Player-Versus-Player Strategy Guide

[Shiver]

Hahahahahhaa

Shiver is way to used to to dealing with genuinely stupid assertions that he can no longer notice the fake ones.

This is so true, but there's nothing I can do about it. If I get pissy at someone for asking a stupid question, everyone gets up in arms. I used to answer questions on the Star Control 2 GameFAQs page (cesspool that it is), but have to avoid looking at it now because Pako Pako gets to everything before I do and his posts always make my eyes bleed.

Don't get the wrong impression here, Rider's concern on the same page had some validity to it.

He needs a holiday me thinks - or at least time away from UQM/SC stuff.

Shiver I recommend a long road trip with plenty of camping, hiking and mountain air.

Well, I was out around Utah to go skiing a few months back, but the altitude made me horribly sick and I never did a damn thing the whole trip. Going to visit some relatives in California at the end of this month, so that'll be good for me.

[Cedric6014]

Ah California!

I recommend curbing time with your lame relatives in favour of some of these places:
Yosemite
Death Valley
Redwoods

[Shiver]

The Earthling Cruiser



Some of the crappiest ships in Star Control have managed to prove themselves useful in player-versus-player. Earthling is the poster child of this phenomenon. The ship sucks, I think it would be fair to say that it sucks out loud, but due to its low point value and long ranged homing attack it is the perfect candidate to finish off almost anything that is left standing in the arena with a low crew count. Earthling is not one of those ships which you absolutely must attach to your fleet every single game, but you will rarely be disappointed when you do.

Earthling has mediocre top speed and terrible acceleration, but in most match-ups you will need to use what you've got to run away from your opponent. The longer you can stall, the more damage you will inflict with your homing missiles. If you can make it to the planet, a gravity whip can help keep you alive longer.



Primary Function: Nuclear Missile Launcher



Missiles are one of the simplest weapons in the game to use properly. Turn the front of your ship towards the general direction of your opponent and fire off a nuke. It will rapidly home in on the other player's ship over a long distance, inflicting four damage when it reaches its destination. Missiles are low on maneuverability so they will sometimes miss their mark. Some of the more agile spacecraft will often be able to weave around them as well. It is also remotely possible for a missile to whirl back around and hit you while chasing the opposition, so you may have to use your point defense to protect yourself from one of these. This is a great weapon regardless of its limitations.



The Cornered Squirrel

If you find yourself under attack by a fast flanking ship, you're probably going to lose regardless but here's a little trick which can sometimes sneak in some damage: Reserve enough energy to fire at least one missile, then launch one right into the aggressor's front as they pull in to start firing on you. This is useful because most of the faster ships can easily dodge missiles if they have time to react to them. This tactic can fall flat sometimes; for instance, the Slylandro's lightning weapon will frequently destroy missiles that approach head-on.



Secondary Function: Point-Defense Laser



The point-defense laser is not a weapon, it's a tool. The main purpose of this tool is to break apart asteroids. It does this marvelously. Due to the Earthling's weak propulsion, an asteroid bump will either bounce you off into a bad direction or bring your ship to a near halt for an uncomfortable amount of time. This tool can also take out Ur-Quan fighters, VUX limpets and various other enemy projectiles. The laser will fire on everything in its range simultaneously, allowing you to wipe out a pair of Ur-Quan fighters at once among other things. The Cornered Squirrel tactic is better in most short range combat situations for actual damage, but the laser can still prove useful.

Leave your point-defense laser off whenever you activate your launcher. It does not play well with outgoing missiles.



Ideal Purpose

Although Earthling is both cheap and crappy, it is not a good starter. Under no circumstances should you ever play Earthling as your first ship of any match. Even VUX, normally easy prey for Earthling, will ravage you due to its point-blank arrival. As stated earlier, Earthling is the ideal choice to deliver a finishing volley to pretty much anything, and is also a natural counter to VUX and Druuge. Whether you hold your Earthling in reserve to deal with one of those in particular or throw it into the arena at the first wounded enemy you see is your decision. Both approaches have their merits.

