This guide is current as of game build V1.2.0.

Current version of the guide itself is V0.2.2. Look for the full changelog near the bottom of the guide.

I've been doing a lot of playing with Hawk trying to work through her kinks and to bring her up to snuff with top tier Nina and Ace play. Still a lot of work to do though, so stay tuned as I continue on my quest!

Hawk is her own beast in comparison to her contractor counterparts Nina and Ace. She can be a little tricky in the early going but can become a monster in the late game. But what are the details of her unique identity? Let's highlight some key characteristics before we take a deep dive:

• Hawk's primary weapon is the Energy Siphon, a two-hit whip with the ability to steal NRG from foes. Unlike the other contractors, Hawk does not have access to other primaries like Nina and Ace do. For full details, refer to the "Primary Weapon : Energy Siphon" section.
  
• Hawk is the only contractor to start with a power, the Protorifle. For full details, refer to the "Hawk Weapon : Protorifle" section.
  
• Primary chest weapons do not contain alternate primaries for Hawk; instead, they contain one of four powers (Wildfire, Blastjump, Seeking Striker, World Igniter) unique to Hawk. They coexist alongside your acquired boss powers. For full details, refer to each weapon's specific section.
  
• Hawk is also the only contractor to start with a stat penalty of any kind, in which case hers is -5 power damage. This applies to both acquired boss weapons and Hawk's unique weapons, meaning her base damage for power damage calculation starts at 7.5.

Since Hawk's unique powers occupy the same inventory space boss weapons do, it is absolutely possible for you to run out of space for powers. A power will be dropped if no slots are left and a new power is bound to its position, leaving it on the field in the same way Core Augs are when they are replaced.


Picking up a power with "Activate Thing" while your inventory is full will exchange it with the last (rightmost) power in your inventory.

This is probably one of the most technical weapons in the game with a lot of minutae, so buckle up!


Seeing as Hawk's Energy Siphon is a melee weapon, using Ace as a point of reference can give us a rough idea of her basic performance (we'll get to the "siphon" gimmick shortly.) Her whip has a two-hit combo. The first whip strike has good horizontal range and can hit somwhat above her, affording some decent vertical range not unlike Ace. The second hit of her combo has yet more horizontal range, making her whip something of a mini Sharp Sharp Spear.

However, Hawk's whip strikes only deal 10 damage apiece at base stats. On top of that, her charge attack modifier sits at x1.5 instead of x2. When you compare her output against Ace's, the values are very lopsided:


Ace is dealing near or over *double* what Hawk deals, even against bosses where his second and third combo strikes have boss-specific damage falloff. Several enemies that Ace can dispose of in a single combo require extra effort on the part of Hawk. In short, Hawk cannot lean on her primary the same way Ace can.

That being said, its not all bad news as far as raw statistics are concerned. As mentioned, she has some above average horizontal range on her whip strikes. Below you can see a horizontal range comparison of Hawk's and Ace's first combo hits:



Hawk has a moderate albeit significant range advantage on Ace. This range advantage carries over into the second combo hits as well:



Ace's third strike gives him a slight horizontal boost over his second strike, but Hawk still has the better lateral range overall. This may not look like a big deal, but it definitely helps. This small boost in safety complements the overall playstyle she takes on. And although she has to go the extra mile early on for some foes, her weapon very well could be the best Flapp-swatter of the starting primaries; trust me when I say that that is a very nice perk.

Of course, these tradeoffs are also there to balance out one of Hawk's defining characteristics: the ability to replenish NRG with her strikes.


The siphon ability is at the heart of what Hawk is about. Hawk's energy ability is activated one of two ways:

• Hitting an enemy with the second hit of her combo.
  
• Hitting an enemy with a charged hit (either strike of the combo works)

In other words, even if her max NRG stat is low, Hawk has plentious opportunities to keep herself topped up off from grunts. She's also the only character in the game who starts with a ranged sub weapon (which is covered in the next major section,) so she can take advantage of her energy siphon traits even from level 1.

This trait is, as her trailer suggests, the motor that drives her playstyle. With easy access to NRG, she can use powers at a rate that the other contractors simply can't without heavy investment or Forgotten Memento. Just remember that Hawk is a "power spammer" first and a "powerhouse" later; she still has to contend with a -5 PWR penalty at the beginning of a run.


