Armored Core: for Answer Walkthrough
Armored Core For Answer – Walkthrough
By Acid Losvaize aka Marco code losvaize
Index
1. Introduction and terms [ACFA01]
2. General Tips [ACFA02]
3. Walkthrough [ACFA03]
4. Arena [ACFA04]
5. Unlockables [ACFA05]
6. Frequently Asked Questions [ACFA06]
=====================================
1. Introduction and terms [ACFA01]
Guess what? Oh my god, this is my first guide. Probably last also. Not
so young, you know.
You will find that this guide’s language is weird. That happens first
because I’m Spanish, and second because I’m playing an Spanish
version of ACFA, that is translated (very bad translated), so probably
you will be asking “why this guy calls him Neonidas when correct name
is Leonidas”. All because the game translation.
Secondly I must tell you I’ve never been a good AC player. Probably I’m
the one that has dedicated more time to AC series in the world, with the
exception of From Software guys (this is another story), but from the
very beginning (AC1) I have always lacked the skill to move an AC
“youtube player style”. I’m tank type and can do nothing to help it. You
will see I’m quite obsessed with a vertical Kojima missile launcher called
ZINC, that could be heavily criticized by most players, but let me tell you
this game is not a challenge for me, but a history book; if beating a
single mission requires hours of practicing manoeuvring skills, I chose
one-shot-one-kill tactics since as told before, I’m not so young.
Now about some weird terms we are going to use here:
AC: Armored Core, called NEXT in this game. Giant robots
assembled by different parts that can be changed. When I say AC
over the guide, I mean NEXT.
MT: Muscle Tracer, called NORMAL in this game. Giant robots produced
massively used for construction, war, defense... Usually bipedal, and
a bit smaller than an AC. When I say MT over the guide, I mean NORMAL.
Kojima technology: Kojima particles is a energy discovered recently by
humanity, that has proven to be very useful for war, but quite damaging
for men, since it is very contaminating and probably caused the
movement of humans from planet surface to the cradles. Kojima
particles are green, and the most damaging thing in this game.
KP: Kojima Particles
PA: Primal Armor. First appeared on AC4. It is an energy barrier that
surrounds the AC and created from Kojima particles.
AA: Assault Armor: First appeared on this game. The AC equipped with
AA system releases the energy of his primal armor causing a globe of
devastation around it.
OB: Overboost. Special kind of boost that allows AC to move really fast
and more or less straight forward
QB: Quick boost. Special type of boost that allows AC to move short
distances very quick
FCS: Fire control system. Is the device inside your AC that controls
were the weapons fire. When using weapons that are FCS controlled,
targets will be locked so when you shoot you will shoot locked target. It
takes some time for FCS to lock on a target, and the time is different if
you fire missiles than if you fire projectiles. FCS has a range of fire. You
can’t lock further that range even if your weapon is capable of arriving to
that distance. Differently to previous AC games, FCS also includes a
radar, and also resistance to ECM.
ECM: Electronic jamming. When enemies deploy ECM, and depending
on how anti ECM your FCS has, you will see some (or much) static on
the radar, making difficult the radar sighting of enemies.
FSR: FSR memory units are points you can use to tune certain values
of your AC parts. They are obtained by completing certain missions or
arena combats. In total you can obtain 442 points of FRS memory. I
assume the more FRS units you have, the more AMS compatibility you
have.
AMS compatibility: AC4 series version of the Human PLUS. They are
pilots with certain degree of supernatural connection with their
machines, able to do amazing things like having more load over their
NEXT legs than allowed, boosting almost forever, reinforcement of
armor… AMS compatibility are said to stress a lot body and mind of the
pilot, causing madness or death.
Irregular: Pilot with a high degree of AMS compatibility.
Lynx: Pilot of a NEXT. Everybody liked more “Raven” but new console,
new names.
Collared: Alias for the League of all corporations.
===================================
2. General tips [ACFA02]
I don’t feel like making a full guide of how to play, since first of all there
is a tutorial at the beginning of the game.
AC options
:: More enjoyable game control is the starting one (easy type), since it
will allow you to boost instead of walk when you move. You must do a
change in the button configuration: MOVE AIM BUTTON TO OTHER
LOCATION like the up arrow. If you don’t do this, from time to time you
will see your weapons crosshair is replaced by some moving bars, and
you won’t be able to lock-on. This happened because you holt the aim
button, and won’t return to lock mode until you hold it again.
:: Turn auto sighting option off. Is better for your health. Leave auto
purge and auto boost on.
Other topics of interest:
:: In order to use assault armor, you need an overbooster equipped with
it. You don’t need to have the full bar of Primal Armor, you just need it to
be blue.
:: You have two horizontal bars on your upper display. The thin and
large is energy of the generator, the thick and short is the Primal Armor.
Primal Armor is only active when this bar is blue.
:: Whenever you hit someone with a weapon, you will see how much
damage you dealt over the crosshair in little numbers. If no numbers,
that means you are not landing any hit.
:: Stabilizer doesn’t make your NEXT more stable. The recoil and taking
fire classical stability values are still part of the AC body parts.
Stabilizers have two functions: When you equip an stabilizer you will
see a graphic showing the directions (up, down, forward, back, left and
right). Depending on your configuration, the AC will move better towards
one side or the other. If you are not using a symmetric AC (you have
more weight in one side than another), you can use stabilizers to
balance it. If you press triangle on the stabilizers menu, you will see the
UNEQUIP ALL and the AUTO option, first UNEQUIP and then activate
AUTO for the PS3 to choose the best stabilizer configuration for you. Of
course if you change anything on your AC, best stabilizer configuration
will be different than current. Stabilizers chosen by the machine have
not to look beautiful, you can chose stabilizer with the same value than
the machine chosen, and you like more, in order to customize AC
looking. Note that maybe you don’t need stabilizers in some cases.
:: At the beginning of the game not many parts will be available at the
store. After you complete some missions the client will reward you with
store access to their designs. You will see on the walkthrough
sentences like “new parts will be available for purchase, mainly X”. That
means you are now able to buy the designs of company producer of X. This
will include parts, stabilizers, weapons… My apologies but I was unable to
do a list of every update on the store. Anyways, if I say AALIYAH is now
avaliable, go to that specific head/core/arms/legs/... check their
manufacturer, and all the parts you see from that company in the store
have just been added, exceptuating secret parts.
:: From AC3, Armored Core series is using a system of ranks for the
missions (not the arena). Depending on your performance, you will
obtain a score that can be D (worst), C, B, A, S (best). Rank only
matters in this game for the purpose of getting SFR memory units, and
a special reward when every mission/difficulty has been S-ranked.
When a mission reward include SFR points, if you rank A or less you
will obtain certain amount. S-ranking you will obtain more. All hard
missions give SFR, 5 if you rank A or less, 6 if you rank S.
Ranking depends of different criteria. Some missions are S-ranked just
by completing them, but normally the key factors you must keep in mind are
time of completion (less time, more rank), AP remaining (more AP, more
rank; normally to S-Rank you will need to avoid hearing operator's message
"AP down fourty percent!". Sometimes S-ranking also consists in beating
all enemies. Anyways try to complete the mission as fast and as much
unharmed as you can to obtain high ranking scores.
:: If you don’t know what a certain value of your AC part/tune/overall
value does, push select button while in assembly/tune mode so you
display the help tips. You can navigate through the different values and
see what they do.
:: EN weapon adaptability is an arm/arm tune value that makes your
arm energy weapon do more damage (don’t know if it also increases
rate of fire), like some option parts in previous AC series. I’m pretty sure
it doesn’t affect back weapons or blades (damage of blades is not
energy, is a thing called “neutral damage”).
:: I have found several bugs in this game:
- Enemies can fire you across several solid objects
- When you approach some thin/medium solids like doors or walls that have
empty spaces behind, you can fire through if you do with a range arm
weapon.
- Don't know if it's a bug, an interference of a neighboor, or a malfunction
of my console, but from time to time controller will lose connection with
the console and won't be able to link again. Happened to me twice only while
playing this game, and only during missions.
- Enemies can't sink in water while they are alive. Sometimes flying foes,
specially NEXTS will fall underwater by a bug and won't be able to return to
the surface since water line is solid for them.
-If you move too fast between schematics menu and assembly menu, console may
hang.
- Kojima missiles that explode too near the player won't cause visual
explosion nor sound. You will only hear a "crak" sound.
=========================================
3. Walkthrough [ACFA03]
Before starting to play, we should plan what type of game we want it to
be. We have got 42 missions divided into 4 chapters, and 3 different
story paths (most of the missions are common to the 3 paths). Each
path will drive you to a different ending.
[Hard Mode] You can play missions in hard mode after you beat your
first mission, via “free mode” on the main screen of your game. Hard
missions are never the same as normal missions. They always add
reinforcements after main enemies have been beaten, one more NEXT
to fight with in AC hunt missions, new weaponry to an Arms Fort
mission, or unpleasant events like VOB system malfunctions while you
are using it. It’s quite fun to play this handicapped versions of the
normal missions after the first play, and also rewarding; every mission
you play in hard mode will grant you 5 FRS memory points (whatever
the medal you obtain), and 6 FRS memory points if you S rank it.
For me, being enemy of videogame hard modes, it is worth of playing
since they are not so difficult if you have the correct AC parts, and
design the correct strategy, even if you are a tank-type player like me
(bad reflexes, little hand-eye coordination…).
I will explain how to beat missions in hard mode right before the
respective explanation of normal mode.
Going back to previous topic, having that much missions plus the arena
combats, you should plan how to do it in order to make that 70 euro
worth of it.
Once you start new game, you will notice an awfull truth: you can only
import designs from Armored Core 4, not the FRS memory, AC parts, or
the money… So, you are really poor, your initial AC isn’t so good, shop
has little parts at the beginning, and you have not the money to buy
even one of them.
So, what do we do? My suggestion is to play the first mission to get
some money, buy a weapon capable of something more than scratching
the PA of a NEXT, and then go arena until you get bored or stuck. Why?
In mission mode you pay for the ammo and the repairs, in arena mode
Kalad (or Orca) will pay it, meaning that on an arena combat, you have
absolutely nothing to lose, except the patience, but a lot to win. Beating
arena rankers will result always in having some money, their emblem
and AC design, and sometimes in obtaining FRS memory or new AC
parts.
The point is that they key to go through the arena (and a lot of missions)
the easiest way, consist in beating a hard mode mission named “Defeat
unknown next and No Count”, since it will provide you a definitive
weapon (overpowered in my opinion, but it is a tradition for From
Software to include a supreme weapon in every Armored Core game)
called ZINC. You badly need this weapon if you want things to go
smooth and easy.
Also, it is good to beat hard mode missions right after you beat normal
mode, since SRF memory and the money you get for completing the
mission helps you a lot when you start the game.
