Northstar is a Stryder-based Titan class in Titanfall 2.[1]
Overview[]
Northstar is a Titan class that is based on the Stryder chassis design. Northstar is built on high mobility and precision attacks with her railgun and cluster missiles, and can perform vertical takeoffs and landings to access unorthodox lines of sight.
The Northstar chassis, by default, is only capable of a short VTOL-style hover, which she can use to gain an elevated position or rain missiles down on the enemy. Extremely expensive and time-consuming modifications can be equipped to allow flight more akin to that of a more standard aircraft - however, these upgrades are prohibitively expensive to obtain and are available for a very small amount of Pilots such as Viper.[2] A more standard modification for the majority of Pilots is the Viper Thrusters, which allow Northstar increased movement speed while airborne.
Field Notes[]
- Northstar's primary weapon is the Plasma Railgun which deals low damage if fired immediately (though is still capable of insta-killing Pilots and Minions) - however if the weapon is fully-charged, it can do high damage (450 damage short of being able to one-hit kill a Titan in the Doomed State) and knock the enemy Titan backwards, similar to the close range Power Shot used by Legion. Can be effective against CQC-based Titans such as Scorch or Ronin.
- Northstar's abilities can be used to tether an enemy titan before using the Cluster Missile, as the enemy Titan will be unable to move out of the trap. Combining this with an Electric Smoke can potentially maximize the damage dealt even further. If in Doomed State, a well-placed Tether Trap can even used to force a Titan into taking a Nuke Eject. However, there is a high risk of the tether being destroyed.
- Dashing out from cover and then back to fire a railgun round at a titan can be useful for outlasting enemy Titans.
- When encountering a Legion with its Gun Shield up, firing a cluster missile at its legs and breaking line of sight as fast as possible is a moderate way to stall the titan without getting punished.
- While Northstar has a Stryder chassis like its cousin, Ronin, Northstar is more suitable for long-range combat against enemies and reposition to cover when they're close rather than utilize close-ranged hit-and-run attacks.
- Plasma Railgun shots, despite seeming hitscan, are actually just extremely fast projectiles; leading is necessary, but only at longer ranges, and even then, not by much.
- When fighting either an Ogre-based titan (Scorch, Legion), or another Stryder-based titan (Ronin, Northstar), aiming for the Weak points when possible is recommended due to the otherwise massive amount of health to chip through or the evasive nature of said titans making hitting shots difficult, respectively. On the other hand, the medium titans (Ion, Tone, Monarch) can usually be engaged with less caution.
- If being pursued, Cluster Missiles serve as a pseudo tether to any pursuers, if they run through it they will take moderate amounts of damage.
- Given Northstar's low health and armament, it is highly recommended to avoid using aggressive tactics , notably pursuing an enemy at close range as this could lead to an ambush.
- In the case of fighting a Scorch or Ronin, it is suggested that players make good use of VTOL Hover as they can hover over scorch’s thermite abilities (except his T-203 Thermite Launcher and Thermal Shield), as well as avoiding arc waves and move at sprinting speeds (with the Viper thrusters kit equipped) whilst charging her railgun. one can hover over Titans, However this can leave players fully exposed.
- Players are recommened to be aware of any Titan as Northstar is a glass cannon (meaning high damage, low health, and very mobile) such as Tone, who might try to pursue and corner players with a Particle Wall, Players can break line of sight to deny tone her damage once her wall is placed. Or utilize northstar's superior mobility to create space and position around cover. A fully charged railgun shot will significantly weaken Particle Wall so that a no charge shot or cluster missile impact damage would take it down, leaving Tone vulnerable. Ion is able to abuse her quick defensive raise time to intercept all of northstar's shots so she has to be patient and predict when Ion lowers vortex/work down her energy as best she can. Legion whilst a slow target is able to heavily punish northstar if she remains in Legion's line of sight. Ronin is able to force northstar out, if he catches her he can force her to stay immobile for a significant amount of time, with this in mind, northstar has to maintain distance on ronin at all times.
