Overview
So, don’t know something about Guns Of Icarus Alliance and want to find out, or just starting off? Then this is the guide for you! In this guide you will find a brief story summary, basic gameplay notes, advanced tips and the opinion of a veteran of these wars and his capable crew. So, I hope that you find what you need here! Note!!!!: I am releasing this guide early! I will be adding new things over time and completing it, so, please, be patient! It takes a lot of time and energy to write the walls of text! Thanks in advance!
Before we start(Important!)
This is just to cover the things about the guide in general.
Firstoff, don’t expect everything to be in this guide or for it to be perfect. If you know something I don’t or want something changed, put it in the comments and I will alter up the guide.
Second, I will not be going in-depth about PvP gameplay and tactics, or just basic gameplay(But there is a very short guide for complete newcomers). If you need some more knowlege, take a look at these guides(They may not be up to date, but they are great):
A guide for the basics about Guns of Icarus Online in general(Link)
The things you need to know of all the guns(Well, most of them)(Link)
Finally-The guide may be outdated from time to time, as Alliance is still growing and changing. If so, I will update this guide from time to time, whenever needed.
Update: I have decided to finally return to this guide and to start slowly filling in the blanks and to update the ancient stuff.
Short overview of Alliance, what it is.(Before the storm)
Here I will mostly be explaining what Alliance is and what it has for complete newcomers. If you already know what you are jumping in, skip ahead.
Guns of Icarus Alliance is the DLC to Guns of Icarus Online(GOIO). Buying Alliance will also get you the base game(GOIO). If you have the base game already, you get a discount. This is a DLC that adds new ships, 6 factions to fight for, new guns and abilities for the new game type-Player Versus Enviroment(PvE). You won’t be fighting against people-you will fight with your crew against AI enemy warships, cooperating to achieve objectives. You will get resources to spend in the war for your faction or alliance. You can still help your faction out with coins from PvP(Player versus player), but you can make a bigger difference with PvE battles.
That covers the short overview.
A shrike fights against a Merchantile Brigadine(Boss ship)
The World Map-What is what (Know what does what)
So, this is the world map. Here you can see your faction struggle with the other ones. Now, Let’s take a look at what this all means!
The map is split into territories. Each territory provides a certain amount of ”Strategic resources”(It’s what I call them)On the bottom of the screen you can see the resources a faction needs to start a war(Explained later on) and has gained. There are 6 strategic resource types(Not all are shown in this picture)-Water, Farms, Mines, Oil, Lumber and Medicine(Mines and Lumber are not part of this faction’s current resource goals). Each faction needs it’s own resources, for instance here, this faction needs water(10/24), Farms (13/8), Oil (8/12), and Medicine (6/35). The faction resource goal for Farmland has not only been met but it has been exceded. More resources than are needed along with resources that are not part of the current faction resource goal can be aquired, but gathering too many unnecessary resources may hinder the ability of a faction to reach all of their goals first.
On the left side of this picture, you can see that the location of deployment(Deployment is covered later on) is at the territory known as ”Naufrage”. On the top of the screen you can see the tabs ”Battles” ”Missions”, ”Resources”, ”Monuments”, and ”Tips”. On the right side you can see all the recent activities at the territory ”Naufrage”. You can also see coins there, but we will talk about those later.
This is the ”missions” tab. Here you can see that there are 6 missions in total and the one on-screen is called ”House of Cards”. Rewards for missions can start wars(Explained later on) or give you strategic resources. Failure to complete them before they expire means that you get nothing.
Here is the ”Resources” tab. Here you can see which territory has what resource and how much it has. It also gives you an overview of the other faction progress to their resource goals. Clicking on a faction name will also show exactly what resources they have and have not gotten, along with the exact numerical count of each resource. Also you can see your faction events on the right. Going back to the ”battles” tab’, you can see the battles that are going on.
The icon meanings are here(A big thank you to Wolfprints for providing these pictures!):
Personal resources, deploying, reputation(Your Contribution)
So, what are personal resources? You earn those after battles, PvP, or PvE. You get more for PvE battles and that is what we will be looking at mostly. The exact values and ways to get those fast will be later on.
Anyway, there are 2 types of personal resources-War effort(Effort for short) and War chest(Gold, Money or whatever you want to call it.)Effort is used in the various battles as the main criteria for victory. The faction that reaches it’s effort goal(Depends on the number of people in the faction) wins the battle. Effort cannot be stored and will be instantly used on the battle you deployed at. As such, the key is to get more effort. The war chest allows to use reinforcements, and can be used without the Alliance DLC. You get more by doing the things your class does(Shooting things, fixing things and piloting things), but the most that you can get from one match is 200 coin. Now, we shall click on a battle.
Now, here you can see the battle in detail. note the button ”Deploy here”. Pressing it will deploy you to that territory, so you can contribute your effort there(Unless you are already deployed there). Deploying also determines which faction you will be fighting against(If you are the host of a match).
Here is the result of pressing the ”Reinforcements” Button. It opens up a menu of reinforcements that you can purchase.(They are grayed out because the player cannot afford the abilities) You don’t have to deploy to the target battle to use reinforcements.There are 3 types of reinforcements:
-Army(Instanty gives a certain amount of war effort on a battle)
-Walls(Increases the effort goal that the enemy has to reach. The power of walls increases the more progress the enemy has made, but the final tier of walls will always be better to use than the army. Best used during tough fights where both sides are close to winning or when the enemy has a small advantage. Any more than that and chances are-there is no hope for victory.)
-Personal boost(Adds a percentage of effort for yourself, gaining more per battle, lasts for some time. Not worth it, though, you get more effort by using the army.)
The more expensive a certain reinforcement is, the better it is overall. For instance, a cheap army reinforcement at about 100 coin provides only 50 effort(2 coin per effort), but the most expensive one-1200 coin for 1200 effort(1 coin per effort). For the best bonuses, save up, but your faction level may limit you in which ones you can buy!
The missions screen also has a reinforcement button. Select a mission and press it to apply backup for that mission.
There are 4 reinforcement ablities here:
-Extend mission time( Use for missions that you want to complete, use only if the mission has a timer)
-Decrease mission time(Use for missions you don’t want the enemy to complete)
-Improve reward(Increases reward resources)
-Reduce reward(Reduce reward resources)
Now let us hop over to the faction screen at ”My stats” And here we see:
Here you can see what you have done, your potential faction rewards(Details mentioned later) that you can unlock by getting a higher level in your faction.You need reputation to level up your faction. Reputationis gained by winning battles and getting effort. More effort=more reputation, but remember-you also get reputation by doing the things your class does. A higher level faction level gives you a bigger war chest storage, too. But, if you leave that faction, you lose 20% of the reputation gained there!
The ”Great War” and the factions(Know yourself and the enemy)
Now off to the Great War and factions. An Alliance war(Also known as a ”Great war”) begins if any of the factions have met their strategic resource goals. All of the factions are grouped up by the developers to create ”Alliances”. Said Alliance leaders(Faction leaders) and members then can vote to determine faction goals-They can be to have a certain ammount of strategic resources, control of certain regions or just the conquest of any old territory. Then, both Alliances still continue the fighting and battles for the territories to complete said goals, but with more leaders and people per faction, as well as battles, things may get a bit chaotic. The winning faction, that completes their chosen goal is written into history as the winner and the cycle restarts and the next preparations for the war begin. The loosers just lose. After all, history is written by the victors.
