Fractured Space Equalizer Guide

Fractured Space Equalizer Guide by Serafine

This guide, based on my personal experience, will help you to get the most out of this formidable little ship. If you are new to Fractured Space you should read Jeriah’s guide on all ships loadouts first first.

Introduction to the Equalizer

The Equalizer is a very fast and THE most maneuverable ship in the game. In the hangar the Equalizer is listed as support, however this is not true. In fact it is a light attack ship prefect for quick captures and harassment. When used properly it can be the most annoying ship in the game.

Though it has relatively decent armor the raw health is rather low, making speed and agility it’s greatest defense. Luckily the Equalizer has a purge field which makes it almost impossible to pin down – it cannot be disabled, harpooned, slowed, ambushed or marked.
However the Equalizer requires a high situational awareness and great experience with the movement mechanics of Fractured Space, making it sort of an “advanced” ship for experienced players. If you are new to the game it may be better to play the Enforcer first which is a lot easier to fly and a lot more forgiving.

What this Guide will Attempt to Show You

This guide will attempt to give you a most complete rundown of the traits and abilities of the Equalizer and how to use them for the most effect. It will also feature friends and enemies of the Equalizer.

I will try to keep it up to date the best I can and add more information as the game is growing into it’ final shape. If you feel anything is missing, have something that should be added/expanded upon or any questions, feel free to let me know in a comment below.

Movement

Yes, there is a separate section solely about movement as this often overlooked is the key to being a successful Equalizer captain.
We start with the first and utmost important rule of all.

Equalizer rule #1:
NEVER. STOP. MOVING.

As an Equalizer agility is your most powerful form of the defense. You cannot afford to take multiple hits and there are ships like the Enforcer and the Assassin that can one- or two-shot you if they get the opportunity.

Equalizer rule #2:
Never move into less than two direction at once.

The Equalizer is the most agile ship in the game, featuring a sidewards thrust power that equals 2/3 of it’s main engine. If there is any class in this game where a no-ghosting keyboard pays off it’s this one (no-ghosting keyboards can be acquired quite cheap – I payed 40€ for my Sidewinder keyboard that even has LED-illuminated keys).

In battle you should almost always press one key from each of the following pairs:
– W or S for forward or backward thrust
– Q or E for sidewards thrust
– Space or Ctrl for up/down thrust
– A or D to adjust your facing (if necessary)

This will make it practically impossible for Assassins to hit you and even give Enforcers a pretty hard time trying. In fact the Equalizer is so agile that it can dodge Flak projectiles.

The standard battle tactic of the Equalizer is to dance around it’s target and dash out sting after sting until the victim either runs, dies or commits suicide by trying to jump out. Note that forward and sidewards thrust stack, so you can fly even faster with diagonal movement – this is especially true when flying backwards. An Equalizer flying backwards at a 45° angle moves more than three times faster than one that uses just S to fly straight backwards.

Weapons

Currently the Equalizer has only one weapon. This section will expand as more weapons might be added.

Note that even though the main weapon is guided you will still have to lead the target at distances closer than 5k. This will not only increase your hit chances against a moving target, it can also make your missiles hit faster which might be important if your target tries to jump out.

Life Leech

This is currently the only weapon available to the Equalizer. It is a guided weapon that tracks your currently locked target and as such it requires a target lock. Note that you can press T to lock the target you are looking at (press T multiple times to cycle through targets within range).
In contrast to the Corvette’s weapon however the Equalizers main gun is actually not completely useless without a lock, as the higher speed and spread allows it to still hit close-by Assassins that just cloaked.

The range of the Equalizer’s main cannon is 12000. The lowest effective range is about 1000, closer it becomes kinda hard to land all shots.

The special thing about the Equalizers main gun is that repairs your ship every time it hits an enemy. Because of that you should always shoot in a battle even if the chances for a particular salvo to hit well are rather low – small repairs are still better than no repairs.

Abilities – Purge Field

The purge field the Equalizer’s most valuable defensive ability as it prevents the Equalizer from getting slowed harpooned or disabled.
It also removes all debuffs and negative status effects, like marked, detect and ambush.
It can even cancel Plasma but only when it’s activated – Plasma hits after the activation cannot be canceled, even if your ship still has the “protected” status effect.
It’s important to save the purge field until you really need it. Don’t pop it up just because you got harpooned or disabled if you can avoid getting killed without using it.

The current range of 2000 makes it almost impossible to remove status effects from allies unless they blink right on top of you, so you shouldn’t even try.