The equipment I used beating the game is:
Lightweight (for fast movement)
Head: 047AN02
Core: 03-AALIYAH/C
Arms: 063AN03
Legs: L01-TELLUS
FCS: 061AN05 or BLUEXS
Generator: ARGYROS/G
Main booster: MB107-POLARIS
Side booster: BB11-LATONA
Back booster: SB128-SCHEDAR
Over booster: KRB-JUDITH for AA or GAN02-NSS-0.GH for OB
Arm weapon right: ALTAIR, Kojima blade or MOONLIGHT
Arm weapon left: ALTAIR, Kojima blade or MOONLIGHT
Back weapon right: NONE or 050ANR if short range FCS equipped
Back weapon left: NONE
Shoulder unit: NONE
Arm weapon storage right: NONE
Arm weapon storage left: NONE
Tuning (in order of importance):
Energy production
KP production
Aiming
Side QB
Arm mobility
Energy limit
Energy weapon adaptability
Main QB
Back QB
Rectification (all parts)
Main booster
Side booster
Overbooster
:: Mediumweight (Used for most of the missions)
Head: 047AN02
Core: C01-TELLUS
Arms: SOLDNER-G8A
Legs: L01-TELLUS
FCS: 061AN05
Generator: ARGYROS/G
Main booster: MB107-POLARIS
Side booster: BB11-LATONA
Back booster: SB128-SCHEDAR
Over booster: KRB-JUDITH for AA or GAN02-NSS-0.GH for OB
Arm weapon right: LR02-Altair
Arm weapon left: LR02-Altair
Back weapon right: PC01-GEMMA or NONE
Back weapon left: PC01-GEMMA or NONE
Shoulder unit: NONE
Arm weapon storage right: PG03-SPICA
Arm weapon storage left: PG03-SPICA
Tuning (in order of importance):
Load (must tune to avoid overweight if GEMMA equipped)
Energy production
KP production
Aiming
Energy limit
Energy weapon adaptability
Side QB
Rectification (all parts)
Main QB
Back QB
:: Anti-Next
Head: 047AN02
Core: C01-TELLUS
Arms: SOLDNER-G8A
Legs: HILBERT-G7L
FCS: 061AN05
Generator: ARGYROS/G
Main booster: MB107-POLARIS
Side booster: BB11-LATONA
Back booster: SB128-SCHEDAR
Over booster: KRB-JUDITH
Arm weapon right: LR02-Altair
Arm weapon left: LR02-Altair
Back weapon right: ZINC
Back weapon left: ZINC
Shoulder unit: NONE
Arm weapon storage right: PG03-SPICA
Arm weapon storage left: PG03-SPICA
Tuning (in order of importance):
Load (tune 1 unit to avoid overweight)
Energy production
KP production
Aiming
Energy limit
Energy weapon adaptability
Side QB
Rectification (all parts)
Main QB
Back QB
Remarks:
:: When I say long range weapon during this guide, I’m referring to
Altair. It’s not as powerful as Canopus, but it has very long range, and
its bullet speed makes it hit almost always. Doesn’t consume a lot of
energy, and the number of rounds is fair enough. I recommend to have
double Altair always equipped, unless you need blade.
---------------------------------------------------
When you start the game, will be prompted about some options, and
finally about your sponsoring company. Whatever you choose, it won’t
affect storyline, just your initial gear and parts that will be in the shop at
first. When I begun the game, of course chosen independent type, but I
think it’s better to take Interior Union since Tellus legs and core are
premium quality, and you will be able to buy two Altair by selling one of
the crappy samsara or medusa weapons. I strongly recommend you to
do this. Drawback of choosing Interior instead independent… you are
losing blade dragonslayer (I mean, you don’t have it and can not buy
blades until later in the game), that is quite useful to kill AF’s. Besides,
AALIYAH gear is more expensive than TELLUS, so economically you
lose choosing this last one. Anyways, for me is best to have two Altair
from the first mission.
First we need to know how the different paths work. I will write some
kind of mission tree (consider printing the one from Emerald_Fatalis you
can find via Google). First number of each mission means the “stage” of
advance. To reach missions of stage 2, we must clear stage 1. When
there is a mission like xxxx -> yyyy means in order to play mission yyyy
you must first beat xxxx:
----------------------------------------------------
Chapter 1 (you can complete 7 missions per storyline)
1 Atack on Line Ark
2.1 Attack on Naval Port of Mimir ->Ambush Sphere Invasion Forces ->
Attack on Richland
2.2 Defeat AF Giga Base -> Support the Red Beret Assault -> Defeat
Wonderfull Body
2.3 Attack on B7 ->Clear former Chinese Shanghai ->Take back Cradle
21
3.1 Defeat AF Cabracan (this mission needs a trigger to appear but I
don’t know what)
3.2 Defeat Spirit of the Motherwill
Chapter 2 (you can complete 6 missions per storyline)
4.1 Rescue GA transport -> Attack on PA-N51 -> Defeat AF Stigro
4.2 Defend Megalith (they say it appears by playing "Rescue GA transports
and 2 other missions first, but can appear without playing it. Careful
because it will disappear if you don't play it inmediatly)
4.3 Eliminate Procyon -> Escape from naval port of Mimir -> Defeat
unknown next & No Count
4.4 Defeat unknown next -> Defeat AF Great Wall
5.1 Defeat White Glint
5.2 Defend Line Ark (they say you must complete "Defend Megalis" to
unlock, but can be done other way)
Chapter 3 (you can complete 4 missions per storyline)
6.1 Destroy Arteria Ulna (They say you must beat "Defend Megalis" to unlock
but it can be done other way)
6.2 Defeat Red Rum & Starka -> Defeat unidentified AF
6.3 Defeat 8th fleet -> Destroy B7
6.4 Defeat Silent Avalanche -> Destroy Megalis
7.1 Defend Arteria Carpals
7.2 Attack Arteria Carpals
Chapter 4
Collared path (beat Defend Arteria Carpals to follow this path) (3
missions)
8.1 Defend Cradle 03
8.2 Defeat ORCA’s special AF unit
8.3 Attack anti-satellite cannons
9 Defeat the Main Orca Forces
10 Defend Arteria Cranium
Orca path (beat Attack on Arteria Carpals to follow this path) (2
missions)
11.1 Defend anti-satellite cannons -> Defeat AF Answerer -> Attack on
Arteria Cranium
11.2 Destroy Cradle 03 -> Occupation of Arteria Carpals
-------------------------------------
There are three different paths:
-In Collared path you will side with The League of Corporations and
Kalad Lynxes. This path finishes with mission “Defend Arteria Cranium”.
- In Orca path you will side with Maximilian Thermidor revolutionary
forces against the League of Corporations and Kalad Lynxes. Once in
Orca, you will chose to follow the Cross Plan (last mission will be Attack
Arteria Cranium) or follow Old King:
- In the fan named Destruction path, included in the Orca path, you will
side with Old King against everyone. This path has a quite dark ending
and finishes with Occupation of Arteria Carpals.
Whatever the path you follow on your first ride, it is a must to take
“Defeat unknown next + no count”. Also note that if you finish both
Collared and Orca Paths (the one finishing with Attack on Arteria
Cranium) you will have all unpurchased parts for free. I think this makes
the game too easy so I left ORCA path last. By the way, Kalad and Orca
arena tournament will be closed when you reach chapter 4, so don’t
advance in story if you want to eradicate some Lynx after a storyline
break.
To complete all missions, you will have to finish the game 5 times. For
example like this:
1st: Collared path, taking “Defend Cradle 03” on step 8
2nd: Orca path (finish with “Attack Arteria Cranium”)
3rd: Collared path, taking “Defeat Orca’s special AF unit” on step 8, and
remaining mission on step 4.
4th: Destruction path (finish with Occupation of Arteria Carpals”
5th: Collared path, taking “Attack anti-satellite cannons” on step 8
Finally, let’s start mission guide
01. Attack on Line Ark
Corporations
[Normal]
Easiest mission in the world. Just equip long range weapon and FCS.
First group of Normals is in front of you. Next one is to the right, at the
same level. When done, boost tol the road one level up and there you
will find some groups of 2 or 3 of the same NORMALs split until the half
of the tunnel ahead. Follow the tunnel and aim to the road to the left
same level as you are in now. You will find there the last group.
[Hard]
Same mission more or less. When finished with the groups that appear
on normal mission, another group will appear. Same type of NORMALS
and not a big group. You can destroy them without being touched with
long range equipment.
When you finish the mission, Kallad Arena will be unlocked. Please
refer to section Arena [ACFA04] for more information. I recommend
spending there some time until the ridiculous amount of parts you are
able to buy is not enough to beat someone.
Also, hard mode will be activated now. You can take profit beating the
easiest hard mode missions in order to get FRS points before they give
it to you in normal history mode.
[Suggestions]
By Josh Williams:
As soon as the mission starts hit the water. Just move under the groups
of MTs. They shoot the bridge out from under them, hit the water, and
die. Normals won't die this way, but it's less ammo used on the MTs.
02. Attack on naval port of Mimir
GA
[Normal]
You can do it two ways: 1. Equip lightweight with radar, AA OB and
laser blade if you are the kind of guy that records his gameplays for
youtube so you can stand high speed and intense blading. If not, equip
middleweight, AA OB, long range FCS two arm weapons, and two
more back weapons since you will find a lot of enemies here.
Advance and kill the ships and NORMALS you find in your way. Try to
be some meters from the water in order to aim to ship’s bridges instead
decks of hull, since they usually require less damage when hit there.
That extends to every ship you find in the game, and even submarines.
This mission has three zones. When done with one your operator will
tell you to advance. Eack zone is divided by a little corridor. Pay
attention to the side of corridors since sometimes you can find little bays
with three ships and maybe some NORMALS.
Natural way of finishing the mission is zone 1 -> zone 3 -> zone 2, but
try to make it 1-2-3 since 2 has little resistance, and 3 is the nest of the
AF they mentioned on the briefing.
When you are near the AF the operator will tell you. It is inside a big
cave. First kill all the nearby enemies and approach the AF (I think it is a
Stigro type). Activate your AA and blade the inactive thing till death.
Then move to finish off the rest of the targets evading their fire while
your PA regens.
[Hard]
Same mission, but more enemies.
[Suggestions]
By Josh Williams:
In sectors 2 and 3 there will be tankers. I can't really describe how they
look but you'll know them by the way they explode. Shooting them will
destroy any ships next to them. There are also a couple of these next to
Stigro. Shooting these saves time and money.
03. Ambush sphere invasion forces
BFF
[Normal]
Equip energy efficient AC, medium range FCS and start the mission.
First you will be in VOB mode and flying towards groups of planes. Your
objective is destroy as much as possible before VOB depletes. If your
FCS select a guy from a group that is far from you instead the plane that
is directly in front, try to use your lock-on button (usually L3 but most
probably you changed it) so it locks another target. In normal conditions
you should have the time to kill almost everyone on the side you are in,
and the QB right so you can destroy one more group.
After that you will purge your VOB and see two carriers on the ground
that have released 4 NORMALs, that you must kill. After that the planes
and helicopters will arrive. Finish them off as they come, considering
they have more AP in this mode than in VOB mode (don’t ask me).
[Hard]
You will find here many more aircrafts and a Landcrab sitting just after
you drop your VOB. First take the MT’s, then the Landcrab by placing
yourself below and attacking him from cover, and finish destroying the
crafts you wouldn’t able before.
04. Attack on Richland
GA
[Normal]
Enemies here are boosting MTs, reverse joint MTs and a Landcrab AF.
You must kill everyone except the two empty carriers. You can do it two
different ways: dancing in order to evade Landcrab heavy fire while you
destroy the MTs, and finish with the Landcrab, or take down the
Landcrab first, and then execute the others more relaxed.
To kill the Landcrab without too much worries, OB or QB and move
below of it, entering from it’s front or rear. More or less at it’s centre
your FCS will pick a target. There you are usually under cover so there will
be no need of worrying about someone hitting you while recharging PA.
Be careful because the MTs are not a light thread. They are many and if
caught under crossfire, can reduce your AP to half in few seconds.
New parts will be available at store, mainly RAIDEN, 061AN and 063AN
[Hard]
More enemies and two Lancrabs instead one. Same tactic with the
proper adjustments.