Now-here is a short overview of the 6 factions, but later on in this guide I will go into detail about each unique faction ship and weapon(Pictures are from the main page of GOIO). :
The Anglean Republic is a faction in the cold north-east, where many ancient technologies are buried. They are the only ones that know how to live there and gather the tech. They want to start the ”Second Golden age”- to bring back the way of life before the cataclysm and dominate while employing the unique faction weapon-Februs Weaponized coil(A lightning gun), and the airship-Corsair(A better Galleon). The Februs Weaponized Coil has, due to subsequent wars, been developed further to include a Mk2 version that spins up faster.
The Fjord Baronies are basically a medieval feudal society, where the citizens loyally follow the king and queen. However, the rich farms of the Baronites have grown, and even more people are coming in. They believe that following The Creed will better their lives and that of their subjects through it’s divine mandate. This is the driving force behind their aggression. They use the unique Seraph Tempest missiles-target seeking missiles and the Crusader-a massive ship for ramming and heavy broadsides. Recently, a new version of the Tempest has been developed, firing a larger missile.
The Order of Chalodon has always lived in harmony with nature-they are the only ones that have a great climate and have learnt to use the plants at their island nation and colonies, secluded in the far east. Few outsiders have ever been there. However, they know that their work is not over yet-they want to turn the rest of the territories into a paradise, but someone must pay. After all, death balances the scales. I usually call them the ”Very aggressive Greenpeace”. They pilot the fast and easy to maintain Shrike and use a powerful gas mortar that breaks down even the strongest armour(and also sets a lot of fires). During the wars, a second version of the gas mortar was developed that fires a more fast acting agent.
The merchants, back in the day, suffered from a terrible plague that ravaged the world and most have died, they where the worst affected. Desperate for a cure and with great economic potential, the people of Vyshtorg set out in their flying machines, mapping the world for a cure and setting up trade routes along the way, thus was the Merchantile guild born. It wasn’t hard for them to trade and the richest became the base of its ruling class, but there were some things they couldn’t get even through the best of their deals. So, what can’t be traded for must be gained by force. They utilise rare crystals to make the Aten lens gun-a powerful sun beam weapon that sets a lot of fires and make their powerful fire support vessels-The Magnate. As war followed war, a 2nd version of the Aten lens was designed to bath their enemies in a laser light show.
The Arashi League has always thrived in the desert. Known for their ships made of scrap, they are very cunning. To them, the whole world is an arena, meant to test their fighting skills, so they are always willing to fight. They pilot the fast accelerating Stormbreaker and use the Immortal Gaze Heavy Accelerator Cannon. Hard times and an abundance of war has led the Arashi to developed the Mk2 Immortal Gaze Heavy Accelerator Cannon, a similar design but one that shoots faster.
The Yesha Empire has only one way of life. Each must work for his people and empire with a feeling of honour and duty. They know that their way is great, but they must spread it. There is only one way how, for them. Through Conquest. They pilot the menacing Judgement and use the Roaring Tiger Heavy Detonator. They have Since developed a mk 2 of the Roaring Tiger Heavy Detonator that acts like a exploding mine shotgun. This is Zennoch’s main faction, so if you want to fight, join the empire!
The new guns(Now the fun bit)
So, I’ve ranted on a plenty about things that doesn’t impact gameplay that much. It’s time to show off the new ships and guns! The new guns and weapons can be unlocked by 2 ways-either getting the appropriate faction level to aquire that factions gun and ship(Lvl 4 for the weapon, Lvl 7 for the ship) or, if you don’t want to betray your faction, you can win a certain number of any difficulty matches. How to unlock everything the fastest? I dunno, just play and win. Starting with the new guns(Thanks to The one And Only Mr.Mann for providing these screenshots!)(I understand that there are 2 new heavy guns out there, but I am lacking good screenshots. Have any? Send them over!):
The Februus(Yes, it’s typed like that) Weaponized Coil is a neat little support weapon. The user must charge it for 1,5 secs in the minimum to fire it and can be charged up to 5 seconds for increased damage, but can be held down for longer to hold the charge. It has a decent chance of starting fires, but the most importan aspect is the arcing-it can arc between targets. It’s great against guns, engines and baloons, due to the damage types and fires. The more targets(The more player ships), the better it will preform. It has great weapon arcs and can be hand for an engineer to shoot at his leasure, but don’t count this one as a damage dealer(Actually, only one of the new guns deals more damage than the guns already in-game) and an artemis is better for single targets. Has a VERY fast reload, but only one shot in the clip. Note that a recent change added piercing damage to the thing. Helps a bit in breaking armour. Also, can hit enemy ships THROUGH terrain! Best ammo:
-Greased(A LOT FASTER charging)
-Burst(More arciing between targets)
The Kalakuta Gas mortar(Again, checked the typing) fires a shot of explosive gas(The clip has 2 shots). Upon impact with anything, detonates into a gas cloud. The cloud sets fires, is good against armour, guns and engines. The big bit-slows ANYTHING down in the cloud(Including friendly ships and yourself), so caution is advised. RMB will detonate the gas shot before it hits anything, good for turning misses into hits. The shot must be aimed well, because it has bullet drop too. Best ammo:
-Charged(More damage)
-Incendiary(Lots of fires, but less range and bigger bullet drop)
~(Optional)Lesmok(Big range, but you only get one shot. Don’t miss.)
The Seraph Tempest missle launcher is my favorite of the new light guns. It fires off a horde of small missiles that have good hull, gun and disabling damage(Also sets fires. All of the new guns set fires.). The best part? Missiles follow your mouse, so you can lead them around! Even begginers will have an easy time shooting this thing, but the slightly weak arcs decrease the capability of the weapon. Also, if the target is too close, not all of the missiles will hit. Too far, and most of the missiles will be gone. Also, not great against planes(Will take out 1 or 2, or 3 with a clip, but other weapons are better. Also, weak arcs.).Best ammo:
-Charged(Damage)
~Burst(More hit components)
~Incendiary(Lots of fires, but less damage and range)
~Lochnagar+Armour kit(Massive damage)
The Aten Lens gun. Basicaly, a long range flamethrower. Sets a lot of fires, good against hull and the baloon. After it has begun firing, the beam is harder to aim and has a smaller arc. The longer you are shooting, the faster it fires and the harder to aim it. A stable ship is a must if you are shooting it. It’s mostly a good support weapon, and is fun to use. Max range-1,5 km. Best ammo:
-Greased(Fast damage but even harder to aim, less range)
-Lesmok(Good for crossmap sniping)
~Incendiary(Even more fires, less range and control)
The New Ships 1(Corsair, Crusader, Shrike)
So, new ships. Why are they good at and what are the flaws? There are 6 new ships added into the game, each can be unlocked by leveling up the respective faction or by completing the Grandmaster Achievments. Here is a description of each along with recommended crew and ship loadouts and positions. (Just examples that work with simplicity.) They are:
The Anglean Corsair is truly a sky beast. An enormous airship that can just be compared to the Galleon. Also known as the brick due to it’s high mass and speed which is useful for ramming. Hard to maneuver with, though. But the Corsair is also quite tanky. Good armour and hull.
