There’s no great space game without monstrous and dreaded ships that cause fear in the hearts of those who fight against them. SoaSE is not the exception where mayhem often comes by the hand of these ultimate ships called Titans. If large-scale space battles are your thing, this is your article for knowing the toys SoaSe has for you.
At first, something must be said: a great power entails great responsibility and these ships need to be understood in order to take full advantage of their skills. Some may be designed for direct combat, but still need skilled hands to overcome the odds in battle.
It is hard to rate a ship as the best when the game has been balanced well enough to let every titan be good at its job if it’s played as intended and, last but not least, if it is well supported. Some may excel at 1v1 but bring on some squads and cruisers and they may fail. This game is about the lot, not the unit by itself.
I’m gonna start from the most difficult to master and use, to the easiest ones. Of course, every player has his/her own opinion regarding this and some are even willing to teach you how to use their favorites (community is so great, really). But the best you can do is to hop into some skirmishes and test them! Remember to deactivate auto-cast and start looking for perfect timing.
Also, don’t forget that Titans can also upgrade their hull/shields, weaponry, and containment system (more antimatter in storage). So, don’t limit yourself to just maximize all its activated skills, but also play with the circumstances you’re in: want more survivability? Enhance your hull; want to have more antimatter to spam skills? No problemo, just level that thing up.
1#. Coronata (Advent loyalists)
The pride of Advents’ loyalists: a ship that can take control of planets and ships in the blink of an eye. Art by Joel R. Durham
To start up, we have the coffin-like Coronata titan, a ship capable of dealing heavy damage with is Unity Mass skill based on friendly ships near it, as well as taking control of both ships and planets in the blink of an eye.
Along with its high shielding, it also packs a passive aura that seriously cripples enemy ships so you can have them for dessert. Of course, accompanied by a great fleet, you can take full advantage of all its skills and firepower capabilities.
It may sound really terrifying but things are not that easy. This is the titan with the least starting hull of all six, as well as slow turning movement and speed (all titans are slow and have low maneuverability, but Coronata takes the gold). If you see this baby against your fleet, you may want to cripple its fleet first to lower the Unity Mass power to its base.
Repossession can take control of a planet in the blink of an eye, even if it has a starbase with remote government ability. It’s not so cheap in antimatter and cannot take capitals, artifact worlds, or pirate ones, but still is a fearsome skill when used properly.
On the other hand, once you get the planet and if your research has gone well, you can start developing your culture right away, seizing the planet and benefit from that lovely extra damage in your own territory
Subjugation can turn over an enemy ship, despite the odds being somewhat low (15% when maxed), and removes antimatter every time the titan fires a weapon, as well as reducing the damage output. This is a skill that will remain activated and draining antimatter until you turn it off or take that ship.
The cherries of the cake are both Suppression Aura and Unity Mass. The first one makes your enemies’ ships slower and reduces their damage output. Combine it with a capital ship that restores shields and you’re getting the tanky stuff in.
Unity Mass, as said above, is the damage beacon of this ship, which increases its damage for each allied ship under the AoE of the Coronata. It can target everything besides corvettes, so pack that punch wisely.
As with almost every ship in this list, positioning is key with Coronata, as well as timing with skills and, more important, fleet composition to counter off enemy titans’ skills and cover your own flaws.
The ship is marked as heavy micromanagement ‘cause Subjugation and Unity Mass have slow cooldowns or require that you activate them every time you want in order to avoid wasting antimatter.
Titan Strengths
- Passive aura skill that can be lethal
- Can turn ships to your side permanently (not capital/titans)
- Can do massive damage with Unity Mass
- Has great shields
Titan Weaknesses
- Needs a lot of micromanagement
- It requires a lot of fleet support to excel
- Lowest starting hull compared to other titans
Choose This Titan If...
- You want to play with huge fleets
- You’re gonna team up with heavy hitters
- Micromanagement if your thing
2#. Ankylon (TEC loyalists)
The space fortress Ankylon is a ship designed for turtling in your territory and supporting your fleet to survive and disable enemy ships.
Following their political decision of isolating and maximizing all defensive possibilities in their territories, TEC loyalists excelled at it by building a titan that is capable of resisting huge amounts of damage and protecting its fellow fleets from harm.
Designed like an ancient terran sea ship with weapon banks on the sides, this vessel is best used when pushed in the middle of the enemies’ fleets to take total advantage of this design and its incapacitating skills. Also, keep in mind that this baby fights best in its own culture range.
But, as well as any titan, don’t throw it all alone to battle. Some titans may be killers but still can be taken down if not properly taken care of. This guy may survive a lot but it won’t take out effectively those who endanger your assets, so a little help from the missiles locker may help.
One thing that makes this guy an option on multiplayer is its first skill: Disruption Matrix. It is capable of disabling skills even of enemy titans (which is not a little thing) while damaging every enemy around them. This is why it’s important to perfectly position this titan: skill range is good, but if it hits most of the enemies it is better.
