Your first mission is quite similar to the first mission in Archimedean Dynasty. Once again, El Topo's given you a old clunker of a ship and sent you out to blow up the scrap floating outside his asylum. This mission should be a cakewalk, all but one of your targets is stationary and won't shoot back. There is one slightly tricky part where you have to protect a weak target from being destroyed, or else your mission fails. The game is full of these and some of them can be quite frustrating, so you might as well get used to them.
Tips:
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Go to the nav point and blow up all the biont scrap
Pretty straightforward. After you've blown up the larger biont parts, the remaining pieces may be tough to find. Trying driving off a short distance to get a different perspective, and press your targetting button repeatedly until you lock onto some scrap. You can also crank the detail setting on your radar all the way up to full to see the red dots representing the scrap pieces. If you're still having trouble spotting the scrap you might want to turn up the brightness on your monitor. A cutscene giving you a new mission objective will show after you've destroyed all the scrap.
Mission Objective: Escort the transport through the debris field
This part can be annoying if you're still getting familiar with the game's control scheme. The transport barely has any health, so if it runs into more than a few pieces of scrap it'll blow up and you'll fail the mission. The transport moves slowly in a straight line, so try facing the transport's side, strafing just a little bit ahead of it and blow up all the scrap in its path. Things get a little tricky when a biont scout shows up, as it will start shooting at the transport. Shoot the scout a few times to get it to attack you instead of the transport, but don't concentrate too much on the scout lest you allow some scrap parts to slip by you and collide with the transport. The biont's attack shouldn't do much damage to you, so you can afford to ignore it. Once the transport's path is clear of scrap for a few seconds, go ahead and blow up the scout (it should only take a few seconds, as the biont has less than 1 shield energy bar) before going back to clearing the debris.
Your first optional mission pits you in a one-on-one duel against a Neopolis terror-tourist (basically a yuppie gone bad). As duels go, this one's a cakewalk since your opponent is too drive to drunk. Basically, he'll just sit in place and rotate to shoot at you.
Tips:
- Don't use torpedos during optional missions if you plan to make a profit from them. Most are fairly simple/straightforward, but pay you a corrispondingly low amount of credits for your work. Torpedos are so expensive they should generally be saved for situations in plot- required missions where you'd have trouble progressing otherwise.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Defeat the Terror Tourist Randis Albion
This is a straight-out duel between you and the otaku Terror-Tourist. The Tourist is driving a Federation Bomber, a tough ship with powerful weapons and a large amount of shield energy. Fortunately for you, your enemy is driving drunk and thus has problems manuevering and aimming his weapons. Just circle strafe around him while pounding him with your weapons, and despite his tough shields and strong guns he should blow up before you do. The Federation Bomber's armament consists of a Doom Mortar and a couple of plasma turrets. The D. Mortar's a powerful gun, but its projectiles are relatively slow moving and you should be able to avoid them by constantly strafing. The plasma shots are tougher to dodge, but do only minor damage. If you're having trouble against the Tourist, you can always try taking cover behind the surrounding buildings. Also, if you circle him quicker than he can rotate, you can attack him from his rear, his top, or his bottom where his weapons have difficulty aiming.
This is your first fight against multiple opponents, as you fight a few Biont scouts in the midst of a field of Biont debris. The Bionts are easy opponents, and unlike the first mission you won't have to worry too much about protecting allied targets.
Tips:
- The Bionts are surprisingly easy opponents. They've got low health, they don't move around all that much, don't shoot very fast, and their green plasma shots don't do much damage to you either. The only disadvantage you have while fighting Bionts is that their thin wedge shape (suspiciously similar to the Millenium Falcon's) makes them difficult to hit when you're facing them head-on, and even this is counteracted by their slow speed.
- Like many future missions, this mission doesn't end automatically. Instead a Mission Accomplished message will appear on your HUD. When this happens, press ESC and select Activate Dipol to end the mission. You can stick around and kill more enemies, but you won't be rewarded for doing so.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Escort the Catapillar through the debris field
Harper and Bonham will circle around overhead, while Sally orders you to escort the Catapillar through the debris field. Follow the Catapillar, and Sally will soon warn you that one of the Biont scrap parts is starting to come alive. The Biont scout that begins to emerge from the debris field will take a few seconds to power up, but will begin attacking the Catapillar once it does. As in Asylum, the Biont is slow moving and severely weakened, so destroying it shouldn't be too difficult. Further along the Catapillar's route you'll encounter another Biont scout, followed by a pair of Bionts after that, but they shouldn't be a problem. To make things even easier Sally or your wingmates will warn you each time before the Bionts attack.
