Greetings fellow Rebels !
Since i have played this game for a long time, and i also have a lot of spare time. I decided to make this guide on Battleships.
Like the title says


I have played this game since its roots (not from the beta though), from the age of Mass Driver NightHawks and the single fire polaron ray (pathetic, noone uses it lol) to the more diverse world of VEGA Conflict we know today (which is getting even more diverse).
This guide will be focusing on progression of battleships from low to high levels , from fragile slow gun platforms to versatile kiting machines.
More advanced battleship piloting tactics , (some) fittings , how battleships fare againts other classes of ships , and some other things that might be of use (or not maybe im just running out of stuff to say here)
oh and this is a work in progress, theoratically this guide should never be done because of constant updates, game balances and tweaks, etc. Ill try to update whenever i have the time to do so .

This is the general characteristics of battleships. They :

• Are more sluggish than any other type of ship in the game (exception of destroyers and carriers)
  
• Fits more weapon slots than a similar tier cruiser
  
• Recieve a 25% range bonus with all equipped weapons, This also means that minimal weapon ranges are ALSO raised by 25%.
  
• Fire to the port and starboard side with a 90 degree angle each , leaving a 90 degree blindspot to the aft and the bow
  
• Reload Weapons on either side of the ship Independently.
  
• Less base hitpoints and/or armor slots compared to a similar tier cruiser and cutter.
  
• are Powerful at range , Fragile up close

To truly unlock the true potential of battleships , you need to have proper equipment and support.
Initially when you first unlock it they are little more than slow fire support vessels ,but eventually they can stand alone as a kiting ship capable of keeping out of range of any other class while mowing them down.

To truly unlock the potential of battleships you will need :

• Fusion Thrusters

This provide necessary mobility for battleships as you no longer need to sacrifice speed or rotation from the rear and rotation thrusters, as these are basically your battleship's lifeline.
This item was available in the year 1 riot rotation that is going on this january so get it ASAP.

• Stasis Weaponry

Stasis Weaponry will allow your battleships to slow down faster ships and give more time to unload to your enemy ships with your broadsides before he gets within firing range. There are currently 2 Stasis Weapons , the NET Torpedo and the Arrestor Beam , each with tradeoffs.

• The NET Torpedo

The NET Torpedo is generally more suitable on a full fleet of battleships and at higher levels (where you will more likely meet full enemy fleets rather than just 1 or 2 ships.)
The main tradeoff here is that the NET Torpedo can slow multiple enemies at once (especially with AM Warheads) and doesn't need to be focused down range (i.e. fire and forget), however it can miss, making it less effective againts single targets or faster targets.

To use this weapon effectively, target enemies in the middle of a cluster so all enemies get slowed at once. use AM warheads to maximize the radius of effect of this weapon (although its not 100% needed)
The NET Torpedo is available as a Vsec Blueprint. Also avoid using NET 1 as the slow effect is very small , use NET 2 or better.

With the 20 degree spread nerf on 28th january, the NET becomes less viable in 1v1 battles or when facing single targets, but however still doesnt make a difference in stalling incoming Vsec ships or cutters.

• The Arrestor Beam

The Arrestor Beam is in my opinion more versatile and potent due to its guaranteed stasis and its good to use at all levels of play.
However to properly use this weapon, you will need to use Focused Optics (preferably level 5) as 2750 m range is just garbage on all levels, so you can only equip this to battleships equipping energy weaponry.
You will also need to hit the enemy with this weapon constantly like the thermal beams , as the slow effect is only there as long as the beam is hitting the target. You also can only slow 1 target at a time and can not switch targets while your arrestor is firing.
In order to use this weapon effectively , target the enemy closest to you.
Once an enemy is snagged by this beam , it will never get away (unless you use the arrestor 1 in which case sometimes he will if he is fast enough)
This Weapon was once available in the Countermeasures event , if you dont have it just use the NET Torpedo, its good enough)

With the 28th January nerf, these things take much longer to charge, rendering it much worse againts cutters, especially if you use the lower level arrestor. consider replacing lower level arrestors with NETs or more weapons in your high level ships.
It also have a shorter range at 2750m with no bonuses, and a longer cooldown of 1 second, but on the other hand, the fire duration is increased to 10 seconds.

