Heavy Fighters are plane enemies that fly straight downward, discharging a spread trio of projectiles ahead as they travel. They are exclusive to Stage 9.
Appearance[]
Heavy Fighters have a twin-boom aircraft design, with two longitudinal booms, two front rotors, wide wingspan with a white skull symbol on each and a mostly red paint job with white tip.
As damage to the aircraft accumulates, Heavy Fighters become more engulfed in flame until they are destroyed and explode mid-air.
Behavior[]
General[]
Heavy Fighters fly downward the screen in a straight trajectory as columns, covering the screen as a group. The numbers of Heavy Fighters increase on Nightmare difficulty level.
Similar to Prop Planes, Heavy Fighters can collide with the player's Plane, dealing damage to both aircraft until either one is destroyed or they pass through each other. Damage dealt is lower if both sides collide on the wings instead of directly at the fuselages. Heavy Fighters instantly explode when connecting with active Energy Shields.
Heavy Fighters can rarely have a glowing yellow aura, which drop Weapon Upgrade items that boost the Plane's Main and Wing Cannons fire rate,
Armament[]
Heavy Fighters shoot a trio of purple projectiles at a fast constant rate, which spread out and travel toward the bottom of the screen at moderate speed, dealing relatively low damage. They do not target the player's Plane directly and therefore is not affected by Holo Granny Technician's decoys.
These projectiles only damage the Plane (and phase through other enemies) and cannot be destroyed by its projectiles and Laser power-up. However, it can be absorbed by Energy Shields, destroyed by Mega Bombs and Iron Clad's Main Weapon Supercharge shockwaves, and slowed by Slo Mo Chan's ability.
Strategy[]
- Attempt to destroy as many Heavy Fighters as possible once they appear, perhaps with the use of Main Weapon Supercharge. Leaving them intact for too long will render one or many vertical parts of the screen hazardous due to their many and spread projectiles, along with the ramming aircraft themselves.
- Heavy Fighters cast their shadow onto the water surface below, hinting at their location even before they enter the view. Use this to "camp" and quickly bring them down.
- Never attempt to collide with Heavy Fighters without an active Energy Shields; a head-on collision with an intact one is a guaranteed death even for Iron Clad, pairs with the risk of being hit point-blank by all newly discharged projectiles.
Images[]
- ↑ In this scenario, the Heavy Fighter 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 Heavy Fighter may pass through the player without being destroyed, losing some of their potential total damage.
- ↑ Even Iron Clad is destroyed. Therefore, exact values for each difficulty level is unknown.