Earthling vs. VUX: Run around lobbing nukes and watch them die. It really is that easy. VUX is too slow and clumsy to seriously threaten Earthling. The point-defense laser can stop limpets, but you probably won't need to worry about that.

Earthling vs. Druuge: Keep your narrow end facing the Druuge any time your cruiser is in their sights. If you give them even one good opportunity to fire on your broad side, that is usually enough to skew the match in the Druuge's favor. The best time to sling your nukes is when the Druuge is moving towards you, though you should be firing at all times rather than waiting for just the right moment.

If that weren't enough, Earthling can also inflict a respectable amount of punishment upon Ur-Quan, Chenjesu or Kohr-Ah by running around and firing off nukes. Don't expect to win, but if you can't find anything better to do with your Earthling then attacking one of these is a good way to go.



Counters

There is only one true counter to Earthling and that's Ilwrath. It is possible to win with Zoq-Fot-Pik as well, but that is not terribly reliable.

Ilwrath vs. Earthling: This can get a little bit tricky, but if you play it right there's no reason you should lose. Your first priority is to find the planet, so start looking. Turn your cloaking device on so that missiles do not follow you. The cloak does not need to be active all the time, just enough to prevent you from being hit. Try to gravity whip onto the Earthling, then use thrust to return to your default speed once you're close to them. Your top speed is a single integer higher than Earthling's; even if you fail to whip straight into your opponent, chasing the Earthling starting from a short distance away will eventually win you the match. Your flamethrower can shield your front from missiles to a limited degree, which is sometimes useful during an extended chase.

Zoq-Fot-Pik vs. Earthling: This counter is difficult to execute, but completely turns the table on the other player if you manage to pull it off. The Zoq-Fot-Pik is just barely quick enough to dodge missiles and close in on Earthling. You will need to hit them with your tongue attack once, then finish with either the scattergun or a second tongue hit. As you approach the Earthling, missiles can be shot down with the scattergun. Only do this if the Earthling fires straight into you at a medium distance, otherwise you're better off dodging. Zoq-Fot-Pik has a rather high amount of mass, so when it collides with Earthling during a tongue attack it will often send that ship careening off in the opposite direction. If this happens, or if the Earthling performs a gravity whip, stop chasing straight after them and instead prepare to intercept as they wrap around the screen.

Aside from the above two ships, all you can do is chuck something fancy at the stupid Earthling. This is bad in the long term, but you may not have a choice. Use whatever decent ship you can spare in this situation.

[Dabir]

When fighting the introductory Ilwrath in the single-player game my Cruiser always seems to be able to outrun it. Is that because it's a "damaged" Ilwrath, considering that you've just stated that its speed is higher?

[Shiver]

When fighting the introductory Ilwrath in the single-player game my Cruiser always seems to be able to outrun it. Is that because it's a "damaged" Ilwrath, considering that you've just stated that its speed is higher?

That initial Ilwrath is low on crew, unable to cloak, and controlled by the dumb computer. If I recall correctly, Ilwrath has a top speed of 25 while Earthling has 24. It's not really practical for Ilwrath to try and chase down Earthling without using a grav whip to close most of the distance.

[Happy Camper]

I love playing the Cruiser for a bit of human pride power! I love playing a full fleet of Dreadnaughts vs a full fleet and Cruisers and let the carnage begin.

I remember the last time I played SCII I forgot about the Ur-Quan at Unservault. Suffice to say I blew it up with my Cruiser without taking any damage. 

[Shiver]

The Ilwrath Avenger



This craft has a lot working in its favor: low cost, significant damage-dealing capability, rapid acceleration, quick turning and high durability. And yet the Ilwrath's restrictive top speed and short weapon range negate these strong points almost completely. The damn thing has a very hard time getting within firing range of most adversaries. So Ilwrath is rather useless for most purposes, but its lethality against a small selection of ships make it nonetheless worthwhile to bring along. Whether Ilwrath pulls its weight or not depends upon what ships your opponent decides to use.



