FAQ (IOS) by light_rock_zz

Version: 3.1 | Updated: 06/20/2024
FAQ of the Month Winner: January 2020 | Highest Rated Guide

Tier List (Introduction)

Detailed Breakdown of each ship and its Apexes, ranked by Survivability, Speedrunning, Fun Factor, Beginner Friendliness & Uniqueness. Detailed Strategies to Survive and Speedrun for each ship

This Tier List is created for the daily and community missions in Phoenix 2 Version 6.3.11.

Firstly, I need to explain what type of player am I. I generally lean towards a more defensive playstyle. That being said, I am able to handle offensive ships and even full offence ships to a good extent. I would consider myself more of a player who specializes in survival skills. However, in the speedrunning field, while I am by no means the top of the player base, I believe I belong to the better half of players in terms of speedrunning. Better than casual players, better than most enthusiastic players on Phoenix 2 online platforms, but easily beaten by the top players who speedrun Marshal missions on an almost daily basis.

On Marshal missions, I like to use Icarus Sigma for Armored missions. I use Baqlor Lambda for Unprotected missions. I use Baqlor Phi for Shielded missions. For Shuriken/MIRV & Dart/MIRV missions, I use either Phoenix Delta or AB8/Klyn Delta I also get the oBoB badge at almost any possible opportunity in a Marshal S4 mission. I have the 2nd most oBoB badges in the world, which amounts to over 200 (and counting).

In daily specialist missions, I achieve Top 1% most of the time. I have gotten almost all AAO badges available when it was properly introduced. There were some AAO badges given out to compensate for tougher missions that did not give out AAO badges yet, which I did not bother to compete because there was no incentive back then. I also took a break from Phoenix 2 for a short while.

For community missions, in most of my accounts, I used to properly speedrun get a good time, sometimes replaying if I'm not happy with the run. This allowed me to consistently achieve Top 1% in my communities for the accounts that I speedrun on, with the account that uses Full Offence ships always coming in first every community mission in a huge community. These days, I just clear community missions quite casually.

This guide has EIGHT Tier Lists. These Tier Lists are designed not only to advise you on the best ship to use for survival and speedrunning purposes, but to also encourage exploring other ships. The wide range of tier ratings, 2 of which are practical because of survival and speedrunning purposes, ensures each ship has a possible chance to prove itself to be worthy for you to pick up and try. Fun Factor is intended to give limelight to some ships where they are not practical but fun to mess around with. Uniqueness gives a bit more limelight to certain ships i may feel are a bit more special and should be explored. Lastly, the Beginner Friendliness Tier is designed to help beginners, or help slightly more experienced players understand the purpose of some ships that don't really seem to fit anywhere else. It may also give players who accidentally upgraded these ships the understanding that these ships are a good start to build their foundations for the path ahead of them.

I try my best not to bash a ship unless there is no reason to defend it. Because if Firi took the effort to design a ship, there has to be some value in it, otherwise it'll be ditched in the design process. If you see me not giving a ship enough love but you want to fight for the ship to deserve more limelight, you are welcome to contact me and send in your reasoning. I also try not to over-promote any ship, because I think other ships also deserve a chance to be tested. I try my best to be as objective as possible, and not practice favoritism or hatred towards any ship.

However, be warned that the tier list is still my own judgment of the ships in this game. It is still by no means an unbiased, complete and holistic judgment on what each ship may truly be. For this reason, do check out other Tier Lists to reach a general sense of each ship from different players. A table is shown below for the different tier lists from different Phoenix 2 versions.

The purpose of the tier lists in this guide are explained in the respective tier list pages themselves. The title of the tier list will also tell you a good idea of what each tier list is for. The difference between the Basic and Advanced Tier List is that the Basic Tier List does NOT include apexes, while the Advanced Tier List includes apexes. The reason for having 2 tier lists is the Basic Tier List caters to players who are either new to the game or only a few months in (which means they do not have a lot of credits yet to spend on apexes), while the Advanced Tier List caters to veteran players who are ready to purchase apexes. The reason why Beginner Friendliness List has only one list as that it does NOT have apexes. Beginners shouldn't invest in apexes as they should aim to build a hangar of reliable ships to clear missions in the game. The Unique Ships List also has only one list, and includes apexes as well, since players looking to find something special are usually willing to sink in some credits to experience something unique, and are usually already stable enough to clear missions consistently.

