliminated using Vorpal Lances , barring a few Sparrows and less than 2 Ravens , then do a Vorpal Lance sweep.
• (+) Wraith is so fast that unless 2 heavier waves are right after each other, it's better to Vorpal Lance sweep one wave, and Mega Bomb the other.
  • Heavier waves mean having at least 2 Eagles and 2 Herons , or having a Vulture on field.
• Wraith may have to setup Mega Bombs at unusual locations slightly more upfield.
  • You may also need to offset to one extreme side in order to have Mega Bomb go off successfully.
• Obviously, Vorpal Lance sweeping is a hugely important aspect in playing Wraith.
  • This has to be done very quickly, much faster compared to other ships, even other Full Offence ships due to Wraith's thin Electron Laser.
• Sometimes, it's better to waste the Electron Laser at the end of the wave.
  • This allows you to use a Vorpal Lance immediately on the next wave.
  • The Electron Laser then damages something else, rather than Vorpal Lance and Electron Laser competing with each other for damage.
  • This also means that you should do this only if you do not intend to charge Mega Bomb in the next wave.
• In the case you should be charging Mega Bomb on the next wave, allowing the Electron Laser to finish off the last Invader is a good idea.
  • But if only if it's a Heron or larger.
  • Vorpal Lance sweeps are first priority over using Electron Laser to finish off the wave.
• In the excess of particles, Vorpal Lance can be used against Eagles .
  • Under critical hit condition, one burst of the Electron Laser and one Vorpal Lance kill an Unprotected Eagle .
• (+) Use Vorpal Wake to ride up and cut through bullets.
  • Allows you to cut through shuriken clouds or pellet spreads to Vorpal Lance sweep or use the Electron Laser effectively.
  • Most Vorpal Lances are precious, so don't do this too often unless particles are in excess.
• Always Vorpal Lance sweep light waves, unless it's Wave 1 of an Act.
• For even more tips on how to speedrun with Wraith, refer to this website:
  https://p2myth.club/docs/Cookbook/Wraith

Fun Factor: S-

• (+) With double forms of AoE damage, Wraith is extremely fast.
  • Mega Bomb and Vorpal Lance leave no mercy for its victims.
• (-) Very annoying Electron Laser since it is very thin and its cycle time is an unusual duration as well.
• (=) Average Electron Laser impact sounds.
• (-) The ship core positioning is ok, but Wraith is entirely blue, which makes it pretty hard to see the ship core.

Trivia

• The base form and apexes of Wraith were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Wraith was only introduced into Phoenix 2 at v3.0.
• Wraith is VERY SLIGHTLY asymmetrical (no, I'm not talking about the Gamma Apex, but the base form). If you zoom in to the left outermost edge of Wraith, you can see a small dark colored flap that extends just slightly, making the left backward sweeping wing just slightly longer than the right wing.

_{Back to All Ships}

Apexes

Lambda (MB Extended Range) - ¢30.000

Value: A-
Cost vs Utility: A

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

• (+) The difficulty of Wraith to set up Mega Bombs (thus charging Mega Bomb a bit more downfield) mean that the extended range allows Wraith to hit upfield Invaders better.
  • In particular, wiping out Unprotected Ravens is much easier.

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

• (+) Allows Wraith to charge Mega Bomb at unusual positions on field, including on one extreme side and/or rather upfield.
  • Mega Bomb Extended Range can reach some further downfield Unprotected Ravens and Sparrows .
  • This is particularly noticeable on waves with Condors , together with Ravens and Sparrows .
  • This may be necessary because of the bullet pattern on field, particularly dart spreads which can make things difficult.

Fun Factor: S- [No change]

_{Back to All Ships/Apexes}

Gamma (VL High Capacity) - ¢15.000

Value: A-
Cost vs Utility: A

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

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

• (+) Because Wraith is so fast at wiping dense waves with Mega Bomb and Vorpal Lances , the amount of particles on field can become a LOT.
  • Sometimes 2 Vorpal Lances is enough to wipe an entire wave because the column has so many Ravens .
  • Supporting damage from the Electron Laser can make it easy to catch smaller Invaders slightly offset from the columns where Vorpal Lances are thrown.
    • This goes to show how frighteningly fast Wraith can be.
  • This means it's easy to overfill on particles, so this apex alleviates that.
• (+) The stockpile of 5 Vorpal Lances can be used against heavier waves to great effect.
  • Allows Wraith to better deal against such heavy waves.
  • You can substitute Mega Bomb for 5 Vorpal Lances .
    • Just throw all 5 Vorpal Lances and the wave will be gone in an instant, even faster than using Mega Bomb .

Fun Factor: S- [No significant change]

_{Back to All Ships/Apexes}

X-81

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

Ship Class: Balanced
+

Main Weapon: AIM-540 Mantis

• Average DPS = 25
• Homing = Perfect (Maximum Turning Rate = 900)
• Weapon Class = Uninterruptible Burst
• Rate of Fire = 0.3s (Medium)
• Projectile Speed = 200 to 0 with a deceleration of 200, then 2000 after 0.4s (Very Slow, then Fast)
• Projectile Hit Circle Radius = 5
• Single missile that is fired forward in an alternating left-right fashion which stop for a while, and then accelerate towards turrets (or cockpits if no turrets available, or Sparrows if no other Invaders on field left)
  

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

• (+) The AIM-540 Mantis missiles are unique and lethally efficient.
  
