Capital Ships

A **Capital Ship** (previously known as flagship) is the most powerful ship of a faction, having the highest base size, health and armaments out of all other vessels. These ships usually serve as "boss battles" for the player, but can also be used by the player through captain upgrades with a maximum of two slots (five in Frontier with specific pilots).

## Overview

Capital Ships can be found either as random encounters at boss nodes or at the central node of a faction Base, with one ship for every multiple of 100% in military power. A red drone symbol inside a circle indicates a boss encounter at a specific star system.

In-game, Capital Ships are extremely dangerous, possessing a large amount of hit points and usually a wide array of weapons, often more effective than the player's arsenal. Fighting them is not recommended unless you have a large fleet, a smaller but extremely overleveled one or a well-built ship made specifically to destroy them. Beyond the first few stars, Capital Ships will always have a fleet for backup, so you not only need to survive beating it, but also its reinforcements. To alert you to their presence when off-screen, these ships have a yellow circle around their icon instead of the usual red.

Defeating Capital Ships rewards you with approximately 3000 - 4000 credits, a large amount of experience, research points for the faction, star currency if it is a double veteran and high level equipment. There are fifteen different Capital Ships: one for each faction except Contagion, and two Christmas exclusive neutral ones.

## List of Capital Ships

### Leviathan

    The Leviathan is the Veniri capital ship. As with most Veniri ships, it uses projectile weapons, namely two Heavy Pulse Cannons. In addition, enemy Leviathans have two AI-exclusive Scout MK2 drones with Pulse Cannon M2s.
Alone, the Leviathan is actually one of the easiest capital ships to fight, as with good speed or use of Impact Armor the heavy pulse cannons can be avoided or tanked with little effort. The bigger danger is the drones, which can hit with high accuracy, high damage and can also replenish themselves. It is best to ignore the minion Scout MK2s and focus your efforts on the Leviathan, especially since it can punish you with a Small Repair Bot for wasting time on drones. Fast hit-and-run ships like the Zephyr can make quick work of this capital ship, as well as equipping impact armor onto a Spike to deal with them early on. Long-range weapons unaffected by the Point-Defense System (i.e Ion Cannons) are also extremely useful for strafing.

Double veteran Leviathans maintain the same features as normal but have higher hit points, velocity and turn rate. Attacking them head-on with a slow ship is not recommended as it will attempt to maintain its range.

For player use, Leviathans can function as extremely bulky snipers using Railguns, or for holding Holy Cannons.

### Megalodon

    The Megalodon is the capital ship of the Bushrak, and out of all other ships within the faction uses the most missile weaponry. Not only are you at risk of massive damage from far away with the Heavy Missile Launcher MII and Plasma Torpedo, close-range attacks are also countered with a Heavy Laser Beam. Luckily, it does not have built-in frigate drones.Speed is key to defeating this ship, as it is crucial that you avoid all missiles. To counter the Heavy Missile Launcher MII, a ship needs at least 12.0 in forward velocity, a Pulsar M2 with an area of effect modifier or a full Energy Shield. The Pulsar M2 also covers all other missiles, making the Oblivion a very good Megalodon killer early-game. Heavy Acid Missiles will also prematurely detonate all projectiles fired from the Megalodon, letting you only worry about dealing with the laser. Once all missiles can be avoided, it can then be strafed and killed by a mere Scout.

Double veteran Megalodons use 5 A.I-only Heavy Missile Launcher MIVs, the Heavy Laser Beam MI, and 12 Small Missile Launchers, with improved hit points and turning speed. The same strategy roughly applies, with either a speedy ship or a slow but cloaked assassin. Engaging them in combat at close range is far riskier since their great turning speed lets the laser focus on you for a very long time.

For player use, Megalodons have an extremely diverse set of builds, from DPS monsters, long-range missile-based fighters or drone carriers. It is widely regarded as one of the top Capital Ships both in accessibility and usage.