You may also create your own tier lists here at the link shown below. Note that any changes you make to the tier list of this link will only be visible by you, so sharing the link to others will have no use, you would have to take screenshot of it to send it to others. If you do create your own tier list, feel free to send it to me if you want it included in the guide! This has already been done by veteran players like 皓°-Scorpion丿, whom both of us have agreed to host it here on this guide.
https://tiermaker.com/create/phoenix-2-ships-16766598

Tier Lists (This Guide)

Without further ado, here are the tier lists:

All Ships (Alphabetical Ordering)

#

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

List of Tier Lists by other Authors

VersionAuthorCommentsTier List Link
v6.3.9+FBI Light RockYou are kinda looking at it right now :PClick Here
皓°-Scorpion丿

This Tier List is built for primarily speedrunning & skill training purposes.

From S-Tier to D-Tier, ships are ranked on the principle that the more accurate a player operates this ship, the more benefit derived. The derived benefit includes sharpening the player's skills and improving the player's position on the leaderboard. The higher the tier, the more skill a player can gain. In addition, the stronger the ship, the more it can cover mistakes made during speedrunning.

Note that A-Tier ships can have more ways to deal damage than S-Tier ships.

v6.xFlyingfish812

Known as the Phoenix 2 General Ship Exam, this tier list puts numerical scores on major subjects which are Main, Aura, and Zen, as well as minor subjects which are Survival, Speedrun, and Fun. The minor subjects (Survival, Speedrun, Fun) are also assigned letter ratings like the tier list used in this guide. In addition, each apex has an additional score of its own, known as APEX1 & APEX2.

  • Base Score = Main + Aura + Zen. Used for Base Rank position.
  • Low Score = Base Score + Min(APEX1, APEX2).
  • High Score = Base Score + Max(APEX1, APEX2). Used for Apex Rank position.
  • Final Score = Base Score + Survival + Speedrun + Fun + Max(APEX1, APEX2). Used for Final Rank position.
https://p2myth.club/Result
(Echelon) DavinKnown as the Meta Definition Project, this tier list is built by several Discord membershttps://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1g589HK4qS9nbbU78kQ3S78_rZ2A-ZpM-e0oVjCRpUbo/
v5.xFBI Light RockI decided to leave behind a historical version of the Tier List in Version 2.5b of this guide, for memorial sake, but also to let you see videos of how they play in the past, and how the meta was like in v5.0.Coming Soon
SgtNene-https://redd.it/dxam5x
LokiiofMilleniumIt is also a partial, incomplete guide on the basics of Invaders, Turrets, Ship main weapons, Auras, Zens and Apex abilities.https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gl78ua3o6P7kvvySRSODqKqlo7twSx8MDwRnzml95Hg
v4.xFBI Light RockI decided to leave behind a historical version of the Tier List in Version 1.3 of this guide, for memorial sake, but also to let you see videos of how they play in the past, and how the meta has changed in v5.0.https://drive.google.com/file/d/15rxS3diFnT9vmWFiYoFBtF-6jE7PIt1a/
Fvr_VainOriginally written in Chinese, translated by FBI Light Rockhttps://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1C6ZD0qU2twRB-n4jAIhCc4AmFXneH1OfpxSGtHniyMA/
LokiiofMilleniumFor v4.2https://goo.gl/DSWsdT
For v4.0https://redd.it/94r1bk
v3.5+LokiiofMillenium-https://redd.it/8jk4if
v3.4+LokiiofMillenium-https://redd.it/83t2hm
v3.1+LokiiofMillenium-https://redd.it/7i529y
v3.0+DestroytheselfMore specific by shiphttps://redd.it/78m023
More generic, description by per tierhttps://redd.it/6xenvi
v2.3+Emuser012-https://redd.it/6dyfeu

For each letter grade (except the highest grade X and the lowest grade C), there can also be a +/- which means it is slightly better/worse than other ships of its category, but not enough to push it to the next higher/lower tier according to the rough definition of the letter grades given below. Do not worry, my justification of each letter grade will be given when you read the section for the ship itself. Please take note that this tier list assumes that you intend to fully ult the ship.