05. Defeat AF Gigabase
Interior
[Normal]
This is the kind of mission made for high speed combat lovers. Don’t try
to equip a lot of weapons here. Just AA OB blade/kojima blades, and a
NEXT capable of as much boosting as possible, as much time as possible.
When you start the mission the VOB will be aiming more or less to the
place Gigabase is. You will encounter in your way some ships, that you
can happily ignore. Just focus in evading the long distance cannons,
that can fire in rows of 3, and can predict your movements if you fly in a
straight line. No matter what direction you take, fire will always come
from ahead your position. Most probably you will like to be near
Gigabase when VOB is depleted, so try to maintain the initial direction
and evade with QB.
When VOB releases you, OB or QB as fast as possible to the side of
Gigabase, evading the intense fire you will receive during this. If you
have Kojima blades or 2 MOONLIGHT, the AF will die inmediatly. If you use
ranged weapons, Enter Gigabase rear side and aim to the part that links
the two side blocks. Use the AA once and fire it until explodes. Be
careful because sometimes it will take you down (literally) when it sinks.
[Hard]
Ships fire will be more intense this time, and… oh yes, VOB
malfunction. If you are using a dualshock controller you will feel the
vibration when the first explosion happens. Then your operator will
blame some corporation engineers and tell you to be prepared to purge.
As a result of this, you will be far, far away from Gigabase. The process
is exactly the same, but requires more ability to evade or stand that
much fire.
06. Support the Red Valley assault
Interior
[Normal]
In this mission you have to escort 3 little transports from their starting
point (near your initial position) until their leave the are to the northeast
of your initial position. There will be some group of enemies placed
(they won’t move) over the whole area, armed with medium range
cannons and long range missiles. Last ones will be your worst problem
here since they can hit the transports from really long distance. There
are two routes the transports can take, short goes by the road you start
in, go through the tunnel and continue until the end. Long… is a pretty
long trip.
Transports will detect the enemies that can hit them along their current
route, and then chose wich path to take. So, it is important to clear as
much enemies as possible in the shortest route in order for them to take
this one.
You should equip good boosting and energy durable NEXT with long
range FCS and weapon. Also equip AA over booster, and a blade.
If your FCS is good enough, or you have additional radar, you will
clearly see where enemies are. They won’t hit you hard but they are
many. Strategy we will follow is: if enemy < 3 kill them with long range
weapon while you move towards them; if enemy > 3 quickly boost to the
middle of the formation and activate AA, removing possible survivors
with weapon or blade.
If everything goes well you will be able to kill the enemies along the path
and reach the entrance of the tunnel, were a large group is placed. Kill
them by using AA and move across the tunnel to find your main
problem: two mini AF located were the transports will leave the area.
They have a powerful cannon and also chain missiles. Since they are
two, and they have quite an armor, we will play kamikaze a little. Boost
to the first and place yourself so the other doesn’t see you, use AA and
blade it to death. Then move to the back of the other and start blading.
When your KP bar is blue again use AA to finish him off. If you were
slow, the transports will stop in the middle of the tunnel waiting you to
unblock the path.
Now we will have some time to kill the remaining enemies, just in case
one of their long range missiles can hit our transports. Most probably
the ones you left alive are to the north of your initial position.
You will have a special economic reward if the 3 transports make it to
the end of the route.
In order to S-Rank this mission, you have to kill the mini AF as fast
as possible so the transports doesn't stop at the middle of the tunnel.
[Hard]
Transports start moving before, and there is one of the mini AF more,
placed in one of the groups to the north, and also in one of the road
groups in front of you by the shortest route. Do exactly the same than in
normal mode, but faster. Don’t be afraid of taking damage while you
have your PA down, I don’t think you will get killed. When finished with
the two heavy units at the end of the road, go kill the remaining
enemies. Kill the little ones first so they don’t kill you when you use you
AA to destroy the big NORMAL.
07. Defeat Wonderful body
Interior
[Normal]
This is a training mission if you judge by the sparring you must beat to
finish. Wonderful Body is the only enemy, is far from your starting point,
moves slow (and will move slower later in the combat) and don’t have
powerful weapons. You can go there just with your favourite hand
weapons and will finish in less than a minute. Just don’t use missiles
because he’s got that firework style flares.
You will get arm weapon GAN02-NSS-WBS for completing this mission
[Hard]
Wonderful Body will be helped by some missile launching guys that
won’t move from the buildings zone. Engage the NEXT and start firing
at him while you move to the are where you started to avoid the
additional fire.
08. Attack on B7
Omer
[Normal]
Equip medium or light AC and two Altair. It’s the only thing you need.
You must destroy all the targets in this mission. It’s pretty
straightforward, so you don’t really need an extensive explanation.
Just becareful of light boosting MT's since their solid blade can damage
you a lot (credit to Josh Williams for this).
Move forward destroying the MT’s and walls blocking your way. You will
reach a point you can move forward or left. Kill first the guys in front of
you, and then head left. By the time you are done here the operator will
tell you reinforcements have appeared. There are three new MT’s in
between the first fall tunnel and the second, so go there and destroy
them to easy S-rank the mission.
[Hard]
Exactly same mission, but you will need to be quicker since someone
left open the door of a Kojima generator and so, your KP bar will be
decreasing until it depletes, and then you will begin losing AP until you
die, so you better hurry. Additionally to be fast, you will have to shoot
before the enemies, since with no PA, you will take really big damage
from their fire.
09. Clear former Chinese Shanghai
Omer
[Normal]
You can choose a partner here, but I don’t recommend doing it unless
you are rich. Mission is very similar to one of AC4. You are in a sea
area with some breakable buildings scattered. At the tope of some
buildings there are placed some NORMALS with long range cannons,
and also there are some ships in the middle of area armed with
missiles. These enemies are not a problem, and if you are skilful
enough you can switch to no-lock aim and shoot the buildings rather to
the NORMALS, son when it collapses they sink into the water. Real
problem are the big ships and the reduced AF Gigabase that are in
open ocean to the north of your starting point. Avoid flying high while
you are in the building area and near the middle of the area so you stay
away from Gigabase heavy fire.
Once you have finished with the minor resistance, run to the back of
Gigabase avoiding fire while blasting the enemies surrounding the AF or
simply ignoring them, and use AA and blade on it for quick death.
Another more simple option is equipping just 2 blades. Instead of killing
the snipers we will destroy the buildings they are on so they will sink.
Ships will be easy targets, as well as Gigabase.
[Hard]
You will find one more ship besides the others in the middle of the city,
5 or 6 more surrounding Gigabase, and worst problem: The AF is
shooting you with the long distance cannons almost from the start. Play
fast and long range.
After you beat this mission, new parts will be available at the store,
mainly Ekhazar, Eklakh and Soluh.
10. Take Back Cradle 21
The corporations
[Normal]
Some terrorist have kidnapped Cradle 21, and there we come to the
rescue. Cradles are composed by 5 segments, 2 big ones per elevation
level, linked by a minor one. In each of the big ones and aiming to the
back of the cradle, you can see Cradle boosting device. If 4 or 5 of this
devices are destroyed, the Cradle will fall and 20 million people will die.
Equipment for this mission can’t be simpler: long range gun and FCS.
You will start and immediately lock 2 or 3 NORMALS. Kill them and
move forward being guided by your radar. If you are using double Altair,
most probably you won’t damage any of the turbines, granting the
additional reward for this mission. More or less when you reach the
centre of the Cradle, some additional enemies will appear. New
enemies will dodge a lot but their AP is not much. When finished,
exterminate the remaining funny terrorists. By the way, Liliana is a
terrorist organization commanded by Orca member Old King. This is his
first attempt to destroy the cradles.
[Hard]
Not that hard, just add some hyper-blade zombie piloted NEXT from
AC4 at the moment the boosting NORMALS appear. Maybe it is good
for you to equip some more back weapons and a good generator since
you will be more time in the air. Anyways you don’t need to destroy the
reinforcements to finish mission. It’s your call.
11. Defeat AF Cabracan
GA
[Normal]
Client wants you to destroy Algebra’s AF Cabracan, and it will be
tedious but not difficult. Equip normal OB and TONS of weapons at your
discretion, including the storage weapons (I recommend SPICA). It is
mandatory to have a booster capable of QB you very fast despite of
your weight. Later you will understand why.
Start the mission by OB directly to the target. You don’t need much
speed to avoid the first swarm of missiles that will come to you. If you
are not besides Cabracan when finished the OB, use QB to reach his
metal skirt before it fires the missiles again.By the way, zone has been
filled sith some land mines. They don't damage a lot but if possible don't
step on them.
Place your self below that building pulverizer wheel it has on the front
and wait for one of the skirt plates to move. When it does, shoot the
caterpillar inside until Cabracan stops moving. Now you will see a
cutscene and wow! Was that an emergency measure or do they always
do that when they hit a land mine? Algebra has a lot of money if they
can afford that much rebuilding.
Reinforcements are on their way, but anyways let’s try to kill this army
as soon as possible. They need 2 Altair hits to be destroyed, and they
don’t dodge, so start shooting while you move. They don’t hit hard and
also they miss a lot, but they are son many, son never stop moving. Go
circling while you fire just when your lock-on crosshair is red, because
you can’t afford missing one single round.
Maybe you think is better to place yourself in the middle of a group and
activate AA; they don’t evade your fire but they try to be at a safe
distance from you (400 or so) moving themselves back, side or up. As
you would have noticed, my designs use to be fat AC’s, so I was unable
to AA them or hit them with blade. So, I fired until I purged the Altairs,
then depleted the SPICA, and finished them with back weapons.
Another option slow but quite effective is to use AS missiles (take into
account there is not enough ammo to kill them all even if you use two LAMIA).
When reinforcements are on position, they will slowly fire the Algebra
units helping you a little (not much).
Just for your information, don’t try to go below Cabracan when it opens
the plate for you to shot the caterpillar. I did it several times to destroy
it with AA and sweated a lot to get outside later (because the plate closes
after the cutscene), while receiving fire from the NORMALS because as
you for sure have seen, this game has a really big problem with the
solidity of solids. I mean many of the solids you see are not really solid,
and enemies or you can fire through. Tell ORCA leaders, they know for
sure… A reader suggested to equip blade (normal or energy) so you can
destroy the plate easier. Do that only if you plan to destroy the MTs with
blade (wich is an option if you like aerial blading). If not, I think it is
a waste of you weapon slots.
You will get 10 SRF memory units for completing this mission
[Hard]
Same difficulty, but you won’t receive any help from client. It’s just you
and the Cabracan army.
12. Defeat Spirit of the Mother will
Omer
[Normal]
Really hate this mission, really. You must destroy biggest AF ever, but it
has some structural problems that will help you out killing it from the
outside. I sincerely would have preferred to locate the core and
AA/blade it like the rest of decent AF’s, but never mind. Let’s begin with
this suffering.
Fortunately the VOB part of this mission is really simple. I bet you can
leave the controller on your sofa/chair and go take a coffee without the
long range cannons hitting you once. Just go forward avoiding the fire
by using QB and have fun dodging the buildings (they won’t damage
you if hit, I think). When VOB purges, quickly OB or QB evading the
huge amount of missiles and blasts that will fly directly to you, until you
are in gun range of SOTMW. Your targets are a) the missile launchers
composed of several triangles, placed on the “wings” of the beast and b)
the long distance and huge cannons placed on top of the AF.
Between the legs you can find little cannons more annoying than
effective, and over the wings, many NORMALS quite damaging.