Layout-The helm is on the top deck, nothing else. There are ladders placed throughout the ship. The middle deck front contains the front gun and the balloon, and the sides contain the 2 light guns (Left gun is pointed 55 degrees off center, right gun is 75 degrees.) and 2 light engines. The bottom deck is where the important stuff is placed at. The 2 bottom side heavy guns(90 degrees off center), armour and 2 heavy engines are there and the stern gun. So, it’s big. Crew positions are important.
Crew positions-One of the two engineers should use the bottom deck guns, and maintain the armour and fix the 2 heavy engines in the free time. The other should focus on repairing top engines and balloon and to shoot side guns. The gunner mans the front gun and any other gun that is needed if an engineer is busy.
A good loadout-A front heavy carronade to pop the target to ram. If that foe survives (unlikely), the side gatlings and hwachas will finish it off. Back gun is down to personal preference. Side hwachas can be replaced with heavy flaks, if the gunner knows how to use lochnagar, or detonators, if they are unlocked.
The Baronite Crusader is basically a gunship. As much as it has formidable firepower, a somewhat confusing layout and low stats cause it to have problems whenever the tide turns against it. The balloon is hard to pop due to a small hitbox. Mediocre mobility. Armour and hull is on the light side, though. Fragile but dangerous.
Layout-Let’s start from the front of the ship. The 2 front heavy guns are on the bottom deck. You can jump up to the armour without the stairs from the bottom deck(There is an opening where you can do that) Up the stairs is the mid-deck. At the far front is the armour. Closer to the rear is the 2 guns at 70 degrees off center. At the stern is the helm. Behind the helm and a wall is the balloon. To the sides there are platforms, each containing a light gun (angled 30 degrees from the center) and heavy engine. This ship only has two engines. Also, has an on-board library and stained glass!
Crew layout-The gunner mans the 2 front heavy guns. The hull engineer helps with the heavy guns, and is the main man on the armour. Shoots the side guns too. The stern engineer fixes the baloon, turning engines and uses the rear guns.
A good loadout-A front hwacha and carronade can be used to disable the enemy ship guns and break enemy balloons, while the mid deck light flaks and top deck gatlings do the primary damage.
The Chaladonian Shrike is the smallest and fastest new ship. It is so small easy to maintain as engineers, that it’s the best ship to train new engineers. The 2 light and heavy guns at the sides give it a Galleon like broadside ability, but it is nowhere as close or as menacing. All guns are at 90 degrees from the front. also, beware the weak armour and firepower. A single engineer with failsafes can maintain a cycle for eternity. Best used as a scout, support and distraction ship.
Layout-The bottom deck contains the helm, heavy guns right next to the helm(No, really. The pilot can even shoot freely!) and light middle engine. There are 2 sets of stairs to the top deck The top deck-armour, 2 heavy turning engines. To the front-balloon and side gatlings.
Crew layout-One engineer maintains the engines and armour and the other shoots the top deck light guns and repairs the balloon. The gunner shoots the heavy guns next to the helm.
A good loadout-2 gatlings, one side has a hwacha to disable the guns of a foe, the other-a heavy flak to end them. Heavy flak gunner needs lochnagar for the heavy flak to be useful in close range.
The New Ships 2(Magnate, Stormbreaker, Judgment)
The Merchantile Magnate is beautiful. And dangerous. 4 light guns and 2 heavy guns coupled with better armour and mobility make it a well armed and versatile ship. Just remember that it has a massive balloon like the Corsair.
Layout-Let’s begin with the front(Bottom deck). Contains 2 light guns(Pointing 28 degrees from the center of the ship) and the armour. 2 sets of stairs lead up to the top deck. It contains the helm, 2 light guns(Pointing 50 degrees from the center) and has the big engine. There are, again 2 stairs down to the 2nd bottom deck. Contains 2 heavy guns(Pointing 65 degrees away from the center of the ship ), the turning engines and balloon. Note that the heavy engine can be repaired from below by jumping up. There is no footpath between both bottom decks, but the gap can be jumped by any class with some practice.
Crew positioning-At the front, by the armour should be an engineer. The back deck engineer maintains the engines and balloon, as well as any available guns in the free time. The gunner gets priority on any free weapons, but should mostly stick to the two light and two heavy guns at the back, however, feel free to develop your own crew positioning styles.
A good loadout-2 front gatlings, two mid deck flaks for the raw damage and a hwacha and a carronade for close range defense. A similar loadout to the Crusader that allows good damage output against foes without sacrificing self defence weapons.
The Arashi Stormbreaker is a pile of scrap(in a way). It has great acceleration and is more agile than any other ship that has the kind of firepower a Stormbreaker has. This comes at a cost of low top speed, low mass and fragility on the level of a squid.
Layout-The top deck contains the heavy engine, helm and a light weapon pointing 95 degrees from the center of the ship to the left. To the front of the ship is the armour, a ladder to the right bottom deck and a ramp to the front left bottom deck. The front left deck contains another light gun pointing 53 degrees off center. The back part of the ship has the 3rd light gun pointing 102 degrees left, both turning engines, the balloon and heavy gun at an angle of 73.7 degrees to the right of the ship. There is a beam on the far right of the ship leading to the hull in case of emergency.
Crew positions-The gun engineer shoots the front gun and repairs armour. The main engineer repairs(preferably failsafes) turning engines and balloon (and preferably the armour) and shoots the bottom side gun. The gunner fires the heavy gun and the top side light gun by jumping up in front of said weapon from the bottom front left deck.
A good loadout-Hwacha to disable a foe so that the two gatlings and mortar can finish it off. Heavy weapon can be traded for a detonator, but it is highly suggested to use the light guns only.
The Yeshan Judgment is a big, slow, brutish ship. Mediocre armour and and hull, it relies mostly on the two light guns and front heavy gun for both offence and defence. Be wary of the slow turning speed and low top speed of this ship and the somewhat confusing layout.
Layout-The ship is split into three decks. The mid deck contains the hull and two turning engines as well as a back heavy gun pointing straight backwards. The balloon is sequestered in a side section on the right of the ship near a turning engine on that side, but the balloon is easier to repair from the bottom deck. The top deck contains two turning engines, a front heavy gun pointing forwards and the back light gun pointing backwards. It can be accessed via the two ladders on the side of the ship. The bottom deck houses the helm and two side guns, each on a small platform on the left and right of the helm, pointing 23 degrees off center. On the right side platform behind the gun, the balloon can be seen and repaired from. No use running up to the mid deck to repair that!
Crew positions-The gunner maintains the top engines and is the one shooting the front heavy gun and back guns. The balloon engineer shoots the right side gun and repairs the balloon behind said gun by just pointing up. The main engineer shoots the left side gun and takes care of the hull. Both engineers must also maintain the bottom two engines, but those should mostly be ignored mid combat, unless they are almost gone.
A good loadout-A front heavy flak and two fore gatlings for massive raw damage. Just make sure your gunner knows how to use lochnagar beforehand, though. The back light carronade and hwacha will help remove foes from the back of the ship if needed.
New tools, reccomended crew loadouts (Uh, cap? What do I do?)