• Agility Support Field

Even with Stasis Weapons and Fusion Thrusters , your battleships are still sluggish. Getting a Carrier with an Agility Boost Field will greatly increase your Battleships performance, allowing them to outrun cruisers. The Carrier Squadrons also aid in bolstering the damage output of your battleships.
You don't need the Ragnarok to fully embrace the power of the battleship , the Midgard is enough. The only difference is the Ragnarok is able to add some squadrons into the mix while the midgard cant due to shorter scramble range.
The Ragnarok will be available during january's event Backlash, so get one.
The Midgard is available in Vsec levels 37-45 as a blueprint.

Currently, the relatively low damage and chance to miss of projectile weapons compared to energy weapons make these not really worth it to mount on your battleships. Unless you want an alternative weapon type to punch energy resistant shields.
For Mid-High level players , the researchable projectile weapons (Rail, Gauss, Mass) ARE USELESS.
This is due to the slow projectile speed even boosted with magnets, and mediocre damage.
With that said , lets discuss the 4 projectile weapons that you have after the researcable ones.

Out of the special equipments on projectiles, use Magnets or Phased Magnets, increased projectile speed is needed for projectiles to reliably hit moving ships at max range.

• The Gladius Driver

The Gladius Driver is the more reliable , general purpose out of the projectile waepons, dealing more damage and having increased accuracy due to proximity detonation. Generally speaking i recommend this more out all of them.

• AP Driver

The AP Driver deals lower damage and loses the proximity detonation trait for the ability to hit 6 enemies with piercing , potentially multiplying damage by 6. However this kind of situation usually doesnt present itself often and is very much like playing roulette in VEGA Conflict, whether or not your enemy lines his ships up or not. Its pretty much a risk/reward option but however the reward is not really worth it in my opinion. Skilled opponents will never line their ships up if they know you use AP drivers.

• Wave Driver

The Wave Driver deals additional damage through shields , this makes its lower damage compared to glads negligible , however it moves 10% slower and doesnt have proximity trigger detonation. The Wave Driver is more of a risk reward option like the AP , but the reward presents itself more obviously by dealing more damage through shields.
If you didnt get it, your really are not missing that much, the glads are still okay.
This weapon is more effective againts VEGA during farming or againts rushing cutters / cruisers who do not bother avoiding the shots.
I still pick the gladius over this one , but feel free to experiment.

• Gemini Driver

Short Range, Slow speed, Diluted DPS due to spread, Not a good weapon to recommend, avoid mounting this on your battleships.

Again, for Mid-High level players, any explosive weapon that has a significant SPREAD is pretty much useless. (more specifically : Scatter, HEX, Plasma Torps, Creeper, SICO, Arc)
The Vector Torpedo is also not good on Battleships due to high weight requirements, and unreliable homing.

• SICO Missile

The SICO Missile 30 degree spread at max range means that its poor for shooting at single targets and i doubt people will bunch up when you are using SICO missiles.

• Hydra Missile

Hydra missiles are the first thing you get for battleships that really moves it up a notch , this is because the homing capabilities it has , meaning it never misses (except if your target is really fast like 500-600 m/s and running away)
This weapon also deals a good amount of damage , and is suitable to mount on battleships on all levels.
Due to the short range of these weapons, high level use is somewhat limited, but they can still be good in cracking open energy resistant shields and pumping mid-close range DPS.
With the nerfing of the arrestor's range and charge up time, your ships could potentially close in and start firing a couple shots before his arrestors fire while in a battleship duel, significantly weakening enemy shield energy in the process. in my opinion its beginning to be a bit more tempting in higher levels.

• Arc Missile

Diluted DPS due to spread pattern, large minimal range, and poor vs single targets, avoid.

For Mid-High Level players, UNLOCK AND USE Focused Optics V ASAP. The extra range is really worth it. Ionized Optics lll can be used as an alternative if you have it.

of course avoid using the pulse ray as that just suck.
all Energy weapons (except gatling rays) CAN NOT miss. Making them an effective and reliable long range weapon.