You have two main problems here: the missile launchers and your own
FCS. Missile launchers shoot a lot of missiles, and they are many (2 per
wing). Since the AF is so big, you don’t see the missiles coming, thus
they are very difficult to evade. Your FCS is also a problem because on
top of the wings there are NORMALS besides the missile launchers, so
you won’t be able to lock them as easy as you want (this is the reason I
miss a lot AC1-ACLR FCS reticule).
Since flying at NORMALS’s eye line or upper is not recommended due
to the huge amount of fire you will receive in few seconds, I always
approach from the ground, and go in circles around the AF destroying
the missile launchers and little cannons first. That means when I try to
lock the missile launchers, most of the time I will lock an MT instead,
and since stopping to aim properly most of the times means you taking
a lot of damage, it is a matter of luck to lock the correct one while
circling the monster.
As you kill some targets, you will hear the crew of the AF cursing the
BFF engineer that designed SOTMW, and as soon as you will the last
launcher or cannon, the operator will instruct you to finish the AF off.
Now it’s the time to boost up and destroy the giant cannons. They have
very little AP, and offer good cover from the nearby MT’s, so place
yourself besides the cannon, destroy it, and do the same with the
opposite. When it’s time to evacuate, don’t bother moving, explosion will
be cutscene.
[Hard]
Ok, I was a bit dramatic. The mission was not difficult in normal mode,
but hard… this is another story.
The big difference between normal and hard modes are that first, an AC
armed with back middle range gun and two hard-hitting fists. He is not
difficult to defeat since he is obsessed in punching you when near, and
so is an easy target. The problem is you have a giant AF targeting you
at the same time, and is difficult to focus on evading while killing the
NEXT.
When you hear the last gibberish of Killdozer, and you can’t target him,
move full speed to SOTMW. The operator has told you before, I tell you
now: as a second handicap, you’ve got a lot of laser cannons firing at
the same time. Is not like they are precise, but they are many and fire
very often.
I must recognize this was the most difficult mission for me apart from
Occupation of Arteria Carpals. I just beaten once and with rank D. My
tactic was to move below the AF in order to receive less fire, blasting
the ground cannons before going in. Within the shadow of the beast, we
will still receive fire from missiles, but a lot less than circling AF like in
normal mode. Then, what we will do is to move without leaving the
cover, targeting and killing the turrets, and the missile launchers. Like in
normal mode, when the operator tells us to finish it, we will climb to the
top and kill the big cannons.
Note: When my frustration about this mission was too painful to endure,
I ended up watching some youtube replays of the mission. I couldn’t
believe how easy it was for some people to beat it without taking any
damage. The method is: build light NEXT with additional shoulder
booster and enough energy. Also, equip dual blades and inblue FCS.
Killdozer is easy to defeat with swords and you know it. The difficulty
here is the tactic I can’t imitate: the ability to move so fast. He OB’d
directly to SOTMW, flew towards first wing, bladed it, etc etc. Moved so
fast that they hit his NEXT very little. You are able to do this, do it and
save some time.
You will get 10 SRF memory units for completing the mission.
13. Rescue GA transport
GA
[Normal]
You’ve got to move fast here, so equip accordingly. Will find some
heavy MTs and two Landcrabs, so also gear yourself with a lot of
weapons, AA, or blade.
The mission could be interesting but it isn’t. You start behind your
defend group, formed by some MT. Will see in the radar a green box,
that represents the perimeter of your buddies. Enemies must not cross
it, and they won’t. If you OB forward you will see the first group of
enemies, 4 MT or something like that. They would die easy if you could
take your time to finish them, but you’ve got 2 Landcrabs shooting at
you, so fire while you evade and proceed to the Landcrab. Kill it like you
did in “Richland” mission. Then move to next group of MT, that will be
between you and the second AF. Repeat operation, and mission will be
over. Never happened to me they got too close to GA line of defence.
New parts will be available at store, mainly GAN01-SUNSHINE-L and
GAN01-SUNSHINE-E
[Hard]
Is the same but besides the land MT and the Landcrabs, enemies will
include two aircrafts that fly quite high, and have a huge amount of AP.
These happy guys appear more or less at the same place than the
groups of MT, but up in the sky. What I did was to take the MT’s first
while evading the aerial fire, and then boost my way to the airship, land
on it and destroy with AA and some shots. You can try with missiles if
you want, but is slower and Landcrab will hit you hard if you give them
the chance.
14. Attack on PA-N51
GA
[Normal]
Now we have to destroy some refinery-like buildings, marked in red on
your radar. Main problem of this mission is that the zone is full of little
breakable buildings and the visibility is not so good. Also, there are
some annoying enemies that love to jump and circle you. The enemies
are normally near your targets, so don’t be impatient and kill them at the
moment your lock-on targets them, or you will have to move a lot when
they start to fly around, wasting some precious time. When finished with
the enemies, move to the red spots and destroy them with weapon or
AA (I recommend using AA at the central building). Look at the radar to
check if any of the marked in red buildings survived, and then move to the
next group fast, repeating the same operation.
[Hard]
Same, but a NEXT will come to intercept you when you are moving from
the first target to the second. If you already have the ZINC missiles,
should be no problem for you to kill him. Main obstacle is to know if you
are targeting the NEXT or one of the NORMALS because of the
whiteness of the area.
You will be rewarded with back weapon SAPLA for completing this
mission
15. Defeat AF Stigro
GA
[Normal]
Most important here is to equip good AA over booster, and powerful
normal booster. Stigro is an middleweight AF with an energy blade at its
bottom, and a mass rocket launcher. He has no defence on its back or
top.
When you start the mission, he will be destroying some buildings in front
of you. Quickly boost up and evade its fire, but be near him in order to
land over it when he tries to charge on you. You will have the time to AA
once before you fall into the water. Stigro will turn and then fire at you,
so considering you are without PA now, it is a good idea to evade. If you
want to finish mission quick, focus on turning and repeating the
operation (landing over it and releasing assault armor). Normally it takes
three hits of your AA to make it stop. Maybe you want to fire with your
arm weapons while your attack with AA to guarantee it falls during the
third round.
What if you are not able to land on it. Stigro is very fast, so chasing him
requires you to be very fast and have a good generator. Sooner or later
the operator will tell you to make it hit some buildings in order to slow it.
Do it if you need.
[Hard]
Stigro will make his blade go with a beam Human Plus style that lasts for a
pretty long distance . No problem if you fly. The rest is the same.
[Suggestions]
By Josh Williams:
A couple of energy blades, preferable Moonlights, will make quick work of
it if you can get the timing down so that you hit it right off the bat.
Works best with regulations 1.20 since energy blades can do just about
everything there
16. Eliminate Procyon
Torus
[Normal]
Quite easy mission. Just equip sword, AA, fast NEXT, and good radar
(you can use long range FCS, your target won’t be moving). When you
start mission you will see on your radar your targets displayed in red as
always, rest of units will be white (get used to it since it is important for
a lot of missions). Procyon cannons are very similar to an AF cannon, but
laser instead of solid ammo. You are supposed to avoid the roads
covered by Procyons range of fire (they can move just 45 degrees)
using lateral roads to attack them from the rear. This is exactly what I
did next time, killing at the same time all the enemies in the area. Why
bothering? Client wants you to destroy the Procyon, so do it. This is as
simple as boosting towards them and QB when you see them fire first.
Then calculate their rate of fire in order to evade easier next time,
keeping in mind you will have less time to dodge since you will be near.
When you reach them, place your self behind, and blade until they
disappear. Move to next objective ignoring the MT’s and grenade
cannons, and repeat the operation, it's a straight road. Easy S-Rank
New parts will be available at the store after completing this mission,
mainly LATONA
[Hard]
I don’t know what has changed here. For me it looked exactly the same.
17. Escape from naval port of Mimir
Interior
[Normal]
Like previous stay in this area, we need a lot of ammunition, and a long
distance weapon and FCS. If you feel like tuning on ECM resistance do
it since you will find some in this mission, but it is not necessary at all.
Good boosting capabilities help also.
Here we will escort three vessels that need to leave the area. Most
important is the first, Titan. When mission starts, move forward and start
killing everything lockable on the first area. Maybe you will see some
enemies on your radar display that look like they are below the water.
They are not submarines, nor are they alive. They are MT’s sinking that
won’t surface again, so once your FCS isn’t able to lock anyone near,
proceed to the next area. Keep in mind that side bays will have MT’s
waiting for you this time, so break in and kill everyone. Maybe you are
thinking that if you separate too much from the ships they will be
ambushed by spawning reinforcements: that won’t happen. Just ensure
no one survived your raid by turning and using lock wisely, and
everything will be ok. The last zone is the first of the previous mission,
so maybe you will be confused when reaching it. Keep focused because
the ships placed there do not damaged too much, but have an
outstanding stunning power rockets. It is mandatory to evade them if
you don’t want to lose time. Also it is time saver to hit them in the bridge
like instructed before, since you will need just two Altair hits there to kill
them.
[Hard]
More enemies I guess. Probably the worst thing here is the stunning
effect of heavy NORMALs rockets.
18. Defeat Unknown next and No Count
Interior
[Normal]
Select a partner if you need. No Count is easy to defeat since his
trajectories are quite simple and predictable. The unknown will be your
real problem since he moves like being chased all the time, and has
some Kojima weapons. It’s not like he will kill you in a moment, but
moves so quick that you probably are running out of ammo on your first
attempt before you are able to kill him.
You will get weapon back weapon INSOLENCE for completing this
mission. Also, new parts will be available for purchase, mainly
LINSTANT, MADNESS, and HILBERT-G7
[Hard]
This one is the mission where we will obtain the overpowered weapon
ZINC. Mission is the same, but a third unknown NEXT will be there
supporting the other two. Third is an irregular armed with Kojima
missiles and an outstanding defences/AP.
As soon as you have ZINC with you, it will be a lot easier to advance
through the arena. Do it to get some money, memory and parts.
19. Defeat unknown next
Algebra
[Normal]
There is just one enemy here, so equip yourself for AC duel. When you
start will see some battle in front of you, between allied NORMALs and
the NEXT, so quickly finish him off for S-rank. Of course I recommend
using ZINC.
You will get shoulder part EUPHORIA (PA Molder) for beating this
mission.
[Hard]
Same, but with some added medium weight NORMALS. If you
approach target fast enough, you can kill him before the reinforcements
get to you. No need killing the extra guys to finish mission.
20. Defeat AF Great Wall
Algebra
[Normal]
Equip just a couple of weapons, and middle AC. Ensure you can
maintain your OB for a long time.
When you start the mission, you must OB directly to Great Wall. It
doesn’t matter Client told you to enter from the rear, run so you touch
it’s side. Now it’s the time, begin moving to the rear without leaving the
side since it’s the safest place for you to be now. Maybe the dust will
make it difficult to know when you have arrived, but be patient.
When you are done, fly up and don’t bother of the enemies, since they
are all GA and so, heavy. You will end taking more damage than if you
ignore them. Blast through the door (destroying it) and move forward
destroying doors and ignoring enemies. At some of the cars, you will
hear some explosion and operator will tell you your target has separated
from the other cars. So, when you break next door you will see the AF
main car escaping from you. QB towards it, again ignoring the enemies.
At the end of the room there will be another couple of doors you must
break. When you see some orange glowing door, you are done: that’s
the target. Shoot it so it explodes and OB for your life to the entrance,
because when it explodes it will cause a blast that will damage every
nearby unit.
As a reward, new parts will be available at the store for purchase.
