Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy
FAQ/Walkthrough
By: Darkstar Ripclaw
The most recent version of this FAQ may always be found at GameFAQs.com
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Table of Contents
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Walkthrough
Story Missions [MIxx]
Survival Missions [SURx]
Extra Missions [EXTx]
Lists
Airplanes/Equipment
S-Rank Requirements
Ace Pilot Requirements
Medal Requirements [MEDR]
FAQ
How to Play
Miscellaneous
Common Questions
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Walkthrough
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Mission 01: Gambit
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[MI01]
Objective: Defeat Rebel Bombers, Clear out Rebel Fighters
S-Rank Requirements: Complete in under 2:00
Ace Pilot: Goldbird, shows up with the final wave of 2 MIG-21-33 enemies just
down below them in altitude.
•Must get to the MIG-21-33 in under 2:00(?) for Goldbird to
show
Targets: 4x B-52, 3x F-4E, 2x MIG-21-33 (9 Air)
+ Goldbird (Ace Pilot, Air)
As the very first mission, Gambit gives you an initial tutorial before
dogfighting with both the first and then the second airplanes you come across,
so if you are playing this for the very first time and following this guide
along, take a note of it.
Should you be playing this for the first time, there are a couple of
other things to note. First, you are NOT going to be completing this mission in
under 2:00, as it is flat-out impossible until you accumulate enough money and
can buy an airplane that has more speed. Secondly, you are not going to see the
appearance of the Ace Pilot in this mission, as you need to complete Story Mode
once before you can fight Ace Pilots.
In any case, starting with the actual mission, keep your plane in the
southwesterly direction it starts at, without touching the control pad. The game
scripting practically gives you the first B-52 plane you come across, so fire a
pair of missiles and soar on past it so that it is destroyed.
Continue on, and you are basically given a second B-52 plane flying
straight towards your own craft, so take it out with a pair of missiles as well.
Switch over to your special weapons after the destruction of the second
B-52 (with the inital starting F-16C Fighting Falcon, this will be the LRAA, a
longer-range anti-air weapon. If you are using any other plane, you should be
using anti-air in this mission anyways, as there are no ground targets) through
use of the D-Pad Left or Right button. As you continue, you will face off
against the third B-52 bomber, escorted by an F-4E. Wait until you get a lock on
both of them before firing your special weapon off at each.
Toggle back to the regular missile, use the L button to slow down a bit,
then fire at them with your bullets and missiles if they manage to strafe the
special weapon. Once they are taken out, head on southwest again.
Go back to using your special weapon, and continue on southwest. You
will encounter a B-52 bomber escorted by another pair of F-4Es. Wait until you
at least get the target lock on the B-52 and fire, then press down on the
control pad to increase altitude before firing at the F-4Es. The B-52 will
easily be taken down by a special weapon, but the two F-4Es will increase
altitude and sail up high, so you need to follow and tail them to get a clear
shot with missiles, special weapons or bullets, which will probably result in
your first dogfight of the game along with some tutorial instructions on
battling them.
Once the set of fighters and bomber is cleared out, you will get a pair
of MIG-21-33s in the southwest corner of the map who you must defeat to end the
mission. If you learn their placement on the map and place yourself within close
range, you can snipe them down quickly with a pair of long-range special weapon
shots, crucial to clearing in 2:00 for the S-rank (if you are using a fast
aircraft, be careful not to Thrust your way through the entire mission, or else
they will appear to your northeast). Otherwise, you will end up having to
dogfight to destroy both of them and clear the mission.
Keep an eye on your map when fighting - if you stray outside of the red
border outlines, the mission automatically ends as a failure. You can toggle
between the different styles of maps and radar with the Up D-Pad button.
ACE PILOT ALERT: If you get the MIG-21-33s to show up within a certain
time limit (supposedly but not verified 2:00) a Goldbird enemy will show up at
the same time, just downwind of them. It will hang around for the duration of
the mission, but you need to blow it up before both of the MIG-21-33s, as the
destruction of the latter two will end the mission.
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Mission 02: Easy Monkey
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[MI02]
Objective: Defeat Rebel Recon Squad, Defeat Lancer Squadron
S-Rank Requirements: Complete in under 3:30
Ace Pilot: Cosmic, shows up at very low altitude in the mountain ravine right
below the set of two F-4Es and E-767, shows up for only a brief
time
Targets: 4x F-4E, F-16C, E-767, 4x Lancer (F-14D) (10 Air)
+ Cosmic (Ace Pilot, Air)
Thrust your plane forward at the start and fire a pair of missiles at
the F-4E, and quickly move turn to face northwest and eliminate the second F-4E
hanging nearby.
Continue northwest, and you will encounter another pair of F-4E planes.
One will fly high, while the other one flies low. Toggle over to your special
weapons and specifically target the low-flying one, then chase after the high-
flier and gun him down between missiles and bullets.
Stay moving northwest and you will be required to eliminate an F-4E and
an F-16C. It may be worth toggling over to special weapons to shoot one each at
the airplanes and destroy them right away because, regardless of whether you
have destroyed the two enemy aircraft or not, another set of three rebel planes
will show up further northwest.
This trio is comprised of two F-4Es and an E-767, the latter being a
target plane (denoted by the TARGET sign above the triangular cursor). Pull out
your special weapons again to knock out at least two of the aircraft right away
and then focus on eliminating the third one remaining, whichever that one may
be.
ACE PILOT ALERT: Once the two F-4Es and E-767 show up, dip down right
before you run across the trio, and move down to the mountain range. The Ace
Pilot for this mission, the B2-A Cosmic Ace Pilot, will be hanging around the
ravine area hugging the ground. It only shows up for a short time before
disappearing again, and you may want to eliminate the F-4Es before hunting down
the Cosmic (it DOES show up on radar, so watch out for it).
After you destroy the E-767, you shall get a scene followed by the
second half of this mission, battling Lancer Squadron. Lancer Squadron is an Ace
Squad, which is basically a group of planes with upgraded stats and A.I. which
tends to fly in a formation. Each squad will launch an attack all at once at
you, move around a bit, then regroup before launching another attack. You
typically can get a few shots off them right at the start of their attack, and
then will havve to tail individual pilots after they break apart from their
formation before regrouping.
The Lancer Squadron is specifically made up of 4 F-14D aircrafts, though
they will show up as 'Lancer' in the results screen. Lancer 1, the boss of the
Squadron, is indicated on the top screen by an asterisk (*) above its target
box. You get different dialogue depending on whether you destroy Lancer 1's
plane last or not.
It should also be noted that your entire missile and special weapons
supply is replenished in between the two segments, so you do NOT have to worry
about conserving your ammunition for the Ace Squadron battle.
Another note: if you get killed, you can restart the battle from the
beginning of the Lancer Squadron phase. However, doing this will automatically
forfeit your chances at getting an S-Rank.
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Mission 03: City on Fire
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[MI03]
Objective: Destroy all Aircraft Carriers
S-Rank Requirements: Score of 6830
Ace Pilot: Big Cat, ground-based vehicle that shows up at the north side of the
bridge in Anchorhead once you go west over the bridge. Travels south
over the bridge until it gets to the safe spot at the south. The
guidewires of the bridge will protect it from missiles, so wait until
after it gets past the wires to spam missiles. You *may* need to have
destroyed the first pair of F-4Es first to make it appear.
Targets: 4x F-4E, 2x AH-64, 4x F-16C (10 Air)
10x AA-Gun, Launcher, Vehicle (12 Ground)
+ Big Cat (Ace Pilot, Air)
4x Carrier, 2x Docked F-4E, 3x Gunboat (9 Naval)
This will be the first battle that throws a ground game at you, as your
in-game objective is to liberate Anchorhead Harbour. You do this by destroying
the aircraft carriers that are located at the harbour. In the meantime, enemy
aircraft will harry you throughout the entire mission.
The S-Rank requirement for this game is NOT time-based in the slightest,
so you can take your time with clearing the mission. Instead, the score
requirement of 6830 requires you to eliminate *every* single target in this
mission, excepting the Ace Pilot. This includes two pairs of aircraft that only
show up near the end if you wait around a bit instead of immediately destroying
all the carriers.
You start back a ways away from the main harbour area, with three ground
targets and a naval target - 2 Anti-Air turrets (AA-Guns), a Gunboat in the
water, and a Launcher. Each of these can be destroyed with a single missile at
any difficulty, so fire a shot off at each of them from your missile reserves so
you do not need to dip too far close to the ground.
Around the time you destroy this initial batch of ground and naval
targets, a pair of F-4E planes should come in. Strike them from afar with
special weapons if you can, as they do not veer considerably off-course, instead
moving relatively in a straight line, making them easy pickings for a long-range
weapon instant kill.
Moving towards Anchorhead Harbour, stay low, as there is a Vehicle on
the mountain road. Take this one out with a missile as well. You should run into
a lone AH-64 in the air when continuing, so destroy that one as well with a
couple of quick missiles.
When you approach Anchorhead, head to the island to the east, and
eliminate an AA-Gun followed up by a Supply Carrier. Both also require a single
missile each to destroy, so you can shoot one off at the AA-Gun, then switch
targets and send a second one sailing at the Carrier.
As you turn west to approach Anchorhead, by about this time you will
have to contend with a second AH-64. Destroy it going west, and take out the AA
-Gun hanging around on the bridge as well. Keep special note of when you cross
that bridge.
Past the bridge, you will see a couple of F-4Es approaching in the air
from afar. Toggle over to your special weapons and fire off a couple of long-
range projectiles at them to destroy them before they come anywhere close.
ACE PILOT ALERT: Once you cross west over the bridge, keep an eye on
your radar. Eventually, a single icon should appear to your east, starting at
the north end of the bridge, and travelling south until it gets to safety at the
south side. This is the Big Cat 'Ace Pilot', rather a misnomer given it is a
ground-based car with no defenses. Be careful when firing missiles as the
supporting guidewires of the bridge will block any missiles, defending it, so
wait until it is out of the protection of the guidewires to fire missiles at it.
You *MAY* need to have destroyed the F-4Es first to get it to appear.
On the west side of the bridge, there shall be a Supply Carrier and AA-
Gun right away on the north side, a Gunboat in the water, and another Supply
Carrier and AA-Gun on the south shore. You can attempt to eliminate these
targets, but veer off afterwards and gain altitude to wage war against the first
of two pairs of F-16C fightercraft that appear from the far west. Take the first
pair out (again, as they fly straight until they hit Anchorhead, you can snipe
them from afar with special weapons), then fly around lazily in the air and
repeat with the second set of two F-16Cs once they appear as well.
With the destruction of all the remaining aircraft in the mission (if
you listen to the radio chatter, rest assured that the fighters on board the
aircraft carrier will *never* launch off), eliminate the remaining AA-Guns and
Gunboats hanging around to get the S-rank score of 6830, then approach the last
Carrier and strafe it with missiles and special weapons. If you destroy the
Carrier but not the docked F-4E, they are targets as well, so the mission will
not end until they are destroyed as well.
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Mission 04: Tin Castle
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[MI04]
Objective: Destroy the Keep's Defenses
S-Rank Requirements: Complete in under 1:30
Ace Pilot: Ricochet, an SU-37 aircraft, shows up on the northeast side of the
map at the start of the mission. This one is fairly obvious to start
because none of the targets at the Keep show up until you destroy
the Control Tower and Radar station at the start. The Ricochet flies
around for a bit before exiting off-screen to the east. If you want
to destroy this, you will basically not be getting an S-Rank time,
so keep that in mind
Targets: Control Tower, 2x Radar, 2x Flak Gun, 2x Barrack, 2x Oil Tank, SAM,
Tent, Vehicle, Tower, 7x AA-Gun (20 Ground)
F-4E, 2x F-16C (3 Air)
+ Ricochet (Ace Pilot, Air)
Mission 04 marks the first time that you will go down one separate
mission path while other missions are skipped over (just one mission this time
around, but later mission routes have more exclusive missions). In a second go
at the Story Mode you can access the other missions you miss the first time,
such as Mission 05.