There are several interesting caveats to take note of with Hawk's primary weapon, and this is where things can get very interesting. How do different game mechanics interact with this siphoning ability?

• Upon landing an eligible strike, there is a slight delay on receiving NRG. A blue energy ball will appear near where the hit made contact and fly to Hawk, giving her the NRG (and displaying a somewhat inconspicious blue 1) at that point.
  
• Striking crates will not give you NRG.
  
• Striking multiple enemies affects NRG gains in a unique way: you gain 1 extra NRG for every other enemy struck after the first. For example, if you hit five Flapps at once with a charged strike, you will get 3 NRG: 1 for the first Flapp, 1 for the third Flapp and 1 for the fifth Flapp.
  
• Both methods of stealing can be used in a combo to get NRG. If you land a charged first hit and follow up with the second hit, you will gain 2 NRG total (1+1.)
  
• Furthermore, the two methods can be combined at once (using the Chargestore ability from Dracopent's Helm.) In other words, landing a charged first hit and a charged second hit will net you 3 NRG (1+2.)
  
• The Hypercharge from Dracopent's Claw also affects NRG gained. Hypercharged strikes steal 2 NRG per hit. (Theoretically, when combined with Chargestore, this should allow you pull off combos that give you a total 5 NRG! However, I have not yet verified this.)

Despite technically not being an enemy, Cerby (the robotic pet in level 9's post-boss hall) gives you NRG per the rules outlined above. With that in mind, go wild against level 9's boss if you want; Cerby should have more than enough HP to get your NRG topped off before level 10!

The starting power for Hawk, this weapon's damage output isn't great (especially when you consider the starting -5 power damage Hawk has,) but at the very least it gives you some range.

Stats/Overview:

• Damage Modifier = x0.7
  
• Fires at a semi-rapid pace and at 4 shots per 1 NRG
  
• Against bosses, it ignores i-frames but deals 60% damage

Again, its not bad, but its not great either. With Hawk's base stats, each shot deals 5 damage to grunts and 3 damage to bosses. Its defining characteristic is basically that its a free weapon to start with, as the i-frame property is shared with Vera and said weapon can do Protorifle's job a whole lot better than it can (on top of its other properties like four-way aiming.) Also like Vera, Protorifle has some slight deviation to its shots.

Basically, Protorifle is there to supplement your whip damage in the early going. Neither of Hawk's starting weapons are very powerful, but when used together she can manage some snappy damage. Use Protorifle to soften up targets as you approach them, and then use Energy Siphon to finish them off and get your NRG back. 4 shots of Protorifle (-1 NRG) with an uncharged whip combo (+1 NRG) will deal a total of 40 damage against grunts, letting her do some catch up to Ace's 36-damage sword combo if you can line up all the shots.

You can also use the Protorifle to cancel the endlag of your whip combo and get in some extra damage. This is nice against grunts, but be wary that this can mess up your damage flow on bosses. Protorifle ignores i-frames but, per my observations, still triggers them; this means that you won't be able to do damage with your whip immediately after hitting with Protorifle. Given how weak Protorifle is against bosses in the first place, you'll probably just want to save it for when you get zoned out.

Protorifle is a reliable but ultimately average power, pure and simple. It may be worth keeping around for a little bit, but my impression so far is that Vera outshines it in nearly every way. If you have to choose, choose Vera.

Basically, its the "I farted and my house blew up" weapon.

Stats/Overview:

• Damage Modifier = x3.0
  
• Damage modifier scales with jump stat (further labbing required to determine exacts)
  
• Fires 1 round per 1 NRG

Jokes aside, this is probably the best utility power in Hawk's arsenal. If you are a Vera flight junkie, this weapon could be right up your wheelhouse. Delivering a 22 damage base stats explosion at Hawk's feet, she is simultaneously launched upward as if jumping. Consider it an NRG driven double jump.

Its not all flowers and candy though. Blastjump does not have a high rate of fire; without Zephyrs (and possibly not even then,) it cannot sustain indefinite vertical travel. However, it can used alongside core augment leg pieces, and together they can drastically increase the distance potential over using only Blastjump.

