T-11 Plover

Damage Dealt: Default
Energy Shield: Protects you from the first hit you take
Weapon Shield: Sacrifices powerups and weapon pods to protect you from further hits
Top Speed (mouse controls): 10
Top Speed (other controls): 8
Powerup Time Cap: 80 seconds
Score Multiplier: -50%

Survivability: A
Point Scoring: F

Plover is the aircraft you use when you just want to beat the game. This craft is your little brother who carries you past the level you're stuck on. Just don't use plover if you care about your score at all, because it WILL be terrible. Keep in mind the energy shield takes priority over the weapon shield, so it can prevent you from losing powerups/weapon pods.



F-27 Platypus

Damage Dealt: Default
Weapon Shield: Sacrifices powerups and weapon pods to protect you from hits
Top Speed (mouse controls): 11
Top Speed (other controls): 9
Powerup Time Cap: 60 seconds
Score Multiplier: Default

Survivability: B
Point Scoring: B

The classic, the all-rounder, a master of none is not always better or worse than a master of one. If you're simply unsure which craft to run, try the original. Optimal choice for nostalgia enjoyers.



X-18 Wyvern

Damage Dealt: +20%
No shield: Any hits taken will immediately destroy your craft
Top Speed (mouse controls): 12
Top Speed (other controls, holding fire): 11
Top Speed (other controls, firing slowdown): 9
Powerup Time Cap: 50 seconds
Score Multiplier: Default

Survivability: C
Point Scoring: A

The aircraft for professionals looking to earn a record-breaking score and maybe bragging rights. Fast and deadly, but difficult to stay alive with it's lack of a shield. Also not a bad choice if you like playing aggressive, even if you don't mind your score. Looks cool.
According to the Anthony, players dislike firing slowdown but keyboard/joystick Wyvern felt too fast to control without it, so Wyvern with non-mouse controls is now the only context where firing slowdown is enabled.



All Ships
Invulnerability Frames on Powerup Pickup: 2sec easy/normal / 0sec hard/expert/nasty
I-Frames on Respawn: 4sec
I-Frames on Power Down: 2sec

As a reference, here are the stats for the main weapon:
Fire Rate: 6/sec x2
Default weapon only: Shots have a hardcoded +25% damage bonus. Additive with wyvern's damage bonus for a total of +45%.
Damage/Shot Base: 4 / 5 / 5.8 (base damage vs. plover/platypus damage vs. wyvern damage)
Damage/Shot w/ Pods: 3 / 3.75 / 4.35 (weapon pods are strong so having at least 1 nerfs all projectiles fired)
DPS Podless: 48 / 60 / 69.6 (damage dealt per second without weapon pods)
DPS w/ 2 Pods: 72 / 90 / 104.4 (total DPS with two weapon pods)

Vs. Primary Targets: Effectiveness against enemies that change sprite when damaged
Vs. Secondary Craft: Effectiveness against enemies that take one or few hits to destroy
Overall Ranking: Effectiveness in general, against all enemies.

Description: This is an explanation of what the weapon does.
Strategy: This is an explanation of how I recommend you use the weapon.

Star Color: Yellow
Fire Rate: 6/sec x4
Damage/Shot Base: 3
Damage/Shot w/ Pods: 2 normal / 3 angled
DPS Base: 72
DPS w/ 2 Pods: 84

Vs. Primary Targets: B
Vs. Secondary Craft: A
Overall Ranking: B

Description: In addition to your main gun, you shoot extra projectiles roughly 15 degrees up and down.
Strategy: Easily tears apart hordes of fodder enemies, and does decent damage to big enemies if you get close enough for all projectiles to hit.

Star Color: Sky Blue
Fire Rate: 15/sec x2
Damage/Shot Base: 3
Damage/Shot w/ Pods: 2
DPS Base: 90
DPS w/ 2 Pods: 120

Vs. Primary Targets: A
Vs. Secondary Craft: A
Overall Ranking: A

Description: Your main weapon shoots significantly faster.
Strategy: Good at catching fodder enemies as there are no gaps in your bullets to squeeze through, good against big enemies as it just has decent DPS.

Star Color: Green
Fire Rate: 1.875/sec
Piercing: Damage is dealt continuously while the projectile is passing through enemies
Damage/Shot Base: 90dps (unconfirmed)
Damage/Shot w/ Pods: 60dps (unconfirmed)

Vs. Primary Targets: A
Vs. Secondary Craft: C
Overall Ranking: B

Description: Fires a wave that destroys projectiles and damages all enemies in a short range.
Strategy: More of a defensive tool than a weapon, this is best known for it's ability to protect you by destroying projectiles. (not nasty mode death bullets and some others) Popular in the 1st minefield of level 2, as it has a chance to immediately destroy all projectiles of the mines it hits. However it has poor range, so you do have to get close to enemies to hit them which is always risky.