  • It’s basically an auto turret popper.
  • It immediately targets another turret after the currently targeted one is destroyed.
  • It NEVER targets destroyed turrets or the cockpit (the latter only if it's the only Invader left with all turrets destroyed).
    • Sparrows are not considered as a target for the AIM-540 Mantis unless they are the only Invaders left.
• (=) You can direct the AIM-540 Mantis to hit turrets you want destroyed by being in front of them.
  • If you are in front of a dead turret, it will re-target the nearest active turret.
  • Don't go near to Invaders, otherwise the AIM-540 Mantis will hit the Invader's body instead, hindering the turret popping capability of X-81.
  • Thus, it's better to be downfield.
  • If there are too many turrets around, especially in denser waves, turret targeting can be difficult.
• (-) Poor at dealing against Sparrows since the AIM-540 Mantis don't explicitly target them unless all other Invaders are dead.
  • Sparrows that produce continuous dart streams are a big problem.
  • Use Ion Cannon to clear them out.
• (-) No laser defence.
  • Strafe to one side to avoid lasers .
  • You can also go above Invaders to avoid the lasers .
• (-) The AIM-540 Mantis projectiles can be blocked by the RNG movement of downfield Invaders (especially Sparrows) when the projectiles try to hit turrets upfield.
• (-) Despite automatically disarming Invaders by itself, X-81 suffers in dense waves.
  • Because the AIM-540 Mantis constantly re-targets, it sometimes strips off the shields of Invaders, and leave it alone because it re-targets something else.
  • It's difficult to control where you want to aim because a lot of dodging is needed.
  • This frequently causes the shields of Invaders to re-generate.
• There are 2 ways you can deal with this.
  • First, stockpile Ion Cannons and spam them on one side of the field to clear out Ravens and Sparrows to reach larger Invaders upfield.
  • Another way is to use Mega Laser .
    • Mega Laser punches a hole in one side of the Invaders to easily reach larger Invaders upfield to stun .
    • The AIM-540 Mantis can then reach its turrets to destroy, so long you stay on that side.
    • This method is more preferred and less difficult to pull off.
• (-) Due to X-81's lackluster DPS in clearing the downfield, it can be difficult to reach upfield Invaders to stun with Ion Cannon .
• To overcome this, charge Mega Laser as much as possible before the next wave enters.
  • This is made easier since the AIM-540 Mantis projectiles have some travel time after fired.
  • As the last of the wave clears out, take your time to fire off one projectile, charge Mega Laser .
  • Fire off another projectile if the wave is not cleared out.
  • If the wave is cleared out, Mega Laser can proceed to charge, allowing it to be easily charged finish on time.
• (+) X-81 is the only ship where it is highly possible to have useless larger Invaders with no turret left alive (Eagles and above) standing in front of you at the end of a wave.
  • When that happens, start charging Mega Laser .
    • The Invader will self-destruct after a while. You don't need to do anything.
  • This guarantees that Mega Laser can be fired on the next wave.
• X-81 excels against Condors and Rocs due to Ion Cannon .
  • Use the first Mega Laser for initial damage , then stun the Condor or Roc .
  • Then strip the shield using the AIM-540 Mantis before charging a second Mega Laser .
  • You can charge a 3rd Mega Laser if it's a Roc and it is the last wave.

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

• Try to get the AIM-540 Mantis projectiles to be blocked by downfield Sparrows , as this will save a lot of time.
• It's a good idea to leave upfield Sparrows for last to clear out the wave.
• Use Ion Cannon to damage Invaders not hit by the AIM-540 Mantis so they cannot regenerate their shields.
• (+) Mega Laser is the primary way to go fast.
  • It is quite abusable since the AIM-540 Mantis projectiles take time to reach the last Invader.
  • With correct estimation, you can start charging Mega Laser very early.
  • Stunning Invaders with Ion Cannon also allow charging Mega Laser more than once, especially against Condors and Rocs .
• (+) In earlier waves, Ion Cannon helps to clears out Sparrows .
• When speedrunning, even when the last Invader has no turrets left, fire off just enough AIM-540 Mantis projectiles such that the last projectile impact will destroy that Invader.
  • Since the projectile requires some time to travel, Mega Laser can finish charging for usage in the the next wave.
  • This is much faster than letting the Invader self-destruct.
  • This usually requires firing off one projectile at a time and trying to charge Mega Laser after each time.

Fun Factor: A-

• (+) The AIM-540 Mantis is a very unique main weapon , with a firing animation that is very cool to watch in action.
• (+) Seeing the end result of Invaders without turrets floating about helplessly puts a smile on your face.
  • Even Ravens (a bit more rare, but can happen if allowed to regenerate their shields), Eagles and Vultures are not spared.
  • In the middle of a wave, if you see an Invader with no turrets left, you can shift yourself to the other side of the field and deal with the rest of the Invaders so as to avoid an AIM-540 Mantis projectile getting blocked by that useless Invader.
    • Then laugh as that Invader self-destructs moments later.
• (=) Although pretty automatic, getting the AIM-540 Mantis projectiles to target what you want can be difficult.
• (+) Quite satisfying impact sounds from the AIM-540 Mantis.
• (-) Pretty strange shape of X-81 with a pretty strange ship core position.

Trivia

• The base form and apexes of X-81 were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• X-81 was only introduced into Phoenix 2 at v3.0.
• The AIM-540 Mantis look like mini-versions of X-81 themselves, except without more explicit wings but only flaps.
• The AIM-540 Mantis used to be 21.25 DPS before the v3.5 update.
• Prior to the v4.5 update, X-81 Beta used to fire both projectiles at the same time, which caused both projectiles to usually hit the same target. Thankfully, as of the v4.5 update, one of the projectiles accelerates 50ms before the other, avoiding scenarios where both projectiles hit the same target at the same time. This also gives a bit more time for the second projectile to re-target.
• The dev initially thought X-81 would be too strong due to its active turret targeting system, which explains the reason why the AIM-540 Mantis was initially only 21.25 DPS.
• The X-81 is inspired by the Grumman X-29, a real life experimental aircraft, with pretty much the same design. The dev, being a jet enthusiast, immediately saw the reference, even though he did not came out with the design.
  