Other thingies are both defensive skills: Furious Defense that enhances health regeneration and increases the damage for the titan, but it will get a 50% bonus if it’s activated in a friendly gravity well; and Group Shield that’s an AoE skill (it can target itself) which reduces incoming damage of units in the area where it was cast for some fair percentages.
Its ulti, Inspire and Impair, reduces allied ships' weapon cooldowns to up to 75% which is gross, as well as increasing it for enemy ships for up to 100%. Some players consider this skill thrash, but on some skilled hands and with good allies, this can resolve a heavy fight with that 100% delay.
Titan Strengths
- It was meant for turtling and support
- Gets bonuses while fighting in own culture
- Disruption Matrix affects titans, buildings, and capital ships
Titan Weaknesses
- Lack of firepower
- It may survive against another titan but won’t kill it either
- High cooldown on skills
- If it gets its antimatter depleted, it’s just a ship with thousands of hull points and shields
Choose This Titan If...
- You’re playing hardcore defense
- You want to support your allies
3#. Kultorask (Vasari rebels)
The jewel of the Vasari rebels, often called by players the Space Broccoli (space veggies on the loose), is a really great ship, especially when dealing with big fleets composed of cruisers and frigates (and well supported as well).
The skill setup is meant for both supporting your fleet and decimating the enemy, but the main weapon of this baby is Nano Leech, as it will start depleting hull and antimatter from your enemies’ ships. But the combo with Gravity Pulse or Dissever will have you seeing a parade of derelict ships for a few seconds or the death of almost every frigate/cruiser your foes have.
However, it is sad that the best AoE this ship has (and the best of the game) only affects cruisers and frigates, not capital ships, starbases, or other titans. On the other hand, the leech (when in the middle of great numbers of enemies) can make this boy withstand a great punishment.
Also, if you focus well on supporting this space veggie with some really nice hitters to cover it, Nano Remit will do the job of keeping them resisting a lot of punishment for just a bit of hull from the titan. The cooldown is fairly low (45 seconds) giving you enough chance to extend the fight a bit more.
Gravity Pulse is the greatest disabler out there as it can disrupt max speed, weapon cooldowns and the ships as a whole (if affected by Nano Leech), and even enemy titans! Not too many skills out there can do this and that’s an advantage the great Broccoli has.
Dissever is the ulti and just deals damage per second, with a great bonus if the enemy ships are affected by Nano Leech. In summary, Nano Leech is the backbone of the Kultorask, so use it well.
Playing with this baby requires good skills timing and good positioning: you need to affect most of the enemies’ ships to take full advantage of Nano Leech combo with Gravity Pulse and Dissever. Otherwise, you might waste all its potential.
Titan Strengths
- Can decimate a great fleet of cruisers and frigates in seconds
- Can heal great amounts of health with its skills when surrounded by large fleets
- Can disable enemy ships
Titan Weaknesses
- Offensive skills won’t affect anything that’s not a frigate or cruiser
- It’s not too good on 1v1 against another titan
- Needs skill timing for a good combo
Choose This Titan If...
- You’re playing as a support fleet
- You want to take down huge frigates/cruisers’ fleets
4#. Vorastra (Vasari loyalists)
The mighty Stingray can strike almost any part of the galaxy and bring death with its Phase Stabilizer technology. Art by Norbert at Sins of a Solar Empire forum.
Vasari loyalists kept up so hard with their strategy of hitting and run to avoid being caught by the mysterious enemy, that their titan is basically that: a balanced combat ship that focuses a lot on mobility.
Yeah, it’s a stingray with a great mouth, a dangerous one. Vorastra is a ship well designed for combat, specifically tactical. It can be thrown out in frontal combat and win the fight, but this ship excels at hitting fast and hard and then get back right from where it came from.
First of all, Micro Phase Jump is a GREAT ability. The ship can move inside gravity wells almost instantly, granting the advantage of messing around long rage ships that could snipe it or getting the hell out of a bad fight. The antimatter cost is low and the cooldown can be lowered to ridiculous 30 seconds
Desperation, its second ability, grants three effects and helps this ship being able to deal with large enemy fleets, as well as tanking a little bit: splash damage for a certain time, reduced weapon cooldown, and reduced incoming damage. Along with the great weaponry this ship has, taking small ships could be piece of cake.
The third ability may be overlooked by newbie players, but it represents a huge advantage if played well: Spawn Space Stabilizer. What the hell is that thing? Well, you can send this little stingray all alone to a journey into your enemies’ deep core worlds; they may laugh and say you’re crazy until the Phase Stabilizer appears and a fleet comes in without warning. And, if you researched the appropriate technology, the stabilizer can also recruit Dark Fleet remnants in situ.
Now, the ulti is horrible. It requires perfect timing and positioning, being THE reason for this ship to have Micro Phase Jump: The Maw. Told you that mouth was a dangerous one. This ability renders the titan disabled for a little time and starts consuming all non-capital/titan ships in the frontal arc of it. This instantly destroys the ships and gives you some resources for it.
As you can see, this ship has a different approach when it comes to fighting. Of course, you can launch it into a huge battle and it may serve well its purpose, but playing with brains rather than guts is what makes this ship so deadly.