- Cluster Missile can be to flush out enemies, such as pilots from houses or fire it next to where titans are taking cover, dealing moderate damage to pilots and low damage to titans, potentially forcing them to move outside of the radius of the missile's sub explosions.
- Northstar is one of the most mobile titans in the game (other than Ronin) so make use of dashes, tethers, and hover in order to avoid enemies acquiring line of sight and get to cover.
- It is normally suggested for players to not drop charge on the Railgun as it deals high damage and some knockback, so if a titan were to rush Northstar, a single shot would slow their advance, utilize dashes and hover (with the viper thrusters kit equipped) to move while holding the charge.
- Northstar can be countered by other enemy Titans. If caught in close range, players are recommended to break the enemy's line of sight as fast as possible and dodge as much damage as possible. It is recommended that players maintain a decent distance between themselves and enemy Ronin's, as it is nigh unpreventable chance that players would win the fight in close range.
- Ronin is quite dangerous for Northstar at close range, while he can reduce the damage taken he will not be able to catch her due to Northstar being able to match his speed and heavily punish mistakes, equipping turbo engine and viper thrusters can help stay ahead, try attacking a Ronin while he is distracted and not blocking, dealing high damage before he can react.
- VTOL has a set height, taking off from an elevated position will allow players to gain an elevated position over the enemy and out of reach certain close range abilities (viper thrusters are recommended for this strategy as they increase the movement speed of VTOL Hover, allowing players to move further out of range)
Loadout[]
Primary Weapon | |||
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Plasma Railgun "Sniper railgun that charges up while zoomed. Hold [ADS] to charge." | |||
Abilities | |||
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Trivia[]
- In the campaign mission "The Ark", Viper uses a modified Northstar that can fly for longer periods of time than a normal variant. This Northstar was custom-scripted as a passion project by the developer in charge of the boss fight, and thus is the only reason Viper has unique animations; in-lore reasons for it were created afterwards.
- Both the paint scheme and nose art Viper's Northstar dons can be purchased from the store and unlocked via regenerating the titan several times, respectively. While the titan's aircraft-like flight is not recreatable, the similarly-named Viper Thrusters provide a similar effect of increasing flight speed and mobility.
- Northstar Prime was released with the Colony Reborn update, alongside Legion Prime.
- Valkyrie uses part of a Northstar titan to make her jetpack.
- Northstar's default Termination, called "Sweep the Leg", is sweeping the enemy titan's legs then flying up and placing her weapon onto the hull and firing a charged shot.
- Northstar Prime's Termination, called "Bird of Prey", is her pouncing on the enemy titan, tearing its arms off, and then flying up and firing her Flight Core at the downed titan before smashing back down onto it.
- Also in The Ark campaign mission, the breaching charges used by the 6-4 use the same model as Northstar's tether traps, only far smaller.
- The Northstar Titan Kit Threat Optics will highlight all enemies in red and all teammates in blue when aiming, functioning much like the Threat Scope attachment for pilot rifles.
- Northstar is one of two Titans in Titanfall 2 to have a Defensive ability that is not a type of Shield, the other being Monarch.
- Northstar's OS is voiced by Nora Jane Noone.
- Northstar is the only Titan with rocket or laser pods that don't fold on to its back when unused.
- Interestingly, Northstar appears to lack thrusters that aim directly down, only backwards at various angles. However, Northstar's bottom thrusters appear to be on a rail, and can move downwards during VTOL and Flight core.
Gallery[]
Images[]
Video[]
References[]
- ↑ Titanfall 2 Official Trailer: Meet The Titans
- ↑ Reddit Q&A: "No, that was just Viper's thing. Very rare parts, very expensive to modify a Northstar to fly like that. But Viper, being a long time successful mercenary (until he met Jack and BT) could afford the parts and labor."