Please note that the Tier List Rating scale is not linear. Sub-grade divisions are not equal in spacing. The letter grades are also not equally spaced apart, so to use a point system to space them apart would generally be inaccurate.

Tipbit!
Click the name of the ship you want to see in the the tier list table to navigate straight to that ship. I have also included a link at the end of every base form of a ship called Back to All Ships, which brings you back to the Basic Tier List, specifically which part it belongs to according to the chronological order of ships. At the end of every apex form of a ship, another link Back to All Ships/Apexes is included which brings you back to the Advanced Tier List, specifically which part it belongs to according to the chronological order of ships. Convenient!

In each ship, click on the respective Aura and Zen icons to go to some generic strategies for Auras and Zens themselves, which may not be stated under the specific ship itself due to a ton of repetition.

Please DO NOT enable Reader Mode on Safari when navigating to the specific ship you want, otherwise your browser will crash.

Ship Class

Ship class determines part of the ship's playstyle. Look for the playstyle you prefer from the class description and you can read about the ship specifics to determine if it'll suit you well enough. The 12 classes are as explained below (arranged from fully defensive to fully offensive, with the exception of versatile). Note that while some apexes may change the class of a ship, we will not consider that here since most apexes do not change the class of a ship.

This section has been split into 4 using horizontal lines. The first section contains only ships that have both abilities (Aura & Zen) as defensive. The second section contains only ships that have 1 defensive ability and 1 offensive ability. The third section contains only ships that have both abilities as offensive. The last section simply lists Versatile ships that can fit anywhere. Note that Kappa Drive will be considered offensive or defensive directly based on the Aura. So if the Aura is offensive, then Kappa shall be considered offensive, and if the Aura is defensive, Kappa shall be considered defensive.


Defensive

Playstyle is primarily oriented towards trying to desperately survive the madness of bullets and lasers. Ship core becomes of utmost importance, and killing invaders is usually secondary.

Defensive Ships: Shinova, Tar'Cah, Jericho, Yoth-Hola, Vuxine, Heechi, Sakura, Zephyr, Orion, Marauder, Widget

Double Defence

Both Aura and Zen are defensive, meaning the ship has many means to defend itself. However, you still need to focus on killing invaders as your Aura and Zen can only last you so long.

Double Defence Ships: Phoenix, Czar, Tillat'Or, Aurora, Gorthaur, Hunter, Njörun, Trinity, Lyova, Zhetass


Defend to Attack

Defensive means are deployed in order to aid the deployment of the offence.

Defend to Attack Ships: Jn'Dur, Kada Veni, Trireme, Baqlor, 502-Q8, Valkyrie, Qhelqod, Stinger, Esperon, Pandora, Disaris

Attack & Retreat

Pre-emptive offence is deployed before the ship retreats to defend itself.

Attack & Retreat Ships: Veil, Wrackr, Juggernaut, Atlas, Prime X, Boxer, Centurion

Balanced

A good balance of offence and defense, often used interchangeably or are well blended into each other.

Balanced Ships: Mist Star, Oran, Essin, Lokie, Sonah, X-81, NC-271, Predator, AB8/Klyn, Polaris, Xavis, Zimitr

Offensive

Oriented towards an aggressive playstyle, trying to kill as fast as you can before the invaders can overwhelm you. Different from Full Offence (FO) as survival is still key and you do need to care about the ship core as you can only go so fast, and bullets and lasers will still come for you.

Offensive Ships: Geist, Xaniea, Vani-Vith, Dragonfly, Barret, Proteus, Torrent, Antioch, Icarus, Mirage

Close Combat

Extremely offensive style that requires going up close and personal to invaders, usually almost at point blank range to be used effectively.

Close Combat Ships: NC-150, Krillou, Photurius, Arietis, Luna, Claymore

Lightfury

An even more offensive style, attempting to abuse ML as much as possible, even if it means running into rather long charge times. It is of essence to spam ML as it's main weapon is not enough to keep it alive. The Aura is defensive to aid the abuse of ML.