• ECHO Ray and Polaron Ray (3500 Range Weapons)

These weapons equalize the range of projectile weapons when combined with focused optics 5.

The ECHO deal high per shot damage, with the ability to increase its damage even further to about nearly double its listed DPS if it manages to bounce over to 3 additional enemies. Needless to say, its a staple in all high level PvP and Farming.
With the recent 28th january patch nerf of the ECHO Ray 3, its still a staple in all high level fleets no doubt, but its certaintly lost its edge, and other weapons now become a more viable alternative now. However the ECHO 1 is buffed, so it might be worth refitting your ships with them now.
The Polaron is a poor man's alternative to the ECHO, favoring single target damage and rate of fire. While its viable in both farming and mid level PvP, the ECHO will replace it as soon as you get it.

• Aurora Ray and Gatling Ray (3250 Range)

These Weapons provide a higher DPS while sacrificing the chain and extra range of the ECHO.
The Aurora excel in single target DPS and can quickly shred shields, but however it does require you to bear your sights on the target for a second to fire all 6 shots in a salvo instead of just 1 shot. But i still prefer the ECHO over this.'

The Gatling Ray? Avoid using, this weapon has poor per shot DPS and requires you to constantly fire in order to deal considerable DPS, which is fatal when facing againts cutters.
Also in my opinion this weapon is underperforming anyway. (more on this later)

• Thermal Beam

This Weapon deal exceptionally high burst damage, but is plagued by short range. making it impossible to use againts other battleships and difficult againts cruisers and cutters with projectile weapon or focused optics ECHO rays that only have a small range diffirence when compared to this weapon on a Battleship.
A cool aspect of this weapon is that it has the same range as an arrestor beam, so both beams will fire together.

• Burst Ray and Distruptor Ray (short range)

These weapons fill in a niche role in the game and is very situational. Both of these are only really good againts bases when allowed to fire without the ship equipping it getting shot down by turrets or bad opponents that get too close.Its also excellent againts enemy ships if the ship equipping it manages to get close enough.
if using this weapon, use Ionized Optics or Ion Modulator for extra shield damage, as the short range and spread of burst ray doesnt make the weapon any more effective with more range.Try experimenting (im looking at you Manni's Fury base rush fleet)

Here are a few basic rules that you should apply when piloting battleships.

Rule #1 when piloting Battleships: Keep your target as far away as possible

Of course this rule doesnt apploy 100% of the time, sometimes getting close with might be beneficial, if you are using battleships that can take hits or want to take advantage of the ability battleships have to fire off the port and starboard side at once.
But generally speaking : the farther the enemy, the better, but not too far. Keep them at the edge of your weapon range.
This is why the ECHO Ray and other energy weapons work well in battleships more so than Projectile weapons, no matter how far the enemy is, they never miss.

Rule #2, KEEP IT MOVING
This rule apply for battleships all the time, ALWAYS BE ON THE MOVE.
The hardest thing to get used to is making sure that your move order doesn't expire.
If your move order expire and your ship stops, it needs to accelerate back up to full speed, taking precious seconds when being chased by cutters or Vsec event ships. Seconds that can make the difference between life and death.
Keep track of your move order and make sure they dont expire, one trick is to drag the screen and make a much longer move order than you need to, this will make sure that your ships don't stop incase you missed it or your reactions are a bit slow.

Rule #3 only applies when using carriers : Do not seperate your carrier'
This rule apply for all carrier supported fleets but more so for Battleships due to the slower speed meaning that if you seperate you need more time to reestablish proper positioning and you may lose your carrier and take heavy damage.

Rule #4, Set primary target
This is very important, setting primary target for your ships and your carrier should be the second thing you do in battle after making sure your ships are moving in the right way. This allows you to focus your fire and kill priority targets. Remember if the enemy ship are dead it means there are less guns firing at you, which means you will be doing more damage than him.
For Carriers, the primary target should be the ship at the very back of the enemy fleet, this will make sure your squadrons dont get shot down when they reach the enemy ship.

