The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is the most durable aircraft in Skyraid.io. With 420 HP, four points of armor, six rockets, and a special rear-facing gunner that automatically engages chasers, the B-17 is built to soak fire and dish it back. It is slow, large, and impossible to miss — but it can survive engagements that would erase any other plane in the game.
Boeing's B-17 first flew in 1935, and by the time the United States entered the war it was the backbone of the American daylight strategic bombing campaign over Europe. Crews flew it in tight formations called "combat boxes" so that the overlapping fields of fire from each bomber's machine guns could cover its neighbors against German fighters. The plane earned its Flying Fortress name from the sheer number of guns it carried — thirteen .50-caliber machine guns in late-war models, manned by a crew of ten. Stories of B-17s returning to base with whole sections of fuselage missing, engines on fire, and dozens of crewmen wounded became legend in the Eighth Air Force. Out of nearly 13,000 built, almost a third were lost to enemy action — but the survivors helped grind the Luftwaffe into the ground in the run-up to D-Day.
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Tier | 2 |
| Max HP | 420 (highest in game) |
| Speed | 2.4 (slowest) |
| Gun Damage | 9 |
| Fire Rate | 280 ms |
| Magazine | 12 rounds |
| Reload | 2.0 s |
| Armor | 4 (highest in game) |
| Rockets | 6 (105 damage each, both highest) |
| Rocket Reload | 4.5 s |
| Special | Rear gunner |
| Evolves from | Bomber |
The B-17 is a flying weapons platform. Six rockets at 105 damage each is more explosive payload than any two other planes combined — a full rack of rockets can erase even another Tier 2 plane in seconds. Combine that with a 4.5-second rocket reload (the fastest in the game) and you can sustain a constant barrage that no enemy can ignore. Always be hunting for rocket targets: clusters of low-tier players, slow Bombers, and stationary targets at airbases.
The 4 points of armor are the B-17's other huge advantage. Damage in Skyraid.io is calculated as max(1, baseDamage − armor × 0.7), which means a 4-armor B-17 takes about 2.8 less damage from every shot. Against a Spitfire or Zero firing 11-damage rounds, that effectively turns each hit into 8 damage — the B-17 absorbs 28% more sustained fire than a 0-armor plane with the same HP would.
The trade-off is mobility. At speed 2.4 you cannot outrun anything, and at the slowest turn rate in the game you cannot win a corner against any fighter. Compensate by staying near the center of the map, near friendly objectives, and never taking on more than one Tier 2 enemy at a time without rockets up. The rear gunner gives you a free defensive option against chasers but cannot save you from a full Mustang burst to the side.
The B-17's strength is amplified by every upgrade. Rocket Damage is the strongest first pick because the B-17 fires more rockets than any other plane — a 50% boost on six rockets is enormous value. Max HP and Armor compound the survivability that already defines the aircraft. Attack Damage is the weakest upgrade because the B-17's gun damage is relatively low.
The B-17 beats: any plane caught in the splash of a rocket barrage, and ground objectives in seconds. The B-17 struggles against: Zeros and Lightnings that kite at maximum range, and being focused by multiple enemies at once.
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