Now, there are no new ammo types or helm tools, so nothing new on the piloting or shooting part, but 2(1 got adapted and made available to PvP) new repair tools have been added!
The Failsafe-It’s an auto-repair tool(It’s a small hammer)! Hit it on a component and watch the component heal itself(For 15 seconds)! The healing effect is bigger that the mallet, but it’s not instantaneous. There are 3 practical uses for this- Armour tanking, engine burning countering and lochnagar guns(Gatling). Hitting the armour with a repair tool will extend the time you have and improve survival. Since the failsafe lasts for 15 seconds but only causes an 8 second cooldown, you can even hit it with a pipe wrench after adding the failsafe. And countering engine burning, it will out-heal kerosene and phoenix claw, but not moonshine. The engines will still take damage, but the engines can be burnt for longer! And in the case for non-moonshine tools-you don’t have to worry about the engines for 15 seconds. As for guns with loch-the steady healing will help with repairs on a gatling, however lochnagar gatlings are really rare. And often enough, it is easier or just better to use a pipe wrench. It doesn’t rebuld much, however. It’s only a bit better than the mallet on that term.
Statistics-8 second cooldown, applies a machine that heals the target component for 24 HP/s, lasts for 15 seconds. 2 rebuild power.
The Armour Kit-It’s so good…it applies 312 additional health on a component for 108 seconds upon activation(Takes 10 hits to activate!). As the component takes damage, the number becomes smaller until the buff is removed. So, where can it be used? ANYWHERE. Anglean titan or a captain burning the engines? Put it on the engines! Many baloon poppers? On the baloon! Need your gun to last longer or want to use lochnagar on single shot guns(Armouring up a component before the whole clip is fired won’t break the gun!)? Put it on the guns! Too much hull damage? Put on armour! It’s very adapable, but there are penalties. First, it counters and is countered by the buff hammer. The buffs will replace one another and even reset the buff bars! Both cannot be applied to one component! Finally, 10 hits are a lot. But it can still help! Best uses-for armour tanking(Maybe the baloon too. also guns. Sometimes.). Failsafes are better for engines.
Remember, after applying the armour, add 9 hits, so you can rearmour afterwards amost instantly!
Statistics-Applies 312 HPs on a component, takes 10 hits to apply, lasts for a REALLY strange anount of time(108 seconds).
Now, then. Pilots can use the failsafe for engine tanking(Stormbreaker) close by or nearby auto-repairs. Gunners should keep their pipe wrenches, especially with recent changes, which removes 1 fire per hit. But engineer loadouts will change. I will add my personal favourite loadouts here(Special abilities are covered later on)(Also, keep in mind, the standard engineer loadout(Mallet, spanner, fire extinguisher) is still viable in most situations):
Name:Armour strategist
A simple loadout but effective one. Any engineer with an armour kit is an awesome engineer. Best used for tanking the armour and other stuff, or just being a support engineer, this loadout is almost always a welcome sight on any ship.(If the armour hasn’t taken any damage and there is an extra layer on it, you can extinguish with the pipe wrench at no extra cooldown.)
Gamemode types, Effort efficiency, before battle tips(Just a few)
With the theoretic part of Alliance behind us, I can mostly concentrate on the in-fight things.
So, there are 6 gamemodes, them being(The details are a bit later on):
-Search And Destroy(Prevously-Survival)-Complete certain tasks to beat waves before time runs out or you die enough times.(1-4 ships)
-Assault-Attack 2 mining outposts and a base that can only be damaged in certain spots. You lose if you die too many times.(1-4 ships)
-Defence-Protect a geothermal tap and destroy 3 drills to gain cargo for base healing. After all 3 drills are gone, a 5 minute countdown until victory starts.(1-4 ships)
-Infiltration-Protect a VIP until it infiltrates all 3 refineries and gets away.If the VIP dies, it’s game over, but the escorts can die an infinite number of times.(1-4 ships)
-Intercept(Previously-Retrieve)-Recover cargo from armoured ships and deliver it to refineries before they are all wiped out.(2-4 ships)
-Blockade-Protect 3 base points from bomb carriers that try to deliver bombs to them. Know, however, that if one ship gets through and blows it up, the point still remains. There is also a timer until they deliver the bomb. Specific ships only go for specific points.(2-4 ships)
Now, off to effort gain. Each gamemode has it’s own rules for effort(Primary mission objectives), but there are also constant gains(Secondary mission objectives). Finally, there are effort percentage modifiers that add more effort to you. Here are the secondary mission objectives:
-Command ship:You get 100 effort points if the boss ship is killed, if not-0.
-Kills:You get points for each kill that YOU make. From what I can tell, though, planes also count. Max-110
-Survival-You get more if you die less:100 for not dying once, 25 is subtracted if YOUR(!!!) ship dies, not an ally ship.
-Time-The faster you complete a mission, the bigger the bonus. In other words, the faster you do the job, the more points, but you don’t get them for losing after a certain point. Maybe. Max:150.
Here are the % effort modifiers:
-Difficulty-The difficulty increases effort by this amount-(Normal-1x;Hard-1,4x, Veteran-2x, Hell-2,4x)
-Leader bonus-Dependant on deployed location
-Same faction teammates-self explanitory(1-1,05x;2-1,08x;3-1,1x and so on)
-Personal-The personal modifier from the reinforcements menu.
-Mission-Every once in a while, a mission that rewards effort % boosts comes up. If your faction gets it, then you get more effort. This also works for alliances in wars.
Now, here are the overall random in-game tips that just don’t deserve a specific section:
-Be fast or be dead(Not really)-Speedrunning is only for masters, but being fast can help in your completion, not only giving you more points, but also increasing the number of games you can play in a period of time. To improve your speed, focus only on completing the mission objectives of your gamemode, only stopping to kill the ships that you can’t have alive(Less damage taken, Supply vessels, planes, etc.) Another tip-don’t be afraid of burning engines with good engineers on-board. If someone has the failsafe, even better! Just remember, though-don’t overuse it.
-AI Ship notes-The AI ships rebuild everything that is broken. But, the rebuild times can ruin them. If the baloon is down, there is only a 1/4ths of a chance that the ship will survive. But, the cargo ships from ”Intercept” rebuld their armour very fast. Also, AI ships respawn(Duh). Don’t kill them if you don’t have to, especially during running fights! Do your own observations in-game and make your estimates.
-Less ships-less ruble-It can be chaotic trying to fly around and fight hundreds of ships, but it’s a lot simpler to fly alone. True, having a 4-ship lobby with experienced people just improves odds of victory, but when are you going to find one like that? Almost never. It’s more common to have the other ship or ships be just plain fools that you can’t order around as easily. Try only playing 1 or 2 ship games. Playing these games also reduces man-power needed to play(Less people need to join). There are certain gamemodes that are better with more ships, such as infiltration or defence, but even then, don’t over-do it.
-Use the match list to find games, if you are not going to make your own. It’s faster and has more options. You can also even track the lobbies you hated beforehand!
-Co-Op? Don’t care-I see at least one or two games at any given times, where just one poor sap locks himself away in a private match. I’d get it if it was to test out new loadouts or something, but there wouldn’t be enough players to test those new loadouts all the time. Heck, I’ve even seen solo-captains on normal servers! People!!! Don’t do this. First, the AI can’t use special abilities, second, they are harder to order around, third, they are ususally non-stationary, and they don’t use ammo or any new gear. Start playing in private servers only when you can gather AT LEAST 3 players per ship. If you trust yourself and the AI though, go ahead. But don’t play anything harder than normal though.