Definitely a useful power to have around.

Remember that the hovering leg parts (Owlhawk's Feather and Armatort's Momentum) will take you out of the dashing state. And unlike the double jump (Dracopent's Bound,) holding the dash button when using Blastjump will not activate dash speed.

Your friendly neighborhood (and somewhat dumb) homing missile.

Stats/Overview:

• Damage Modifier = x2.0
  
• Semi-automatic with virtually no firing lag; fires 2 rounds for 1 NRG

Essentially, Seeking Striker behaves like Gamma Grome's missile: find target, point at it, charge forward (and hope your target is still there when you reach your intended destination.) As it were though, its not nearly as terrifying as its Grome weapon cousin. It only does 15 damage with Hawk's base stats, relying almost entirely on its admittedly weak utility to make itself useful.

Things are made somewhat better by its NRG efficiency, but not by much. Its crowd control abilities are limited by the fact that rapid fire usage will probably cause multiple shots to target the same foe. Combine this with a paltry area of impact and the fact that it can target enemies through walls (which it does collide with, FYI,) and... well, you will likely have better options most of the time. If something is far enough away that you want to home in on it, there is a good chance you don't even need to be worrying about it in the first place.

I'm not ready to entirely write this weapon off--especially this early after Hawk's release--but for now it definitely looks like one of Hawk's weaker options.

Get ready to "science."

Stats/Overview:

• Damage Modifier [Flask / Flames] = [x4.0 / x3.0]
  
• Fires 1 round per 1 NRG

Wildfire starts off by launching an arcing flask. Its trajectory is like Mortar's but on a much smaller and somewhat faster scale. Upon making contact with a floor, it bursts into flames and attempts to travel along the ground for a sizeable amount of time. If the flames do run up against a wall, they will continue to burn in place for the full duration expected. With Hawk's base stats, the flask deals 30 damage per hit and the flames deal 22 damage per hit.

With my experience thus far, this is probably Hawk's best general-purpose weapon out of her five. The flask alone matches Splinterfrost's main projectile, but when positioned correctly the resulting flame trail will decimate all but the hardiest of grunts. This, of course, is partially reliant on having solid surfaces to run Wildfire up against, but if you don't have better options there can be opportunity for creativity.

As an example, the flame trail moves slower and falls slower in the air than the flask, such as when it travels over a ledge. You can use this to your advantage against aerial foes by shooting Wildfire into a ceiling. Its surprisingly effective against medium-HP foes.

This is definitely one to keep a lookout for. The damage potential per pop is absolutely there.

BURN TO THE GROUND.

Stats/Overview:

• Damage Modifier = x2.0
  
• Fires insanely fast; fires 2 rounds per 1 NRG
  
• Against bosses, it ignores i-frames but deals 50% damage

In all seriousness though...

On paper, World Igniter actually looks kinda bad and... well, that's kinda true. Base stats have you only dealing 15 damage per shot for 30 damage total per NRG (which is then taken down to 7 and 14 for bosses.) Given its extremely low range, its far less user-friendly than weapons like Splinterfrost and Boomerang Blade. And that fire rate? You'll rip through your NRG super quick if you aren't careful.

Is it particularly efficient? No. But does it have unarguably the strongest burst damage potential in the game? You better believe it. And early game where Hawk can struggle to find strong and fast DPS, World Igniter stands out.

World Igniter can function as Protorifle 2.0; an early helper power but with way more steamroll potential, even with judicious use. And if you're willing to "baby" this power and build around it,I think it has serious potential to pay off even in the late game. Remember that this bad boy ignores boss i-frames... and that Enerative Plating is a thing. ;)

Its easy to make this weapon look bad. It kind of is bad. But don't sleep on it. That massive burst damage is worth something.

Here's where to get the scoop on how Hawk fares with different armor pieces and sets.


From left to right and best to worst:



These ratings are probably pretty predictable.



Owlhawk's Focus

Does Hawk really need the 50% NRG cost reduction for her powers? It certainly doesn't hurt, especially if you're still running base NRG. Overkill or not, its still one of the most powerful helmets for Hawk to have (and for all contractors really) and drastically improves her NRG economy.


