Rapture Cruiser

“	The Rapture Cruiser is an improved version of the Apocrypha Cruiser that's highly sought after and hard to obtain.	”
	— In-Game Description

Template:Event Hull Infobox

General

The Rapture Cruiser is an high level, tier four VEGA Corporation hull It was only available in the event Crackdown.

Before Crafting was added, the Rapture was very popular amongst high level players. They were agile, deadly, versatile and could both PvP and PvE.

They had a similar combat functionality to higher tier Battleships like the Zeal and the Dread where they attack from maximum distance with kiting, hit and run tactics. It had even greater combat and strafing speed than the Apocrypha cruiser. Many players equipped stasis weapons to their Rapture cruisers.

Ever since the full introduction of the crafting system, Rapture cruisers quickly fell out of use as they were outgunned and outmanoeuvred by newer and more powerful warships. As of today, their appearance in combat is rare, however many players still keep them in hopes their effectiveness in combat is revitalised by Kixeye, but not much, due to the fact not many have them, and they're unobtainable for newer players.

Strategy and Setup

“	Become the envy of your sector with the new Rapture Cruiser, an Elite version of the Apocrypha Cruiser with extra speed.	”
	— Event Store

Advantages:

While the Rapture cruiser had enjoyed a period of being a peak combat cruiser long ago, many of its contemporary advantages were removed and deprecated by the introduction of the crafting system, as well as the rebalance.

Disadvantages:

As of now, Rapture cruisers suffers from being unable to be upgraded through the crafting system. Its agility has been reduced the average speed common with all cruisers. Whilst the mass of the ship has remained unchanged, common pool cruisers such as the Revelation cruiser when upgraded to MK IV are far superior than the Rapture cruiser with more mass, armour weight reduction, armour bonus and bonus damage to Cutters.

Blueprints for the ship are unobtainable and will never be re-released again.

Build time for the Rapture cruiser is rather lengthy considering its lack of effectiveness. Rapture cruisers can be destroyed easily by almost any fleet of ships, even cutters that have been upgraded through the crafting system. Their repair time is not low either.

Recommended Builds:

Fleet vs. Fleet: If you insist on building them, good weapons are Aurora rays, Reverb rays, SICO missiles and Hydra missiles. Burst rays may be good if you want a firepower advantage fighting against cutters who tend to engage ships at point blank range.

Consider equipping a fusion thruster III if you're willing to sacrifice firepower and armour for agility needed to pursue or escape from enemy fleets.

Usage by VEGA

Rapture cruisers used to be common warships in VEGA cargo fleets level 37+. They have been replaced with regular Apocrypha cruisers now and do not appear in any NPC fleets.

They also made a debut in Crackdown's event fleets, armed with burst Ray and frequently blasting apart Rebel ships that got too close.

Trivia

This hull was the first event prize to be introduced with the alliance update.
Rapture cruisers used to be able to travel up to 340m/s, which is faster than a Harrier frigate.
The appearance of the Rapture cruiser in VEGA Cargo 37-45 fleets and VEGA Elite 50-55 fleets is actually that of an Apocrypha cruiser, only players have the light grey coloration.
The Rapture cruiser is one of the cruisers that have only been released once.
The Rapture cruiser, previously a dark blue in combat, like the Apocrypha, was re-textured to look more like the Rapture cruiser shown in the blueprint. This made the Rapture the first event hull to receive a major texture/graphic overhaul.
Confirmed by CM The Real LXC, the Rapture cruiser is never to be released again for a riot, but did not say it would never be released ever again (re-released in the legacy edition of the Special Event of March 2017).