Advance Wars: Dual Strike
Money Survival Guide
v0.8 10/9/2005
By Tam Shing Lok a.k.a Stairwalker
Introduction:
Survival mode is one of the new features to the latest installment of the
Advance Wars series, Advance Wars: Dual Strike. Survival Mode is comprised of 3
different courses that must be completed under a certain handicap and money
survival is part of that. It involves clearing a set of 11 maps with a fixed
amount of funds, which you have absolutely no way to replenish. In the basic
course of this mode, you're given 500000 G to spend on 11 missions. After
completing it once, you can unlock the champion course, in which you're given
600000 G to beat those 11 missions again and again until you use up your funds
or get defeated.
I'm writing this guide because there're quite a number of "help me" topics
about this mode on GFAQs message board, plus I'm the type of person who cares
about every cent he spends. :-P
The aim of this guide is to provide strategies for money survival mode of
Advance Wars: Dual Strike that minimize the amount of funds spent, NOT for
getting good scores in individual maps. The strategies are designed so that
every CO in the game can use them without difficulties, so you can stop
writing to me saying certain CO combinations can do way better than shown
below. Also, this guide is written without considering the use of
forces/skills, so your level 1 CO can use the strategies without needing to
level up like crazy.
*Mission walkthrough/strategies*
For the purpose of writing this walkthrough, I use Sasha and Adder as my COs.
Why? Because their units have no special qualities, and they never get any
sizable attack bonus. Also, Sasha is nice to look at and I want to prove that
Adder doesn't suck.
Mission walkthrough:
Day 1
Build infantries in both bases.
Day 2-3
Send 1 infantry each towards the north and south missile silos. Move your
Md Tank onto one of your bases.
Day 4
Launch missiles to damage all three neotanks to 4 hp, forcing them to join.
Move your Md Tank onto the forest at the end of the main road.
Day 5
Launch the remaining missiles to damage both neotanks, destroy the one further
from your HQ with Md Tank.
Day 6
Finish off the remaining neotank.
Mission walkthrough:
Day 1
Build a rocket in the SW base (i.e nearest to your HQ) and 1 infantry in the
NE base.
Day 2
Attack the minicannon north/east (your choice:->) of your infantry with rocket.
Sami will drop her infantry on your HQ.
Day 3
Damage Sami's infantry with rocket, she'll move her units where your rockets
can't attack.
Day 4
Destroy the damaged minicannon, move your infantry towards Sami's HQ. Beware of
the minicannons' range.
Day 5
Start HQ capture. Destroy Sami's infantry if it's foolish enough to move into
your rocket's attack range.
Day 6
Finish HQ capture, you win!
COs having problems with this strategy: Max (reduced indirect range)
Alternative strategy:
If you're using Grit, Jess , Lash, Kanbei, Grimm or Kindle, instead of building
rocket in the SW, you can build artilleries in the NW and SE, and destroy the
minicannon on Day 2. It is cheaper this way, but you'll be unable to kill the
enemy and get a 0 in the power score.
Mission walkthrough:
Day 1
Build 2 infantries
Day 2
Start capturing towers, build 2 more infantries
Day 3
Finish capturing 2 towers, start capturing 2 more. Build a megatank.
Day 4
4 towers captured, start capturing 2 more. Move megatank to 1S1W of the
southeast most tower.
Day 5
6 towers captured, start capturing one more. Colin's Md tank will attack
one of you infantries, and Sasha's neotank will go into your neotank's
attack range.
Day 6
After capturing the 7th tower, attack Sasha's neotank with your own, use the
tank to finish it off if necessary. Move the injured infantry out of the way,
so your megatank can take its position and destroy Colin's Md tank in one hit.
Move a full-health infantry next to your megatank.
Colin will try to capture the neutral tower (i.e. the one nearest to his HQ),
and move his megatank towards yours.
Day 7
Your megatank will do 99% damage to Colin's. If it survives, the full health
infantry should be enough to finish it off. Otherwise, use your infantry to
damage Colin's.
Colin's artillery attacks your megatank and does 1 hp damage.
Day 8
Use your megatank to OHK Colin's artillery, and attack/kill his infantry with
one of your own. Move a full health infantry to ready for capturing the tower.
Keep your tank and neotank just out of range of Sasha's artillery.
Day 9
Destroy Sasha's artillery without going into her megatank's attack range. Kill
Colin's last unit (if you haven't already) and start capturing the tower.