This is also the first time you will be able to play through a mission
with an ally character at your side, Slash and Edge. To be clear, Slash and Edge
do not seem to actually ever *do* anything besides provide radio chatter and
basically act as a distractant towards at least one enemy fighter at all times.
That latter meat-shield effect can be particularly useful, but that is about it.
This mission is primarily a ground assault mission, with only three
normal fighters and an Ace Pilot fighter around.
ACE PILOT ALERT: You will notice an icon to the far northeast of the map
at the beginning of the mission. This is the SU-37 Ricochet aircraft, the
resident Ace Pilot for Mission 04. The Ricochet will fly around for a little bit
before eventually flying off-screen to the east. If you want to destroy it,
approach it right away, or at least before assaulting the Keep. You basically
cannot both destroy the SU-37 Ricochet and get an S-Rank in the same try, so do
not attempt it.
Start the mission by thrusting forward and firing a missile at the first
AA-Gun to show up onscreen. Brake a bit once you get close to the first enclosed
compound, and fly high, then dip down once you approach the compound so the nose
of your plane is facing the Control Tower, then shoot a missile at it. If you
merely try to fire at it from afar, the walls will protect it from taking
damage.
Continue north, and ignore the AA-Gun and Tent off to the side, they are
completely irrelevant to completing the mission and if you want to complete the
mission in under 1:30 for S-Rank, you need to ignore all extraneous targets and
take out simply what is necessary. Instead, continue north. Whip out your
special weapon with long-range and fire at the Vehicle as quickly as you can,
then quickly move up into the sky.
The next target, a Radar, is also located in a walled compound, but the
walls are even higher than the first compound. You will want to go up high, then
basically divebomb right down to the earth, lock the Radar on target, and shoot
at it with special weapons (so you have a longer range and thus more time to
quicky regain altitude after firing at the Radar). If you miss the first shot,
you should restart the mission if attempting the 1:30 S-rank requirement, as it
is imperative you get it on your first try.
With the destruction of the radar, the Keep to the east is now
accessible for assaulting. When heading east, take out the first F-4E that you
come across, but ignore the two F-16Cs that swoop around later on. Again, they
are not targets, and you will have very little leeway to complete this mission
in under 1:30.
Your first Target going east is a Tower located on the bridge across the
river. Keep to long-range weapons and fire at it so you do not have to swoop in
on it, and continue on past the Tower. Loop around to the north side of the
keep, and fire a single missile at the Barracks on the ground. You can also
attempt to shoot down the SAMs and AA-Guns around here if you get a solid lock
on them, as they will be a nuisance when trying to clear out the ground targets.
Once you have fired a missile off at the Barracks, quickly climb up into
the air, then move over to inside the eastern boundaries of the Keep, and
divebomb and fire Missiles at the two Oil Tanks. Stay inside the walls and move
south and veer around west, and fire a couple of quick missiles off at the
Barrack before immediately pulling up into the sky.
Gain some altitude, then turn towards the centre of the Keep and
divebomb at the Radar, firing missiles and long-range weapons before pulling
back up to avoid crashing into the ground. With the destruction of the Radar
station, the mission ends.
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Mission 05: Opera House
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[MI05]
Objective: Destroy all Oil Facilities, Oil Tanks and the Control Tower
S-Rank Requirements: Complete in under 2:00
Ace Pilot: D. Cowboy, an F-117A, appears above the centre island about 1:10 into
the mission, and slowly begins to fly south. It will flicker on and
off on radar so you may not notice it on your map at first.
Targets: 10x Oil Facility, Control Tower, 5x AA-Gun, 3x SAM, Fuel Car (20
Ground)
2x MIR-2000D, MIG-21-33, F-16C (4 Air)
+ D. Cowboy (Ace Pilot, Air)
MIR-2000D
MIR-2000D
Fuel Car
F-117A D. Cowboy
Mission 05 marks the first time that you will go down one separate
mission path while other missions are skipped over (just one mission this time
around, but later mission routes have more exclusive missions). In a second go
at the Story Mode you can access the other missions you miss the first time,
such as Mission 04.
This is also the first time you will be able to play through a mission
with an ally character at your side, Slash and Edge. To be clear, Slash and Edge
do not seem to actually ever *do* anything besides provide radio chatter and
basically act as a distractant towards at least one enemy fighter at all times.
That latter meat-shield effect can be particularly useful, but that is about it.
Opera House is mainly ground-based targets located on water in the form
of oil rigs, and a single large island with several targets. There are still
multiple air enemies to fend off, but you could ideally rush through and destroy
all the Targets while allowing Slash or Edge to take most of the attention off
of you. Unlike Mission 04, Mission 05 can be completed considerably under 2:00,
especially if you make good use of Thrust - aside from the island assault near
the middle, you can basically rush by everything after having fired off a single
missile at oil facilities.
Start off by following the underground pipeline that you can see as a
dark tint in the water. Tracing its path will lead you across three oil
facilities, the first two of which are completely unguarded, the third which has
a token AA-Gun (which does not need to be destroyed - you could fire a missile
at the oil facility and completely bypass the AA-Gun).
Shortly thereafter, you will begin to approach an island, and it is
about here that you will have multiple fighter craft to contend with,
specifically two MIR-2000D. If you take your time, eventually an MIG-21-33 will
show up, and an F-16C even later on. On the island, there are six targets of
interest - a Control Tower located towards the centre, and five oil tanks near
the shore.
ACE PILOT ALERT: The Ace Pilot of this level, D. Cowboy, an F-117A
aircraft, appears above this island about 1:10 into the level (when your timer
has about 18:50 remaining) and slowly flies south, moving away from the action.
If you are making good time, you will be far away from the island by this point,
so keep that in mind, and try to achieve your Ace Pilot kill separate from
getting your S-Rank time (though you can in fact do the mission in reverse order
and assault the island last, in time to catch D. Cowboy, not that the author
recommends that specifically). D. Cowboy will also flicker on and off on your
radar, so you may not spot it on radar when it first appears for a few seconds.
The oil tanks can all be destroyed in one shot with some special
weapons, thanks to how clustered together they are. Once those and the Control
Tower are destroyed, continue northeast, eliminating another Oil Facility
guarded by a SAM. Move northwest from there to destroy another rigging platform,
then start heading east and northeast, destroying two more Oil Facilities before
eventually hitting the Opera House installation.
Opera House is basically three final Oil Facilities with two AA-Guns and
a SAM guarding it. Toggle over to your long-range weapons and fire as soon as
you get the rigs within your target cursors, then thrust along and take out any
of the towers that may have escaped your initial blast of weapons to finish the
mission.
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Mission 06: Hunting Season
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[MI06]
Objective: Defeat all Rebel Aircraft
S-Rank Requirements: Complete in under 4:00
Ace Pilot: D.R.2000, a PAK FA plane, shows up during the Beast Squadron phase
of this mission, about 1 minute in. Keep an eye out for it on the
radar. It does not dodge missiles, so you can attempt to hit it with
a long-range weapon and quickly turn your attention back to the
dogfight with Beast Squadron
Targets: 6x F-16C, 3x F-4E, 4x MIR-2000D, AV-8, 5x Beast (F/A-18E) (19 Air)
+ D.R.2000
Mission 06 is the converge of Missions 04 and 05, and you will stick on
a single route for some time again. This is a purely air-focused mission, and
you will get Edge or Slash as support again if you so choose.
The battle over the channel starts off with seven enemy aircraft
approaching you in an arrow formation, with four F-16C aircraft and three F-4E.
They come in straight, so you can fire off a few special weapons and then
dogfight to take the rest of them down.
At about the 1:00 mark, regardless of whether you have cleared out the
first wave of enemies, a second wave will come along, comprised of two MIR-2000D
crafts and a single AV-8. Turn around to shoot off some long-range weapons at
them to try taking out a few before they come, then focus on eliminating any
remaining fighters from the first wave before the second wave approaches, After,
work on destroying the new trio of planes.
Once all of the first two waves have been destroyed, a third wave of
planes will appear basically right above you, comprised of two more MIR-2000Ds
and two F-16Cs. Dogfight and move and twist around to destroy the remaining four
aircraft. After they are all gone, a scene will occur, followed by another Ace
Pilot fight.
ACE PILOT ALERT: About 1 minute in, D.R. 2000, a PAK FA plane, will show
up. Keep an eye out on the radar for that time to spot the D.R. 2000. It does
not do the whole dodging and weaving shtick that the Beast Squadron does, so if
you do not have to go too far off the beaten path to destroy it, you could still
complete the mission under the S-Rank requirement time.
Beast Squadron is comprised of five F/A-18E planes. After they initially
show up and do their first charge, they do not really ever come back into
formation, instead breaking up and each going off on their own. They make up for
it by being superior to Lancer Squadron in their movements, as they will dodge,
dip, duck, and dodge some more to escape your blows. Rare will be the moment
when they hold still long enough for you to hit with a missile, let alone for
long-range attacks as they will veer out of the way a lot.
When they do come through on their initial charge, fire off a bunch of
special weapons, then toggle over to missiles and zero in on a single target.
The special weapons are unlikely to hit anybody, but even a lucky blow will be
significant for hitting the time limit. Meanwhile, zeroing in on a single person
to shoot at and hit with missiles should give you at least a blow, and hopefully
a kill to start before they break apart.
Beast 1, the leader, will also do something Lancer 1 did not: he will
automatically dodge missile attacks. He will not dodge EVERY one of them, but he
will avoid many of them, so you may have to settle for the good ol' machinegun
to take him down.
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Mission 07: Midnight Assassin
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[MI07]
Objective: Destroy the jamming aircraft, Ward off/Destroy the Z.O.E.
S-Rank Requirements: Complete in under 3:20
Ace Pilot: Razorback, an F-4E, is escorting the first E-767 radar jamming
plane slightly to the northwest of your starting location. This one
is practically given to you.
Targets: 2x E-767, 2x F-4E, 2x F-16C, 4x MIR-2000D (10 Air)
+ Razorback (Ace Pilot, Air)
This is another mission with either Edge or Slash on hand to assist.
There are three new elements introduced with Mission 07, the first two
of which occur right away. The first of these is that you are playing at night,
so visibility is sharply reduced for tailing enemy fighters. The second is the
existence of a pair of E-767 aircraft that will jam your radar temporarily,
making it nigh-upon impossible to hunt down and destroy enemy planes when
coupled with the night conditions.
Start off with the two F-4Es near you. Do not bother firing off a long-
range special weapon to start, as the first session of radar jamming starts
right away. Instead, thrust towards one of them, then once the radar jamming
stops, immediately strike it down, then focus on the other one. Move northwest
slightly to approach one of the two radar jamming aircraft.
ACE PILOT ALERT: The Razorback Ace Pilot is a regular F-4E that appears
as an escort for the first E-767 that approaches you. You are pretty much given
this Ace Pilot, so take it out before focusing on the E-767.
Destroy aforementioned F-4E, then focus on the E-767. Once it is
destroyed (and it may take some damage to destroy it compared to regular E-767),
you may want to focus on the other escort fighter, the MIR-2000D, as well as a
pair of F-16Cs that eventually approach.
With the destruction of the first E-767, you should notice that the
radar jamming is more sporadic and lasts a shorter time. There are a couple of
enemy forces to still contend with. Approaching from the north eventually will
be a set of four enemy aircraft, two MIR-2000Ds and two F-16Cs, who you can
easily snipe off with long-range weapons. To the far east is the second E-767,
guarded by a lone MIR-2000D. If you want to rack up score, then take out the
four crafts to the north, then move to the east.
Once both E-767s are destroyed, a mysterious red aircraft, the Z.O.E.,
shows up from the north end of the screen, with no cutscene in between (as such,
you do not get your missiles and special weapons restored). Try to fire a couple
of missiles and shoot at it as it approaches you, because that is about the only
clear shot you will get off of it. The Z.O.E. loves to fly around off afar,
forcing you to play a significant amount of catch-up to hit it. Furthermore, it
dodges missiles constantly.
A strategy this author prefers to use is, once you get a solid lock on
the Z.O.E. and it does not move away, is to constantly switch between missiles
and special weapons and spam them like crazy while holding the machinegun button
down so at least a few of the attacks go through. After the Z.O.E. takes a
significant amount of damage, it will retreat from the screen, ending the
battle.