Rule #5, Keep calm, analyze, adapt
During battles, things might not go how you want it to go 100% of the time, make sure you keep your calm, don't panic, quickly analyze what is your enemy doing, either he is rushing you or trying to lure you into a trap, and menauver your ships to adapt to the situation in hand.

ADVANCED LEVEL, this assumes you know a lot in the game as this is some high level stuff.

So you got yourself a ragnarok and a fleet of top of the line battleships, and you face off againts an enemy carrier, what is the best way to prevent their 616 DPS from reaching your ships?

Well first, you need to learn how to hit them, when the squadrons are still on approach, they have their own hitbox, however, as soon as they deal damage, the hitbox become the same as the ship they are attacking. this means that if the ship the squadrons are targeting is stationary, it will become easier to hit and destroy.
Second, Ships will prioritize other ships over squadrons, so if your ships are engaging other ships when the squadrons attack, they will completely ignore them. However, battleships can target 2 enemies at once on each side of the ship. So if that happens try to menauver your battleships to the side of each other so they cover each other (works best with ECHO Rays or weapons with no minimal range)
Third, Ships under attack by a squadron will not be able to shoot them down by themselves, they need other ships to do so. So if a seperated / lone ship is attacked by squadrons, its pretty much doomed.
Fourth, squadrons deal damage in proportion to their health remaining (a squadron with 1% hp remaining will deal 1% damage), and if they reach 0 % hp they will immedieatly return to their mothership. For this reason its better to leave a squadron at very low hp for the full 25s rather than shooting them down and having them return with full hp 10 seconds later.

As for the Weapons :For me there is 3 best options, but each still have their own tradeoffs

• ECHO Ray
  
• Gladius Driver
  
• Hydra Missile

ECHO Ray
Pros

• Can damage multiple squadrons
  
• No minimal range
  
• guaranteed squadron kill

Cons

• Requires 2 hits most of the time (unless using full ECHO 3s)
  
• cannot kill multiple squadrons as bounce damage is insufficient
  
• If you dont have enough ships to kill all squadrons, they could reach your ships and start doing dmg.

The ECHO Ray sits somewhere in between the Glad and hydra, although most people will use this as it doubles up as their main weapons, and you can stack your battleships side by side to kill squadrons while engaging enemy ships.
For some reason, lately i have been seeing ECHO rays missing squadrons on approach and will only reliably hit when they reach a target. maybe try to use glads or hydras?

Gladius Driver
Pros

• 1 Hit kills on any squadron
  
• can kill multiple squadrons if they are close enough together
  
• kills squadrons before reaching your ships and doing damage

Cons

• Slow rate of fire
  
• Minimal Range
  
• Will miss if the enemy squadrons is not traveling straight onto your shots.
  
• Long reload time if missed.

The Gladius Driver is a proactive weapon, killing squadrons before they even start firing. But you need to line it up correctly in order to ensure a hit.

Hydra Missile
Pros

• Guaranteed kill
  
• can kill multiple squadrons at once, potentially all 4 at once if using AM warheads.

Cons

• Slow projectile speed, means that the squadrons will reach your ships (most of the time) and start doing dmg before the missiles can loop back and hit the squadrons.
  
• minimal range
  
• usually require 2 hits to kill a bomber squadrons, unless all of the mini missiles hit (unlikely on a moving squadron) or you are using full hydra 3s, in which case its a 1 hit kill. But due to the quick fire rate, your ships shld already fire 2 salvos when the squadrons are on approach.

The hydra missile is more of a reactive weapon, very quickly killing squadrons AFTER they reach your ships. Its pretty arguable wheter or not hydra is the best anti squadron weapon, but it has served me well enough so i put it in here. The reason it misses so much is because the speed of the missiles is slower than the speed of the bomber squadrons, so they tend to loop back around rather than exploding. They are however capable of simply catching up and mowing down interceptor squadrons.