[Hard]
Same, but you will find happy Raiden NEXT waiting from you in the
separated car. He won’t move from his position, so evade and attack
from distance. When finished, do the same than in normal mission. It
doesn’t matter if your AP reaches 40% if what you want is S-Ranking.
You don't have to kill Raiden to complete the mission (credit to Josh
Williams for this).
You will be rewarded with back weapon OIGAMI for completing this
mission.
21. Defend Megalith
Line Ark
[Normal]
Equip AA overbooster, and your favourite arm weapons. Be ready for
long aerial combat.
When you start the mission, quickly OB forward to engage the first flying
enemies. Kill them and approach the main pillar killing everything that
goes red on your FCS crosshair. Be careful with the size of the units
you are aiming so you don’t waste ammo firing twice when they need
only one hit. Be as fast as possible. When you have killed a number of
units, an aerial AF will appear. Ignore him and finish with the attackers
first. When you are done climb and locate the AF. Chase him and land
over it if he is not near the out of area line. If it does, wait there
(maintaining altitude) so you land on it on the way back. When you are
there, activate AA and fire him as much as you can, until it dies.
You will be rewarded with 10 SRF units for completing this mission.
[Hard]
Same, but besides that bunch of enemies, you will have to face 2 of that
mini AF with the long range cannon placed outside the circle. You know,
the ones with a hell of AP.
22. Defeat White Glint
The Corporations
[Normal]
Oh my, we must kill ourselves. Besides of it we will have to do it with the
help of Otsdarva. He will be of not much help, since after you deal X
damage to White Glint, he will leave the combat area, so you will be one
on one versus the target. For me it was easy, but of course I was using
ZINC… Just move forward following the road until you find him. Follow
the combat of Otsdarva and Unknown to a more open zone while you
fire him. When they suddenly change course moving to the ocean, stop
firing since I think White Glint is invulnerable until your partner leaves
the combat. When he returns, finish him.
You will get arm weapon 051ANNR and back weapon SALINE05 for
completing this mission, and 20 SRF memory units
[Hard]
Flow of mission is more or less the same, but White Glint will have his
AP fulfilled after you first kill him. In any case I think it is impossible to
kill him before Otsdarva sinks into the sea since that fact appears on the
video.
23. Defend Line Ark
Line Ark
Note: White Glint will be destroyed no matter what you do.
[Normal]
Opposite mission to “Defeat White Glint”. You will side with pilot
Unknown and face Otsdarva and Fragile. Your partner’s AP is very
limited so help him out. Normally Fragile will come after you and
Otsdarva will engage White Glint. You can do it man way, or use ZINC.
Since they are two, and Otsdarva is a fast NEXT, equip also your
favourite weapons to finish ZINC survivor if needed. If you kill Otsdarva
first, White Glint will die at the same time.
You will be rewarded with arm weapon XMG-A030, back weapon XCG-
B050, White Glint’s set of head, arms, core and legs, and also 20 units
of SRF memory for completing this mission (wow)
[Hard]
More or less the same, but White Glint will have a lot less AP. Leave
him alone for 30 second, and he will be dead.
24. Defeat Red Rum & Starka
GA
[Normal]
The worst of this mission is that area is full of fog, and there is a 43.0 of
ECM, so you can only trust your eyes and FCS; besides there are a lot
of breakable buildings. Starka is not the problem since he will come
straight to you in order to stick his blades on you, so you can take him
then before he starts to fly around. Red Rum is another story since she
loves to circle you, evades a lot and her machine gun is quite annoying.
First time I used Altair and PC01-GEMMA. Gemma allows you to rapidly
kill Starka while he is chasing you. The rest of the mission depends on
your ability. If you lack ability, kill Starka with Altair, and Red Rum
with ZINC.
You will get back weapon KAMAL, arm weapon KIKU and stabilizers
DUSKAROR-HEAD-1 AND DUSKAROR-HEAD-2 after beating this
mission. Also 047AN & 049AN parts will be available for purchase.
[Hard]
Add some jumping NORMALS and we have the best cocktail: fog, ECM,
buildings, and dummy targets. You only need to defeat the two AC’s.
Try the same tactic you used in normal mode, but do it faster so the
MT’s don’t have the time to reach you. NEXTs are easily recognized while
in the fog by their boosters, that you can see from far. use that to
aim for the correct targets.
25. Defeat unidentified AF
GA
[Normal]
You can hire someone here, but it’s a waste of money, unless you want
someone near to receive fire instead of you. If that is your purpose,
chose Dan Mollo.
Equip medium AC capable of being in the air for long, spread missile
(not scatter) and two more precise and long ranged powerful weapons.
AS missiles are an option too.
When you start mission, move until you see the modified Landcrab (you
will need to do this just first time. Rest of the times just OB in the way
you know it is). By the time you reach the beast, 4 autonomous big
spheres will deploy. They are Sol Dios cannons straight to your heart
from AC4, but they are not that easy this time, neither Noblesse Oblige
is there to help you out. Lock the nearest sphere (red lock), and fire your
missiles until it is destroyed, evading the beams meanwhile, and if
possible Landcrab’s fire also. The most important thing here is never
stopping movement unless you want a fast Kojima death. Theoretically,
Sol Dios cannons are destroyed by hitting the spot they use to shoot at
the moment they are charging the beam, but I don’t think the same rule
applies here, so just keep firing until they die.
When done, land over the AF and hit him with your remaining ammo/AA
to finish the mission.
New parts will be available at the store, mainly GAN01-SUNSHINE and
GAEN01-STARLET
[Hard]
It is quite curious that this mission is easier in hard than in normal mode.
Equip ultra-light AC with normal OB and added main booster, but keep
your best generator. As for the weapons, take the two Kojima blades if
you have. If not, the most powerful blade you have.
The target here is to reach the AF before the Sol Dios units are
deployed. So, OB as soon as mission is started, dodging the buildings.
When you reach the Landcrab, use normal booster so you head the
base in which the spheres are placed. Deactivate OB when you are 1 or
2 QB away from the AF so you control the landing, and when you are
besides one of the spheres, use both Kojima blades son AF will be
destroyed instantly, even if the spheres have took off.
26. Defeat 8th fleet
Interior
[Normal]
In this mission you will have a destruction race against AF Stigro. Equip
lightest AC possible and blades, or Altair and long range FCS (but just
that ammo won’t be enough). Something important here is a good radar,
so if you equipped INBLUE FCS, also take back mounted radar so you
can move from one target to another without seeing it. A good an energy
efficient normal OB is a must also.
The targets are the same ships you are now very used to destroy, so I
don’t need to explain more. By the way, Stigro doesn’t follows his own
way, it just follows you and attacks units as it finds it. Of course prefers
to attack targets available instead of following you if you deviate.
[Hard]
The configuration will be very different than in normal mission. Equip
middleweight or lightweight with GEMMA back weapons, and AA OB,
besides your arm weapons of choice. We will anticipate to the flow of
the mission by flying directly to Stigro and landing over him, since he is
going to start attacking you in few seconds. So, AA and GEMMA it to
death if possible. When it sinks, start destroying ships until all the fleet
is gone.
[Suggestions]
By Josh Williams:
Personally, I recommend a good sniper cannon or a good rail cannon. Maybe
even two. They make quick work of the boats. With a long range FCS you'll
be able to down more than Stigro will quite effectively.
27. Destroy B7
Torus
[Normal]
You can equip with Altair or blades. Medium/light weight AC is
important since it’s about quickness. You will start falling. When you are
down, move forward and drop again. As soon as landed you will receive
some fire. Kill the MT and continue forward. You will arrive to a room
with the road you are in crossing it, that has three ways: forward, left
and right. Each contains one of your targets. Chose whatever you want,
since they are all the same. Each will have a MT on the entrance, and
two more on the round room at the end. You will see a hole in that
room. Drop to see the Kojima generators. Of course you will start losing
life as you approach, so kill it quick and leave. Be careful with the cover
of the tunnel leading to the generator, usually annoys a lot. Repeat it
with the others. As soon as you kill the last, an alarm will trigger, and all
the corridors will be blocked with breakable doors. Also, more MT will
appear. You don’t need to destroy them. Just make your way to the
junction between the first fall and the second.
[Hard]
You will find some enemies after your first fall, and when landed on the
second operator will tell you all the station is Kojima infected, so your
AP will start to go down. You will have to kill the 3 generators and leave
faster. I ended with less than half of AP and still S-ranked, so I guess
the most important here is how fast you are.
28. Defeat Silent Avalanche
Omer
[Normal]
Here we will face again annoying rocket sniper cannons of Silent
Avalanche, from AC4. Objective is to destroy the NORMALs with the
big gun. Due to the zone, it’s difficult to recognize them, and there are a
lot of enemies. The only thing I can tell you is to be guided by the red
spots of your radar (that is ECM’d by the way). You have to kill 4 or 5 to
complete the mission. If you don’t want to suffer the stunning of the
rockets, equip fast AC and long range fun/FCS. Keep flying to avoid
getting hit, and kill the ones shooting rockets at you.
After completing mission, new parts will be available at the store, mainly
03-AALIYAH and 04-ALICIA
[Hard]
This is one of the missions where normal and hard have nothing to do.
Enemies will be the same and in the same place, but when finished with
the required targets, two AC’s will show from the north of your initial
position. One of them is not a thread, but the other has some bugged (in
my opinion) machine gun that kills your AP faster than an AF. So, don’t
be suicidal at the first part of the mission in order to save all the AP you
can. Then, go to an area with little population so nothing shoots you at
your back while you are facing the AC’s, an get ready for battle. ZINC
missiles will help you out getting rid of these guys, but you still must
survive the machine gun while firing the 6 missiles needed to stop the
guy… You have also the option of blasting the Kojima Sphere nearest to
mountain ledge, and position yourself over the top ledge. They will get
trapped in the crater as long as you don’t move from this zone. You can
approach with vertical missiles, release them so they don’t blast into the
ground, and move back so enemies don’t leave their abnormal AI
behaviour.
You will get arm weapon FSS-53 for completing this mission
29. Destroy Megalith
Omer
[Normal]
You will start the mission in VOB mode (last one, I think). As usual, you
will have to evade some fire before reaching your target. This time fire
won’t come from ahead, but from below, in the form of huge plasma
spheres that will remain static on the air for some time. They damage a
lot, so you must dodge them by using QB. The trick here is that when
you QB to one side or the other, you will see attacks are following your
trail, forcing you to left or right side. If you don’t break to the other side
you were going, eventually you will be trapped between a blast and the
red line of out of the area. When you see they stop firing after a
sequence of 3 or 4 spheres, QB opposite. Try to be in the centre of the
area so you have more space to manoeuvre.
When VOB depletes, you will fall into a hell of laser fire and MT’s. You
have two options now. Objective is to destroy Megalith, the giant pillar,
so quickly OB and boost (so you maintain the altitude) to the top so the
lasers that don’t hit you hit the column. They may finish it by the time you
reach the hole that is on the top, and you don’t even need to have
weapons with you. If not, just kill the top walls of megalith while you
are inside the hole. Depending on your speed,you will have to pay a price for
this quick success: you are going to lose some AP while moving on. Try to
equip as fast AC as you can and they won’t hit you enough to low your S-rank.
The other option, is to leave yourself fall into the circle around the
pillar, breaking some glass. The glass is supported by some columns on top
of which are the laser cannons, that can’t fire you when you are in the
ground level. You still have the NORMALs placed there to kill anyways. Kill
the lasers and nearby NORMAL’s, and then keep destroying zones of
Megalith until operator tells you it has been destroyed. Maybe you won’t
S-rank it because of the time needed to clear the area, so again, it’s
your call what to do.