It *might* be possible to destroy the Z.O.E., the author is not entirely
sure on this. It is for certain destroyable in every subsequent mission, but he
cannot recall having destroyed it on this particular mission or if it flies away
every time.
To get an S-Rank, your best bet is to just completely ignore all the
planes littered around the airspace, and thrust northwest from the start to hone
in on the first E-767, then shoot it from afar with long-range special weapons
as soon as the first radar jamming session is over, then quickly accelerate east
to eliminate the second E-767. This should give you lots of time for the Z.O.E.
dogfight, and you should quickly go north to near the edge of the map to get
tangled up in fighting right away once the Z.O.E. appears. You may as well not
even bother attempting S-Rank in your initial F-16C, either. Instead, wait until
you get far better planes and add-ons.
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Mission 08: Rising High
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[MI08]
Objective: Destroy all Rebel Bombers
S-Rank Requirements: Complete in under 1:50
Ace Pilot: Dao, an MiG-31, appears with the third target, the first SR-71
Targets: 3x F-16C, 2x U-2, 3x SR-71, Dao, MiG-31
Mission 08 cannot be completed in the same run of Story Mode as Mission
09, as it is another branch route, though only one mission long before it
converges.
In this mission, you are operating up to 10,000m above sea level, so it
is obviously only air targets you will be having to pick off. However, due to
the high altitude, you will also encounter stall if you go too high - when stall
occurs, your plane loses speed and you cannot move for a few seconds as you
slowly descend a few hundred metres, though you are still capable of firing off
missiles and special weapons if a target is within your sight. You can stall out
even at just above 7,000m if you are changing altitude too fast or too slowly.
Even more, the U2 bombers AND the SR-37s, all targets to destroy for
this mission, require two shots of special weapons to take out, so conserve your
special weapons for them specifically. Using long-range weapons on them can be
especially helpful since you have a lesser risk of stalling out.
You will start with a single F-16C fighter. Take it out with missiles
and the machinegun, then start to ascend into the sky, following the first
target, a U-2 Bomber. Take this one out with special weapons, then approach the
next target, a second U-2 Bomber. This one you will probably not be able to hit
right away with special weapons, so wait until you get closer before finally
firing at it so you do not waste projectiles.
When both U-2s are finished, continue northeast, where you will face a
succession of SR-37s, each of them guarded by at least one escort fighter.
Continue to hit them with special weapons as well - once all three of them are
destroyed, the mission ends.
ACE PILOT ALERT: The very first SR-37 you come across has the Dao, an
MiG-31 escort plane. Break off from the SR-37 momentarily to fire missiles at
the Dao to destroy it, as this Ace Pilot is pretty much handed to you on a
silver platter unlike others that you have to go out of your way to find.
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Mission 09: Acid Rain
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[MI09]
Objective: Defend Anchorhead from Rebel Bombers
S-Rank Requirements: Score of 5980 (This requires Ace Pilot Leonis, so cannot
be achieved on a first playthrough)
Ace Pilot: Leonid, a Landing Ship, appears just outside of Anchorhead harbour,
to the east of the spanning bridge once the third wave of enemies
appears from the south end of the map
Targets: 4x B-52, 3x MiG-21-93, 3x Gripen NG, 2x B-2A (12 Air)
+ Leonid (Ace Pilot, Ground)
Mission 09 cannot be completed in the same run of Story Mode as Mission
08, as it is another branch route, though only one mission long before it
converges.
Once the mission starts, move southeast immediately and fire a pair of
missiles at the B-52, and follow it up by turning around and going after the
next target, eliminating a MiG-21-93 on the way before sinking the second B-52.
Regardless of how fast you clear the initial wave, another wave of
enemies will quickly come from northeast, comprised of a Gripen NG, an MiG-21-
93, and a third B-52. Remember that you need to destroy every single aircraft in
this mission to get an S-Rank, so do not focus exclusively on destroying the B-
52.
Following some more time, a third wave of enemies will approach from the
south of the map.
ACE PILOT ALERT: Once the second wave of enemies is over with, once
radio chatter comes online with a rebel pilot saying they are approaching the
city, immediately dive and move towards the harbour. The Leonid, a Landing Ship,
will be in the water approaching the long-spanning bridge across the water at
Anchorhead.
Also in the new wave from the south are three more aircraft, a B-2A
bomber target, and another MiG-21-93 and Gripen NG each.
The fourth wave is not announced by radio chatter, but it will
nevertheless approach from the northeast as well. It has only two bombers and a
final Gripen NG fighter craft, one bomber being a B-2A and the other being a B-
52. Once you destroy those two bombers (make sure to finish off the Gripen NG
first so you can get 5980 points) the mission ends.
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Mission 10: Cuckoo's Nest
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[MI10]
Objective: Destroy all C-17 Cargo Planes
S-Rank Requirements: Complete in under 1:30
Ace Pilot: Hangman, a Typhoon-class plane, will appear over the large lake in
the centre of the map once you destroy all five ground-based target
near where you start off at the beginning
Targets: 12x Containers, 3x C-17, 2x F-16C, 2x F-14D (19 Air)
+ Hangman (Ace Pilot, Air)
2x Vehicle, 3x AA-Gun (5 Ground
Mission 10 is the convergence of Missions 09 and 10, and you will stick
on a single mission path for quite a while from now on before the next and final
mission split.
In this mission, you must destroy three C-17 planes, which are cargo
planes that will drop tiny boxes of cargo to the ground. These cargo Containers
can only be destroyed using the Machinegun, as they cannot be locked on with the
Missile aiming system. They DO, however, have tiny cursors for you to at least
get a feel on where to fire, so after a little bit of practice you should be
capable of mowing them down with ease.
The C-17 only drop a limited amount of cargo each (4 crates, possibly
5, the author did not do a complete proper count), so after each one drops their
entire supply of crates and you destroy them, you COULD mop up the surrounding
enemies and then destroy the C-17 (or destroy two of them and wait for the third
one to run out of supply crates).
Start the mission off by thrusting forward and destroying the three
crates right away, and disabling the first C-17. From there on, it is a pretty
open map and scenario, so long as you have a plane with sufficient speed to zip
you around quickly to take care of the crates before they get too low to the
ground. Ultimately, you need to destroy all three C-17 to end the mission, and
that is all that is required.
ACE PILOT ALERT: Near the start of the map, there are five targets on
the ground that you can spot by the cursors highlighted over them, and they are
fairly close together. You need to destroy all five of these ground targets.
Once you do, the Ace Pilot Hangman, a Typhoon-class plane, will appear above the
large lake in the centre of the map. To the author's knowledge, it will hang
around until the endgame, and will not fly off after a while.
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Mission 11: Groupies
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[MI11]
Objective: Escort the Dryman to the Safe Zone
S-Rank Requirements: Score of 5860
Ace Pilot: Tallman appears in the third wave of enemies on the left side of
F-15SEs and is a required kill to complete the mission
Targets: 7x F-14D, 2x AV-8, 4x F-15SE (13 Air)
+ Tallman (Ace Pilot, Air)
In Mission 11, you have to escort an allied plane to the safe zone,
which is basically the edge of the map, while being ambushed by multiple waves
of enemies. Thankfully, the A.I. for the Dryman is reasonable, and it is not an
underwater escort mission.
By the way, try not to fly straight into the Dryman. While this is
hilarious when it occurs, you will have to redo the whole mission over again.
In any case, while escorting the Dryman, you will be beset by multiple
waves of enemies. Most of them start from afar, so if you toggle over to long-
range weapons and shoot a single projectile off at each ship while it is still
far off in the distance, many of them will be OHKOed and you need only deal with
the stragglers.
Start off with the initial wave of two F-14Ds. Thrust from the start and
shoot a single long-range weapon at each of them to take them out, then move
back to stay with Dryman. A single AV-8 will appear from the northeast, but
stick with Dryman for the time being. Shortly after the AV-8 appears on-screen,
you shall be ambushed from behind to the south by another pair of F-14Ds.
Eliminate them right away with shorter-range missiles and your machinegun, then
turn around and focus on the AV-8 once it approaches.
With a tally of five ships to start, four more F-14Ds will approach from
the north. Thrust forward and snipe out as many as you can with a single long-
range special weapon shot each, then slow down for Dryman to catch up and
eliminate any stragglers.
ACE PILOT ALERT: If you have cleared Story Mode at least once (required
for Ace Pilots to appear), one of these F-14Ds, one of them to the left side is
automatically the Tallman Ace Pilot.
Another AV-8 will approach from the north sometimes after the F-14Ds
appear, but it will not wait until you have destroyed all four F-14Ds. However,
the final batch of Rebel aircraft, a wave of four F-15SEs, will wait for you to
clear out the remaining airplanes. If you are far enough away from them when
they show up, empty your remaining long-range weapons into them, then thrust
forward to meet them before they can approach the Dryman, and destroy whatever
remains to end the mission.
Now, the S-Rank requirement for this fight should be easy to achieve. If
you kill everything yourself and your partner does nothing (or you go solo
without Slash or Edge), you should grab 6320 points, and 5860 if your partner
does destroy one of the F-14Ds or Tallman, which are worth 460 each (but not the
F-15SEs, worth 560 points each).
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Mission 12: Seagull
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[MI12]
Objective: Destroy the Rebel Navy, Destroy the Cocoon Squad
S-Rank Requirements:
Ace Pilot:
Targets: AV-8, 2x F-14D, 8x (9x?) Cocoon (11 Air)
+ Rosepink (Ace Pilot, Air)
3x AA-Gun, 3x SAM, 3x Frigate, 3x Cruiser, Supply Ship, Destroyer,
Carrier (15 Naval)
For this mission, you must clear out two rebel fleets of naval ships.
These ships are guarded by a significant amount of anti-aircraft artillery on
board, and the moment you attack the first ship, enemy aircraft will come in.
Furthermore, once you destroy the navies, a new Ace Squad, Cocoon Squad, will
attack you in a second half of the battle.
During the first part of the mission, go down low and strafe the ships.
Once you attack the first ship. Cocoon Squad members will appear - ignore them,
as they will quickly retreat.
ACE PILOT ALERT: Keep an eye on the radio chatter. Once the Cocoon
leader orders a retreat, the Rosepink aircraft, a Rafale M, will temporarily
show up on the map (and also on radar). It should be fairly obvious as it has an
arrow-shaped icon on the radar as opposed to the dots that make up the ships.
Tail it and destroy it before it leaves.
The first fleet consists of four ships - a Frigate, a Cruiser, a Supply
Ship, and a Destroyer. When you approach the second fleet (before even attacking
it), the Carrier will launch two F-14Ds into the sky for you to battle. Take
them out and then destroy the fleet, which includes two Cruisers, two Frigates,
and a Carrier.
You can use up your specials here, as the mission is split into two
segments - once the first segment ends, your missiles and special weapons are
automatically replenished.
In the second half of the battle, hold onto your special weapons to
start. Cocoon Squad stays in a fairly tight formation, so you will want to wait
until they come in close and strike at you before responding with a bevy of
firepower, toggling between missiles and special weapons and swarming individual
aircraft with projectiles.
After about a minute, the Z.O.E. ship will show up again, and you will
have to pursue and cause enough damage to it for it to either retreat or be
destroyed before Cocoon Squad shows up again. This time, dump your specials into
them as soon as they show up, as they will take their time to spread out and
veer out of course and will instead fly straight for a little bit, then mop up
the remains of their squad to end the battle.
To achieve S-Rank time of under 5:30, first you need to scratch about 15
seconds off that time due to the timer still ticking while Olson talks at the
end of the first half of the battle.
Second, bring in an aircraft with at least 16 special weapons that is
both anti-air and anti-ground. During the first half of the battle, immediately
rush in and destroy every ship in the first fleet. Use the X button to
repeatedly switch targets so you are firing at the ships, and not the SAMs or
AA-Guns that are attached to them, and quickly toggle between missiles and
special weapons after you use either of them and have to go through a reload
time.
