Fencer's controls are vastly different from those of other classes. Due to his dual-wielding capabilties, Fencer has two firing buttons instead of just one, and both weapons will have a secondary function. As a consequence, the buttons for changing weapons and jumping are moved.

In addition to the button scheme being different, Fencer's controls will generally feel more sluggish. Both running and aiming controls are weighed down by acceleration, and most weapons have a delay between the trigger being pressed and the attack performing. To compensate for this, one must always think ahead when playing a Fencer.

A Fencer's mobility is highly variable. As a default, he is the slowest-moving class in the game. If equipped correctly, however, Fencer can easily beat a Wing Diver in a marathon sprint, and cannot run out of energy like Wing Diver is capable of.

Every CC Striker and CC Piercer come equipped with dashing as a secondary function. When dashing, you move at high speed for a short burst, then decelerate. If doing this repeatedly, a Fencer can keep up with if not shoot past a running Ranger.

Many weapons are capable of interrupting attack animations to engage their own attack. In addition, dashing is also capable of interruption attack animations to engage the dash. By exploiting these two properties in conjunction, it's possible to skip the slow part of a dash and only use the fast part repeatedly. When this is done, very few things are able to keep pace with a Fencer. Note that even though some weapons are capable of canceling a dash, their animations may be so slow that no gain is earned from it. There is a window in dashing and every attack animation that cannot be cancelled, and learning these windows are key to dash-canceling.

Weapons capable of dash-canceling include:

• Every CC Striker
  
• Every CC Piercer except Jackhammer
  
• Every Shield when using reflection
  
• Every Heavy Artillery
  
• Most Missile Launcher, except some shoulder-mounted models

As mentioned, not all dash-cancels are equal, and it's not recommended to bring a Missile Launcher just for its dash-canceling capabilities.

This is the easiest dash-canceling weapon available. It has an ammo capacity of over 300 shots, and is as such capable of dashing over 300 times before a reload is required. The reload speed is rather fast, so it's fast and easy to get back in action. To use, simply hold down the fire button and spam the dash button repeatedly. Pairs well with most CC Strikers.

Deploying a reflection with these shields is a very quick operation, and as such is ideal for canceling dashes. Dash and reflect in alternate to keep up a steady pace. Pairs well with most CC Piercers. Ion Mirror Shield takes about 10 seconds to reload while Reflector only needs 4.

While most CC Piercers can cancel dashes, Blast Twin Spear is notable for including dashing in its own attacks. This makes it extremely mobile in addition to being a powerful weapon. However, Twin Spears has very low ammo capacity, and the other weapon in the set will need dash-canceling capabilities to keep mobility up while reloading. Good matches include Ion Mirror Shield, Deflection/Master Shield, or a second equipment of Blast Twin Spears.

A very capable dash-canceling piece, and a powerful weapon in its own right. Very useful against Drones and Flying Vehicles, where reflection alone will not be able to take one down.

While most CC Strikers have forward momentum built into their attack, none have more so than Haken. They charge extremely quickly, so a lot of the time there won't even be time to dash between their attacks. Notable for having all-directional defence built into their attack in addition to being highly mobile. Unfortunately, no high-level versions of the Haken exist, so they'll quickly find themselves short on stopping power for actual combat.

Decent at canceling their own dash (self-canceling), but not exceptional. You'll want to bring at least this much dashing capability into almost any mission.

Most of Fencer's artillery weapons come with recoil when fired. This will cause the Fencer's aim to move upwards and to the side, and must be continously compensated for. Players of Air Raider will be used to this from several vehicles, but players of Rangers will not be.

In addition, the already low movement speed of Fencer might decrease if not halt entirely when firing a lot of his weapons. Despite this, his jump jets will remain fully operational, and tactical bursts of movement can be executed using them.

Moreover, the Fencer's aim speed will suffer when wielding certain weapons, firing them, or brandishing shields. This can be mitigated by briefly letting go of the fire button for short bursts of aim speed. However, such weapons often come with spool-up times and must quickly be re-engaged.

It'll take some getting used to, but the payoff is increased firepower and increased, up to the point of being unlimited, sustain. By delaying the fire from one weapon for a short while, it's possible to keep at least one weapon firing at all times by having one gun fire while the other reloads.

When fired from a strategic position, Fencer artillery can massively outperform Ranger guns, but the strategic position must be made first. This is one of many things that make Fencer an advanced class compared to Ranger.

Many of Fencer's weapons leave the user exposed while absorbing recoil or locked in an attack animation. This can be mitigated by using a shield, or canceling the animation with a different weapon. Nevertheless, at some point the attacks must stop, or the shield might break, and the user will end up exposed. Careful planning is required to work around this.

If Fencer is so difficult to control, and he's vulnerable in so many situations, why should you even bother playing as him? Is it just a masochistic way to challenge yourself? It's a reasonable question to ask, but not the case.

• When equipped correctly, Fencer can move just as fast as Wing Diver, but with longer sustain.
  
• CC Strikers may not have as much damage over time as Wing Diver's Rapier, but they attack over a larger range, pierce through enemies, and often come with inherent damage reduction that not only allows the Fencer to survive more attacks, but makes them immune to knockdown and grabbing. Moreover, Fencers attacked while under influence of damage reduction get knocked away, transporting them to safety. For this reason, Fencer can sustain prolonged close-quarters battles for far longer than any other class, all without worrying about running out of energy.
  
• CC Piercers have a lot of damage, and can be used in conjunction with Shields capable of blocking or reflecting attacks. No matter how powerful an enemy's attack is, Fencer can reflect it, dealing that much damage back to the enemy while remaining completely unharmed.
  
• Light Artillery is always stronger than the Ranger equivalent when dual-wielded. The damage over time will be higher, in addition to the potentially infinite sustain.
  
• Fencer's snipers can vastly outperform Ranger's snipers given the correct setup. All Fencer snipers are capable of enormous damage and piercing, like a Stringer, and has a firerate and ammo capacity comparable to a Lysander. Then you dual-wield them...
  
• Fencer missiles come with comparable power to some of Air Raider's airstrikes. Granted. an Air Raider is requred to assist in order to make use of these, but they are well worth it.

Sometimes you might find a mission strategy in this guide recommending weapons you don't have yet. It can be fun and rewarding to try beating the mission anyway, but failing that there are a few later missions that are relatively easy to beat, and provide every weapon a Fencer can get.

The highest level any Fencer weapon has is 85 (Great Shield), and those will drop already from mission 63 and onwards.

Some easy missions beyond that point include:

• 67. Battle of Giants
  
• 69. Towering Beasts
  
• 72. Spearhead
  
• 73. Tower Siege
  
• 75. Death Queen
  
• 76. Machine Squad
  
• 82. Heaven's Army

CC Strikers can be your bread and butter against the insect hordes. Their wide coverage, dashing, mobility, defensive application and power makes them useful against swarms.

Properties shared by CC Strikers include:

• Dashing as a secondary function
  
• Attacks that can be charged up
  
• Heavy hits that launch spiders and red dragons
  
• Area attacks that pierce through enemies.
  
• Attacks that pierce through shield screens, even Blade weapons. (Shield bearer itself can't be hurt by this, only other enemies behind the shield.)
  
• Attack animations that prohibit shielding.

Most CC Strikers provide damage reduction during attacks, allowing for survival in the thick of enemies. While the damage reduction is in effect, you are completely immune to knockdown and grabs, but damage inflicted will send you sliding away. This is good for survival, but can nonetheless be an inconvenience.

It's worth noting that all CC Striker can keep charging while reloading, but only if reloaded after the charge has been initiated. For this reason, it's sometimes useful to reload CC Strikers while there's still ammo left in order to minimize downtime, even in mid-combat.

Damage: ★★★☆☆
Speed: ★★★☆☆
Range: ★★★☆☆
Defence: ★★★★★
Destructive

The Vibro Hammer series is simple to use. Charge it up, send an explosion towards your enemies and watch a line of red on your radar turn into a line of green. Because its attacks follow the ground and vertical aiming makes no difference with the Hammer, it's most effective to aim them using the radar. Align so that you aim at the densest cluster of enemies and take them out in one swing. Vibro Hammers cannot be used against airborne enemies.

Vibro Hammer has different attacks, depending on how much you charged it:

• No-charge: A very weak, slow and overall ineffective attack.
  
• Half-charge: A quick spin sends a long explosion.
  
• Full-charge: A jump attack ending in a stronger explosion.

Full-charge deals only slightly more damage than half-charge, but it's often enough to make a difference between needing one or two shots to kill an enemy. No-charge should not be used for attacking, but sometimes it's necessary to use it just for the defence boost, such as right after a reload.

No-charge and half-charge attacks will not interrupt sliding, but full-charge will.

If dual-wielded, you can charge up one hammer while unleashing another, constantly keeping up the benefits of its defensive buff. It's recommended to dash between each attack for better positioning and dodging most of the enemy fire. When used correctly, a Fencer can jump into a pit full of spiders and emerge victorious, largely unscathed.

If wielded with a Javelin Catapult, you can quickly position yourself to always align up the thickest lines of enemies, and can additionally get to the action much quicker than if you were to do so with two hammers. It's most effective to dash in a line backwards, forcing the enemies to converge in a line in front of you, then disperse of that line. However, because you're only dealing damage with one weapon instead of two, overall speed of clearing out enemies could still suffer.

See Force/Dynamo Blade section.

Fight these in an open space. If no open space is available, your hammers can easily create some. Dash backwards and leave trails of explosions behind you between dashes. Black Ants go down with a single full charge. For added safety, dash sideways or diagonally before unleashing each charge. Just because you can tank acid straight in your face doesn't mean you have to.

Dash circles around the cluster of Red Ants and send explosions intowards the middle. With a Javelin Catapult they can be treated as Black Ants that have more health.

Pair with a Javelin and stay mobile. Step sideways before unleashing your charge and step sideways again as soon as you're allowed to after the attack. It's possible to survive a Golden Ant blast while wielding Hammers, but not many.

Stick with half-charges if you're early enough in the game that it'll oneshot them. They unleash faster and have the same range compared to a full charge. Either dual-wield and get rid of them quickly, or dash backwards in zig-zags with Javelin. Sidestep diligently to avoid getting hit by the brunt of the webs. Spiders go down in a half-charge for most of the campaign, but in the last 20 or so missions you will need a full.

Fight near walls to force them to land. Attack frequently so as to kill them quickly. As long as you keep moving backwards making turns once in a while, green dragons will keep landing in front of you. A half-charge is enough for the whole campaign to take down green dragons.

Damage: ★★★★★
Speed: ★★☆☆☆
Range: ★★☆☆☆
Defence: ★★★★★
Destructive

The Vulcan Hammer series holds tremendous power. Despite stopping at level 56, its 12000 damage hits make it occasionally usable for Inferno. Vulcan Hammer must be used at melee range, but is still capable of hitting multiple enemies as long as they are all at that range.

It has a three phases of attack depending on how much you charged it:

• No-charge: A very slow line explosion attack. Can be used as a poor man's Vibro hammer in a pinch.
  
• Half-charge: A quick spin smacks an enemy in front of you in the face for a decent amount of damage.
  
• Full-charge: An overly elaborate spin end in a small explosion in front of the Fencer.

The full-charge has twice the damage of the half-charge and is the Vulcan's main attraction. However, due to the long wind-up animation it's easy to get pushed out of your path before the hit connects.

None of the Vulcan Hammer attacks will interrupt sliding, and care is required to make sure you don't slide off-target.

If dual-wielded, can keep pounding on a large, heavy target while ignoring a lot of damage being thrown at you. No-charge attacks should be used after reloading so as to keep the defence up.

If wielded with a Javelin Catapult, you can zip into priority targets and smash them to pieces before zipping back out. Keep in mind that while 12k damage is a lot, most priority targets will need multiple attacks to go down.

Stand in the middle of the Red Ants with dual-wielded Vulcans. Spin to win. Because of how clustered they are, you should be able to take out multiple Red Ants every attack.

Zip in with Javelin Catapult and smack them in the legs. Try to time it between their attack bursts. 2-3 attack should be enough to take most Hectors out.

Either zip in with Javelin or duel-wield and smack away. The health of tunnel exits vary, but most will need a few hits to go down. It's diffcult to consistently hit Tunnel Exits with Vulcans due to them most of the time being swarmed by insects that will push you away.

Dual-wield Vulcan Hammers and go to town, shrugging off bee stingers while you spin away. If you're playing Fortress Siege solo, you'll need about 4-5k health to survive the onslaught and get back safely to the NPCs.

