Phoenix Point Vehicles & Aircraft - which faction has the best vehicles?
Scarabs to the left of me, Mutogs to the right
Vehicles and Aircraft are your greatest weapons in Phoenix Point. They are your transport, your artillery, and your speedy getaway all rolled into one. But with each faction offering up their own unique airship and land vehicle to compete with the Phoenix Project's own starting Scarab and Manticore, it can be a challenge to know exactly which vehicles are the best choice. Our Phoenix Point Vehicles & Aircraft guide will compare stats and offer our take on each of the different vehicles in the game, both on land and in the air.
Phoenix Point Vehicles & Aircraft guide contents:
Phoenix Point Vehicles
"Vehicles" is a bit of a loose term in Phoenix Point, because aircraft are also called vehicles at times. But here we're talking about the land vehicles, such as the Phoenix Project's Scarab, which you can load up into an aircraft along with your squad members and take them into missions. These vehicles take up a hefty three slots in an aircraft, but their power and versatility more than makes up for this drawback. Let's take a look at the stats and strengths of each vehicle:
| Name | Faction | Capacity | Speed | HP | Armor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scarab | Phoenix Project | 4 | 24 | 530 | 31 |
| Armadillo | New Jericho | 4 | 28 | 1000 | 31 |
| Aspida | Synedrion | 1 | 32 | 500 | 20 |
| Mutog | Disciples of Anu | 0 | 20-28 | 790-1000 | 13-21 |
From my time playing, I have a very clear winner when it comes to the best vehicle - and funnily enough, it's the starting Scarab. Second place would go to New Jericho's heavily armored Armadillo, because of its high health pool and a powerful mounted Gauss Machine Gun for use in close-quarters situations
But honestly, none of them come anywhere close to the versatility of the Scarab, which not only has enough hit points to tank shots when needed, but also has a ridiculously long-range twin rocket launcher, capable of wiping out multiple threats at once from across the entire map.
Synedrion's Aspida and the Disciples of Anu's Mutog are very underwhelming in my opinion. The Aspida's two main functions (healing allies and paralysing enemies) are quickly outmoded by Medkits and Synedrion's paralysis weaponry for soldiers; and the Mutog's gimmick of recovering health and APs upon killing an enemy is made useless by the fact that none of the variations are really strong enough to bounce from enemy to enemy and lethal attack to lethal attack in the way that it needs to. And it can't carry troops, so it lacks the protective functionality of the other vehicles.
Vehicles in general tend to lose their effectiveness as you head into the second half of the campaign - it's often better to take full squads of high-level soldiers instead. But for a fantastic early game, you can't do much better than a Scarab for long-range support or an Armadillo for tanking.
Phoenix Point Aircraft
Now let's cover the transport vehicles of Phoenix Point - the costly but utterly essential aircraft. While unable to offer any offensive support in missions, these aircraft are vital for transporting squads across the world, exploring new areas of interest and furthering the cause of the Phoenix Project.
| Name | Faction | Capacity | Speed | Range | Durability |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manticore | Phoenix Project | 6 | 500 | 2000 | 100 |
| Thunderbird | New Jericho | 7 | 380 | 2500 | 200 |
| Helios | Synedrion | 5 | 650 | 3000 | 80 |
| Tiamat | Disciples of Anu | 8 | 250 | 4000 | 150 |
Let me start by saying: there is little more useful than stealing an early-game Tiamat from a Disciples of Anu haven. Slow it may be, but the ability to carry 8 soldiers is an enormous benefit for when missions start to get more difficult; and that fantastic range will allow you to reach new continents and difficult-to-reach areas without being bottlenecked by area-scanning your way there.
See, range is a hugely important factor for aircraft in Phoenix Point. It's less of an issue if you make a point to bring every faction relation to at least 25% to reveal every haven so you have more points to bounce between; but even so, it can be extremely useful to have at least one long-range aircraft at your disposal.
Durability is more or less a non-issue because the only times your aircraft will sustain damage is as a result of scripted POI events, and it's never enough to kill in one - and you can also emergency repair aircraft when needed. So New Jericho's Thunderbird Helicarrier is really rather underwhelming compared to the Tiamat.
And as for Synedrion's Helios, which operates on the other side of the speed/capacity spectrum... It's got a decent range and the speed is fantastic, but 5 unit slots simply isn't enough for me. If I were to use a Helios it would be for conducting area scans, as well as trading with and recruiting from factions. For exploration and troop transport, a Tiamat or even the starting Manticore is far better suited for the task.
How to build and repair Vehicles & Aircraft
Okay, now we've got a better grasp of how the different faction vehicles compare to the Phoenix Project's own; but how do you actually use them? The main method is by manufacturing them in the Vehicles tab of the Manufacture screen. Land vehicles are costly and time-consuming to create, and aircraft even more so - but they're more than worth the effort and expense.
If you're not afraid to incur the wrath of one or more of the factions, it can also be extremely worthwhile to steal aircraft from faction havens. These missions are usually quite risky as the aircraft tend to be well-guarded; but even a single captured aircraft is enough to catapult the Phoenix Project ahead in terms of power and influence.
Repairing your vehicles differs based on the type, but the most straightforward method is to bring the damaged vehicle (whether land or air) to a Phoenix base with a Vehicle Bay. This will gradually restore the hit points of the vehicle, just like a Medical Bay does for regular soldiers (for more information on these and other buildings, check out our Phoenix Point Base Management guide!).
With aircraft, you can also perform an emergency repair while away from your base, which will require a one-off payment of Materials. For land vehicles, you can also repair them during combat if you have a Technician with Mech Arms that grant them the Technician Repair ability. For full details, look no further than our Phoenix Point Classes guide.
And with that, we've said our piece on every single vehicle and aircraft in Phoenix Point - but why stop there when you can have a look at some of our other guides? We're hard at work creating an entire series of top-tier guides on every aspect of this ambitious new turn-based tactics game, so be sure to check out the links below for more tips and strategies to get you started!
- Phoenix Point guide & top tips - Read our 20 top tips for new players and XCOM veterans alike when starting their journey in Phoenix Point!
- Phoenix Point Classes - All soldier classes and skills explained (including faction specialists), as well as the best options for multi-classing troops!
- Phoenix Point Vehicles & Aircraft - Every faction's vehicles and aircraft explained, with full stats and our opinions on the very best vehicles to use!
- Phoenix Point enemies - Learn how to deal with Sirens, Chirons, Terror Sentinels, Scyllas, and Mindfraggers with our in-depth enemies guide!
- Phoenix Point Factions & Diplomacy - Learn about the three main factions of Phoenix Point, along with independent havens, diplomacy options, and much more!
- How to capture enemies in Phoenix Point - This quick guide will walk you through the tricky process of capturing live Pandorans for research purposes!
- How to recruit new soldiers in Phoenix Point - Here we'll talk about how to recruit more soldiers, find elite specialists, and expand your army!
- Phoenix Point Base Management - Learn which buildings are the most useful to construct in your Phoenix bases, and how to give your bases the best chance of success!
- Phoenix Point Free Aim & Part Damage - Brush up on the intricacies of Phoenix Point's unique Free Aim and Body Part Damage systems!
- Phoenix Point DLC Roadmap - Learn about the first three major planned DLCs for Phoenix Point: Blood and Titanium, Legacy of the Ancients, and Festering Skies!