• The AIM-540 Mantis was inspired by the real life missile AIM-54 Phoenix.
• X-81 is the cheapest Super Rare ship to fully upgrade (to 6-6-6) and get both its apexes, coming in at only ¢37.300 (¢3.000 for buying X-81, ¢9.300 for fully upgrading, ¢10.000 for the Beta Apex & ¢15.000 for the Gamma Apex), assuming you buy everything with your own credits (including buying to unlock the ship itself).
• Here's a capture of the cool animation of how the AIM-540 Mantis work. The projectiles slide out from the underbelly of X-81 in a diagonally upward direction.
  

_{Back to All Ships}

Apexes

Beta (Main Weapon Twin Launchers) - ¢10.000

Value: A
Cost vs Utility: S

This apex splits the AIM-540 Mantis projectile into 2, firing 2 projectiles in a single burst, while keeping the DPS same. The second projectile accelerates towards its target only 50ms after the first one accelerates (still after 400ms). Here's how the Twin Launchers for AIM-540 Mantis looks like:

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

• (+) Eliminates dense waves faster.

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

• (+) Much more efficient in dealing against Sparrows since one burst of the AIM-540 Mantis now deals against 2 Sparrows.
  • Unfortunately, it's not always perfect since the high speed of the AIM-540 Mantis projectiles means they can miss.
    • There is still a chance that both projectiles of the same burst will target the same Sparrow .
  • Sometimes, if the AIM-540 Mantis projectiles are targeting other Invaders, Sparrows can unintentionally get caught in the flight path, which is a good thing.
• (+) Takes down Ravens much faster too, since it takes only 3 projectiles to take down a Raven.
  • Compare this to 2 projectiles from the base ship, the 1 additional projectile from this apex can be re-directed to another Raven and take it down with one less burst of the AIM-540 Mantis.
• (+) Generally speaking, deals against dense waves more quickly, especially when there are many Sparrows and Ravens .

Fun Factor: A [+]

• (+) Even better visual spectacle and slightly better audio experience to see the action of more AIM-540 Mantis projectiles flying about and hitting Invaders.

_{Back to All Ships/Apexes}

Gamma (IC Overcharge) - ¢15.000

Value: D-
Cost vs Utility: B

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

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

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

Fun Factor: A- [No change]

_{Back to All Ships/Apexes}

Scuuxun

Strong against: Shuriken/Pellet/Laser
Weak against: None in particular

Ship Class: Safer-FO
+

Main Weapon: T'Kari Spikes

• Average DPS = 31.25
• Weapon Class = Uninterruptible Burst
• Projectile Speed = 30 to 1500 with accelerations of 650, 500, 350 & 200 corresponding from the top layer to bottom layer of projectiles (Very Slow, then Medium)
• Reload Time = 1.1s (Slow)
• Projectile Hit Circle Radius = 5
• 5 slowly accelerating forward firing projectiles arranged in a upward chevron pattern, the more frontal projectiles accelerating faster
  

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

• (-) With Reflex EMP as its only real defence, Scuuxun has very little to rely on for defence.
• Use Reflex EMP wisely.
  • You can use it 1s before the lasers fire so you have enough time to avoid lasers.
• (-) Not easy to pop turrets off with the T'Kari Spikes.
  • The slow moving T'Kari Spikes make it quite difficult to pop turrets off quickly.
  • They can get the job done, just not as quickly as you expect it to.
  • Only bother popping turrets with the T'Kari Spikes on Eagles and above.
• (-) Very difficult to handle T'Kari Spikes.
  • Rely more on Laser Storm and Reflex EMP to deal damage.
  • The T'Kari Spikes are more of supporting damage.
• Always have Laser Storm going off as much as possible, since that will be your primary form of damage.
• (-) Difficult against denser waves since Reflex EMP isn't very strong, and neither is Laser Storm .
  • The T'Kari Spikes take some time to eliminate dense waves since there are only 5 projectiles per burst, which may not be enough to eliminate one side of the field.
  • Not to mention they travel slowly.

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

• (=) The T'Kari Spikes are slow but hit hard.
  • Particularly useful against larger Invaders such as Herons or above.
• Since the T'Kari Spikes are slow travelling, retreat downfield once a wave is cleared as far as possible to allow the T'Kari Spikes to hit Invaders in the next wave.
• Quickly go up to the center of the action when a new wave starts to stream in from the top of the screen and immediately charge Reflex EMP .
• Use Laser Storm to clear out Ravens and Sparrows (if Reflex EMP is not possible on that wave) quickly.
  • Do not rely on the T'Kari Spikes for the cleanup of a wave, use Laser Storm instead.
• Try to split up the T'Kari Spikes to hit 2 Ravens to take them out quickly.
• Make sure you land Reflex EMP on all Invaders, but stay behind larger Invaders such as Herons or larger if possible.
  • This allows the powerful T'Kari Spikes to hit the larger Invaders.
• Especially for early waves, make sure Laser Storm finishes off the last wave of an Act.
  • Delay the activation of Laser Storm if you have to to ensure Laser Storm kills off the wave just nice.
  • You don't want to chase down the remaining Invaders in the wave with the T'Kari Spikes, or waste a Laser Storm .

Fun Factor: A-

• (+) Reflex EMP and Laser Storm are both fun to use.
• (-) Very difficult to handle T'Kari Spikes due to its sluggishness to accelerate to speed.
• (-) Slightly forward ship core positioning, which is a little strange.
• (=) Despite the T'Kari Spikes hitting hard in terms of damage, the impact sounds don't quite match up to its power.

