Athena

***"ATHENA comes equipped with a regenerating shield, allowing the ship to take calculated risks and be more aggressive in combat."***

**Athena** is an agile ship that boasts a fast movement speed and excellent turret coverage, although hydrogen. It is the only ship in the game to have multiple fully forward-facing turrets, which gives it an advantage in direct attacks. It can quickly attack small openings on stronger battleships, pursue fast targets, and endure long standoffs against bigger ships. Along with Zeus and Mercury, Athena must be unlocked by opening Battleship Blueprint Artifacts.

Athena's Turret coverage is similar to Artemis, with the exception of its fifth turret located in the center of the ship. This opens a world of possibilities for Athena as a Commander can mix multiple Turret types to dispatch enemy Fighters more efficiently, or use the same turret type for double effectiveness.

## Commander Ability: Regenerating Shield

***"A shield that absorbs all damage taken by the Battleship. After the shield is depleted, the ship starts taking direct damage. If the shield and ship hull have not been taking damage during the Regeneration Delay, the shield HP will start refilling automatically."***
Athena's Regenerating Shield makes it a unique from other ships, enabling it to heal back a portion of the HP lost during combat. The Regenerating Shield will begin regenerating after a 12-second delay passes, regardless if it is fully depleted or not. During this period, neither the shield nor hull can take damage, otherwise regeneration will stop, and the player must wait an additional 12-second period for the regeneration to proceed. If allowed to regenerate fully, the shield enables Athena to endure long periods of combat, and provides a sufficient amount of HP to protect a severely weakened hull.

## Strategy

### Playing with Athena

* Athena is ideal for close-quarters combat, and is best equipped with battery turrets
* Prioritize turrets with a short "Firing Period" stat when mounting turrets to the ship. Firefies and other small, high dps ships can do significant damage to Athena, and the short firing period will help to deal with those ships
* Athena is best used in Relic Capture, due to its high speed. If played correctly, it can be viable in all gamemodes.
* Use Area Shield to protect Athena's shield while it regenerates
* Avoid depleting the Regenerating Shield completely, and regularly evade combat to allow it to replenish
	+ Regenerating Shield takes 10 seconds to start regenerating after Athena was last hit, and an additional maximum of 30 seconds (regardless of level) to recharge fully.

### Playing against Athena

* Athena is best attacked from a distance, using Rocket Turrets or Rocket Launchers
* Due to it's low hp, Athena can be killed easily with certain tactics used to output high damage quickly, most notably, the nuke dropped from the Destroyer after death can usually kill Athena in one hit
* Avoid being in the area directly in front of the ship, or use a stronger fighter to occupy its turrets
* Athena struggles the most against the Gaia Fighter
* Interrupt the replenishment of Athena's Regenerating Shield by placing Meteors or Decay overtop the ship

## Video

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## Changelog

* 18/06/2021:
	+ Move cost decreased to 21 (from 30).
	+ Shield max HP increased to 3000 (from 2000).
	+ Regeneration delay decreased to 10.0s (from 12.0s).
* 06/05/2021:
	+ Module slots reduced to 6 (from 8).
	+ Fixed shield not fully restored after respawn
* 26/03/2021:
	+ Battleship Athena released as a rare ship alongside Zeus and Mercury