### Thor

    The Thor is the capital ship of the Korerans and is particularly difficult to destroy. Its most powerful weapon is large swarm of M31 torpedo drones, which can easily wipe most slow ships out. Supporting this miniature army is a Homing Stasis Field to lock your ships in place for torpedo and missile barrages, as well as Impact Armor to nullify kinetic damage.Evading this ship requires a good forward speed of at least 10.0, as well as an ECM jammer to distract its homing weapons. After that, you must hit it with long-range non-kinetic weapons such as the Heavy Quantum Torpedo, so that you do not get caught in its close-range weaponry. To deal with the drones, weapons such as the Pulsar MII and Heavy Missile MII can wipe out all of them easily, allowing virtually safe passage to the ship. Alternatively, a stealthy assassin such as the Zion can avoid both the drone swarm and the Thor's weapons.

Double veteran Thor has significantly higher drone range and damage. To avoid being stoned to death before you get anywhere near it, a stealthed Assassin-type ship is your only option.

For player use, the massive amount of blue slots makes Thor an ideal drone carrier, although its small engine size will make it slow and cumbersome to haul around. In addition, it uses missile/special weapon slots instead of the usual torpedoes, allowing for interesting weapon choices such as the Black Hole Generator.

### Kraken

    The Kraken is the capital ship of the Taraniak, sharing its infamous Warp Drive module. It uses the special Heavy Anti-Matter Bomb BII, two Heavy Lightning Cannons and a long-range Heavy Stasis Field, as well as two Drone frigate minions. Its main strategy is to jump to your ship with the Warp Drive and detonate its bomb, making strafing key to defeating it, much like the Tarantula.
Double veteran Krakens are much more agressive with an improved green-tier Warp Drive. EMP torpedoes or high-damage ships at long range can avoid the bomb and keep their distance for an easy victory. Alternatively, using drone carriers with M54 missile drones can exploit the Kraken's close combat nature to kill it without any intervention from your ship itself.

For player use, Kraken's 180° targeting unit lets it become a very dangerous close-range brawler that can tear apart enemies with little regard for aim. Having close-range laser weapons such as Energy Siphons and Lightning Cannons will fit this role perfectly.

### Oracle

    The Oracle is the capital ship of the Sayjix. While very slow, it has extremely accurate aim, which is enhanced by using M22 stasis drones to lock targets in place for the Heavy Pulse Cannon and Heavy Laser Beam. In addition, it carries a full Energy Shield that protects it with its energy until it drops to 20%. Naturally, EMP torpedoes will easily disable the shield and leave it vulnerable for high-damage weapons.
Double veteran Oracles have extremely high hit points as well as energy and heat absorbers, leaving you with only kinetic damage. Luckily, it still has the same weakness, being EMP Torpedoes.

For player use, Oracles can wield the Death Ray, allowing you to cover the entire map with fantastic damage, atomize boulders and wipe out entire fleets with its full-circle targeting unit.

### Overlord

A variant on the Bushrak Capital Ship, the Jurgans Capital Ship is one of the trickier ones to fight. It has slow but powerful Heavy Quantum Torpedoes, a powerful forward long-range laser, defensive mid range rapid fire Mass Driver M2 turrets on its back corners and two very accurate and very damaging Embryo Mk2 drones packing long range Mass Driver M2s. This lethal combination of weaponry makes it difficult to approach from any direction.

Staying away from this ship is a must, as its arsenal can't be shot down like its weaker counterpart. One possible option for attacking it is a series of brute-force suicide runs either with fast Kamikaze ships packing Quantum Detonators if you don't have a fast gunship. Or otherwise shooting them down at a distance work very effectively.

Another good strategy is to equip a ship with some Heavy Proton Torpedoes, a targeting unit and a couple M2 Automated Reloaders. Find a "sweet spot" where you can barely hit it; then gently strafe to one side. If done right, you can take the Overlord down with just one properly equiped ship without taking any damage. Using Heavy Missile Launcher M2 is also recommended.

