Starless

It's hard for me to praise its main weapon's performance.

Basic Info

• No: 87
• Ship: Starless
• Affinity: Shield Breaking
• Type: Psuedo-FO
• Main Weapon: Plasma Blasters
• Aura: Goliath Missile
• Zen: Reflex EMP
• Rarity: Rare
• Price: 1500
• Main Description: 4 consecutive sets containing 5 sets of 2 side-by-side projectiles arranged in a upward facing chevron.
• Upgrade Info:

Level	1	2	3	4	5	Ult
DPS	25.00	26.25	27.50	28.75	30.00	31.25

• Test Results:

Main	Aura	Zen	Survival	Survival Tier	Speedrun	Speedrun Tier	Fun	Fun Tier
80.45	76.36	109.09	32.73	B-	32.18	B+	26.18	C

APEX1	APEX2	Base Score	Base Rank	Low Score	Hi Score	Apex Rank	Final Score	FinalRank
78.55	36.36	265.91	46	302.27	344.45	26	435.55	40

• Main Weapon Illustration:

Survival

• REMP gives it a fair bit of survivability from its ability to clear a respectable amount of bullets.
• It's forward directed main also allows it to pop turrets very quickly after shields go down.
• However, because the main burst is so quick and travels so fast, it is very difficult to catch invaders spaced apart even slightly horizontally. Popping more than one turret in one burst is also impossible.
• This also means that navigability can be very difficult with Starless since REMP is used at the start as a wave opener, which only eliminates at most Sparrows. The rest of the waves pumping in darts from all directions will make moving sideways very difficult.
• Regeneration of Shields on Ravens is particularly common with Starless since it is very difficult to reach them.

Speedrun

• The combination of both AoE means of damage does make Starless go pretty fast.
• Unfortunately, Starless has very poor synergy between all of its attributes, the main, the Aura and Zen.
• This is because of the speed in which they effect. GM is a very slow acting offense, because it moves so slowly, while both REMP and the main are fast acting offenses because they go off quickly and travel very fast respectively.
• The main problem usually comes just after releasing an REMP. After the release of an REMP, the main then fires almost immediately. This eliminates the invaders in front of you too quickly.
• This is a problem because you just don't have a chance to fire GMs since most of the invaders in front of you are gone. However, if the wave is dense enough, then there will still be invaders in front of you for you to fire GM on.
• Thus speedrunning with Starless is extremely difficult. You really have to know the waves very well to know what to do.
• All the information above translates to: If the wave is a light wave, then the sequence you should follow is to pre-fire a GM in the middle of the field very early as the wave starts coming down from the top of the screen. This causes GM to hit the middle invader and affect the other invaders around it. There is no need to use REMP.
• In the lack of GMs, you can then just go ahead to start off a wave with REMP.
• If the wave is a heavy wave, then REMP first, then throw GMs. Where you throw GMs depend on whether there are Ravens at the extreme ends of the field. If there are, then quickly offset yourself to the left from the middle, throw a GM or 2, and then the right of the middle and do the same (or vice versa). Remember to dispense of all your GMs as quickly as possible since they won't be useful later on in the wave. Finally, quickly head back down to the bottom of the field.

Fun

• The awkwardness of the main, Aura and Zen can make this ship pretty frustrating to play, particularly when it comes to GM usage. After releasing an REMP, the main immediately goes off, which destroys everything in front of you quite a fair amount of the time. Instinctively, however, after releasing REMP because GM is also only most useful at the start of the wave, you will want to dispose of them quickly. Unfortunately this makes the GMs completely miss because everything in front of you is gone.
• However, in very dense and/or heavy waves, there will still be invaders in front of you even after the main goes off (which happens after an REMP), and in these cases, GM will still hit something most of the time. This means such waves will get thinned out very quickly.

Trivia

• Starless was only introduced into Phoenix 2 at v5.0.
• Starless was one of only 2 ships that only had one apex when it was first released. The Sigma Apex was only available at v5.0.
• The Epsilon Apex was subsequently introduced at v5.0.1.
• Starless is one of the 4 ships in the game where its apexes have a different thruster configuration/location than its original base form. In particular, the Epsilon Apex features one huge thruster instead of 3 smaller thrusters. The Sigma Apex and the base form have the same thruster location/configuration.

APEX 1

• Name: High Damage
• Type: Zen
• Description: Energy actuators increase the damage of the EMP.
• Interpretation: The damage increases from 20 to 30.
• Form: Sigma
• Price: 35000
• Score: 4.91 / 5

Despite the increase in REMP damage, the interactions between REMP and GM remain unchanged. It still takes one more GM to take out Ravens, and it still takes 2 more GMs to take out Herons. This apex is one of those apexes where the effects of the increased REMP damage is not easily felt, but can only be felt after some time. It also helps when sweeping with the Plasma Blasters when dealing with Ravens.

APEX 2

• Name: High Capacity
• Type: Aura
• Description: Allows the ship to store an additional Goliath Missile.
• Interpretation: The max volume increases from 4 to 5.
• Form: Epsilon
• Price: 25000
• Score: 2.27 / 5

According to that trivia, this apex looks very much like that the designer has used up his ideas. In most cases, Goliath Missiles are in a similar situation to Vorpal Lance that you fill all the counters and use them together. Of course, you can also try to use 6 consecutive AOE damage (including Reflex EMP). This is also a good burst for eagles and small invader groups.

Video Illustration