Owlhawk's Reign

Since you can expect Hawk to be using a lot of powers, lifesteal on power kills is a great ability to have if you struggle to avoid damage. Despite Hawk being the best contractor to take advantage of this core, however, don't expect it to help too much at higher levels of play unless you're doing hardcore runs. Just like Ace and Nina, you'll usually only pick this up if you're going for a full armor set, but it isn't bad by any stretch.


Owlhawk's Talon

Hands down the best single core piece available to Hawk. It functions a bit differently for her over the other contractors: instead of attack kills randomly granting NRG, the first hit of her combo is guaranteed to grant NRG instead. This is AMAZING. Then there is the fact that it nearly erases her starting PWR deficit (+4 PWR.) This is an "always take" piece unless you are absolutely dogmatic about going for another armor set.


Owlhawk's Feather

Probably the second best leg aug for Hawk, beaten out only by Dracopent's Bound. Especially when Hawk is struggling to produce DPS, this leg gives her the mobile flexibility to weave in and out of danger or even skip small segments altogether. Its a well-rounded choice.


Owlhawk Bonus

You might assume that the power spam character's best armor set would be the one involving amped up powers. I'd say you're correct. The Talon piece is reason enough alone to focus on this set (or even break up others,) but juiced powers are about as insane as you would expect on Hawk. If you have to prioritize chasing one set over another, this is always the one to go for. Even if you can't get a full set, the benefits from Visor and Talon are strong enough to carry a mismatched set.



Dracopent's Fang

The chargestore ability should not be underestimated on Hawk, as now charged combos will grant her 3 NRG total. The DPS boost for two charged shots leaves something to be desired because of Hawk's low charge modifier, but even at base stats 30 total damage per combo can shorten kill times on mid-tier grunts. This is a piece that provides well-rounded benefits and is generally worth getting.


Dracopent's Pride

Lifesteal via attacks is passable on Hawk. She'll have plenty of low hanging fruit (Flapps, Alpha Bzzombs) that she can kill even with a low attack stat, but you're nuts will normally be better spent elsewhere unless you're going for full Draco.


Dracopent's Claw

Hypercharge has always been a bit of a situational ability, as most of the time you won't be going for said charge unless you have significant space between enemies. Hypercharged whip strikes do grant 2 NRG instead of 1 per hit though, so that is something. Unfortunately, hypercharged attacks only raise the charge modifier up to the standard x2.0. If anything, its the +4 Atk that is the most useful off of this piece. Once again, don't go out of your way for this unless you're building full Draco.


Dracopent's Bound

Dracopent's Bound : And finally, the most useful Draco piece for Hawk. Double jump is probably the best mobility option in the game, and here is no exception. Though sometimes Hawk would like to have a little more airtime, the overall flexibility this ability grants her is normally too good to pass up.


Dracopent's Bonus

Despite the fact that the individual pieces are hit or miss, the full set is actually pretty decent on Hawk. Perpetually charged attacks means 3 NRG combos all the time, and if you've invested in ATK there is plenty of room to run hybrid ATK/PWR builds. If you don't have PWR investment, however, make sure you have Quint Laser or Splinterfrost to compensate for boss DPS; even with full Dracopent, relying strictly on whip DPS can be tough.

Oxjack's Ken

It is what it is. If you want the speed boost, then take it. That being said, exercise special caution; unlike her stronger melee counterpart Ace, Hawk may have a hard time bailing herself out of danger if she gets too reckless in her approaches.


Oxjack's Guile

If you're lacking a defensive option, this is definitely a good piece to consider for Hawk. It gives her a little more breathing room to get in and wittle down ranged foes. Even with something like Force Nova, this can be a good ability to have around in situations where you can't rapid fire Force Nova quickly enough.


Oxjack's Fury

Quicker charge times, theoretically, mean you'll be getting DPS and NRG at a quicker pace. It is, of course, worth highlighting that this also effects Quint Laser's charge time, which can be a goto for Hawk against bosses. Whether or not these effects are enough to make it worth a purchase is questionable though.