Damage: ★★★★☆
Speed: ★☆☆☆☆
Range: ★★☆☆☆
Defence: ★★★☆☆
Destructive
Mobile

The Vibro Roller series is more powerful, but also more risky version of the Vibro Hammer series. Though its damage output is nearly double that of Hammer, the range is shorter and defence is lower. It's not often that the increased damage output helps when playing offline, but it's likely to make a difference on online mode.

Caution is required, however, as the lower defence combined with greater damage multipliers for enemies online puts the wielder in danger. However, as the user gets transported along with the explosion when attacking, the attack pattern inherently allows the wielder to dodge more attacks.

Due to its massive power but low speed, it is easy to clear out 90% of the enemy force with a Vibro Roller, but cumbersome to clean up the remaining 10%

In general, the Vibro Roller series suffers from an agonizingly slow charge time to reach the useful attack. Only the final version, Vibro Roller D9 is recommended.

Vibro Roller has different attacks, depending on how much you charged it:

• No-charge: A very weak, slow and overall ineffective attack.
  
• Half-charge: A strike in the ground that rolls the user forward a short distance.
  
• Full-charge: A strike in the ground that rolls the user forward a long distance.

Full-charge deals twice the damage of half-charge, and it's recommended to consistently stick to full charges. To avoid most incoming attacks, it's recommended to dash to the side before unleashing, but it's important to correct your aim before doing so as Vibro Roller does not interrupt sliding.

Vibro Roller D9 charges and reloads just as fast as Finest Hammer, but its attacks are much slower. Because of this, if timed correctly, attacking with dual Vibro Rollers can have zero downtime. In the space of unleashing a single Vibro Roller attack and a couple of dashes, it's possible for the other Roller to have fully reloaded and charged. While the defence is considerably lower than with Finest, your may still find your survivability to increase due to the inherit dodging that comes with being shot forward 80 meters every attack. It's still risky, however, as you'll often find yourself transported into the middle of the enemies. Fortunately, you are able to shoot your way back out again with equal speed.

With the Javelin, Roller can be used in much the same manner as a Vibro/Finest Hammer. Kite your enemies into a nice line, then clear it. Dash backwards in zigzags or just sideways to avoid most enemy retaliation after each attack.

Dash backwards in zig-zags, make a sideways dash before striking. Though you are able to tank a few hits from black ants, it's not nearly the amount you would be able to tank with stronger-defending hammers.

Vibro Roller is the ideal weapon for Red Ants. Dual-wield for more power and constant defence against being bitten. Dash in a sideways circle while smashing your way in and out of them.

It's strongly recommended to bring a different weapon for Golden Ants, as the lower defence leave you at risk of being one-shotted while locked in an attack.

While the lower defence makes the Roller seem like a bad idea against spiders, the high mobility allows you to dodge most of the webbing and shrug off its stunlocking effects. It's not ideal, but it will work.

Use similar to Finest Hammer, but beware that being assailed with fire is likely to push you very far off-course while attacking. This goes double if there are also yellow and red dragons involved.

Damage: ★★☆☆☆
Speed: ★★★★☆
Range: ★★★☆☆
Defence: ★★★☆☆
Destructive
Mobile

The Haken series is an easy-mode weapon, and the line ends before level 60. Although this is guide is primarily aimed at Inferno and Inferno-tier weapons, this line is included for the sake of completeness.

Haken is possibly the most fun weapon Fencer has to offer. Its incredible speed, mobility and coverage makes it incredible at clearing crowds... on Hard. Even if not being used as a weapon, Haken is incredibly mobile and can be used to jump over canyons, smash through buildings, climb up cliffs, and stunlock a large group of enemies.

Although the direct defence is low for Haken, it's still an incredible defensive weapon due to the large leaps its user can make, the large amount of enemies that can be stunned at once, and its backwards attack allowing the user to watch where they're kiting instead of observing the enemy.

Due to its weak damage but wide coverage, it is easy to clear out 90% of the enemy force with a Quake Haken, but cumbersome to clean up the remaining 10%

Quake Haken has different attacks, depending on how much you charged it:

• No-charge: A very weak, slow and overall ineffective attack.
  
• Half-charge: A quick, long leap sending the user flying forward and striking the ground, unleashing several explosions forward in a fan-pattern.
  
• Full-charge: A strike in the ground right where the Fencer stands, sending several explosions backwards in a fan-pattern.

Full-charge deals twice the damage of half-charge, but is aimed backwards and lacks the mobility of a half-charge. Due to its high charging-speed, technique and timing is required to consistently pull off half-charges.

Haken should always be dual-wielded.

Face away from the enemy, zig-zag forwards and use the radar to spread explosions behind you, letting the dying screams of the giant insects affirm that you hit the mark. This works equally well against all types of ground-based insects.

Damage: ★★★★☆
Speed: ★★★☆☆
Range: ★★★☆☆

The Blade series is a line of swords that send force fields at where you aim. Although it lacks the defence of the Hammer lines, it's capable of hitting aerial enemies and its damage output is considerably higher.

Cuts from Blade will follow along surfaces such as the walls and the ground.

Blade has different attacks, depending on how much you charged it:

• No-charge: A weak attack that sends a force cut
  
• Half-charge: A slash that sends a force cut
  
• Full-charge (Dynamo only): A jump attack sending an extremely long-range cut

The full charge is unquestionably powerful, but it's weak over time due to how long it takes to charge. If you reload the Dynamo Blade early while charging, it will just about have fully charged by the time the reload is done. The full charge can be used when lacking any other long-range options and is a valid way to pull aggro from afar and even take down the occasional dropship.

Half-charges do not interrupt sliding, but full-charges will.

Because they miss the defence boost of hammers, Blades are trickier to use than Hammers. The punishment for missing attacks is higher, as you are reliant on killing all nearby enemies consistently in order to stay alive, however since its damage output is that much higher, there's little doubt you can clear enemies faster with them.

In theory its possible to dual-wield Blades against flying enemies, but it's difficult to dodge their attacks and you have no defence, so it will not be easy.

Because of the need to aim vertically, it's trickier to wield Blade along with a Javelin Catapult, but it still works on the same principle. The high speed allows you to dodge wasp stingers and unleash potshots at them to take them out a few at a time.

Sometimes the blade will just not react quick enough to kill that one enemy before they attack you. This is when you reflect that attack back at them, avoiding damage and taking care of the enemy in one swoop. Will otherwise allow you to move around quickly nearly as if you had a Javelin.

With a hammer in one hand and a blade in the other, you can have defence half the time and offence the other half. With a little bit of foresight and mostly luck, you can take care to take the brunt of your damage while attacking with the hammer, and get rid of aerial enemies with the sword. The swords is also great at clearing ground based enemies, make no mistake.

Dash in zig-zags or circle to avoid fire and retaliate. Unlike Hammers, you can not be safe in the enemy midst and staying on the outside of groups is key. If underground, use the terrain to your advantage and attack from around corners.

Pair with a hammer or a shield. This lets you attack aerial dragons as well as tank fire. It's not the best option against them, but it works. When fighting dragons, you should move backwards and make short turns to force them to land.

Yellow dragons are best disposed of by reflecting their fire back at them with a shield. Save the Blade for the Green ones.

Pair with a Javelin and move quickly to avoid stingers. Aim your shots and try to line up as many Bees as you can for each cut.

Damage: ★★★★☆
Speed: ★★★★☆
Range: ★★★☆☆
Destructive

The Ax series is a line of axes that send force fields at where you aim, it works similarly to the Blade series, but acts a lot quicker and is more difficult to use.

Cuts from Force Ax will follow along surfaces such as the walls and the ground.

Force Ax has different attacks, depending on how much you charged it:

• No-charge: A quick attack that sends a short force cut.
  
• Half-charge: A slash that sends a force cut
  
• Full-charge: A jump attack sending a force cut along the ground

The full charge is most of the time suicidal and it will take time to recover from the jump animation. Because of how quickly the Force Ax charges, timing is required to maintain a combo of half charges. The other thing that make Axes more difficult to use than Blades is the narrow cut area. However, due to how much faster they act you can theoretically output a lot more damage over time with this series. If you're caught by an insect, the no-charge attack is obscenely spammable and can output a decent amount of damage.

Half-charges do not interrupt sliding, but full-charges will.

The full charge is capable of destroying buildings, although the other attacks are not.

If you wish to avoid the full charge attacks while at the same time dashing between your attacks, you will need to carefully manage when you start charging rather than just holding the attack button again after each attack. Either that or release just as you start dashing. Charging stops the moment you let go of the button, rather than the moment you unleash the attack.

This would be primarily used against land mobs. Use it in much the same way as a Vibro Hammer, but from more distance for the sake of safety. By bringing an Ax instead of a Hammer, you still have an option against aerial units, with the ability to attack quicker than if you'd brought a Force Blade.

CC Piercers are versatile and all-around. According to the lore, these are considered the Fencer's primary weapon, and with good reason. They will serve you just as well against a swarm of ants as up in the face of a Hector.

Piercers come in a variety of forms and it's difficult to nail down properties shared by every entry, but common traits include:

• Dashing as a secondary function
  
• Heavy damage in bursts
  
• The ability to pierce through enemies
  
• High mobility
  
• Pairing well with a shield

For most of those points, there will be a few exceptions, and no two CC Strikers will be the same. Where you might bring Vibro Hammer, Vibro Roller and Dynamo Blade for much the same situations, Blasthole Spear, Blast Twin Spears, and Flashing Spear would all be used entirely differently.

Damage: ★★★★☆
Speed: ★★★☆☆
Range: ★★★☆☆
Dash-cancelling
Sliding

The Fencer's primary weapon. There is almost no situation where you cannot effectively bring Blasthole Spear. Can be used to kill crowds and take down robots at a decent rate and in high safety. When in doubt, falling back to Blasthole Spear and a good shield is always a valid option.

Blasthole Spear has a 2-attack combo. If an attack follows another by about 2 seconds, the second attack will come into play:

• First: A quick, short, weak attack.
  
• Second: A heavy, long-range, strong attack.

The difference between the two is staggering, and in many situations you will only be able to hit enemies at all with the second attack. Due to how powerful it is, that's largely fine. The first attack is not entirely without use, however, and will allow you do deal quicker with enemies that are up too close for comfort.

A notable outlier in the series is Blasthole Spear M6, which at first glance appears to have more damage than Blastholespear MS, but due to being massively slower loses out over time, in addition to being riskier to use and harder to wield.

While there is no particular penalty for dual-wielding Blasthole Spear, there is very little increase in effective damage output. It's highly recommended to instead pair Blasthole Spear with a shield.

While the Blasthole Spear has power, it is not an inherently defensive weapon and will leave you exposed unless shielding. Combined with a shield, you can withstand heavy fire from the front, right up to a full blast from a Hector's gatling guns, while retaliating with equal force. Unlike with CC Strikers, a shield will only defend you from the front, and it's a good idea to keep moving backwards so as to avoid getting surrounded.

Blasthole Spear is capable of canceling dashes with its attacks, and it's often recommended to do so instead of using the shield in order to conserve shield energy.

Hold your shield up and dash backwards between each attack. Although the Blasthole Spear is capable of a higher rate of fire by standing still, it's imperative to stay on the move and avoid attacks from the back. If you're in it for the long haul, such as Monster Party or Divine, you'll want to kite the enemies to the edge of the map and lead them in a big square around the whole map until everything is dead. Sometimes, your shield will break before everything is dead and leave you exposed. In such situations, it's useful to bring two sets of Shield + Blasthole Spear.

See vs Giant Insects.

Bring a Master Shield and reflect their attacks right back. Due to their own enormous attack power, they'll go down very quickly.

You will only ever be able to hit with the second attack and will need to get up close even to do that. Aim for the head, as it's usually the part closest to you. If you're feeling brave, you could try reflecting its attacks back rather than shielding them. In order to stay in range, you cannot backpedal while fighting Queen Bees and are forced to advance. For this reason, they need to be endured and saved for last when fought with Blasthole Spear, unless you have allies with you taking up the other enemies' attention.

If up against a single Hector, it's completely safe to dash right up into distance for hitting with both attacks, allowing you to kill them faster, but with multiple at once, care must be taken to ensure they're always in the front. Disengage if you see your shield getting low and reload it manually by spamming reflection. Shielded Hectors fight the same, but precise aiming is required to hit them in the weapon hand.