Primary Function: Hellfire Spout



When activated, this flamethrower spits out a fire puff once per frame which each inflict a point of damage. Confused? Another way of looking at the flamethrower is that it hits for the same amount as the VUX laser. The spout expands into a cone shape, so it can sometimes be useful for blocking incoming projectiles. The ship itself isa very wide, so do not rely on this heavily. The Ilwrath's battery cannot sustain a full rate of fire for very long, but recovers quickly enough that holding down the primary button is all you really need to do once you reach point blank range of your opponent.



Secondary Function: Cloaking Device



In its current form, the Ilwrath cloaking device is best used to keep homing weapons of all types off your back. Nothing can track you while you're cloaked. That's really all this thing is good for. The game's camera still gives your general location away to the other player. Another drawback is that you cannot see yourself any better than your opponent can while cloaked, which makes it difficult to tell which direction you're facing as you turn. For best results, turn the cloak on just long enough to divert inbound homing weapons and not a moment longer. I offer this nugget of wisdom to those of you who insist upon remaining cloaked perpetually: You are not a shark, the "Jaws" theme does not play in the background for you.



Auto-Turn

If you use your Hellfire Spout while cloaked, you will automatically deactivate your cloak and point towards your opponent regardless of where you were facing previously. This is useful when fighting against opponents of the fast flanking variety.



Ilwrath in Orbit

You should already be familiar with orbiting if you've read the Fundamentals section, but it is worth pointing out how much Ilwrath in particular benefits from the tactic. As mentioned previously, Ilwrath's downfall is its low top speed. If Ilwrath fights from orbit, its top speed is artificially increased and Ilwrath will behave like one of the faster ships. This is key to defeating Zoq-Fot-Pik and Shofixti while also providing you with a fighting chance against many of the stronger ships in the game.



Ideal Purpose

I cannot recommend this ship as a starter. Anything more powerful than the bare minimum will rip you apart. Ilwrath is proficient at destroying Earthling and Arilou. When faced with a fleet that contains neither, the best thing to do is throw your Ilwrath against Androsynth, which appears in almost every fleet. To be more specific...

Ilwrath vs. Earthling: This can get a little bit tricky, but if you play it right there's no reason you should lose. Your first priority is to find the planet, so start looking. Turn your cloaking device on so that missiles do not follow you. The cloak does not need to be active all the time, just enough to prevent you from being hit. Try to gravity whip onto the Earthling, then use thrust to return to your default speed once you're close to them. Your top speed is a single integer higher than Earthling's; even if you fail to whip straight into your opponent, chasing the Earthling starting from a short distance away will eventually win you the match. Your flamethrower can shield your front from missiles to a limited degree, which is sometimes useful during an extended chase.

Ilwrath vs. Arilou: Keep your cloaking device on. The Arilou's auto-aiming laser will not track you while you're cloaked, forcing them to face directly into you at short range to attack. Victory is not as simple as returning fire; Your effective range is shorter than theirs, and when you uncloak to attack the Arilou's laser can track you again. You will need to catch the Arilou by surprise while they fumble about trying to hit your cloaked form. I recommend playing this one cautiously.

Ilwrath vs. Androsynth: Move away from the Androsynth at all times. Force them to chase you across the screen in their comet form. As they charge into you, cloak and then activate your weapon to auto-turn into them and blast away. Auto-turn is not perfect, so expect to do a lot of frantic manual rotating to try and catch the Androsynth as it attacks you. The odds of winning here are not that great. Hopefully your opponent's ship is damaged significantly going into this fight to make things easier on you.



Counters

Although Ilwrath will lose a head-to-head fight against almost every ship in the game, Umgah is the only proper Ilwrath counter. I will cover two more expensive pseudo-counters in addition to that.

Umgah vs. Ilwrath: Hopefully the Ilwrath is damaged somewhat going into this fight, but your odds of winning are reasonable even if that is not the case. Umgah and Ilwrath have the same rate of weapon damage and range, so how is Umgah supposed to win? The Antimatter Cone is better than the Hellfire Spout in two ways: it reaches its maximum range instantly upon activation and it has a limited ability to nullify flame puffs. To capitalize on this, nip the Ilwrath's front with your cone when it moves within range and then zip backwards a short distance. If you do this right, the Ilwrath will take damage and you will not. The Ilwrath pilot can make things tricky for you, but good timing with the reverse zip maneuver (as opposed to flawless timing) is enough to beat them.