Mission Objective: Protect the Catapillars from the attacking Bionts
Once the Catapillar reaches its destination, a cutscene will play showing a group of Catapillars under attack from three Biont scouts. Your wingmates will enter the fray and should make quick work of the badly weakened Bionts, but you can chip in if you want to. After the fight is over you'll be given the opportunity to stick around and search the debris field for more Bionts, but you don't have to. Just hit ESC as soon as the Mission Accomplished message appears and activate your dipol to finish the mission.
Your first mission against normal human enemies pits you against pro- environmental, anti-ELF activists. The Tornado Zone scouts you fight in this mission have full shield energy and systems,unlike the Bionts, but use weaker weapons and are still pretty slow. Overall, another easy and relaxing mission, especially with the help from your two wingmates.
Tips:
- If you took the optional missions and haven't blown your dough on torpedos, you should have enough credits to purchase a better ship and bigger guns by now. I recommend buying an Avenger scout and equipping it with a Vendetta II gun. The Vendetta's superior rate of fire should make the Tornado Zone scouts you face in this mission much easier.
- Don't be afraid of getting into a war of attrition with an enemy TZ scout. In fact, the easiest way to dispose of them is to face them head-to-head and exchange gunfire. Provided you're got a Vendetta 2 gun and a better ship than the Toiler, you should be able to destroy them without taking much damage in return (especially if you aim for their glowing red cockpit). This tactic works great against Zoner and even Crawler scouts, but isn't much use against the fast moving Federation scouts or Schax. It's also suicide to try it against bombers, frigates, or fully functional Bionts.
- To stop an enemy from attacking something you're supposed to protect, shoot them a couple of times and they'll go after you instead. Be sure to actually hit them with your shots for this to work. You'll have to use this technique many, many times throughout the game.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Pursue the Eco-terrorists
As the mission begins, a pair of Tornado Zone scouts piloted by hostile environmental activists will stop attacking the ELF-Knot and fleet from you and your wings. The TZ scouts are weakest enemies you'll face in the game, and shouldn't be a problem for you to defeat. Chase them down and destroy them to trigger the next objective.
Mission Objective: Protect the ELF-Station
Proceed to the new nav point, and destroy all the Tornado Zone scouts around the ELF-Station. Although you're supposed to protect the station, it has a large amount of shield energy and thus the TZ scouts shouldn't be able to destroy it with their Vendetta guns. Your two wingmates are a big help against the scouts, and in fact you can let them do most of the work. Once all enemy scouts are gone, Sally will inform you the ELF-Knot is once again under attack.
Mission Objective: Protect the ELF-Knot
Follow the new nav point back to the ELF-Knot, and destroy the few TZ scouts there. The Knot has less shield energy than the station itself, but is still difficult for the enemy ships to destroy. Win the mission by destroying all the enemy scouts.
This optional battle against Tornado Zone scouts is somewhat more hectic than the previous one, due to the fact you'll be facing considerably more enemies and that you also have to protect a vulnerable ship that can actually get destroyed. You also only have one wingmate to help you.
Tips:
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Prevent pirates from escaping with cargo
Pirates driving Tornado Zone scouts will emerge from the Jumpship wreckage carrying either passenger capsules or cargo crates. El Topo and Picollini want you to protect the passengers, while Entrox wants you to rescue the cargo. Don't concern yourself too much, it really doesn't matter what you do. Just camp near the hole in the jumpship and blow up the pirates that emerge until a cutscene plays giving you your next mission objective.