Day 10
Capture the tower, attack Sasha's megatank with your neotank and tank(in that
order). It should be at 1-2 hp now.
Day 11
Destroy Sasha's megatank, move towards her rocket. Be careful not to stop at
your cities, because you don't want to pay for unnecessary repairs.
Day 12
Destroy Sasha's rocket. Mission complete!
Results:
Speed - 50
Power - 50
Technique -50
COs having problems with this strategy: (coming soon)
Cost: 32000 G
I'm sure I don't have the best solution to this mission, if you have a better
strategy, please contribute to the AW:DS community by sharing it. And I'll give
proper credit for whoever submits that strategy first.
Mission walkthrough:
Day 1
Build 2 megatanks.
Nell builds 3 infantries.
Day 2
Move both megatanks 4E, build 2 more megatanks.
Nell builds 1 neotank and 1 infantry.
Day 3
Kill Nell's infantries with the megatanks you built on day 1, move the other
two 4E.
Nell builds 1 recon, 1 tank and 1 infantry. She'll suicide an infantry on your
megatank and attack another with her neotank.
Day 4
Destroy the neotank and infantry in the south. Destroy the tank in the north
with the megatank nearer to your HQ, then move the remaining megatank onto
Nell's base.
Nell builds 2 tanks, and attacks the damaged megatank with infantry.
Day 5
Destroy the newly built tanks and damaged infantry.
Nell will use her SCOP, and her recon may die from your counterattack.
Day 6
If you're lucky enough to keep all your megatanks alive, destroy everything
that's alive and you win.
Results:
Speed - 50
Power - 50
Technique -50
COs having problems with this strategy: (coming soon)
Note:
Your dual strike should be ready by now, unless you're using COs with longer
than 8-star CO power meter.
Mission walkthrough:
Day 1
Move your piperunner to 3N,3E of your western rocket.
Day 2-4
Destroy some pipeseams for bonus points while waiting for Rachel's megatank to
go to 4E of your western rocket.
Day 5
Use dual strike, your piperunner and western rocket should be able to destroy
Rachel's megatank in a single turn.
Results:
Speed - 50
Power - 50
Technique -50
COs having problems with this strategy: (coming soon)
Cost: 0 G
Mission 6
Enemy CO: Kindle
Predeployed allied units: None
Predeployed enemy units: 7 Megatanks
Mission walkthrough:
Day 1
Build 2 infantries.
Day 2
Move the infantries towards the missile silos near your HQ, ready to launch
them the next turn.
Day 3
Launch the missiles, Kindle will join the damage megatanks so she'll only have
4 left.
Day 4-10
Move infantries all the way to the silos in the west.
Day 11
Launch 2 missiles so all of Kindles megatanks are at 7 hp.
Day 12
Build an infantry.
Day 13 onwards
Kindles megatank will chase the new infantry, while it rushes to her HQ. The
other infantries should continue launching missiles so the megatanks will waste
time joining. I managed to capture Kindle's HQ on day 22, with a megatank 6
spaces away.
Results:
Speed - 36
Power - 0
Technique -50
COs having problems with this strategy: none
Cost: 3000 G
Mission walkthrough:
Day 1
Build a bomber. Move the infantries at the southern front onto ports.
Day 2
Attack the pipeseam near your HQ with bomber, move infantries onto airports so
Grimm's fighters can't attack.
Day 3
Destroy the pipeseam, Grimm's stealthes will damage 2 of your infantries badly.
Day 4
Move bomber onto your HQ, full health infantry 1E to it. Move an injured
infantry to where the pipeseam was, and the other one right next to it.
Grimm kills both damaged infantries, and foolishly place a fighter next to your
full health infantry.
Day 5
Join the damaged infantries in the southern front for a better technique score.
Day 6-17
Wait for Grimm's planes to run out of fuel and crash.
Day 18 onwards
Move your only infantry to 1N of your northern airport, so the battleships
can't shoot it. Refuel your bomber, break the pipeseam to the northern front
and destroy the tanks there, go back to the airports for supply as needed.
After that, slowly march the infantry through the northern front. While you're
doing this, refuel the bomber at eastern airport, destroy the pipeseams at the
east end of the middle front, get rid of the piperunner in the north, and break
the pipeseam it sits on. Now you have a clear path to Grimm's HQ, just capture
it before your bomber runs out of fuel.