VUX vs. Ilwrath: VUX beats Ilwrath quite handily with limpet spam. It will take a while to coat Ilwrath down in enough limpets, so be patient. Once the Ilwrath is coated, coast in and finish them with your laser. Ilwrath can Auto-Turn just as quickly while covered in limpets, so don't get too close. There are better things you can do with VUX, but I wouldn't dismiss this counter completely.

Syreen vs. Ilwrath: Chase down Ilwrath as quickly as possible so as to intercept them away from the planet. If you can do this, you should be able to kidnap a significant number of their crew members. This does not occur when the Ilwrath manages to get into the planet's orbit before you can get to them. Syreen will typically still beat the Ilwrath in this situation due to its high acceleration but it will not come out of the fight any stronger; the planet's gravity will drag stray crewmembers to their death. Your Siren's Call is still your best weapon, even in orbit. Finish them with the stupidshooter once the Ilwrath is down to its last crewman.

You may have to go after Ilwrath with a ship that is grossly overqualified for the job. That's exactly what the Ilwrath player wants you to do, but sometimes you have no choice.

[chenjesuwizard]

Once again it helped loads!

[Shiver]

The Kohr-Ah Marauder



The second 30-point heavyweight is as terrifying as the first. Kohr-Ah can't pile on the damage quite as fast as Chmmr, but it doesn't need to. Instead, it can lob projectiles from the other side of the arena or lay down a field of traps to make itself unassailable. Although the Kohr-Ah's personality as well as the ship's name suggest a confrontational style of fighting, this vehicle performs better in most situations when piloted in a defensive, methodical manner. Think of it as more of a black widow than a rampaging deathmobile. Like most other ships, this one can be beaten consistently by another less expensive once. Most players are not skilled enough to put the proper Kohr-Ah counter technique into practice, so this ship is the most powerful among less experienced players. Kohr-Ah loses some of that sparkle when used against an opponent that can counter it consistently, but even then it remains a dangerous combatant.



Primary Function: Spinning Blade



These cruel, pointy things are controlled the same way as the Chenjesu photon shard; hold down the primary fire button for as long as you want your projectile to travel forward, then let go to drop it. When you release a disc, it will continue to spin in place rather than exploding. A stationary disc will slowly glide toward any opposing spacecraft if they move relatively close to it. These do not harm the controlling ship if it travels through them. A single Kohr-Ah is limited to having seven discs in the arena at once, which is quite a bit of litter. Spinning blades inflict only four damage, yet I would argue that they are the best armament in Star Control 2 out of sheer versatility. Most other ships can be torn apart by long distance harassment over an extended period of time. Discs are also decent for slugging it out at short range when launched in rapid succession. Additionally, they offer a good amount of protection from flanking enemies when they are formed into a protective ring around the Kohr-Ah.



Secondary Function: Fiery Ring of Inevitable and Eternal Destruction



The Kohr-Ah's secondary will unleash a cloud of superheated gas in every direction. This attack is too much of an energy hog for general use, but it can be quite powerful in certain situations. One characteristic unique to FRIED is that it inflicts 50 points of damage per frame against projectiles and objects. The only weapon capable of passing through a flamewave is the Melnorme confusion ray, and this has been known to fail against double flamewaves. FRIED may or may not serve as a good defensive measure depending on what you're up against. Spacecraft sustain three damage from each cloud they run into.



The Double Flamewave Swoop

The exact amount of damage a flamewave will deal to other ships is unpredictable, but the impact is always higher when you fly past your victim rather than straight into them. This leads to the other player running their ship through many more clouds. A double flamewave will drain your battery from full to empty, but the potential for a decisive kill is sometimes worth the risk.