Lightfury Ships: Tempest, Razor VI, Cinnri, Photurius, Hime, Lorilou

Safer-FO

The Aura is offensive, and the Zen has both an offensive and defensive aspect. Bullet clearing is quite significant, but cannot be abused frequently, thus focusing more on the offensive aspect. Suitable to pick up speedrunning as you can still create rather significant clear space even if you get trapped.

Safer-FO Ships: Gladius, Saber, Uhb, Scuuxun, Shogun, Starless, Jeria


Full Offence (FO)

Both Aura and Zen are offensive, oriented towards a speedrunning and extreme offensive style, going all out to kill quickly. These FO ships have limited forms of bullet clear that gives a very slight leniency if you do get trapped.

Full Offence (FO) Ships: Fujin, Havoc, Ex04239, Exarch, Wraith, Neni, Naya, Monsoon, Warden

Blitzkrieg

Ship has no forms of bullet clear capabilities at all, so one has to kill very quickly otherwise there is no way out. The most extreme form of speedrunning.

Blitzkrieg Ships: Proxymar, Buhloo, Elyon, Ogon, Von Braun, Corsair, Reaper, Kibarrax, Banshee, Mistral


Versatile

Capable to choose between an offensive or defensive playstyle. Great for survival or speedrunning.

Versatile Ships: Yigothu, Nimbus

Main Weapon Details

The maximum DPS of the main weapon (at ult level) is shown with the ship, as well as a very brief description of weapon at max level. If numbers are given in the number of projectiles, or the number of sets, it means that number in one single burst, applicable for both types of Burst weapons.

  • Capacity only applies to ships with a beam main weapon that has instantaneous/zero travel time to invaders. This statistic measures how long does one beam last.
    • In some special cases, it may be the average of the different durations of the different beams fired in one cycle.
  • Spread refers to how wide the main weapon reaches by means of the projectiles emitted. This is based on the maximum angle any projectile of the main weapon may be emitted from the ship.
    • This is an official statistic provided by the game, but is likely based on the dev's feel of the weapon more than the actual measured maximum angle.
    • This statistic can only apply on ships that do not have a homing main weapon.
  • There is a difference between Homing and Target Tracking in this game.
    • Homing refers to the capability of the projectiles of the main weapon, once they have been emitted by the ship, to guide themselves towards the target they are aiming for. (You will never see Homing beam weapons.) This is done constantly and the projectiles correct themselves all the time as they are guided to the targets, or miss and fly offscreen.
    • Target Tracking refers to the ship's cannon/spawn point of the main weapon (whether is it a beam or projectiles) locking on to a target, before the beam/projectiles are fired. After being fired, the tracking of those beam/projectiles stop. In the case of a beam however, the beam can track on to its intended target constantly like homing projectiles.
  • Blast Damage measures the amount of damage also dealt to the surrounding area, taking the impact spot of the main weapon as the epicenter.
    • Blast Damage main weapons also come with the corresponding Blast Radius statistic to indicate how far does the blast damage reach from the epicenter.
    • Aside from Aurora which has High Blast Damage, while some blast damage are tagged as Low or Medium, the blast damages of Low and Medium are extremely similar and likely only differs by at most 1 blast damage. Instead, the stat is based on the overall feel of how much blast damage is dealt overall to all invaders. Thus, main weapons that have higher blast radius are more likely to have Medium Blast Damage although the blast damage itself may be the same as Low Blast Damage main weapons. (This explanation is confirmed by the devs.)
  • Rate of Fire is the time between 2 projectiles (or groups of projectiles, if more than one is being fired at the same time) being fired. Obviously, you will not see this statistic for beam main weapons.
    • Note that this is NOT an official statistic provided by the game, and is based on my feel.
  • Projectile Speed is how fast a projectile is. Obviously, you will not see this statistic for beam main weapons.
    • Note that this is NOT an official statistic provided by the game, and is based on my feel.
  • Reload Time only applies to Burst main weapons, so you will not see this detail for Continuous Stream main weapons.
    • The Reload Time for Interruptible Burst main weapons refer to the cooldown time between bursts, and does not take into account the time taken for the burst to continue after it was disrupted by charging your Zen.
    • Note that Reload Time is NOT an official statistic provided by the game, but is made based on my feel of the main weapon, as some main weapons that have the same or similar reload times will just feel longer because the projectiles themselves take longer to hit due to their travel speed.