Currently...cutters are simply the bain of battleships.To make matters worse, these things are dirt cheap to make and maintain (compared to battleships) and are far better in terms of capabilities compared to cruisers. Meaning they are pretty much the most common thing you see in high level PvP (currently).
They also do not require that much skill in piloting, since all you really can do in a cutter is either run away or directly chase the enemy and hope you still have enough shields and armor when you enter weapon range.

But with proper (and by proper i mean relatively difficult to do) menauvering, and extreme luck (in what kind of cutters are attacking you), you can take care of them while minimizing damage to yourself (and by minimizing i mean losing half of your fleet with your carrier, cutters are a hard counter to battleships and taking down hard counters isnt easy okay?).

First, their characteristics :

• VERY FAST
  
• Narrow forward firing angle
  
• Energy weapons 99% of the time
  
• Meta 3 shields 90% of the time
  
• Cheap and relatively quick repair times (if i would count its about 20-30 % faster) meaning that if you both take heavy damage or die, logistically you lost.
  
• Very quick build times compared to battleships, about 50%- 60% faster compared to a similar battleship. This means expect there to be a lot of cutters out there.
  
• Mk upgrades give a lot of bonuses, the best between all classes of ships. but the most important is stasis resistance and damage boost againts shields and of course battleships.

Second, Before and when you face them :

• Set your battleships to line formation, this is the quickest way to establish your positioning at the start and the best formation to face cutters since they have already good enough spread between the ships.
  
• As the battle starts, SELECT YOUR CARRIER and SET PRIMARY TARGET to the cutter IN THE BACK. This will mean that the rearest cutter will take constant damage from your squadrons. This will significantly increase your chances. as the rearest cutter changes position or is killed, adjust and change your primary carrier target. Remember cutters cant shoot anywhere but the front. A little 616 DPS boost isnt bad right ?

Third, The most basic rule when facing cutters is MAKE SURE YOUR SHIPS ARE GOING AT MAX SPEED DIRECTLY AWAY from them AS MUCH AS YOU CAN.
the most common thing to do is try to make them go after either your carrier, or one of your battleships ( in other words use it as bait). Make the bait run away directly away from the cutters, and the other ships at an angle beside it, this basically will allow your ships to travel at full speed while unloading with impunity to the enemy.

Next, a quick video on how you should be controlling your ships (because reading is boring and im also lazy :P) This video mostly shows about the the third rule, make sure your ships are going at max speed away, and shows the best way of doing so.
Credits to Manni

Cutters that you face vary in threat, depending on what cutter it is and what weapons its using im going to cover the types of cutter fleets that are commonly seen in high level PvP battles. Starting from :
WEAPON TYPES

• Burst Rays (Sometimes Distruptor Rays on low level gharial cutters) (Easy)
  These are easy to deal with, due to their very limited range, if you control your ships properly and keep hitting them with stasis, they should rarely enter effective firing range. However, should they enter weapon range, you are going to take massive damage, and its almost a guarantee you are going to lose one of your ships if it gets overwhelmed. Their damage is also affected by range (longer range less damage) so rarely it will have focused optics on.
  
• ECHO, Gatling, Aurora (Medium - Hard)
  These weapons will start firing almost a couple seconds after your battleships starts firing, due to their range and the speed of cutters. Especially if equipped with ionized optics or Focused optics. While they don't deal that much damage, the damage they do can quickly add up since they can open fire very soon and focus fire more easily due to their range. Your ships are almost guaranteed to take constant damage if you face a cutter fleet with these weapons. The best way to deal with this is to spread your ships a bit (more spread if facing ECHO Rays), and to pull back ships with shields down.
  
• Arrestor Beam (EXTREMELY DANGEROUS, PRIORITY TARGET)
  To put it simply, as soon as one of your battleships is snagged by this beam, it WILL DIE, no matter what. as it will be too slow and the cutters catch up and focus fire on it.
  Because you sacrifice DPS for this, there will usually only be 1-2 cutters out of the 5 or 6 that are equipped with arrestors, as soon as you know which one, TAKE IT DOWN, set it as primary target for your ships and your carrier and take it down before it claims another victim.
  However, the good thing is that you rarely see it in python cutter fleets since they cant carry a weapon special, and has less weapons overall, so they will have to sacrifice more of their DPS for a worse perfoming arrestor beam with less range.