Ideal Purpose

Kohr-Ah will beat almost everything, so attack whatever you want. I personally prefer to send it out against Androsynth, Melnorme or Chenjesu. You don't need to be very tactical to beat any of these most of the time, but if the other player is good then the fight will become more involved. Here is how you win each match-up in some amount of detail:

Kohr-Ah vs. Androsynth: Drop a few spinning blades nearby and try to time your flamewave ability for the moment the Androsynth's comet form is about to crash into you. Expect them to try and pull a fake-out or two to get you to waste your battery -- it's their only way around the devastating flamewave. If Androsynth does not go on the offensive, they are shooting themselves in the foot; Kohr-Ah excels at long range warfare.

Kohr-Ah vs. Melnorme: While the Melnorme does not have a red pulse at the ready you should be launching discs at them constantly. Once that thing is up, start running away. Discs can still hit Melnorme from the sides or back so try to stall for time and slowly wear them down from a distance. It's possible to drop Melnorme from full crew to zero with a perfectly executed double flamewave swoop, and I recommend doing this when Melnorme closes the distance with a gravity whip. Melnorme is not very maneuverable, so once they hurl themselves towards you it is very hard for them to adjust their course. Think of the double flamewave as a last resort. This will prevent you from attempting it at the wrong time.

Kohr-Ah vs. Chenjesu: This is an interesting fight. The Chenjesu has one advantage over Kohr-Ah and many disadvantages. The one advantage is that their photon shard can beat your disc. The photon shard does more damage and will deflect any disc it crashes into. A direct boxing match between Chenjesu and Kohr-Ah will leave Kohr-Ah very dead, so don't enter one. Short distances aren't necessarily a bad thing, though. If either ship dives into the other by gravity whip, Kohr-Ah's dreaded double flamewave will nullify everything the Chenjesu can throw while dealing ridiculous damage at the same time. Kohr-Ah is also better in a artillery war due to its more flexible primary weapon and better maneuverability. Stay at a distance and try to keep the pressure on the other player with constant disc harassment for most of the fight and you should win. If the Chenjesu uses DOGIs, remove them with a flamewave.



Counters

The best response to Kohr-Ah is the same ship that most easily kicks Chmmr off its pedestal as well: Utwig. There are many other half-baked counters that have seen sporadic success, but these will flop most of the time, especially against a Kohr-Ah pilot that knows what they're doing. Consider mirroring Kohr-Ah if you don't want to play Utwig against it.

Utwig vs. Kohr-Ah: This one's too important to cover in a brief paragraph. See the Utwig section for a detailed explanation of how to play this right.

Yehat vs. Kohr-Ah: Yehat and Utwig use a very similar set of tactics against Kohr-Ah. The Yehat variation is more difficult to succeed with, so it is inferior. See the Yehat section for a detailed explanation of how to play this right.

VUX and Earthing vs. Kohr-Ah: Earthling can potentially beat Kohr-Ah in a long distance artillery exchange with its spiffy homing weapon. When these two ships engage normally, Kohr-Ah can use its slightly better propulsion to close in on Earthling and steamroll them. However, when a Kohr-Ah has even one limpet stuck to its hull, it will be unable to chase down Earthling effectively. This counter relies on a VUX sacrificing itself to tag Kohr-Ah with as many limpets as possible. If the VUX succeeds, Earthling can go head to head with the Kohr-Ah and win. Kohr-Ah is quite capable of staying clear of the clumsy VUX completely, so it's a gambit really.

Chmmr vs. Kohr-Ah: This is the lazy, stupid way of getting rid of Kohr-Ah. You will lose all satellites and probably be reduced to low crew in the process. Kohr-Ah has significant mass so the tractor beam will not drag it very quickly. You will still need to use the tractor beam, but will have to struggle a bit to get within striking distance. While you struggle, be sure you do not let the Kohr-Ah swoop right past you with a flamewave. If Kohr-Ah accelerates towards you while their battery is topped off, that's a dead giveaway. You should either bump your ship's front straight into theirs or move out of the way completely. The fight is pretty much won once you reach striking distance and manage stay in it for a few seconds. For reference, the cyborg is very efficient at using the tractor beam as Chmmr against Kohr-Ah.

[Happy Camper]

This ship is so much fun to play with Great tips as usual.
 
Who would you say is better in a fight? Ur Quan or Kohr Ah? Id say Kohr Ah even though I like the "launch fighters" aspect.