Trivia

• The base form and apexes of Scuuxun were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Scuuxun was only introduced into Phoenix 2 at v3.0.
• Before the v4.0 update which introduced Apex forms, the Tau Apex of Scuuxun was teased on the Instagram page of Firi Games:
  

_{Back to All Ships}

Apexes

Tau (REMP Extended Range) - ¢40.000

Value: A-
Cost vs Utility: B

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

• (+) Increase in bullet clearance range.
• (+) Easier to avoid incoming laser fire, which can be difficult for Scuuxun due to the rather infrequent bursts of T'Kari spikes.

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

• (+) Allows you to stay behind some larger Invaders much more easily, rather than going above them to have Reflex EMP cover smaller Invaders behind.
  • Easier to have the T'Kari Spikes hit the larger Invader in front.
  • Much less DPS wastage on either overkill damage on upfield smaller Invaders or missing a couple of T'Kari Spikes.

Fun Factor: A- [No significant change]

• (+) Easier to land T'Kari Spikes effectively while charging Reflex EMP in front of larger Invaders.

_{Back to All Ships/Apexes}

Delta (Main Weapon Seeker T'Kari) - ¢20.000

Value: B
Cost vs Utility: A

This apex makes the T’Kari Spikes have slight homing capabilities (Maximum Turning Rate = 10).

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

• (+) Allows the T'Kari Spikes to hit some difficult to reach Invaders, relieving some bullet pressure.
• (+) Hits smaller Invaders like Ravens and Herons more easily when downfield, so there's no need to chase them down.

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

• (=) Doesn't really help when playing upfield, which is necessary when needing to have Laser Storm going off at all times, since some Laser Storms have smaller radii.
• (=) The homing isn't that great either, because the T'Kari Spikes accelerate.
  • If the Invaders aren't on field yet, the homing doesn't do too much to correct the paths after the T'Kari Spikes accelerate.
• (=) The homing T'Kari Spikes doesn't really help in the speedrunning playstyle of pushing forward just before a wave fully arrives much.
  • The homing helps more when Scuuxun stays downfield to let the T'Kari Spikes home onto Invaders upfield.

Fun Factor: A- [No significant change]

• (+) A bit less frustration when playing a laidback Scuuxun that stays downfield.

_{Back to All Ships/Apexes}

Shogun

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: Phantom Katana

• Average DPS = 31.25
• Target Tracking = Instant
• Weapon Class = Interruptible Burst
  
  • (Cone Triggered - Synchronous)
• Capacity = 50ms
• Rate of Fire = 0.5s (Medium)
• Reload Time = 1.1s (Slow)
• 4 successive instant tracking infinitely fast and short beams, where the sequence will continue if the pre-determined locked on target is within the 160° forward arc in front of the ship
  

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

• (-) Reflex EMP as its only defence.
• (+) Very strong 31.25 DPS Phantom Katana for its instant target tracking .
• (+) This also means that you can fully focus on dodging.
• (-) Not able to pop turrets effectively due to the target tracking of Phantom Katana.
• (-) Blade Storm also doesn't really pop turrets effectively since it distributes damage throughout all targets in range equally.
• (-) As the targeting cone of the Phantom Katana is only 160°, going above Invaders will stop the Phantom Katana from dealing damage.
  • This can be a problem when trying to dodge bullets.
  • To avoid this problem, try to stay downfield.
• (+) The Blade Storm Aura is far reaching, which means you can be downfield quite safely.

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

• (+) Like the predecessor game Phoenix HD, Shogun relies a lot on grazing bullets to go fast and spam Blade Storm .
  • To graze is compulsory to go fast with Shogun.
  • Shogun has a mild advantage when grazing, gaining 2.2 energy per graze (normal is 2 energy per graze).
• (+) The high DPS of 31.25, and Phantom Katana leaking absolutely no damage (other than overkill damage), Shogun wrecks fast in the presence of dense waves since the target switching is instant.
• The Phantom Katana works like a infinitely fast and short beam.
  • Damage from Phantom Katana is sent out from 2 invisible spawn points
    • One spawn point is on the left, while the other one is on the right. Both are slightly in front of Shogun's ship core.
    • It alternates between the left and right spawn points evenly. Each one is independent of the other.
      • After the Invader a spawn point targeted is destroyed, Shogun looks for the next Invader closest to the line of fire the previous katana slash was sent out.
      • In other words, it looks for the nearest Invader by angle to the previous target point.
    • This means at the start of some waves, by knowing which spawn point will activate, you can go near to a Raven or larger to make the Phantom Katana hit the Raven or larger so that you don't accidentally kill a lone Sparrow .
      • This is especially useful when charging an Reflex EMP since wasting one Phantom Katana slash on a lone Sparrow means a lot in early waves.
      • The Phantom Katana usually locks on faster than you can start charging Reflex EMP .
  • When the Phantom Katana goes off, the slash travels in a straight line in the direction of the target as determined by Shogun.
    • This means this slash can be blocked by other Invaders.
    • The beam-like property of Phantom Katana means overkill damage from one slash continues to travel in a straight line past the destroyed Invader.
  • The second fact about overkill damage can be taken advantage of.
  • Particularly, in early waves, the Phantom Katana can be lined up nicely such that at least 2 Sparrows will be downed by one slash of the Phantom Katana.
    • It is possible to line up a Sparrow against a Raven such that the Sparrow is killed and the Raven gets damaged.
    • Lining up other weakened Invaders (that go down with one slash) with another behind is also possible.
    • However, this is often extremely difficult since Ravens move around too quickly.
    • With larger Invaders, there is no way to determine which target point the Phantom Katana is aiming at so there's no point to bother.
• (+) Blade Storm is like a hybrid of Missile Swarm and Laser Storm .
  • Like Missile Swarm , Blade Storm is disposed of very quickly.
  • But like Laser Storm , Blade Storm spreads damage among targets evenly.
  • In most cases, Blade Storm disposes even faster than Missile Swarm since Missile Swarm requires all its missiles to hit their locked on targets before the next Missile Swarm is ready.
• Blade Storm works exactly like Phantom Katana, in that damage is sent out in beams of straight lines from Shogun itself.
  • Essentially, Blade Storm at Ultimate level, is like sending out 20 weaker Phantom Katana slashes of 5 damage each.
  • This means any Invader blocking the way of a straight line in the intended target for will absorb the damage instead.
• (+) Despite the apparent lackluster damage of Blade Storm , it is highly spammable due to how quickly it recharges from both the speed from Shogun's gameplay and how much faster it is to gain Blade Storm Aura to full.
• Always allow the Phantom Katana to go into action first.
• (+) Aim to finish off a wave with Blade Storm .
  • Wasting Blade Storm damage wastes less damage than wasting Phantom Katana damage.
  • If you can dispose of Blade Storm in midwave, but still get enough Aura for at least a 3/4 sized Blade Storm Aura, do it to not overfill on Aura.
  • This requires a lot of understanding how much different Aura sizes of Blade Storm can kill.
• (+) The poor capability of Shogun to pop turrets off works in Shogun's favor in speedrunning due to the bullet hell it is exposed to.
  • When overwhelmed with way too many bullets to dodge properly, use Reflex EMP to save you.
• Use Reflex EMP to open up a wave whenever possible to deal as much AoE damage as you can.
  