Despite your defences, the laser legs are dangerous just from pure visual obstruction. For this reason, it's sometimes easier to go for the front-most leg-lasers before killing them. However, if you go straight for the money, Deroys will die very quickly.

These won't always be in range, but when they are the Blasthole Spear is a decent option to take them out. As they open, you can get in a few attacks but always watch the radar and disengage when the swarms close in. If you hit correctly, it's possible to blast through the enemies as they drop as well as the ship itself, but it can't be relied on for a complete suppression.

Damage: ★★★★★
Speed: ★★★★★
Range: ★☆☆☆☆
Mobile
Dash-cancelling
Slide-cancelling

High damage, high mobility, high defence, pick any two. For most weapons this is the case, but with Blast Twin Spears and a lot of skills, you can have them all. While most of Fencer's melee weapons are capable of canceling dashing, only Haken and Blast Twin Spears have attacks that move you faster than dashing. Unlike Haken, Blast Twin Spears does come in Inferno-ready variants and pack a lot of damage.

However, their short range make them risky to use, and you will need all the speed you can get from them for effective use.

Blast Twin Spears has a 2-stage combo. If an attack follows another by about 2 seconds, the second attack will come into play:

• First: A jump followed by a short, strong attack.
  
• Second: A jump followed by a short, very strong attack.

For odd-numbered Blast Twin Spears (M1 and M3), the first attack will have a long jump and the second will have a short jump. With even-numbered Blast Twin Spears (M2 and M4) this is flipped, with the finisher being the long jump. M4 is also considerably faster than the rest of the series.

Due to their long reload time and low ammo capacity, it can be useful to dual-wield Blast Twin Spears in the sense that you deplete one and use the other while the first one is reloading. This is a very risky loadout, however, as it leaves you with no options to block attacks. Although Twin Spears keeps you highly mobile, the motion is limited to forward, and dodging attacks will either be limited to the dash between attacks, or intentionally missing enemies for the sake of dodging.

The reward for mastering this is a land speed compering with the fastest of Air Raider vehicles, and blowing well past any speeds a Wing Diver could achieve. This set can be used to kite even mutant enemies around city blocks while your teammates pick off your aggro. It can also be used to strike at Tunnel Exits and other key targets by slicing around them like a can opener.

Blast Twin Spears pairs well with lighter shield up to and including Deflection/Master Shield. Fighting hordes of Ants and Spiders is risky with the close range of Blast Twin Spears, but it's easy to take the out by blasting their own attacks back at them. The attacks for the Twin Spears are used for taking out priority targets such as Hectors and Tunnel Exits, but is otherwise used chiefly for mobility.

This set is a key component for effective strategies that involve taking little to no damage:

Damage: ★★★★☆
Speed: ★★☆☆☆
Range: ★★☆☆☆
Dash-cancelling
Sliding

Flashing Spear is a difficult weapon to use due to its long windup and short range, but it does output a lot of damage that pierces through enemies to make up for it. It can be thought of as a short-range, piercing Hand Gatling that's capable of dashing instead of jumping. Unlike Hand Gatling, however, its ammo capacity is low and it cannot be dual-wielded.

Flashing Spear has a windup followed by a continuous stream of attacks. If performed after a dash, it's capable of unleashing attacks while sliding, allowing a form of dodging while attacking.

While it is possible to cancel dashes with Flashing Spear in technical terms, the long wind-up makes it barely any better than dashing without cancels.

Flashing Spear should not be dual-wielded. If both attack buttons are held down, one windup will interrupt the other, greatly reducing rate of fire. It is, however, possible to use one while the other one is reloading, but it leaves the user wide open for attacks.

A shield can be used to block incoming fire while unleashing attacks, and to fight by reflecting attacks when it's too risky to dedicate oneself for a Flashing Spear attack. You'll probably not want an extreme shield for this purpose, so stick to Deflector or Ion Mirror.

This is a surprisingly devastating pairing. Brawl regular mobs by dodging the brunt of their attacks, followed by punishing the crowds with Flashing Spear. Get up close to robots, open with a Cannon Shot, then skewer them until your Cannon Shot is once more ready. Use the Spear for general combat and give yourself a breather with the Cannon.

Strafe sideways when attacking to dodge most incoming fire. Most fighting will have to be done with the shield.

Safer than with Black Ants due to the lack of projectiles. The high damage output means you can get out of their jaws quick enough to take little damage.

Wait for their attacks to finish, then dash your way into range and burst them to death.

With some good timing, it's possible to burst down every insect that spawns from a Tunnel Exit using Flashing Spear, completely surpressing it. After that's done, the Exit itself can be killed quickly with the Flashing Spear's burst damage.

Damage: ★★★★★
Speed: ★★★☆☆
Range: ★★☆☆☆
Blunt

Jackhammer is a difficult weapon to use. While the damage output and attack pattern is superficially equal to Flashing Spear, it is a different beast entirely. Compared to Flashing Spear:

• Jackhammer cannot cancel dashing, and dashes must be waited out or cancelled by an off-hand weapon.
  
• Jackhammer can be dual-wielded, making it the highest-DPS weapon Fencer has capable of reloading.
  
• Jackhammer cannot pierce enemies or corpses.
  
• Jackhammer has considerably larger ammo capacity.
  
• Jackhammer has no windup.
  
• It's possible to walk and fire Light Artillery while attacking with Jackhammer

It's very tempting and feels right to pair up Jackhammer with itself. While it has little practical benefit, it additionally feels good to stagger the attacks so that the punches alternate instead of in synch. Additionally, this is the highest-DPS output Fencer has which can be reloaded, with the final version outputting 14400 DPS before reloads.

Due to the inability to cancel dashing, dual-wielding Jackhammer is extremely risky and should only be attempted when dealing with a single target that's all alone, incapable of defending itself, such as an unspawned Tunnel Exit or a knocked-over Erginus.

Due to their long windup, it can be desirable to have an additional weapon that can be used to clear out immediate enemies without interrupting the gun's windup. Jackhammer is the only CC weapons capable of this.

What primarily keeps Jackhammer from being a versatile, powerful heavy-hitter with the likes of Blast Twin Spears is the fact that you need to wait for animations to wind down before it can start attacking. A good way to counter this is to pair it up with a quick shield that can cancel dashing for you, then let go of its own animation quickly. Reflector is preferred for this use-case due to its low reload time, but with Mirror Shield it's also possible to block while attacking. Equipped like this, a Fencer can dash up to important, dangerous targets such as Queens and punch them out quickly.

If you dash right before reflecting, you can keep up a brisk running pace for a little while, allowing you to keep dodging while attacking. If you're particularly advanced, you can even have a reflector in one weapon set, dash with it, reflect, then switch to a dual-jackhammer set in order to strafe while outputting maximum damage. The technique can be also performed with any automatic artillery.

Damage: ★★★★☆
Speed: ★★★★☆
Range: ★★★☆☆
Dash-cancelling
Sliding
Blunt

Spine Driver is the easiest-to-use weapon in all of Fencer's arsenal. With other Fencer weapons you need to charge your attacks, go through windup animations, finish your dashing, attack through your combos, or get your lock-ons. Spine Driver demands none of this, and is capable of smashing in an ant's skull and send it flying to the other end of the map as soon as you pull the trigger.

What makes Spine Driver easier to use than other CC Piercers is this:

• Where Blasthole Spear asks you to go through a short, weak attack before you can unleash its long, powerful attack, Spine Driver will smash a Hector's face in with equally high force at a decent range every time.
  
• Where Blast Twin Spears will send you flying erratic distances with each attack, Spine Driver will not do anything about your motion, and instead let you concentrate on punching Bees into the stratosphere.
  
• By the time Flashing Spear has finished winding up, Spine Driver would already have smeared two Spiders across the pavement.
  
• Where Jackhammer obscures your vision with bright flashes, Spine Driver is happy to let you watch Deroys getting smashed to pieces without hindrance.

The only drawback with Spine Driver compared to other CC Piercers is its inability to, well, pierce. While this seemingly means Spine Driver can only be used for single targets and not crowds, don't forget that a forest is just a collection of trees waiting to be punched down one by one.

While Spine Driver's fire-rate is a little bit low for quick dash-canceling, with two equipped you can comfortably move around quickly by alternating hands every attack. It's recommended to empty half the ammo of one before you start using both, as by that rate there will always be at least one Spine Driver with ammo in it.

Works okay.

This set covers just about everything.

• Anti-air: Check
  
• Pierces enemies: Check
  
• One-shots almost everything: Check
  
• Constant dashing: Check
  
• High sustained damage against priority targets: Check
  
• Long range: Check

The Hand Cannon can be used for enemies outside the range of the Driver, and can additionally be used for utility, such as when you wish to draw aggro from enemies in the distance. When up close, Hectors, Dropships, Queens, Kings and Queen Bees fall quickly to the heavy hits and stunlocking provided by these.

Against crowds, the Hand Cannon is capable of tearing through multiple enemies, while the Spine Driver can seamlessly cave in skulls of any stragglers.

It lacks the safety of hiding behind a shield with a Blasthole Spear, but who needs to shield when everything is dead.

For when you need to zoom in like a jet plane, punch something in the face, then get back out. Can be used to dodge almost anything and bring the enemies down one at a time.

Strafe circles around them and punch their lights out one by one.

Strafe backwards zig-zags while punting them out of the air.

Strafe circles around them and give them a one-two punch.

Strafe circles around them and smash their golden faces in. If you pair with a Hand Cannon, the Cannon will not take them out in one shot. The Spine Driver will, however.

Strafe backwards in zig-zags and blow their ragdolls away. They might get back up, but you'll still knock them down every time.

Pair with a Javelin Catapult and punch accurately.

Pair with a Hand Cannon and punch them back home to space. If your other set has jump jets, use those to jump, switch to this set and hammer them into the ground.

Strafe circles around them and punch their royal jewels in. They will be incapable of hitting you as long as you keep strafing.

Shoot them with the Hand Cannon to bring them lower, and use the dash to stay mobile. Once within Spine Driver range, alpha strike and tear them up.

Punch in the sides until they explode. As long as you keep it up, their attacks won't hit you. For some Hector variants it may be required to time your attacks.

Get in close and smash their guts in. If the lasers are tickling you, take them out first.

Strafe circles around them and punch them closed. If there are enemies around it attacking you, ignore them. They won't hit you as long as you keep moving.

As long as they are in range: See Tunnel Exits.

Shields are as simple as they are effective. When branded, they reduce incoming damage from the front by a large amount, and pushes you out of danger. With the alternate fire, you can reflect any attack, including bites and explosion back at wherever you're aiming.

While blocking reduces your shield's health by an amount equal to the damage of the incoming attack, reflection takes a fixed amount of the shield and as such is much more preferred for stronger attack.

Shields cannot be reloaded at the press of a button, and must instead be drained of all health first. This can be done by spamming reflect, but might take a while depending on how much health is left.

If you're expecting to enter a fight where the health of a shield will not be enough, it could be advantegous to enter the fight with two of the same set.

• Black Ants die in 1 full hit
  
• Spiders die in 1 full hit
  
• Bees die in 1 hit, but aiming is tricky
  
• Golden Ants definitely die in 1 full hit
  
• Silver Spiders die in a few hits
  
• Yellow Dragons die in 1 hit
  
• Mortar Hectors
  
• Plasma Hectors
  
• Red Orb Hectors with the faster shield variants
  
• Deroys, including lasers by reflecting them back at the leg cannons
  
• Queens
  
• Kings
  
• Queen Bees with a larger shield
  
• Golden Queens, probably fastest way at all to kill them
  
• Silver Kings, probably fastest way to at all to kill them

Defence: ★★★★☆
Speed: ★★★☆☆

Deflection Shield is all-around good and versatile. While not the most powerful at blocking, it allows for a comfortable amount of movement, and can reflect pretty good with just a bit of timing. It's difficult to go wrong with Deflection and Master Shield.

Deflection and Master Shield can be used to cancel dashing and is not bad at it.

• Blasthole Spear
  
• Blast Twin Spears
  
• Spine Driver
  
• Flashing Spear

Defence: ★★★★★
Speed: ★☆☆☆☆

Sometimes all this fancy technique stuff just isn't for you and you just want to hide behind a massive slab of impenetrable iron and call it a day. For the most part, Tower and Great Shield will last as long as you can hold the block button down, although they are not completely indestructible.

While slow, Tower Shield is still capable of reflection and has a very large area for doing so. If desirable, it is possible to reflect attacks from larger enemies such as Mortar Hectors and Queens.

