Phantom (Rivals)

"Phantom ready to shut it down!"

- Phantom when attacking

The Phantom is a Nod air unit in Command & Conquer: Rivals.

Background
Nod's Phantom air superiority fighter was developed as a response to GDI's increasing aerial dominance. The Phantom's missiles employ charged particle EMP generators. This allows the Nod fighter to slow down enemy aircraft, making their escape nearly impossible.

Abilities

 * Attacks against aircraft slow their Attack Speed and Movement Speed.
 * Can also attack the enemy base.
 * Can also attack the enemy base.

Game unit
Phantom is a hit-and-run anti-aircraft unit that dominates the skies. It isn't designed for long fights, but to perform burst attacks against enemy aircraft before flying off to find another target. This burst damage allows them to take out lighter aircraft in a flash. Even if the target survives the attack, the EMP effect will significantly hamper it's ability to either fight of flee.

Phantom is a staple unit for decks with hard hitting units like Infernos, Avatars and Artillery. Phantom is well suited to various air decks. If the ability to target ground vehicles is required, alternatives are a Banshee and Stealth tank.

One awkward target for the Phantom is Drone Swarm — it has 5 drones in the squad and phantom has only 4 missiles, allowing the swarm to survive and hold pads.

The relatively fragile hull makes it susceptible to ground-to-air units, especially Pitbull, that can track them down. A swarm of Talons can easily overwhelm a Phantom.

If a Hammerhead survives the Phantoms volley of missiles then the Hammerhead will be able to shoot down the Phantom before it reloads.

Changelog

 * 2018-10-26: Clip reload time reduced to 6 seconds (was 7.5)
 * 2018-12-06:
 * Health decreased to 1800 (was 2000)
 * EMP duration decreased to 6.5 seconds (was 10)
 * Reload time increased to 6.5 seconds (was 6)
 * 2019-02-06:
 * Damage increased to 720 (was 650)
 * EMP duration decreased to 4 seconds (was 6.5)
 * Health decreased to 1650 (was 1800)
 * 2019-05-01: Cost increased to 110 (was 100)
 * 2019-06-05:
 * Damage vs. Aircraft increased to 755 (was 720)
 * Cost reduced 100 (was 110)
 * 2019-07-02:
 * Damage to Aircraft per missile decreased to 378 (was 755)
 * Damage to Structures per missile decreased to 450 (was 1000)
 * Missile count increased to 4 (was 2)
 * Attack speed per missile increased to 0.25 seconds (was 0.5)
 * 2020-08-12:
 * Health increased to 1665 (was 1650)
 * Reload time increased to 8 seconds (was 6.500)

When created

 * Phantom ready to rain disruption
 * Phantom is here!
 * Phantom will shut the enemy down!

When selected

 * EMP missiles ready
 * Phantom awaiting target
 * Phantom ready to engage

When moving

 * Phantom moving to coordinates
 * EMP missiles on the move
 * Phantom flying out

When moving to attack favorably

 * Setting up my attack run
 * Phantom ready to shut it down!
 * Delivering disruption from above

When unable to attack target

 * No target lock
 * Can't target that

When attacking

 * Phantom targeting!
 * Disrupting the enemy!
 * Shutting them down!

When under attack

 * Taking heat!
 * Need to pull out!
 * Phantom under fire!

When crashing

 * For Kane!
 * Going down!
 * Pull up!

Trivia

 * The Phantom was added to the game post-launch in September 2018.
 * When moving, performs barrel roll. Female.
 * Similar to Phantom in name only.
 * The Phantom resembles the GDI Firehawk from Tiberium Wars.

Behind the scenes
"The Phantom is intended to help the competitiveness of Nod air strats and allow Nod a more direct counter to end game enemy air units."

- MrBlack

Originally the unit was intended to be called Viper and had shorter hull.