-(Silent)-Fellow captains, COORDINATE WITH YOUR CREW. Being silent all day and night and not giving orders or loadouts will come back and bite you, either in a loss or your crew leaving you. Remember-coordination improves chances of victory and makes people actually do what you want! Remember to also mark appropriate targets with ”B” or they just might shoot at something else. Also, ask if everyone is ready before starting!
Special abilities(Part 1):Engineer
Specail abilities(aka Ultimates, ults, specials, abilities, etc.) are like ultimate abilities. Each player has one ability that they can use in a fight. It starts on cooldown(Which depends on the ability-the enhanced envelope ability, for instance,recharges in ~2 minutes, while others-~3-4 minutes.) and, once ready, press ”5” to activate. These give MASSIVE benefits for a bit. Keep in mind, however, that the AI players can’t use these abilities. There are currently 18 special abilities, each with its unique traits and benefits. To unlock them, you have to win a certain number of PvE matches using a certain class. For instance, you need to play matches as a pilot to get all of the pilot special abilities. Now, I will be going in-depth with special abilities, but first, guidelines:
-Each special ability has it’s own time when to be used. A captain may request to use yours, though. If you can, use it. If not, don’t and tell him you can’t. It is always better to coordinate with your captain before a match on special abilities.
-The timing is very important. Use your ability as often as possible, but don’t jump into hard fights with yours on cooldown. Save it up, if you know that the cooldown won’t be over by a big fight. Remember, special abilities give massive improvments that can speed your game up, if used correctly!
That said, let’s start off with the engineer, that has 2 main types of abilities-Damage control or damage prevention:
MECHANIZED REBUILD
Stats-Rebuilds all broken components and auto-repairs all components for 30 seconds, healing 375 health. Cooldown of 160 seconds.
Use-All ships should have someone with this ability, just in case. It should be used when everything crashes down during the hard fights. Engines all gone? Balllon is down? Armour gone? Use it. It’s good for those moments when you just can’t keep up with everything going on. During less tense moments, just using it once the armour is broken is a good idea. Or when burning engines.
SALVO NEUTRALIZER
Stats-Creates a barrier where you’re looking that has 2000 health points and lasts for 2.0 seconds. 30 second cooldown.
Use-The next attainable ability has some capacity. As said, it spawns a shield that stops all incoming weapons fire, but not ramming, mines or weapons with a high Area of Effect (AoE). The shield will activate, creating the center of it at where you are pointing your cursor, and stays on that angle and position until time runs out. Due to the short cooldown, it can be used quite often. Just keep in mind that it can’t be moved. Best used on ships that usually keeps enemies at a certain angle (like Judgment) and will most likely take a lot of fire from said direction.
COMBUSTON DAMPENER
Stats-Puts out all fires on components, makes them immune to further fire-stacks and reduces all incoming damage by 15% for 30 seconds. 90 second cooldown.
Use -This ability has it’s uses, mainly to prevent an inferno on your ship, with the damage reduction being a neat little bonus. 3 out of 6 bosses (Carrier, Brigantine and Vanquisher) can cause fires everywhere, so against these bosses, this ability is more useful. However, a good chem spray engineer can cover all of the important stuff, but chem does take understanding and attention to use, so this one is best used by less experienced crews.
ADVANCED DYNABUFF
Stats-Adds a buff effect to every component that stacks with the armour kit buff or regular buff from a buff hammer, lasts for 40 seconds. Cooldown of 120s.
Use-This ability is considered as one of the best, due to the raw power of the effects. It improves on everything on the ship. If you can keep your ship from collapsing without relying on the other special abilities, it is highly suggested to have at least one of these on board the ship.
STATIC TURRET(CHOPPY)
Stats-Deploys a decoy armed with a gatling gun and mortar for 45 seconds where you are looking, that doesn’t move. If that space is occupied, the drone will not deploy. 120s cooldown. Hail Choppy.
Use-A mixture of a defensive and offensive ability, this drone helps soak up a bit of damage and dish it out. Not recommended for gamemodes in which one generally doesn’t stay in one place (Intercept, S&D), but otherwise can be used as a basic supplement to the team.
COMPONENT DISTRUPTION
Stats-Disables enemy components where you are pointing. Range of 800m, damage reduces with distance, maximum effect is at close range. Cooldown of 45 seconds.
Timing-The reliability of this ability is a bit lacking, as the effect can be inconsistent depending on the number of ships. Best used as an emergency measure against ships that can break through the salvo shield, but honestly, skip this ability. You will generally find better results with the other ones.
Special abilities(Part 2):Gunner
I made a section for each class, now off to the gunner. His abilities are more towards either affecting enemy ships or giving some sort of bonus to guns:
LIGHTNING DRAW
Stats-Reloads all guns, increases reload speed for 10 seconds and all reloaded guns during this period receive +75% clip capacity.60 seconds cooldown.
Use-A good starting ability that should be used during a fight. This ability benefits every gun, no matter how big or small. Best used when you have a ship with many guns that have high clip sizes and slow reload speeds (like hwachas). However, the effect is lackluster often enough, so it is best used as a stopgap while leveling up for better abilities.
CONCUSSIVE BLAST
Stats-Pushes all ships away in the direction you are pointing. Works in a 600m range. 30 second cooldown.
Use-A gust of wind. Best used in dense environment areas, but is quite lacking in usefulness, since you can often enough kill ships quite quickly without it and the engineer abilities are more useful for keeping the ship alive.
PROXIMAL ROUNDS
Stats-Increases AOE blasts by 300%, increases secondary damage of all guns by 30% and automatically detonates shots close to enemy targets. 90 second cooldown.
Use-Infamous for a certain strategy which is regarded as disgusting. Otherwise, best used with weapons that have an already massive area of effect. There are very few guns that benefit a lot from this ability, but those that do become OP. Save yourself the trouble and public humiliation and don’t use this one.
MINE EJECTION
Stats-Deploys 12 mines at 500 m range, will be scattered in a sphere. Mines blow up automatically after 30 seconds. 160 second cooldown.
Use-Now this ability is a fun one. Massive damage, quick burst, decent area of effect, but a high cooldown. But do beware, mines will be triggered by allies as well as enemies, and when they detonate, they will also damage friendlies. A high skill, high effectiveness ability best used by those that can accurately judge distances and timings(or those that can use a rangefinder for the intended purpose). Best used against bosses and such. And best not to use it near allies…
GIGATRON BLAST
Stats-Wrecks the armour of ships in your line of sight within 500m. 60 second cooldown.
Use-Similar to the engineer component disable ability, it can be somewhat unreliable, especially against multiple ships. However, the relatively short cooldown combined with the low number of useful gunner abilities can make it useful as a quick burst of damage that can be used pretty much anywhere and at any time. In close range battles.
CATACLYSM ROUNDS
Stats-Triplles all damage dealt by your guns for 8 seconds. 160s cooldown.
