Phantom Galaxies 101: Explaining Starfighter Attributes, Gear, Power Levels and More
Building upon our most recent Early Access explainer article, we wanted to delve deeper into some core mechanics of Phantom Galaxies Early Access, to help you on your journey through the stars.
Read on for a rundown of your Starfighter Attributes, Gear and upgrading, Power Level, Avatar and Mech Level, and more!
Starfighter Attributes and Gear
Under the ‘Mecha’ section of your Player Menu, you will find a list of your Starfighter Attributes, each of which impacts a different aspect of your Starfighter as they increase.
- Durability: Increases the maximum health of your mech.
- Shield: Increases the capacity of your mech’s shield.
- Manoeuvrability: Increases your mech’s speed and reduces the cooldown of your Evasion Ability.
- Power: Controls the time it takes for heat to dissipate and the cooldown time for your Super Ability.
- Force: Reduces the cooldown of your Tech Ability in ship form and your Empowered Melee in Mecha form.
- Ordinance: Reduces the cooldown of your Missile Ability.
In order to increase these Attributes, you can equip your Starfighter with different pieces of Gear such as Power Cores and Shield Generators. Gear can be purchased through Terminals in safe locations such as Halberd-001 station or looted from fallen interstellar foes.
Power Levels and Upgrading
Your overall Power Level averages the power of your equipped Gear and Weapons. When battling through Frontier Space, be sure to compare your Power Level to the Enemy Level of your opponents (the enemy’s level is visible in the UI as you target an enemy). When fighting against an opponent with a higher Enemy Level than your Power Level, you will deal less damage and receive more damage — a disadvantage you can overcome by increasing your Power Level, through upgrading.
If you take a liking to a particular piece of Gear or Weapon, rather than purchasing a higher level piece, you can upgrade and improve your existing item. To upgrade, open the ‘Mecha’ section of your Player Menu, select the Gear or Weapon you wish to upgrade, and press R. Here you can view the required upgrade materials, and initiate upgrading if you have them all!
Upgrading the effectiveness of individual pieces of Gear requires consuming a higher level piece of Gear, a U-Cube, and additional resources including Credits and specific resources gained from mining. This will increase the Gear’s Power Level and contribute to your overall Power Level.
Weapons can be upgraded in the same way as Gear, consuming a higher level Weapon, a U-Cube, and additional resources including Credits and specific resources, to increase the Weapon’s Power Level.
As such, to ensure your Power Level is a match for the deadly interstellar foes lying in wait, be sure to obtain greater and more powerful Gear and Weapons — or if you are fond of your current loadout, upgrade the items you have!
Avatar and Mech Levels
Each of your in-game Avatars and Starfighters will have a Level — their Avatar Level and Mech Level respectively. Earning XP by playing the game, completing missions and killing enemies increases both your Avatar Level and Mech Level.
Your Avatar Level provides an upper limit to the highest Gear level you can equip. This maximum Gear Level is five times greater than your Avatar Level. For example, if your Avatar Level is 1, the maximum Gear Level you can equip will be 5.
This in turn limits the items you can equip to your Starfighter. Your Power Level is a measure of the Gear and Weapons you have equipped.
We hope this explainer helps you to hone your Avatar and Starfighter and conquer new frontiers within the Canis Major Galaxy. Check out our Early Access explainer article for more general information around the PG universe, Starfighter Builds, the in-game economy, controls, and launching into your Phantom Galaxies Early Access adventure!
Note: As Early Access continues, we are always looking for new ways to innovate and improve on the Phantom Galaxies experience — as such, details are subject to change.