Double veteran Overlord is another Satan's creation - his Plasma Multi-Cannons and Mass Driver M2s wont let you come near to hit, while his Afterburner will let him hit you. Pretty far-shooting, regens a lot, compared to your damage. Its energy resistance makes it better protected against energy weapons, which are often long ranged and is best suited against ships with afterburner.

**Pro tip:** Railguns work effectively. Likewise, due to its small energy capacity, EMP torpedoes combined with small stasis field renders this ship stunned and helpless in a single salvo, giving you a big chance. Make sure to use ships with fast engines when encountering these.

### Colossus

The Zumbalari Capital Ship is an asteroid converted into a Capital Ship. This Capital Ship has a pair of fast-firing Interceptor drones, several Heavy Missile Launchers, and close-range mix of Neutron Blaster M2s and Mass Driver M2s. This is one of the easier Capital Ships to beat, as its drones can be avoided and the Capital Ship itself is easy to flank; all of its weapons are forward-firing only and the medium missiles don't have a very good turning rate so if you can get in close behind it you can inflict devastating damage to it.

Double veteran Colossus has a gravity field which drags you near while his weapons push you away for a deadly combo, which is right now bugged and doesn't work. This makes it no different than its veteran counterpart.

**Pro tip:** Remain outside its weapons range. This ship has a very low range, making it the weakest of all capital ships. Watch out for the interceptor drones.

### Zeus

A departure from the bone-like Neganari design, this giant flying saucer features 2 long-range Heavy Missile Launcher M2s and a medium range Heavy Laser Beam M1, with a pair of Veteran Spike drones with noticeably high damage and speed to engage foes. That, however, is not what makes it dangerous. Its laser tracks in a frontal 180° arc with perfect accuracy and it has a very fast turning rate, so expect to take damage whenever you get within pulse cannon range...if you even can. It uses distinctly evasive tactics, constantly moving away from you while lobbing missiles and letting its Spike drones do its work for it and it has decent forward speed. You will definitely find this to be one of the more annoying opponents until you can get heavily-equipped Afterburner ship.

Double veterans, on top of being similar in equipment to the veterans, have an afterburner equipped making it twice as annoying. Targeting unit assisted long range weaponry is a necessity against them, combined with speed.

**Pro tip:** Maintain distance as far as possible, in a way that your attack reach the target. Never use regular missiles. You need one with +100% buff to Projectile speed for them to hit. Use a fast ship, or a slow, but very long ranged one.

### Tartarus

This giant red triangle is the big brother to the Daazen drone ships found in abandoned stations. It uses a powerful Heavy Vampiric Ray M2, with longer range and damage, and has a Stealth Field. Because of the tracking properties of the ray, the drain on your health is constant as long as you're in range. It's deceptively fast for its size, able to move with about the same speed and agility as a heavy fighter. It is extremely vulnerable against long range weapons like railguns, but missiles are an exception due to its stealth ability.

Double veteran Tartarus also posseses a Red Warp Drive to quickly approach you and a Cloaking System to protect himself from your attacks, while striking you after. They tend to disable Stealth the moment it warps, giving it a big vulnerability against missile unlike the veteran version. The cloaking system also has a cooldown of 5 seconds and drains the energy of the ship very quickly, making it vulnerable against long range weapons.

**Pro tip:** This capital ship is very weak against ranged attacks, and is helpless when you maintain sufficient range. Energy weapons are not favorable against them.

### Doomstar

This large Capital Ship of the Unknown Faction, capable of housing up to 24 drones in it's massive hull, is the epitome of the Capital Ship class. Armed with a Death Ray, a built-in Targeting unit, and in the case of the Double Veteran, housing quite a few M81 Repair/Attack drones, this Capital Ship is incredibly evil and hard to beat. Drones are one of the best way to destroy this Capital Ship, but even that will take a while. Using an assassin build high explosive burst damage Capital Ship will also do the trick easier. Cloaking System is recommended because it's the only way to evade the Death Ray. Prevent being faced by the Doomstar if possible to conserve energy.

