THE SIX AIRCRAFT

The hangar holds six jets. They are closer together than they look. Every one of them carries the same gun doing the same damage, every one dies to five rounds, and every one dies to a single missile. What separates them is a handful of flight numbers that sit within about twenty per cent of each other, and a loadout that does not. This page goes through all six in detail. If you have not flown yet, start with How to fly; for the weapons themselves, see Weapons.

Why the jets are so alike

Early versions of the game had three aircraft that were 2.4 times apart on turn rate. That made the choice of airframe the whole fight: the jet that turned best simply won. The airframes were deliberately pulled together so that the decision moved to what you carry and how you mean to use it. The first three — NEEDLE, LANCE and ANVIL — are a family of all-rounders in ascending weight. The second three — SABRE, BOLT and MAUL — were added as specialists, each leaning hard into one corner and paying for it in another.

The practical consequence: a better pilot in the "wrong" aircraft will usually beat a worse pilot in the "right" one. Pick the jet that suits how you like to fight, not the one with the biggest number.

How they fly

Turn rate and top speed are the game's own measured figures; top speed is level flight at 1,000 m, where most fights happen. Thrust-to-weight is the engine at full throttle at sea level, before boost. Full circle is simply 360 divided by the turn rate.

Read the turn column as time. In a turning fight between a SABRE and a MAUL, the SABRE comes all the way round in 5.7 seconds and the MAUL in 8.0 — after one full circle the SABRE is more than a hundred degrees ahead, which is the difference between being behind someone and being in front of their guns.

Read the speed column as distance. The BOLT is about 16 m/s faster than a SABRE at the top end. That does not sound like much, but it is a kilometre of separation every minute, and the BOLT also has the strongest engine for its weight, so it gets back to that speed faster after a turn than anything else.

Length matters more than it seems. The hit boxes that rounds and missiles are tested against are scaled to each aircraft's real length, so a 13 m MAUL is a much bigger target than a 9 m NEEDLE or SABRE — roughly half as big again in every direction. Five hits kill anything, but five hits are easier to land on a bigger shape.

The less obvious numbers

Roll is how hard the aircraft can start a roll, as a share of the SABRE's. Since every turn begins with a roll, a quick roll means you start turning sooner. Wing loading is weight per square metre of wing: less weight on each square metre is why the SABRE turns so well, and the BOLT's very high figure is why it cannot.

Rated G is the load each airframe is built for. Past it, the elevator loses authority — never below about a third — so you simply cannot pull as hard. Go past 1.3 times the rating for more than four tenths of a second and the airframe takes structural damage to both inner wings, which costs lift. The SABRE has the most headroom and the BOLT the least.

What they carry

The gun figure is both barrels together. Every gun fires at 780 m/s and does the same damage, and the guns never run out, so the gun column barely matters — six per cent from top to bottom. "Per pull" is how many missiles leave on one press of the key, and it applies to both missile types: a LANCE fires its HOUNDs in pairs too. Reload is per pull, not per missile, so a pair costs the same wait as a single.

One rule caps everything: no aircraft can have more than four of its own missiles in the air at once. A MAUL's three-round salvo uses three of those four, and a HOUND can stay airborne for a long time. The weapons page explains why that matters.

NEEDLE

FOURTEEN ROCKETS

Good at: throwing a lot of unguided rockets quickly. Fourteen SPEARs on a 0.3-second reload is the most shots in the match, and it is the second-best turner, so it can usually get the nose where it needs to be.

How to fly it: as a gunfighter that carries a rack of finishers. Turn with the heavier jets, get the nose on them at short range, and walk a stream of SPEARs onto them rather than firing one and hoping. Its single HOUND is for the target you cannot catch — a BOLT running away, somebody leaving the fight smoking. With four flares and a single seeker it is poor at a long-range missile exchange; do not have one.

What beats it: a SABRE in a turning fight, and anyone with a stack of HOUNDs who stays at range. Four flares go quickly against an ANVIL.

Pick it if: you trust your aim and want the most chances per life.

LANCE

TWO AT A TIME

Good at: the salvo. Every pull of E puts two SPEARs side by side at the same target, and every pull of Q sends two HOUNDs down one lock. Two rockets cover more sky than one, which forgives a lead you misjudged.

How to fly it: it is the middle of everything — middle turn, middle speed, middle size — so it is the right aircraft to learn the game in, and it stays useful when you are good. Make each pass count: set up a clean shot, fire a pair, and leave. Its three HOUNDs come as a pair and then a single, so the second pull is your follow-up. Six flares mean you can survive one missile exchange and come back for another.