If expecting to user Tower Shield much, it's recommended to turn the control sensitivity up to max.

Although Tower and Great Shield can on technical terms cancel dashing, it's no faster than if you don't.

• Blasthole Spear
  
• Hand Gatling
  
• Gallic / Battle Cannon
  
• Heavy Mortar

Defence: ★★☆☆☆
Speed: ★★★★☆

Sometimes you're just sick of how shields slow down your movement and aiming, can't you just have a shield that doesn't? Fortunately, for you there is Ion Mirror Shield. It's blocking power is lower than that of most shields, but it still has 100% of the stagger resistance and pushback of other shields.

Although Ion Mirror Shield reacts quicker, the reflected area is lower and as such more precise timing is required. Failing that, it is highly spammable.

Ion Mirror Shield can cancel dashing, and is one of the fastest way for a Fencer to move around.

• Blast Twin Spears
  
• Flashing Spear
  
• Force/Dynamo Blade
  
• Flame Revolver

Defence: ★☆☆☆☆
Speed: ★★★★★

On the surface, Reflection Shield appears to be a bad Ion Mirror Shield. It reflects at the same speed and with the same capabilities, but it has none of the defence. Why would you use this? It turns out Reflection Shield reloads over twice as fast as its ionic cousin, and thus allows for far less downtime where you have no shield should it run out in the middle of combat.

Although Reflection Shield reacts quicker, the reflected area is lower and as such more precise timing is required. Failing that, it is highly spammable.

Reflection Shield can cancel dashing, and is one of the fastest way for a Fencer to move around.

• Blast Twin Spears
  
• Spine Driver
  
• Jackhammer

If you come from playing Ranger, it's easy to dismiss light artillery as being slightly weaker versions of Ranger weapons that have windup and recoil. If you look at pure stats, this is all true. However, once you put one in each hand, Automatic Artillery will massively outperform equivalent Ranger weapons, and their attacks can be staggered so that there is never any downtime in the damage output.

Additionally, Ranger weapons do not come equipped with jump jets.

Properties shared by Automatic Artillery include:

• Jump jets as a secondary function
  
• Recoil that moves your aim upwards when firing (exception: Dexter Automatic Shotgun)
  
• Continous fire
  
• Large ammo capacity
  
• The inability to cancel dashing and other attacks
  
• The ability to fire while sliding
  
• Allowing you to instantly swap weapons after firing

Some Automatic Artillery require a windup period before the bullets fly.

It is key when using Automatic Artillery to manage ammo and reload time, in addition to constantly making small adjustments to your aim to fend back recoil.

Jump jets have two modes: Directional, and straight up. If activated while moving, they can move a Fencer forward a good distance. If activated while standing still, the Fencer will jump straight up approximately 30 meters. Many walls, cliffs and buildings can be scaled using this mode, and it's surprisingly effective at avoiding enemy fire.

Although directional jumping can be used for mobility, it will almost never as fast as dashing. There exists a glitch where if one directionally jumps uphill, the jets will last until the Fencer reaches the top.

Damage: ★★★★★
Speed: ★★☆☆☆
Range: ★★★☆☆

At first glance the Hand Gatling may feel less powerful than you think it should be. Its windup time, recoil, and spread makes it difficult to use, but when mastered, Hand Gatling can turn the tide of the fiercest battles.

It is not recommended to use Hand Gatlings when alone. Instead, a Fencer must rely on allies such as other players or NPCs to draw most of the fire of the enemies, then destroy the opposition from the back lines. Hand Gatling damage is very large, and can take down massive enemies in a matter of seconds.

Firing gatlings will slow your aim down. It is possible to let go of the fire button in short bursts in order to adjust the aim, and then quickly resume fire by re-pressing the attack buttons. However, care must be taken to ensure that your ammo management does not suffer as a result.

While some setup is required, dual gatlings can be the most powerful weapons in the game, capable of sustaining massive damage output over a decent range without ever stopping. In order to sustain infinite output, a difference must be maintained in the ammunition count of each gatling.

As an example, FGZ Hand Gatling fires 20 shots per second, has an ammo capacity of 650, a windup of 3 seconds, and a reload time of 10 seconds. This means that when an FGZ Hand Gatling runs out, it takes 13 seconds before it starts firing again. In order to cover for it, the other Hand Gatling must have 260 bullets remaining when the first one runs out, meaning that if you start winding it up it when the first one has 450 bullets left, the windup will put them in synch and allow for continous dual fire for 390 bullets, or nearly 20 seconds.

The standard strategy when using dual gatlings is to spam jump jets at a standstill to avoid enemy fire, and keeping a steady aim. Larger priority targets should be shot down to improve survival chances of both the Fencer themselves and their allies.

It is possible to fire Hand Gatling from behind the safety of a Great Shield, but damage output suffers, and it does not provide the mobility of using a Spear. Shields can additionally not be used during jump jets. If relying on NPCs, it is likely to save more men by bursting down the enemies quicker. If not relying on NPCs, a Fencer using Gatling from behind a shield is likely to get swarmed.

Gatling and Jackhammer can both be fired without interrupting eachother. It's possible to give oneself breathing room to wind up their gatling by covering with Jackhammer. This is presumably how one is meant to use Gatling when all alone.

Jump continuously and burst them down with dual gatlings. Trust your NPCs to deal with the rest of the swarms while this is happening. They will go down very quickly, all while being perpetually stunlocked. When done, help your NPCs shoot down the remaining giant insects, or switch to your other set.

Wait for them to get within range, but try to anticipate when they'll attack so you can wind up and have your bullets flying before that. If performed correctly, the Queen will stay perpetually stunlocked and die in seconds. When done, help your NPCs shoot down the remaining wasps.

Move up close and start winding up as soon as you see the hatch open, bullet should fly more or less in time to get to the prize. Keep jumping and shooting until they explode, which will be very quickly. As soon as they fall, switch to your other weapons set and disengage. Gatlings work best against dropships as an ambush, attacking them on the first drop when its clear around them.

Stay on target and burst them down with dual Gatlings. While jumping during dual-Gatlings is usually a good Idea, the surrounding structures may obscure your target and it may not be possible. It's a good idea to kill giant insects as they spawn for a simpler aftermath.

Find a long, narrow section and keep up the fire. It's recommended to waggle the aim in order to distribute stunlock around. Using this strategy, it's possible to clear Golden Darkness even with weaker Gatlings, although it will not be flawless.

Damage: ★★★★★
Speed: ★☆☆☆☆
Range: ★☆☆☆☆ / ★★☆☆☆

The Flame Revolver line is a terrifying, uncontrollable beast. While the damage may not appear much greater than the Hand Gatling, especially in the light that one should never fire two at the same time, Flame Revolver has a few factors that make it far more lethal than Hand Gatling:

• Balls from Flame Revolver pierce through enemies, allowing damage to spread through every enemy in range.
  
• The hitbox for Flame Revolver is gigantic, and can easily hit every enemy in a narrow cave at the same time.
  
• Flames will follow surfaces and curve around corners, allowing the wielder to kill enemies that cannot shoot back.

To counter these powers, Flame Revolver has a number of drawbacks to deal with:

• Flame Revolver's recoil is nothing short of ridiculous, and even with maximum sensitivity it is impossible to move ones aim down if firing two at the same time. Additionally, any shield that hinder aim speed will not work in conjunction with this weapon.
  
• Although reload time is shorter, the spin-up time is much greater than for Hand Gatling. Careful setup is required.
  
• The range is extremely short. Most variants of Flame Revolver will only extend to 30 meters, although Hell Flame Revolver triples this, making it effective in a much larger array of situations.

It is not recommended to fire two Flame Revolvers simultaneously, but it is a good idea to start spinning one up before the other empties in other to keep suppression constant. For instance, Hell Flame Revolver fires 20 shots per second and takes 6 seconds to spin up, so the idle gun should start spinning up when the active one has 120 shots left.

Beware that even before the fire starts spewing out, Flame Revolver has recoil during spinup. It can be advantageous to burst the fire button a few times after the flames start in order to maintain ones aim.

Although the defense is much less than that of other shields, Ion Mirror Shield does not hinder the Fencer's aim at all. For this reason, it's possible to block while using and spinning up a Flame Revolver.

Flame Revolver and Jackhammer can both be fired without interrupting eachother. It's possible to give oneself breathing room to wind up their Revolver by covering with Jackhammer. This is presumably how one is meant to use Flame Revolver when all alone.

A great use for Flame Revolver is to ambush a Tunnel Exit you know is going to spawn but hasn't yet. If in position, it's incredibly easy to massacre all the insects that crawl out without any leakage and then the exit itself.

Optionally, one could stand on top of the Tunnel Exit and fire the Revolver into the air in order to farm the exit for drops. If dual-wielded and synched up so that there is always at least one Flame Revolver firing, it's possible to simply tape ones attack buttons down and leave for a few hours, only checking in once in a while to collect boxes that have spilled out.

Find a narrow corner and shoot around it by firing at the opposite wall using dual Flame Revolvers. Keep it going until everything is dead.

With Hell Flame Revolver, this also works fine with long, narrow corridors and windy, somewhat open corridors.

Damage: ★★★★☆
Speed: ★★★★☆
Range: ★★☆☆☆

The Automatic Shotgun is a simple creature. You press the trigger, it sends a hail of dozens of pellets that will send your target flying several blocks away. Compared to Ranger shotguns, Dexters are slower than Sparrow Shot, less powerful than Buffalo (individually, absolutely not in pairs), and has an uncomfortably large spread. That doesn't make them inferior, but it can make them trickier to use.

Compared to Fencer's other Automatic Artillery, Dexters have no recoil, no movement encumbrance, and no windup. While Hand Gatling will have more range and damage over time, Dexters are still superior when it comes to immediate burst damage, and is much easier to use at close range.

While it's possible to divide up ammo capacity of Automatic Shotguns so that there is always one firing, the output of a single Dexter simple isn't enough to be useful by itself. Instead, they should be used to take out immediate situations such a small group of fliers, a singled out Hector, one Tunnel Exit, and then reloaded simultaneously to prepare for a new burst attack. It's sometimes recommended to stagger out attacks for increased fire-rate rather than combining the shots. It depends on whether the situation calls for a sustained flight of bullets to keep stunlocking up (Hectors), or if firing the triggers at individual targets that need a large burst to be killed (Flying Vehicles, Red Drones).

Due to the complete lack of windup and high damage at close range, Dexter is ideal for dealing with small clusters of Red Ants. You can easily free yourself from their grasp, and the jump jets can be used to dodge their attacks.

Stand next to as many walls and ceiling as possible to avoid enemy fire while on the ground. Use jump jets to jump straight up and burst down with both guns simultaneously while near the apex of the jump. It is important to manually press the trigger for each shot after aiming rather than mindlessly holding down the fire button. Most fliers will go down in a single burst, but Red Drones will take a lot more coercing.

Make sure to be at full ammo capacity before engaging. Dash in close when it's safe and fire in alternating bursts (press one fire button slightly after the other one). Keep holding down the fire buttons until the Hector is dead and don't stop for anything. If the Hector starts firing their weapons while you're attacking, they will surely miss.

While not quite as powerful against these targets as Hand Gatlings, Dexters can still bring Dropships and Carriers down quite effectively while in range. Since they are large targets, they only need to be within maximum range at all in order to get hit by every pellet and take the full brunt of the damage. If they are flying a bit outside of maximum range, it's possible to use jump jets to close the distance, possibly from the top of a building.

Get to point blank range and run sideways while alpha striking. Do not attempt if there are many enemies behind you. If there are many enemies on the other side of the Tunnel Exit, that is fine since the Exit will provide cover. One of the safest places to be when attacking a Tunnel Exit is right on top of it; it's possible to get there using jump jets.

Damage: ★★☆☆☆
Speed: ★★★★☆
Range: ★★★★☆

Galleons are among the easiest to use weapons in Fencer's possession. They allow for free movement, free aiming, hit precisely where you aim them without dropdown, and require no windup to fire. The tradeoff for all that is that they are perhaps the lowest-damaging weapon acquirable for the class. A weak Fencer weapon, however, is still quite powerful, and the accuracy, speed, and range makes it a reliable weapon for any situation.

Keep in mind that Galleons have some amount of recoil, and small adjustments will need to be continuously made while firing them.

One good reason to use these over heavier cannons is that later versions are mounted on your shoulders. This allows you to fire above your teammates and avoid friendly fire. Remember that all enemies will focus on you if there are no npcs between you and them.