### Dreadnought

The Dreadnought has a much more sleek look compared to the other more heavily sci-fi Capital Ships. It is very powerful and extremely tanky if built correctly. It uses multiple auto-targeting C slots equipped with powerful Ion Cannons. The double veteran has 2 very powerful AI exclusive drones that can both heal with its Repair Ray and damage with its Rocket Launcher M2. All this makes it one of the hardest Capital Ships to beat in AI hands. Its even arguably harder than the Doomstar. The best counter to this ship at the moment is to sit outside of its range with a ship that can rapidly fire multiple HMLM2's. The repeated blasts will damage the Dreadnought and destroy the drones as they spawn. This can be accomplished with a Stalker with 3 HMLM2's (one on a satellite) or a Megalodon Capital Ship. A Thor or Zeus can also work. Or you could use Stealth Field and Plasma Throwers to attack it from the rear.

### Chariot

A new ship introcduced in version 0.14.2, the Chariot has a 360° 3x3 C weapon slot, making it able to use the Holy Canon introduced in the same version. The veteran uses the Holy cannon and afterburner, and the double veteran is faster, and with an AI-only White Warp Drive.

### Santa Claus

Introduced at the same time as Chariot, this Flaship is massive, with an incredible firepower: a 4x4 S weapon slot in the front, and two 360° 3x3 C slots, with a large drone capacity. The veteran version has a large number of shield points, uses two acid missiles, a plasma web and six firework canon. the double veteran loses the shield and the plasma web to use a AI-only Green Warp Drive, and six Santa Drones introduced in the same version, these drones use the same Heavy Lighting Cannon M2 as veteran Kraken, and will seek you within a really long distance at a really fast speed.

### Jormungandr

Implemented in update 0.15, Jormungandr (formely the Wormship) is the capital ship of The Swarm. Jormungandr resembles a gigantic space-worm and posesses a tail module consisting of several tail segments, each one increasing the ship's resistance against all three damage types by a moderate amount. When the tail is fully intact, the head of the ship has 100% resistance against incoming damage, making it nearly invincible. The destruction of tail pieces is therefore top priority before attempting to deal any damage to the head. Jormungandr dwarfs all other ships in terms of size and is second only to Harbour in the amount of slots, and is capable of mounting not one, but TWO Death rays, whilst still having room for more weapons. Once this ship is obtained, the Doomstar is rendered practically obsolete. Both veteran versions make use of AI-only Heavy Vampiric Ray M2, Heavy Anti-matter Bombs and M41 drones with a long range of detection.

### Odin

Added in version 0.15.2 with the rest of its faction, The Syndicate's flagship keeps a similar design and coloring albeit in a larger scale.

As a foe, it mixes incredibly long range Stalker Missles and high velocity long range Heavy Railguns. In addition, flares will ensure enemy missiles are impractical and energy resistance counters Ion weaponry and torpedoes. Fighting up close and from behind advised.

Despite being one of the larger ships, for player use it can't compare with damage of Holy Cannon or Death Ray even with expansions.

**Pro tip:** This capital ship can be rendered nearly harmless with a Point Defense system in player use.

### Harbour

The Harbour is the capital ship of the Scavengers. Unlike most capital ships, the Harbour cannot be obtained by crafting due to the Scavengers having no workshop, and instead must be obtained through the Harbour Quest. A Harbour is always present as part of a Scavenger Emissary's fleet. It can be an obscenely strong drone carrier.

## Gallery

ChariotColossusDoomstarDreadnoughtOdinKrakenLeviathanMegalodonOracleOverlordSanta ClausTartarusThorJormungandrZeusHarbour