Ignore everybody flying around in the air and then head over to repeat
with the second fleet, and you should be under 1:30, optimally even aorund 1:10
when Olson finally stops talking.
With the second half of the mission, this is a little luck-based. Try to
focus on one Cocoon member at a time so that by the time the Z.O.E. shows up,
Cocoon Squad is already down at least a few pilots. How well you can fend off
the Z.O.E. is quite luck-based, depending on how much it wants to turn and if it
stays still long enough for you to get a good number of hits off (in the
author's lowest time of 3:57.49, the Z.O.E. showed up, then flew in a straight
line away from the author, setting itself up for a quick beating).
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Mission 13: One Night Stand
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[MI13]
Objective: Destroy the Rebel Submarine
S-Rank Requirements: Complete in under 2:00
Ace Pilot: Comet, a CH-47 type aircraft, appears at the left side of the
fourth and final split in the paths, hanging around right
on the underside of a bridge
Targets: 3x Gunboat, 2x Hovercraft, Submarine (6 Naval)
2x AA-Gun (2 Ground)
6x AH-64 (6 Air)
+ Comet (Ace Pilot, Air)
In this mission you are required to navigate a very narrow ravine,
making several sharp twists and turns. Hitting a cliff wall will at the very
least significantly damage your plane, if not outright destroy it. Additionally,
you cannot fly too high up, or else you will be picked up on radar, resulting in
an automatic mission failure.
Speed up with your thrust to start and turn a few corners in the ravine.
Right away, you get a choice to split up between two different paths - down the
left side leads to an AH-64 plane, while the right side has a lone Gunboat. Both
paths converge into one very shortly thereafter.
Continue flying, and move to be above the bridge in the ravine area.
There will be numerous sharp turns right after before you get out into the open,
followed up by some more numerous sharp turns with a Gunboat to the right side
and an AH-64 to the left.
Once the paths converge once more and you come out into the open, you
will experience another split thereafter. To the left end is a Gunboat in the
water followed by two AA-Guns mounted on a bridge. The right path is a bit
trickier - there is only a single AH-64 to destroy, but you have to rise up high
and may attract the attention of the radars if you go too high, resulting in a
mission failure.
ACE PILOT ALERT: At the fourth split, take the left side, where you
shall encounter the CH-47 Comet flying alongside an AH-64.
At the fourth split, going left leads you to a lone AH-64, and then very
quickly another AH-64 accompanied by the Ace Pilot Comet. Make sure to at least
destroy the Comet the first time it appears after having completed the Story
Mode once. If you take the right side, you will have to traverse an underground
cavern with two Hoverboats to dispatch. Once the paths converge, there will be a
final AH-64.
From there on, you will need to wind through some more narrow
passageways, until you encounter the Submarine at the end of the passageway.
Dump all your missiles and special weapons onto it to very quickly end the
mission upon its destruction.
In obtaining an S-Rank for this mission, you will need to get somewhat
skilled at being able to navigate the sharp turns of the ravine - if you can
speed up right away and keep your aircraft at high speed for most of the
mission, this will obviously shave off a significant amount of time from your
end time.
To attain a quick finishing speed, there IS in fact an optimal route -
take the left path every single time. The right route is always a longer
distance, so you want to go left to skim through the mission.
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Mission 14: Green Bird
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[MI14]
Objective: Rescue the Rookie Squadron</pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
S-Rank Requirements: Complete in under 2:00
Ace Pilot: Comet, a CH-47 type aircraft, appears at the left side of the
fourth and final split in the paths, hanging around right
on the underside of a bridge
Targets: 5x F/A-18E, 2x X-29A, 3x Gripen NG, Z.O.E. (11 Air)
+ Jian (Ace Pilot, Air)
In Green Bird, you get three separate rebel air squadrons to deal with,
spaced out across the map. You get a large number of Alliance pilots assisting
you, but like your normal partner, they are mostly just meatshields to soak up
attention from Rebel pilots as opposed to actually striking down Rebel pilots.
This mission is ENTIRELY air-based, so there is no need for anti-ground-only
special weapons.
ACE PILOT ALERT: If you press the Up diagonal button to change your
radar to the full map view, you should see a lone white triangular shape to the
south of your current location. This is the Jian Gripen NG aircraft. The Jian
drifts around in the same spot to the south for the full mission, so you will
have to break away from the main body of the mission to destroy it (and you can
just ignore trying to shoot it down during a try for an S-Rank due to how long
it takes). Your best bet is to go south right after you wipe out the first flock
of foes.
Upon starting, tilt your aircraft slightly to the left on your view and
you should see a number of F/A-18Es approaching. Switch to long rangespecial
weapons and fire one at each of them. As they are coming in straight with no
veering around, you should be able to destroy them right away, then set about to
destroying the rest of the F/A-18Es in the area.
Toggle your map to the full map view if it is not in that already, then
thrust your ship to approach the north cluster of enemies and take out a pair of
X-29As, spamming your projectiles at them. Once they have been destroyed, turn
your attention back to your radar and set yourself westward-bound to tackle
three remaining Gripen NG Rebel aircraft. Empty your special weapons out on them
and continue with usage of your missiles while constantly attempting to hit them
with your machinegun firing until they all go down.
The mission has a second component to it, and your weapons will be
automatically refilled at the start. You will have to tackle the Z.O.E. again.
For the most part, it is the exact same as your previous bouts with it, just
with better visibility. As always, attempt to move around and get a lock on it
and chase after it once it starts moving away. Once you get a good solid lock on
it and the Z.O.E. stays in your crosshairs, start spamming your projectiles and
attempt to hit it with your machinegune until it goes down.
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Mission 15: St. Elmo's Fire
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[MI15]
Objective: Escort and defend the Alliance Navy
S-Rank Requirements: Score of 7400
Ace Pilot: Xiao, which appears on the map radar on the far northwest side when
you encounter the first blockade defense travelling up into the
channel. Leave the Xiao be for a while as it will slowly travel
east and eventually get caught up in the area of the battle before
continuing east and out of sight if you do not eliminate it while
it is near.
Targets: 4x Typhoon, 2x F-15SE (6 Air)
+ Xiao (Ace Pilot, Air)
4x Gunboat, 3x Cruiser, 3x AA-Gun, 3x SAM (13 Navy)
2x AA-Gun, SAM, 3x Tank (6 Ground)
Mission 15 starts the first of a three-mission route that splits into
two, with this route comprising of Missions 15 through 17, while the opposite
route is composed of Missions 18 through 20. The two routes converge back proper
on Mission 21, but you will need to play through Story Mode twice to be able to
play all missions in the Challenge Mode.
In this mission, you need to protect your own navy ships from being
blown up and escort them to the north end of this map. You do this by destroying
the naval and air defenses that protect the channel from invasion.
Thrust your plane ahead upon starting and rip off a missile or two at
each of the three Gunboats that appear at the start of the channel before the
sea begins to narrow, then move back to guard your fleet before the radio
conversation ends.
Toggle over to the full map view, and two Typhoon aircraft should appear
to the northeast shortly thereafter. Switch from missiles to long-distance
special weapons, move forward, and shoot at both of them once their cursors are
highlighted in red: they will come in straight for a while so you have an easy
opportunity to blow them out of the sky long before they get close. After you
fire off your specials, again move back to your naval fleet.
Shortly thereafter, two more Typhoons will appear, one from the
northwest, one from the northeast. Right after, the defenses at the throat of
the channel will also show up on-radar and you can now attack them. Shoot
another special at each of the Typhoons, which will fly in straight, then tackle
the AA-Guns, SAMs, and naval ships.
ACE PILOT ALERT: Shortly after you tackle the first line of defenses,
the Xiao ship, an X-29, will appear on your full map radar to the far northwest,
just shy of the white boundary line of the map. Do NOT chase it, as it will
slowly travel east, eventually getting to the site of the battle, then continue
east. Wait until it gets close to where you are and then chase after it before
returning back to the battle.
The next line of defense will be highlighted by a Missile Boat in front
and two F-15SEs coming from the northeast. Eliminate the Missile Boat, then
shoot down the two F-15SEs from afar with more specials. Go back down to the
ground and take out the two remaining Cruiser ships to end the battle with all
naval defenses destroyed (fire at the Tanks on the west coast to get your score
up).
Getting an S-Rank on this mission is fairly lenient. The top score you
can get is, to the author's knowledge, 8320. You can achieve 7940 on a first
run-through as the Xiao is worth 280. From there, as long as you make sure to
destroy all six aircraft (the F-15SE each worth 560 and the Typhoons each worth
660) you can ignore a few of the ground-based anti-air artillery.
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Mission 16: Visiting Hours
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[MI16]
Objective: Destroy the Geothermal Power Plant
S-Rank Requirements: Score of 6000
Ace Pilot: Metal Sphere, an F-16 class plane, shows up in the air once the
Tanks and Vehicle on the north shore of the main island have been
destroyed and your Landing Ship ground troops get off
Targets: 4x MIG-21-93, 2x F-15SE, 3x MIR-2000D, 4x F-14D (13 Air)
+ Metal Sphere (Ace Pilot, Air)
3x SAM, 5x AA-Gun, 2x Tank, Vehicle, Power Plant (12 Ground)
Mission 16 is the second of three missions that comprise the Operation
Alphaville route. This is a mix of a ground and air targets, but is fairly non-
intensive.
Move ahead past the Ally Landing Ship at the start. Toggle over to your
special weapons and fire at the first MIG-21-93 with a long-distance missile to
shoot it out of the sky. Ignore the island with the two ground-based turrets and
instead thrust forward to meet another MIG-21-93, and launch a special weapon
projectile at it as well.
Turn your attention to the island now, and take out the SAM and AA-Gun
on the shore. Return back up into the sky to approach another two MIG-21-93 that
are flying southeast. They soar up into the sky after a while, so you will
probably not be able to hit them with special weapons - instead, tail them one
at a time and hit them with missiles once they stop rising to destroy them both.
Approach the large island to the southeast where there are a large
number of anti-air artillery targets on the ground. Fly around for a bit, and
target two F-15SEs and three MIR-2000Ds that show up with long-range special
weapons once they do a flyby to eliminate them right away. A pair of F-14Ds will
appear sometime after that, but they will fly around and dodge and weave, so
stick to your missiles for them. If you wait a REALLY long time after that,
another F-14D will also appear, followed by still another single F-14D still
later.
Once all the air reinforcements have been destroyed, move to assault the
artillery on the ground. Only the two Tanks and the Vehicle at the north end of
the island need to be destroyed, while all the other AA-Guns and SAMs can be
demolished to add onto your final score. Do not worry about your Landing Ship -
it is basically invincible, so you can leave it near the Tanks and Vehicle and
save those until last with no worry of the Landing Ship being sun.
ACE PILOT ALERT: Once both Tanks and the Vehicle have been destroyed and
the ground soldiers leave the Landing Ship and you start getting radio
conversation related to this, the F-16 Metal Sphere Ace Pilot will appear above
the bunker and on your radar. Fly up to meet and match it and take it down.
Keep an eye on the radio conversation. Once Olsen indicates the bunker
as being open, you can go through narrow passageways from either the north or
south side and destroy the Power Plant core with a couple of missiles, and then
fly in through the other end before the game moves along to the mission results
screen.
This is another pretty lenient S-Rank mission much like Mission 15. Even
on your first run-through with no Ace Pilot to destroy it is still very easy to
accumulate 6000 points. Be sure to wait it out at the beginning until all the
Rebel air reinforcements have shown up, and snipe them down to rack up points.
As well, destroy all the optional AA-Guns and SAMs lying around on the first
island and then the centre island.
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Mission 17: Toy Box
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[MI17]
Objective: Stop the Rebel Launch, Destroy Beast Squadron
S-Rank Requirements: Complete in under 5:30
Ace Pilot: Striker, an F-15 Aircraft, appears with Beast Squadron at the start
of the second phase before soaring off south to leave the screen
Targets: 9x Silo, 3x Containers, 15x AA-Gun, 8x SAM, Shuttle (36 Ground)
2x F-117A, 2x F-2A, 10x Beast (7x F/A-18E, 3x F-15S/MTD) (14 Air)
+ Striker (Ace Pilot, Air)
In this mission, you need to destroy multiple Silos to locate
Containers, eventually ending with destroying the rocket shuttle. This is then
followed by a rematch with Beast Squadron in the second half of the mission,
WITH all your specials and missiles reloaded. This is a very, very handy mission
to have an Anti-Air/Ground with 16 projectiles as your specials, as you will see
upon playing it.
