User blog:F0XTRAUT/How to properly use Aphids, Vortexes & Thermites

Do you find it difficult to hit a target with Aphids, Vortexes & Thermites? Then this Blog is for you.

I will teach you how to successfully hit targets in and around cover, and how to use them in a 1v1 situation.

Description
Aphids, Vortexes & Thermites are Homing Weapons. They function similar to Spiral, Hydra & Chimera. They fire a series of homing missiles in a circular trajectory towards their target, usually most of the missiles will hit its target while a portion would hit the ground. They deal much higher damage than their relatives and have a shorter range of 350m.

Taking Out Moving Targets
Often, when players see Aphids, Vortexes & Thermites they tend to move to the side to mitigate the damage as much as possible. Fast robots like Kumiho and Strider can doge it entirely with a single dash, while energy shield robots can block it all together.

When using Aphids, Vortexes & Thermites, be sure to curve your missiles in the direction the target is traveling; If your target is moving left, aim left in front of them. For slow targets you don’t need to curve as much but when dealing with faster robots, you have to aim further ahead of them. Most of the time, when you do this trick it increases the chance of hitting a moving target.

If the target is moving too fast (60 km/h or higher) wait until they stop, then fire because if you fire while their moving it has a large chance it will miss. If they don’t stop and is moving towards you, then wait until they are infront of you. That way, no matter how fast they move all missiles will hit the target regardless, unless they switch directions or have a very small frame.

Taking Out Jumping Targets
Most people that have robots that can jump will use it to doge missiles from Aphids, Vortexes & Thermites. To counter this, wait until the target jumps. This part is all about timing, at the last second or two before the target lands, fire your missiles. Missiles take 2-3 seconds to hit its target depending on how far the target is. If you have done it correctly, as soon as the target lands the missiles should be a split second from hitting the target. This trick ensures that all missiles will hit the target cause as the target drops, the missiles curve into a cone above the target and hit the target.

This results in an incredible amount of damage (Depending on the level of your Weapons), which in most cases would take 60-90% of their health for durable robots like Leo while medium robots like Rogatka and Griffin even though its a heavy robot, would result in an Instant Kill.

You can do this trick in accordance with quantum radar to kill Spectres, Mercuries & Inquisitors. Heck, you can even do it to Hover an Ao Jun if your that good.

Hitting Targets In Cover
In order for this Trick to work, you need a robot that can Jump or Decend. Usually, most people know this trick. As soon as they jump, the second their out of cover they fire, mostly it hits the cover instead of hitting the target. Because they fired too early. But what you really need to do is Jump, as soon as you reach maximum height of your jump, fire you missiles. Usually, because your missiles have be fired from above them it wil bypass the cover entirely and hit them flat on the head. This isn’t as lethal as the last trick, but it deal quite a bit of damage. The succession of this trick purely depends on how high the robot can jump, how big the target is, ground elevation and how tall the piece of cover is.

You can do a similar trick with target’s above you, instead you would be hitting them from below.

Hitting Target Around a Corner
This trick is quite tricky to use because it involves you curving your missile extremely to the left or right to hit a target that’s around a corner. You can lose aim if you curve too slowly or if you curve too much. If you do it successfully (it takes practice), then the fires missiles should be fired a small distance out of the corner and should automatically change direction to hit the target that’s around the corner. This does not always work because some of the missiles will hit the target and the ground. This depends on your distance from the corner and how much you curve.

Obviously, if the target is moving towards the corner then you don’t need to curve as much but when the target is hugging the corner you will have to curve a lot. This may require you to move around to adjust your aim to properly hit the target. This works best with medium and smaller robots because it has a better chance at getting a full hit resulting in high damagewhile bigger targets like Butch, the missiles can end up hitting it’s legs or its lower torso which would result in minimal damage.

Hitting an Energy Shielded Target
Energy Shielded Robots are one of the most hardest target to kill with Homing Weapons. To counter this, you have to fire your Aphids, Vortexes & Thermites sequentially (1 by 1). This obviously doesn’t do much damage to the robot but it should disable the energy shield momentarily. The success of this trick soly depends in how powerful your weapons are and how strong the target’s shield is.

Obviously, a lvl 9-10 Ancile wouldn’t go down in one volley from low level Aphids or Vortexes but it would weaken it drastically. While Anciles on the other hand would be able to stop Homing Missiles without too much damage if their upgraded. High Level Thermites, because of their high damage. It is a suitable choice for taking down shields because of high damage. High Level Vortexes can also take down Shields very well.

Alternatively, you could wait for a teammate to destroy the target’s shield and then fire to deal full damage. You can drain their shields when their behind cover.

Blocking Homing Missiles with Physical Shields
If you don’t have an energy shield and there are homing missiles everywhere. The only thing you can use besides cover is the piece of cover thats attaches to your robot. This trick works only with robots with physical shields (I.e. Bulgasari). There are 2 different ways to counter these 2 types of homing missiles: Missiles from Spiral, Hydra & Chimera & Missiles from Aphids, Vortexes & Thermites. Here are the Methods:

Method 1: (For use against Spiral, Hydra & Chimera) Turn or Activate your robot’s physical shield to face the directon of fire. Usually the missiles would be blocked by the shield, but sometimes it can bypass your shield and hit your robot instead. It mainly depends on how big your physical shield is in order for success.

Method 2: (For use against Aphid, Vortex & Thermite) Its similar to the first method but you move backwards, away from the missiles to minimize impact and to improve the chance of it to hit your shield of even the ground.

One thing to keep in mind is that unlike Energy Shields, Physical Shields aren’t invincible and will break after a lot of damage is dealt to it. These methods will stop being effective once the physical shield is destroyed.

Hitting Physically Shielded Targets
Its pretty straight forward, you curve, jump or make them turn around to get a successful hit. Most Physical Shields break after a couple vollies from maxed Vortexes or Thermites.

Alternatively, you could wait for someone to destroy the target’s shield so when you fire your missiles it wouldn’t get blocked by the shield. But really, you don’t need to wait.

Hitting Stealthed Targets
Going back to ‘How to hit moving targets’ its the same thing but you use Quantum Radar and proper timing in firing your missiles.

Feedback and Questions
This took me a lot of time (2H) and lots of research and Trials. If you have any questions or comments feel free to ask in the comment section below.

If you really want to see me demonstrate and talk to you about what I have just told you, then send me an invite via ID in the Game. I am usually on during 4:00 PM - 8:00 PM.