While each ship's main weapon is unique, they can be broadly classified into 3 classes. This class determines how using a Zen affects the main weapon firing.

  • Uninterruptible Burst: The damage is produced within a certain period of time, before the main needs to "recharge" for the next burst is produced. They can be annoying to aim due to the intervals of nothing being fired, since you can be right in position for a good strike but nothing fires. Leakage of DPS is also possible from either the inevitable spill effect where the remaining burst is wasted, or overkill damage where a single projectile deals more damage than the remaining health of the invader it hits, making that invader absorb all the excess damage. However, such burst weapons work very well with Zens as you can start charging a Zen when the main weapon fires its burst.
  • Interruptible Burst: Similar to uninterruptible burst, a burst is fired for a while, then there is a recharge time before the next burst fires. Such weapons have the same advantage/disadvantage as Uninterruptible Burst weapons aiming wise, but suffer the same disadvantage as Continuous Stream in Zen usage, disrupting the burst while the Zen is charging. Also, the weird part is, if the burst is not allowed to complete before the zen starts charging, the remainder of the burst immediately continues after the touch is re-engaged, making the positioning very important for such ships.
  • Continuous Stream: Projectiles are constantly produced at fixed regular intervals without any break in continuity. Such weapons are easier to handle, but because projectiles are constantly being produced, damage is usually leaked when switching targets. Also, Zen usage, charging the Zen immediately cuts off the stream when it begins to charge, making such weapons not too ideal.
  • (Invader/Cone Triggered - Synchronous/Independent): Some ships have this tag attached on top of one of the above 3 weapon types. This tag means that the main weapon of the ship will not fire until an invader is in range. If the presence of any invader on field triggers the weapon to fire, it is referred to as Invader Triggered. If instead, a part of or the entirety of the ship's main weapon is only triggered when any invader is in the range of one or more of the ship's weapon, then it is referred to as Cone Triggered. If there are no invaders in the range of the ship weapon(s) cone, then the weapon does not fire.
    • If the entirety of the weapon fires when there is an invader in range, it is considered as Synchronous. The main weapon's rhythm is consistent and never goes out of sync.
    • In some cases, not all of the cannons may fire at the same time due to the fact that the invaders are only in the cone range of some of the ship's cannons, while others are either not in range or are in the midst of reloading. This can cause some of the cannons to be out of sync if you are not careful. This is considered as Independent.

21.25 DPS main weapons

Proxymar, Trireme, Czar, Ogon, Lorilou

25 DPS main weapons

Jericho, Yoth-Hola, Mist Star, Oran, Kada Veni, Cinnri, Vuxine, Heechi, Hime, Gladius, Yigothu, Orion, Sonah, Uhb, X-81, Mirage, Marauder, Widget, Reaper, Claymore, Banshee, Zimitr, Warden, Disaris

31.25 DPS main weapons

Shinova, Tar'Cah, Veil, Krillou, Razor VI, Wrackr, Phoenix, Buhloo, Havoc, Juggernaut, Tillat'Or, Elyon, Atlas, Essin, Prime X, Vani-Vith, Zephyr, Baqlor, 502-Q8, Dragonfly, Hunter, Barret, Saber, Valkyrie, Proteus, Torrent, Njörun, Boxer, Corsair, Antioch, Trinity, Wraith, Scuuxun, Shogun, Predator, Polaris, Lyova, Qhelqod, Nimbus, Zhetass, Neni, Xavis, Starless, Kibarrax, Jeria, Centurion, Stinger, Mistral, Naya, Pandora, Monsoon

34.375 DPS main weapons

NC-150, Jn'Dur, Tempest, Photurius, Xaniea, Arietis, Gorthaur, Lokie, Exarch

37.5 DPS main weapons

Fujin, Geist, Ex04239, Von Braun, Sakura, NC-271, AB8/Klyn, Icarus, Luna

Unique DPS main weapons

Homing/Target Tracking main weapons
Blast Damage

LowKrillou, Havoc, Juggernaut, Njörun, Jeria
MediumVon Braun, Proteus
HighAurora
Beam main weapons

