Overview
Do you wanna fly the Aegis because of how OP it is? Do you hate the Aegis because of how OP it is? Want to see how OP my drawing skills are? This guide is for U!
Introduction
A long time ago, I released a humble guide called the How 2 Leviathan guide. In just a few weeks, it had received an almost unquantifiable amount of views. I then realized that I could not stop there, no, I must continue to attend to the many who seek my counsel.
This guide is hereby dedicated to those two good people who first read the How 2 Leviathan guide.
Of course, that guide is ancient history now. What you’re really here for is to learn how to wreck entire fleets with the Aegis’ particle accelerator, amirite!?
LET US BEGIN!
The Lowdown
You’re likely already somewhat familiar with the Aegis, but if not, let me fill you in. You see, the Aegis is like a big, sexy ostrich. It’s curvy and bigger than most other birds, and yet it can still move and maneuver with relative ease. It doesn’t have the sharpest of toes, but it could still peck you to death if you let it. And, when it gets angry, it will fire a powerful beam of particles with near-c velocities at you.
…Actually, I might be thinking of a different bird or something. Whatever.
LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT THE CRAFT.
The Aegis is a heavy ship and is best played slowly, strategically. It has a lower hull strength and somewhat weaker weapons for most ships of comparable size, which is made up for by better engines and maneuverability, as well as some very powerful loadout abilities. Also, its particle accelerator cannon requires more energy than a five-year old on Redbull could ever provide. Don’t think that it will come free either, as you must exceed your ship’s capacitors beyond their normal rechargable limits like the way it works with the Raven.
Loadouts:
1. Absorb Smart Cannon
The Aegis’ main weapons fire slow, heavy projectiles which have basic tracking technology with respect to your selected target when the shot was fired. Without any upgrades, one full salvo will have just enough firepower to destroy a small mining ship. The projectiles will drain their target’s energy and provide a fair, but small yield of it back to you, as with the Raven’s main weapons. They also make a little zappy sound which will grow on you eventually, unless you’re the target.
2. Transference Projector
This ability fires an aimable beam pulse lasting about a second which will cast a shield around every ally it touches. The shield will last for a few seconds, mitigate most incoming damage and provide you with a generous fraction of that damage in the form of reserve energy. The beam has a medium range which the game doesn’t share, so I don’t see why I have to share either.
If your beam keeps pissing you off by missing the ally you want to shield, focus on the ally first, which will subsequently improve your aim by changing the beam’s focal point.
3. Transference Barrier
Similar to the Projector, the Barrier shields the Aegis itself for a similar amount of time. However, this shield is not as effective in terms of damage reduction or energy yield, and it is not possible to cast the Projector while the Barrier is active.
4. Particle Accelerator
Consuming a massive portion of your energy reserves, the Particle Accelerator projects a small sphere which, with distance, transforms into a massive sphere with a diameter of several hundred metres. This sphere will travel away from the firing point in a straight line, passing through all objects and ships, damaging enemies and ignoring armour up to an extreme range.
When first activated, the Aegis goes through a seven-ish second charging sequence. A yellow reticule will allow you to aim, and the Aegis’ nose will follow your cursor until it fires. This temporarily allows you to point your nose upwards and downwards like the Overseer for better aiming. The charging sequence cannot be aborted and it is impossible to use other abilities at the time, making it somewhat risky to use while under fire.
5. Blink Shift Buoy
The BS Buoy, as I call it, can be cast away from the Aegis and will be activated upon deployment, blinking the Aegis to its location after a few seconds of delay. It currently has a range of about 10km, or less if it encounters an object mid-flight. If it is destroyed or disrupted before the process is complete, the blink will fail and the regular cooldown will be imposed. It can be recognized at a distance by the tight cones of light emitted vertically by the buoy’s poles.
6. Engine
The Aegis’ initial thrust is 484, fairly quicker than most other heavy-class ships. Of course, keep in mind that a turtle is faster than a snail, but I wouldn’t personally want either as a spaceship engine.