  • However, it may not always be a good idea to open up with Reflex EMP at the start of the first wave of an Act.
  • Sometimes, the next wave is more viable to use Reflex EMP .
  • In such cases, using Phantom Katana and Blade Storm are better to clear out the lighter wave.
• To prevent the powerful Phantom Katana from wasting time to kill Sparrows that should be killed by Reflex EMP , go above all Sparrows to launch Reflex EMP.
  • Remember that one cycle of Phantom Katana is 4 slashes.
  • This means it can be beneficial to waste the final slash of Phantom Katana of the cycle to not wait for Phantom Katana to reset in the next wave, especially if one slash could not kill the next wave.
  • This technique is usually more relevant for early Acts since later Acts require many more Phantom Katana slashes, so you are bound to hit the reload time between Phantom Katana cycles.
• For much heavier waves where you are expecting to use Blade Storm more than once, it is a good idea to have both Reflex EMP and Blade Storm work simultaneously.
  • First, prepare yourself in position to charge Reflex EMP .
  • Wait for the wave to arrive, then trigger Blade Storm before immediately charging Reflex EMP .
  • A full Blade Storm will last for 1s, and Blade Storm has a cooldown of 0.2s afterwards.
  • The remaining 0.4s after Reflex EMP has went off can then spread out to the remaining Invaders.
  • Since Reflex EMP isn't very powerful, Blade Storm will weaken the Invaders enough for Reflex EMP to possibly kill these Invaders.
• Always let Blade Storm be in range of all Invaders where possible to deliver the finishing blow to all Invaders for that wave.
• For even more tips on how to speedrun with Shogun, refer to this website:
  https://p2myth.club/docs/Cookbook/Shogun

Fun Factor: S

• (+) Very nice rhythm to the Phantom Katana since the 4 slashes sound like some kind of music with a 4/4 beat.
• (+) Very cool and impactful Phantom Katana impact sounds. Each slash sounds quite true to a real life samurai's katana slash (you can faintly hear the metallic shing sound).
• (+) Very fun to spam Blade Storm . The cumulative slashing sounds from Blade Storm is very satisfying, as well as the visuals of the Blade Storm going off.
• (+) Almost no RNG associated with Blade Storm compared to its counterpart Missile Swarm .
• (+) For an extremely fast speedrunning ship, there's not much need to aim, especially in later Acts.
  • Yet, the Phantom Katana has such high DPS, which matches a lot of the speedrunning ships out there.
• (+) The lack of need to aim makes Shogun a pretty stress free ship to casually speedrun with.
• (+) Reflex EMP deals nice AoE damage .
• (-) Slightly more forward ship core positioning.

Trivia

• The base form and apexes of Shogun were designed by Romano Molenaar.
• Shogun was only introduced into Phoenix 2 at v3.1.
• The Sigma Apex of Shogun, being one of the most popular apexes, is commonly referred to Siggun in Phoenix 2 communities.
• Shogun is one of the 5 ships that got brought over from Phoenix 2's predecessor game, Phoenix HD.
• Here's how Shogun looks like in Phoenix HD:
  
• Shogun's Blade Storm Aura is unique. Its Aura also has the highest radius in the game when upgraded to Ultimate .
• According to the dev, the Blade Storm Aura could pass off as sort of biohack tribal tattoo.
• The original Blade Storm Aura had a Yin Yang theme, but this was reduced as the Aura circles became cleaner as updates went by.
• According to the dev, the Blade Storm Aura was based on summoning circles mixed with Neji's attack range diagram as shown below:
  
• It would not had been possible to replicate its weapon from Phoenix HD in Phoenix 2.
  • Every slash in Phoenix HD is produced by one graze of a bullet, damaging Invaders.
  • The pure volume of bullets in Phoenix 2 would make this behaviour in Phoenix HD too OP.
• Unfortunately, there is an aspect of Shogun from Phoenix HD which is not replicated at all in Phoenix 2, even in its apexes. When Shogun goes close to Invaders in Phoenix HD, it unleashes an electric beam to the Invaders.
• Just like the katana slashes in the predecessor game Phoenix HD, the color of the slashes change.
  • However, they only change between Phantom Katana level upgrades .
  • The below image shows how the Phantom Katana changes looks like at some levels. Every level's Phantom Katana appearance is distinct.
    