Star Color: Crimson Red
Fire Rate: 6/sec
Damage/Shot Base: 28
Damage/Shot w/ Pods: 14
DPS Base: 168
DPS w/ 2 Pods: 252

Vs. Primary Targets: A
Vs. Secondary Craft: D (B with pods)
Overall Ranking: B

Description: Rockets drop from the bottom of the ship, then fly forward & inflict high damage.
Strategy: Difficult to use against fodder enemies as you shoot less & slower projectiles, although weapon pods largely solve this problem. Counters anything that dies in multiple hits. Never a bad choice for any section with lots of big enemies or boss battles. The rockets can hit targets below you before they fly forward - this sometimes saves you from a missile or fast enemy about to hit your bottom, as well as you can use this to damage certain enemies earlier.

Star Color: Cyan
Fires a continuous beam
Piercing: Damage is dealt continuously while passing through enemies
DPS Base: ? (no info present in mod starter pack files, exact damage is unknown)
DPS w/ Pods: ?

Vs. Primary Targets: S
Vs. Secondary Craft: A
Overall Ranking: S

Description: Fires a beam that deals high damage to all enemies in a line. Deals significantly higher damage up close.
Strategy: Easily the best weapon in the game. Despite having long range, you generally want to stay at medium or close range to maximize your damage output.

Star Color: Orange
Fire Rate: Varying
Piercing: Damage is dealt continuously while the projectile is passing through enemies
Damage/Shot Base: ? (it's listed as 40 damage in the files, don't know if that's applied per hit or per second)
Damage/Shot w/ Pods: ? (pods increase charge speed, not max damage)

Vs. Primary Targets: A
Vs. Secondary Craft: D
Overall Ranking: C

Description: Press fire to make a fireball in front of your ship. This rapidly damages on contact. Hold fire to increase it's size and damage. Release fire to launch the fireball forward.
Strategy: There are 3 main ways to use this weapon:

• Tap Firing: Mash the fire button to spam weak projectiles. Usable against fodder enemies.
  
• Charge Firing: Hold fire until the fireball increases in size 3 times, then release. This does good damage and pierces, although it takes a significant amount of time to fully charge.
  
• Melee: Hold fire and get close to enemies, the fireball does crazy damage without you even firing it! Risky to use on anything that shoots, but a powerful way to kill poorly defended enemies such as unarmed enemies and boats.

Star Color: Black
Fire Rate: 6/sec
Damage/Shot Base: 3 bullet / 25 bomb
Damage/Shot w/ Pods: 2 bullet / 32 bomb (doesn't shoot extra bombs, just increases damage)
DPS Base: 45 / 150
DPS w/ 2 Pods: 60 / 192

Vs. Primary Targets: A
Vs. Secondary Craft: C
Overall Ranking: B

Description: In addition to your main gun, your ship drops bombs that fall down and deal high damage.
Strategy: Used to be blatantly overpowered, but has recently been nerfed to do less DPS than rockets. Can be relatively safe to use in certain contexts, but is otherwise outclassed by rockets. Riskier to use the closer an enemy is to the top of the screen, as well as the right if more enemies are spawning in.

Star Color: Purple
Fire Rate: 6/sec x6
Damage/Shot Base: 4 front / 3 back
Damage/Shot w/ Pods: 3
DPS Base: 48 / 72
DPS w/ 2 Pods: 72 / 72

Vs. Primary Targets: B
Vs. Secondary Craft: B
Overall Ranking: B

Description: In addition to your main guns, you fire a Wide Shot backwards.
Strategy: Most helpful against enemies prone to getting behind you or spawning on the left side of the screen. Usually not a bad choice when it's available. Note: I've been told this is bad in Nasty difficulty as you'll be dodging death bullets from two directions.

Star Color: Magenta
Fire Rate: ? (roughly 3/sec normally, 1.5/sec when missing)
Damage/Shot Base: 50
Damage/Shot w/ Pods: 70 (doesn't add extra gloves, just increases damage)
DPS Base: ~150
DPS w/ 2 Pods: ~210

Vs. Primary Targets: A
Vs. Secondary Craft: F
Overall Ranking: D

Description: Short range hitscan attack that does high damage. Longer cooldown when missing.
Strategy: Risk-reward weapon, high damage output but poor range. Be careful when fighting big armed enemies, pay attention to their fire rate and back off when they're about to shoot. Can be used in minefields to precisely hit white balloons and nothing else.

Star Color: Gray
Fire Rate: 6/sec x2 bullets, 0.6/sec x4 missiles
Damage/Shot Base: 3 bullet / 30 missile
Damage/Shot w/ Pods: 2 bullet / 40 missile (doesn't shoot extra missiles, just increases damage)
DPS Base: 36 / 72 (108 total)
DPS w/ 2 Pods: 48 / 96 (144 total)

Vs. Primary Targets: A
Vs. Secondary Craft: D
Overall Ranking: C

Description: In addition to your main guns, you fire 4 missiles every 1.67 seconds that track enemies.
Strategy: One of the few weapons in the game that can attack enemies in ANY direction. Unfortunately the missiles are too slow and infrequent to be reliable against fodder enemies, but they can still help against bigger enemies or bosses by aiming themselves while you focus on dodging, especially on higher difficulties.