[Dabir]

The general theory among the netmelee community seems to be that the Ur-Quan should be nicknamed the "banana boat".

[Shiver]

This ship is so much fun to play with Great tips as usual.
 
Who would you say is better in a fight? Ur Quan or Kohr Ah? Id say Kohr Ah even though I like the "launch fighters" aspect.

The Kohr-Ah and Ur-Quan are on even footing between novices, but the better they get, the more one-sided the fight is for Kohr-Ah. There's even a stupid fighter trick Elvish Pillager showed me with Ur-Quan that makes a pair split up and travel in different directions, and that wasn't enough to make the ship any good.

[Happy Camper]

Yah I figured Kohr-Ah was the better ship. Which makes sense because the Ur-Quan lost!

Oh I have IRC all set up and Im dieing to play some people in a tournament. What channel do I have to join and is anyone down for some combat fun?

[Shiver]

Yah I figured Kohr-Ah was the better ship. Which makes sense because the Ur-Quan lost!

Oh I have IRC all set up and Im dieing to play some people in a tournament. What channel do I have to join and is anyone down for some combat fun?

#UQM-Arena. There's #SC2 for general Star Control 2 stuff as well, but not a lot goes on in there most of the time. Make sure you're on Freenode and not some horrible shithole like EFNet.

[Shiver]

The Melnorme Trader



Melnorme is one of the most skill intensive ships within Star Control. Like Druuge, it is made for sharpshooters. Melnorme can potentially inflict massive damage over long distances, but is impaired by mediocre turning, slow energy recovery and a wind-up delay on its weapon. The ship's thrusters are quite strong, allowing it to maintain distance between itself and most hostile spacecraft despite its clumsiness. There are several counters to this one, but it's worth mentioning that Melnorme can potentially beat anything in the game. On the other hand, Melnorme has a habit of dying in all sorts of stupid ways too. Despite a tendency for mixed performances, the final verdict on Melnorme is that it is one of the most cost-effective ships in the game. It's quite versatile, so even if you're not a sharpshooter you should be able to do something useful with it.



Primary Function: Variable Power Blaster



If you've played any of the Metroid games, this is sort of like the main character's charge beam. Hold down the trigger and a ball of energy will collect in front your ship. The longer you allow it to charge, the more powerful it becomes. A green pulse does two damage. Blue does four. Purple does eight. Red does sixteen, and that's where it caps. Always try to get a red pulse ready before going on the offensive. It can sometimes be a good idea to spam green pulses, whether it's to quickly finish off an enemy that has been crippled by a red pulse or to act as flak against one of those difficult-to-hit flanking ships. This weapon has long range and high velocity. Most of your enemies are best dealt with from a distance, but that is not always the case.

As Melnorme, always be vigilant of your worst enemy. I'm talking about asteroids. Asteroids are the bane of a Melnorme's existance. If an asteroid crashes into a charging pulse, both the pulse and the asteroid will cancel each other out and usually leave you in a precarious position afterwards. Melnorme will lose more battles due to a rogue space rock than any other ship in Star Control. It's just one of those things you have to work around. Kohr-Ah FRIED clouds, Orz Marines and Chenjesu DOGIs will also cancel out a red pulse.



The Barrier

When a red pulse collides with most objects and projectiles, the red pulse will overpower whatever it touched, destroying it and continuing its course. This can also occur while Melnorme is holding a red pulse in front of itself. Using the red pulse as protection, Melnorme can perform a frontal assault, sometimes with very good results. In addition to the threat of asteroids, another problem with using the red pulse as a barrier is that the Melnorme vessel is slightly wider than the red pulse itself, so it's possible to be hit even from the front. Expect to get a lot of use out of this tactic in spite of its flaws, especially against Earthling, Mycon and Druuge.



