-Written by Nene°

Disclaimer

Before reading this, this is just my opinion, not to be taken as gospel and is to be taken with an industrial sized amount of Loki… I mean salt. (<3)

Secondly, as the update is newly released, info may not be up to date or accurate, I will fix this in my own time (please dont shout at me lol)

Format

Rather than taking this as a big list of pros and cons, I’ll order these like the patch notes and give a brief explanation of what each piece of info is, and my opinion is on it.

Lets get to it!

Ranking and Leagues

The existing leagues have been replaced with a more extensive Rank system. Each Rank consists of different Leagues that need to be completed before promoting to the next Rank. This new rank system with many more different daily missions gives beginning players a more gradual ramp in difficulty.

This one is pretty self explanatory, the leagues have been split up between Ranks, you must clear each league, and every few leagues cleared, you rank up.

Now while this is an interesting concept and a good idea at heart. I do have a criticism of it. There was no explanation on how this was carried out and led to confusion when high ranking players found themselves in D league. The idea is definitely great, and once the confusions die down, I’m sure it will make it easier for players to transition between difficulties, rather than the large step up from A league to S league, and S to SS etc. Where it really grew in difficult quickly. Players were distributed out into different ranks depending on the league they were in pre-5.0

I do feel it could be discouraging to new players to see the long road to the top, but those who stick at it will hopefully become great players as they’d have more practice on the way up.

The artwork for the ranks is awesome so great job on that Firi, the badges suit the game perfectly and makes you think you’re involved in the war against the Doomsday Invaders! (Get to that later)

My final note on this would be that it is very difficult to understand the new system at first, and will take a bit of a transitioning period to get used to for most players. I would also ask Firi to put a disclaimer or info box in the game to say how the new leagues work as not everyone reads the patch notes!

Ranks TBA

Badges and Leagues^

New Invader Classes and Weapons

Invaders have a variety of new weapons at their disposal. Expect new bullet patterns and watch out for the entirely new Doomsday class turrets.

We have yet to see anything of value yet, although we have gotten a spoiler. This section will come soon, but I bet the graphics are amazing and I’m looking forward to the new doomsday classes.

Teaser of the new invader turret!^

New Ships!

Probably the first thing everyone wanted to see when the update dropped, all 10 new ships! But players cannot see these new ships due to a change in warp gate and shop functions (stay tuned). We have some images of new ships attached below, and there are some videos too of the ships in the Phoenix II discord (also linked below)

Will add more as they are found. Apexes will be added at a later date:

New Abilities including:

•Goliath Missiles

•Focus Lance

More TBA

This is probably my favorite part of the update because is just full of new content! Although harder to come across due to the new Warp Gate and Shop, its still super cool to try out these new ships (although I’ve only got 1 of them so far) its always like starting over as

Warp Gate Mechanics and Shop

New ships can now only be unlocked through the Warp Gate. The selection of available ships rotates often.

The Warp Gate has once again gotten some love from Firi (and probably some dislike from the community) with its new mechanics, players can no longer purchase specific ships from the ship menu, instead all ships can only be found in the Warp Gate and the new rotatable ship menu. Which seems to reset daily (at time of writing)

You can select the ship and buy it with credits like the old system, but its limited to the new layout of 3 ships per cycle.

This is similar to systems in other games (eg. Clash Royale attached below), but considering it came from another shop layout it seems like a step into a dark age. It definitely makes the player appreciate the Warp Gate more, but if the Warp Gate hasn’t changed its odds, then it seems like its limiting players more which could in turn turn newer or regular players away. Again the design looks slick, but I dont think it makes up for the limits.

Clash Royale shop layout (has more selection however, which is something Firi could take on)

Mission Intel

Mission intel now provides some key information about each mission beforehand.

Another solid call by firi, I have no criticisms on this one, I think its pretty much perfect for new and old players, it gives players more of an understanding of invader types (ie. Shield, Armor, Hull) and gives them a chance to prepare for the mission by giving you a look at the main turret types, if there is a boss or (probably) if they’re equipped with the new doomsday weapon

I cannot stress this enough, the design in game is just awesome, looks so satisfying.

New Invader layouts and Generators

A completely redesigned mission generator. Invaders will appear in new formations and configurations.

Again, great call by Firi, new configs will liven up the game for the veterans while, giving new players a chance to receive knowledge at the same time as old players, studying bullet patters, Invader movements and how they come in. No examples really for this, play on and test them out for yourself!

Other New Additions and Changes

Redesigned score screen.

Looking good on that too, XP and credits are clearly marked with some nice animation, although I didn’t think it needed to change, its much more slick and user friendly

Mission debriefings are now presented on the Pilot tab.

Not a fan of this one, it seems like an unneeded change to something that was already good, although the screen has been changed and includes new artwork. I think the old system worked better. If the new debriefings were on the main page, I’d’ve been chuffed to buts, but it seems like unnecessary complication just for the sake of it.

•Last Wave Banner

Again, not a fan of this. Even though its not mentioned in the patch notes. I think its worth a mention, it is very distracting when you’re concentrating on your ship and surviving and suddenly there is an animated banner appearing at the top of the screen, its very off putting.

I don’t have any fixes for this, I think it should just be removed fully from the game, its unneeded dramatisation for what seems like an already tense part of a mission

Ion Warheads Missile Swarm Apex now stun turrets near the impact area of the missile, and not the entire ship anymore.

This was seen coming a mile away, Sigma EX04239 has been reigning supreme on many levels due to this powerful apex. It was nerfed, but I can still see it being super useful. Although other ships were affected by this nerf, Sigma EX0 was hit the hardest and may have lost meta status, but we’ll see in the coming days

My Hopes and Ideas

I have many ideas and changes that I hope to see implemented into the game. Although there is little to no chance that these will be implemented, I hope Firi can take on some criticisms from it and push this game for the better!

•Info Box- this seems like a pretty standard addition as it is in many games already. Placing a new tab, or updating the community tab to something like “Extra” where players can look up things they’ve encountered. They could be all greyed out to begin with, and as you see new turrets, Invader types, mirvs, invader armors, etc. etc. And an explanation on how the new leagues work, how to join communities, what specialists are all about etc.

•Warp Gate and Shop- expanding the shop to six ships (as currently its a 1/10 chance of getting the ship you want each day) or reducing the Warp Gate cooldown to 9 hours to make it easier to get ships and less limiting on all players

•Deleting the Last Wave Banner

•Moving the mission to the main tab when you log on as it was before.

•Add a community list of communities in descending order of members or activity

Overall its a great update although confusing. I hope its not as limiting as I believe it is now and I hope it invites players new and old to become closer as communities and welcome new players!

Fly on Pilots, Nene°B.O.B.