Use-Tempting, yes? Extremely potent but very short lived and has a long cooldown. Has the same cooldown as the mine special, but this can be the better ability for those not skilled in mine warfare due to ease of use. Logically, the more guns you can get firing during this 8 second period, the better, but try to use it before your engineers are forced off of their guns to repair the smoldering ship.
Special abilities(Part 3):Pilot
The pilot has abilities that boost his ship preformance, or affect enemy ships:
ENGINE STABILISATION
Stats-Auto-repairs engines at a rate of 40 HP/s for 20 seconds.(Does not rebuild them!) 90 second cooldown.
Use-This ability is best used for avid moonshine users that don’t want their engineers treated like free labor. The ability heals enough to stop the damage dealt to engines by moonshine. Useful for easier mobility and giving your engineers an easier time mid combat.
OVERSURGE RAM
Stats-Creates a 1000000 N amount of force (do the maths yourself), halves impact damage taken, increases dealt impact damage by 500%. Lasts 4 seconds. 42 second cooldown. Ramming is meaning of life confirmed?
Use-The obvious use is for ramming. But do be aware that the boss has wonky hitboxes and doesn’t take that much ramming damage, so it is best used as a “delete bad non-bossship in front of me” ability. Of course, don’t use this ability with the light ships like squids, shrikes and stormbreakers. Pyramidions and Corsairs are the best to use this with.
AIR HORN
Stats-Lures all enemies to attack youin a 800m radius, except for convoy ships(Intercept cargo ships, bomb ships in Blockade, etc.) and bosses moving to the next Assault base.
Use-These things emit MLG, forcing foes to shoot you. Best used to cover up lighter ships or the VIP ship in Infiltration. But, otherwise, don’t use this ability.
ENHANCED ENVELOPE
Stats-Heals your balloon 55 HP/s, reduces fire and flechette damage to it by 30%, reduces vertical drag by 60% and increases vertical acceleration by 200%. Lasts 30 seconds. Cooldown of 90 seconds.
Use-On higher difficulties like hell, this ability does wonders for changing altitude quickly and thus preventing an imminent demise at the hands of the enemy. It can also be used to get those pesky supply ships quickly that are milling about below or above your ship, but the primary use is getting out of extremely sticky situations.
RUSHING DRIFT
Stats-Reduces all drag on your ship for 20 seconds, 60 second cooldown.
Use-The older brother of the drift sail. To put it bluntly, unless you are a literal speed daemon and want to go as fast as the speed of sound by combining both the sail and special ability, the drift sail is more convenient and takes up a slot that you have three of. Some PvP experts even give drift sail to their crew so that they can use the tool on the helm(not the ability, mind you). Skip.
TAR BOMB
Stats-Deploys a powerful tar cloud, lasts for 30 seconds. 200 second cooldown.
Use-Red cloud. Yet another ability that is just “tool, but better and has massive cooldown”. Tar is not that useful in PvE to start off with and this is ability doesn’t make it better, since you can kill the foes faster then their guns will break from this ability most of the time. Another skip.
Gamemodes:Defence(P.1)(YOU SHALL NOT PASS!)
Now off to the big bits-about each gamemode-how to win, best tactics, history, etc.
OVERVIEW-The aim of defence is to defend(Duh).You have to protect a so called ”Geothermal tap”(What that is, I know not) from enemy forces. By your side are 6 gun emplacements, 2 at each entryway. At the same time, you have to wipe out 3 enemy foward drills, to stop reinforcing their front lines! Killing each forces a supply ship to spawn, along with a cargo piece, that is used to repair the tap, in case it has suffered damage. If all 3 drills are turned into scrap, a 5 minute countdown until victory starts. During that time, you have to protect the tap. Once the timer is over, you win. You may die a lot, so long as the base remains safe.
MAPS–Devil’s eye and Voyager’s Cove
DEVIL’S EYE is the linear and straightfoward map. Your base is on the bottom left side of the map, 2 guns in a row cover each entryway. Note the plenty of semi-tall structures between the guns and the base. The drills are loacted in valleys, each has a terrain wall covering the sides. Keep in mind that wall can be flown over.
VOYAGER’S COVE is more complex. your base is closer to the left side of the map. The three drills are scattered around the Geothermal Tap-one is in a valley close to the tap to the left, but has a terrain wall covering the base(Can be flown over),the exit of the valley is north of the tap. The second drill is on a higher position with the drill in a tiny valley. Easy to access and raid. The third drill is in the east, among city ruins. This position is the hrdest to get to.
BLISTERED ABYSS is the newest map out there. The map is similar to devil’s eye-3 linear paths connected to the geothermal tap. Drill A is at the left side, B and C are more to the right. A duo of ships can quickly take things out if the better ship heads to the B and C point. However, it is also the biggest defence map, so don’t expect things to go too quickly.
DIFFICULTY ASSESSMENT-This gamemode can be regarded as normal in difficulty. If you are an agile captain with an agile ship. If you are not, chances are, you will lose. The harder point is to make tough decisions, like chosing which side to handle, attack or defend. Not the best starting gamemode for single ship matches, but with buddies-better. Much easier and more interesting with more players.
FINAL VERDICT-Normal/Hard or Normal(Based on player ship count and ship choice)
GAMEMODE SPECIFIC ELEMENTS-CARGO, BASE DEFENCES, GEOTHERMAL TAP.
CARGO-As said before, killing each drill drops cargo. The obvious choice is to pick it up. But people forget or leave it on purpose(Speedruning). The cargo heals the base, but there are hidden traits. First, IT DOESN’T HEAL ANYTHING IF THE BASE IS AT FULL HEALTH. Drop it off 200-300m close to the base until the base(tap) gets damaged. The cargo heals about 1/5th of the base health. Second, if the cargo itself is not connected to ships, it can get bumped and move around. Just like that, the base can absorb the cargo without you wanting it to. Third, enemy ships don’t pick up cargo, unlike in ”Intercept”. Fourth, the cargo MAY BLOCK YOUR SHOTS. If you are in a heated fight, drop the cargo. Better yet, pick up the cargo if the fighting is over.
BASE DEFENCES-Those things are a helping hand. They are heavy towers positioned at each entance in pairs. When a ship aproaches them, one of the following might happen:
-Either the ship will be shot to pieces, if it is a long range ship, and the defences will take some damage, or;
-The ship gets past and wipes out both defences, then heads for the Geothermal tap, if it fights at close range, suffering some damage.
Defence health and damage decreases, the higher the game difficulty is. Take note-These things are unreliable. They might hold off one ship, or none at all. Also, near useless against planes. Also, fun fact, they rebuild armour.
GEOTHERMAL TAP-Nothing much to say about it, apart from the following. Defend it with your life. Has a bit of armour, but mostly-hull strength. Note that you get bonus points if the base has more health remaining, even it is healed up by cargo.
NOTABLE THINGS-Before we start off on strategies, here are some things to watch out for!
DRILL SPAWNING-The drills spawn ONLY when the inital ships are killed. There will be a couple of ships near the defensive line, you MUST kill them. For single ship matches, only one will spawn.