Secondary Function: Confusion Ray



This weapon can be fired while carrying a blaster pulse. When a confusion pulse hits the other player's ship, they lose the use of their secondary function and begin to turn either left or right constantly for a duration of approximately 17 seconds. This will screw every ship in the game over, though it doesn't always precede a killing blow nor would I recommend using it against everything. The confusion ray would be the perfect support weapon were it not for one debilitating flaw. Confusion pulses have much lower velocity than blaster pulses, making them more difficult to score hits with over significant distances. On the other hand, confusion pulses do travel straight through asteroids, planets and most projectiles so they've got a bit of flexibility to them. This weapon is essential to defeating Utwig and Yehat, the two ships protected by powerful shields.



Ideal Purpose

Melnorme fits the role of "spare tire" perfectly. It's good against so many different ships that I can't recommend throwing it at the first potential target. Not if you have something else that can do the job, especially if that something else is cheap. For example, Ilwrath is lethal towards very few ships while Melnorme works great almost everywhere. If you pass up a good chance to use Ilwrath, you may not find anything useful for it to do for the rest of the battle. Here's another way of looking at it: Melnorme is fat. He's happy. Look at him, he'll clearly eat anything on the menu. You should stop worrying about your good buddy Melnorme and figure out what to feed your picky children. Do you get me? Good. Here's what's available for lunch today:

•Earthling
•Ilwrath
•Mycon
•Shofixti
•Spathi
•Supox
•Syreen
•Thraddash
•Umgah
•Ur-Quan
•Utwig
•VUX
•Yehat
•Zoq-Fot-Pik



Counters

So other than asteroids, what is Melnorme weak to? Slylandro, Chmmr, Kohr-Ah, Druuge and Androsynth. Melnorme is a tough ship, so let's go over every option:

Slylandro vs. Melnorme: One red pulse will kill you. If the Melnorme does not have one up yet, rush in before they finish charging. If they are carrying a red pulse, juke back and forth around the limits of the Melnorme's weapon range or between their blindspots to try and goad them into wasting their shot. Asteroids will show up periodically while your opponent steers to get a clear shot of you. Given enough time, one will either crash into the red pulse or force Melnorme to face a direction that allows you to approach and strike. The best way to flank Melnorme once you're in close proximity is to fly in an arc around them, then reverse and travel back the other way before you appear in front of them.

Androsynth vs. Melnorme: Your comet form is so small that the Melnorme player will give themself an anyeurism trying to hit you. Approach them from the front and weave around to avoid incoming fire. As you get close, veer away from the target and then realign yourself with them so as to hit them in the back or side. When your battery runs low while in comet form, move as far away as possible to find a safe place to recover energy. Repeat these attack runs until the fight is over.

Chmmr vs. Melnorme: This is one of those rare matches that rewards single-minded aggression. Accelerate into Melnorme as soon as you enter the arena and pull hard with the tractor beam. This alone will win it for you most of the time. The faster you close in, the harder it becomes for them to tag you with a confusion pulse before it's too late. Melnorme has much better odds of winning when you're skittish. Occasionally Melnorme will get lucky and hit you with a confusion pulse from far enough away that you don't slam right into them afterwards. When this happens they are very likely going to nail you with a red pulse, then begin charging up for another combo with both of their weapons. If your ship get confused, do your best to guide your Chmmr away from the Melnorme. You will be back in the same situation as the start of the fight once the confusion fades off.

Kohr-Ah vs. Melnorme: While the Melnorme does not have a red pulse at the ready you should be launching discs at them constantly. Once that thing is up, start running away. Discs can still hit Melnorme from the sides or back so try to stall for time and slowly wear them down from a distance. It's possible to drop Melnorme from full crew to zero with a perfectly executed double flamewave swoop, and I recommend doing this when Melnorme closes the distance with a gravity whip. Melnorme is not very maneuverable, so once they hurl themselves towards you it is very hard for them to adjust their course. Think of the double flamewave as a last resort. This will prevent you from attempting it at the wrong time.

Druuge vs. Melnorme: Your maximum range is longer than theirs. Shell them from far away. The Melnorme will attempt to close in on you with a red pulse as protection, but there's nothing they can do to overcome the recoil of your cannon. Most of your shots will be blocked by that red pulse, but occasionally you'll see one will graze their side. Constantly adjust the direction you fire from to raise your chance of scoring a hit. Take this fight as slowly as possible to give your battery more time to recharge.