Chrono Field
Create an invincible field within which immune to all attacks from invaders.
Relatively high skill Aura. Recommended for players transiting beyond Colonel rank. Abused, it is the ultimate survival tool that will get you through any mission.
The details of this skill are listed as follows:
| Level | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Ultimate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Max Duration (s) | 3.0 | 3.5 | 4.0 | 4.5 | 5.0 | 5.0 |
| Max Radius | 170 | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ | ~ |
- Ultimate: Continue to be invincible for 0.5s outside the Chrono Field when you exit it or when CF starts to fade.
- Score: 8.27 / 10
- Useful Levels: 1, Ult
- Priority Level: 8 / 8
- Illustration: The first one shows that you are invincible in the field, the second one shows that you can do a chrono hop thanks to the phase out time.
Comments
- Editor: I'm invincible, you do whatever you want.
- ☀🐕: THE BEST defensive only Aura, makes you literally invincible. You should consider uninstalling this game if you can’t clear a mission with a CF ship.
- 天尘座: Here I have to mention some S tier survival ships ...
Usage
When not ult, CF is simply nothing more than a positioning tool where you can safely position yourself underneath high priority invaders or dangerous turrets to eliminate them quickly. In fact, it is more of a pseudo level 1 PD where you can cross over lanes of bullets to safely inch your way around the field. It is simply not very useful at lower levels. Being the smallest radius that never increases in upgrades make it very difficult to use at lower levels. Spamming small CFs at lower levels are thus really nothing more than a level 1 PD. At higher levels, it is better as a positional tool as mentioned above since there is more time for you to kill invaders or pop off turrets.
Another slightly useful function of CF is that it slows bullets in the Aura. This allows you to cross these bullets safely when CF is active, and also allows you to safely plan for your CF exit. However, it is difficult to tell when CF will expire, and thus, pre-emptive planning is required and you need to estimate and move to your new location after CF expires earlier than when it actually expires. However, if the inside of the CF is completely full of bullets, this instead becomes a huge problem as there is no safe exit. It is thus recommended you stay at one side of the CF and leave the other side only when CF is about to expire.
Everything changes when you unlock the ult. The 0.5s of Phase Out means that you have 0.5s of invincibility ANYWHERE on field after CF expires. 0.5s doesn't sound like much but it is enough to do nearly anything you would require, which will be explained. The most important implication of the 0.5s is it acts as a pseudo-TP, allowing to be anywhere you want on the field after it expires. CF now becomes a high skill TP as well, meaning you need precise swiping skills to "teleport" wherever you want, but you have to be very quick and precise. Make sure you land correctly and quickly. This comes with practice, but is a life saver when executed correctly.
Another important implication of Phase Out as the paragraph one above the previous (the one that says it slows bullets in the Aura) is almost irrelevant now. You don't have to really care about where you are in the CF, as you can be anywhere you want in the CF and still be able to reposition yourself appropriately, and that repositioning range is extended to the whole field. This enhances the function of CF even further, allowing to fully concentrate on your positioning to kill invaders and pop turrets off. Believe me, with sufficient CF experience, you don't need to plan where you want to be before CF expires as 0.5s is enough instinct time to go where you want. This eliminates the nervousness many initial CF users have from not knowing when CF will expire.
The most important implication is how ANY size of CF gives you this 0.5s of Phase Out time. This means you can continuously teleport wherever you want even with the smallest deployable CF. However, bear in mind the minimum radius for CF does require quite a bit of particles, but you can sometimes just spin the Russian Roulette (figuratively, of course) and pray that you can graze enough or get enough particles when utilizing the previous CF's Phase Out to cross massive clusters of bullets. Thankfully, by killing invaders sufficiently fast enough, you are able to get the minimum CF size extremely easily which allows you to continuously abuse this Phase Out property.
Unless speedrunning, and having an extreme excess of particles, you should almost never deploy more than one CF at any point in time as you are never able to take advantage of 2 CFs at the same time. However, it is up to you if you want to do it at the last wave with the last few invaders left alive since you no longer need the excess particles after that. It might be useful to deploy a new CF on top of an old one if you have a long charging Zen which is either ML or MB, in order to abuse them safely.
CF is very powerful against all types of bullets since it simply negates their effects, but generally a bit less powerful against slower moving bullets. It may also be a slight problem against MIRVs since their explosion is usually delayed significantly which sometimes hinders appropriate planning. Because of the invincibility CF provides, it is also effective against lasers, although not quite so at times due to the fact there is no stopping them from firing and off sync lasers may prove a massive problem when lasers keep continuously firing even after CF expires and there's not much you can do.
Be warned that CF needs to be slightly pre-empted, as deploying a CF at the absolute last minute will not save you. It takes probably 0.1s after the CF is deployed for its invincibility to take effect. It is thus possible to die even if you clearly heard CF being placed.
APEX 1: Deep Field
- Game Description: A slightly larger Chrono Field that also slows down turrets.
- Numeric Interpretation: The max radius increases by 25% (about 200), the turrets' speed are slowed down to 30%.
- Score: 2.27 / 5
- Ships with the APEX: Njorun (Lambda), Trinity (Phi), Yigothu (Sigma)
Editor: Before getting started, think about whether you really need a support skill that emphasizes close-range output?
This apex increases the radius of CF by about 20% to a radius of 200. It also slows down all turrets which are inside the CF to 30% of their original firing speed, which means they fire bullets slower and have a longer turret cycle of 3.33 times the original cycle length (it takes longer for the next burst to fire, if the turret is in its cooldown state and not firing any bullets).
This apex encourages a very pre-emptive usage of CF, rather than simply using it for last minute defence. It also rewards an aggressive playstyle, going upfield to deploy it and then staying upfield yourself to wreck havoc among the invaders. It does benefit ships that require manual aiming of the main weapon a bit due to the increased safety range. However, the slowing of turrets can work to both your advantage and disadvantage. It works very well against spinners and bloomers, particularly when they are in their cooldown state. However, putting it on laser turrets is disaster as this will throw the lasers affected by CF off sync to those that are unaffected (unless you are able to cover all laser turrets, which is unlikely due to the small CF radius, even with the radius increase).
In daily missions, since everything is so bunched up together in dense and/or heavy waves, the slowing effect is significant, and you can deploy it and start popping turrets that are most dangerous first. Moving up to pop dangerous turrets refills your Aura quickly, usually allowing for a second CF after the first one expires to allow for enough time to pop all the dangerous turrets. Generally, you want to eliminate the dangerous turrets from bottom of the field to the upfield.
In addition, the deep purple color of the CF means it can be hard to see where you are inside the CF, especially when there are many smaller invaders inside the CF as well.