When you go to strike the first island, hit the Silo to the right side
from your view, and it contains the Containers to destroy. A good thing to try
is to thrust right from the start of the mission to the island, then immediately
break once you get to the Silo, shoot some Missiles at it (or lob a single long
-distance weapon at it), then fire at the Containers with your machinegun and
quickly lift up to clear the mountains once the Containers are destroyed. The
author *believes* the Containers are always in the same Silo, given how many
times he replayed this mission to verify it, but it may be possible it changes
up over different game cartridges.
Following the first island, continue northeast. Two F-117As will be
flying along to guard the next island - lock onto the first one with a long-
range special and attempt to shoot it down before flying down low to do a strafe
run of the second island. There are three Silos here, and unlike before, the one
that has the Containers in it appears to be random, while the other two host an
AA-Gun and a SAM each. Ignore the artillery and instead strike the Silos until
you locate the correct one, then destroy the resident Containers.
Continue northeast and you will encounter another island, this time with
four Silos on it. Toggle over to a long-range special weapons and try to hit
four targets at once to significantly reduce the amount of wreckage you need to
create upon getting closer to the island, if not outright finding the Containers
right away.
When you locate the correct Silo, quickly move over to the western side
of the island you are on (use the map). Once Olsen finishes speaking, you can
fire at the Shuttle to destroy it - note that just one Special weapon is
insufficient to destroy the Shuttle, so hit the X button as you approach to
target it specifically and fire several specials at it before the cursors touch
the SAMs and AA-Guns and tries to divide four specials between four targets.
Around this time, two F-2As will also appear, but they come in rather
late so you might never see them if you destroy the Shuttle quickly enough.
Following the destruction of the Shuttle, you get a brief layover with
your weapons restored, and then you have a rematch with Beast Squad.
ACE PILOT ALERT: The F-15 Stalker appears with the Beast Squad, but then
flies along going south until it flees off-screen. Do not attempt to destroy the
Stalker at the same time as you try to get an S-Rank.
Start the fight by facing around to approach the Beast Squad, and toggle
to your Special Weapons, and quickly fire them off - they come in at you
straight for quite a while, so you can blow a few of their ships up or get good
hits in right away. After that initial charge, the Beast Squad breaks up into
individual pilots without ever reuniting into a formation again, much like their
first battle against you.
You should figure out the gimmick of this fight right away, as you
should shortly thereafter lose use of your radar, before it gets restored again.
In this battle, three out of the ten Beast Squadron ships are identified as
being F-15S/MTDs on radar (the other seven are F/A-18E). The MTDs are
specifically electronic jamming ships, so if you locate one, focus on it
particularly and chase after it to attempt to destroy it. The author believes
that the amount of jamming goes down with each F-15S/MTD that you destroy.
It is worth noting that unlike the last mission that involved radar-
jamming, this one occurs in bright daylight, so even after jamming occurs, you
should still be able to follow the pilot you are tailing and dogfighting with
and try to hit him manually using your machinegun. It is not the prettiest
solution but it still works.
For time-savers to achieve that S-Rank, as suggested earlier, strike all
the Silos with long-range special weapons where you can so as to reduce the
amount of time it takes to locate the Containers. Also, after destroying the
third Containers, quickly head to the west end of that island before Olsen
finishes talking so you are right next to the Shuttle when it becomes available
as a target, then dump Missiles and specials into it right away. As for the
Beast Squad, it really is just practice, practice, practice, and possibly
switching up special weapons if you really need to.
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Mission 18: Cavalry
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[MI18]
Objective: Save the Downed Aircraft Cassiopeia
S-Rank Requirements: Score of 6820
Ace Pilot: Meteor, an SU-25 type ship, appears to the northeast late on in the
battle along with two regular SU-25 in that wave
Targets: 3x RPG, 3x Stinger, 4x Tank, 2x SAM (12 Ground)
6x AH-64, 3x SU-25, 2x MiG-21-93, 2x A-10A (13 Air)
+ Meteor (Ace Pilot, Air)
Mission 18 starts the first of a three-mission route that splits into
two, with this route comprising of Missions 18 through 20, while the opposite
route is composed of Missions 15 through 17. The two routes converge back proper
on Mission 21, but you will need to play through Story Mode twice to be able to
play all missions in the Challenge Mode.
In this mission, you need to project the downed aircraft E-767
Cassiopeia from Rebels. Aircraft from above will try to attack it, while slower
-moving vehicles will march across the desert floor. You need to destroy these
slower-moving tanks and artillery before they reach the Cassiopeia. In this
mission, in addition to your own partner, you are also accompanied by another
airplane, the Red Bear.
From the start, quickly thrust forward to meet an MIG-21-93 head on. Do
not waste specials on it: instead, hit it with a couple of missiles and some
gunfire to attempt to knock it out before it flies around you. With it done,
head northwest to match up with an SU-25 next as well.
With the initial barrage of Rebel pilots finished, rush north past the
Cassiopiea and dump a special weapon at the MIG-21-93 coming in from the north,
then continue approaching it and fire a couple of missiles if the special
projectile does not destroy it.
Once all three initial aircraft have been destroyed, move close to the
desert floor and fly around, knocking out the RPGs, SAMs and Tanks that are
lurking around. The RPGs and SAMs can both be knocked out with a single missile
each, but the Tanks need two missiles or a single special. Make SURE that you
find all the RPGs - there are three of them in total, but they are not official
targets, so they only show up as small white dots on the map.
Shortly thereafter, a total of eight AH-64s will appear, four from the
north, four from the south side. Fortunately, they move very sluggishly and fly
fairly straightfoward, so you can quickly thrust you way to meet aircraft from
either wave and shoot special weapons at each plane in turn to destroy all of
them. With assitance from the aircraft Red Bear and your own parter, they may
also take a ship down or two.
Following that, a number of waves of enemies will swarm you. From the
north side, will be two Tanks, then from the southeast is two SU-25s. Two A-10A
aircraft will come from the northwest, and another ground squad of a Tank and a
SAM will come in.
ACE PILOT ALERT: Meteor, another SU-25, will accompany the two regular
SU-25s coming from the southeast.
Do NOT destroy all the targets right away, though may want to destroy
the Tanks on the ground and leave at least two aircraft around (one is as
insurance for if your partner destroys one). On the ground near the Cassiopeia
around this time will be three Stinger enemies. They will not be automatically
targeted as they are not official Targets required to destroy to end the
mission, but they DO offer a very juicy score bonus - specifically, 300 points,
and there are three of them.
Once you destroy all the air and ground targets, the mission ends as a
success.
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Mission 19: El Dorado
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[MI19]
Objective: Destroy the Missile Silos
S-Rank Requirements: Complete in under 2:00
Ace Pilot: Man&Goose, a YF-23A aircraft, appears from the southwest end of the
map partways into the battle. The trigger for it showing up is
unknown.
Targets: 6x Silo, Watch Tower, Base, 9x AA-Gun, 3x SAM (20 Ground)
3x AV-8, 2x Gripen NG, 4x F-22 (9 Air)
+ Max&Goose (Ace Pilot, Air)
Mission 19 takes place in a deep valley gorge, where you need to destroy
six Silos that are located in dead end areas. Additionally, the Silos are each
protected by an AA-Gun or SAM, and are themselves surrounded by concrete,
meaning you need to be flying at each Silo almost straight to get a missile off
that will blow up the Silo.
The rest of the valley is also heavily protected by AA-Guns and SAMs,
while Rebel aircraft reinforcements will occasionally come around, one or two
craft at a time. In addition to the six Silos, you also need to destroy the
Watch Tower and Base at the top of a tall rock spire near the centre of the
gorge.
ACE PILOT ALERT: The Max&Goose, quite possible the stupidest Ace Pilot
name in the game, a YF-23A class aircraft, will approach from the southwest end
of the map. The author is not precisely certain of what the trigger is for this
- whether it is destroying a certain number of Silos (3?) or if a specific
amount of time must pass.
Now, that being said, there IS a bit of an optimum route to destroying
everything. From the beginning, rush through the gorge and turn south and strafe
and shoot at the first one. Turn around up into the sky and head over to where
the Watch Tower and Base are, and use your specials to hit everything on top of
the spire.
From there, proceed north and shoot at the Silo down this dead end, then
turn back to where the spire is, shoot again at the Watch Tower and Base if
either of them survived your barrage, then turn to face east. Quickly make the
easy shot at the Silo to the far east, then move south and hit the fourth Silo
here.
Proceed west from here, and hit the northernmost of the two remaining
silos, before flying around or over a gorge wall to the southwestern-most Silo
and then destroying it.
You will basically have to completely ignore the Rebel pilots and
artillery on the ground while trying to achieve this mission in under 2:00.
Finally, be aware that when you destroy the last Silo, the mission does
not immediately move over to the Mission Results screen, so immediately pull up
so you do not go crashing right into a wall.
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Mission 20: Final Countdown
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[MI20]
Objective: Destroy the Rebel Fleet
S-Rank Requirements: Score of 18900
Ace Pilot: Superfly, an F-35 Aircraft, shows up only if you destroy every one
of the naval boats from both the first AND second waves at the start
of the mission in under 2:00
Targets: 2x F-14D, 2x Rafale M, 3x XB-10, 2x MIG-144, 4x Albireo (13 Air)
+ Superfly (Ace Pilot, Air)
4x Gunboat, 3x Frigate, 2x Aegis, 2x Destroyer, Cruiser, 6x SAM,
AA-Gun (19 Naval)
Mission 20 is the final mission of the second three-mission route, and
it involves a naval and air battle to start, followed by a final Ace Squadron
battle.
ACE PILOT ALERT: To acumulate the 18900 points required to S-Rank this
mission, you need to sweep through the two enemy navies that show up at the
beginning of the mission in under 2:00 to force the Ace Pilot to show up. If you
do not destroy the Ace Pilot, you will not get sufficient points to S-Rank this
mission.
Start by thrusting forward and shooting special weapons at the two
Rafale-Ms that show up, then continue on north past them and strike down the two
F-14Ds as well with specials. Be sure to press on them and switch to missiles to
shoot at them if the specials look like they are about to miss.
You want to get all four aircraft on your first pass without having to
turn around and dogfight with them, so if you miss this, you may wish to restart
the mission. Once you succeed, turn around and gun down all the boats in the
water, making sure to attack the SAMs on the Aegis and Destroyer first before
blowing up the ships themselves. By the time all four planes and the boats are
destroyed, you should be at 4420 points.
With the first fleet destroyed, a second fleet will appear, along with
an XB-10 aircraft bomber. Ignore the bomber completely, and instead mow down the
second Rebel navy, composed of six ships this time around, again making sure to
also destroy the three SAMs and AA-Gun on the Cruiser, Aegis and Destroyer
first.
IF you succeed in destroying all six ships in under 2:00, then the
Superfly, an F-35 ship, shall show up on-screen. Switch over to your full map
radar and you should have two enemies on radar - the aforementioned XB-10 that
you should have ignored and the Superfly. Take out the Superfly, tailing it
until you get a lock-on, then follow the XB-10.
The XB-10 has a ton of defense, so it will take several missiles, even a
few specials to take it down, let alone using regular machinegun fire. Once you
destroy the first XB-10, four more enemies will show up: two pairings of an XB-
10 escorted by a MIG-144.
Now, this is integral: do NOT destroy both XB-10 first: first off, the
MIG-144 are not classified as official 'targets'. If you destroy the XB-10 right
away, you skip right to the next phase of this battle, and miss out on the
points netted by downing the MIG-144. Secondly, if you wait around a bit, four
SU-37s will appear as a last line of defense. As such, destroy the MIG-144, then
wait for the SU-37s to destroy them. Finally, with all of them down for the
count, batter the XB-10 with all your remaining specials (they are replenished
right away) and regular missiles.