CUTTER TYPES

• Taipan Cutters (Very Easy, Very Common)

[/b]
these are the new cutters introduced in the 28th january patch, bringing a relatively balanced cutter setup into a very low level package. However as of now, these things are weak and are no match for a full dreadnarok or zealnarok fleet even after the ECHO Ray and Stasis nerfs. They take full effect of any stasis effects you have and have low enough mass that they are forced to either take a meta 3 and weaker guns, or a spectral 5 and better guns. As well as sacrificing a ship for a carrier is also more of a matter to them as they can fit 6 ships per fleet and still not reach the max limit of the fleet bay (which is 5700 per ship, the taipan is only 5500).
The main thing is that these things are dirt cheap to make, maintain, and obtain, and anyone can run them at pretty much any time,and have lots of them, expect them as first responders and finishers when your ships are wounded in the sector map.

Unupgraded Gharial cutters (Very easy, Very rare)
unupgraded gharials commonly only have weaker spectral 5 shields and either low level burst rays or mid level weapons of the other types. they are easily affected by stasis and are easy pickings provided you move your battleships away from them while firing back. Rarely they have Meta 3 shields, but this means they have even weaker weapons (or only 5 ships per fleet). Commonly they have 6 ships per fleet.

Unupgraded Komodo Cutters ( Easy, Very Rare)
Same as unupgraded gharials, but usually its only 5 ships per fleet, but sometimes it can be 6 ships with slightly weaker weapons, while (99% of the time) having Meta 3 Shields, so they can take a bit more punishment, but still cant get close enough if you keep them in control.

Python Cutters (Easy - Medium, Common)
Same as unupgraded komodos, they are fully affected by stasis and are slightly slower. HOWEVER, this is important, they accelerate to full speed VERY quickly. leaving you less time to set up proper positioning at the start and also this makes them able to recover from stasis slightly faster. How difficult they are next is just what weapons are equipped. Usually 5 ships per fleet, meta 3 shields, and easily spotted in sector by their crazy fast sector speed. Obviously they will equip either fusion 3 or rear 5 in the single special slot, if they are equipping a weapon special, its a turkey shoot for you if you have any kind of stasis.
Due to the absurd sector speed, expect them as first responders and finishers when your ships are wounded in the sector map.

Upgraded Cutters (more specifically Mk3 and above) (Difficult, Common)
Facing these fleets is pretty much a death sentence, for both of you, but mostly you. They will close in very quickly and and deal massive damage, and depending on how much of your fleet you have left and how you handle this pressing situation, they will either survive with most of their fleet, or die trying to finish off yours.
The basic anti cutter tactics still apply. But however its down to how efficient you do it. Generally speaking its basically less margin for error, they are faster and can soak up more hits.. If you have to you might have to sacrifice a ship or your carrier to prevent them from overwhelming you. If you have unupgraded battleships and/or using midgard carrier, you are almost effectively doomed unless a miracle happens.

Cutters + Agility Field boost (Very Difficult - near impossible, Uncommon - Rare)
This is almost insanity. The enemy can pretty much enter weapons range before even your dreads finish turning around and accelerate. This will mean you will be under constant fire and will take heavy damage. How more difficult it is depends on what mark they are, higher marks might be able to simply annihilate your battleships seconds after they open fire, and its near impossible to land enough shots to do any real damage before they get close.
Fortunately, this will mean they will sacrifice a ship or undermass them to fit a carrier, most of the time it is probably an empty one to save weight since cutters are so fast the carrier is only a use for the initial push, so don't waste your time shooting at the empty carrier.

[/list]

More specifically, we are talking more about this :

This is a very difficult situation to get out of without taking any damage, its a mirror match after all. but more so with battleships due to their better anti squadron capabilities and extra range.

The most basic rule in any mirror matches is of course is to FOCUS FIRE
to do this, make sure all of your battleships are lined up straight so that they can fire at the same time when the enemy enters range. Do not forget to set primary target.
POSITIONING is the key word here gentlemen.

