Mission 12: Weapons of Mass Destruction
This mission is a bit tricky, and somewhat unique as an Ace Combat mission.
I suggest taking a plane with good air to air capabilities, while also
retaining good air to ground as well. Prioritize air to air though. Either
the Su-33 with XMA4 or QAAMs or F-15 with XMA6 will do fine.
You start in the ravine, and you must stay in that ravine to avoid detection.
Make sure to always stay a little ahead of Gaurda 2 so he does not trigger
anything while you are not there to help. The enemy bases you encounter must
be destroyed in less than a minute, and the gunboat in less than 15 seconds,
or it is mission failed. When you approach each base, fly in slow and take out
as many targets in one run as possible, to be sure you destroy them fast
enough.
When you get to the delivery trucks, take them out swiftly, without delay.
Once they are destroyed, a few enemy planes will swarm you, and you will be
told to retreat to the return line. Do exactly that. Do not even stay to fight
, you will soon see why.
Once the air wing bounces you, do your best to hold out against them. Though
its hard, try not to spend the whole time dodging missiles, you need to
shoot down a few yourself. After a while, you will get some much needed
help, so use it wisely. As soon as your buddies comes, call for allied cover,
and you will see enemies drop like flies. Now, this becomes a real battle.
ITs a very intense battle, missiles flying everywhere, lots of radio chatter,
and some alright music to go with it. Have fun with this part, because
it is probably the last bit of real fun you will have with this game.
Now, things get very, very tough.
Mission 13: The Liberation of Gracemeria
This mission is one of the longest ones in the game, and also the hardest.
Prepare yourself for a lot of fighting, and a lot of hard fighting.
Take a plane that has good characteristics and a wide variety of weapons.
The F-15 is probably one of the best for this mission, in the long run.
I suggest starting with air to ground loadouts, and start on the western side
of the map, closest to the airfield.
I highly suggest taking the airfield. ITs doesnt matter when, but if you
take it first things are much easier for other operations. Once you take it,
reload and go assist the Marigold in securing the harbor. The ESM that the
fleets ships can provide you later on will come in very handy.
After you take the airfield and harbor, switch loadouts to air to air and
help take out the Jammer aircraft and ESM support craft. You will
need the support of your other air squadrons later on, so helping them
here is critical.
After the mission update, you find out you get to fight Pasternak. He and his
CFA-44 are a *** to fight, even worse than all of Strigon team,
so make sure you are ready with air to air and
a good amout of allied support ready.
Firstly, do not even heed the drones. Just let them be. Unless you want
a higher score, they are of little use to you to shoot down. You will need
to keep a very close eye on your radar and watch for the faint read target
that is Pasternak on it, so you can find him more quickly. He flies fast
and swift in a stealth plane, so finding him isnt too fun. Once any
opportunity presents itself to shoot him, take it, and just unload all
you got on him. You should surely score a few hits. Repeat until he is dead,
and its mission complete.
Make sure to utilize all your weapons in this battle, including machine guns.
Everything will do good damage, as long as you know how to us them.
I also notied that when he stops to send out more drones, he is vulnerable,
nearly standing still in midair. So shooting down a few drones has its plus
side, but only if you can catch him off guard.
Mission 14: Gracemeria Patrol
I suggest buying the F-22 with XMA6 for this mission. You will need a lot
of missiles...
You start out with a simple objective, I need not explain it here. Just watch
the pretty lights show and listen to Garuda 2. Once you finish your patrol,
do not head to base, fly at full speed to the northeast district of
Gracemeria.
Once the first wave appears, take it out promptly. Get ready for many more...
They will laucnh waves at you from the same direction but the missiles will all
go to different areas. Fly at full speed at all times eo ensure you get to
all of them in time. Part way through, you will be told that ground forces
are under attack. I suggest ignoring this for now, the missiles are a much
bigger threat.
Seven waves will come at you in all, each getting harder in that there are more
and they spread out more. You must be flying fast at almost all times to
get to all of them in time. Use allied cover to help against the enemy
fighters, and on occasion allied attack to help with a group of cruise
missiles.
Mission 15: Chandelier
Welcome to the final mission. Its no cakewalk though, so dont get too happy.
Take a plane with good everything, and especially a good air to ground weapon.
You start the mission heading towards a target that you have no real idea
of how to destroy. But dont worry, that anoyying lady from the cutscenes
comes to the rescue. Three cheers...
You now have to take out all the cooling units...I think there are about
12-14 of them. Maybe more. Plus, you got a ton of good enemy aircraft on your
tail, including the entire Strigon team....AGAIN!
Most people will, by this point, not want to deal with the Strigons at all,
and thats ok. I didnt either. So, if you have a fast plane, thats good.
Start flying at near top speed around the Chandelier, making sweeps past
each cooling unit and taking them out. Flying fast will keep the Strigons off
your tail for you allies to hopefully pick off, slowly but surely. After a
while of this, all the main cooling units should be destroyed.
NOTE!!!!: While taking out these cooling units, the Chandelier will be firing
its ordinance at Gracemeria. If it fires to many missiles, THE MISSION WILL
FAIL! If you are going slow with the cooling units, be sure to periodically
fly in just under the barrel of the Chandelier and take out missiles as they
are delivered for loading.