Mission Objective: Protect the transport while it evacuates the passengers
A transport will dock with the Jumpship to rescue passengers, and will immedietely come under fire from several pirates that warp into the area. To prevent the pirates from destroying the transport and causing you to fail the mission, shoot each of them a couple of times so that they stop shooting the transport and instead go after you. Be sure the transport isn't being fired upon before you start destroying your attackers. New raider ships will gradually warp into the area, but you should be able to destroy them quicker than they show up. After enough time passes a cutscene will play showing the transport undocking from the jumpship and preparing to dipol out of the area. Several more enemy scouts will appear and open fire on the transport as soon as this occurs. Repeat the tactics you used against the first wave of raiders. You win the mission if the transport survives long enough to warp out.
This is the last mission of the first chapter, and your final battle against the Bionts (at least until near the end of the game). As before the Biont scouts are scrap with damaged systems and barely any shield energy, but this mission ups the odds a notch by pitting you in a "boss" fight against a tougher opponent... the mighty Biont bomber. Don't worry, though, just like the Biont scouts the bomber is considerably less difficult than you might remember from Archimedean Dynasty.
Tips:
- The Bionts aren't any stronger in this mission, but since you'll be facing several of them at once it's a good idea to avoid getting swarmed. Don't be afraid to hide behind Lisa and let her do all the work if you start taking lots of damage.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Follow and defeat the Bionts scouts
Go ahead and follow the nav point. You should quickly run into a few biont scouts, but oddly enough they ignore you and start traveling further into the magma field. Go ahead and blow them up now while they're oblivious to your presence. When you reach the nav point Bonham will recognize the wreckage as the remains of a Biont battleship (cue ominous music). The Biont scouts will now start attacking you, and several more Bionts will emerge from the wreckage to assist them. With Lisa's help, however, you should be able to destroy them all without suffering too much damage.
After you've destroyed all the scouts, Sally will inform you that she detects the presence of a larger Biontic signature... a Biont bomber. Sure enough, one warps right in and opens fire on you.
Mission Objective: Defeat the Biont bomber
If you played Archimedean Dynasty and made it through to the finale, you'll probably remember the Biont bomber was the meanest mother in the valley, wielding devestating rapid fire weapons and capable of withstanding enormous amounts of damage. Five years later and Human weapons technology has made leaps and bounds ahead while the Bionts have stagnated as barely functional pieces of junk floating in scrapyards. The Biont Bomber is still a strong opponent, but nowhere near the behemoths they were five years ago. The Bomber's surprisingly average armament consists of three Plasma I turrets, one on the tip of each of the three metal tentacles that stick out of the vessel's front. The Bomber cannot fire from its sides or back, and it is from there you should attack it. The Bomber only has half of its shields active, but it can still absorb a decent amount of damage. it's also accompanied by a couple of Biont scouts, but you can let Lisa deal with them while you focus on the Bomber.
You win the mission as soon as the Bomber is destroyed, but a whole bunch of Bionts will also start warping into the area at the same time. You COULD stick around and see if you're man enough to take down three bombers and more than a dozen scouts, but there's really no point in doing so. Just activate your dipol and get out of there.
======================================================================= SABOTAGE OF TURBINES:
Overview:
Despite what the briefing tells you, this optional mission is actually really short. There are only three enemy ships, and all you have to do is destroy one of them. Of course, two of the enemy ships are big ones (a transport and a bomber), so it's a good idea to upgrade before going into the mission.
Tips:
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Track down the power stealing Old Entropol ships
Just follow the nav points through the turbine field. After reaching the fourth nav point you should come into contact with the enemy Transport.
Mission Objective: Destroy the Old Entropol Transport Kande
The Kande is armed with Vendetta turrets and protected by both an Entropol scout and a bomber piloted by Chrissi. Ignore the escorting ships and get behind the transport where its turrets can't reach. Just blast the transport from behind until it explodes, while moving back and forth to avoid the attacks from the other enemy ships. Once the transport's destroyed, your mission ends in success.
This is probably the first truely challenging mission you'll face. It's long, divided into several parts, and since you aren't yet able to recharge your shields during a mission you'll have to take pains to avoid getting damaged if you want to last til the very end. The good news is that you don't actually have to destroy any of your enemies, in fact towards the end where all the heavy fighting is your best survival strategy is to run away from anything that's shooting at you.
Tips:
- Buy a silator for this mission if you haven't got one already. This attachment mutes your engines and thus makes the "stealth" part of the mission much easier.
