Starborne: Frontiers - Marauders Ships Guide

Most of the PVE encounters can be cleared with this ship easily with the right supporting units beside it. The same applies for the Bounty bosses. Though this unit is not made for speed clearing, it demolishes everything on the way in its time.

The fact that this ship is Antimatter is also very useful, don’t have to worry about the disadvantages offered by the affinities. The only fights that offer difficulties for this ship are battles where the enemy team has a unit that cleanses the bombs inflicted.

I used Demolisher, Los and Sentinel or Demolisher, Panguan, Sentinel combo in the Vault with pretty good results before I got all corrosion team together. If I remember correctly the best result was 5 mil against NM boss.

Ravager

PVE ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
PVP ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Bosses ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Ravager is one of the hardest hitting units in the game, with one of the highest base attack of any unit. With a wide pattern and powerful inferno debuffs ravager can become useful in a variety of encounters, especially against bosses of the electric affinity.

His charged skill allows him to deal more damage based on debuffs, which allows him to pair well with debuffs heavy teams. This also allows him to perform fairly decently in the vault. All in all ravager is a powerful chemical attacker that is capable of performing well in a majority of encounters.

Ruiner

PVE ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
PVP ⭐☆☆☆☆
Bosses ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Ruiner is the essential Epic Atracker for Abyss and does well in campaign also. Not just for fragment encounters, but also essential for many regular encounters on the deepest floors. He has a big pattern, debuffs Repair Down with both his Active and Charged Skills, and his Passive uniquely inflicts Bomb 2 whenever an enemy Repairs themselves.

This makes him incredibly effective, better than most Legendary attackers, at cracking enemy teams with strong healing. For bosses, he can work but there’s always a better option. Typically only used on a few Abyss bosses and even then only until you have a Demolisher to take his place.

Butcher

PVE ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
PVP ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
Bosses ⭐⭐☆☆☆

Butcher is one of the first Epic Attackers you get and can carry you through the entirety of the campaign. His Infernos can be a good addition to his damage even though they can be a little difficult to utilize properly, since the application of them requires Hacking.

He’s a strong epic pick if you want to farm Nightmare Campaign 10-6 with low times. His attack pattern helps to shoot past the Defenders on the front and shoot down those opposing Attackers. For harder Abyss Fragment Encounters there are often better options, like Ruiner, because the defensive Values of the Targets become very high.

Since Butcher has a very solid direct damage, he is useful for early to mid Bounties and Anomalies, but most legendary Attackers will do a better Job. Unfortunately that is also true for PVP, he will help you to get the ball rolling, but has to be replaced if you want to aim for Gold. All in All Butcher is a Unit you wont regret getting to 60 as one of your first, if not the first, Epic.

Ripper

PVE ⭐☆☆☆☆
PVP ⭐☆☆☆☆
Bosses ⭐☆☆☆☆

Ripper is an unfortunate case of incredible on paper, but not so good in reality. She has fantastic utility in her passive to extend ally buff and a full row attack pattern (one of only two units that does), but she is hindered by her multi stat reliance, relatively low base stats, and most importantly, lack of place within current game content.

That isn’t to say she has no use at all, as she has fantastic synergy with timed stack based buff units like Heliodor, but these are all too niche. The only reliable location for her currently is within Abyss fragment battles, but again, far too niche content, and can quite comfortably be replaced by other epic units to the same effect. For this units rating to improve, she either needs more content tailored to her kit, and/or a base stat buff.

Despite all of this, and my horrifically low rating, Ripper can actually be quite fun to use if you accept she isn’t top tier, she has fantastic synergy with the new burner set, and her passive ability enables lots of room for creativity in composition building, and I’ve used her consistently within wacky compositions to great enjoyment. So at the end of the day, I want to be a Ripper fan, I am a Ripper fan. But she’s fighting an uphill battle.

Asphyxiator

PVE ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
PVP ⭐⭐☆☆☆
Bosses ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Asphyxiator has one of the best patterns you can have on a unit hitting a very large area and also skipping, his anti-survivability debuffs and extra damage from inferno allow him to fit cleanly in many different setups.

DoT is essentially useless in Arena, while his pattern is alright and his Defense down debuff is helpful his comparative lack of raw damage or other useful debuffs leaves other units better fitting.

Similar to his PvE usefulness, Asphyxiator’s debuffs when factoring in the outsized impact DoTs have on high HP enemies increase his effect.

Tormenter

PVE ⭐⭐⭐☆☆
PVP ⭐⭐☆☆☆
Bosses ⭐⭐☆☆☆

The usefulness of this unit highly depends on the encounter, but it shines especially in encounters where it can hit multiple units with its long line pattern. The real trick about this unit, in my opinion, is to ignore its classification as a defender, treat it as a pure damage dealer, and maybe view it as a brawler, who can take a hit or two.

I say this because Tormenter will critical hit with every attack, which means we can ignore the crit rate stat completely on gear and implants and focus on attack and crit power, turning her into a powerhouse. Campaign encounters with lots of enemies in a row? Crit them to pieces. Abyss encounters with lots of enemies in a row? Crit them to pieces. Fragment battles with lots of enemies in a row? Crit them to pieces.

Incinerator

PVE ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
PVP ⭐⭐⭐⭐☆
Bosses ⭐⭐☆☆☆

The Incinerator is one of only two units in the game capable of targeting an entire line, making it difficult for enemy units to hide behind tanks. In fact, the only way to hide against the Incinerator is to place units in front of the tank.

Incinerator also synergizes well with other units that inflict Inferno, thanks to his passive end-of-round effect, which deals high damage. This effect benefits from the naturally high crit power that Marauders tend to have, making him an excellent unit for delivering devastating blows in the right setups.

When it comes to boss fights, Incinerator doesn’t stand out due to his 4-hex attack pattern, which results in lower single-target or main-hex damage. However, he can still be quite useful in certain mini-boss encounters, such as in the Abyss or against Ignis, the Thermal Harvester.

In PvP, Incinerator excels, but he faces stiff competition for a slot from units like LOS and Nuqtu, both of which are exceptional in PvP scenarios.

Starborne: Frontiers – Marauders Ships Guide