Oxjack's Blitz

I've been in the camp that this leg piece is a bit underrated, but on Hawk I feel its potential problems are a bit exasperated. If you want this piece, make sure you have a solid "bail out" plan should you "blitz" into something a bit too recklessly.


Oxjack's Bonus

This armor set has always had a high skill ceiling. Its not impossible to run the triple airdash wonder on Hawk, but you need a solid gameplan and loadout to make it work effectively. The excessive mobility combined with something like Vera or Blastjump can give Hawk some ridiculous options. Unleash the insanity at your own discretion.



Armatort's Dome

No significant differences between Hawk and her counterparts with this one. Its about as useful to Ace and Nina as it is for her, and that usefulness is very questionable at higher levels of play.


Armatort's Shell

Negating knockback has always been useful, but if you're playing Hawk, you should be playing a slightly more careful game to begin with. Its not bad, but its not great either unless you're speedrunning/damage boosting.


Armatort's Pound

The extended hitbox of Hawk's whip makes shot erasing slightly more practical than it is for Ace. Is it worth the hefty price tag? Like the other pieces before it in this set, probably not. There are better defensive options out there for Hawk.


Armatort's Momentum

Not regarded as the best option by many, but its certainly still viable. The extra airtime helps with evasion at least and can give Hawk a little more flexibility in confronting her attackers.


Armatort's Bonus

Arguably the main advantage of this bonus is laser immunity, but with Force Nova being such a top-tier, highly-used power, is it necessary? Combined with the fact that even a decently powered-up Hawk can spam it nearly at will, and this bonus is simply not going to do much for you even with spike immunity. Don't bend over backwards for this set.

Hawk has 13 powers total available to her. Whew! So which ones are the ones to look out for? What kind of arsenal should she look to build?

A lot of the basics still apply to Hawk for power choice. Boss weaknesses should be prioritized when necessary, and weapon utilities (ex: Vera flight) should be considered based on the remaining level lineup. Beyond that, Hawk should specifically be looking for the following when choosing weapons:

• Spammability : High rate of fire and ease of use. The ability to quickly move between whip strikes and powers at will is incredibly important.
  
• Raw Damage / DPS : Hawk's whip won't be doing the heavy lifting without signficant investment, and even then that's generally investment better spent elsewhere. At some point, make sure you can bring the pain against both grunts and bosses.
  
• Crowd Control : Once again, a low damage primary means that Hawk is going to want something to get through high traffic areas, be it a defensive utility or large area of impact.

With that in mind, I've put together a reference below to show where I feel each weapon stands. This tier list is biased more towards Hawk's specific needs, although it does still consider context specific to each run (like bosses and levels remaining.) Weapon-specific breakdowns are listed farther down.




Vera

Vera is at the heart of nearly any setup I run; the "spam" gun is easily Hawk's best boss power in my book. It does suffer quite a bit from the initial -5 PWR penalty, but get beyond that and its an extraordinary offensive weapon, especially paired with Flame Shield. Vera has the package Hawk wants: practically no cooldown, user-friendly aiming and excellent damage to NRG efficiency against grunts. It may lack burst damage and crowd control before PWR investment, but a late game Flame Shield / Vera combo is a monster of efficiency and power. Vera is multi-purpose, reliable and plays right into Hawk's spam-happy ways.


Flame Shield

Another spammer-friendly weapon, this defensive option is a great "fire-and-forget" weapon to use both for offense and defense. Just like Vera, you need to get your PWR back up to snuff before it really shines, but it tends to jump the hump a little quicker than Vera does in my experience. If the NRG is flowing, there's almost no reason to not constantly have this up unless you're lacking suitable crowd control.


Force Nova

Despite the rise of Flame Shield, Force Nova still continues to do what it does. It will still be the more reliable defensive power for spam heavy areas (high-level Agnisort,) and its utility of removing lasers isn't going out of style as long as level 9 keeps doing its thing. I wouldn't be afraid to run it and Flame Shield together. This is still essentially a "must-take" power if you're serious about well-rounded defense.