How 2 Win
Ok, I know what you’re thinking. You wanna get out there with guns blazing, throwing your shields around until you can use your buoy to blink away and blast particles into the face of your damaged opponent. If you do this, you’ll have broken the first commandment of Aegis captaincy:
DON’T BLOW YOUR LOAD EARLY.
The amount of people I’ve witnessed doing so is both alarming and downright embarrassing.
Let me reiterate- the Aegis can be very nicely used for a strategic role. This role involves co-ordinating rushes, winning key battles with your particle weapon, getting an assload of captures and saving your allies from BS attacks which would otherwise leave them crippled or destroyed. Suck on that, snipers and stealth ships.
Here’s how I play the Aegis in a typical game!
First, I sit in matchmaking for about 10 minutes. This is an important step to soothe the nerves before a big game. For 10 minutes.
Then it’s ship selection time. It’s usually fine to play with another heavy (as you may be playing a less than traditional “heavy” role), and a healer will really help you out. Ideally, the remaining gaps should be filled with good attack crafts. Just try to avoid having too many of the weirder roles or you won’t have much support during battles, nor will you be able to support them easily.
Now it’s battle time. Pick a lane!
If you’ve got a lot of support or the lane is mostly empty, feel free to buoy up to the middle mine for a quick capture. Else, you might want to hold it in reserve for a quick retreat. Try to at least hold the middle mine until Gamma I, siphoning energy to feed your capacitors. And, as the first commandment states,
DON’T BLOW YOUR LOAD EARLY!
Don’t try to ward off an enemy advance unless you think you can get your energy back before G1 again. Especially don’t try to pick off a jumping ship as the particle sphere won’t move nearly quickly enough to do so. At this point in the game, ship respawn times are still quick enough that kills with the particle accelerator aren’t worth it. Instead, your two early game objectives are to have at least two mines and lots of energy by G1 -1:00.
At about a minute before Gamma I, jump in and set up the trap. Some prime opportunities to use your particle accelerator are approaching- great targets include groups of heavies, healers and jump destinations, if you can get the timing right. Make your shot count, then move inside the bubble and finish the damaged ships off.
With combat everywhere and ships in close quarters, Gamma will be your playground. I managed to shield three allies at once one time, and I encourage you all to do even better. Picking off damaged ships should not be a problem given your projectiles’ tracking technology. If the fight goes poorly, blink out of combat and jump out before your opponents can adjust their aim.
Whether you’ve achieved a win or chickened out, focus immediately on recapturing more mines and defending your gains. You may also wanna probe your opponents’ defences with a rush or two, but it’s good to play conservatively, making gains you can hold and keeping your capacitors charged. It’s pretty easy to take cover behind something while fighting as usual, given how your guns can fire around corners and around other obstacles if you do it right.
Using point-defence is optional if you’ve got a lot of hull and want to conserve energy. For example, soaking up the volley of missiles you’re about to run into with a shield is a better move than taking out half of them at the expense of your particle juice. In any case, I do suggest using manual PDF for the control over what it targets.
If you ever find yourself needing more energy, waddling your way into a mob of opponents and jumping out while shielded is NO LONGER a great way to safely attract a lot of fire.
(Thanks, Plase 4 >.>)
Dying and losing your energy before Gamma is not a position you want to be in, however, so play the final few moments before Gamma with caution. Nor is wasting your energy on a ranger right before G2, so,
DON’T BLOW YOUR LOAD EARLY!!!
Reset your trap for Gamma ll and wreck a few unlucky scrubs. All the while, use your transference projector to help your allies out. Good candidates for your shield are fragile attack ships, support ships and close-combat ships which are always getting hit by something. Try to stay on top of ships which can do a lot of alpha damage by negating it with a well-timed shield.
If you’ve been winning up to this point, well done! If not, the fault should be placed on the rest of your team. Try shouting some encouraging messages at them- the more profanity and capital letters, the more motivated they will be to make up for their own incompetence.
Now is where things get messy. If you’ve been maintaining the advantage of levels, keep pushing the captures. If not, at least aim for level 9 yourself. That means more captures. Your buoy is great for fast captures and your weapons pop mining ships with ease, but don’t use your buoy if you think you’ll need it for a quick retreat soon. Your energy is more precious than gold, oil and world peace combined, so don’t let anyone take it from you.