DEADLOCK-A deadlock is a moment where you are unable to destroy drills due to enemy ship spawns. Mostly occurs with only one player ship, because multiple ships allow for differing strategies to counter deadlocks. As such, for single player ships, it is a MUSt to stop these from occuring. The first moment is a ”Double way” deadlock. It happens when one ship spawns on one side of the map, and another one spawns on the other one. As you kill the first ship, the second one spawns and goes for the tap, as you kill the second ship, the first one goes for the tap. Only occurs if there are 2 drills left. Can be prevented by just simply moving fast for the second drill after killing the first drill. The second deadlock moment is the ”They are unnending” moment. It happens when one drill is left. The enemies are pouring out so fast that you just can’t kill them all in time. Honestly, this one is purely random, though it is affected by your ships ability to kill others. There is no getting out of this one, especially if the tap is almost dead. Take preventetive measures to stop both!
ATTACK WAVES-Enemies only spawn at locations with drills. In other words, if you kill a drill and all the enemies on that path, you can ignore it. The ONLY exeption is the final attack wave-enemies spawn from the location of the drill that was last left standing.
STRATEGIES-SINGLE SHIP-”REGULAR” and ”GUN RUNNING”
REGULAR-This is the most common strategy that takes little planning. Simply go and attack each drill, grab the cargo, get it back to base. Simple, eh? Here are a few optimisations-attack the drill that an enemy has spawned at. Trust me, it’s good to do that, because that ship will then not harrass the emplacements. Once the timer has started, just defend that entry point.
GUN RUNNING-I saw someone do this back in the day. Firstoff, only good for normal difficulty. On other difficulties the base will just get swarmed and killed off. This strategy more or less focuses on wrecking the drills as fast as possible. Simply kill each drill, then push onwards. Finally, defend. It is quick and fast for the events, but otherwise, don’t use it. Also, only use if you are capable and have a capable crew.
MULTIPLE SHIP STRATEGIES-”SUDDEN STRIKE” and ”SPLIT DEFENCE”
SUDDEN STRIKE-It mostly focuses on there being multiple ships to raid the drills, best executed by a 3-4 ship lobby. The strategy goes like this-every ship goes for a drill with fast moving ships, kill them off and trigger the timer. The 4th ship can stop any stragglers or go help out one of the raiding ships. There is one big problem though-the boss will spawn on to of one ship and may cause some problems for said ship, but the remaining ships may go help out(The 4th ship or any ships that are done with their drills). A fast and decicive strategy for big lobbies.
SPLIT DEFENCE is well…a split defence. One(or multiple ships) ship with long range firepower or fast mobility picks off any attacking forces while the remaining one/ones go for the drills. Better for less people, but beware-It will take a bit longer. ”Sudden strike” is the superior strategy, but this one is better for rookie crews and captains.
Gamemodes:Defence(Part 2)
RECCOMENDED SHIPS, WEAPONS, LOADOUTS-This one is off to personal preference, but, here goes:
For raiding ships:Pyra, Shrike, Stormbreaker, Crusader, Corsair
For defending ships(Best used for ”Split defence”only):Galleon, Corsair, Stormbreaker, Spire, Magnate
Weapons-for all ships, use kill weapons-flaks, gatlings, hwachas, etc. For defenders a lumberjack, immortal gaze woks too.
All crew members should focus on engine repair, so failsafes are advised. Defenders should also promote everyone going on the guns and shooting.
BOSS SPAWN TRIGGERS, BEHAVIOR
TRIGGERS-Either the boss will spawn after the second drill(By order of destruction) gets attacked, looses armour or gets killed. Also occurs with the last drill. Note: On normal, there is a chance that the boss WILL NOT SPAWN. This is the only time the boss will not spawn in the game.
BEHAVIOR-The boss will try to make a dive for the base, stopping sometimes to take out the emplacements. If the armour is broken the boss is most likely to divert attention to you instead of the emplacements and/or the base, but it most likely will try to shoot at them if the guns have no way to aim for player ships.
PRIORITY-If the boss is armed with an anti hull main weapon, it is your first priority to take it out, or at least to distract it. If not, it is still very important to do damage or kill it off.
SUPPLY SHIP TRIGGERS-Just to make it really clear, a supply ship always spawns after you kill off a drill. Always. Thus, there will always be 3 supply ships.
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE EFFORT POINT GAIN-Killed Drills and Remaining Base Life
Every gamemode has Mission Completion. It gives 150 for winning, but less for losing having done something and none for nothing.
Killed Drills-25 for each drill kill, Remaining Base Life-110 at 100% Health, 0 at 0%. So, keep your base alive more for more effort!
HISTORY-Here’s a lesson in history-how it was back in the day of the Alliance betas. There were 3 betas in total. During the first beta it was near imposible to win alone on the normal difficulty of that time(Hard now). I managed myself to win only twice or so, having played a good 20 matches of that defence. And it was only with the help of good people on board. During the second beta, things were ramped down, so it was fairly easy to win. The third beta didn’t change anything noteworthy. At full release however, they removed the bonus for delivering cargo, and instead replaced it with a bonus based on remaining health.
And that was defence in details. I hope it isn’t too hard for you to read through this all, because we still have 5 more gamemodes to cover!
Gamemodes:Search and Destroy(Kill the ship, hunt the next one)
So, off to Search and Destroy(S&D for short).
OVERVIEW-The primary mission objective is to defeat enemy waves. To do so, you must kill certain enemy targets before the given time runs out. If a ship dies, it is actually counted. If 5 friendly ships die, you lose. There are 5 enemy waves in total, each having it’s own objective and timer. The waves all culminate into a guarranteed boss fight.
MAPS-BURNING VALLEY and DROWNING WASTES
Both maps have their own kinks and quirks, but the map layout is less important here. Also note, the maps are identical to their assault counterparts, except bigger.
BURNING VALLEY is an interesting one-the areas have tunnels, big mountains and walls. Typicaly, has a lot of cover, but very few open locations for ranged combat.
DROWNING WASTES has big terrain walls covering the area, as well as some random mountains here and there. There are multiple valleys and pathways, most of which connect at the center of the map. Lots of height changing on this one, as the ground is WAY down below normal flying height.
DIFFICULTY ASSESMENT -This gamemode has been known to be the easiest one on the list. The waves are easy to beat and the timer is only there to stop slow people. Ultimatly, experienced people and captains, even those that only know a little bit will have an easy time. Ship selection is important, but does not affect chances of victory. Most of the time.
FINAL VERDICT-Easy or Easy/Normal(Based off Captain experience and crew experience)
GAMEMODE SPECIFIC THINGS-VIPs-VIP ships will spawn as one of the waves. They are either chosen from pre-existing ship on the field or they spawn in. That is it.
NOTABLE THINGS-WAVE SEQUENCE-The waves are not randomised fully. as most of you have noticed, the final wave is the boss, but there are other secrets. Wave 1 can be either ”Kill the VIP”, ”Kill the drill” or ”Kill ships”. Wave 2 can be any of those too, except the one that was on Wave 1. Wave 3 is the last one from said list. Wave 4 will always be ”Kill ships” but with more ships which need to be killed and wave 5 is always the boss wave.
THE LUCKY BREAK-This mission more or less relies on luck, as the wave sequence and ship spawning largely determines time of completion, however, take into account that more player ships=more enemy ships, but the required goals are also bigger.
5 MINUTE SPECIAL-This is the gamemode you want to speedrun on. A good effort income, good time to complete and you can win this one in 5 minutes alone. Though, again-a lot is determined by luck.