Results:
Speed - 8 (HQ captured on day 46)
Power - 29
Technique - 25
Bonus - 20 (4 pipeseams)
COs having problems with this strategy: Grimm (low defense)
Cost: 22000 G
Mission walkthrough:
Day 1
Build infantries from every base you have.
Day 2
Start capturing all but the northern most tower, build a tank from the base
next to your HQ, create more infantries from other bases.
Day 3
Finish capturing towers. Damage the ooziums to charge up your COP meter, so you
can use dual strike on the next day. Once the meter is full, move all other
units towards Eagle's HQ.
Day 4 use dual strike to destroy as many enemies as you can, especially those
near Eagle's HQ, block his base and start capturing his HQ if you can.
Day 5
Finished HQ capture or destroy the remaining enemies for another victory.
Results:
Speed - 50
Power - 50
Technique - 50
COs having problems with this strategy: (coming soon)
Cost: 20000 G
The A.I. is much more random beginning from this point on, rendering day-by-day
walkthroughs useless. So only general strategies will be given for missions
9-11.
General strategy:
Build 3 infantries and start capturing the towers, then build a b-copter to
destroy Grit's units. With a 50% firepower boost from towers, it won't have
much problem routing Grit's tanks and artilleries. Sometimes, Grit's units
will run away from your b-copter, which is VERY annoying. But as soon as you
pull back your b-copter (you'll need to re-supply it anyway), they'll return
to their original positions. After routing Grit, it's time to deal with Olaf.
Position your infantries so that they can launch 3 missiles on the same day,
and your b-copter should approach Olaf's forces from the south. When he moves
2 of his AAs to defend his HQ, it's time to strike. Launch all 3 missiles at
the group further away from his HQ, and he'll join them. The b-copter can
easily destroy the joined, 2hp AA. Then move your infantries to the group of
4 missile silos. Again, position them and launch 3 at the same time, crippling
the remaining AAs. Finish off the badly damaged AAs with the copter and the
tanks are as good as dead.
Results:
Speed - 28 (varies depending on how often Grit runs away)
Power - 50
Technique - 50
COs having problems with this strategy: (coming soon)
Cost: 12000 G
General strategy:
It's quite a swarm, isn't it? But the mechs can only move 4 spaces before
running out of fuel, and this is the key to the mission.
It'd be best to play defensively at first, and wait for the mechs to become
immobilized. It is okay to let Sensei capture 2-3 neutral bases, because you
can block them with copters in a few days. Keep building infantries from your
bases,and delete/suicide attack the injured infantries every day to get fresh
ones. The driving force of your army, however, is the b-copter. Have the
piperunner help your copter break through the meat wall, then send the copter
to kill mechs and block up bases. Do not leave the airport empty, create more
b-copters whenever you can, until you've got 4-5.
And do not kill the infantries attacking your piperunner, they can only do 1-2hp
damage at most, but if they die, mechs will hit you hard.
COs having problems with this strategy: (coming soon)
Cost: 71600 G
General strategy:
Create 2 recons, 3-4 rockets and keep a constant supply of infantry meat
shields. Don't rush, just let them come to you. And your top priority is to
kill the mechs on mountains, then recons, then tanks, and then the rest. That
is,kill the high-vision units first. Try your best to protect your recons, so
you can get a sight advanatage. Memorize the type and number of enemies you've
destroyed so you won't be surprised.
When Grit's COP meter is nearly full, unleash your dual strike to destroy his
high-vision units and minimize his SCOP's effect. You may still lose some units,
though.
Eventually, Grit's units will try to go back to HQ and refuel. This retreat
makes no sense in my opinion but the A.I does it anyway. What's more, his units
will probably run out of fuel about halfway to the HQ. By now you should be
having a major sight advantage, just use the recon-rocket combo to take them
out one by one.
Results:
Speed - 49
Power - 50
Technique - 24
COs having problems with this strategy: (coming soon)
Cost: 81900 G
Total amount spent: 372500 G
*Version History*
v0.8 10/9/2005 16k
First draft with strategies for every mission.
*Credits*
Nintendo and Intelligent Systems for creating this game.
CJayC for hosting www.gamefaqs.com.
Tronn_Bonne for helping me edit my messy text file into proper GFAQs format.
*Contact Information*
If you have any good strategies that I don't know of, or you find errors in
this guide, you can send a email to stairwalker[at]gmail[dot]com. And make
sure the subject of the email is "AW:DS money survival guide" or it WILL be
ignored. Proper credits will be given for all contributions.
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