Damage: ★★★☆☆
Speed: ★★★☆☆
Range: ★★★☆☆
While not the latest in its line, Rapid Fire offers the highest burst damage in the series at the expense of large downtime in the form of reloads, middling accuracy, and lower range. It's a solid option for close combat, transport ships, and hectors in mid-to-long range combat.

In many early stages, Galleon Armour-Piercing Cannon is powerful enough to one-shot basic drones. In such situations, using them in tandem allows one to rapidly take out drones one by one from a safe distance. Later on, both cannons must be fired for twice the damage in order to take out drones, and greater care must be taken to ensure each shot hits their mark.

Take these down from a distance one by one, ideally while they're busy attacking something else such as NPCs or a fellow player.

Due to their low level, it's likely to find yourself in possession of the latest Galleons before more suitable, stronger weapons to deal with these dangerous foes. It's possible to shoot a few of these enemies down from well outside of their attack range as long as there are not so many that they manage to make their way within it.

Basic dropships have fairly low health but require precise aiming to hit between the hatch lids. Galleons will just about have enough damage to take them down in one opening if timed right and alpha-striked, all from the safety of being relatively far away.

Damage: ★★★★★
Speed: ★★★★☆
Range: ★★★☆☆
Limited use

Disruptors are obscenely powerful, representing the highest DPS the Fencer is capable of. They have no windup, do not hinder movement, and hit instantly, as they fire continuous beams rather than projectiles. There are only two drawbacks with Disruptors:

• Once Disruptors are activated, they don't stop shooting.
  
• Once Disruptors run out of ammunition, they cannot be reloaded.

The first point is only a half-truth, as Disruptors will stop firing when switched away from. The second point is considerably more severe, and makes them impractical in larger, longer stages.

It's recommended to always fire two Disruptors at the same time, as firing a single Disruptor by itself will barely out-damage dual Hand Gatlings. The only use for Disruptor is bursting down priority targets with extreme force, and it is not something that should be used in half-measures.

Once your target is dead, which will be very quickly, it's important to switch to your other set in order to conserve the Disruptor's precious ammunition.

The extreme force will often push Hectors to awkward angles, making it difficult to maintain the target. If successful, however, they will die in about a second, allowing a Fencer to kill at least a dozen Hectors before the ammunition runs dry.

These will go down in a few seconds. Ammunition should be good for about a handful.

Good for over half a dozen Tunnel Exits, but care must be taken to not have the stream blocked by corpses. It's impossible to have the stream blocked by living Insects for more than a fraction of a second at a time, as they will instantly be turned into corpses.

Perhaps the primary use for Disruptors. If attacked just as they open, these will go down well before the first enemy is dropped. Good for at least seven Carriers, and can be used to shoot down every Carrier that spawns in Void Ship.

Occasionally, one must use jump jets to get within Disruptor range, but they are usually powerful enough to destroy Dropships and Carriers in the span of one, at most two jumps.

Will burst down the Hive before it has time to spawn Red Bees. Good for at least one Hive, but it is unclear exactly how much ammo it takes since it dies well before it gets to finish its dying animation and the radio can inform you that the Hive is destroyed.

Catch it while it's standing still and dropping stuff. As long as impact can be maintained, Walking Fortresses die in one hatch-opening.

Heavy Artillery are weapons designed to fit on tanks and turrets, yet put in each hand of a man. Because of this, the recoil is immense and will often leave the wielder wide open to attack while the Power Frame is busy absorbing the recoil.

Heavy Artillery has a lot of variation, but some properties shared by most Heavy Artillery include:

• Zooming as a secondary function (a few entries will instead have jump jets)
  
• Recoil that moves your aim wildly off course
  
• Extremely long range
  
• A long delay before each shot is fired
  
• Bullet dropoff
  
• The ability to cancel dashing and other attacks
  
• The ability to fire while sliding
  
• Crowd clearing in the form of either piercing or explosions

Note that zooming is slightly bugged if equipped with two weapons that can zoom. If both zoom buttons have been pressed, both zoom buttons must be pressed again in order to zoom back out. Zoom factors in themselves do not stack, but the status of whether or not you are zoomed in does.

Damage: ★★★★☆
Speed: ★☆☆☆☆
Range: ★★★★★

In the Automatic Artillery section, Fencer weapons tend to be slightly weaker than the Ranger equivalent, only getting stronger in raw DPS when dual-wielded. In the Heavy Artillery section, this is no longer the case. An individual Battle Cannon (10k damage 0.3/sec) will give dual-wielded Lysander Z (6k damage, 2 x 0.3/sec) a serious run for its money, even before it pierces through an unlimited amount of enemies at its range surpassing a kilometer.

Then you dual-wield it, and any semblance of competition in terms of damage output has been tossed out the window.

The tradeoff for this immense power, however, is that Gallic and Battle Cannons are extremely unwieldy. There is a delay between pressing the attack button and the shot coming out, drop-off must be accounted for when aiming, and after firing, Battle Cannon will root you to the ground, defenceless for upwards of a full second. Additionally, Battle Cannon shots move considerably slower than the bullets from Ranger's Snipers, making it very difficult to hit small, moving targets.

Note that Heavy and Battle Cannons will not pierce through force shields, unbreakable hulls (such as with Dropships and Walking Fortress), and Tunnel Exits. Although very capable of destroying Tunnel Exits, shots will not pierce through them.

Two Heavy Cannons are capable of maintaining a comfortable fire rate to take down high-health, important targets from a long range.

Sometimes incoming fire cannot be avoided, no matter the range. For such cases, it's nice to snipe from behind the safety of a shield. Be aware that reduced firepower means the enemy will go down slower, leaving you at greater risk of eventually getting swarmed.

It's easy to hit Tunnel Exits from afar with Battle Cannons, as shots will pierce through however many enemies it takes to hit its mark. Note that lining up multiple Tunnel Exits is fruitless, since the shots will stop in the first one it hits.

Will go down in about three shots, but since wielding Battle Cannons slow your aim speed down considerably, it's very difficult to hit.

Try to line up as many hectors as you can. Will go down in about three shots.

You will usually have to get considerably closer than maximum range in order to hit. Even if you can see a little bit of the weak point, bullet drop-off may still prevent you from hitting. Still a good weapon to take them down, and they'll go down in very few shots.

Can be taken down from much greater distances. It's important to note that the movable part in the front, although bearing the same color as the weak hull, is immune to damage and will block piercing shots. Aim for the lower half of the ship.

These will go down in about three shots, a few more for the large variants. However, their erratic movement makes it difficult not only to get an aim on them, but also to lead their movement to account for your bullet's travel time. Despite this, great distance is recommended.

Red Panels and Hatch Sections both go down in three shots. It is not recommended to shoot down individual cannons as the slow firerate means you will spend all day doing so. Despite this, it's still a good idea to shoot cannons that are specifically attacking you if moving away from them is not an option. Dual-wielding means you can take them down faster, but using a Tower or Great Shield means you can block their lasers while firing.

On Inferno, one phase of The Brain (including damage taken before leaving in Fallen Flagship) will go down in 14 shots from Battle Cannon. Because Battle Cannon has an ammo capacity of 8 (16 dual-wielded), and it takes 3 shots to destroy an Earth Eater panel, it is recommended to immediately reload the cannons as soon as a panel has been shot down in order to be able to burst down The Brain in one go. For tactics specific to Fallen Flagship and Star Eaters, see those sections in the guide.

Damage: ★★★★☆
Speed: ★★★☆☆
Range: ★★★★★

With a fifth of the damage per shot, Hand Cannons may seem much inferior to Heavy and Battle Cannons. However, Hand Cannons also fire five times as fast, so the damage over time is equal. The difference is that they are much faster in response, and it takes less time to absorb their recoil. Additionally, it's capable of taking out weaker targets faster as shots can be distributed across them at a greater rate.

With such benefits, why use Heavy Cannon at all? Primarily, Hand Cannons are just more difficult to use. Despite having only a fifth of the damage, Hand Cannons have a proportinally larger amount of recoil, and to maintain all the damage over time, you will need to re-adjust your aim five times every second instead of two times per three seconds. In addition, Hand Cannons have more drop-off, so it's more difficult to hit small targets from very far away, and potentially less targets can be lined up.

Two Hand Cannons can output enormous damage at great range, but often one must intentionally slow down fire rate in order to steady their aim and ensure every shot hits their mark. Sometimes it's better to spam and hit the mark through sheer bullet count.

For particularly large targets, fire with great abandon.

See the section for Spine Driver.

Tunnel Exits are wide and stationary, making them simple to hit with dual Hand Cannon. Find the zone over the Exit to aim at in order to hit somewhat in the middle, then adjust the aim around that area while holding down the fire buttons and hoping for the best. Most shots should hit the mark, destroying the Tunnel Exit and anything that spawns from it with great expedience.

See the section for Spine Driver.

Try to line up as many hectors as you can. Aim a bit above them and continuously correct aim to keep shots around the centre of the mass.

It's best to hit Dropships from more or less directly below in order to output the most damage with the least trouble.

Can be downed from much further away, preferably from directly in front of or behind. The aim is to make shots either hit in the bottom half, or land on the top half, depending on whether you are close to or far away from the ships.

Prioritize careful aim over bullet spam. If they're getting close, it may be useful to shoot out the closest leg-lasers. Pairing with Spine Driver helps a lot to stay mobile and dodge their shots.

While more capable of shooting down individual cannons, it's more expedient to shoot down weak points using Battle Cannons unless you are directly below them. This is because the weak spots require precise aiming that's more easily achieved with Battle Cannons.

Hand Cannons are the ideal weapons to take out Argo in any form. Due to its massive size, Argo can be spammed down at full blast with ease, even while flying. It's important to clear out literally every other enemy on the map first, however, as Argo will typically summon more swarms when damaged to certain points.

Damage: ★★★★★
Speed: ★★☆☆☆
Range: ★★★☆☆

While immensly powerful when looking at the numbers, Cannon Shot can be difficult to use. For clearing hordes of ground-based enemies, it'll never be able to compete with the speed and safety of a hammer, and while its range is immense, you'll have to stay considerably closer than the max in order to hit with most of its pellets. At such close ranges, you'll be able to stay more mobile and defend yourself against flying enemies better using Hand Gatlings or Automatic Shotgun.

Two Cannon Shots will always be stronger than one, of course. With this setup, you will do very little moving and lots of compensating for recoil. Usually a poor way to use it.

To a degree, Cannon Shot and Finest are capable of compensating for eachother's weaknesses. Thanks to dashing you will be able to be less vulnerable when firing Cannon Shot (fire while dashing to slide, dash or hammer your way out of the recoil), and Cannon Shot is good against all the targets that Hammer is weak against or incapable of touching, all without having to aim particularly hard. Tunnel Exits, Hectors, Dropships, Carriers, and fliers in general go down pretty quickly from close-up Cannon Shots.

One might think that something like Automatic Shotgun would pair up just as well, but Automatic Artillery pairs poorly with CC Strikers due to their inability to cancel dashing.

See the section for Flashing Spear. Long story short this is a high-risk, high-destruction combination that may surprise you.

As long as something is ahead of you drawing fire, and you're firing from very close to the maximum distance Cannon Shot is capable of, it can be used to burst down The Hive and take a lot of Bees with it in the process.

If you manage to land a close-up full blast, Cannon Shot packs enough punch to take out most Deroys in a single strike. This works particularly well if you sneak up to a sleeping Deroy and attack from mid-air while jumping.

It's generally effective against Deroys because their large size but erratic movement means its fairly easy to hit them with Cannon Shot one way or the other, either by hitting the body or offending laser segments.

Cannon Shot and Flashing Spear will let you quickly move up to Shield Bearers, unleash a blast, strafe around them to avoid enemies in the area while at the same time stabbing it for extra damage. They should go down fairly quickly, even online.

When fired down a corridor, Cannon Shot is capable of cleaning it out completely. It is an extremely capable weapon when used in a chokepoint, even though that goes for a wide variety for Fencer weapons.

Damage: ★★★★☆
Speed: ★★★☆☆
Range: ★★★☆☆

Not a bad weapon for its level range, it just can't get any particular job done. The Light Canister Shot is a shotgun that fires bouncing, piercing pellets with gravity. Due to this nature it works best in closed spaces (not necessarily underground) and can not be effectively used against aerial enemies.

The bouncy nature makes it good at hitting spiders, and the effective damage is higher than one might expect. Shots that bounce off the ground are capable of hitting the same enemy another time.

