Unique Ships List

• Veil's forward directed, consistent damage dealing Fusion Laser allows it to pop off all the turrets of a Vulture (while Condor and Roc is also possible, it's not likely), and then charge Mega Bomb while you watch the Vulture self-destruct.
• These 2 characteristics of Veil's Fusion Laser allow it to focus just enough damage to a turret before moving on to the next turret, unlike many ships that overkill a turret, destroying the Invader before you could pop off its last turret.
• This uniqueness factor only applies if you are not speedrunning.

• Jn'Dur usually does not use barriers upfield unlike other barrier ships (except Heechi and Sakura) as the slow moving main weapon's damage will be wasted on the next wave after you go upfield to eliminate the last few Invaders in the current wave.
  • Instead, barriers should be spammed at the bottom of the screen to fill up as much as horizontal space as the main weapon can reach the extreme side of the playable field so that you can freely navigate left and right to eliminate the last few Invaders.
• The slow moving main weapon also makes charging Mega Bomb very interesting.
  • You need to flood the field with the main weapon as much as possible before starting to charge Mega Bomb to completely eliminate as many Ravens as reachable by Mega Bomb.
  • The Mega Bomb damage of 30 together with some damage from the main weapon will then obliterate all Shielded Ravens .
  • The main weapon is also able to strip Invaders (up to an Eagle ) of their shield from the Shield Breaker damage type advantage before Mega Bomb damage comes into effect, thus dealing more effective damage.
  • It becomes an interesting calculated decision whether to flood the field with the main weapon or charge Mega Bomb .
    • Generally speaking, a light wave requires no Mega Bomb and the main weapon should be used to flood the field for the next possible dense and/or heavy wave.
• While several other Shield Breaker ships are also viable to have their main weapons strip Invader shields before an offensive Aura or Zen goes into action, Jn’Dur absolutely requires this as the effect of stripping Invader shields compared to not doing so is a huge difference.
  • Huge numbers of Shielded Ravens will continue to survive after Mega Bomb without flooding the field with its main weapon .
  • Shielded Ravens will then regenerate their shields, especially if they are hiding behind large Invaders.

• Razor VI’s powerful Phase Disruptor should come into action to strip off the Invader shields.
• As the burst goes off, you can release touch to charge Mega Laser .
• This strategy works so well on a frontline Vulture as the combination decimates the Vulture immediately after the Mega Laser .
  • It can also work if there are Eagles in front accompanied with some Ravens and/or Herons to the side where you can sweep through all of them to strip them all and charge Mega Laser after the sweep is complete, an ideal case in speedrunning.
• The combination of the powerful burst of Razor VI's Phase Disruptor, which tears down shields quickly, and Mega Laser , deals an insane damage of 295 over just 3s.
• This inverse strategy of firing Mega Laser after the main weapon , instead of charging Mega Laser at the end of the wave for the next wave, is what makes Razor VI pretty unique.

• Oran's perfect tracking main weapon allows you to release your touch on the screen just as the main weapon fires.
• Re-engage touch after the Meson Lasers have stopped firing, and repeat the above process.
• It's a nice and consistent audiovisual rhythm.
• Add in Stun EMP <strong style="font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit;"> after re-engaging touch where needed.

• Von Braun's Daisy Cutter missiles pack a huge punch.
• Therefore, do not waste this huge damage.
  • Missing one entire burst of 2 Daisy Cutter missiles wastes time, increasing the chance of death.
• Kappa Drive is used as a pacing tool, in order to hold back the 2 Daisy Cutter missiles until required.
• This is useful when you have too many smaller Invaders in front which you would fire Missile Swarm upon.
• Wait for smaller Invaders to clear out so that the heavy hitting Daisy Cutters can hit something more worthwhile, rather than competing damage with Missile Swarm .
• When ready to fire the Daisy Cutter, engage touch briefly.
  • Then go back to generating and attracting more particles for more Missile Swarm .
• Compared to other ships which almost always have their main weapon active, Von Braun is extremely Zen reliant.

• Heechi should never use barriers upfield unlike other barrier ships (except Jn'Dur and Sakura) since the main weapon will struggle to hit Invaders while upfield.
• Spam barriers after barriers at the bottom of the screen.

• Sakura's delayed firing main weapon mechanism mean that Sakura should not be upfield most of the time, or the highly damaging Edge Projectiles have a higher chance of being spawned above Invaders and missing.
• Instead, Sakura relies on putting the smallest barriers possible to block off bullets.
• Use Teleport as a secondary defence or to collect particles to have a minimum radius of barrier ready for deployment.

