Tactics & Strategy | Advanced Play Guide | The Enemy

Warning! Advanced play guide (**spoiler**)
Don’t read on unless you are stuck, this section contains many spoilers for the game and explains just about everything in detail. Resist!

Here is a breakdown of some of the enemy units and bosses along with tips for defeating the more difficult opponents.

Drones
Basic unmanned enemy fighters, difficult to hit due to their small size, only a threat in large numbers.

Fighters
The foot soldier of the enemy, these one-man fighters often form small squadrons along with a number of escort drones. They are a constant irritation and are also used in support roles with larger enemies.

Frigates
These larger craft are armed with powerful missiles, they are fairly slow moving but if a missile catches you then you will take some serious damage.

Minelayer
The first of the capitol ships, it is armed with twin gun turrets that are vulnerable to attack. The ships main purpose is to keep out of the way and disperse mines throughout the level. The mines are small and hard to see on the radar, get too close and they home in, very dangerous.

Spore seeder
Covered in invulnerable armour and armed with four gun turrets, the turrets are vulnerable to attack. This ship releases a huge amount of homing mines, these ones don’t lie dormant, a more advanced targeting and propulsion system means they will hunt you down wherever you are. It is possible to shoot through gaps in the armour as the ship begins its mine launching phase. If disarmed the ship will attempt to ram the Aegis, obviously you need to get between it and your station.

Gravitron
These ships are very dangerous, covered in invulnerable armour, either avoid them or attack through gaps in the armour when they launch fighters. They have an extremely deadly attack, when you get in close they will sometimes activate a gravity beam. Unless you use your extra thrust to pull away you will be sucked in and crushed against the armour plating.

Interdictor
This capitol ship is basically a large troop transport, difficult to kill without taking damage from the rapid firing guns, it can also jam the Aegis jump drive. While there are ships of this type in a node you cannot get out.

Jammer
Another very difficult kill, the real problem here is that when this ship is in the node if you have shields fitted they wont work. At this point in the game shields are an absolute must so to be without them is very dangerous. This ship uses strobing lasers of extreme power, keep your distance.

Mining barge
An extremely important key capitol ship, they are used by the bosses to gather extra resources. If there are mining barges in the zone it is likely the boss will be making new capitol ships. Once they have all been eliminated the boss can only make basic fighters and drones. The main structure of the ship is armour plated, including the gun turrets; the resource pods along its sides are vulnerable and must be taken out to kill the ship.

This ship is very very dangerous, a large escort always accompanies it and it carries an enormously powerful mining laser. Always keep moving when near on of these monsters, the laser isn’t powerful in short bursts but if it is held on you for any amount of time it can do major damage.

As mining barges are so closely tied to the zone boss they usually release huge amounts of reusable equipment and also vital intelligence. Don’t attack one with a full cargo bay, if you are successful and it drops lots of goodies you wont be able to pick them up! What makes this worse is the resources that are dropped wont actually last long in the level before disappearing.

Boss1
This is your first time on your own and this boss is vicious, try to avoid his shots they are slow but very very damaging. He will launch a massive amount of drones, in such large quantities they can take out your ship very quickly. The four arms of the boss are vulnerable and must be taken out first, try to kill as many drones as possible at a distance and then go in.

Once the arms have been removed the boss will begin warping in molten rocks and flinging them at you. Keep moving, don’t try and destroy them as they come on too fast. The main body is now vulnerable so take any opportunity to get a few shots in. If you are using blasters then try charging them up before quickly releasing a blast, this way you can keep moving.

Once destroyed the boss command bridge will detach and come after you along with any remaining drones. It's now a straightforward dog fight, his weapons will probably be more powerful than yours so use your manoeuvrability and get behind him.

Boss2
A heavily armoured mother ship that must be approached very carefully, it fires a fairly constant stream of radiation up, down, left and right so come at it diagonally. There are four large cutting arms fitted to the mother ship, these periodically fly out in unpredictable directions leaving a huge stream of energy in their wake. These cutting discs must be destroyed before the main body can be attacked.

Boss3
This boss is more power station than mother ship, the power it generates operates slowly sweeping arms of laser death. Periodically there will be a huge discharge of electricity to the top and bottom, if you are nearby it will be attracted to the ship. You have to time your approach perfectly to get in between the laser beams and back out before the electrical discharge. You must actually get inside the boss to destroy the sensitive inner generator controls, to get in you must first take out armour plating over the entrance.

Boss4
A huge armoured gun emplacement whose only mission is your destruction, come in carefully between the projectile streams and target the control nodes between the guns. The guns can’t fire constantly so you can move between streams if you time it just right. Once the guns are removed your troubles are only just beginning, the boss then periodically splits open releasing really powerful mines. You have to try and get shots in as the armour plated body opens up.

Boss5
The final boss will really test your skills, it constantly releases slow moving projectiles that are very powerful so try and dodge them. It also releases a huge number of drone guardians, take out the launch bays as soon as you can. The boss has four energy pods that will periodically move out to a certain distance and then charged particles will move between them, you must never be caught in this stream of death.

The energy pods reveal sensitive docking collars; occasionally a pod will move out far enough for you to get your ship in. If you fire straight down the collar you can damage the pod. Once all the launch bays and pod collars are taken out the main body will become vulnerable to attack.

It isn’t over yet though as the boss will launch its command ship when destroyed and then it becomes a straight dog fight. The command contains the boss ships main cannon and continues to fire a deadly stream of energy. Get in behind it and take it out.