As the game goes on, using your particle accelerator can potentially get more rewarding and energy will be easier to gain, but being caught without a full charge before Gamma will get more risky as the buff’s value increases.
SO DON’T BLOW YOUR LOAD EARLY!!!1!
You might wanna start changing it up for Gamma 3. If your opponents have any sense in them (a rare occurrence, I know), they’ll try to intercept you early or ambush you at Gamma, meaning that you might want to send a scout in first or jump in through the side. Give it your all for this battle, but do try to escape if defeat is imminent. If your weapon has been recharged by then, you’ll need it to defend your base. If you win, you can use it to assault the enemy base. You’ll be able to rip a swath of base turrets apart as well as cut through a jump destination if your aim is true.
If the above process does not work for you, try these troubleshooting options:
-Repeat Step 1 and onward
-Communicate with your team more often through varied expletives
-Uninstall the game, you unworthy casual
Here is a helpful summary flowchart:
How 2 Die
So you wanna know the weaknesses of this OP behemoth, huh?
Well.. Why is the thing so OP to begin with?
Reason 1: NO ONE EVER TARGETS IT.
I get your reasoning. Really, I do. Whenever you go to shoot your big gun at it, it just pops its stupid shield up and then blasts your face off. Then, once its energy is all depleted, it’s no longer that important of a target for a while. However, if your team doesn’t give the opposing Aegis a smacking once in a while, it will tend to get away with a lot of BS before you lose the match. There are two methods which can effectively counter this ship- I call them geurilla tactics and gorilla tactics.
Geurilla tactics involve hit and run, obviously. Fast ships and stealth ships, if used well, can attack and retreat quickly enough that the Aegis won’t be able to shield most attacks while unable to return much damage, given that its projectiles travel fairly slowly. In addition, you’d be able to outmaneuver incoming particle fields for the most part.
Gorilla tactics involve a high, consistant damage rate and focus fire… Kinda like a gorilla if you challenged it to a 1v1. Ships such as the destroyer and brawler excel at this, being able to shred armour and endure a fair amount of opposing fire. This tactic takes advantage of the Aegis’ shield’s long cooldown and short duration. Also, if your opponent fires its particle accelerator to gain the advantage, then you’ve probably just wasted its shot for the most part.
In either case, either use great cover or none at all. Remember that the particle accelerator will pass through all cover unobstructed. Note that missiles are a great weapon to use against an Aegis, especially if its shield is on cooldown. This way, it will have to use point defence which drains energy or take a lot of damage. I’m not talking about the magma lance here, though, more like the launch systems on the Gladiator and Superlifter.
Reason 2: It has a lot of health.
The simple answer to this one is to focus on one section of armour, ideally the top or bottom. If you have powerful weapons like gauss cannons, fusion beams, etc., do try to use them when you know your target’s shield is on cooldown. Use your gorilla tactics and focus fire, because taking a bit of its health by your lonesome self won’t cause it to panic or retreat anytime soon.
Reason 3: It’s fast and can blink away.
Close combat with an Aegis isn’t something to be very afraid of, unless you’re a stealth ship or something. If you are engaged in close combat and the Aegis tries to retreat, you’ll likely be capable of shooting the buoy down before the jump is complete. Alternately, you can use mobility suppression or something to that effect to cancel the jump. If you see an Aegis blinking/retreating and its shield is up, don’t bother shooting at it unless you know for a fact that you can take it down, or unless its energy is full already.
Reason 4: It blasts your face off when it gets angry.
Unless the face-blasting occurs at Gamma or during a key assault, you’ve got nothing to worry about long-term. If you do see it charging, however, you should do one of two things. Either beat the crap out of it as it can’t use utilities while charging, or try to spread out from the rest of your team to minimize the damage. Killing the Aegis right before Gamma if you can manage it is a good way to prevent this kind of attack.
If you’re the daring type and the opponent is a noob, you could also make the Aegis blow its load early. The way to do this, as all guys know, is by teasing it out of them. Try sauntering up and flicking its nipples a bit with your weapons, then stand back in the optimal range of 15km and watch the fireworks. Try to avoid getting any on your face.