Damage: ★★★★☆
Speed: ★★★☆☆
Range: ★★★★★

This is the Fencer equivalent of Nova Buster. With 10 shots instead of just 1, it's more versatile and in total more powerful. The accuracy is perfect and laser hits instantly.

If this was a guide for beating easy and normal mode, it would heartily recommend bringing Powerdyne whenever there's anything to snipe. However, since this guide is aimed at Inferno and the line's only entry is level 2 with 500 damage per shot, it is recommended to look elsewhere for sniper weapons.

To swiftly bring the Mothership down on Easy and Normal modes, quad-wield these and blast away at the appropriate weak points.

Very few shots are needed to bring down Red Drones with these puppies on Easy and Normal. Combined with their accuracy and ease of use, Powerdynes are an obvious choice against a few of them.

Damage: ☆☆☆☆☆ / ★★★★☆
Speed: ★★★★★
Range: ★★★☆☆

Let's not beat around the bush: Yes, this is the weapon that gives you trivial, high-speed dash-cancelling enabling you to out-race Wing Divers. Pair it up with a CC weapon, hold down the fire button, spam the dash button, and break land speed records.

As a weapon, it is next to worthless on its own, but can sometimes be okay when paired with itself. It is not worth anything on Inferno.

The stat-screen specifies the rate of fire for this weapon to be 20/sec, but if you hold down the fire button you might notice it's closer to 2/sec. The fire-rate only appears when paired with itself and both fire buttons are held down. At this point it'll launch spears upwards at enormous speed, which will eventually come back down and hit the ground.

Due to their enormous spread, it is highly likely that most of your shots will miss their target, even if you aim it correctly. Their damage is simply not high enough to make up for that fact.

You can get a solid hit rate by aiming at the ground so that the spears get launched forwards instead of up, with the obvious drawback that you cannot see anything.

This is a fantastic mobility set. With the dash-canceling you can get to anywhere you're required on the battlefield in a flash. Using jump jets, forwards momentum given by CC Strikers, and the destructive powers given by most CC Strikers, you can leap across canyons, smash through buildings, jump on top of ledges, and boost your way across flatland. Once in contact, the defence boost given by CC Strikers will keep you safe during the attack, and with Javelin you will have the capability to get out of harms way as soon as the attack is done.

When people think that Fencer is slow and weak, it is because they've never paired a Javelin Catapult with a Hammer.

CC Piercers can dash as well, so why not pair them up with Javelin Catapult?

Piercers are designed to be paired up with shields, and as such they give no defence when wielded and leave you considerably more exposed when the time comes to attack. Some piercers are a much better fit than others. Jackhammer doesn't cancel dashing at all and even requires a completely finished dashing animation before it will attack, and as such is a horrible fit for Javelin. Spine Driver, on the other hand, will fire instantly and is as such very easy to combine.

Blast Twin Spears is incredibly good at dash-canceling, but is such a good mobility tool in its own right that Javelin seems redundant paired with it.

Damage: ★★★★☆
Speed: ★★★★☆
Range: ★★☆☆☆

In case you liked Javelin Catapult for the weapon rather than the dashing, Javelin Storm allows you to fire all of the javelins with considerably less of the dash-cancelling.

The theoretical stats of Javelin Storm are completely out of this world, and javelins will pierce through corpses and living enemies alike. Combine this with the projectiles potentially hitting enemies on the way up and down, and you have an extremely powerful area-denying tool on your hands.

Then problem is that in order for Javelin Storm to be practical, you need a lot of stars to align. The upwards firing-angle means you can't easily aim at anything in particular. Any dashing will throw the aim off and make you hit the ground. For this reason, despite what the description claims, Javelin Storm should be dual-wielded. If you do so, you're rooted in place with a short-range weapon that has trouble hitting anything specifically.

The most effective way to fire them is from the safety of cover and being surrounded by NPCs. When you're in that position, here are some techniques for optimal usage:

• Aim using your radar, watch especially for things directly above you.
  
• If a target is in front of you, simply aim down. With the thick spread you're not at all unlikely to hit.
  
• To shoot behind you, there's no need to turn around. Instead, simply aim up until the launchers on your shoulders point backwards.
  
• The easiest way is to simply hold down both fire button for constant fire. Make sure to start with your left launcher, as the right launcher will point downwards if the left one is reloading due to an animation bug. The left launcher can operate fine while the right is reloading, and it's good to have on ready in case a drone hovers right over your head.
  
• Sometimes it can be good to use jump jets to briefly hop over cover and any corpses covering you. Do not attempt if there are red drones or other instant-kill enemies nearby, as you'll be their most likely target. Otherwise, it's also a good way to draw aggro away from your men briefly. Since you can't heal for them, tank for them.

See the section for 54. Air Mobilization for example of effective usage.

Practically mandatory.

Javelin Storm will not shoot anywhere useful after a dash, so fire your spine driver before any given Javelin launch, similar to using reflector with jackhammer. Might work okay.

Damage: ★★☆☆☆
Speed: ★★☆☆☆
Range: ★★★★☆

Light Mortar is the Fencer equivalent to Stingray. It has less damage, lower rate of fire, smaller blast radius, longer reload time, fires in an arc that makes it difficult to hit with, and leaves the wielder exposed after firing. In return for these drawbacks, Light Mortar has slightly higher ammo capacity and the ability to dual-wield them, effectively increasing ammo capacity even further along with pushing rate of fire a bit higher than that of Stingray's. Light Mortar's ability to cancel dashing is not to be underestimated either.

Stingray MF is just about capable of one-shotting black ants in the late game. Since Light Mortar is weaker than that, it is instead capable of unhelpfully sending the ants flying in every which direction.

However, early game Light Mortar is a oneshot. This includes difficult missions such as Charge Phase 1. Mortars are also overall very low in level, meaning that you can take the level 53 Mortar and blow up even golden ants with it.

Spread low amounts of damage from far away at medium speed. It works alright.

Combine it with a weapon that can keep you mobile and take out enemies that get too close to comfort, and you have a decent setup going on. From a moderate distance, aim for the center of mass or a nearby wall and blow up as many enemies as you can with each shot. Try to fire while sliding, and dash out as soon as you can for maximum safety.

This is a surprisingly balanced setup. While not the fastest, Flashing Spear and Light Mortar covers crowd control at all range between them, and flashing can be used for heavy damage if an enemy gets up too close for comfort.

Care must be taken not to blow up oneself.

Damage: ★★★☆☆
Speed: ★☆☆☆☆
Range: ★★★★★

Like a Light Mortar but heavier. It has all of the drawbacks of a Heavy or Battle Cannon, but with only a fraction of the damage. The blast radius is equivalent to that of Stingrary, and the damage is higher, so it can be used for cleaning crowds from a safe distance. It can be rare to get such a luxury as a Fencer and crowd-cleaning duties might be better left to a good CC Striker that can keep you safe even as the crowds get closer.

It's worth noting that Heavy Mortar scales weirdly. In lower levels Heavy Mortar will have as much, if not more damage compared to any gallic cannons you have on hand. On Hard mode and below, Heavy Mortars are therefore often the preferred alternative.

Spread medium amounts of damage from far away at low speed. It works alright.

This works pretty well as a sidearm. Of particular use is hitting walls with a lot of enemies nearby to eliminate all of them.

Sometimes, it's possible to blow up enemies through walls. Heavy Mortars have the blast radius to acheive this in key spots. Particularly where the map designer plugged shut a usually open corridor.

For more direct combat, Heavy Mortar packs enough radius that you can get a lot of enemies in corridors by hitting walls and ceilings.

Damage: ★★★☆☆
Speed: ★☆☆☆☆
Range: ★★☆☆☆

This is the Fencer equivalent of Stampede. Compared to that, it has less damage, smaller blast radius, fewer projectiles, and vastly longer reload time. In exchange for that, it can fire two shots instead of one before reloading, and comes equipped with jump jets, in addition to the ability for dual-wielding for even more ammo capacity.

The game will state it has a range of well over 1000m, but it is important to not believe its lies. What the game means to say is that the projectiles can travel such a distance if you were to fire them upwards and have them fall down while standing on top of a particularly tall cliff or a Dropship.

The effective range when shot at an upwards angle using jump jets is somewhere around that of a Spine Driver. One must never fire a Dispersal Mortar forward lest one hits itself.

Spread a small amount of damage to enemies at close range, but with much higher risk and less damage than a Hammer could. Alternatively, focus the fire on a few enemies at even closer range to spread slightly more damage to a much smaller collection of enemies but with higher risk and lower damage than Vulcan Hammer or Cannon Shot.

While primarily missiles are intended for flying enemies that are difficult to aim at, some varieties are even harder to aim than other weapons. For the most part, it's a pretty self-explanatory category.

Properties shared by Missiles include:

• No secondary function
  
• Homing projectiles that must be locked on with first
  
• Exploding projectiles
  
• Reloading after each shot, no matter how much of the ammo was actually used in a burst

Note that the majority of Missiles require laser guidance from an Air Raider and is as such useless for a solo Inferno run. If you are not solo, these specific missiles carry ridiculous power and are highly recommended.

Damage: ★☆☆☆☆
Speed: ★★★☆☆
Range: ★★★☆☆

The easiest out of Fencer's missile launchers. While its range is short and its lock-on time is a bit on the long side, it can get a decent amount of targets in and will fire all of its missiles in an instant, making it easy to disengage after the fact. Arm Hound has a decent blast radius, making it capable of hitting multiple fliers at once if they're packed. It's quite weak, however, and the series ends at level 55.

It is not a usable Inferno weapon.

Use simultaneously to stack damage.

Missiles are fully capable of locking on while dashing and attacking with the other weapon. Because it's capable of firing very quickly, Arm Hound is good for this situation.

Damage: ★★☆☆☆
Speed: ★★☆☆☆
Range: ★★★★☆

This series always has 6 lock-ons. Although each lock-on is quite fast, each missiles takes considerable time to launch, leaving the user very exposed when firing. There is a low amount of blast radius, so it is sometimes capable of hitting multiple enemies if they're packed.

Use simultaneously to stack damage and be exposed for even longer.

Missiles are fully capable of locking on while dashing and attacking with the other weapon. Because it locks on quickly, it might seem like Arcane is good for such a situation, but firing it is likely to get you killed.

Damage: ★★★☆☆
Speed: ★★☆☆☆
Range: ★★★★☆

The only non-guided Missile worth a damn, and possibly the best missile launcher for any class. It's got decent damage and can be used from very far away. Since they arc through the sky, they can even be used without worrying too much about the terrain between you and your targets. These can be used to bombard enemies occupied with NPCs, thus assisting the NPCs and keeping yourself safe. The blast radius is quite decent and HAIL has knack for tearing through crowds.

HAIL's are mounted on your shoulders and have no recoil, thus you can control them independently of whatever else you're doing. It's pretty hazardous to try, however, and will often result in the missiles flying groundwards and harming yourself.

Start locking on with one when halfway through lock-ons with the other. This gets a good mix of spreading damage and getting your shots out quickly.

Missiles are fully capable of locking on while dashing and attacking with the other weapon. Because it locks on at the same speed as Arm Hound, it might seem like HAIL is good for such a situation, but firing it is likely to hit the ground if you're recovering from a dash, and it's fully possible to blow yourself up just from blast radius.

Damage: ★★★★★
Speed: ★★☆☆☆
Range: ★★★★★

These are the fun missiles. The lock-on time might seem a bit long, but since this has to be combined with a guidance kit, it's always going to be faster than specified. Can be used just fine with a Guide Beacon Gun rather than a Guidance Laser due the relatively low lock-on time.

Since a co-op player is required to use these, they can't be used during a solo run. However, for the sake of completeness they will be mentioned.

Start locking on with one when halfway through locking on with the other. This gets a comfortable firerate going and shouldn't leave you confused about which missile launcher just got that lock-on.

Damage: ★★★★★
Speed: ★★★☆☆
Range: ★★★★☆

A bit of an oddball. Can lock on to a lot of enemies even though it requires guidance. It's possible to utilise it by having an Air Raider spray a lot of Guide Beacons on different enemies, but pointing the laser at a heavy target and sending all of the missiles to inflict much higher damage than Phoenix is capable of works too.

If you know you need less than a full burst to kill something, it's not a bad idea to release early as HMM will reload decently fast.

Start locking on with one when halfway through locking on with the other. This gets a comfortable firerate going and shouldn't leave you confused about which missile launcher just got that lock-on.

