Prop Planes are small basic aircraft enemies that travel in formations, dealing damage to the player's Plane via direct contact.
Appearance[]
Prop Planes are small fixed-wing aircrafts with a visible seat for pilots in the middle. They may also have small turbines and unused turrets on their wings. From the end of the wings, wingtip vortices can be faintly seen.
Prop Planes come in different paint job colors, as well as their design and shape itself which might give a clue to their statistics. A color variant of planes may have different sub-types.
Red Planes[]
Orange Planes[]
Cyan Planes[]
Lime Planes[]
Black Planes[]
Behavior[]
Prop Planes fly in specific trajectory in fleets, along with others of the same type. They appear anywhere from the edges of the screen, flying in a direction and follow either a straight or curved trajectory. The player will lose the opportunity to destroy them once they travel off-screen, thus breaking any active Chain Bonus. They do not attack the player's Planes, unlike Stage B3's Jet Fighters and Triebflügel Planes.
Prop Planes may be viewed as destructible "bullets"; they have health and explode when it runs out like other enemies, dropping stars and reward some points. Their health can be reduced by two methods: damaging the planes with weapons or by colliding with the planes themselves. If the Prop Planes collide with the player's Plane, both sides will take damage until either of them is destroyed, or if they pass through each other completely. The damage is reduced for both sides if they make contact by the wings instead of the fuselages.
Prop Planes' potential damage is reduced along with their health, therefore lightly damaged planes may deal less damage when crashing into the player. Fast and durable planes may pass through the player without being destroyed.
Players can use Energy Shields to protect themselves from the aircrafts and can even safely mow through fleets, as Prop Planes are always destroyed instantly upon contact with the Shield.
Each type of Prop Planes has various degrees of health, damage and speed, which can be differentiated by their paint jobs and design. Red, orange and their variants are often weak, while cyan, lime and black are more durable and deal more contact damage. On Nightmare difficulty, Prop Planes gain significantly more health, resulting in much higher damage needed.
Some Prop Planes may occasionally have a yellow glow; these planes will drop Weapon Upgrades items that increase your weapons' fire rate. Glowing planes will not appear if the fire rate is maxed out.
Strategy[]
- Since Prop Planes' only threatening ability is collision, keeping distance is crucial in avoiding damages. When fighting against durable planes with straight downward trajectories, steer clear of their path if your firepower is not high enough to avoid being sandwiched by both them and the edge of the screen and receiving damage.
- Keep a keen eye or remember their appearing sequence from previous playthroughs to both prevent ambushes and losing your Chain Bonus. During Stages, other enemies and strategically placed Survivors can distract you from the incoming planes.
- Even if a fleet of Prop Planes is too tough for you to destroy every single one, prioritize glowing planes and amass Weapon Upgrades to have a better chance at destroying them later on.
- Utilize many different kits to deal with durable Prop Planes, but do not overuse them. The Classic Plane with Laser Whip upgrade specialize in destroying vertical fleets of planes, Gladius's mighty firepower is helpful against tough planes and Octopus's mini rockets are useful in dispatching multiple planes in a single launch, a situation in which normal missiles is inefficient.
- The Tase MeBro Technician is excellent in catching fast Prop Planes that are able to get behind your Plane and escape.
- If used wisely with good timing, Wing Cannons can swiftly burn through columns or groups of Prop Planes, thus saving time that can be used to take on other enemies.
Trivia[]
Rarely, instead of exploding in mid-air when destroyed, some Prop Planes may turn into burning wreckage that spiral into the ground and explode. This chance is increased by equipping the Lucy Clover Technician.
Images[]
(work in progress)
- ↑ In this scenario, the Prop Plane 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 Prop Plane may pass through the player without being destroyed, losing some of their potential total damage.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Even Iron Clad is destroyed.