Crewing Up
Now that you know how to fly the Aegis and maneuver it better than a bath tub, let’s go over some good choices in terms of crew and implants. I personally recommend a captain, repair officer, tactical officer, and then two of the three: Utility officer, engineer, navigation officer. It depends on how often you think your opponents will be shooting at you as opposed to how much flight and support capability you want.
My Aegis crew is a bit of an odd sort, as I actually focus fairly heavily on turret traverse. While your bullets will have tracking technology, firing them at the right angles is pretty important and there will be many, many occasions where you will need to swing your guns behind you to shield an ally from an impending attack. The rest of my attack implants go to damage and fire rate, the latter in place to make focusing on stealth ships much easier. The remaining implants are split between defence and utility fairly evenly, with utility increasing capture rate and turn speed while decreasing cooldown times. Increasing turn rate can be important when you want to aim your particle accelerator quickly if you want to rush its attack.
The End
Congratulations, reader, you made it to the end! Or at least, you made it to the end of the important content. You’ll soon see that I screwed around a bit further before publishing the guide.
I hope you enjoy using the ship as much as I do, and that you enjoyed this guide enough that you’d give it a minimum of two stars. You should now be more than able to sandblast any ship which dares show you its middle finger.
Good luck, and…
HAVE FUN. o7
Bonus Section: The Aegis Mating Guide
Are you a lonely, unloved, misunderstood Aegis? Has love not found you no matter how hard you’ve looked?
LOOK NO FURTHER THAN HERE!
Here, I will tell you how to find and mate with the Aegis of your dreams. Think of this as an “I’m sorry for not doing anything for a month,” even though it’s the fault of my hard drive for breaking and my landlord for refusing to reset the router until a power outage did it for her.
Best read accompanied to this:
The Aegis is a cautious beast which sleeps for an average of eighteen hours a day. Their nests can sometimes be found on asteroids in the depths of space, but they’re usually nestled in the framework of large space stations. Their motivation for the latter is unclear, as an Aegis can survive indefinitely through the collection of hydrogen atoms and has nothing to gain from a space station. However, some scientists suggest that the Aegis are attracted by the stations’ waste heat and light.
When the female Aegis goes into heat, she will broadcast a call composed of a variety of curse words, whines and taunts at high volume. This call will attract nearby males to her nest, with the amount of different of curses reflecting her intelligence. Once the male hears this call, he will immediately rush forward towards her nest.
The male looks nearly identical to the female Aegis, but the male will often be seen traveling with a variety of several smaller beings as well. Studies have concluded that these beings are parasitical creatures with a symbiotic relationship to the male- they will defend the male from threats and, in return, leech off of his wins and takedowns.
Once the male has reached the female’s nest and they have locked eyes, the mating will begin. In order to win the female, the male must successfully assert himself into her nest as she attempts to repel him, testing his strength and resolve. The male will start by engaging the female with his energy cannons. This is seen as foreplay intended to excite the female. He must always wait for the female to use her particle accelerator first, in order to prove his endurance. The male must then cast his shield to absorb the impact of the female’s strike, or he will surely lose his dominance.
The male will then retaliate, having gained his energy, striking while the female is weary. She must likewise raise her own shield in defence and absorb the impact. This cycle can continue for many hours, or perhaps days if both partners are strong and mature.
As the lovers tangle, any life forms nearby will likely perish and the female’s nest will get damaged, even torn apart if its structure is weak enough. Regardless of the destruction, the male will fight to the point of exhaustion, or until the female concedes the remains of her nest and allows the male to ferilize her eggs. While the lovemaking may seem violent and destructive to observers, the Aegis is a tough, competitive creature and is accustomed to such roughness.
The female will lay between fifty to two-hundred eggs, depending on her size, depositing them in a deep crevasse within the station. After sealing them in with bits of scrap metal, the eggs will hatch after an incubation period of twelve to fifteen months. They will likely never see their mother as she will have long left the area, but seeing swarms of tiny Aegis darting around will always be able to warm one’s heart regardless.