Following the destruction of all present XB-10s, you should have 15920
points at this time, and the mission will transit to a second-half battle
against Albireo Squadron.
Albireo Squadron only has four members to it, including their squad
captain, but what they lack in numbers and the aid of radar-jamming they more
than make up for in sheer frustration, as they will regroup and strike pretty
hard if you do not take a few of them out right away. Tail one of them and focus
hard on him, using the L+R boost turn to keep him in your sight and using Action
Maneuvers, pounding away with your specials and missiles until he falls.
If you take out the three mooks and leave the Albireo 1 leader for last,
he will temporarily drop off radar before reappearing and lead you on a chase,
diving down to near the surface and engaging in a bit of battle skimming above
the ocean before going back up. Because this mission's S-Rank is score-based
rather than time-based, there really is nothing wrong with leaving him for last,
especially since this is a neat little extra relative to the other Squad leaders
who did nothing special if they were last.
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Mission 21: Kingpin
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[MI21]
Objective: Destroy the Rebel Command Centre
S-Rank Requirements: Score of 9610
Ace Pilot: The Mole shows up under the arch to the south of the H.Q. building
after you have destroyed the ring of artillery surrounding the
Rebel Command Centre
Targets: 5x F/A-18E, 3x Gripen NG, Z.O.E. (9 Air)
9x SAM, Howitzer, 6x Silo, 9x AA-Gun, H.Q. (26 Ground)
+ Mole (Ace Pilot, Ground)
It should be noted that, much like Missions 3 and 9, to get an S-Rank in
this mission, you need to destroy _every_ single target on the map. Also like
Mission 9, this includes the Ace Pilot present on the map, so you will not be
able to achieve an S-Rank until a second playthrough or doing this mission in
Challenge Mode after having achieved a complete playthrough of Story Mode the
first time.
From the start, dive down so you are almost skimming the ground, and
start picking off the ground-based targets - the SAM, Silo, AA-Gun, and then
another AA-Gun on the bridge, and a SAM at the end of the bridge.
By this time, the Rebels should have deployed their first set of
aircraft, a pair of F/A-18E. Since the S-Rank for this mission is score-based,
you do not need to worry about time management, and so you should focus on the
air first before tackling the ground (the Ace Pilot is independent of both score
and time).
With the F/A-18E down, tackle the Silo on the north side of the harbour,
then continue north through the city at slow speeds to avoid crashing into any
skyscrapers, destroying more artillery defenses and another Silo. By about this
time, some more Rebel aircraft should deply starting from the north,
specifically three Gripen NG, so take some time out and go and destroy these new
planes.
Once the new Rebel fighters have been downed, assault the core of the
city, destroying the tight formation of artillery deployed on the ground and
rooftops, and destroy few more Silos.
With the destruction of all the Silos, the Z.O.E. will finally show up
for battle. You may also notice its marking as an F-15S/MTD which, if you played
through Mission 17 and remember the markings of some of the Beast Squadron
planes, means that yes, the Z.O.E. is a radar-jamming aircraft this time around.
Like Mission 17, you have decent visibility in this mission, so even
after radar-jamming you can still tail the Z.O.E. on-screen and hit it with
machinegun fire. However, there will also be a few Z.O.E. mirror images. Keep
your wits to yourself and try to focus on the same Z.O.E. throughout - only the
real one will actually be solid when you get close to it, while the other three
only show up on radar and with your cursors.
This is like pretty much every other fight with the Z.O.E., with it
twisting and turning wildly, except for the radar-jamming and bogeys. Once you
get a good line of sight on it and fire it goes down in surprisingly few hits.
With the destruction of the Z.O.E. craft, move to intercept the three
F/A-18E airplanes that show up and take them down before focusing on the third
defense line in Saint Ark of two SAMs and a Silo. Finally, continue a little bit
north and destroy the two AA-Guns and SAMs around the command centre.
ACE PILOT ALERT: Once the ring of artillery weapons around the H.Q. has
been destroyed, DO NOT ATTACK the H.Q. Instead, look at your radar and you
should see a new white dot representing an enemy to your south. Turn around and
you should find the Mole, a Tank, sitting underneath an arch to your south.
Shoot it down, then return to the H.Q. to attack it. Destroying the Mole is
imperative to collecting 9610 points.
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Mission 22: Last Resort
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[MI22]
Objective: Destroy the Submarine, Stop the Missile Launch
S-Rank Requirements: Complete in under 0:45
Ace Pilot: Hot Snow, a Ground-based target, appears on the southwest end of the
city near the west end of the map once you destroy the Submarine and
the missile is launched
Targets: 2x SAM, Submarine (3 Naval)
Missile (1 Air)
+ Hot Snow (Ace Pilot, Ground)
Move forward at the start and fire specifically at the Submarine with
special weapons and missiles to destroy it, and fly past it. Drift a few seconds
before turning around and moving back to where the ship was and it will have
launched a nuclear missile that you now need to destroy.
ACE PILOT ALERT: Once the missile has launched, you should see the Ace
Pilot on radar on the far west end of the city. Quickly thrust yourself over
there as soon as you destroy the Submarine to catch it, fire a missile at it,
then reverse direction to intercept the missile and complete the mission.
It is impossible to fire at the missile with your own projectiles,
normal or special, so you need to use your regular Machinegun. Use L+R to twist
and turn around as needed to catch the missile and get it lined up in your
reticules, and then fire. If you can catch the missile for a couple of seconds
before it decides to twist and turn again, you can destroy it in that few
seconds.
If you are having trouble with clearing this mission in under 45 seconds
for the S-Rank, there are a couple of useful things you can do to destroy the
Missile faster, though they both can be gotten after beating the game at least
once. First, you can use the Sniper OS, Cockpit Part 06, which is obtained by
destroying the Ace Pilot for Mission 02, to automatically align your machinegun
reticule with the missile when it is almost lined up.
Secondly, you can try to use the FALKEN aircraft and its third special
weapon, the TLS. The TLS is an actual honest-to-god laser attack that runs out
quickly but hits multiple times per second and is crazy versatile to moving it
around when firing, so if you fire it on the missile and your hit strikes true,
the missile basically blows up near instantly.
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Mission 23: Fighter's Honor
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[MI23]
Objective: Destroy Fortress Intolerance
S-Rank Requirements: Complete in under 3:30
Ace Pilot:
Targets: Z.O.E, 4x F-22, 2x F-16C, YF-23A, MIR-2000D, F-4E, SU-47 (11 Air)
+ F.F.F. (Ace Pilot, Air)
4x Power Plant, 4x Fortress, 4x SAM, 8x AA-Gun, ICBM (21 Ground)
The first part of the battle involves your final bout with the Z.O.E.
fighter. To a point, this is rather helpful, as the segment of the battle
partially luck-based on how annoying the Ace Pilot decides to be comes first
instead of second this time. The Z.O.E. can still create bogey images, but again
only the real one will actually have an on-screen avatar, while the others are
just fakes that only appear on radar and as cursors. This time around, the
Z.O.E. cannot jam your radar.
More importantly, however, is that the Z.O.E. can fire missiles and
machinegun fire at you from its rear side and not just the front, so keep an eye
out for that and do not try to tail it too closely. However, once you destroy
the S.O.E., you get a scene rollover thereafter, with all your missiles and
specials replenished. A good time to destroy the Z.O.E. in is about 1:45, as you
can easily finish up the rest of the mission in about 1:45.
Since this is the first and only mission of the game where you fight the
Z.O.E. at the start, now is a good time to try this trick if you have an
aircraft with a high Air-to-Air rating: if you get in close at the start and
hit it with multiple special weapons to start, you can get it down to the red
right away. After it disappears off the radar and reappears, continue tailing
it to put it out of its misery.
ACE PILOT ALERT: At the start of the second half, during the power plant
phase, the F.F.F., an SU-47 fighter, will be flying around by itself on radar.
If you are not concerned about getting an S-Rank this time around, then tail it
and destroy it for the last Ace Pilot of the game.
When you cutaway to the second segment, do not bother firing specials at
the two F-22 fighters, who will fly and weave around. Instead, dive down and
destroy the two Power Plants and SAM. Head northeast from the position of the
first two Power Plants to find another set of Power Plants with a SAM. Destroy
the remaining Power Plants and you can now assault Fortress Intolerance to the
north.
It should be noted that only the targets marked as Targets on the ground
need to be destroyed, so if going for the S-Rank time, ignore absolutely
everything else both on the ground and in the sky (it should be noted, to the
author's amusement, that the Rebel air fleet is a motley crew, with many
aircraft but spread out over several types, having one only of most types -
speaking to their position in-story of being a ragtag bunch).
These four targets are marked as Fortress on the southern outstretched
concrete 'arms' of the Fortress Intolerance. They each require two missiles to
destroy, or a single special, so be aware of that if you accidentally fire at
the AA-Guns accompanying them instead.
Once the four Fortresses have been destroyed, head over to the south
side of Fortress Intolerance, and you can head through a small entrance into the
core area of the Fortress. If you are really hurting for time, thrust in and be
wary of the sharp drop at one point, otherwise, slow down a bit. After you fire
off your weapons at the ICBM, immediately slow down to avoid hitting the wall at
the end before the mission scrolls to the replay and mission results screen.
Thus ends the last mission of the Story Mode, though 10 Survival and Extra
missions are available for unlocking.
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______________________________________________________________________________
Survival Missions
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Survival Missions are redos of specific missions from the Story Mode,
but with slightly more enemies. They also restrict your time, missiles and
special weapons, and defense when starting out. You can destroy some enemies in
each level that give you bonuses upon destroying them, in particular AH-64s. To
obtain an S-Rank, you usually need a certain combination of score and time,
though most of these are guesstimates.
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Survival Mission 1
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[SUR1]
Objective: Destroy all Carriers and Supply Ships
S-Rank Requirements: Score of 20430 in under a certain time (<5:00?)
Targets: 4x F-4E, 3x AH-64, 4x F-16C (11 Air)
10x AA-Gun, Launcher, Vehicle (12 Ground)
3x Gunboat, 3x Supply Ship, Carrier, 2x F-4E (9 Naval)
The six available Survival Missions all share fairly common
characteristics. They all borrow maps from certain Story Missions, though a few
of them are slightly edited. They also all start you off with a very low amount
of Missiles and Special Weapons, sometimes with a low amount of time and plane
defense (health) percentage. You can destroy certain targets on each map to fill
up your missiles, special weapons, time and defense. To achieve an S-Rank
mission on each mission, you need to destroy most (but seemingly not ALL)
targets, and do it in under a certain time.
Survival Mission 1 is a redo of Mission 03 from the Story Mode, but of
course a little bit tougher. You still need to destroy all the Carriers to end
the mission, but you also must eliminate all targets for the S-Rank, including
waiting around for a couple of Rebel aircraft near the end to show up for a
bout.
Start the first Survival Mission by taking out the defenses in the urban
terrain to the south of Anchorhead proper, including the Gunboat in the water,
then confront the first F-4E that comes along. Quickly destroy it to net
yourself a time bonus.
Continue north along the narrow mountain road, making sure to send a
missile off at the Vehicle down below, and destroy a second F-4E and then an AH
-64. Once you move further north, tackle the island to the east. The AA-Gun on
this island gives a Time bonus once it is destroyed, and then make sure to
eliminate the Supply Ship as well.
Head west from here, destroying another AH-64, and an AA-Gun on the long
spanning bridge that nets you +20% to your Defense when destroyed. Strike the
Gunboat in the water for extra special weapons, then destroy the nearby AA-Gun
and Supply Ship as well.
By about this time, two more Rebel F-4Es will have shown up to support
Anchorhead's defense from air. One of these carries a Time bonus, and the other
holds a Missile bonus, so be certain to down both of them for a couple of
helpful bonuses. Two more F-16Cs shall also appear from the northeast after a
time. Hit them with long-range specials, then follow up after the specials just
to be certain they are destroyed, tangling with them if either of them avoids
the special weapon. Another pair of F-16Cs will show up still later, but they
take so long you may as well move back to assaulting the harbour proper.