- I found the Vendetta gattling preferable to the Plasma I gun due to its faster projectiles and rapid rate of fire, even though each individual projectile didn't do as much damage as a Plasma shot. You may feel differently, however.
- The Hitman grenade launcher is a good weapon for use against Entropol scouts, as it doesn't use ammo and only takes 3 shots to bring one down. The weapon's slow rate of fire makes it impratical when you're facing multiple enemies, however.
You'll start out near the data broadcaster and its surrounding buildings, containing many turrets including a nasty missile launcher. If you want to save your shields for later, go ahead and hide outside of the turrets' line of fire and let your wingmates take care of them for you. When the shooting finally stops come out and blow up the six communication dishes on top of the two broadcaster building to trigger a cutscene giving you your next objective.
The idea is to shut off your engines and let the canyon's strong current take you undetected past the turrets. However if you've got a silator (and you really should, at least for this mission), you don't need to shut your engines off while drifting in the stream through the canyon. Just don't thrust for more than a second or so to avoid being detected by the turrets. This is super useful since you can tap the strafing keys to nudge you ship around the mines (you'll need all your health for the next part of the mission). Once you reach the generator, blow up all three relays to shut down Entropol's defense system (strafe like crazy since the turrets will see you as soon as you start shooting). A cutscene will automatically take you past the turret defense and inside Gotham.
Mission Objective: Escort DeGrange to the Statue of Liberty
Apparently you only shut down the outer turrets, since the ones around Gotham City and the Statue seem to be working just fine. Pico and Harper will leave for another part of the battlefield, leaving you alone with DeGrange. Follow DeGrange and shoot all the turrets along the way a couple of times to get them to target you instead of her (you fail if she dies). You don't need to destroy the turrets, just get their attention with a couple of shots (You'll probably want to destroy the annoying missile launcher turret halfway through, however). Once she reaches the Statue DeGrange and her ship will go inside, leaving you to hold out against Van Der Waal's Entropol forces.
Mission Objective: Hold position until DeGrange returns
Once DeGrange disappears into the Statue of Liberty, it's just you against the Entropol scouts and turrets. Your only goal is to stay alive here. At first you'll only have to deal with two scouts and the two turrets at the base of the statue, but after a minute or so an Entropol Bomber accompanied by several more scouts will swim into your area and start attacking. Destroy whatever enemies you can, but if you start running low on shields just run away from your enemies using the buildings as cover until DeGrange is ready to leave with the code books. Eventually a cutscene will play of DeGrange leaving the Statue and dipoling out of the area, while Kristina Lloyd will warp in with her Cape Fear transport/frigate and several more Entropol scouts. This enemy force is far too large for you to face by yourself, so you should activate your dipol to end the mission as soon as the game lets you.
A cakewalk of an optional mission that takes place in a single, small area and pits you against several weak Tornado Zone scouts. True, you have to protect a group of vulnerable targets, but the amount of enemies isn't so large that your clients are ever in any real danger. You even get a wingmate to help you out.
Tips:
- Once again I recommend the Vendetta gattling over the Plasma I gun, but your milage may vary.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Protect the Catapillars and the Transport from raiders
After some radio chatter, several Tornado Zone scouts will warp into the area and start attacking the Catapillars. With the help of your wingmate destroying the scouts should be a breeze, but be sure to keep your eyes out for Zoners attacking the Catapillars or the frigate. The Zoners' Vendetta guns shouldn't pose much of a threat to the ship and trucks you're protecting, but you should make sure they don't take too much damage anyway.
This mission pits you in a series of battles against tough ships, including a bomber, a transport, and Lloyd's modified scout. However with the help of all four of your wingmates, this mission should be fairly easy. There is an instant fail condition, but you'd have to be asleep at the keyboard for it to occur.
Tips:
- By now you should be able to afford the best ship and equipment available to you, assuming you've taken all the optional missions.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Destroy the Entropol scouts
You'll face several Entropol scouts, but will receive alot of help from your four wingmen. Destroy them all to trigger a cutscene and the next mission objective.