[Hard]
Again, VOB malfunction, but this time seems like some George Lucas’s
movie sabotage. One of the VOB fuel tanks is on fire. It is more or less
stable, but it will explode if directly hit by one of the plasma blasts, so
you have to be even more careful than in normal mode. Rest of the
mission is the same.
30. Destroy Arteria Ulna
Orca
[Normal]
You can do this two ways: normal, or smart way. I explain smart way:
equip with whatever you want that allows some time in the air and a fire
weapon. When you start mission, climb and destroy one of the plates
that form then ceiling. Go through the hole and continue climbing until
you reach an upper level where your radar detects some targets. When
up, you will see a lot of enemies, and some kind of radars. Your goal is
to destroy the radars. You can fire them directly, or put yourself behind
so the enemies do the job. In any case, is S-rank mission.
If you want to destroy every enemy here… equip long range weapons
since this is full of snipers, and start shooting, but it has no sense.
As soon as mission is finished, you will have joined Orca path, allowing
you to beat the Orca rankers of their own Arena. Careful, you can do it
only while in chapter 3.
You will be rewarded with 20 SRF units for completing this mission.
[Hard]
I assume you will have more enemies here, but if you do it smart way, it
will be exactly the same than in normal mode.
31. Defend Arteria Carpals
Rosenthal
[Normal]
Mission will start with you in a road with Noblesse Oblige. In front of
you, Arteria Carpals. Noblesse will OB forward and engage the blue
NEXT. Is the same as other AC duels more or less, and little danger will
come from these enemies. The one you will be facing first has the
tendency of moving in the ground when he is far from you. That will
make him get stuck a lot. Noblesse Oblige will not be dying (up to my
knowledge) in this mission, neither will help you with your target unless
the other has been already killed. As always, Kojima missiles will work
fine.
You will get arm weapon HLR71-VEGA and 10 SRF units for completing
this mission.
[Hard]
Same, but add and additional NEXT will appear after the main two have been
killed.
You will get should part P-MARROW for completing this mission.
32. Attack on Arteria Carpals
Orca
New parts will be available at the store when this mission appears,
mainly X-SOBRERO
[Normal]
This is what happened just before “Defend Arteria Carpals” mission.
You will start far away from Carpals, and will be told to eliminate as
much defences as you can before Noblesse arrives. NEXT arrival is not
conditioned by number of defenses destroyed, you can sit on your
starting position and wait him to arrive (credit to Josh William for
this).
Defences of the zone are some fixed turrets that fire normal ammo
bullets, and medium sized NORMALs. Turrets will be in the top of the
walls, and inside nests placed on the internal side of the walls, one
below the other. The ones on the roof are easily taken since their fire is
slow and you can have a quiet fly while taking them down without being
bothered by the other defences. In order to take the others, you will
need to have a more or less clear line of fire so they have a good cover
inside their nests. FCS will be a problem since it likes a lot to lock
enemies that are behind walls instead of the nearer.
After a certain time, Noblesse Oblige will come. If you haven’t killed all
the defences, move to open sea where you can fight him without being
sniped by the turrets. Even if you have, it feels more comfortable to
fight in a clear space than with so many obstacles, at least for me.
You will be rewarded with arm weapon MR-R102, back weapon EC-
0307AB and 20 SRF memory units for completing this mission
[Hard]
Is the same, but after Noblesse is down, NEXT Trascend will boost in.
Conditions for S-rank will be more strict (you will have less time)
You will be rewarded with arm weapon EG-O703 for completing this
mission
[Suggesions]
By Josh Williams:
Kojima weaponry(arms/cannons) fully charged will bring him down. On
Hard, you'll have enough time to get another full charge to take out
Dario as well.
33. Defend Cradle 03
The Corporations
[Normal]
This is the opposite mission of Destroy Cradle 03, of Orca path. Old
King, the pilot of NEXT Lisa, has decided that a good thing to do is
destroying mankind, so he is starting by taking down Cradle 03, that is
composed of 5 giant airships. You will have to wait for a minute until he
arrives to your position with 2 unmanned NEXT (yes, the ones with long
blade). Lisa will target you, and the NEXTs the cradle unless attacked.
So, I recommend killing them because fight with Old King can be quite
long. It takes some hits to destroy them, but when done, you won’t have
to worry about the integrity of the 20 million people living in the nearby
ship. Lisa moves fast like hell, and will circle you from the sides, but also
from above and below. This will make your fight a bit confusing. Try to
follow him with your eyes instead of radar, because if you do, most of
the time you will feel he is attacking you from two sides at the same
time. Try to hit him from nearest you are able without losing the lock,
and be careful about not reaching the above limits of the area. Slow
missiles are not very useful here, but you can try.
You will get arm weapon SAMPAGUITA and stabilizers SAUBEES-
HEAD-1 and SAUBEES-HEAD-2 for completing the mission. Also, new
weapons will be available at the store.
[Hard]
By the time you start the mission, the enemies will be already deployed.
Quickly take out the unmanned NEXT (three this time), and then start
the dogfight with Lisa
34. Defeat Orca’s special AF unit
The Corporations
[Normal]
You will face here 4 medium sized AF's that don't move. They have some
spheres able to fire blade energy beams (quite damaging). Their weak point
is a hole over them where you can see a ventilation unit. I don't know
why such an easy mission is here, but it's ok, we will do it.
Equip fire weapons since AA will be too slow here. Move to engage the
first AF and land inside the hole. Start blasting down until it explodes.
It could take some time and maybe you feel you are not damaging, but you do.
Move to next one, repeat, and that way until you finish mission.
of course you should be equipped with a middle weight AC to avoid initial
fire. When you are inside holes, is not like they can't hit you, but you
will receive very little damage.
[Hard]
AFs will bhe equipped with rapid fire plasma cannons on their front,
ranged blades will be more damaging. Everything else is the same.
[Suggestions]
By Josh Williams:
These things can be brought down with a Kiku punch from the front. If done
right, it only takes one hit
35. Attack anti-satellite cannons
The Corporations
[Normal]
You will have some help here if you want, but it won’t last long. There are
three anti-satellite cannons (don’t worry, they can’t fire at you), surrounded
by some walls with 8 awful laser turrets that shoot really long. Approach
the first (you will see it in front) dodging the lasers, and place yourself
inside the perimeter of the cannon, so the turrets can’t target you. Start
killing (I used AA to save ammo), and when finished, kill the cannon too.
Probably you have realized by now that there is a defending NEXT
here, Neonidas, the one with focalized AA. Try to take him down from
here so you don’t face the cannons on the other side of the lake, and
the MT’s in the island inside. Try it Kojima missiles, as always.
When you take him down, move to the right side of the lake (east) and
OB your way to cover so turrets can’t hit you. Then start moving from
ladder to ladder so you are always covered. When you reach the
nearest cannon, move in and proceed like you did with the other. When
finished, move to the last and kill it.
Another way is taking down the first group, so you can safely kill
Neonidas, and then move fast evading lasers aiming to the big towers
directly.
You will be rewarded with shoulder part ADDICT for completing this mission
[Hard]
Is the same, but as soon as you kill the last cannon, the final boss of
AC4 will appear (gatling cannon, hyper-QB). It impressed me a lot on
previous game, so I didn’t wanted to check if they were the same or not.
Kept some ZINC ammo firing safer to Neonidas, and discharged the rest at this
little final monster.
36. Defeat main Orca forces
The Corporations
[Normal]
Wynne D Fanchon will help you out here. Targets are two Orca NEXT.
One of them is very slow and uses to get stuck in the path at the middle
of the rooftop, making him an easy target. The other one, Maelzel,
usually engaged with our partner, moves more but has little AP. With
ZINC this mission is piece of cake.
You will obtain back weapon BIGSIOUX and GAN01-SS-GC for
completing this mission.
[Hard]
Exactly the same, but under more large cannon fire.
37. Defend Arteria Cranium
Wynne D Fanchon
[Normal]
You will start the mission in the middle of a long pathway. Move forward
to find two NEXT. Wynne will follow you and engage the less
dangerous, while Thermidor will put his eyes and MOONLIGHT in you,
so hit him hard enough to make him fall with 2 or 3 hits, since he is
really fast and can blade you to death even being on the air. He likes to
attack you from behind, and has such speed it’s difficult to face him
unless you have a really QB. An option to kill him is move backwards to
the little corridor you came while shooting him, and take profit of it’s
narrowness to kill him before he reaches you. This process requires
some time since he often don’t go directly through the corridor, but QB
like mad from side to side of the big room walls untill he ends in the
corridor. Sometimes you want have much time to kill him since he will
boost behind you. In this case, most likely will be impossible to turn
before he does, so pray and activate your AA. Missiles are not
recommended here, specially vertical ones, since you’ve got that huge
machineries hanging from the roof, that will make it difficult to hit if
enemy flies or something like that. NEVER use Bismouth (same than
ZINC, but fired horizontal) since some bullets will hit your missiles when
just launched, so you will soak all the damage.
I beaten this mission by equipping Altair in one hand, Kojima blade in
the other, and 2 ZINC on the back. Drove Thermidor to the corridor
while firing him with laser, then stayed at the beginning of it until
Thermidor joined me in, and killed him with Kojima blade. The other one
I destroyed with ZINC, launched from the descending side of the room,
since vertical missiles will have more possibilities of hitting from there.
[Hard]
Same combat exactly. I don’t understand exactly what it does, but some
big machine will appear at the ramp, maybe something happens if you
get close. You don’t need to kill it to finish the mission.
38. Defend anti-satellite cannons
Orca
[Normal]
Opposite mission to attack anti-satellite cannons. You have to side with
Neonidas (that won’t last long) and defend the anti-satellite cannons
from a NEXT and AF combined attack.
Ambient will first arrive landing after OB on the second cannon from
your starting point. Neonidas will engage the other. As soon as you
finish Ambient, Attack the other, and be careful of not wasting you
ammo since he won’t die but leave the area. Now you must destroy the
flying AF (same as defend Megalith mission). Land over it, and AA, it
has little AP. Note that the real target here is the AF, you can beat the
mission by killing it and ignore the others.
You will be rewarded with arm weapon 067ANLR, back weapon
063ANEM and 20 SRF memory units for completing this mission
[Hard]
Static MT’s with laser cannons will be attacking the cannons as you
start the mission. When you beat Ambient, MT’s from Silent Avalanche
(you know, snipers) will appear. Anyways real target is still the AF. Take
it down to finish the mission.
39. Destroy Cradle 03
Old King
Taking this mission will lead you to a different ending than the normal
ORCA one.
[Normal]
As previously told, Old King wants to add some million people to his
body count. He will ask you to help him taking down group of airships
forming Cradle 03.
They can’t be easier to destroy. Use an energy efficient AC with one
blade, and equip some range weapons in case someone bothers you.
Anyways the most important here is being fast, having enough energy,
a blade, and if possible a good radar since being on the air you lose
track of targets easy. As soon as you start, move to the craft and take 5
turbines (prominent black boxes that go from one edge to the other of
the wings), no matter which ones. This will make the cradle sink. Move
to the other and repeat while avoiding the NORMALs firing at you.
There are a total of 5 cradles. By the way, your operator will abandon
you as soon as you destroy the first cradle, so you won’t receive any
message from here (nobody will warn you about 40% AP and so) until
you finish the game in the next mission.
Enjoy Old King’s comments and the killing.