• Because Dragonfly is such a difficult ship to set up Mega Bomb from its poor Aura Zen combination, Dragonfly is the only Ion Cannon ship that is practical to use Ion Cannon as the finishing damage blow to the final Invader on field.
• Mega Bomb is able to cover for particles exhausted for the 1 or 2 Ion Cannons needed to finish off the job.
• You can also strip the largest Invader on field (usually only for Condors and Rocs ) of all its turrets and then charge Mega Bomb while waiting for the Invader to self-destruct.

• Because of Chrono Field , you can freely move around the Chrono Field.
• You can quickly pop in and out of the Chrono Field.
  • This allows you to go around the field to go on top of Invaders in order to strip Invader shields.
  • Just before Chrono Field expires, charge Reflex EMP to deal more effective damage.
• The slow moving Zatha Probes allow flooding the field with your main weapon projectiles to hit the next wave of Invaders to quickly strip their shields.
  • This is especially during long transitions such as Act transitions or transition to a Vulture front wave.
• This uniqueness factor only applies if you want to play as an aggressive Yigothu.

• The AIM-540 Mantis missiles are the only main weapon in the game which actively seeks out turrets, discounting apexes.
• Particularly, X-81 loves to strip Invaders of all their turrets.
  • Even Ravens can be stripped of both of their turrets (if you let them recover their shield after being hit once).
  • It even happens for Herons and Eagles , the latter being slightly more common due to their larger health and Heron's middle turret being harder to hit.
• Even if you count apexes , no apex is able to strip all turrets on such a small Invader, or have such a high chance to strip all their turrets before getting destroyed by your main weapon (or other damaging Aura and Zen ), since charging Zens for these apexes is harmful for the next wave.
  • In contrast, for X-81, it makes a lot of sense to stop firing your main weapon to charge Mega Laser .
• The most important implication of the active turret seeking main weapon is the ability to completely strip the last surviving Invader on field (usually a Vulture or larger) of all its turrets.
• Once that happens, simply find a safe spot to charge Mega Laser and leave it charged as you stare at and humiliate the Invader as it self-destructs in shame.
• You can pull this off on any wave with a Vulture at the very back of the wave, provided you destroy all the Sparrows first (the AIM-540 Mantis missiles ignore Sparrows until every other Invader is destroyed).
• If anything, X-81 is the ultimate insult to Invaders, destroying their self-esteem by forcing them to self-destruct.
  • It becomes even more hilarious when the last Invader re-generates its shield but self-destructs in the end anyway.
  • In the middle of a wave, if you see an Invader with no turrets left, shift yourself to the other side of the screen and deal with the rest of the Invaders to avoid scenarios where a AIM-540 Mantis missile gets blocked by the useless Invader.
  • Finally, laugh as the Invader self-destructs moments later.
• This uniqueness factor only applies if you are not focused on speedrunning.

• The Nightfury is a satisfaction like no other.
• Firing this gigantic laser and clearing bullets from a huge chunk of the field is very satisfying.
• Not to mention, the animation of the screen diming before the Nightfury is a sight to behold.
• Even the charging of the Nightfury is unique and sounds awesome.
• The Nightfury is a phenomenon which can't be explained in words, and has to be experienced by yourself.

Tempest Delta

• This uniqueness only applies if you are playing this apex in Shuriken/MIRV missions.
• The thin Mega Laser Focused Beam allows Tempest to ride up along with the Mega Laser, a playstyle very desirable for Tempest.
• The Mega Laser Focused Beam is thin enough to graze bullets on the left and right sides of the Mega Laser.
• Because Tempest is very viable for Shuriken/MIRV missions, the insane amount of bullets around you will mean enormous amounts of grazing as you ride up the Mega Laser.
  • This leads to a huge Bullet EMP being built up.
  • Fire off the huge Bullet EMP , which clears the whole field of bullets, making it really satisfying.
• The thin Mega Laser riding skill is a very unique skill that is exclusive to Mega Laser Focused Beam ships. However, it benefits Tempest the most.
  • It is not easy to pick up due to the small error tolerance,
  • But when pulled off very well, it's extremely satisfying.
  • For Arietis Epsilon, while this technique also completely refills your Point Defence , it's not as satisfying.
  • For Razor VI Sigma and Lorilou Epsilon, Mega Laser Focused Beam is nothing but extra damage.