Mission Objective: Stop the bomber from blowing up the Methane Hydrate
The Entropol bomber's covered with deadly turrets, but its underbelly is relatively unprotected, with only a single turret that has difficulty swiveling downward. Stay below the bomber on its tail end and shoot upwards at it. The bomber is easier than it normally would be since its focused on reaching its objective and will not attempt to dodge your fire or rotate to attack you with its forward mounted Doom Mortar. Ignore the two scouts escorting the bomber, your wingmates should take care of them just fine. There is a time limit here, but it's quite generous and you should generally be able to blow the bomber before it reaches the Methane Hydrate plant. After the bomber is destroyed Lloyd will attempt to destroy another Methane Hydrate field using her own Cape Fear transport/frigate.
Mission Objective: Stop the Cape Fear from blowing up the Methane Hydrate
Follow the nav points until the Cape Fear and its protective convoy of five Entropol scouts comes into view. Your wingmen should distract the scouts for you, so ignore them and fly right up to the Cape Fear's unprotected rear and blast away with your weapon of choice while strafing back and forth to avoid any shots from the scouts. After the Cape Fear blows, Lloyd's personal modified Entropol scout will emerge from the wreckage to battle you.
Mission Objective: Defeat Kristina Lloyd
Lloyd's scout can be easily spotted by its black hull and glowing red viewport. Lloyd's the fastest, most manueverable opponent you've faced yet, and she fires her plasma shots quickly and with incredible accuracy. However this fight shouldn't be too hard as you only need to drop her shield energy a little. After losing a couple of bars of shield energy, Lloyd will radio a parting insult to you before dipoling out of the area, ending the mission.
This is the final level of the EnTrOx chapter, and quite fittingly throws quite a lot of stuff at you. Not only will you have to take out 3 bombers while protecting vulnerable structures without any wingmate backup, but at the very end you'll be thrust into a very tough dogfight/boss battle against Kristina "Jigsaw Face" Lloyd.
Tips:
- If you're willing to spend the money, Big Bang torpedos can be pretty helpful here against the heavier enemies. You really should bring at least one to destroy Lloyd with, as she's an incredibly tough enemy.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Destroy the Entropol scouts
By now blowing up Entropol scouts should be a cakewalk, especially with Harper's help, so unless you're completely incompetant you should be able to destroy the three Entropol scouts before they blow up the turbine.
Mission Objective: Destroy the 3 Entropol bombers before they blow up 3 turbines
Ignore the Old Entropol scouts, Sergei Chang's New Entropol police scouts will attack some of them, and you should be able to outmanuever the rest. Follow Sally's nav arrows to find the bombers. As in the previous mission, the Entropol bombers are most vulnerable from below. However in this mission you're dealing with a fairly unforgiving time limit, as the bombers need to be destroyed before they can blow up more than two turbines. If you use your regular weapons you'll probably manage the task within the time limit, but barely (losing one or two turbines in the process). If you're willing to spare the cash, you can use big bangs to take out the bombers really quick. If you use a big bang on each of the first two bombers you can actually destroy them before they can blow up a single turbine. Also, bombers will stop attacking the turbines and start attacking you as soon as you start shooting them, so you can distract the third bomber while wittling away at its shields with conventional guns.
Once you destroy the last bomber, Lloyd with warp in driving her modified Entropol scout for the big boss fight.
Mission Objective: Defeat Kristina Lloyd once and for all
Lloyd is, to put it simply, really really hard. She's fast, incredibly manueverable, shoots rapidly, has great aim, and also has a ton of shield energy. If you've tried dueling in the Instant Fight, you have a pretty good idea of how tough and disorienting a one-on-one dogfight can be in this game, with the opponent zooming around in every direction. To make matters worse, you can't repair your shields this early on in the game, so you won't be able to recharge your shields if you really take a pounding. Lloyd moves too fast for you to lead your shots if you use the slow moving Plasma Gun or Hitman, so the Vendetta Gattling is probably the best weapon for this fight since it hits almost instantly. It's also a good idea to fight Lloyd at medium to long range since she'll zip around a lot less than if you get close to her. Even so, you'll have to be an incredible dogfighter to defeat her.
For those of you who aren't flight-sim aces or who are playing with a mouse instead of a joystick, there is an easier way to beat Lloyd. Just drive right up to her and blast her with a big bang when she charges at you and the two of you crash face-to-face. It's a cheap tactic, but then again she's a cheap opponent. If you don't have a big bang or miss with the one you do have, another way to defeat Lloyd is to lure her into one of the spinning turbine blades. The side which doesn't spit out air bubbles has a suction effect, and sometimes Lloyd will be caught in it if you keep the turbine between you and her as long as she's on the suction end.