Titan Strengths
- Excellent mobility thanks to Micro Phase Jump
- Has great weapons and defensive systems
- Can build Phase Jump Stabilizers anywhere
- Can take down fleets of cruisers/frigates with its ulti
Titan Weaknesses
- If it gets out of antimatter, its mobility is lost
- Just two offensive skills for close range and splash damage
- Has troubles with bomber squads
Choose This Titan If...
- You’re a guerrilla warrior (loves mobility and firepower)
- You’re gonna play doing backdoor to your enemies
5#. Eradica (Advent rebels)
Well, oh well, this one here is a true nightmare for almost every player that has faced an experienced human-controlled Eradica out there. What would you do with a masochist ship that becomes far more dangerous the more it approaches the brink of death? Worse, even dead, it will still remain.
Well, frankly, try to kill it with all you have and run as fast as you can, destroy the titan foundry, and don’t let it come back anymore. Also, there’s no need to fight it and try to focus on the real winning conditions But, if you’re playing Advent rebels, then focus on making it the worst pain your enemies have felt.
This baby has some nice shields, hull, armor, and for those thinking on pew pew, long-range weapons. You can sit back a bit, waiting for your enemy to come at you and the Eradica maybe has already started the beam party (doesn’t apply with the Ragnarov).
To start, the first skill called Purification lets you destroy a friendly frigate in order to gain its remaining shields, hull, and antimatter. That’s insane when you discover that the cooldown can go as below as 20 seconds at level 4. It’s spamming time!
The second ability, Chastic Burst, is a nice AoE that targets one single enemy ship, damaging it, and then explodes to affect those others in the radius of the target. Excellent to take down tight fleets out there.
Now, this is one skill that makes this ship feared and a great fighter: Strength of the Fallen. A skill that makes that every allied ship dying near the Eradica contributes to increase its damage output by 8% (stacking 5 times maximum) just on level 1. That’s huge! If this ship is already hitting hard on its own, imagine it buffed with 40% more damage almost constantly in a battle.
And, the ultimate reason for this vessel to excel is Unyielding Will. This thing is crazy: when the hull of the titan starts dropping below 75%-50%-25%, it will increase its antimatter restoration rate, decrease ability cooldown rate and have a damage reduction rate.
There’s a percentage for any of those three stages that goes for 25%/50%/100% on level 1 for ability cooldown; 5%/10%/20% for damage reduction; and 200%/400%/800% for antimatter restoration rate. It’s insane.
On level 2 of the ultimate, all those percentages are basically doubled. And not happy with that, the frigging ship will remain alive, when killed, for 4 minutes with all active bonuses. This is why this ship is used for suicidal exploration/hunting. It can tie enemy fleets to defend while your allies are breaking havoc on other systems.
Titan Strengths
- It can be unkillable on seasoned hands
- Huge damage
- It can go well against fleets, buildings, and titans
Titan Weaknesses
- Its main weapons can’t target the same objective more than 2 at a time (beams)
- Once your fleet is depleted, it relies merely on damage and Undying Will to succeed
- Bomber squads may chew upon its armor and shields
Choose This Titan If...
- You’re a suicidal maniac than doesn’t mind razing everything on your path and dying
- You like some micromanagement to do heavy damage
6#. Ragnarov (TEC rebels)
This ship is the simplest you can find out there. Its job is one: cause a lot of damage. There’s some micromanagement with its skills, but the ship can do its work pretty well without too many clicks. Just be careful not to leave its back facing your enemies.
Why is this ship so simple? All its skills are for doing damage or self-improving those damage skills. The first one is Scattershot, a skill that damages all enemies in the frontal arc of the titan, doing some nice damage and reducing their armor too.
The second one is the ugliest one: Snipe. A longshot that deals great damage on a single target (1200 on level 1) and has a ridiculous cooldown of just 11 seconds. Sadly, you need to manage these shots well as spamming 70 antimatter will drain your reserves pretty fast.
The third one is perfect for AoE with decent damage and the chance to disrupt the enemy fleet: Explosive Shot. This does a nice amount of damage and also pushes ships near the objective (you shoot to one ship and the explosion affects those nearby) aside, like mini-stunning them.
Now, you must be expecting an insane ulti that deals thousands of damage, but the answer is no. Overcharge has a cooldown of 60 seconds on level 1 and lets you do this: double the damage of your next skill, as well as distance. Now, your level 1 Snipe would deal a precious 2400 damage, capable of killing a single cruiser/frigate if conditions are met.
This makes the Ragnarov one hell of an opponent, despite being so slow and having a point-blank on the back. It can kite buildings and other titans pretty well in a safe distance and may be accompanied by some Javelis frigates to add some more long-range missiles to soften enemies way more.
Titan Strengths
- Great damage dealer
- Excellent for 1v1 or destroying starbases
- Scattershot reduces enemy armor to compensate TEC lack of power
Titan Weaknesses
- Slow as hell, especially for maneuvering
- No weapons on the back bank making it vulnerable
Choose This Titan If...
- You want to snipe targets from great distances
- You want a reliable damage dealer