Once you take out the main cooling units, you will discover that there is a
backup one. Fun eh? Well, Garuda 2, your awesome wingman, takes a hit for ya,
and recons the last cooling units location for ya, but, to your dismay,
will be shot down. A sad part of the story, yes, but hey, its war.
Now its time to make Garuda 2's sacrifice worth something.
Make sure all those AA guns under the barrel are taken out, they are way
too deadly to fly into, even with full hull integrity. Fly in low and slow,
to avoid hitting the walls and make sure to get a good shot at the cooling
unit. When it is blown up, KEEP FLYING STRAIGHT!!! The smoke obscures the exit,
making you think you should maybe pull up. DONT! Just fly right through the
debris at a midlevel height of the tunnel, and slowly fly out.
Now, you are not done. You must now fly into the barrel of the chandelier
and take out its core. You must do this rather quickly or the big railgun
will fire when you are flying in it. Not a very fun way to go out...
Make sure to get there fast, but fly slowly in. It gets very cramped in there,
and it requires immense concentration to fly into that tiny space.
Once you blow up the core though, you will not have to worry about
flying out. A cutscene does that for you.
Congrats! You have finished the game. Enjoy the ending!
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Article 5 Medal Specific Mission playthroughs
*************************************************
-----------------------------
5.1: Sharpshooter
-----------------------------
BEGINNING NOTE: To obtain this medal, you must play an SP NEW GAME and play
on at least NORMAL difficulty. Will not unlock on easy mode.
Sharpshooter is a medal that will take you quite some time to get; you can
use guns, and only guns, throughout the whole campaign. For those who
have gone through already, this may seem like a daunting task. However, it is
not as hard as you may think. As long as you play consistantly, you will
easily get this medal.
Now, You cant use any missiles or SP weapons for this medal; with the exception
of one, which is the ECMP, equipped on the Tornado and CFA-44. While both
have access to it, I suggest you use the Tornado for this one; the CFA-44 's
maneuverability makes it a tough plane to use for this medal. This part of
the guide will be based around using the Tornado, not the CFA-44.
The first missions (1-8) should be fairly easy to beat with guns only, in terms
of difficulty. It will just be a time consuming matter.
-----------------------------
5.2: Legendary Ace
-----------------------------
BEGINNING NOTE: To obtain this medal, you must play an SP NEW GAME and play
on at least NORMAL difficulty. Will not unlock on easy mode.
This one it quite a tough one to obtain. You cant take a single hit throughout
the entire campaign. So playing it safe is priority here.
The first few missions are fairly straightforward; I got through the first
4 only getting shot at twice, and that of course, was easily evaded. After
mission 5 things get a bit heated. Most of these are ground attack missions,
so use a good SP weapon that has some range for killing ground targets.
You do not want to get close to those AA guns. They really don't damage you
much, but even the slightest bit of damage ruins this for you. If you ever
find yourself having to go up against AA guns or flak, send in allies to take
them out first so its safer when you fly in. Flying at higher speeds most of
the time helps when in air to air combat. This way missiles should never
hit you and nobody will get in gun range of you.
Mission 9 is tricky. I suggest you take out at least 1 ESM (Kottos) craft
before the Strigon team takes off, so the Strigons have a harder time killing
you. Also, when the Strigons do take off, camp their runway and shoot them as
they take off. You can destory a few and damage the rest this way, so it
becomes easy pickings for your allies.
Take out all Kottos and Gyges before touching Aigaion. Proceed with caution
when you go for the Aigaion's AA guns, and use Allied support on the engines.
Whever you get close to the engines, a barrage of missiles is more likely to
hit you. Take out the cockpit as fast as you can after it appears to avoid
the Nimbus missiles. After that, you're done.
Missions 13 and 15 are also a bit tricky. Go for the easier operations in 13.
I suggest A, D, E and F. These are the less confrontational air to air and air
to ground operations, so you should do fine.
PAsternak is the real problem. He can be a tough one for sure. When you know he
is coming, get to high speed quickly. I highly recommend that you have complete
operation D so the ships in the harbor will provide you with 3 ESM over the
area of the main battle. Their support is quite valueable.
If you are using any aircraft other than the CFA, I suggest using just regular
missiles to shoot him down. It may seem hard, but he stalls quite often when
launching drones, so take advantage of this. If you just cannot seem to get a
good shot off at him, find him and order a full out allied and wingman attack
on him, they might hit him a few times but more importantly give you an easier
way to track Pasternak and take him out yourself. With all your allies on him,
Pasternak will be evading like crazy and should stall eventually, giving you
the perfect shot.
Mission 15 requires nearly constant full speed. You need to take out as many
AA guns as you can at first, as those are the most dangerous enemy here.
As long as you stay at full speed, missiles shouldn't be a huge problem.
Never take a risk with those AA guns; you may think you can get through those
last 2 and take out a cooling unit, but odds are you wont. They do get more
accurate as you ge closer, and usually more aggressive.
