Sky Battalion

Sky Battalion is the fourth stage for Lilac, Carol, and Milla in Freedom Planet. Torque is also playable in it.
In the story of Freedom Planet, Team Lilac spends the night in one of Mayor Zao's airships while they fly back to Shang Tu in order to tell the Magister the Zao is interested in negotiating with him. Early in the morning, Shuigang and Red Scarves forces under the command of Prince Dail and Spade attack their airship. They manage to repel them off, but the ship is too heavily damaged and crashes into a nearby river.
== Level ==
==== Main Airship ====
left|thumb|255x255px|Carol is ready to jump onto the Fire Ship from the main airship.
Sky Battalion is not like most stages in Freedom Planet. Rather than having two acts with a midboss in between and a stage boss at the end, Sky Battalion has three sections in which the player raids and defeats the miniboss on each ship and one final fight on the main ship, and the enemy ships can be raided in any order. When a ship is raided, the player character escape via biplane (although if the player is able to escape the ship without the use of the biplane, then they are rewarded the "Freefaller" achievement. The main ship acts as a hub between the enemy ships. Occasionally, the enemy ships will fire cannonballs at the main ship, but they are the only threat and are easy to dodge. If the player jumps off this ship or any of the other ones, then they instantly die.
==== Metal Airship ====
thumb|220x220px|Lilac has to time her moments to avoid getting shocked.
The Metal Ship has a large variety of hazards, most of them based around metal and electricity. There are spikes all over the level that damage the player if touched, moving electrical currents that make the player time their movements correctly, and bombs that blow up to reveal new chucks of the level. When it comes to enemies, the ones that a player really has to watch out for are the DNA Cannons as they do lots of damage if you get into contact with their blast. The miniboss of this ship is the Satellite. It has two attack that it repeats in a pattern: extending its arms and firing lasers downward at the player and spinning its arms around on the ground to hit the player repeatedly. Once it is defeated, the player destroys the two cannons on the ship and leaves.
==== Fire Airship ====
thumb|285x285px|Milla attacks the Shuigang Helicopter.
The Fire Airship has a lot of fire-based hazards and enemies. There are flamethrowers throughout the ship that periodically activate. There is also trickier platforming, with wind-ups that the player has to climb up in order to progress. The miniboss of this ship is different depending on which character the player selected. If the player picked Lilac, then she fights against Spade. Spade has a variety of moves to attack the player and quickly dash away, so attacking him head on is not a good strategy. If Lilac stands on the ledge to the left of the arena, then Spade cannot attack her, earning the player the "Ledge Taunt" achievement. If the player picked Carol, Milla, or Torque, then they have to fight the Shuigang Helicopter. It fires missiles at the player and drops bombs straight down, but is not difficult to defeat otherwise, especially when it is led to the ledge. No matter the boss, the player will destroy the cannons and leave the ship.
==== Earth Airship ====
thumb|205x205px|Milla runs to avoid getting crushed.
The Earth Airship has few enemies for the player to worry about and is mostly platforming-focused. It has chains with crystals on them that move up and down, platforms that sway from side to side, and crushers that drop down onto the floor. There are also several gusts of air that the player can ride to go upward. The boss of this ship is the Grappler. In order to beat the Grappler, the player must ride the wind lift in the arena and hit it five times with any attack. The mire it is damaged, the higher up it will climb. Once finished off, the player does what they've done on the previous ships and destroys the cannons.
== Stage Boss ==
thumb|293x293px|The Kujacker tries to peck Torque from the side.|left
When all three airships have been raided, the player makes their way back to the main ship, where they are attacked by Prince Dail piloting the Kujacker. The Kujacker is one of the most difficult bosses up to this point in the game. It has a variety of powerful attacks. In order to defeat it, the player must destroy all the orbs on the tips of its "feathers" and then attack Dail himself five times; they start out green and turn red when its health begins to drop close to zero. Whenever this is done once, the Kujacker will fly through the air and try to peck the player from the sides. When not doing this, it can create a slow-moving but powerful ball of electricity to launch in any direction. It can also create gusts of wind that push the player towards the edges of the ship, so to avoid falling off an having to restart the battle, a player must run towards the center of where the gusts are generating. Later in the fight, it can also shoot multiple beams of yellow light out of its center that the player has to avoid. The order that it does any of these attacks is completely random. The best strategy for beating this boss is to use attacks that cover a large area and to not stray very far from the center in case Dail uses the wind attack.
== Enemies ==
==== Regular Enemies ====
* Axle Turret: Axle Turrets rotate around in the same place and face up, down, left, or right and fire three bullets in whatever direction they are facing. They do not actively target the player.
* DNA Cannon: DNA Cannons fire powerful laser waves that stunlock the player until they are done firing. They do not actively target the player.
* Drone: Drones pop out of the ground and fly off, leaving a trail that damages players that touch it before it disappears. They do not actively target the player.
* Hopper MKII: Hoppers jump around and attack the player when they are within striking distance. They shoot a projectile straight forward.
* Magmeon: Magmeons walk toward the player and do damage upon contact due to their flaming heads. They will also jump up to burn the play if they are above them.
* Pelletizer: Pelletizers floats around and occasionally fire two pellets diagonally downward at the same time. They do not actively target the player.
* Rotorblade: Rotorblades pop out of the ground and quickly rush into the player.
* Slime: Slimes slowly hop towards the player, leaving little slime balls in their trail that explode.
==== Minibosses ====
* Satellite: The Satellite is the boss of the Metal Airship. It can spread its arms out to fire seven individual lasers from its arms and body. It can also extend its arms and move along the ground to knock the player around.
* Spade: Spade is not an enemy who players can directly attack. He is very fast and can easily move from one side of the arena to the other. He has lots of ranged attacks, but nothing for close combat.
* Shuigang Helicopter: The Shuigang Helicopter hovers high in the air, requiring the player to jump up in order to hit is unless they lead it to the left ledge of the arena.
* Grappler: The Grappler moves up and down by clinging to the walls with its arms. It fires projectiles from its body that home into the player and can launch a large crystal that the player can ride up to the top of the arena.
== Gallery ==
Carol fights the Grappler.jpeg
Lilac vs Spade in Sky Battalion.jpeg
Milla fights the Satellite.jpeg
Lilac in the Fire Ship FP1.jpeg
Torque attacks a cannon in Sky battalion fp1.jpeg
Carol in Earth Airship.jpeg