After Lloyd is dead you can breath a sign of relief. This will be the last dogfight-style "boss" battle you'll ever have to face, unless of course you play the Instant Fight and go up against Freeman, the fightclub, or the Unknown Crawler.
The hardest part of this optional mission is finding the Seismobomb (it's inside the city, don't waste hours searching the oceanbed for it). After that, you'll have a fairly simple fight against three enemy scouts (you do have to protect a couple of transports, but you won't fail instantly if one of them is destroyed, and the enemies will usually forget about attacking the transports as soon as you start shooting them).
Tips:
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Locate the Seismobomb
The Seismobomb you're looking for is a treasure-chest shaped object inside the city, within a reddish area behind a silo with a large spinning fan on top. You'll have to actually fly your craft between the buildings to find it. Once you reach the Seismobomb, Sally will take care of it from there in a cutscene, after which you'll be sent to deal with the bomb makers themselves.
Mission Objective: Defeat the Terror Tourists
The three terror tourists are driving Federation scouts, and unlike the drunken architectural student from before they'll actually use the full abilities of their crafts. The Federation scouts are the most annoyingly quick and manueverable ships you've faced yet, and like the Bionts their thin wedge-shape makes them difficult to hit. To top it off you're also supposed to protect the transports they're attacking. First of all, shoot each of the terror tourists a couple of times to get them to attack you rather than the transports, then proceed to shoot it out with them as best as you can. Their leader Druid is equipped with a plasma gun, while the other two sport Vendetta guns. Because the Federation scouts move quickly and rarely stay still, this fight can take a while as your enemies can be difficult to hit. After taking enough damage each ship will warp out of the area. Although King says he'll give you a bonus for ever enemy you kill, whether or not the enemy ships escape or are destroyed actually has no effect on your payment after the mission, so don't worry to much about it.
This mission ties-in with the original Archimedean Dynasty, in which you defeated Boris Santiago, the previous Warlord of the Tornado Zone. The last of Santiago's followers are holed up in a cluster of habitats in the Tornado Zone canyons, and the new Warlord Iwan King wants your help in flushing them out. This level is divided into two parts: the first being an easy battle against defense turrets, the second being a less easy but still not all that difficult shootout where you need to protect an allied transport from many hostile TZ scouts for several minutes. Battling Santiago's forces is much easier than the initial fight against Van Der Waal's Entropol in Code Books, so if you managed to complete that mission you shouldn't have any trouble with this one.
Tips:
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Disable the Turret defenses around Santiago's habitat area
The stronghold of Santiago's followers consists of several habitat buildings, each one protected by a pair of turret guns powered by a blue, box-shaped power-relay. Destroying the turrets one by one is impractical, instead you should seek out and destroy the relays thus shutting down the two turrets connected to that relay. While you and your wingmates are engaging the turrets, a couple of hostile Tornado Zone scouts will be floating through the area, but they won't engage you directly unless you approach them. As soon as all the turrets have been destroyed or disabled, Sally will inform you that Iwan King is sending a transport into the area to round up Santiago's supporters from the habitats.
Mission Objective: Protect the transport from Santiago's scouts
As soon as the transport enters the area, several Tornado Zone scouts piloted by Santiago's men will emerge and start shooting at the transport. They're armed only with weak Vendetta guns, but the transport starts out at only 50% shield energy and thus it is quite possible for it to be destroyed. To prevent this, you need to find all the hostile scouts and hit each of them with a few shots to get them to start chasing you. The scouts attack from long range and it can be difficult to see them through the fog of war, so you might have to look for bullet tracers hitting the transport and follow them back to their source. You'll complete the mission once the transport finally leaves the area.
This is your first encounter with the mysterious Crawlers, the game's penultimate antagonists. Although you'll destroy a few Crawler scouts, this is mostly a plot-exposition mission where you'll meet the big bad guys and almost get obliterated by them, making you more eager for your inevitable revenge at the end of the game when you're much more powerful and ready to kick their asses (console RPGs love to do this by having the big baddy squash you early in the game so you'll look forward to squashing him later on).