Boomerang Blade

Another steady staple of a well-balanced DPS diet, Boomerang Blade isn't going anywhere either. Its a great weapon to run alongside Hawk's other tools for extra range and piercing, with the latter property even making it a good follow-up to boss whip combos. It does have some competition against the amazingly powerful Wildfire, but the two occupy slightly different niches. If you get good at positioning and utilizing the whip's full range, Boomerang Blade's multi-hitting power remains as viable as ever.


Shadespur

Shadespur has been on the up and up, and with Hawk its a very solid choice. Much like Boomerang Blade, it can be an excellent follow-up to (grounded) whip combos, where even with bosses it can persist through the whip's i-frames. Its "wall spook" property really shines next to Hawk's siphon as well, as she can make liberal use of pre-emptive strikes without putting herself in danger. Its crowd control potential is excellent as well if you can work past the initial learning curve, and players that can exercise the full range of its versatility stand to get large payoffs.

Splinterfrost

I'd say Splinterfrost falls a little shy of making A-Tier. By all means, its a great power to take if its the first available, and it remains a strong power choice for cranking out boss DPS. Despite this, Splinterfrost just isn't a good weapon for Hawk to lean on (unless its juiced, but its busted for everyone then.) Its crowd control is limited and inconsistent, and its firing rate is only modest. Definitely a power worth keeping around, but I wouldn't count on it as a go-to in most situations.


Quint Laser

Quint Laser is a middle-of-the-road option for stages but a rather useful option for boss encounters. Hawk can start off battles with a fully-charged Quint to save some time, and it does have some crowd control properties should you be able to deal with its range issues. Every little bit helps with Hawk, and Quint Laser fills a nice niche when Hawk needs it.


Blastjump

Take this weapon's tier placement with a grain of salt. If you want it for the jumping utility, go for it. It puts out decent amounts of damage, but it definitely doesn't measure up to most of the threats above it. Its a very unique weapon; know what you want and integrate Blastjump accordingly.


Wildfire

This weapon's damage potential is monstrous, and early game its incredible. It rips through grunts and bosses alike, and is well worth the moderate technical cost of using. Its crowd control is functionally meant for ground-based encounters, though savvy players can get creative with the terrain collisions. Despite this, it falls off in later levels (especially 9 & 10) where mixed ground/air swarms and tricky geometry make it less practical. From beginning to end, things kind of average out, which is why it sits where it does in the tier rankings.



Mortar

A high DPS power you should take only if you're starved for options. Its not very user-friendly and its nearly useless at whip range. However, if you see a lot of high level Frostor and Sky Temple in your future (and no wall spook,) you may want to keep this around. If your DPS isn't up to snuff, Hawk can spend several cycles trying to take down shield enemies without Mortar.


World Igniter

Much like Wildfire, World Igniter really leans into its burst DPS potential, but with much less efficiency. Early on it can be the DPS kick that Hawk so desperately needs, but Vera almost always overtakes it once the PWR starts coming in. Nearly any grunt that it can kill at short-range, Vera will do at longer range with miniscule loss of time and NRG. Even when you're swimming in endless NRG, World Igniter tends to fall into obscurity as a quick but dirty way of dealing with threats.



Seeking Striker

Its not completely useless, but its uses are so niche that you'd be hard-pressed to take it over something else. It might have some potential in stages that have more single target encounters and awkward angles, but its overall power and quirkiness when homing leave much to be desired. At the very least its got a super low cooldown, so it can synergize with other weapons if you really want to use it.

Remember, this guide is WIP! Here are some things you can expect in future updates:

• A look at the juiced variations of Hawk's weapons.
  
• Best practices for prototype usage.
  
• ?????

Comments and feedback are welcome. Thanks for checking out my guide!

• Updated power tiers:
  
  • Force Nova moved up (A >> S)
    
  • Wildfire moved down (A >> B)
    
  • Quint Laser moved up (C >> B)
    
  • World Igniter moved down (B >> C)
• Updated several power descriptions in the power synopsis sections

Added core augment sections.

• Began splitting up different parts of the guides into sections for better organization and clarity.
  
• Added the "Gameplay Philosophy" guide segment, which includes the "Phase Theory" and following phase breakdown sections.

Added power choice synopsis section that outlines power tiers and the reasoning behind weapon placement.