Northstar

Titan name: Northstar

Health: 3 bars

Chassis type: Stryder-based chassis

Northstar is a long ranged projectile sniper holding a powerful railgun, her kit is based around keeping distance and creating space for yourself.

Arsenal

While Northstar may not have any unique main abilities, her rifle is the center of her setup! Her mobility is second to Ronin’s so you can always be on the move.

Primary Weapon

Plasma Railgun

The PR-01 Plasma Railgun is a Titan electrical directed-energy railgun that is manufactured by Wonyeon Defense. This is Northstar’s primary weapon which deals low damage if fired at the hip (though is still capable of insta-killing Pilots and Minions) - which can be fully-charged by Aiming-Down-Sights to do high damage and knock the enemy Titan backwards. Dash can be used while aiming, alt fire is an extended zoom for further targets. Charging shots does not affect ammunition used per shot. Be it charged or instant shots, it will always use 1 ammo. Dash can be used while aiming.

Ordnance ability

Cluster Missiles

Shoulder mounted explosive projectile that spreads out and sustains explosions in a small area for a few seconds wherever it lands. Cluster missile, if successfully landed, becomes immune to destruction and its subsequent explosions bypass particle walls, gun shields, thermal shields and vortex shields. Great for locking down narrow corridors and taking out small infantry, insta-kills pilots on direct hit.

Tactical ability

VTOL Hover

Vertical hover, cannot be canceled with other abilities besides core. Can be used to get into interesting spots but often makes you more vulnerable by being visible to enemies at higher Frontier levels. Horizontal movement is limited while in this state. VTOL Hover allows Northstar to be high enough to hover over other titans, if the northstar falls onto a Titan she will slide off shortly thereafter. Dash cannot be used while hovering but can be once descending. Dash can be combined with the momentum of descending.

Defensive ability

Tether Trap

A mine that locks down a single target (both reaper and titan alike), 2 can be placed down at any time. It can be destroyed by enemies, more than 1 tether trap can stick to a single enemy at the same time. Tether trap is not targetable by enemies on the Frontier. Tether traps last until Titan death, activation or destruction.

Core ability

Flight Core

When activated, Northstar activates its hover jets, similar to its utility ability VTOL Hover. Unlike the standard hover, her missile pods open and fire a barrage of moderately fast missiles towards the crosshair. She can sustain damage while her flight core ability is active. Core rockets do zero damage to Northstar’s chassis unlike her traps and cluster missiles. Rockets fired from the flight core will do slight aoe upon hitting a surface or target. Rockets tend to aim right of the crosshair when traveling a distance.

Northstar Kits

Piercing Shot

Plasma Railgun rounds shoot through targets both friendly and enemy.

Enhanced Payload

Cluster Missile’s secondary explosions have a larger area-of-effect and last longer.

Twin Traps

Tether Trap fires two traps instead of one. Can be used to tie down multiple titans (1 titan per trap). Increases placeable tether traps from 2 to 4.

Viper Thrusters

Move faster during Hover and Flight Core.

Threat Optics

Enemies are highlighted when zoomed in. Will reveal enemies in or behind any type of smoke.

How to effectively play

Northstar is the epitome of a literal glass cannon. Low health but dealing high amounts of damage as well as having the second highest mobility to Ronin at full speed. Getting used to hitting critical spots becomes key, with some leeway as the plasma rounds are wide. A well placed shot can instantly get rid of a single Reaper, cluster missiles can both shut down minions as well as full titans when aimed correctly. Learning spawn points and how to lead shots is the most important part to play her well. Most importantly hit those crits! Playing northstar correctly will make the enemy titans struggle to even approach the harvester let alone see it! Northstar has a way to intentionally cancel the accent of Flight Core by activating VTOL Hover just before activating her core achieving what is nicknamed a “Floor Core” allowing you to hover barely off the ground keeping limited line of sight to enemy titans. Tether traps are incredibly useful for you and your team, don’t forget to deploy them.

Northstar Builds

Long Range/Cover Fire

Running with the Piercing Shot kit and Counter Ready kit which titan kits are not strict to the setup. This build has the highest potential for damage and eliminating large groups of enemy titans. Piercing works on teammates too so your rounds won’t be stopped by them dodging into it with the bonus of doing no damage to them. Piercing shot will run though any number of enemies making its potential incredible. Laying cluster missiles in choke points and dropping traps at the beginning of rounds is crucial to keeping your range. This build works best with maps that force titans close together in corridors like Rise and Angel City will flourish.

Highly Volatile/Front Running

Using Northstar’s low health to her advantage you can often run a Nuclear Eject loadout with Enhanced Payload for maximum explosiveness. Since NS has such a low health pool instead of using a billion arc smokes, deleting them all together with nuke eject is definitely satisfying. Once again this is map dependent like Colony or Black Water Canal as Nuke eject will kill you in the wrong spot if you are running the wrong pilot loadout. Even if you do not use the “last resort” button, cluster missiles being enhanced is great for shutting down choke points.

Safe Flight Core/Speedy Sniper

Viper Thrusters paired with Turbo Engine will allow you and only you to be the centerpoint of the damage dealing, getting you there faster and having absolutely more control over your VTOL Hover and Flight Core Hover leaving you less exposed to the elements sent your way. Being able to weave in and out of cover faster makes poking titans much faster and consistent.