Long (>1000ms)Buhloo, Widget
Medium (500-1000ms)Veil, Razor VI, Ex04239, Icarus, Mirage, Luna
Short (<500ms)Fujin, Baqlor, Exarch, Boxer, Wraith, Lyova, Centurion, Mistral, Esperon, Monsoon
Special (Averaged)Elyon

Uninterruptible Burst main weapons

Tar'Cah, Veil, Tempest, Razor VI, Mist Star, Oran, Cinnri, Buhloo, Czar, Geist, Juggernaut, Vuxine, Photurius, Xaniea, Ex04239, Aurora, Von Braun, Heechi, Prime X, Sakura, Vani-Vith, 502-Q8, Hunter, Gladius, Torrent, Orion, Boxer, Uhb, Wraith, X-81, Scuuxun, NC-271, Lorilou, AB8/Klyn, Icarus, Mirage, Marauder, Lyova, Luna, Zhetass, Neni, Claymore, Starless, Mistral, Naya, Warden, Disaris

Interruptible Burst main weapons

Trireme, Havoc, Zephyr, Baqlor, Saber, Valkyrie, Proteus, Njörun, Sonah, Corsair, Shogun, Predator, Mirage, Kibarrax, Banshee, Centurion

Continuous Stream main weapons

Shinova, NC-150, Krillou, Jericho, Fujin, Jn'Dur, Yoth-Hola, Proxymar, Kada Veni, Wrackr, Phoenix, Tillat'Or, Arietis, Atlas, Essin, Gorthaur, Dragonfly, Hime, Lokie, Barret, Yigothu, Antioch, Trinity, Polaris, Qhelqod, Reaper, Jeria, Stinger, Pandora

Ship Rarities

Ship rarities in this game do NOT determine how powerful the ship might be. They only determine the Warp Gate drop rate for that ship. New Common ships (which always cost ¢500 when buying them in Get Ships) appear more often than new Rare ships (which always cost ¢1.500 when buying them in Get Ships), and new Rare ships appear more often than Super Rare ships (which always cost ¢3.000 when buying them in Get Ships).

Common Ships

Shinova, NC-150, Tar'Cah, Veil, Jericho, Jn'Dur, Tempest, Razor VI, Mist Star, Proxymar, Kada Veni, Wrackr, Buhloo, Elyon, Ogon, Zephyr, 502-Q8, Dragonfly, Gladius, Lokie, Valkyrie, Torrent, Boxer, Antioch, Marauder, Xavis, Kibarrax, Stinger

Rare Ships

Krillou, Phoenix, Czar, Havoc, Juggernaut, Tillat'Or, Vuxine, Photurius, Arietis, Atlas, Essin, Ex04239, Von Braun, Gorthaur, Prime X, Vani-Vith, Hunter, Barret, Saber, Proteus, Orion, Njörun, Sonah, Uhb, Scuuxun, NC-271, Predator, Lorilou, AB8/Klyn, Polaris, Icarus, Qhelqod, Nimbus, Zhetass, Neni, Claymore, Starless, Zimitr, Jeria, Mistral, Esperon, Pandora, Disaris

Super Rare Ships

Fujin, Yoth-Hola, Oran, Trireme, Cinnri, Geist, Xaniea, Aurora, Heechi, Sakura, Baqlor, Hime, Yigothu, Exarch, Corsair, Trinity, Wraith, X-81, Shogun, Mirage, Lyova, Widget, Reaper, Luna, Banshee, Centurion, Naya, Monsoon, Warden

Trivia

Know more about each ship, including some behind the scenes for some of them. Trivia are fun facts about the ship/its apexes that are not important to know to play it properly. The trivia in this guide are either some interesting observations about the ship/its apexes, material that comes from the dev themselves, or is widely circulated in the communities. Fan made trivia or lore will not be documented here.

Most of these trivias take a lot of work to gather, so I hope that you will appreciate the ships more.