STRATEGIES-”SENTINEL” and ”RAIDER AIRSHIPS”(Note that not many people play S&D with more than 1 ship)
SENTINEL is a more unique strategy. It focuses on a couple of faster moving ships or just one to seek out objectives and kill them all, while the sentinel(A ship with heavy firepower and armour, but is slow) provides support fire and deals with ships, while also being the main focus on the boss, but good comunication is key-The sentinel needs to know against what to shoot and what to be careful of.
RAIDER AIRSHIPS mostly focus on a split team of quick and fast moving airships to deal with enemies across the map. Against the boss though, they come together and kill it. Also note, the ships can also gather and split up when a new objective appears.
RECCOMENDED SHIPS, WEAPONS, LOADOUTS
For Raider ships:Crusader, Stormbreaker, Pyra, Shrike.
For Sentinels:Judgement, Corsair, Galleon, Magnate.
Weapons-A relavent priority on killing weapons with a couple of support-disabling weapons for sentinels.
A pilot in the team is advised to grab ”Enhanced envelope” for rapid altitude switching-good to have for destroying the drill.
BOSS SPAWN TRIGGERS, BEHAVIOR
TRIGGERS-The only trigger for the boss is at the final wave.
BEHAVIOR-It will just roam around, though will close in on the player ships if a ship has been spotted.
PRIORITY-It is your main target. Kill it and you win, so focus all your fire on the boss. Kill the other ships only if they prove to be too annoying.
SUPPLY SHIP TRIGGERS-The supply ships spawn after a certain wave starts. The first one will spawn after wave 3 begins, and the final one will spawn after wave 5 begins. You can ignore the final supply ship and dart to the boss, or pick it off. If you are lucky, the supply ship may spawn so that it is between you and the boss, so you don’t go anywhere off the route to the boss.
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE EFFORT GAIN-Waves survived and Remaining Redeployments.
Every gamemode has Mission Completion. It gives 150 for winning, but less for losing having done something and none for nothing.
Waves survived-Gives points for surviving waves(No accurate intel for now), Remaining Redeployments-Gives 30 points for every remaining redeployment up to 150 for all of them remaining. Unlike the survival bonus at the secondary objectives, if your partner ship dies(If you have one), then you also lose points, though not as much as the poor lad.
HISTORY-Back in the day of the first public beta, S&D(Then known as SURVIVAL) was simple-beat 5(Or 8, on Drowning wastes) waves without a timer and with certain redeployments (More for each ship). In the second beta, a hidden change was made-Burning walley recieved a wave timer-5 minutes to complete each wave or lose. Including the boss wave. The third and last beta moved the wave timer to the Drowning wastes map too, as well as recieved the wave amount reduction. The full release featured 8 minute waves with the boss wave having 10 minutes. So, if you are complaining about a lack of time, look back a bit and know this-it was a bit harder back in the day.
Gamemodes: Assault(Hit the red thing)
OVERVIEW-Assault already explains everything. You will have to attack 2 mining outposts and a mining base to secure your victory. Be caerful, though. Die too many times and you fail. Both the outposts and the bases are invincible to damage and have defencive weapons. The only way to kill said outposts and bases is to destroy all 3 of the glowing red things.
MAPS-PAROUS GLEN and SEAS OF ALLERON.
Both are similar to their S&D counterparts.
PAROUS GLEN is a molten yet snowy map that has lots of hills, some tunnels and massive walls.
SEAS OF ALLERON mostly consist of massive sandstone walls that block your path around the area.
DIFFICULTY ASSESMENT-Assault has a tedancy to be harder than S&D due to the increased opposition, but slightly easier than Defence due to a reduced requirement to have good positioning. You’ll find that the massive numbers of ships, defence weapons on the outposts and base will make it harder to break through.
FINAL VERDICT-Normal/Hard or Hard based on captain and crew experience.
GAMEMODE SPECIFIC THINGS-OUTPOSTS AND BASES-There are 2 outposts and a mining base on the map. As previously said, these targets are immune to conventional attacks and can only be killed by destroying all of the structural stabilisers.(the red things) Outposts and bases both have a lot of guns on it, that can be temporarily disabled, though there’s no use to do that. Also, PvP players might be aware of the “damage redirection” mechanic that transfers any damage dealt to a broken component directly to the hull/armour, using the appropriate modifiers. Well, it doesn’t work here, otherwise it would be too easy. You can also see the other structural stabilisers, that aren’t glowing red. They are immune until all previous stabilisers are destroyed. As said stabilisers go down on the base, bits and pieces will break off and reveal the next stablisers.
NOTEWORTHY THINGS-The spawn points of the outposts and base are chosen at some point while the map loads up. Usually there is a pre-designed system. ”If the first outpost spawns there, the other one will be there and the base-there.” You can also see the bases and outposts that aren’t your target at that point. Other that that, that’s all.
STRATEGIES-BLITZ IT and SNIPER ELITE.
BLITZ IT is the most common strategy simply due to it being the simplest and easiest. All you have to do is try to take the structural components up close, avoiding the constant fire to your ships. Take out the deadliest warships from afar or up close if you find yourself dying too much.
SNIPER ELITE is the attempt to snipe the glowing red components. Due to the map design, the components are hard to hit from afar and takes more than 1 ship if you don’t want to get bored too much. It is only a viable strategy on harder difficulties mostly since you don’t have to deal with the defenders. On normal or hard, don’t use this.
RECCOMENDED SHIPS, WEAPONS, LOADOUTS
For BLITZ IT-Ships:Pyra, Junker, Corsair, Crusader, Shrike, Stormbreaker(Heavy ships with good firepower and tanking capability or agile airships for the experienced)
Weapons-Gatlings, Mortars, Banshees, Flaks, Hwachas, Detonators, Gas mortars.
For SNIPER ELITE-Pyra, Magnate, Mobula, Judgement, Galleon(Ships with excellent long wange weapons)
Weapons-Artemii launchers, Mercury guns, Lumberjacks, Heavy Flaks, Immortal Gazes.
BOSS SPAWN TRIGGERS, BEHAVIOR
TRIGGERS-This one is complex. The boss can and will spawn at any of the structures, so be on guard at all times, though it rarely spawns at the first one. The trigger point is either dealing hull damage on a component or damaging a component(after one is already broken).
BEHAVIOR-The boss likes to stay around at the current active outpost. It will try to head out and kill you up to a certain range around the outpost/base. If the building it was defending is destroyed, it will charge back to the next one. This is your chance to dish out as much damage as posible before it gets there. It won’t try to turn to get it’s main gun against you.
PRIORITY-It can and will make your attempt at blowing stuff up a lot harder. It is often better to try to kill it insterad of ignoring it. Simply draw it out and kill it before the remaining ships close in.
SUPPLY SHIP TRIGGERS-There are two supply ships, each spawns after an outpost gets blown up(not the last base).
PRIMARY OBJECTIVE EFFORT-Targets destroyed and Redeployments remaining.
You get 25 effort points for each destroyed structure(Up to 75), and bonus points based on how many deaths you have.(Up to 150, amount subtracted by each death is dependant on ship count in team)
HISTORY-Unlike the rest of the gamemodes, Assault has no clear history. It doesn’t have any drastic changes and has always remained as is.