Tips:
- Despite the fact they're the game's main enemies, the Crawlers really aren't that tough. Crawler scouts are slower and much less annoying than Federation scouts, and are actually almost as easy to hit as TZ scouts or Entropol scouts. They don't even have all that impressive weapons, sticking mostly to Plasma 2 guns and the occasional Vendetta gattling. Although Crawler scouts have a little more shield energy than most other scout types, they don't have nearly as much as fully powered Bionts (who you will meet later on).
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Search for the Crawler presence
Follow the nav points as they come up while listening to the spooked radio chatter from your wingmates. When you reach the final nav point and DeGrange tells you your wings have regrouped and are waiting for you, search the area near the nav point for Crawler catapillars. Blow up a couple of them and your should provoke a couple of Crawler scouts to pop out of the ocean floor and attack. Destroy the scouts to trigger a cutscene.
Mission Objective: Flee from the Crawler fleet
After the cutscene you'll be thrust into the middle of the Crawler fleet, consisting of a frigate, a couple of bombers, and a whole bunch of scouts. There's no way you'll be able to take on such a large enemy force with your current armaments, so just dodge around and try to stay alive until King and Velasquez give the order to retreat. Use turbo to speed to safety, following the nav points through the canyon as they come up. Ignore any Crawler tanks along the way that might shoot at you, and focus on getting to the last nav point at the end of the canyon.
Mission Objective: Hold out until the Crawlers retreat
Your wingmates are waiting for you at the last nav point, along with a handful of Crawler scouts. Help your wings destroy the scouts and you'll receive a radio transmission saying the Crawlers are retreating, thus ending the mission.
This is your first encounter with the Federation's top secret Brainfire research station around which the game's main plot revolves. The mission is divided into two parts, in which you and your wingmates defend Brainfire from both the Crawlers and your old nemesis Creole's Tornado Zoner forces. Both enemy forces come in managable numbers, and neither of them is a credible threat to Brainfire, so this mission should be a cakewalk.
Tips:
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Defend Brainfire from the Crawlers
Brainfire has a huge amount of shields, so you really don't need to worry too much about it being destroyed. Just take your time blowing up the Crawler ships and concentrate on keeping your own ass alive. The Crawler bomber might give you trouble since it's armed with a railgun- like Sizzler that can knock out large chunks of your shields, so try to blow it up first (circle strafing usually works well). Ignore Sally's complaints about Sool's Federation scouts retreating from the battle for repairs, your wingmen are all the backup you need for this fight. If you shields start to drop in the red, go ahead and flee from the battle to regenerate. Brainfire and your wingmates will do fine without you.
Mission Objective: Stop Creole from attacking Brainfire
As soon as all the Crawlers are dead, Sool's men will return just in time to see the end of the battle. The mission's not over yet, though. Your old enemy and troublemaker Creole will warp in with his frigate (armed with Vendetta Gattling turrets) and several Tornado Zoner scouts. Ignore the scouts and attack the frigate with whatever weapon you want. As I said before, Brainfire is tough enough so that you really don't have to worry about it being destroying (especially by the Zoner's dinky little Vendetta guns). You can either take your time attacking Creole's frigate or finish it off quickly with a big bang. In either case, Creole will retreat as soon as his shield energy drops below 50%, ending the mission.
======================================================================= THE BUOY:
Overview:
This is surprisingly relaxed for the end-of-chapter mission. Sure, there are a couple of "protect the weak target or instantly fail" objectives, but they're not nearly as annoying as elsewhere in the game, mostly because you won't be facing all that many enemies. Enjoy blasting the relatively easy Crawlers, because in the next chapter you'll be going up against the really tough Federation scouts.
Tips:
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Protect the Techbombers from the Crawlers
The mission begins with two Techbombers being attacked by a couple of Crawler scouts. As usual, shoot the enemy ships a couple of times to get them to attack you instead the ships you're trying to protect. You and your wingmates should make quick work of the two scouts, triggering the next objective.