The best case scenario for you is that your carrier will be launching squadrons with your battleships between the enemy and your carrier so they can both shoot the enemy and shoot down enemy squadrons gunning for your carrier, and if you can maintain this formation, you should be winning.

The second thing you can try is to wear down the enemy ships with your carrier.
Generally if you are wearing them down you should keep your ships out of the enemy range and let your squadrons do the work.
The best target is rarely the carrier. Targeting the carrier doesnt result in much damage. Unless you want to disengage or pull off a carrier standoff, it is usually better to target the carrier only with your battleships entering firing range to take it down faster.
Your carrier should instead target the battleship that isnt protected by another one, (i.e. when they are lining up front and back) Since battleships usually only have spectral 5 shields, you can drain a lot of shield energy from just a couple seconds of damage and give your battleships the upper hand.

Of course, in the end, its a mirror match, you are likely to take a lot of damage or even lose a ship or two if your opponent is any good. (i.e. he tries to do the same thing as you)
So its better to have a backup fleet to escort your fleet out of there or hit him again after you damaged him.
The rest of course its just a matter of Mk upgrades, shields (especially on the carrier, shock shields on upgraded ragnas make it easier)
weapon selection can also sometimes matter (although 90% of the time both of you will probably use ECHOs) since battleships use spectral 5 shields most of the time, switching it up to explosive or projectile weapons on one of your ships can bring down shields faster and let your other ECHO battleships do much more damage on the enemy.

Okay since Kixeye is going to release more Carriers anyway, its probably better if i make a seperate section dedicated to them.

Midgard Carrier
The carrier that everyone can get, from level 37-45 Vsec Blueprints.
While this thing lacks firepower, the agility field it provides alone is enough to turn battles in your favor (particularly on battles without enemy carriers), however, other than providing an agility field, it doesnt really have that much more use, even if you put squadrons on it. Keep it on a save distance and just have it support your fleet as much as possible with the 11km range agility field.

Valhalla Carrier
This carrier is the rarest carrier in my opinion (only been released in Arms Race and no more after that), but it isn't even that good. Its the slowest carrier, and also provides a rather mediocre bonus of increased shield damage (of about 20%) . While its good againts opponents with high shields or meta 3 shields, its slowness makes it very easy to kill by even cruisers rushing in.
For now i relegated my Valhalla Carriers use to only auto farming and base rimming, basically stuff that doesnt involve being chased or chasing, since the Valhalla is terrible at both.
Still the Valhalla has a short build time of about 4 days.

Ragnarok Carrier
of course everyone is waiting for this. Its the top of the line carrier. Combining the speed boost of the midgard and the firepower of any other carrier. This is the Carrier everyone should be using and the Carrier everyone should be trying to get if you really want to enjoy high level stuff in the game.
The only bad thing is that the build time is usually about 2 weeks (or slightly less)

Valkyrie Carrier
lets face it, the phase shifter field can't stand up to an agility field. The Valkyrie Carrier is entirely unpractical to deploy since its basically a slightly better and worse Valhalla (if you take into consideration its field effect and the reliance on armor especially on upgraded cutters) with about 3-4 x the build time. if you didnt get it during Shadow Strike its okay, your not missing out on anything (if you already have the ragnarok that is)
while it can sometimes give you an advantage during straight up duels. other than that its a direct downgrade from the ragnarok.
If only it was the Stasis Field................

Sorry for the long hiatus, its been a busy school month but............
with the massive rebalance, that pretty much destroys everything in this guide, im going to instead make a new guide, and keep this one to preserve the old ways.

Its a sad thing with this new update, yes it partially nerfs (high tier) battleships.
but more so because that you probably dont need a guide after the balancing, because all battleships (and other classes) become pretty much the same, just with more advanced ships having better mass, bonuses, etc.

Still, if you have different thoughts, feel free to post in the comments down below, but if noone comments or you are in the same page with me, ill just carry on.

https://www.kixeye.com/forum/discussion/616562/p1
Link to the mass rebalance patch notes.