[Hard]
Difference is that instead destroy 4 turbines, you will need to destroy 9.
Besides of that, more enemies will be shooting you.
40. Defeat AF Answerer
Orca
[Normal]
This AF is beautiful. Doesn’t matter, Kojima blades do miracles. Equip
just them and a very fast AC with normal OB, since we want to reach
the thing before it deploys. Look at this:
________ <--Top
__|_______|__ <--Plates
/ / X \ \
/ | | \
/ | | \
| |
| |
/ \ <- AA sphere
This is a more or less front view of upper part of Answerer. He will fire a
hell of missiles if you stay in medium or long range. If you approach he will
charge a brutal AA that will come from the part marked as AA sphere in
the drawing. Your target is the “X” spot. Climb at the start of the mission
so you aling with his top, and OB keeping altitude. When you see the
big plates having some defences attached (they are not horizontal like
in the drawing, but a inclined down), lose altitude so you past below.
Will see some psychedelic glowing spikes machinery. Hit it with the
Kojima blades, and mission will be over. It’s a shame since AF is
beautiful.
If you have problems finding the spot, use youtube. I found it there.
You will be rewarded with arm weapon ER-O705 and back weapon MP-
091 for completing this mission
[Hard]
Same tactic. Density of Kojima particles irradiated by Answerer
will be higher so your primal armor will go down when you get near
the AF, until depletion (thanks Owen Williams for the information).
Fortunatelly doing it the cheap way it won't matter you are out of PA.
41. Attack on Arteria Cranium
Orca
[Normal]
You must kill Wynne D Fanchon and Maibris here, in opposite mission
of Defend Arteria Cranium. You will be alone against those two. I
recommend equipping ZINC and Altair, OB ahead until you reach
descending part of Cranium. Once there, start firing your missiles to
Wynne, since she will be able to evade less here than in main room,
and Maibris won’t move from there. When finished, go for Maibris. Note
he has an insane amount of AP
You will be rewarded with arm weapon HLR09-BECRUX and back
weapon HLC09-ACRUX for completing this mission
Y <- Maibris
_________ |
Wynne -> Z _/ \ |
_/ \_____________________|__________X
_/ You
_/
_/
_/
|_____/
[Hard]
Otsdarva isn’t dead! And has sided with the Kallad forces here. He will
be waiting for you on the descending part of Cranium. If you try to take
Maibris first, Wynne will join him, and later Otsdarva. I don’t know how
much ability you have, but sincerely I wouldn’t be able to evade that
much fire, specially considering Maibris has got some very difficult to
evade missiles. So, what I did was equipping ZINC and Argyros Kojima
arm weapon, enable both ZINC on mission start, and OB ahead without
leaving the central little path, until you arrive to the other side of the
room. Theoretically you won’t be damaged on your way there. As soon
as you reach the end of the path, and without entering the narrow
corridor, turn to face Otsdarva. Boost up a little so you target him, and
release ZINC. He will be advancing little by little to engage you, but
getting stuck all over the place. With enough luck, you will kill him
having spent 6 Kojima missiles and taking no damage ir 1000-2000 AP.
My next target was Wynne. Two things can happen: she is near her
starting point, or she is with Maibris at the centre of the main room. Both
things have their advantages. If she is alone, use same tactic that with
Otsdarva. You are supposed to kill her with 4 missiles (you will have 1 in
each weapon now, but it would be better if you spent 4 with Otsdarva
instead of 6, so you can have 4 when you finish Wynne). She evade
more than Otsdarva, but takes less AP to destroy. Now for the easier
but more tedious part: Kill Maibris. Without leaving the descending
section (you must not see Maibris), boost up until you see him and fire
your remaining ZINC missiles. Between round and round, remain under
cover so you are not hit by hi-activity missiles or scatter rockets. When
you purge ZINC, activate Kojima arms and start charging them. Move
straight through the path until your crosshair is red on Maibris, fire
Argyros. Maibris will start moving so QB back a little in order for him to
calm down and place himself again on the central path. While you do,
start charging again the Kojima arms (be careful not to hit fire button
twice if weapon is in reload time). As soon as you see it clear, and
without losing too much time because his PA gauge is growing now, fire
him again. If he doesn’t die, repeat, but assume that you will miss once,
and that you will be under a lot of fire while in this room. If you spent at
least three successful Kojima missiles in it, and attack fast, you will
need only two charges of the arms to finish him.
Tactics that didn’t worked for me: Taking down Maibris first. Kojima
blades. MOONLIGHT blade. BISMOUTH Kojima missiles (use only if
you want to suicide).
Y <- Maibris
_________ |
Wynne -> Z _/ \ |
_/ \_____________________|__________X
_/ You
_/
_/
W _/ <--Otsdarva
|_____/
[Suggestions]
By Josh Williams:
Two words: Kojima arms. Sit back and charge 'em up. Once they're done,
move forward but don't exit your little crevasse. Because Shinkai hates
you for some unknown reason, he'll charge right at you. Pop him with those
fully charged arms and he's done. On the off chance Fanchon fails to take
down Thermidor, use the Kojima arms or whatever back weapons you feel like
bringing to beat him
42. Occupation of Arteria Carpals
Interior (not really)
[Normal]
This mission is a trap for you and Old King, set by some angry Lynx.
You have two options here, cheating or not cheating. First the legal way:
Equip your NEXT for AC duel, including if you want a couple of ZINC
missile launchers. Boost towards the centre of Arteria Carpals to
activate the appearance of four next that will come OB’ing from
opposite side you came from, making his entrance from upside the wall.
Some people equip Kojima arms and wait for them in the upper
ledge of the wall, so they one-shot any of them as they come.
Another options is AA in the middle of them while flying. Do it with
whatever the configuration you feel more comfortable with.
Personally, I made it with 2 ZINC and Argyros Kojima arms. One shooted
Stasis (second starting from the right) and killed the other with missilles.
Even Old King Survived. But if you don't feel like doing it, try the cheat.
The cheat consist in using solidity bug to your advantage. Have
equipped two canopus, assault armor shoulder amplifier P-MARROW,
and strongest AA OB in your possession. Tune KP production to
maximum and also accuracy. So, go to the mentioned ledge, over the
wall, and wait for them to arrive. When you see them coming, move
towards them with QB or whatever you want. You can try to connect AA
that hits all four. The purpose for moving towards them is having their
attention. If when we are in cheat position, they kill Old King, they won’t
come after us unless we show up. Test it if you want.
Next to do is looking at below map.
They OB from here
|
V
y
-----v-^-v------
/
/
z| o
|_
\
---------- -----
X your starting point
This is a rough aerial view of Arteria Carpals. We start in X and move to
O so activate the appearance of this guys. Then we land over ledge Y and
wait there until they arrive. When done, we will move to z. At the base of
the external side of the wall, you will see a little ledge in which your AC
can land. Keep there until you hear Old King has died. The targets will
come after you, and none of them will have the ability to jump over the
wall, just like in AC: Project Phantasma. Your canopus weapons go
through the wall if you face them, because they are long weapons. As
soon as you see lock crosshair red, start shooting. When you run out of
ammo, you will have to wait until they get close (220 or less) and
activate AA. It will take long to kill them doing this, but saves you a lot
of stress. It is good to keep in your back slots some weapons because one
of the enemies from time to time will escape from one of the corner
overtures, and attack you. Maybe you think it’s a good idea to equip de
LETHALDOSE back weapon, but it’s not. Only normal AA and long
sized arm weapon will allow bug. You can try Altair so you hit more than
with Canopus, but the ratio ammo/damage is better with Canopus than
with Altair. Of course canopus shoots are dodged easily.
[Hard]
Is the same, but instead of 4 there will be 5 NEXTs. Your old operator
will try to kill you now also (no kidding). I was unable to do this mode
without cheating. One time, with same tactic than in normal mode, could
kill 4 (I was lucky ZINC landed a lot or caught 2 enemies in the explossion)
but the fifth punished me by my sins.
You will be rewarded with arm weapon RG01-PITONE for completing this
mission.
[Suggestions]
By Josh Williams:
Load the Hydor-Argyros design and get two Torus Kojima Cannons.
Charge the arms and cannon. Give them some time to charge before you start
moving. Once you get in, get up on the wall your enemies pass while OBing
and wait for them to show up. Your target is Roadie, second from the left.
Fire the arms and the cannon at him when the opportunity presents itself.
Failure to do so will make this mission a lot more annoying, as his bazooka
arms are the only weapon in this mission that can break your charge. After
that, sit outside, charge up, go in and shoot one when you have a good shot.
Consider using the small road-like thing in the middle. They get trapped
easily down there, leaving little room for error. This way you don't have
to tell your friends you exploited a bug to beat this mission. This design
also works on hard, mostly because Sumika is a terrible pilot. DO NOT LET
ANY OF YOUR KOJIMA WEAPONS TOUCH THE WATER WHILE CHARGING. You'll lose your
charge. It's really annoying.
================================================
04. The Arena [ACFA04]
Basics:
:: Try to circle enemies while surrounding them. Moving always is a
must. They do the same with you.
:: Vertical missiles are almost always very effective, especially ZINC and
WHEELING. Enemies using flares nullify this strategy.
:: Use ZINC for rapid success or if you get stuck, but if you want fun,
use a variety of weapons
:: If your side boosters are powerful enough, you can try a manouvre called
usually QT or Quick Turn, consisting in you quick side boosting while in
the air while you move the camera to the place you came from. This will
make you turn 180º, and is quite useful if you miss a blade slash or in
order to backstab slow ACs (thanks to Eduardo for the information).
:: Rankers can run out of ammo just like you. When they do, they will
use two tactics: If they have AA or blade, they will use it like mad; if they
don’t have, they will run and fly like mad to avoid your attacks.
:: If you can’t hit an enemy with normal weapons because it’s too fast,
try to use missiles.
:: If you kill a Lynx during a mission, he won't appear in Arena, skipping
to the next rival. You will be able to fight him via free mode.
After defeating a ranker, you will get some money (nothing to do with
previous games rewards), design of the next, his emblem, unlock store
parts and maybe SRF memory points or even AC parts. Below is the list
of all arena rankers, both Kallad and Orca. After pilot name, you will find
special rewards, if any.
==Kallad==
1. Ozdalva. Stabilizer CR-LAHIRE-OPT01 & CR-LAHIRE-OPT02. New
parts available at store, mainly TYPE-LAHIRE & TYPE-HOGIRE. 15
SRF units
2. Lylim Wolcott
3. Wynne D Fanchon
4. Roadie. New parts available at store, mainly GAN02-NEW-
SUNSHINE & KIRITUMI
5. Gerald Gendlin. Stabilizer AM-HOGIRE-OPE01 & AM-HOGIRE-
OPE02
6. Stiletto. Arm weapon AXIS
7. Roy Zaaland
8. Wong Shao-Lung
9. Unknown (insert here your pilot’s name of AC4)
10. Harry
11. Dario Empio. New parts available at store, mainly DUSKAROR,
TYPE-JUDITH, TYPE-HOLOFERNES. 10 SRF units.