Defensive/Poke

Twin Traps paired with Turbo Engine allows Northstar to punish enemies who rush towards her. This is done by having extra traps to trap enemy titans, while trapped you snipe from cover while using dash when recharging to reduce any counter fire. This build can also serve as assistance for your team since more enemies will be stuck, you could equip counter ready and spam smokes on stuck enemies for chaos. Not the best build for frontier but it has its uses.

Perceptive Spotter

This build will have Northstar equip Threat optics and whatever Titan kit the pilot wishes to choose, threat optics will provide unique assistance on multiple specific areas on maps in frontier defense, some maps will have smoke that falls from the sky blocking both views from each enemy team, other than a threat optic Northstar. This can help on Rise, Homestead, Forward Base Kodai and Colony. Threat Optics is considered more niche and should only be used in the maps I mentioned above.

Strengths

Northstar has some of the highest damage titans with her charged rifle, critical hits deal huge damage and stun the titans and can help force Arc titans to slow. Her tether traps are one of the few things that can lock down Arc titans as we know arc traps and smoke are all almost completely ignored by them. Use wisely as it can be combined with the cluster missiles and a critical shot for the largest burst of damage Northstar can do, shredding through stryder and atlas titans while brute(mortar titans) will often shield these attacks and take less total damage. Cluster missiles are also great to shut down small pathways that can fit 1-2 titans keeping them back when out of traps. Speed and high damage is the name of Northstar’s game, while some kits can completely negate her negatives, it’s entirely up to the pilot how they want to shred through the enemies to the frontier.

Weaknesses

As a glass cannon, Northstar’s low health will always be her weakness, unexpectedly her rifle can end up being a detriment if not wielding the piercing shot kit as your teammates will unintentionally block all outgoing damage from you. Smoke, thermite, and many other aoe damage types from both teammates and enemies will destroy an outgoing tether trap. Tether traps are more durable once on the ground but cannot be used in tandem with your own smoke as it wastes the cooldown of the traps. Another weakness will always be hover and flight core, it places you in the line of sight of significantly more minions and enemy titans, for flight core there are ways to negate the detriment of being forced into the air. Sadly her flight salvo is not as strong as Tone’s salvo core so should be used when safe and sparingly for a full height flight core. Last weakness would be dealing with drones and small minions, due to cluster missiles being on a longer cooldown at higher aegis, she struggles to deal with a constant stream of small minions.

Team Composition

Northstar often can be detrimental with teammates accidentally blocking shots so it’s great to learn to work around all weaknesses with good positioning and hover. Piercing Shot kit negates this completely so if using that kit it essentially leaves everyone open to being a good combo. Tone is a great friend to Northstar as sometimes sniping will leave her exposed to multiple targets, making sure Tone’s shield doesn’t go unloved. She is best when alone but a Scorch and her traps will leave nothing behind. Legion can be a great help with a Northstar since he can tank and destroy low health targets because Northstar’s bullets are more of an investment than his small predator rounds.

Aegis

Level 2

Explosive Traps

Tether Traps explode when they break making them more lethal. Does friendly fire to self Titan and pilot.

Level 5

Chassis Upgrade

Northstar’s maximum health is increased from 3 bars to 4.

Level 8

Plasma Railgun: Quick Charge

Plasma Railgun charges significantly faster than before.

Level 11

Trap Mastery

Northstar has two charges of Tether Traps that can be deployed at once increasing maximum tether traps deployable to 4. Increased to 8 total if using the Twin Traps Kit.

Level 20

Trap Mastery

Northstar has two charges of Tether Traps that can be deployed at once increasing maximum tether traps deployable to 4. Increased to 8 total if using the Twin Traps Kit.

How to play with all aegis

Level 2– Explosive Traps

A tiny buff to tethers, they damage when they despawn by exploding, they do damage to your own titan when exploding and even your own pilot too, rodeo or approach with extreme caution.

Level 5– Chassis

Northstar gets a buff to her health allowing her to last longer on the battlefield.

Level 8– Quick Charge

The most important aegis upgrade as it reduces charging time for Northstar’s primary weapon and allows you to dish out more damage much more consistently.

Level 11– Trap Mastery

Double the traps, double the fun! Quite literally doubling her traps makes wrangling those pesky arc titans much more manageable. 4-8 traps depending on kits means 4-8 individual titans locked down for nearly 5 seconds each.

Level 14– Shield Upgrade

Northstar gets another needed buff to health by adding more total shield health, Monarch takes longer to give her full shields but batteries are unaffected.

Level 17– Critical Hit

Another welcome addition as it increases your current damage output by 50%, critical hits are already important so you should be rewarded with the fruits of your aim.

Level 20– Twin Cluster

Small buffer to her cooldown damage increasing overall potential. They fire from each shoulder and narrow in on where you aim so adjust northstar’s positioning accordingly.

Summary

Northstar as a defensive titan on the frontier is entirely pilot dependent on how much potential you can pull from her chassis. She has one of the highest outputs in damage and at full aegis and can delete any doomed titan or reaper with a well placed shot. Her kits only skew her damage either way slightly, pilots who can aim well will perform at the top of their leaderboards while ones who struggle will find themselves at the bottom. Her tethers and cluster missiles can shut down any rushing titans while hover and core will often leave you naked and exposed. Learning to “Floor Core” will negate some of these negatives but keep in mind cooldowns before attempting. Play her like the sniper she puts herself out there as, watch for your teammates and find angles that keep you in cover! Never be afraid to back-up and see everything from a bigger picture. Training your aim is the most important thing when it comes to working with a Northstar, do not disappoint her Pilot.