"Hey puny earthlings, check out my weak point!"
"Stop encouraging them, dear."
A Wing Diver wonders if she is encountering a new Ravager vehicle or a new Geist variant that is even harder to hold than usual.
The Large Transport Ship, also known as the Dragon Ship due to their more infamous payloads, is a new model of Ravager vessel introduced about halfway through Earth Defense Force 2025 and Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair at the same time as the appearance of the Earth Eaters, during the mission Annihilation. It serves as an advanced version of the regular Transport Ship.
Description[]
These sleek vessels are capable of teleporting into combat areas almost instantly, foreshadowed only by a wavy patch of light. They are vast in size, bigger than even a Quadruped Fortress when opened up, and are heavily armored and capable of deploying large vehicles like Hectors and Deroys which are beyond the capacity of regular Transports (except when the game decides they are not). They are also the only Transport type seen to deploy Dragons, and can deploy Ravager aerial vehicles like Flying Drones and Flight Vehicles.
Rather than having a hatch like a normal Transport, the vehicle's hemispherical top and bottom "unscrew" themselves with a distinctive whirring sound and the entire fuselage splits in half and rotates around to reveal the central core structure.
Large Transports become more common as the game progresses, but never totally replace the original type, with regular Transports seen as late as the online mission Troubled Valley (87 in 2025, 91 in 4.1).
Like the regular Transport Ship, in their first appearance they are invincible and the player is not required to destroy one until Void Ship. Unlike regular Transports, invincible Large Transports are fairly common, usually used to deliver a set-piece wave after which they will exit the map, such as in the level Machine Squad where they deploy the initial group of Deroys and then simply leave.
Strategy[]
The Ravagers were not expecting the EDF's additional pylons.
While a Large Transport Ship is almost twice as tough as a regular one, they are actually somewhat easier to take on than their smaller brethren. This is because their core structure is far more exposed; rather than only being accessible from below, it can be hit from the front, rear, through the gaps in the opened-out sides, and from above, meaning that unlike a regular Transport the Large Transport is vulnerable to the Air Raider's strikes. Aside from the pivot attaching the two sides of the fuselage to the front of the core, the entire black area of the core is vulnerable to attack at any point from just after the ship starts opening up to just before it completely closes.
It is possible for a Wing Diver to land on the Large Transport's core and stay in the hollows around its perimeter even when the vessel closes back up. allowing it to be attacked instantly when it opens again.
While playing as an Air Raider, it is possible (though silly and impractical) to destroy these ships by flying a helicopter inside of them. Leaving the vehicle when the fuselage closes and deploying sufficiently high level ZE-Guns or Impulse mines can destroy the core.