Talon Frigate

"The Talon Frigate is an aggressive ship designed to outwit larger enemies. Frigates can only fire forwards."

General
The Talon Frigate is a Tier 2 hull with standard Miner Rebellion technology.

As a frigate, this ship focuses on agility and evasion, avoiding damage when possible.

Advantages
Talon Frigates are agile and can kite lesser-ranged ships such as Genesis Cruisers with minimal effort. They can also swiftly enter the minimum range of slow Rancor Battleships and fire at them with no further repercussions. Rear Thrusters are highly recommended for fleet combat in both cases.

Unlike the Harrier Frigate, Talon Frigates already have 2 special slots at Mk I, allowing it to not only equip thrusters but also certain weapon boosts to improve their effectiveness.

It is one of two Tier 2 ships that are instant repair by default, the other one being the Broadsword Destroyer (the Nexus Destroyer is pretty much a Broadsword Destroyer). This enables players to spam fleet after fleet of the same ship without incurring any repair time, which is useful for defending key objectives such as your own base (if it is low level enough).

This ship is able to outrun any other Tier 2 ship, perfect for annoying the enemy. If someone is showing off his or her overpowered fleet and makes the mistake of taunting your sector by stealing cargo (and thus allowing fleets of any level to attack it), you can fleet hold the enemy indefinitely using Talon Frigate spam (until the person decides to use his own frigates, or worse, cutters).

Disadvantages
Talon Frigates have very low maximum mass, which is typical of frigates, rendering them ineffective unless you pilot them well and stay out of harm's way. Their poor durability makes them vulnerable to destruction before being able to deal significant damage to the enemy, especially against the very things they are supposed to counter, battleships and destroyers, due to the range difference.

Instant repair Talon Frigate fleets automatically lose to their Broadsword Destroyer counterparts because they are destroyed long before getting in range to fire, making any mark upgrades irrelevant. In general, mark upgrades are only worthwhile if you plan to build "real" ships that take longer than 5 minutes to repair.

Trivia

 * There used to be an Enhanced version of the Talon Frigate available for purchase in the Black Market, but it has since been deprecated.
 * Mk IV and V Versions of the Talon exist in the preview and game files, but are unavailable in the live server.
 * All player ships had their Resurgence values modified as a result of the late February 2020 update.