Damage: ★★★★★★★★★★
Speed: ★☆☆☆☆
Range: ★★★★★

That damage just says it all, doesn't it?

Despite the series stopping at level 58, you will never get to a point in the game where ambushing something with multiple 100k damage missiles ceases to be an awesome tactic.

Absolutely do this.

To list every single mission in this guide would be unecessary. In general, you pick a set of weapons that you feel comfortable with and suits the situation. It's not a guarantee that any mission not listed in this guide will be easy, only that it hasn't been found necessary to use anything other than core skills, good weapons, patient kiting, and tactics mentioned for other missions to beat them.

Not every mission listed will be particularly difficult, some might be mentioned because strategies exist to beat them with great speed and ease, allowing for repeated completions should it be desirable to collect weapons and armour from them.

In addition, these guides will not always be complete from start to finish, and might only highlight difficult sections within the missions. It is assumed that the reader of this guide is reasonably familiar with the game and has already attempted the mission before.

Should you struggle with a mission not listed in this guide, it might get added, possibly with a video, if you mention it in the comments and specify an amount of health you're trying to attempt it with.

Any tactic mentioned here has been personally used in offline single player with 5000 armour or less. More armour than that will help you, but should not be required. Most of the earlier half of the missions have been done with around 3000.

Recommended equipment:

• Any crowd-clearing set you're comfortable with
  
• 2x Galleon Armour-Piercing Cannon

This is the earliest mission available where you'll be faced with flying enemies. They are the last thing to spawn, and can be quite deadly if not approached carefully.

The trick is to stay as far away from them as you can while shooting them down, letting the Rangers take the heat. Galleons Armour-Piercing Cannons are quick, long-ranged, and at this stage in the game will take out Drones in a single shot. Spam the shots in alternate while there's thick with enemies, and make sure to aim your shots for faster kills once the enemies thin out.

As long as the Rangers are still alive, you should face no problems.

Recommended equipment:

• Any crowd-clearing set you're comfortable with
  
• 2x Disruptor

A typical situation that can turn difficult for a Fencer is when made to shoot down dropships while under constant assault from its drops. If there are few ships in the missions, such as this one, they can be dealt with in short order by blasting each ship with Disruptor.

Recommended equipment:

• Any crowd-clearing set you're comfortable with
  
• 2x Hand Gatling OR 2x Hand/Galleon/Gallic/Battle Cannon

Sometimes Disruptors are not a valid option to bring to a mission. Possibly there are too many targets to take out without running out of ammo, or you simply haven't acquired strong enough Disruptors yet. In such cases the ships must be shot down by other means. If using Hand Gatlings or Hand Cannons, stay up close and blast away at full power until the ships is down.

Other Cannons are capable of sniping down the ship from afar. In either case it's best to wait for a full opening to take a ship down, as you'll usually be able to take the ships down in one burst when performed correctly.

Either way, make sure there is little to no aggro around you when attempting to shoot down ships, as you will leave yourself vulnerable. Either by keeping a long distance, or by recruiting men. Four groups of NPCs can be recruited in this mission by walking towards the middle of each edge. When the enemies are distracted by NPCs, you are free to shoot down the ships.

Recommended equipment:

• Javelin Catapult + Vibro Roller / Finest Hammer
  
• 2x Flame Revolver (even the level 17 piece should be okay)

Immediately dash up the ramp to your right. At the top, enter the tunnel on the right and follow it, kill any enemies in the way. When following around the bend, you should arrive at a medium-sized room. In the middle of this room, Spiders will spawn. Clear out any nearby enemies and engaged Flame Revolver at the spot.

Eventually, NPCs will kill enough enemies to cause the spiders to spawn and immediately die. After this has been done, move back to the entrance from the large room where you started and cover it with flames. Most enemies should try to enter through that entrance and get scorched. A few might try to sneak around behind you, so be wary of that.

Recommended equipment:

• 2x Force Ax
  
• Light Mortar + Spine Driver

Blades are capable of cutting through corpses just as efficiently as it is at creating them. For most of the stage, you can slash away at the enemy while covered behind the enemies you just killed.

Throughout the map, you can use the Light Mortar as a flare to light up any areas so you can locate enemies and orient yourself. It's also quite a deadly weapon within its own right, and you can use it in open areas to hit enemies crawling on walls.

The tricky point is the final hall, which is quite large. Remember the corridor where you fought the spiders, as you will want to backtrack here. Use your mortar to navigate your way to the great hall at the end. From as much range as possible, hit an enemy with the mortar, change to your axes, and make a beeline. The more NPCs you have left alive to draw enemy fire at this point, the better. When you've made it back to the bend with the spiders, it's down to your ability with axes as well as your armour whether you'll survive or not.

Good luck.

Recommended equipment:

• 2x Hell Flame Revolver
  
• Light Mortar + Flashing Spear

The strategy above can leave you open to getting hit by stray shots sometimes, meaning you'll want a few thousand armour to get away with it. Using Hell Flame gives you the abiliity to stunlock and quickly dispatch of an entire passageay, meaning there's much less opportunity to get hit.

With hell flames you can advance in a slow, controlled manner. Crucial to this tactic is keeping the NPCs alive or playing online where other party members can divert enemy attention.

The secondary set is used for mobility and hunting down stray enemies, but primarly you want to force enemies into choke points you can entirely cover. Strategy is otherwise largely as above.

Flashing Spear is there because sometimes you need crowd control and can't afford to wait 6 seconds for it.

Recommended equipment:

• 2x Finest Hammer
  
• Master Shield + Spine Driver

Head to the front lines without recruiting any of the NPCs, then smash as many Giant Insects as you can while staying alive. There is no need to worry about the Drones, as the Self-Propelled Rockets will take care of them over time. Take care of the Hectors using Spine Driver after all the insects are dead, but make sure to be fully healed before the next wave starts.

When the Golden Ants appear, kite them backwards and spam shield reflect to blow all their acid back. After they go down, stock up on health and punch down the Red Drones with some help from the Railgun Tanks. After this, it's simple a matter of dashing over the Dropships and strafing circles while punching them down with Spine Driver.

Recommended equipment:

• NCSS Cannon Shot + Blast Twin Spears M3
  
• 2x Maximum Disruptor

Dash ahead to the ranger squad beyond the warehouses and recruit them. A wing diver team will eventually land in that area, so wait for them and recruit those as well.

Kill the Hectors and Dropships nearby, then move to the other side of the dam. From there, you take out the Genocide Cannon. When it's down, you need to hurry under the middle of the mothership. When within range, jump with your Disruptors and bring the ship down.

Turns out there were shortcuts here after all.


Recommended equipment:

• 2x Hand Cannon
  
• Javelin Catapult + Finest Hammer

For the purposes of this guide, the bridge and Mothership is head of you to the North, with the warehouses being East, to the right of you are the start. You start at the South-East end of the map.

There are no shortcuts here, you'll be in it for the long haul. Start by shooting down every Dropship and Hector before proceeding, and deal with all the remaining bugs.

Move to the East, behind the NPCs and start blasting down the Genocide Cannon. When the plates eject, shoot them down one by one, prioritising the lower ones that shoot explosives. Each plate dies in two hits, which is why Hand Cannons are recommended for this mission. Battle Cannons are extremely overkill and the end result is that it will be very slow to take down all the plates, resulting in all the NPCs dying. Take down Red Drones if they disturb you while shooting.

After every single plate has been shot down, move close enough to comfortably rapid-fire at the Mothership and bring her to phase 3. As soon as the Giant Cannons poke out from it, shoot those down as well. At this point, the Mothership is harmless, and you can collect all the loot in the stage before shooting her down.

Recommended equipment:

• Hand Cannon + Spine Driver MA
  
• Javelin Catapult + Finest Hammer

The screenshots are taken as a Wing Diver to get an overview over each Tunnel Exit's position.

The Tunnel Exits in this mission are special, and have less than 3500 health. This means they go down in a single strike from Spine Driver MA. Dash into the midst of the enemy and punch out the Exits one by one, using Hand Cannon to dash-cancel and clear out enemies along the way. Kill most of the enemies before taking out the final Exit, as the next wave triggers from all the Tunnel Exits being destroyed, not all the enemies.

In the next phase, sneak around the right side and take out one or two tunnel exits at a time, then retreat using Javelin across the bridge before dealing with the fallback. This is to minimize aggro. Prioritize taking out Exits spawning Golden Ants and Silver Spiders. For most enemies, Hammer is best to clear them out multiple at a time. When mostly Silver Spiders remain, switch to Spine Driver and smash them out while dodging.

Recommended equipment:

• Javelin Catapult + Finest Hammer
  
• 2x Spine Driver

There are 7 Tunnel Exits in the map. After 4 are destroyed, they will spawn one batch of mutants each.

• The 2 Exits closest to your start position spawn Black Ants/Golden Ants
  
• The 2 Exits on each flank spawn Spiders/Silver Spiders
  
• The 2 Exits furthest away spawn Bees/Red Bees
  
• The 1 Exit in the center spawns Red Ants/Dark Ants

From left to right destroy Exit #2, 3, 5 and 6 by strafing around them and alternating punches with Spine Driver. This will take care of all the Golden Ants and Red Bees before they appear, allowing you to deal with the much simpler Dark Ants and Silver Spiders.

From there, it should be simple to take out the rest of the Tunnel Exits.

Recommended equipment:

• Javelin Catapult + Dynamo Force Blade
  
• 2x Hand Gatling

Dash ahead and shoot down the ship as soon as you're in range at the foot of the hill. Shoot down as many bugs otherwise as you can before proceeding to the next ship. After it's shot down, retreat back to the NPCs and stay there for the duration of the stage, assisting them with Gatlings.

When the bees come, shoot down as many as you can with the Gatlings as they drop from the ships in a line. The rest must be dealt with by dashing in evasive patterns and taking potshots with the Blade.

Recommended equipment:

• Javelin Catapult + Dynamo Force Blade
  
• 2x Maximum Disruptor

Dash up to the NPCs and ambush the ship by them, then dash back and ambush the other. The idea is to shoot them down fast enough for minimal enemy drops.

After the explanation about teleportation, you'll want to get in position for ambushing ships as they open and strike them down with Disruptor. More will spawn while you're at it and they should be prioritized. If you need assistance, NPCs will spawn at each end of each bridge. They are best saved for after at most one ship is left. Some ships will fly high enough that you need to hit them while jumping.

After the ships are down, it's just a matter of surviving what enemies are left. Prioritize Bees as it is hardest to avoid their attacks.

Recommended equipment:

• 2x Spine Driver
  
• 2x Hand Gatling

Immediately burst down the Bees spawning in front of you, then shoot down the Tunnel Exit.

For the purposes of this guide, you start at the South end of the map, and most of the enemies are to your North. You'll want to recruit the NPCs and bring them to the West, from where you'll approach within Gatling range of one Tunnel Exit at a time and burst them down, then retreat and deal with the fallback. Prioritize Tunnel Exits that spawn Bees.

As long as your NPCs are alive, you should stick to Gatlings as they are capable of taking out more enemies faster. When you NPCs die, retreat to the South-West corner of the map and use the Gatling from there. The many buildings between you and the center of the map should delay and confuse most enemies, making them easier to deal with as they come in.

Once all the Tunnel Exits with Bees are taken out, the rest of the mission should be trivial.

Recommended equipment:

• Spine Driver + Hand Cannon
  
• 2x Dexter Automatic Shotgun

The key to survival in this mission is to draw the attention of the Red Drones and fight them a few at a time. After they have been cleared, simply move up the Carrier, burst it down with the Shotguns, then deal with the rest of the Drones with assistance from your NPCs.

For starters, move backwards and to the right so that you're next to the bridge and close the buildings behind you. Both will provide cover. It's important to not actually stand under the bridge, as it will prevent you from jumping and covers enemies from your fire more than the other way around.

When you want to draw the attention of a Red Drone, snipe down a regular Drone close to it. Regular Drones have a smaller aggro radius than Red ones, so you will get less retaliation to deal with at a time if you wait with shooting Red Drones until they're close.

Once they approach, continously jump up and down with your Shotgun's Jump Jets, shooting drones as appropriate. For close range, blast both Shotguns at once. For longer ranges, Spine Driver does a lot of damage and hits instantly, while Hand Cannon is a bit harder to hit with but goes further. You'll want to unleash around two or three attacks focused at the apex of your jump.

