Experimental Heavy Gunships are three types of special powerful gunship enemies, which are well-armored each with a different armament. They are exclusive to Stage B2.
Appearance[]
Experimental Heavy Gunships share similar body aesthetics with the Heavy Helicopter Gunships, also featuring a grey and orange color paint scheme, but are slightly larger in size. If looked at closely, they slightly resemble a mini Frying Falcon plane.
A small disc-shaped armament is mounted on top of the aircraft and slightly behind the cockpit, which is black in color and has a segmented ring of blue lights on top (the same disc can also be seen on an Energized Spider Railgun). The Gunships are driven by electric thrusters and do not have conventional rotor blades.
Between the three types, the aircraft have some differences to its wing designs and armaments:
- Both the type I and II Gunships have two pairs of wings, one angled upward and the other downward.
- Type I has a long spinning minigun wired to the front of each wing.
- Type II has a rocket launcher pod (with six tubes) attached beneath each lower wing.
- Type III Gunships have a pair of large spinning black octagonal shrouds, with three stripes connected to the center forming the Mercedes logo. Below each rotor and attached to the nose is a rocket pod with nine tubes.
Behavior[]
General[]
Experimental Heavy Gunships slowly come into view from the top edge of the screen. In flight, they sway from side to side frequently, while maintaining a downward heading. After a while, the Gunships escape by flying off the screen horizontally and break any active Chain Bonus if the player fails to destroy them in time.
When an armament is damaged, a red health bar appears nearby along with the remaining health displayed as percentage, disappearing after it is left intact for a while.
Once all weapon systems are destroyed, the Experimental Heavy Gunship becomes disarmed but remains in flight. To completely destroy the Gunship, the player must destroy both the weapon and the aircraft itself; a disarmed one will still ruin any active Chain Bonus when it retreats off-screen.
Upon complete destruction, the Gunships release a bullet swarm from the disc-shaped armament.
Experimental Heavy Gunships cannot be collided with; the Plane simply flies past them.
Armament[]
Instead of directly shooting at the player's Plane, Experimental Heavy Gunships fire in the same downward direction they are facing. As a result, they cannot be distracted by active decoys placed by Holo Granny Technician.
Each of the three types uses a different weapon system. These projectiles only damage the Plane (and phase through other enemies), able to be absorbed by Energy Shields, destroyed by Mega Bombs or Iron Clad's Main Weapon Supercharge shockwaves and slowed by Slo Mo Chan. Their damage and firing frequency, along with the Gunship's health increase with higher difficulty levels.
Type I[]
Two miniguns simultaneously fire a quick burst of 11 projectiles each with a slight spread, three times in a row before a short recharging period. Each projectile travels at extreme speed but deals low damage on contact. They are thin and light blue in color and leave behind a red trail.
Type II[]
Two rocket pods simultaneously launch a barrage of missiles, twelve for the first barrage and thirteen for subsequents, with a short reloading period in between. The rocket pods are also featured on Murky Huntress, and a similar armament is seen on Canned Dread. Each rocket travels fast, deals relatively low damage and is unguided, but diverges randomly in a wide angle. The rockets are red and white in color and have a blue colored thruster, along with long white trails of smoke.
Type III[]
Similar to MLRS bunkers on Stage 7 and The Scarlet Heart boss, the pod launches ten rockets within a wide angle, whose straight trajectories are marked by yellow lines shortly before launch. A loud escalating sound Is heard moments before the launch. The first volley is launched shortly before the Gunship enters the screen. Each rocket deals heavy damage to the Plane, travels at very high speed and appears similar to those launched by the type II variant, but is slightly bigger.
Radial Cannon[]
Hidden as the disc shape atop the gunship. On destruction, all variants of Experimental Gunship discharge a radial swarm of sixteen clusters of five fast bullets each in different directions, which eventually decelerate and rest for a moment, acting as a brief mine before dissipating. They each deal high damage to the Plane on contact.
The Supercharged Mantis Cannon Turrets, Energized Spider Railguns and Volatile Drones also feature this.
Strategy[]
- There are separate strategies for each Experimental Heavy Gunship type:
- Against type I, memorize their firing patterns and swiftly move the Plane by a small amount to avoid the fast projectiles, then quickly blow the miniguns down during as they reload. In addition, the player can spool up the Main Weapon Supercharge module beforehand and unleash it on the miniguns once they appear on screen, as the Gunship normally engages after a delay.
- Against type II, charge the Main Weapon Supercharge module beforehand and burst down one or both pods once they appear on screen, as this variant also engages after a shorter delay. Their high frequency of fire can be problematic once they start to launch. Keep track of all rockets and quickly evade them once their trajectories appear. Keep distance with the gunship, since the rockets spread out as they travel and create gaps.
- Against type III, the yellow lines and sound provide a warning, to which the player should move the Plane slightly further back and position the Plane in the gaps between those lines. Try to deal as much damage as possible during the cooldown periods, and steer clear when the warning sounds. Bear in mind about the first barrage before the gunship appears.
- As the Gunships attack toward the bottom, there are blind spots between the aircraft's flanks and back. The player should avoid the attacks by flying to their flanks and swoop back to whittle down the armaments as they recharge.
- Experimental Heavy Gunships are powerful enemies and should be prioritized while destroying aiding enemies, as their armaments can quickly prove troublesome and provide little window for safe attacks. Use power-ups to deal with them quickly and remove pressure, especially Energy Shield to absorb all of their projectiles.
- Bear in mind about the radial swarm discharged by the gunships on their destruction. Keep distance so that the Plane is not hit with many high-damaging and high-speed projectiles and navigate through the spaces created by the swarm at far distance.
Trivia[]
- Among the Experimental Heavy Gunship types, only the third type has rotors as visible mechanisms that provide lift and thrust force, while the other two seemingly float in the sky without any support.
- Type I Experimental Heavy Gunships use miniguns similar to the one on board the Arachnotron boss from Sky Force Anniversary, which both make the same sounds and fire streams of fast projectiles with slight spread.
- Strangely, Experimental Heavy Gunships only provide 1000 points on destruction despite being relatively dangerous enemies (especially the type III with high-damaging rockets). Even the Heavy Helicopter Gunships, their predecessor counterparts, provide a total of 1500 points on destruction.