Star Color: Light Blue
Fire Rate: 7.5/sec
Damage/Shot Base: 13
Damage/Shot w/ Pods: 7
DPS Base: 97.5
DPS w/ 2 Pods: 157.5

Vs. Primary Targets: B
Vs. Secondary Craft: C
Overall Ranking: C

Description: Fires slow projectiles with bullet drop but decent damage.
Strategy: Personally I prefer Autocannon over this. This weapon's projectiles are inaccurate, slow, and arced. Autocannon is accurate, fast and consistent. Even though AC has slightly lower base DPS, it ends up actually being higher because I miss less.

Star Color: Light Orange
Fire Rate: 12/sec
Damage/Shot Base: 10
Damage/Shot w/ Pods: 5
DPS Base: 120
DPS w/ 2 Pods: 180

Vs. Primary Targets: A
Vs. Secondary Craft: A
Overall Ranking: D

Description: Fish with higher fire rate, lower damage per shot and higher overall DPS.
Strategy: Used to be fish but worse, now it's fish but better. Since the projectiles are still slow and fall as they travel, you want to get close to minimize the chance they miss, or spread out your shots to enure some of them land.

Star Color: Light Red
Fire Rate: 7.5/sec
Damage/Shot Base: 24
Damage/Shot w/ Pods: 12
DPS Base: 180
DPS w/ 2 Pods: 270

Vs. Primary Targets: S
Vs. Secondary Craft: C (A with pods)
Overall Ranking: A

Description: Rockets with higher fire rate, lower damage per shot and higher overall DPS.
Strategy: Much better as a generalist weapon as more projectiles always helps against 1-hit enemies. Also more DPS is just good.

Star Color: White
Fire Rate: 7.5/sec
Damage/Shot Base: 15
Damage/Shot w/ Pods: 8
DPS Base: 112.5
DPS w/ 2 Pods: 180

Vs. Primary Targets: A
Vs. Secondary Craft: A
Overall Ranking: A

Description: Generic food weapon that fires decent damage shots with small spread.
Strategy: n/a

Star Color: Pink
Fire Rate: 2/sec
Secondary Projectiles: Shots summon roughly 16/sec smaller projectiles that do 10 damage each
Damage/Shot Base: 100
Damage/Shot w/ Pods: 100
DPS Base: 200
DPS w/ 2 Pods: 200

Vs. Primary Targets: A
Vs. Secondary Craft: C
Overall Ranking: A

Description: Fires large high-damage projectiles that release additional short-range projectiles.
Strategy: Try to not let the primary projectiles hit 1-hit enemies, as it can keep traveling if a secondary projectile hits it. Pods do nothing besides fire low damage yellow bullets; this might be worse than other powerups if you have them.

Star Color: Brown
Fire Rate: 20/sec
Damage/Shot Base: 7
Damage/Shot w/ Pods: 4
DPS Base: 140
DPS w/ 2 Pods: 240

Vs. Primary Targets: A
Vs. Secondary Craft: S
Overall Ranking: A

Description: Somewhat generic food weapon that fires fast with small spread.
Strategy: n/a

Star Color: Gray (slightly brighter than homing missiles)
Fire Rate: 7.5/sec
Damage/Shot Base: 3 x2 bullet / 20 beans
Damage/Shot w/ Pods: 2 bullet / 10 beans
DPS Base: 45 / 150
DPS w/ 2 Pods: 60 / 225

Vs. Primary Targets: A
Vs. Secondary Craft: B
Overall Ranking: B

Description: In addition to your main gun, your ship drops cans of beans that inherit your craft's momentum and damage enemies on contact.
Strategy: A bomb sidegrade that does less damage but may attack in directions other than down, as you can "throw" the beans by shooting while moving.

Star Color: Light yellow with brown stripe
Fire Rate: 7.5/sec
Damage/Shot Base: 18
Damage/Shot w/ Pods: 9
DPS Base: 135
DPS w/ 2 Pods: 202.5

Vs. Primary Targets: A
Vs. Secondary Craft: A
Overall Ranking: A

Description: Generic food weapon that fires decent damage shots with small spread.
Strategy: n/a

Star Color: Pink with brown bottom
Fire Rate: 10/sec
Damage/Shot Base: 16
Damage/Shot w/ Pods: 8
DPS Base: 160
DPS w/ 2 Pods: 240

Vs. Primary Targets: S
Vs. Secondary Craft: A
Overall Ranking: S

Description: Generic food weapon that fires decent damage shots with small spread. Has a unique property where the projectiles fired by the main craft and both pods all share the same projectile deviation.
Strategy: n/a

Star Color: Light Yellow
Fire Rate: 15/sec
Damage/Shot Base: 9
Damage/Shot w/ Pods: 4
DPS Base: 135
DPS w/ 2 Pods: 180

Vs. Primary Targets: B
Vs. Secondary Craft: S
Overall Ranking: A

Description: Somewhat generic food weapon that fires fast with high spread.
Strategy: This weapon has crazy fire rate and spread compared to other food weapons, it's pretty good against 1-hit enemies with it's high spread, but may not be as great for focusing fire on a single enemy.