Thereafter, focus back on the shorelines of the harbour. To the north in
the city is an AH-64 with a Time bonus snuck in between two skyscrapers. You can
dash after the AH-64 if you have to, shooting a few missiles at it and slipping
in between the two skyscrapers in return. Tackle the remaining artillery weapons
mounted around the shore and fend off the remaining aircraft before finally
destroying the last few naval targets. A Gunboat contains a Random bonus here,
too.
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Survival Mission 2
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[SUR2]
Objective: Protect the Dryman aircraft
S-Rank Requirements: Score of 6660 in under a certain time (<5:00?)
Targets: 7x F-14D, 8x AH-64, 2x AV-8, 4x F-15SE (21 Air)
Survival Mission 2 is a remix of Mission 11 from the Story missions,
where you had to escort the plane Dryman through enemy territory to the top of
the map, a safe zone. However, you have only 4 minutes to start, and you begin
with a motley 4 missiles and no special weapons. To increase your time
remaining, missiles, and special weapons, you need to destroy the AH-64
helicopters around the level in order to get bonuses.
To obtain an S-Rank, you need to destroy all enemy aircraft on the map,
including the AH-64s that are down in the ravines on the mountain floors, and
you need to achieve this in a certain amount of time (NOT time remaining, but
time played). The author believes this is about 5:00.
AH-64s have blue cursors on the map when in the air when carrying
missiles, green cursors when carrying specials, grey cursors when carrying a
time bonus, and orange when they have a Random bonus.
Start the mission by thrusting ahead to meet two F-14Ds. Destroy them,
then stay ahead of Dryman until an AV-8 shows up, and destroy this ship as well.
Immediately hightail back to the Dryman, where three F-14Ds will come in from
behind the Dryman, and two AH-64s will also be around, one with a Time power-up,
one with a Missile power-up (these do not appear to be randomised based on
multiple playthroughs of the mission).
With the destruction of the AH-64s and F-14Ds, turn around and rush
north, destroying first an AH-64 buzzing around in the sky carrying missiles,
and then a second AH-64 down in the ravine below with Specials.
Following this, an AV-8 will appear, along with three more AH-64s, one
with time, one with a random, and one with missiles. Meanwhile, four F-15SEs
will appear from the north side. Rush around and destroy the AH-64s using long-
range specials to reduce your traveling time to each of them, immediately
turning around once you fire off a special, then take on the F-15SEs. Once all
four of them have been destroyed, the mission finally ends.
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Survival Mission 3
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[SUR3]
Objective: Escort and defend the Alliance Navy
S-Rank Requirements: Score of 8340 in under a certain time (<5:30?)
Targets: 2x F-15SE, 3x AH-64, 4x Typhoon (9 Air)
5x Gunboat, Missile Boat, 3x AA-Gun, 3x SAM, 3x Cruiser (15 Naval)
3x Tank, 2x AA-Gun, 2x SAM (7 Ground)
Survival Mission 3 is a replay of Mission 15 from the Story Mode, St.
Elmo's Fire, where you have to go up a narrow channel and bombard the enemy's
naval and ground defenses and ward off air pilots to allow your own fleet to
make it through.
Start off this mission by quickly thrusting ahead and destroying a group
of three Gunboats with missiles. Turn around and amble back over south to your
fleet, then reverse directions to face north. You will eventually get a pair of
Typhoons coming in from the northeast. Switch over to your specials and wait
until both are within firing range to shoot out some special weapon projectiles
- the Typhoons come in straight and so make easy pickings. One of them drops a
Defense bonus upon defeat (specifically +10%).
Continue to stick to the Alliance Fleet. A third Typhoon will quickly
swoove in from the northeast. Allow it to come to you and eliminate it with a
pair of missiles and some machinegun fire once it approaches. By this time, the
second ring of Rebel defenses should show up on the map and be ready for your
pickings.
Work your way around the ring, eliminating the anchor Cruiser ship at
the centre of the semi-circle, and be especially sure to hit the SAM on the west
coast, which offers a Missiles bonus upon its destruction.
Following the destruction of all the artillery and ships, take to the
skies again, eliminating what should be by this time the appearance of another
Typhoon enemy and an AH-64 that gives up a Time bonus on its destruction. With
both of those way, quickly rush off to the east and shoot a couple of missiles
or a special at the AH-64 nestled among the mountains for a Defense bonus of a
helpful +30%.
Return back to your fleet, and by this time the third defense ring of
the Rebel fleet will have appeared on-map. Destroy the Missile Boat at the front
in the water, then strafe the three Tanks on the west coast for Random bonuses
from all three (note that Tanks require TWO missiles each to destroy). With
hopefully some useful bonuses in the tank, also eliminate the SAM on the east
shore to replenish your Special weapons.
Take on two F-15SEs that appear about this time in the air, then work on
eliminating the Rebel navy. Be certain to destroy the AH-64 for some Defense up
before eliminating both Cruisers so as to achieve a kill of every enemy on this
level and garner an S-Rank.
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Survival Mission 4
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[SUR4]
Objective: Destroy the Missile Silos
S-Rank Requirements: Score of 8620 in under a certain time (8:00?)
Targets: 3x AV-8, 2x Gripen NG, 5x AH-64, 4x F-22 (14 Air)
Watch Tower, Base, 6x Silo, 10x AA-Gun, 4x SAM (22 Ground)
Survival Mission 4 is a redux of Mission 19, the battle in the narrow
gorge. Much like then, you have to destroy six Silos carved into deep bunkers,
along with the Watch Tower and base at the top of a spire in the middle of the
gorge. Enemy counts are slightly greater than in Mission 19, and in fact you may
even get a bit of lag starting up due to how big the map is and the number of
enemies.
Where things are changed up is the mission starts you off with an
extreme endurance run, as you will only have 30% Defense to start along with 3
missiles and 3 special weapons. As such, you will want to reserve your
projectiles as much as possible. On the plus side, you get a massive increase in
the amount of time you can burn through while still obtaining an S-Rank.
Because of the low projectiles you start off with, start using the
machinegun, possibly with the Sniper OS equipped. When first coming into the
gorge, shoot the AV-8 out of the sky by hand, then turn the bend and focus on
the first AA-Gun and Silo. You may want to use a missile on the AA-Gun to avoid
taking any damage, but slow down on approaching the Silo and shoot at it with
the machinegun, then quickly dive into the air upon the Silo's destruction.
You should come face to face with a pair of Gripen NG pretty quickly,
one of which comes with a Missiles bonus. Focus on that one specifically, then
tail the other one, but do NOT let it draw you back down to low altitudes or
else you shall get set up for ground fire by the AA-Guns and SAMs down below.
Another AV-8 will appear shortly on the eastern side of the map offering
a Time bonus. Take it out, and then get focused to tackling the general battle
around the gorge.
The Watch Tower and Base on top of the spire need to be destroyed, and
it may be worth using your Specials on the AA-Gun and SAM at the top here as
those two artillery have a height advantage over other artillery equipment.
Multiple AH-64s will appear around the gorge during the battle, offering
bonuses up once you destroy them. Keep an eye on your radar, as many of them
will appear outside of the gorge proper, and you have to wrap around a tricky
cliff to get to them, hiding them from sight unless you actually use your radar.
The colours that each AH-64 will be signified on the map are consistent with the
other survival missions: blue cursors on the map when in the air when carrying
missiles, green cursors when carrying specials, grey cursors when carrying a
time bonus, purple for a defense bonus and orange when they have a Random bonus.
A few artillery pieces have bonuses as well as some of the planes.
In rough order, the AH-64 that show up have the following bonuses:
Defense, Missile, Defense, Missile, Special. Other bonuses are the first Gripen
NG with the missiles and AV-8 with Time, an AA-Gun with Defense, an F-22 with
Defense, a SAM with Random and a SAM with time, and a second F-22 (about 7:00-
7:30 in?) near the end with missiles.
Other than that, be sure to eliminate all the artillery, and slowly but
methodically destroy each Silo, preferably with machinegun fire to save on your
missiles.
</pre><pre id="faqspan-3">
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Survival Mission 5
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[SUR5]
Objective: Assault the Keep
S-Rank Requirements: Score of 4130
Targets: F-4E, 2x F-16C, 6x AH-64 (9 Air)
Control Tower, Tower, 2x Radar, Tent, 2x Vehicle, 2x Barrack, 2x Oil
Tank, 2x Flak Gun, 6x AA-Gun, SAM (20 Ground)
Survival Mission 6 borrows the map from Mission 04, Tin Castle, where
you assaulted the Keep. To achieve an S-Rank score, you need to destroy
absolutely EVERYTHING on the map, but this includes an AH-64 Helicopter that
only shows up with about 20 seconds left. More on that in a little bit.
You start off with 8 Missiles, a single Special weapon projectile, and
10% of your Defense. You will be able to restore missiles, specials, and Defense
throughout the level, along with possibly Time from the random bonuses.
Much like in Mission 04, you start off by destroying a Control Tower and
a Radar system in two enclosed outposts. Make certain you destroy all the small
fry artillery and random vehicles and tent set around the place, and do not be
afraid to toss one of your currently-scarce missiles at the AA-Gun to avoid
taking any damage for now.
With the destruction of both the Control Tower and Radar, head east, and
use your lone Special for the moment on the F-4E. Tackle the Tower at the bridge
to stock up on Missiles, then start facing down the remaining aircraft coming
around. One of the F-16C gives a Defense bonus, while the AH-64 that show up
around this time also offer 2 Missile bonuses and a Random bonus.
One SAM on top of one of the towers has a Special bonus, while another
AH-64 that also shows up will have a Special bonus. SAVE AT LEAST ONE SPECIAL
PROJECTILE, this will be imperative for later. When the F-16C at least are
eliminated, look to tackling all the artillery and official targets around the
Keep area. Once you destroy all the regular targets and the Radar appears as a
final target, do _NOT_ eliminate it.
There is one AH-64 with a Defense bonus that resides within the Keep in
an enclosed area much like the Control Tower and Radar at the start of this
mission. To destroy this, you need to fly high into the sky, then reverse
directions, head down earthwards nose-first, and fire a pair of missiles at the
AH-64 to ensure you hit and destroy it, then quickly steady yourself so your
plane does not crash into the castle.
About 280-285 seconds in, leaving you with roughly 0:20 left in the
mission if none of the AH-64s with Random bonuses gave you a time up, a final
AH-64 will appear to the south of the Keep. Use the Special that you should have
to fire at it from long-range, then quickly turn around and target the Radar.
Once you have the 'DESTROYED' confirmation message indicating the AH-64 was
finished, fire at the Radar tower. You should hopefully end off with about 3 to
7 seconds left. However, if you managed to snag a Time up bonus from one of the
AH-64s earlier that had a Random bonus, you should not have to worry as you will
have a full minute left.
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Survival Mission 6
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[SUR6]
Objective: Destroy all Oil Facilities, Oil Tanks and the Control Tower
S-Rank Requirements: Score of 20000, Completed in Under a certain time (5:00?)
Targets: 10x Oil Facility, 5x Oil Tank, Fuel Car, Control Tower, 5x AA-Gun,
2x SAM (24 Ground)
5x AH-64, 2x MIR-2000D, F-16C, MiG-21-93 (9 Air)
The final Survival Mission is a redo of Mission 05, Opera House, where
you assaulted the oil rigs at sea. You will notice the mission starts you out
with some absurdly low resources: 21 missiles, 0 specials, 1 minute and 20%
Defense. You will get a large number of missiles if you destroy all the enemies
offering bonuses on this level, so do not be afraid to use them, but hold onto
your Specials (you only get one bonus from this level).
Follow the pipeline at the start, destroying the first Oil Facility,
then send a missile each at the AH-64 (with a Special bonus) and second Oil Rig.
Continue on and destroy a third Oil Rig and AA-Gun.
Ascend into the air and increase your altitude as you approach the
island, and continue straight north. You should encounter an MIR-2000D with a
Time bonus. Fire off a pair of missiles as it gets close, then slow down and add
machinegun fire to ensure it is destroyed and net yourself +60 seconds. The
other MIR-2000D will give you a Missiles bonus (+15).