(Note: I found a glitch where some Estovakian ships somehow get lodged into and
under the Chandelier, and you cannot take them out. However, they can shoot you
so be careful of this if you encounter it.)
In the second phase of the mission, make sure all the AA guns are taken out at
the entrance before entering. Also keep in mind that there are 2 aa guns
in the actual tunnel itself, and can only be destroyed by flying in there.
Take them out with missiles, if you can, before getting the last cooling unit.
The last phase is easy, there should be little to no AA guns or enemies left
to hurt you, so just fly into the core and take it out to win.
-----------------------------
5.3: Quicksilver
-----------------------------
BEGINNING NOTE: To obtain this medal, you must play an SP NEW GAME and play
on at least NORMAL difficulty. Will not unlock on easy mode.
I suggest using the faster, agile, and more powerful planes for this one.
These include the F-22, Su-33, Su-47, A-10 and CFA-44 for all missions.
You can change up planes each mission as you please, to suit that missions
needs.
Below are the suggested target clear times for each mission. Some may seem
impossible but they are really not that hard; just play consistantly. You
do not need to go through each mission at top speed. You need to destroy
targets and ONLY targets in each mission to ensure the fastest completion
time. If you aim for the times I have below, you can finish in about 2 hours.
The faster you clear the early missions, the more time you give yourself
on some of the harder missions in the end. If you ever go over the max
time limit posted below for any mission, restart it, unless you really think
you can do extremely well on a future one. ITs good to save breathing room for
the last few missions, which can be a pain for time.
Clear times ( Mission # - target clear time in minutes)
1-5 min
2-5 min
3-3 min
4-6 min
5-10 min
6-8 min
7-10 min
8-10 min
9-8 min
10-8 min
11-8 min
12-7 min
13-10 min
14-15 min
15-10 min
---------------------------------
5.4: Attacker, Multirole, Fighter
---------------------------------
BEGINNING NOTE: To obtain this medal, you must play an SP NEW GAME and play
on at least NORMAL difficulty. Will not unlock on easy mode.
See the section about the Sharpshooter medal for this; I highly recommend
using the Tornado ECMP combo throughout the whole game, so you get Sharpshooter
and the Attacker medal.
Multirole and Fighter are much easier to obtain. For the multirole, I recommend
either the Rafale or F-15. Both are good, it really just comes down to personal
preference. However, I used the Rafale since it has more stability and
maneuverability than the F-15.
The Fighter medal is even simpler. If you have the CFA-44, then I am sure
you will use that. If you want more of a challenge though, use the Su-33
or even the F-16. Over half the planes in this game are Fighters, so this one
is almost pure personal preference.
-----------------------------
5.5: S Rankings
-----------------------------
S rankings can be tricky on some missions. Most are quite easy, as you just
blow up as much as humanly possible. Others are hard though, simply due to
the way the game ranks you on each mission.
You must take into account this: Your total score for a level is determined
by the average score you obtain on all operations and the ending operation(s).
This means your score from whatever operations you finished, say A & C, is
averaged with the score from the mission final objective for your total score.
You must attain an S on most of the operations, and at least an A or b on
one to get a TOTAL ranking that gives you the S. This is true for most
missions. So knowing about that; keep in mind that it takes into account your
scores for started operations. Dont start an operation that you will not
be able to finish, or else your score may get messed up.
So, the basic idea of an S ranking is just blowing up everything you can in
each completable operation. Really isnt anything difficult about it, except
the fact that it may be time consuming, especially on the harder difficulties.
There are a couple missions that are trouble points. Here they are.
Mission 9: Aigaion- Sometimes, this one can be tricky to get an S on.To ensure
you get the S, make sure to destroy ALL the KC-10 Tankers in the beginning.
They should give you a good score boost. Also make sure to kill all
non-designated TGTs on enemy craft; these include some AA guns and Flak Guns.
Also, on Expert or Ace, take out FENIKS, he gives you a couple thousand
points. Do all this, and the main targets, and you will get an S.
Mission 13: Liberation of Gracemeria - Perhaps the toughest of all.
The first part is not whats gets people, its the fight with Pasternak.
Just make sure to get perfect S rankings on all 4 Operations you choose.
Whichever ones you choose are up to you, it makes no difference.
When you fight PAsternak, you need to shoot down a significant amount of drones
to get an S on this part of the mission. If you feel like you did very well on
attaining S on the operations, shoot down at least 20 drones. If you felt you
did so-so, or borderline, then shoot down no less than 30 drones. IF you
feel even less confident, well just restart, because you need the S
in the operations. This is the missions that gets people angry, but trust me,
if you play it consistantly you will get an S for sure.
-----------------------------
5.6: Misc
-----------------------------
Special Kill Medals: These are just easily gained over time. Play the campaign
about 3 times through and you should have them, or be close to having them.
The machine gun medals are best done when going for the Sharpshooter medal.
NOTE that the kills for guns only apply to AIRCRAFT, not ground targets.
To get the Guardian Medal, just do not let Garuda 2 get hit throughout the
campaign. Beware as you can accidentally damage him as well,
if he gets too close.
Formally Hader102
Check out my AC6 FAQ here on this site