• Ships in Phoenix 2 no longer have descriptions, but since Shogun was brought over from Phoenix HD, the description given to Shogun in Phoenix HD is: An advanced ship for elite pilots. Its weapons are powered by flying dangerously close to enemy bullets and ships. This description has some truth in it. The first part is probably true due to how offence oriented Shogun is, but the second part is true in the extent that the Blade Storm Aura is increased by flying close to enemy bullets.
• According to the devs, the balancing of Shogun, including its main weapon and unique Blade Storm Aura , took around 2 months, including prototyping, testing, playing, changing playing, etc.
• Shogun has its own preview gameplay video by Firi Games.
• The graze animation for Shogun Epsilon is different, using a turquoise slash instead of the traditional red one. Unlike the normal graze effect, there is also an additional turquoise electric spark effect between Shogun's core and the graze slash.
  • This could be a reference to Phoenix HD, the predecessor game of Phoenix 2, as Shogun in Phoenix HD had a close combat weapon that activates an electric spark.
  • However, the electric sparks made in Phoenix HD were darker blue in color, more like royal blue.

_{Back to All Ships}

Apexes

Epsilon (Graze ) - ¢25.000

Value: S-
Cost vs Utility: B

This apex increases the amount of energy gained per graze from 2.2 to 2.44 energy per graze, as well as slightly increasing the minimum graze distance from a bullet / laser from 20 to 22. There is no visual difference in Phantom Katana.

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

• (+) A bit more damage from Blade Storm to eliminate Invaders faster.
• (+) Being easier to graze means more leniency and a bit less likely to die.

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

• (+) Allows you to graze more bullets more easily, the more dense the bullet hell gets.
• (+) You can basically just keep spamming Blade Storm all the time.
  • Especially against dart or pellet spinners, It is possible to just keep spamming Blade Storm until the whole wave is cleared.
  • Being trapped between more than 2 spinners is a huge bliss, since the Aura increase is insane.
  • The fast disposing nature of Blade Storm sometimes may not even be enough before the next Blade Storm Aura is completely refilled.
  • Well, who cares, right? Just spam Blade Storm away.
• (=) Doesn't make a huge difference in early waves though.

Fun Factor: S+ [+]

• (+) Very easy to feel the effects of this apex, even if you are not a great player.
  • A very good apex for a pretty casual Shogun player who just wants to have fun playing Shogun.
• (+) Watching your Blade Storm Aura increase even faster is very satisfying.
• (+) Not to mention being able to spam Blade Storm even more, even on heavier waves.

_{Back to All Ships/Apexes}

Sigma (REMP High Damage) - ¢35.000

Value: X
Cost vs Utility: X

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

• (+) Kills Armored Ravens significantly faster.
• (+) Kills Unprotected Ravens instantly.

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

• (+) Extremely powerful apex.
• (+) Extremely viable in Unprotected missions, since Unprotected Ravens go poof instantly.
• (+) Significantly faster, which means that Blade Storm can sometimes be fired immediately after the Reflex EMP .
  • In later waves, Blade Storm can be fired much earlier rather than waiting for the Phantom Katana to cut down the total health of Invaders on field.
• Don't use the strategy of releasing Blade Storm and then release Reflex EMP since that will waste Reflex EMP damage with this apex.
  • But if it's against waves that only have Herons or larger, then this strategy can still be viable.
• The speedrunning strategies with this apex is pretty much the same as base Shogun, just that you need faster reflexes and also need to re-adapt to when you can finish off a wave with Blade Storm .

Fun Factor: X [++]

• (+) Crushing Unprotected Ravens instantly is an extreme joy.
• (+) Crushing Armored Ravens significantly faster is also very satisfying.
• (+) Makes Shogun frighteningly fast, which accelerates the pace of Shogun even further, causing high adrenaline rushes.

_{Back to All Ships/Apexes}

NC-271

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

Ship Class: Balanced
+

Main Weapon: Plasma Cluster

• Average DPS = 37.5
• Weapon Class = Uninterruptible Burst
• Spread = -2.5° to 2.5° (Extremely Narrow)
• Projectile Speed = 450 (Slow)
• Reload Time = 1.5s (Slow)
• Projectile Hit Circle Radius = 12
• 7 rows of 3 projectiles fired in a general forward direction with a very small spread
  

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

• (-) Because of the infrequent burst of Plasma Cluster, it is difficult to play upfield, so NC-271 usually stays nearer downfield.
• Because of Plasma Cluster's better than average capability to deal with Raven and Sparrow crowds, Ion Cannon becomes a supplement since the burst only happens once every 1.5s.
  • This slightly covers up Ion Cannon's weakness of being unable to deal with crowds.
• Don't spam Ion Cannons to punch through Invaders. Just use the Plasma Cluster to cut through Invaders.
  • Once you cut through one side of Invaders, go above and stun larger Invaders upfield.
• Instead, reserve Ion Cannons to stun larger Invaders such as Eagles and above.
• If there are Eagles in front, you can stun them and go behind to stun the Vulture or larger.
  • Don't go behind Eagles to stun Ravens . It's just not worthwhile.
  • But you can go behind Eagles to kill Herons immediately if they are threatening.
• (+) Pretty easy to do turret popping with Plasma Cluster.
  • Since 1 burst of the Plasma Cluster is enough to down the shields of a Vulture , a 2nd Plasma Cluster can pop off a turret.
  • Choose carefully which turrets you want to pop off, because Plasma Cluster bursts only come once every 1.5s.
• (+) Obviously, NC-271 is best against Condors and Rocs , since Ion Cannon keeps them stunned and Plasma Cluster's high DPS destroys them quickly.
• (+) Quite easy to pop off difficult-to-reach turrets on a Condor and Roc .
  • Plasma Cluster downs the shield quickly, while Ion Cannon keeps them stunned so you can go right up to the difficult-to-reach turrets to pop them off.
  • Against a Roc , you will need at least 4 Ion Cannons to get the job done.
  • Make sure the "mouth" of NC-271 slightly overlaps the difficult-to-reach turret, otherwise the turret may not be downed in one burst.
• (+) Use Personal Shield to defend against lasers .
  • It can also be used against bullets, but reserve it primarily for lasers unless there aren't any in that wave.
  • Try not to use it against speed lasers unless necessary, since those don't deal much counter damage.

