Top Ten Best Pilotable Ships in Tachyon: The Fringe
Here's another list on the overall best ships in a space simulation game, this time it's the Novalogic game Tachyon: The Fringe. This one will cover all but one ship, that can be piloted in the game, and will not cover any ship that cannot be piloted at all. You will see that it either belongs to Galspan or Bora factions which are the two main factions in the game.For the record the last ship I am not including here is the independent Mako, which is the ship you get when exiled, and before you can join up with either the Galspan or the Bora faction.
My personal favorite ship in Tachyon for either Galspan or Bora is the Archangel, the heavy assault fighter of the Galspan wing. It has more or less perfect weapon placement, good hull strength, and the best shielding out of ALL fighters in the game, but it is the most expensive ship too. Still, you really can't go wrong with this one.
The heavy assault fighter of the Bora fleet, this ship is more or less supposed to be the answer to the Archangel, with similar weapon mounts giving it tons of frontal firepower, a must-have for the harder missions.
It doesn't have a lot of shield strength compared to the Archangel but makes up for it by having the second-best hull ranking of all the ships, only offset by the Bora's own Claymore.
If it weren't for a few things with this multirole fighter, this would honestly be the overall best Bora ship to fly. The Battleaxe is an augmented Cutlass, which removes the bomber armaments for strong agility, decent weapon mounts, and the best shields out of every Bora fighter.
Surprisingly, it has the best reactor out of every pilotable craft in the game. If it weren't for not having the best overall weapon mounts, this would probably be the best Bora ship overall.
The speed demon, the light interceptor known as the Pegasus, is a joy to fly for those who want to run circles around the enemy, as it is the fastest pilotable craft in Tachyon.
Of course, this is offset by having incredibly bad hull strength, so the shields need to be kept up at all times, or you'll be dead instantly. Being a light interceptor, its overall weapon placement is also somewhat light.
The "Dragon of Space," as it is called, this heavy bomber isn't half bad, but of course, it's a heavy bomber, so it's incredibly slow. It makes up for it with fantastic weapon mounts, tons of missile and torpedo hardpoints. Plus, it has two laser placements unlike the Claymore, so it's a joy in many ways.
I prefer the faster crafts, but this can be great if you're looking for sheer firepower and strength.
Supposedly the answer to the Pegasus, but stronger in terms of defense at the cost of a little maneuverability. The Mace is the fastest Bora ship available, with better weapon mounts, but it can still be blown up easily (albeit not as easily as the Pegasus).
Maneuverability is still important, though.
Technically the first ship you have access to, the iconic Orion is a serviceable ship that gets most jobs done, except the really hard ones. Weapon mounts are decent, shielding is great, but hull strength is fairly weak, so it needs the shields.
It's got very good maneuverability too.
The heaviest ship in the game with the best overall hull strength of any of the pilotable craft. Like the Phoenix, this is a heavy bomber and thus suits players who absolutely love to just massacre enemies with tons of missiles, or rockets in the Bora's case.
This is offset by it being rather slow, of course. It also has only one slot for lasers, as opposed to the other ships, which I'd say is a huge detriment and why I wouldn't use it, really. Plus, many Bora missions have you against fighters, so even with all those rocket mounts, it may not be worth it.
A ship that in-universe is considered the most average ship in the game. The Cutlass doesn't excel anywhere at all, and its only real advantage is being way better than the Mako you had prior to joining the Bora.
Yeah, you get the Cutlass upon joining the Bora, and it's just average. Not terrible by any means, but everything it has is average.
Finally, the Galspan Poseidon, which you gain if you decide to join Galspan. It's an okay ship in a number of ways, particularly because its weapon mounts are surprisingly fantastic.
However, for some reason, the Poseidon is tied with the heavy bombers as the slowest overall ship in the entire game, and its wide profile is a detriment. Not helping matters is that the Orion is available one mission later, and it's a much better fighter to fly than the Poseidon.
But like its rival the Cutlass, it's way better than the Mako you originally had.