Enemies/Prop Plane

*Not to be confused with Planes, the nine aircraft types piloted by the players.*
**Prop Planes** are small aircraft enemies that travel in fleets, dealing damage to the player's Plane via direct contact.

## Prop Plane

* Red
* Orange
* Cyan
* Lime
* Black

## Description

### Stage Appearance

**Red*** Stage 1
* Stage 2
* Stage 3
* Stage 6
* Stage 7
* Stage 11
* Tournament

**Orange**

* Stage 2
* Stage 4
* Stage 6
* Stage 8
* Stage 9
* Stage 11
* Tournament

**Cyan**

* Stage 3
* Stage 8
* Tournament

**Lime**

* Stage 10

**Black**

* Stage 12

## Statistics

### Damage

Varies by difficulties and types.Values below are results of head-on crashes.*(With max Health upgrades)*
**Red (type I)**

* Normal: 1 - 2%
* Hard: 2 - 3%
* Insane: 6 - 7%
* Nightmare: 29 - 32%

**Red (type II)**

* Normal: 1 - 2%
* Hard: 4%
* Insane: 8%
* Nightmare: 26%

**Red (type III)**

* Normal: 3%
* Hard: 6 - 8%
* Insane: 10%
* Nightmare: 27%

**Red (type IV)**

* Normal: 14 - 15%
* Hard: 18%
* Insane: 26%
* Nightmare: 28 - 31%

**Orange (type I)**

* Normal: 10 - 14%
* Hard: 16%
* Insane: 29 - 30%
* Nightmare: 49 - 50%

**Orange (type II)**

* Normal: 29%
* Hard: 44%
* Insane: 69%
* Nightmare: 84%

**Cyan**

* Normal: 6%
* Hard: 18%
* Insane: 20%
* Nightmare: 23%

**Lime**

* Normal: 99%
* Hard: 132%
* Insane: 150+ %
* Nightmare: 150+ %

**Black**

* Normal: 83%
* Hard: 106.5%
* Insane: 141%
* Nightmare: 150+ %

## Reward

### Score Reward

* Red (type I): 25
* Red (type II): 50
* Red (type III): 60
* Red (type IV): 25
* Orange (type I): 100
* Orange (type II): 125
* Cyan: 125
* Lime: 125
* Black: 200

## Appearance

Prop Planes are small fixed-wing aircrafts with a visible seat for pilots in the middle. They may also have turbines and turrets on their wings. From the end of the wings, faint white lines are produced to imitate real-life wingtip vortices.

Prop Planes has different colors of paint jobs and designs, which might give a clue to their statistics. A color variant of planes may have different sub-types.

## Behavior

Prop Planes are often found traveling in a specific trajectory in fleets, along with others of the same type. They appear anywhere from the edges of the screen, flying in a direction and follow either a straight or curved trajectory. The player will lose the opportunity to destroy them if they travel off-screen, thus breaking any active Chain Bonus. They lack weapons and cannot directly attack the player. This behavior is shared with the Stage B3 variants (Jet Fighters and Triebflügel Planes) and Drones.

Prop Planes may be viewed as destructible "bullets"; they have health and explode when it runs out like other enemies, dropping stars and reward some points. Their health can be reduced by two methods: damaging the planes with weapons or by making contact with the player's Plane. If the Prop Planes collide with the player's Plane, both sides will take damage until either of them is destroyed, or if they pass through each other completely. The damage is reduced for both sides if they make contact on the wings instead of the fuselages. Prop Planes' potential damage is reduced along with their health, therefore lightly damaged planes may deal less damage when crashing into the player. Prop Planes are often destroyed when colliding, but fast and durable planes can pass through the player and leave both in one piece (but will still be heavily damaged).

Players can use Energy Shields to protect themselves from the aircrafts and can even safely mow through fleets, as Prop Planes are always destroyed instantly when they make contact with the shield, regardless of their health.

There are many types of Prop Planes with various degrees of health, damage and speed, which can be differentiated by their paint jobs and design. Red, orange and their variants are often weak, while cyan, lime and black are durable and able to deal more damage. On Nightmare difficulty, Prop Planes gain significantly more health, resulting in much higher damage.

Some Prop Planes may occasionally have a yellow glow; these planes will drop Weapon Upgrades items that increase your weapons' fire rate. Glowing planes will not spawn if the fire rate is maxed out.

## Strategy

* Since Prop Planes' only offensive ability is collision, keeping distance is crucial in avoiding damages. When fighting against durable planes with straight downward trajectories, steer clear of their path if your firepower is not high enough to avoid being sandwiched by both them and the bottom of the screen and receiving high damage.
* Keep a keen eye or remember their appearing sequence from previous playthroughs to both prevent ambushes and losing your Chain Bonus. During Stages, other enemies and strategically placed survivors can distract you from the incoming Prop Planes.
* Even if a fleet of Prop Planes is too tough for you to destroy every single one, prioritize glowing planes and amass Weapon Upgrades to have a better chance at destroying them later on.
* Utilize many different kits to deal with durable Prop Planes. The Classic Plane with Laser Whip upgrade specialize in destroying vertical fleets of planes, Gladius's mighty firepower is helpful against tough planes and Octopus's mini rockets are useful in dispatching multiple planes in a single launch, a situation in which normal missiles is inefficient. The Tase MeBro Technician is excellent in catching fast Prop Planes that are able to get behind your Plane and escape.
* If used wisely with good timing, Wing Cannons can swiftly burn through columns or groups of Prop Planes, thus saving time that can be used to take on other enemies.

## Trivia

Rarely, instead of exploding in mid-air when destroyed, some Prop Planes may turn into burning wreckage that spiral into the ground and explode. This chance is increased by the Lucy Clover Technician.

## Images

*(work in progress)*

1. ↑ In this scenario, the Prop Plane will move straight downwards while the player's Plane is uncontrolled. Both aircrafts will be aligned right in front of each other, On Nightmare difficulty, the Prop Plane may pass through the player without being destroyed, losing some of their potential total damage.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Even Iron Clad is destroyed.