When enough Red Drones are taken down, the Carrier will open up and spawn more. Be patient, and be very careful not to accidentally hit the Carrier before all Red Drones have been taken out. If you're ready, approach the Carrier well within Shotgun range and give it all you've got. It should go down in one burst.

Recommended equipment:

• 2x Galleon Rapid-Fire Cannons M2
  
• 2x Javelin Storm ZD

The reason for Galleons as opposed to Gallics or Hand Cannons is to avoid friendly fire.

Recruit everyone, then head into the three-pronged alleyway to the left. Use Galleons to draw a lot of attention, then start using Storm to blow up all the drones. See the section for Javelin Storm for how to most effectively fire them.

When the ship opens, burst it down with rapids. Prioritize any red drones nearby rather than the ship as they pose a large threat to you and your men.

Clean up with Galleons.

Recommended equipment:

• Great Shield + Blasthole Spear MS
  
• Great Shield + Blasthole Spear MS

Dragons are exceptionally simple to take out using this loadout. Dash backwards in a wide square around the edge of the map, take them out one at a time with a spear. If your shield breaks, switch to your other set and keep going.

If you have a break at any point, reload your shields by draining them with reflection spam.

See 60. Ill Omen

Recommended equipment:

• Javelin Catapult + Dynamo Force Blade
  
• 2x High Altitude Impact Launcher

For the purposes of this mission guide, The Hive is to the North, and you start at the South side. For starters, dash to the West, climbing all the way on top of the hill there.

Kill everything with missiles while your NPCs distract them.

Keep doing that until you win.

Recommended equipment:

• Great Shield + Blasthole Spear MS
  
• 2x Maximum Disruptor

Move up the fortress and take it down in one burst with Disruptor as soon as it opens. Jump to get a better vantage point and hit it better.

Recommended equipment:

• Spine Driver + Hand Cannon
  
• 2x Hand Cannon

Shoot at Argo until the Flying Vehicles spawn, then kill those by dashing in evasive patterns and alternating between Spine Driver and Cannon for maximum mobility. Hand Cannon is good for hitting Vehicles that are out of range without having to switch to the other set.

When Argo turns into a robot, shoot him dead before dealing with the next batch of Flying Vehicles.

Recommended equipment:

• Javelin Catapult + Dynamo Force Blade
  
• 2x Maximum Disruptor

Dash up to The Hive and empty Maximum Disruptor into it.

Retreat and let the NPCs deal with the rest.

See 60. Ill Omen.

Recommended equipment:

• Spine Driver + Hand Cannon
  
• 2x FGZ Hand Gatling

They key to survival is to deal with one or two Death Queen and/or Hectors at a time.

Gather the NPCs and retreat as far away from the enemy as possible. By doing so, you get as much time as possible before Hectors arrive and make your life difficult.

Possibly while jumping, snipe a normal enemy at the very left or right edge of the enemy mass and deal with the fallback using Gatlings. Jump up and down constantly avoid getting knocked over by Bee stingers.

If a Death Queen is in range, burst them down with both Gatlings at once until they're dead. If two are in range and they're close to eachother, try to stunlock both at the same time.

If a Hector is in range, burst it down with both Gatlings at once until they're dead, but do not pursue them when they move away. Shielded Hectors are tricky, but you can hit them in the arm to make them turn around, then keep the pressure on them to keep them so.

After that, prioritize shooting down Red Bees until you're out of enemies. Heal up and draw the next batch. Be careful to never snipe any important enemies, as their aggro radius will be much larger and you'll end up dealing with multiple Hectors and Queens at once.

Recommended equipment:

• 2x Finest Hammer
  
• Master Shield + CC Piercer (Whichever you're comfortable with)

Avoid recruiting any NPCs until the third wave.

Use Finest Hammer to deal with almost everything. Half the enemies will be on the ground, and the Dragons will land often enough that you can hit those too. Don't stop until every ground enemy is dead and there are less enemies left than you can count on your fingers.

When dealing with Yellow Dragons that won't land, time a reflection to make their own fire hit them in the face and one-shot them. When dealing with Red Dragons, you block their attack with the Shield and kill them with the Piercer. If you have the health for it, intentionally get grabbed and show them why close-quarter combat with a Fencer is a bad idea for them.


In the second wave, move down the valley and face the enemy head on, but don't move too far. You want to hang back just enough that a good deal of the dragons fight the NPCs while you deal with the ground units. The NPCs are capable of dealing with about half the Dragon forces, and it should be enough to be managable for you.

Avoid killing the last enemies in the second wave until you can move back up and recruit the NPCs. Take the NPCs down to the area where the first battle took place, and hug the cliff at the edge of the map. The cliff will provide cover against the dragons in the next wave. For the final wave, stay there and go crazy with the Hammers. If you get grabbed by Red Ants, don't try too hard to break free as you'll be relatively safe in their grasp. From there, you can use your hammers to attack Spiders, Black Ants and Dragons, which have less health and are a far more dangerous.

Recommended equipment:

• Great Shield + Blasthole Spear MS
  
• Great Shield + Battle Cannon

Follow the NPCs down into the valley. Destroy the Shield Bearers first, then the Deroys if they are within range, otherwise focus on the Hectors. Avoid recruiting NPCs.

Do not attack The Brain until absolutely everything has been killed.

After it's lost half its health, The Brain will summon Earth Eaters which you should take down as fast as you can. Prioritize Red Panels, Hatches, and laser cannons that are aiming at you. Shoot down every last thing that attacks anything, then attack The Brain until it flies away.

Recommended equipment:

• Whatever you're comfortable with against aerial enemies
  
• 2x Battle Cannon

Stay exactly where you start and shoot down the Carriers. If all Carriers are closed, reload. The NPCs can deal with the enemies, trust in them.

See 60. Ill Omen.

Seriously.

Recommended equipment:

• Javelin Catapult + Dynamo Force Blade
  
• 2x High-Altitude Impact Launcher

Walk backwards and attack the enemies from afar with HAILs. When the enemies spawn behind you, deal with them. You want to be hugging the rear edge of the stage when the second wave spawns.


When it does, take the entire wave out with HAILs as the NPCs distract them.

The third wave should be simple in comparison. Try to HAIL as many Bees as you can before they approach.

Recommended equipment:

• 2x Spine Driver MA
  
• 2x 35mm Battle Cannon / NC290 Hand Cannon

Recruit the rangers and fencer NPCs and head right. The idea is to keep as much cover as possible from the battle while still being able to see your targe[s. The valley to your right works good for this purpose.

Completely ignore the Argo and shoot down everything else with Battle Cannons from your vantage point. Attack things in this priority:

• Multiple flying vehicles attacking you. (1 Spine Driver)
  
• The transport ships, when they open. (Pay attention the sound kue.) (5 shots)
  
• Plasma Hectors, as the blast radius from their lasers is immense and can hit you. (3 shots)
  
• Shield Hectors, as they soak up NPC firepower. (3 shots)
  
• Other Hectors, as they endanger NPCs. (3 shots)
  
• Flying vehicles not attacking you, as NPCs will take care of them. (1 Spine Driver)

Health packs should appear around you as NPCs defend you from vehicles, so collect them as needed. As your support on the beach ahead disappears, and the flying vehicles thin out, move towards the cliffside further right. Argo turns around slowly, and you can move back behind the hill where you started if he finishes turning around.

When the radio talks about Argo being damaged, you've almost hit him enough to spawn the second set of carriers. Reloads your guns, hit him a bit more, then be prepared to take out the right carrier before it can drop its golden ants. (3 shots)

With the carriers down, finish off any remaining enemies, then Argo.

Recommended equipment:

• Great Shield + Blasthole Spear MS
  
• 2x Battle Cannon

Pick a Carrier to shoot down with Battle Cannons (starting just as it opens to down it in a single burst), then deal with the fallback. Dash backwards from one edge of the map to the other while dealing with incoming enemies. This gives a large area to kite in without colliding with enemies elsewhere in the map.

Fully heal and reload your shield after each fight, then start anew with the next Carrier.

When everything else is dead, shoot the Deroy sleeping next to The Walking Fortress, then the chest cannon in the Fortress. After the Grind Buster hits, take out the laser cannons at the various points in The Fortress. At this points, just dash under it and shoot it down with relative ease.

Recommended equipment:

• Great Shield + Blasthole Spear MS
  
• 2x FGZ Hand Gatling

Recruit all the NPCs you start with and stay there. Deal with incoming enemies by jumping up and down with Gatlings and bursting them down. Prioritize Deroys.

Switch to Shield + Spear and kite dragons (see 60. Ill Omen) until there are none left, then burst down Death Queen with Gatlings.

Move to the front and burst down each of the Carriers with Gatlings. You'll probably only get to shoot down two of them before you have to retreat, and that's fine. Kite everything with Shield + Spear (see 60. Ill Omen despite this not being Dragons) until it's all dead. Prioritize the Spider King and Ant Queen in that order, then take out the brunt of their forces.

At this point it's a matter of approaching Hectors, waking them up, and kiting them. The final carrier might be safest to take out by doing drivebys, hitting it with Blasthole Spear a few times before retreating, dealing with the fallback, and going back.

Recommended equipment:

• 2x Quake Haken
  
• 2x Battle Cannon

For the purposes of this mission guide, you start the at the North edge of the map, with The Brain being to your South.

Immediately shoot down the Red Panel in the South-East (3 shots), then walk backwards while reloading your guns. Shoot at The Brain as soon as the path is clear and don't stop. (14 shots)

The timing on this is extremely tight, and you won't make it unless you start aiming while the loading screen fades. If the commander starts talking before your second shot is in the air, you were too slow, restart.

If you timed it right, you've managed to skip the first wave without any Flying Vehicles spawning. That'll make the rest of the mission a lot safer. In the second wave, Vehicles will not spawn until you attack the Brain, so this strategy aims to make them a non-factor.

Reload your guns, then make 3-4 haken jumps to the right. From this position (you should've recoiled to the map's edge), you have a clear shot at two panels on your left and right sides. Shoot them down swiftly, then jump directly South with halen. A small squad of rangers will spawn here, and you should recruit them, then fall back to the North map edge you came from.

The next step is to kill the two deroys, and move to the North-West corner (where the skies are relatively clear from your plate takedowns). You can kill the Deroys first or do it from the corner. From the corner, the deroys will weave into buildings out of bounds, but if you kill them before moving you need to be quick: cannons are encroaching on your position.

From the corner, start shooting down cannons, prioritizing those that are close, then those that can be lined up to utilize piercing. After a minute or so, a third weak spot should have rolled over to your line of sight and you can shoot it down, with a fourth one soon to come.

With the skies basically clear, you're ready to spawn the rest of your backup. Using quake hakens scramble for health kits to top up, then make a tour of the city in a wide circle. Follow the road that's one tier further in than the map edge, as the edge is sometimes too far out to trigger the spawns.

You should encounter, in order:

• 3 Rangers N/W (already recruited)
  
• 2 Fencers S/W
  
• 2 Rangers S/E after crossing the park
  
• 2 Wing Divers East edge (important, easy to miss)
  
• 3 Fencers N/E
  
• 3 Wing Divers North side at a parking lot close to the raised park where you started.

Don't worry too hard about how well they follow you. The important functions these npcs serve is to exist so that dragons and vehicles swarm them instead of you later. The wing divers will protect you personally from dragons, however, so that's why we saved them for now, ensuring they're in top shape. If a group of NPCs aren't spawning, the trigger might be blocked by radio chatter. Make sure to spawn all of these groups.

With all of that done, move to a corner that's reasonably clear of earth eaters, reload your guns, and fire 14 shots into the brain.

Fire at the tallest Earth Eaters while they're falling, as these spawn dragons. They die in a variable amount of shots with some needing 2, others 4. The tall ones spawn dragons, which is why you care about them.

When the Eaters are done falling, destroy the ones over your head. They're largely harmless, but if the come directly above they're capable of landing a severely powerful attack at you that can ruin your run.

When the radio says dragons are spawning (dragons will already have spawned long ago), the Brain is open to receive damage. Fire 17 shots into it an blow it up. When the explosion happens, use Quake Hakens to move around for safety and pickups until the game fades out.

And that's how to beat Inferno as a Fencer.

I hope you found this guide helpful, and will appreciate any feedback you may have, positive or otherwise. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask, and if any of the mission strategies don't work out for you, I'll happily demonstrate them in video form and add that to the guide.

If any missions you're having troubles with are not included, I can do that too.

Should you have any tips or tricks you find missing in the guide, do let me know and they'll be added.


If you have been, thanks for reading.