Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy FAQ/Walkthrough By: Darkstar Ripclaw The most recent version of this FAQ may always be found at GameFAQs.com __________________________________________________________________________ Table of Contents __________________________________________________________________________ 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 __________________________________________________________________________ To quickly find what you are looking for, use CTRL + F to open the search function and punch in the corresponding section search code For missions, replace 'x' or 'xx' with the mission number you wish to move to ('0x' in case of Story Missions <10) ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ Walkthrough ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Mission 01: Gambit -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Mission 02: Easy Monkey -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Mission 03: City on Fire -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Mission 04: Tin Castle -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Mission 05: Opera House -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Mission 06: Hunting Season -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Mission 07: Midnight Assassin -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Mission 08: Rising High -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Mission 09: Acid Rain -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Mission 10: Cuckoo's Nest -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Mission 11: Groupies -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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). ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Mission 12: Seagull -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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). ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Mission 13: One Night Stand -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Mission 14: Green Bird -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [MI14] Objective: Rescue the Rookie Squadron 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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Mission 15: St. Elmo's Fire -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Mission 16: Visiting Hours -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Mission 17: Toy Box -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Mission 18: Cavalry -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Mission 19: El Dorado -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Mission 20: Final Countdown -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Mission 21: Kingpin -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Mission 22: Last Resort -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Mission 23: Fighter's Honor -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ Survival Missions ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ 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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Survival Mission 1 -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Survival Mission 2 -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Survival Mission 3 -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Survival Mission 4 -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Survival Mission 5 -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Survival Mission 6 -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ Extra Missions ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ 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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Extra Mission 1 -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Extra Mission 2 -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Extra Mission 3 -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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 ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Extra Mission 4 -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ Lists ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- Medal Requirements -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ [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. _______________________________________________________________________________ Need help with something that's not in this FAQ? Got a comment to make? Find something wrong in this FAQ, or else just want to contribute something extra? Email me at darkstar.ripclaw AT gmail DOT com if you need any of these things. Do NOT ask stuff that is answered in this guide; unless the wording is truly ambiguous, a bit of toying around never hurts. Please refer to the actual in-guide FAQ first before asking a question. If you are reading this document from a site that is NOT GameFAQs.com, please go and examine the version on GameFAQs.com and see if it is the same version as the one you are reading. If it is not, then you may yet be able to find the answer you are looking for in the GameFAQs.com version. If you wish to ask whether or not you can host this on your site, go right ahead in hosting it. The only thing that I ask you to do is to keep the 'The most recent version of this FAQ may always be found at GameFAQs.com' line at the top completely intact as well as the paragraph right above this one, as that is the main site that I always update to. If your site's version gets even one version out of date, I would like for people to be aware of a more up-to-date version. 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