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

• One burst of the Plasma Cluster is once every 1.5s.
• (+) Highly damaging Plasma Cluster clears out large Invaders very fast.
  • 4 bursts of the Plasma Cluster kills a Shielded Vulture .
  • 2 bursts of the Plasma Cluster downs the shield of a Roc .
  • 1 bursts of the Plasma Cluster just nice kills a Shielded Heron .
    • If any Sparrows get in the way, then the Heron cannot be destroyed.
    • In this scenario, throw an Ion Cannon at the heavily damaged Heron to destroy it.
    • This potentially damages other Invaders, or stuns some Invaders in place for easier landing of the Plasma Cluster.
• (+) The Plasma Cluster can be considered somewhat piercing since the burst contains so many little projectiles.
  • The little projectiles can continue to punch through smaller Invaders like Sparrows and Ravens after killed.
  • Line up the Plasma Cluster burst with 2 Ravens , or multiple Sparrows .
  • Go as close as possible to your first target in the column you intend to fire the Plasma Cluster so there'll be a higher chance that it will hit your intended targets behind.
• (+) Due to the large number of individual projectiles from the Plasma Cluster, there is very little overkill damage, making the Plasma Cluster almost like a beam.
• Reserve Ion Cannons to be used opportunistically where possible.
  • If 2 Ravens come very close to each other, overlapping each other slightly, immediately throw an Ion Cannon to stun them both and aim the Plasma Cluster to eliminate them both.
  • Use Ion Cannon to kill a Sparrow if it's far away and alone so as to not waste Plasma Cluster on it. It's better to waste the small overkill damage from Ion Cannon than from the Plasma Cluster.
  • Even better if you can kill 2 Sparrows with one Ion Cannon .
  • Against larger Invaders, try to only stun with 1 or 2 Ion Cannons to conserve Ion Cannons for opportunistic moments in the next wave.
  • If you are overflowing on particles, use Ion Cannons normally to stun larger Invaders where needed.
  • Remember that stunning Invaders also mean more maneuvering space, which is great in aiming the Plasma Cluster.
• (+) Personal Shield can be used if there are sufficient lasers on screen to deal huge counter offensive damage.
  • Since the Plasma Cluster's DPS is very high, only use Personal Shield for laser reflection if there are more than 5 lasers to reflect.
  • If it's not worthwhile to use Personal Shield for laser reflection , stun the laser turrets instead.
  • Particularly, stun annoying speed lasers since those do very little counter damage.
• (+) If Personal Shield isn't worthwhile for laser reflection , it can be reserved so that you can get to other Invaders more quickly by activating Personal Shield to use its Fade Out.
  • Ensure one burst of Plasma Cluster goes off first, then charge Personal Shield .
  • At the very moment Personal Shield is active, exit Personal Shield and use Fade Out to cut across some bullets for better repositioning to hit the Plasma Cluster.

Fun Factor: B

• (+) Strangely satisfying impact sounds from the Plasma Cluster since all the projectiles are so close to each other.
• (+) The perceived piercing ability of the Plasma Cluster is pretty fun, especially against Ravens and Sparrows .
• (-) Hunting down Sparrows is a difficult task.
  • And so is aligning 2 Ravens together to kill them both.
• (-) The pretty weird asymmetrical shape of NC-271 makes the ship core positioning feel a bit strange.

Trivia

• The base form and apexes of NC-271 were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• NC-271 was only introduced into Phoenix 2 at v3.2.
• NC-271 is asymmetrical, unlike most ships.
• NC-271 is one of the only 2 ships that has its name printed on the ship itself, the other one being its "predecessor" ship NC-150.
• It might be possible that NC-271 has a Shield Breaker Plasma kind of main weapon , Ion Cannon and Personal Shield since it is a "successor" ship to NC-150, which also has a Shield Breaker Plasma kind of main weapon & Personal Shield. The Ion Cannon projectile could canonically be the next generation of Invader turret stun technology over Stun EMP , as it even stops Invader movement.
• NC-271 was the only Shield Breaker ship with 37.5 DPS before the v5.0 update.
  • In fact, it was only in v3.5 that it's main weapon damage was buffed to 37.5 DPS.
  • NC-271 also used to have a slightly tighter weapon spread before v3.5.
• Visually, there can be anywhere from 271 particles or above in a single burst, and this is random, according to the dev. Perhaps that is how this ship got its name? You can try counting it for yourself in the image of the Plasma Cluster above...
• The Delta Apex of NC-271 is labeled FG-104 as seen on the apex itself.
• A fan art of the NC-271 Beta apex made by aluminumgum was re-posted by Firi Games on FaceBook:
  

_{Back to All Ships}

Apexes

Beta (PS Supersize) - ¢10.000

Value: A-
Cost vs Utility: A

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

• (+) Gives NC-271 better maneuvering capability from the increase in Fade Out distance when dealing against bullets.

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

• (+) Catches a bit more lasers , especially from laser spreads, for laser reflection damage.

Fun Factor: B [No significant change]

_{Back to All Ships/Apexes}

Delta (IC Blast Amplifier) - ¢20.000

Value: A+
Cost vs Utility: A

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

• (+) Easier to catch Sparrows in the blast radius of Ion Cannon .
• (+) Downs Ravens slightly faster.
• (+) Can now use Ion Cannons to punch a hole in one side of the field to reach upfield larger Invaders to stun .