12. Lisira
13. Jan. New parts available at store, mainly ARGYROS, HYDOR-
ARGYROS & Y09-RIGEL
14. Irbis Ornstein. Stabilizer EKHAZAR-LEGS-1 & EKHAZAR-LEGS-2
15. Shamia Lavie-Lavie
16. Takafumi Arisawa. Stabilizer RAIDEN-HTS1 and RAIDEN-HTS2
17. CUBE. New parts available at store, mainly TYPE-LANCEL,
SAUBEES and SAUTEES
18. May Greenfield
19. Do Su
20. Ay Pool. Stabilizers CLS01-AURORA-A & CLS01-AURORA-B
21. Johnny Kamisori. Arm weapon KB-O004. 5 SRF
22. Canis
23. François Nellis
24. Don Kernel
25. Vys
26. Lei
27. Patch Goodluck
28. Dan Mollo
29. Mss Theresia
30. Champion Champs. Hand weapon GANO01-SS-WD
==Orca==
1. Thermidor. 15 SRF units
2. Neonidas. Back weapon LETHALDOSE
3. Julia Emely
4. Old King
5. Shinkai. FCS BLUEXS, main booster S04-VIRTUE, arm weapon 07-
MOONLIGHT, shoulder weapon 09-FLICKER
6. Vao
7. Maelzel. 5 SRF units
8. Totient
9. PQ
10. Harry
11. Buppa Zu Gan
12. Raster 18
=====================================
5. Unlockables [ACFA05]
:: All normal and hard missions have S-rank
Stabilizer HD-LANCEL-OPT03
Stabilizer HD-LANCEL-OPT04
:: Beat Collared and Orca paths (finish both missions Attack Arteria
Cranium and Defend Arteria Cranium)
Receive all parts avaliable at the store for free (you will have to buy
the ones you unlock after that moment)
- Normal mission mode rewards -
:: Attack on Richland:
New parts avaliable at store (RAIDEN, 061AN and 063AN)
:: Defeat Wonderful body
Arm weapon GAN02-NSS-WBS
:: Rescue GA transport
New parts avaliable at store (GAN01-SUNSHINE-L and GAN01-
SUNSHINE-E=
:: Eliminate Procyon
New parts avaliable at store (LATONA)
:: Defeat Unknown next and No Count
Back weapon INSOLENCE
New parts avaliable at store (LINSTANT, MADNESS, and HILBERT-
G7)
:: Defeat unknown next
Shoulder part EUPHORIA
:: Defeat AF Great Wall
New parts avaliable at store
:: Defend Megalith
10 SRF memory units
:: Defeat White Glint
Arm weapon 051ANNR
Back weapon SALINE05
20 SRF memory units
:: Defend Line Ark
Arm weapon XMG-A030
Back weapon XCG-B050
White Glint’s set of head, arms, core and legs
20 SRF memory units
:: Defeat Red Rum & Starka
Back weapon KAMAL
Arm weapon KIKU
Stabilizer DUSKAROR-HEAD-1
Stabilizer DUSKAROR-HEAD-2
New parts avaliable at store (047AN & 049AN)
:: Defeat unidentified AF
New parts avaliable at store (GAN01-SUNSHINE and GAEN01-
STARLET)
:: Defeat Silent Avalanche
New parts available at store (03-AALIYAH and 04-ALICIA)
New parts available at store (X-SOBRERO) if next mission is Attack on
Arteria Carpals
:: Destroy Arteria Ulna
20 SRF memory units
:: Defend Arteria Carpals
Arm weapon HLR71-VEGA
10 SRF memory units
:: Defend Arteria Carpals
Shoulder part P-MARROW
:: Defend Cradle 03
Arm weapon SAMPAGUITA
Stabilizer SAUBEES-HEAD-1
Stabilizer SAUBEES-HEAD-2
New parts avaliable at store
:: Defeat main Orca forces
Back weapon BIGSIOUX
Back weapon GAN01-SS-GC
:: Destroy Arteria Carpals
Arm weapon MR-R102
Back weapon EC-0307AB
20 SRF memory units
:: Defend anti-satellite cannons
Arm weapon 067ANLR
Back weapon 063ANEM
20 SRF memory units
:: Defeat AF Answerer
Arm weapon ER-O705
Back weapon MP-091
:: Attack on Arteria Cranium
Arm weapon HLR09-BECRUX
Back weapon HLC09-ACRUX
- Hard mission mode rewards -
(You will obtain always 5 SRF memory units for A-E ranking a mission,
and 6 SRF memory units if you S-rank it. If already obtained 5 points
and obtain S-rank in retries, you will obtain just 1 point)
:: Clear former Chinese Shanghai
New parts avaliable at store (Ekhazar, Eklakh and Soluh)
:: Defeat AF Cabracan
10 SRF memory units
:: Defeat Spirit of the Mother will
10 SRF memory units
:: Attack on PA-N51
Back weapon SAPLA
:: Defeat Unknown next and No Count
Back weapon ZINC
:: Defeat Silent Avalanche
Arm weapon FSS-53
:: Defeat AF Great Wall
Back weapon OIGAMI
:: Attack on Arteria Carpals
Arm weapon EG-O703
:: Attack anti-satellite cannons
Shoulder part ADDICT
:: Occupation of Arteria Carpals
Arm weapon RG01-PITONE
- Arena rewards –
:: Ozdalva.
Stabilizer CR-LAHIRE-OPT01
Stabilizer CR-LAHIRE-OPT02
New parts available at store
15 SRF memory units
:: Roadie.
New parts available at store (GAN02-NEW-SUNSHINE & KIRITUMI)
:: Gerald Gendlin
Stabilizer AM-HOGIRE-OPE01
Stabilizer AM-HOGIRE-OPE02
:: Stiletto.
Arm weapon AXIS
:: Dario Empio.
New parts avaliable at store (DUSKAROR, TYPE-JUDITH, TYPE-
HOLOFERNES)
10 SRF memory units
:: Jan.
New parts avaliable at store (ARGYROS, HYDOR-ARGYROS & Y09-
RIGEL)
:: Irbis Ornstein.
Stabilizer EKHAZAR-LEGS-1
Stabilizer EKHAZAR-LEGS-2
:: Takafumi Arisawa.
Stabilizer RAIDEN-HTS1
Stabilizer RAIDEN-HTS2
:: CUBE.
New parts available at store (TYPE-LANCEL, SAUBEES and
SAUTEES)
:: Ay Pool.
Stabilizer CLS01-AURORA-A
Stabilizer CLS01-AURORA-B
:: Johnny Kamisori.
Arm weapon KB-O004
5 SRF memory units
:: Champion Champs.
Hand weapon GANO01-SS-WD
:: Thermidor.
15 SRF memory units
:: Neonidas.
Back weapon LETHALDOSE
:: Shinkai.
FCS BLUEXS
Main booster S04-VIRTUE
Arm weapon 07-MOONLIGHT
Shoulder weapon 09-FLICKER
:: Maelzel.
5 SRF memory units
==========================================
6. Frequently Asked Questions [ACFA06]
Q: From time to time my crosshair becomes some moving bars and I
am not able to lock-on. What can I do?
A: If you hold one of your buttons, normally L3, you change from lock-on
mode to free fire mode. Hold it again to reverse the situation. Change
this button at the key configuration si you don’t hit it by accident.
Q: In the tutorial, they made me learn how to use “assault armor”, some
explosion that kills everything near. I can’t do it at the beginning of the
game. Why?
A: Because in order to use assault armor, you need an overbooster
capable of it.
Q: There are a few NEXT parts on the shop! Is it all they got?
A: There are a lot of parts available at this game, but you must unlock
them. You will unlock at store parts by completing certain missions.
Clients will give you the chance of buying their parts after you have
helped them a little.
Q: What is the maximum FRS units you can have?
A: I think 442
Q: Do I lose FRS units I was given for S-Ranking a mission if I retry and
D-Rank it?
A: No. “Santa Rita Rita Rita lo que se da no se quita”.
Q: I have S-ranked every mission but they won’t give me the special
stabilizers. Why?
A: In order to get those not-so-good stabilizers, you need to have all
normal mode and hard mode missions S-ranked at the same time.
Q: Sometimes I put myself under cover and still receive damage from
enemies. Why?
A: Because a bug in the game regarding solidity of solids. Some things
are solid for you but not for the enemies, and sometimes it is the
opposite.
Q: How do I beat mission “X”?
A: Please read the walkthrough, I have included strategies to beat
almost every mission without being a pro player.
Q: I can one-shoot Sol Dios modified Landcrab in hard mode but not in
normal mode. Why?
A: Nobody knows. In normal mode you must beat AF and 4 spheres. In
hard mode, just 5 spheres. Maybe From Soft thought it was well
balanced that way.
Q: What means the horizontal white bar over enemy NEXTs?
A: Their PA gauge. White bar is full, they have full PA.
Q: I get stuck below AF Cabracan after shooting its caterpillar and I’m
not able to leave. NORMALS keep hitting me through the plates. What
can I do?
A: You can do 3 things. First of all destroy the legs when the plate
opens, being careful of not being below the plate when you do it.
Requires 3 Altair shoots or so. If you can’t help it, you can also destroy
one of the plates by yourself in order to leave, but ammo is such a
precious thing in this mission, and also PA (if you plan on using AA) if
you take into account that you are fired through the walls. The third
thing is taking good cover, and waiting until a plate is destroyed by the
enemies or the allied fire.
Q: I can’t keep White Glint alive at mission “Defend Line Ark”. Is there a
way of doing it?
A: No. He must die like Otsdarva. Look at the video after that mission, it
clearly says White Glint has been destroyed, and Otsdarva is being
eaten by Kojima polluted fishes.
Q: I have A-ranked a mission in hard mode, but I want the 6 points of
SRF instead the 5 they gave me. Is there a way?
A: Yeah. Play it again doing your best and if rank is S, you will be
rewarded with the remaining 1 SRF memory unit.
Q: When I equip two fire weapons for the arms, and fight a fast AC,
sometimes bullets go in opposite directions or weird trajectories. Why?
A: Your FCS has a value called “Parallel processing”. The higher the
value, the better both arms will work together.
Q: Is there any meaning on using two blades?
A: Yes, because of the time of reload of sword beams. Also, you can
chain hit from left arm and then right arm to obtain cool effect and also
great range of destruction.
Q: How do I know if a weapon can be stored as hanger unit or not?
A: It says so in the description of part.
Q: What “value X” does?
A: You can press START button to open available commands from
within a menu. One of the commands uses to be Help. Move cursor to
see description of what your unknown value does.
Q: Can I import my AC4 savegame into ACFA?
A: Yes and no. You can import “schematics” (designs) but not money or
parts acquired in previous game.
Q: When using Kojima missiles while in battle versus another NEXT,
sometimes I fire but they disappear. Why?
A: They disappear, and also 15000 of your AP and all your PA gauge.
The enemy is probably using a machine gun that hits your missile at the
moment they are fired. You take all the damage, and because some
bug you don’t see or hear the explosion.
Q: Why ZINC and not BISMOUTH?
A: Because ZINC usually hits more times than BISMOUTH, and also
explodes on your face less than BISMOUTH.
Q: What is the relationship between Otsdarva and Thermidor?
A: They have the same emblem with different colors, one never appears at the
same place than the other, and Wynne calls Thermidor "Otsdarva" in final
mission, so we must assume they are the same person. Maybe he's got two
personalities. I have no other explanation to why he is defending Arteria
Cranium if his plan depends on taking it.
Q: I can't see "attack anti-satellite cannons" hard mission extra enemy. Why?
A: He is underwater because of a bug. Cancel mission and start again.
Q: What's up with my Kojima fire weapon? it does little damage!
A: You need to charge it. To do so press once while it is armed. A green
glow will start at the cannon. Wait until glow goes fast and violent and
you are ready to fire. Note you don't need to charge Kojima missiles or
Kojima blades, just fire weapons.
============================
January 2009
Acid Losvaize aka Marco code Losvaize
losvaize@gmail.com
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