What beats it: nothing outright, which is the point. A good SABRE out-turns it, a good BOLT out-runs it, and an ANVIL out-lasts it in a long-range missile fight.

Pick it if: you are new, or you want one aircraft that does every job well enough.

ANVIL

FOUR SEEKERS

Good at: killing with guided missiles and not dying to them. Four HOUNDs fired as two pairs and nine flares — more than twice a NEEDLE's — make it the patient missile fighter. It is also faster in a straight line than the NEEDLE or the LANCE.

How to fly it: stay at range, keep your speed, and lock. A HOUND pair followed four seconds later by a second pair is hard to survive, because the first pair forces a flare and the flare takes seven seconds to come back. In between, keep moving: at 47.6°/s and 12 m long it is a poor knife fighter and a large target. When someone gets close, use height and speed to leave rather than turning with them.

What beats it: a NEEDLE or SABRE that gets inside a kilometre and makes it turn. Cloud, too: inside the cloud band nobody can lock, and an ANVIL without a lock is a slow jet with eight rockets.

Pick it if: you like to plan a shot and wait for it.

SABRE

THE KNIFE FIGHT

Good at: turning. 63°/s is the best in the game, it has the quickest roll, the lightest wing loading, and the most G headroom before the airframe protests. It is also small — 9 m, the same as a NEEDLE — so it is hard to hit.

How to fly it: get behind people and stay there. Its weapons are the lightest in the hangar — six SPEARs and two HOUNDs — so the guns do most of the killing. Bring the fight close, make the other aircraft turn, and keep turning: every circle you fly together gains you nearly thirty degrees on the next-best turner and far more on the heavy jets. Its weakness is the straight line. At 457 km/h it has the lowest top speed, so if a fight goes badly you cannot simply run.

What beats it: a BOLT that refuses to turn and keeps coming back at speed, and any missile carrier that keeps it at range. Five flares will not last a long missile fight.

Pick it if: your gunnery is good and you enjoy the close fight.

BOLT

FASTEST THERE IS

Good at: speed. 515 km/h level is the highest in the game and its thrust-to-weight of 0.81 is the best, so it recovers speed fastest after a turn. Its HOUND reload of 2.8 seconds is the quickest there is.

How to fly it: choose your fight, take it at speed, and leave. The BOLT fires HOUNDs one at a time, but fast: three of them can leave in under six seconds, which is less than the seven a flare takes to come back. That is its best attack — lock, fire, fire again, fire again. Then go. It turns worse than anything except the MAUL and has the least G headroom, so a turning fight is a fight it has already lost. It rolls quicker than the ANVIL and MAUL, which helps it change direction before committing to a pull.

What beats it: anything that drags it into a turn, a SABRE above all. Three flares is the fewest in the hangar, so a patient ANVIL is dangerous to it too.

Pick it if: you are disciplined enough to leave a fight you are not winning.

MAUL

THREE AT A TIME

Good at: weight of fire and staying alive against missiles. Three SPEARs off every pull covers a lot of sky, and twelve flares is three times what a NEEDLE carries.

How to fly it: like a heavy bomber with a temper. Line up a pass, pull E, and put a three-rocket spread across a target's path. The rack holds four pulls, but not four in a row: with three of your own already in the air, the four-missile cap cuts the next pull to a single rocket until they land or burn out. Its HOUNDs are the catch: it carries two and fires up to three per pull, so one press of Q empties both seekers at once. Make that one count. It is the slowest turner and the biggest target, so never start a turning fight — let the other aircraft come to you and meet it with the salvo.

What beats it: guns. A SABRE or NEEDLE that gets behind a MAUL has a large, slow target, and no number of flares stops rounds.

Pick it if: you would rather be hard to kill than hard to catch.

Match-ups at a glance

• SABRE against BOLT is the purest contest: if the BOLT turns, the SABRE wins; if it does not, the SABRE cannot catch it.
• ANVIL against NEEDLE is range against range: the ANVIL wants three kilometres and a lock, the NEEDLE wants three hundred metres and a stream of rockets.
• MAUL against anything is about the first pass. Its salvo is the most dangerous single moment in the match, and after it the MAUL is the easiest jet in the sky to hunt.
• LANCE is never favoured and never helpless.

A kill puts some back

Every kill refunds a quarter of each missile and flare rack, rounded up and never less than one, and fills the boost tank. You can go above a full rack this way, up to one and a half racks. That is why a NEEDLE that keeps scoring can end up holding two HOUNDs, and an ANVIL six. The full table is on the weapons page.

The aircraft you pick stays with you into the next match. For which modes reward which aircraft, see Game modes and Tactics.

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