You can stock up on far more Missiles on the southwest side of the
island by destroying the Fuel Car and an AA-Gun, which both give missiles once
destroyed, along with a SAM on the eastern side. Constantly check your radar, as
an AH-64 will appear on the northwest side hidden by the mountains and a small
rock in the ocean that nets you a +90 second Time bonus, especially helpful.
Wrap this island up by destroying the Control Tower and five Oil Tanks,
then embark east following the pipeline, destroying another Oil Facility an an
AH-64 with Defense bonus. Continue to tackle the west set of oil facilities,
destroying an F-16C and MiG-21-93 along the way that should show up by this
time. Both of them will have a Missile bonus. There will also be an AH-64 hiding
behind a rock outcrop to the north with a +20% Defense bonus (use your radar and
follow the purple triangle).
Tackle the remaining Oil Facilities, one of which has an AH-64 with a
Random bonus, one with a Time bonus (these AH-64s may be difficult to hit with
missiles unless you are really skimming the water or approach it from the
correct side).
As you approach the eastern installation, toggle on your Specials if you
have not used them already, and fire them out from afar to weaken the
installation as you approach. Destroy the artillery first, then take out the
remaining Oil Facilities to end the last Survival Mission.
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Extra Missions
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Like Survival Missions, Extra Missions borrow from specific Story
Missions, and build on top of that with new segments or making them absurdly
more difficult.
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Extra Mission 1
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[EXT1]
Objective: Destroy all C-17s and Cargo Drops
S-Rank Requirements: Complete in under 1:30
Targets: 4x C-17, 12x Containers, 2x Tanks
Extra Mission 1 is basically a mission remix of Mission 10 from the
story mode, where you have to go around and destroy C-17 helicopters that are
making cargo drops to the forest area below. To repeat, see the next paragraph
for information.
In this mission, you must destroy four C-17 planes, which are cargo
planes that will drop tiny boxes of cargo to the ground. These cargo Containers
can only be destroyed using the Machinegun, as they cannot be locked on with the
Missile aiming system. They DO, however, have tiny cursors for you to at least
get a feel on where to fire, so after a little bit of practice you should be
capable of mowing them down with ease.
Unlike Mission 10, you have four C-17 planes to destroy, and the cargo
is also required to all be destroyed before the mission will end. There are also
no ground vehicles or extra aircraft.
The game will try to push you to destroy the four C-17s in the order of
south, north, west, east by making the north C-17 the second to drop its cargo.
Ignore this. Instead, after destroying the first C-17, rush over to the west one
and take it out before it drops anything, THEN head over to the north C-17 and
destroy all the crates and the C-17, followed up by finally visiting the east C
-17. Alternatively, you can also go south -> west -> east -> north, although
this gets a little bit trickier with making sure you get to the north side in
time to destroy all the crates before they touch the ground.
Also, if you wait until last to fight the east C-17, you shall encounter
a couple of crate drops that actually have Tanks instead of containers to them,
so you will get fired at.
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Extra Mission 2
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[EXT2]
Objective: Destroy the Z.O.E.
S-Rank Requirements: Complete in under 0:39 (?)
Targets: Z.O.E.
This is the mission that many people like to use to grind for money to
buy aircraft, as it nets a fairly significant amount of money for a very short
level.
Extra Mission 2 uses an environment set-up similar to Mission 13 of
being in a ravine at night, but it is not identical in its layout. You will
still have to twist and turn around sharp corners to avoid running into cliff
faces, however.
In this mission, you must pursue the Z.O.E. and destroy it. It is in
fact probably the easiest to destroy in this mission than in any of the
storyline missions since it does very little winding and turning, but it does
occasionally brake, causing you to pass it, so you need to be careful about
that. Additionally, this is the ADF model that can fire from behind, so do not
be surprised when you get hit even though you are tailing it.
To complete this with an S-Rank takes a little bit of practice but can
be done reasonably easily. After pursuing the Z.O.E. through a couple of sharp
turns and split paths, you will emerge out past some bridges into a larger open
area. It is in here that you need to be behind the Z.O.E., then pound it with
missiles and specials, constantly toggling between the two and firing off your
projectiles, all while holding down on the B button to fire your machinegun and
keeping your gun reticule focused on the Z.O.E. If you can blow it out of the
sky in this area, you will have achieved an S-Rank.
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Extra Mission 3
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[EXT3]
Objective: Destroy 100 Rebel Aircraft
S-Rank Requirements: Complete in under a certain time (17:00?)
Targets: 10x F-16C, 10x MIG-21-93, 10x MIR-2000D, 8x Typhoon, 5x SU-37,
10x F-2A, 10x Gripen NG, 8x Rafale M, 4x A-10A, 10x F-2A,
10x F-15SE, 10x F-22A, 5x PAK-FA (100 Air)
Welcome to what is, in the author's opinion, the most annoying mission
in this game. In Extra Mission 3, you need to fight 100 Rebel Aircraft to win
the mission.
The enemies come in waves of 5 aircraft at a time, usually all of the
exact same type. The next fleet automatically shows up after you destroy the
current batch of enemies, but if you take too long with the current wave, the
next one will show up anyways.
Extra Mission 3 is split up into three segments. At the end of each
segment you get a special wave of extra-tough pilots to take down, and then you
get a rollover with all your missiles and special weapons replenished.
With regards to your special weapons, hold off from using them except
for at the start of a wave of new enemy aircraft if you are certain you can get
a good shot off at four of the airplanes. This includes the first wave of each
segment - if you can destroy four aircraft at a time, as many as 48 in total
over the three segments if using specials with 16 uses, that can go a long way
to reducing your time.
Now, as for the enemy aircraft themselves - to the author's annoyance,
the A.I. behaviour of most of the aircraft within this mission appears to simply
be to move around and weave and wind as much as possible, basically avoiding
moving in a straight line for more than two seconds, with very little actual
aggression except for the special aircraft, while your machinegun fire seems to
be less accurate than usual. This becomes annoying when attempting to do an S-
Rank, and you will notice enemies sometimes leading you on a goose chase far
away from the other Rebel planes. If they do this, break off and go after
another plane.
Finally, you will encounter a lot of aircraft that want to go down to
just skimming above the sea. If you heavily damage an aircraft so it has a red
icon on the radar and it is just above the sea, ignore it. It shall eventually
crash into the waters on its own.
Following is the order of waves you will encounter in this mission:
5x F-16C
5x F-16C
5x MiG-21-93
5x MiG-21-93
5x MIR-2000D
5x MIR-2000D
5x Typhoon
3x Typhoon, 2x SU-37
Intermission
5x F-2A
5x F-2A
5x Gripen NG
5x Gripen NG
5x Rafale M
3x Rafale M + 2x A-10A
Intermission
5x F-15SE
5x F-15SE
5x F-22
5x F-22
5x PAK-FA
3x SU-37 + 2x A-10A
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Extra Mission 4
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[EXT4]
Objective: Destroy the Z.O.E., Assault Fortress Intolerance, Destroy the Squad
of Z.O.E.s
S-Rank Requirements: Unknown (Complete in under 6:00?)
Targets: 5x Z.O.E., 4x SU-37, 3x SU-47, 4x YF-23A, 3x F-22, 3x PAK-FA (22 Air)
4x Power Plant, 4x Fortress, ICBM, 8x SAM, 13x AA-Gun (30 Ground)
Welcome to what is probably by far the toughest mission in the game,
composed of three segments. The first two are part and parcel from Mission 23 of
the regular mission, while there is an extra third segment that may well be the
single most difficult dogfight of the game.
You will start off with a battle with the Z.O.E. as your opening
segment. Much as in Mission 23, if you get in close at the start and hit it with
multiple special weapons to start, you can get it down to the red right away.
After it disappears off the radar and reappears, continue tailing it to put it
out of its misery.
In the second segment, once again, your missiles and specials will be
restored. If you are going for the S-Rank time, completely ignore ALL the
aircraft in the air (many more enemies will appear over time anyways by air).
Instead, go and shoot long-distance at the Power Plants in the first facility,
then northeast and at the second set of Power Plants.
From there, quickly continue north and fire long-distance specials at
each of the Fortresses, or else get in close and shoot a pair of missiles at
each Fortress (being Fortresses, they are buffed up and take two hits each to
destroy instead of one).
When going into the inside core of the Fortress, you will encounter a
SAM followed by two AA-Guns. Take them out with missiles or long-distance
specials, then SLOW DOWN immediately after destroying the AA-Guns. Continue to
brake as you fire at the ICBM missile, as the segment does not automatically
end. Instead, you need to fly up the concrete silo and then loop back down to
exit out the way you came back in, going south on the radar. Once you get out,
the second segment ends and the third begins.
This final segment involves you taking on not one, not two, not three
but four Z.O.E.s, and none of them are false targets created by jamming your
radar. They each can fire missiles and fire their machinegun from the rear, but
most importantly, they can all use the FALKEN craft's special TLS weapon, which
is a laser that can be swung around very quickly and fluidly. They also
basically all have infinite uses, which is more than you can say when you use
the FALKEN with TLS.
The author recommends if you get blown up here to restart 'From
Checkpoint', meaning you restart from the beginning of this segment, and get a
lot of practice trying to skirt around the laser beams once a Z.O.E. starts
using it. Best practice is to approach all four right at the start and fire a
special off at each to try to get them all down to yellow right away. After
that, the author believes you should try to fly away so only a couple of Z.O.E.s
fly after you and then quickly U-Turn to fight against a divided enemy force.
Once you are comfortable with this segment, do the entire mission again from
scratch.
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Lists
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Medal Requirements
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[MEDR]
Thanks go to the GameFAQs user TornadoADV for posting a list of the
names of all these Medals.
*These appear to require to be done in AT LEAST Normal Mode (Easy Mode will
not get you the medal)
**Refers specifically to the "Ace Pilot" that appears on each stage, only after
having completed the game's Story Mode at least once.
1. Bronze Star of Victory : Beat Story Mode once
2. Silver Star of Victory : Complete all Story Missions on Ace
3. Gold Star of Victory : Earn S Rank on all Story Missions*
4. Virtuous Patriot : Complete all Extra Missions
5. Flying Immortal : Complete all Survival Missions
6. Legendary Wings : Complete Five Missions with A6M5 ZERO or F6F-5
7. Hack & Slash : Complete all Story Missions with Slash
8. Blade's Edge : Complete all Story Missions with Edge
9. Bloody Dragon : Beat Lancer Squadron (Mission 2)
10. Beast Slayer : Beat Beast Squadron (Mission 6)
11. Exterminator : Beat Cocoon Squadron (Mission 12)
12. Swan Hunter : Beat Albireo Squadron (Mission 20)
13. Pack Leader : Beat Beast Squadron (Mission 17)*
14. Zone of Endless : Beat the ZOE Aircraft in all encounters*
15. Special Collector : Purchase all Aircraft, Weapons, Equipment and unlock all
aircraft colors
16. Hall of Fame : Shoot down all non-Squadron Aces**
17. Bronze Ace : Destroy 200 Enemies
18. Silver Ace : Destroy 500 Enemies
19. Gold Ace : Destroy 1000 Enemies
20. Fighter's Honor : Awarded to pilots who completed all missions in Story Mode
without using Action Maneuvers.
TO-DO LIST
----------
Explain gameplay
Lists
Aircraft lists, requirements
Cross-reference what aircraft can equip what extra equipment
Quick reference S-Rank requirements list
Medals list
Quick reference Ace Pilot requirements
Rank names and point requirements
CREDITS
-------
Credits go to the following GameFAQs users who made edits to the
GameFAQs Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy wiki, a useful resource the author
heavily relied on for writing this guide:
Chosen_one_41 Pingachevsky ChrisRohne
rabby250 ONNA80 billymc0078
PsyRatty HowieT85 TCalanis
SP-Ridley gieve rickhunter2044
saiyanadam CLCrolley Kamui_Archetype
DBXL03 Caotree
MAJOR props goes to the GameFAQs user TornadoADV to posting the original
comprehensive list of the medal names and requirements.
_______________________________________________________________________________
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Wish Upon A Darkstar
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