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

• (+) Powerful against dense waves.
• (+) Ion Cannon becomes a viable offensive AoE damage means to use against Ravens and Sparrows alike.
  • Spam Ion Cannons to kill these smaller Invaders quickly.
• (+) Much less hunting down of Sparrows since more Sparrows can be caught in the blast radius of Ion Cannon.

Fun Factor: B+ [+]

• (+) Less Sparrow hunting.
• (+) More responsive AoE damage from Ion Cannon .

_{Back to All Ships/Apexes}

Predator

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

Ship Class: Balanced
+

Main Weapon: Dual Blaster

• Average DPS = 31.25
• Weapon Class = Interruptible Burst
• Rate of Fire = 0.06s (Fast)
• Projectile Speed = 750 with an acceleration of 500 (Fast)
• Reload Time = 1s (Medium)
• Projectile Hit Circle Radius = 3
• 11 sets of 2 close side-by-side forward firing projectiles
  

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

• (=) Very technical and surgical gameplay.
  • Requires using barriers to precisely block off boomerangs and cutting off bullet lanes.
• (+) Standard barrier techniques are still employed where possible.
  • Place a large barrier around Invaders to make use of the inner lining .
• After the large barrier is deployed, head back downfield and stay behind the barrier.
• Then look for the most Invader dense spot and place a smaller barrier such that the top edge of the barrier is where you want to be, as close as where you can be.
• Wait for the right opportunity, where it is comfortable to head slightly above the barrier to place a smaller barrier.
  • If no such opportunity exists, deploy the smaller barrier closest to the edge of the larger barrier.
• Once the smaller barrier is deployed, quickly head into the barrier (as it will not last long), and release an Reflex EMP to deal damage .
  • Reflex EMP primarily becomes an offensive tool.
  • All these must be done quickly when the wave arrives.
• After using Reflex EMP , sweep on one side of the field to get rid of all Ravens on that side. Do the same for the other side.
• (-) Predator's Dual Blaster is pretty thin, so it might be hard to land shots on rapidly moving Ravens .
• (+) Easy to pop off turrets with the Dual Blaster.
  • Landing one full burst on a Vulture turret immediately pops it off.
• (-) At later waves, it may become too dangerous to deploy barriers upfield.
• This is when surgical barriers matter.
  • Deploy barriers around yourself such that crowds of Invaders are just outside the barrier.
  • This blocks off bullets effectively.
  • Release Reflex EMP at the edge of the barrier just before the barrier's Fade Out is over so you have more breathing space.
  • Particle conservation is very important here in order to keep on deploying small barriers to keep out bullets.
• At the end of every wave, there should be enough time for you to go upfield to deploy a new barrier .
  • If not, since the Dual Blaster is pretty thin, spend some time to cool off bullets. Then place the barrier upfield.
  • The newly deployed large barrier can also help destroy the last few Ravens more easily.
  • Don't take your time to destroy the Ravens after the barrier is deployed since the barrier will continue to take damage from the Ravens' turrets.
• (+) To avoid lasers , deploy a barrier around yourself just before the lasers fire.
• Always allow a full burst of Dual Blaster to go off before charging Reflex EMP .

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

• (+) Optimal Reflex EMP positioning deals respectable damage.
  • Try to clear off as many dangerous turrets on field as possible.
  • Since Predator's DPS is reasonably high, and while Reflex EMP's damage is mediocre, it's not too difficult to pop off many turrets before clearing a wave.
• (-) Due to Predator's technical gameplay, if you don't kill fast enough, you can run into end-wave problems which requires quite a lot of dodging.
  • Because the Dual Blasters' spread is thin, you waste DPS.
• One burst of Dual Blaster destroys up to 2 Ravens when optimized properly.
  • With Reflex EMP , it can kill up to 3 Ravens .
• 3 bursts of Dual Blaster take out 2 Armored Herons .
• Knowing how to sweep effectively with Dual Blaster is key to going fast with Predator.
  • Especially in early waves, since Reflex EMP won't be able to kill the Sparrows in every wave.

Fun Factor: A

• (+) Pretty easy to handle Dual Blaster.
• (+) Great impact sounds from Dual Blaster.
• (+) Pretty unique gameplay can use Barrier differently from other barrier ships.
• (+) Reflex EMP does respectable AoE damage .
• (=) Average ship core positioning.

Trivia

• The base form and apexes of Predator were designed by Rogier van de Beek.
• Predator was only introduced into Phoenix 2 at v3.2.

_{Back to All Ships}

Apexes

Delta (REMP High Damage) - ¢20.000

Value: S-
Cost vs Utility: A

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

• (+) Kills Armored Ravens significantly faster.
• (+) Wipes out Unprotected Ravens clean off the field.
  • Thus, viable in Unprotected missions as well.

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

• (+) Generally deals more AoE damage to all Invaders.
• (+) Significantly easier to do Dual Blaster sweeps across all Ravens on field.
  • One good sweep and all Ravens damaged by Reflex EMP are gone.

Fun Factor: A+ [+]

• (+) Satisfying Dual Blaster sweeps to clean the field off of heavily damaged Armored Ravens .

_{Back to All Ships/Apexes}

Alpha (Barrier Reinforced Lining) - ¢5.000

Value: A-
Cost vs Utility: A

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

• (+) Good buff to Predator's defensive capabilities.
• (+) Prolongs the time you have to pop turrets off from larger Invaders.
  • Popping off more dangerous turrets first creates opportunities to pop even more upfield barriers .
  • This significantly increases Barrier's defensive capabilities.
• (+) Able to deploy more upfield barriers .
• (+) Thus, easier to use Reflex EMP for AoE damage instead of clearing bullets.

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

• (=) A good speedrunner doesn't really need the additional defense to pull off optimal Reflex EMP placements.

Fun Factor: A [No change]

_{Back to All Ships/Apexes}