Sonah
The more missiles, the faster they turn, and the more circles they make, the bigger the circles become.
Basic Info
- No: 60
- Ship: Sonah
- Affinity: Armor Piercing
- Type: Balanced
- Main Weapon: Firestorm
- Aura: Ion Cannon
- Zen: Reflex EMP
- Rarity: Rare
- Price: 1500
- Main Description: 64 slightly homing missiles fired from both missile pods over 2s, with the missile pods constantly tracking onto a target.
- Upgrade Info:
| Level | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Ult |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DPS | 20.00 | 21.00 | 22.00 | 23.00 | 24.00 | 25.00 |
- Test Results:
| Main | Aura | Zen | Survival | Survival Tier | Speedrun | Speedrun Tier | Fun | Fun Tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 84.55 | 56.73 | 109.09 | 32.73 | B- | 27.82 | B | 34.91 | B+ |
| APEX1 | APEX2 | Base Score | Base Rank | Low Score | Hi Score | Apex Rank | Final Score | FinalRank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 48.00 | 52.36 | 250.36 | 57 | 298.36 | 302.73 | 59 | 398.18 | 59 |
- Main Weapon Illustration:
Survival
- Each burst of Sonah's main lasts for 3.167s, which implies a burst damage of 79.167.
- As a ship with no need to really aim properly, you can give quite a lot of focus on dodging.
- Sonah locks on to a mount point of an invader and keeps firing at it until the invader is gone, or the lock on is out of its targeting cone range. This means that Sonah can get really annoying when the turret you want is taken out and need to swap target because you need to shift yourself a lot, and away from the destroyed turret in order for it to re-target your new intended target. Turret popping becomes a real issue.
- For waves with very little Ravens, you should reserve REMP for defence instead.
- IC for Sonah allows it to deal with troublesome large invaders that have dangerous turrets, but the issue is due to the ineffective crowd clearing capabilities, Sonah struggles to reach the larger invaders that may be behind these smaller invaders.
- In daily missions, in dense waves, the insane crowding of Ravens can make it dangerous to go right in the middle of the field. Thus, release REMP on one side of the field, and then quickly head in the middle of the Ravens on that side to take them out with IC.
- You can then use these collected particles to destroy more Raven crowds.
- In daily missions, when REMP was used in the previous wave and does not have enough time to cool down, you should start the next wave upfield. Then go in front of any invader upfield and find a safe spot after that. This allows the main to start firing while you stay upfield.
- After REMP is sufficiently cooled, you can then release an REMP to deal damage to invaders nearer to the bottom of the screen. Otherwise, if it's not worthwhile, reserve REMP either for defence or the next wave.
- If the wave is heavy, make sure you go into the wave with a full or near full inventory of 5 or 6 ICs, and stun all the Eagles, or one side of Herons. You will need to stun them again so make sure you have enough ICs and particles to work with.
- Where there are very few Herons and Eagles, Sonah can work decently well.
Speedrun
- Sonah's inaccurate homing capability of the main means that shots can miss, leading to lost DPS.
- Sonah's REMP is the main tool that helps to deal more damage to invaders.
- IC can also be used on a pair of Ravens close by each other. A good idea is to throw 2 ICs at the left and right side of the field, such that the AoE damage of each IC hits 2 Ravens side-by-side, then straight away go up to them and REMP. They will instantly be destroyed due to the IC damage and the REMP damage combined. This can be useful when dealing with Ravens nearer to you.
Fun
- The main plus of Sonah is watching Firestorm does its job, launching hundreds of missiles (ok, maybe that's an exaggeration) onto the screen and watch them fly around in crazy ways. It's just so satisfying.
- The so-called rattling sound of all the missiles impacting their targets one by one is also very satisfying.
- Even if some of the missiles are pretty stupid and don't hit their targets, it's quite a sight to behold when they perform circles around their missed target.
- Unfortunately, the dumb aiming system of Sonah to target already dead turrets is very frustrating, and to get it to switch targets is really hard and annoying.
Trivia
- Sonah was only introduced into Phoenix 2 at v2.2.
- Sonah is one of the unique ship in aesthetics where its 2 missile pods actually turn towards their target and fire.
- At max level, Sonah fires 64 missiles per burst.
- Unfortunately, this was a design flaw which initially caused the Alpha apex of Sonah to malfunction and not target active turrets (turrets that are still up and running, not destroyed) correctly. With regret, the devs had to fix the missile pods in place in the Alpha apex for it to work correctly in v4.2. The devs have commented that they loved the missile pod turning to target feature of Sonah, which is one of the most outstanding for its unique character.
APEX 1
- Name: Firestorm Spec B
- Type: Main Weapon
- Description: Faster target tracking and prioritizes active enemy turrets.
- Interpretation: nan
- Form: Alpha
- Price: 5000
- Score: 3.00 / 5
- Main Weapon Illustration:
This apex makes Firestorm target active turrets only. Once a turret is destroyed, it goes for the next active turret.
It is a HUGE buff to Sonah. In base form, Sonah locks on to one turret, dead or alive and keeps firing at it until you strafe to another side so that the missile pods retarget another turret. With this apex, you no longer have to do that, saving that risky move of strafing. The active turret targeting system also automatically pops off so many turrets, drastically improving its survivability. It can be hilarious to see a Condor or Roc that has no turrets left floating around.
APEX 2
- Name: Blast Amplifier
- Type: Aura
- Description: Blast radius and damage of the Ion Cannon projectiles are increased.
- Interpretation: The blast radius increases from 50 to 100, the damage increases from 10 to 13.
- Form: Gamma
- Price: 15000
- Score: 3.27 / 5
An extremely powerful apex in dense waves, the Blast Amplified ICs vaporize Ravens very quickly while IC by nature is able to stun larger invaders such as Eagles and above. REMP can be used whenever appropriate just to deal the extra AoE damage. A well fired IC against larger invaders should prevent flooding from T3 and T4 patterned shuriken launchers. An REMP can be used defensively at last resort, making IC do the crowd clearing work instead, although you might need to waste a few more ICs without an offensive REMP.