Abilities – Osprey Torpedo

While the damage of this torpedo is rather crappy it has some special traits that make it worth using.
The first one is it’s almost unlimited tracking range which is about 22000. Then the plasma explosion is an area effect, so it can hit multiple targets at once and it can affect targets behind cover (like a mining station). Also the torpedo is rather smart and can re-aquire a lost target which is – when combined with it’s 15 seconds flight time – most useful against ships with cloak and blink abilities.
The Plasma prevents ships from cloaking and as such is most useful against those. It’s also a nice tool to scare noob Snipers and annoy Frigates.

Abilities – Detect Drone

Well – it’s a detect drone. Not much to say about it. You can use it to scan mining stations for assassins, but you might not need that if you stick to rule #1. Best use is to throw it at a close-by assassin and then shove a Torpedo up his ass – that will give you and your buddies enough time to finish him off before he can cloak again.

Abilities – Boost Gate

Boost Gate is the Equalizer’s form of boost. It fires a projectiles that expands into a sparkling energy gate in front of you ship. The good thing is that it allows you to take allies with you, the bad news is, again, that they basically have to hug you you due to the rather small radius and low duration of the gate.
The ability to take friends with you is most useful in early game to quickly get ships like Brawlers and Assassins to the middle of the map, in late game that requires to much effort and most of the time you will need the game for yourself anyway.

The Gate can be used for various tasks. It allows the Equalizer move up a lane and capture stuff almost as quick as a ranged blink Hunter. It is absolutely great to chase and finish off fleeing targets – with Boost Gate the Equalizer can even catch ranged blink Hunters. And it makes a great extraction tool if you’re suddenly confronted with a superior enemy force.

Your best buddies

Disruptor: This is actually the only ship that can keep up with you and your erratic movement patterns thanks to it’s blink2ally ability. An Equalizer and a Fast Blaster Disruptor is a very good combination and can make your enemy scream in agony as they fail to kill it over and over again. Also the FB Disruptor brings detect and a weapon that is highly effective against Assassins, basically eliminating the only weakness of the Equalizer.

Corvette: While not as good as a Disruptor this is still a formidable combination. The Corvette lacks self-repair but it brings a powerful long-range repair beam and the ability shutdown which, in combination with the Osprey Torpedo, is pretty much game over for Assassins.
Long range movement with a Corvette requires a bit more coordination as it cannot just jump to you, but it’s doable.

Flagship: Why is this slow ponderous ship one of your best buddies? Well, with a colossal war engine of death in his face an enemy will rarely even take note of you, which gives you a perfect opportunity to dance around him and dash out sting after sting.

Equalizer: One of them is a pain in the ass. Two of them is screaming agony ripping your butt off. And thanks to double boost gate there is almost no escape as one of them will eventually get you. However having two ships focused on harassing when one would be sufficient might be a bit detrimental to your fleet setup.

Your most tasty meals

Sniper: The Sniper can’t do much a about a Frigate close-by and it can do less against the even more agile Equalizer. Once you got close the Sniper is toast. The LR cannon might be very unpleasant though if a full charge hits you.

Disruptor: Even a fast blaster Disruptor will have a very hard time hitting you. You can easily chase it off, although killing it might be difficult due to it’s blink2ally.

Brawler: Thanks to purge field he can’t harpoon you, so you can just dance around him and laugh at him. You can fly backwards faster than he can fly forwards. this ship is no threat at all.

Assassin: With your erratic flying he will barely be able hit you. Just wait for him trying and then kill him (detect drone, torpedo, shoot). If he’s not falling for it boost away and go look for other targets.

Corvette: There’s little this ship can do against an Equalizer. However it usually has buddies around, so stay cautious.

Your most dangerous opponents

Flagship: Yes, it can’t disable you and you are agile enough to dodge Flak. But this colossal beast has a ton of health and some very unpleasant missile salvos. You might do significant damage to it but chances are high it will get you in the end, even if you are a very good Equalizer pilot.

Enforcer: The Enforcer is fast, can blink and has a very devastating attack. Even without Tazer a good Enforcer pilot can easily two-shot you if if you’re not careful.

Frigate: Almost as fast as the Equalizer and with a powerful screen, it’s very hard to take down.

Hunter. Thick armor, high health, blink, guided rockets, area-damage leech drones and a very fast gun projectile make this ship a deadly threat. Hunters are probably are your toughest opponent.

The end

Thanks for reading this guide, I hope you enjoyed it.
My hopes are that it will lead to a better understanding of this highly underrated ship and we see more good Equalizer players out there soon, embracing the sheer awesomeness of this class. Have fun playing the game and see you on the battlefield!