Mission Objective: Destroy the junk so the techbombers can dock
Another scrap shooting mission. You've got a time limit on this one, though, as you have to destroy the scrap before the Crawlers arrive in force and destroy the Techbombers. To top it off, a couple of Crawler scouts will warp into the area and attack while you're busy trying to clean the scrap. Your wingmen should deal with the Crawlers, so just ignore them and concentrate to finding and blowing up all the scrap. Sally will inform you when this has been accomplished.
Mission Objective: Battle the Crawlers until Brainfire is ready to launch the buoy
As soon as the techbombers dock with Brainfire, a large number of Crawler scouts will warp into the area. Concentrate on staying alive while destroying as many enemies as possible until Sally tells you Brainfire's ready to launch the buoy. Immedietely head for the nav point as soon as it appears to begin the next part of the mission.
Mission Objective: Protect the buoy while it heads for the surface
As soon as the buoy launches, follow it. Creole will once again jump in with his flagship, this time attempting to shoot down the buoy. There are no Crawler or Zoner scouts in this part of the mission, you only have to worry about the frigate. Pound Creole's shields down to 50% as quickly as possible (a big bang is a great help here, although your guns works just as well) and he should be forced to warp away before doing any damage. From there the buoy should be clear, so you can just sit back and wait for your new orders.
Mission Objective: Wipe out the remaining Crawlers
Go back down to Brainfire and mop up the remaining Crawlers. If the mission still doesn't end even when there apparently aren't any Crawlers left, search the seabed to see if you missed one of the Crawler tanks. Sometimes they get stuck in the holes on the ocean floor.
The final optional mission that pits you against hostile Tornado Zoner scouts, who should be insignificant gnats to your mighty sub-o-death this late into the game. Even the Tornado Zone bomber that comes after you is sucky, and although you're supposed to prevent vulnerable structures from being destroyed, the enemy weapons are so ineffective that you never have to worry about this actually happening.
Tips:
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Check out Zoner activity at scrapyards
Listen to the radio chatter between Brewmeister and Mike, and eventually you'll be told to check out some Tornado Zoners hanging around at the scrap yard. Follow the nav point, but once you reach the scrap yard you'll find out the Tornado Zoner scouts are just non- hostile scavengers looking for useful junk. However, you'll soon receive a radio message that several hostile Zoners are attacking the habitat, so follow the new nav point back to the habitat for the big fight.
Mission Objective: Protect Helinox containers from Zoner pirates
The Zoner pirate force consists of several scouts led by a Tornado Zone bomber. The bomber is apparently piloted by a Star Wars fan named Darklander (get it?), but is armed with only average shields and a Vendetta gattling and should be easily defeated this far into the game. The scouts are just as easy, but you do have to make sure they don't blow up any Helinox containers.
The first plot-related mission of the chapter pits you against Federation forces from Admiral Cox's fleet who are rebelling against the power-mad, neo-fascist New Line government. Dispite the face that he's got the moral high ground and is also one of your main buddies from the original Archimedean Dynasty, Cox's rebellion is causing political chaos and you'll have to shut him down for his own good. Cox and his men are good guys, attempting to disable rather than destroy you, and you should try to return the favor. Of course, when you actually play this mission you might feel less generous towards Cox's men, as they fly the super-annoying Federation scouts, an annoyance topped off by the fact that you have to defeat all enemy ships to end the mission. Throw in unusually lazy wingmates and a particularly difficult "protect-the-weak-target-or-instantly-fail" scenario, and you end up with a mission that can be really agrivating.
Tips:
- Since Cox's Federation rebels are still "good guys", they'll only use EMP weapons against you. EMP attacks can't kill you. Once your EMP shields reach zero, they'll start recharging and will be restored to full within a few seconds. During those few seconds you'll be unable to move or shoot, however.
- Cox's Federation scouts are the most agile ships you've faced yet, so it'll be difficult to hit them properly with the slow firing EMPactor's primary fire. The EMPactor's secondary fire does less damage, but fires rapidly and thus is preferable for hitting the fast moving scouts. EMP torpedos are not recommended since the scouts are pretty good at faking them out with beacons.
- If you're having trouble against Cox's Federation scouts, go ahead and blow them up with normal weapons. Feralli will chew you out at the end of the mission, but you'll still get paid the same amount of money and the outcome won't affect any of your future missions or the reactions of NPCs towards you.
- Your wingmates are surprisingly ineffective during this mission. They'll disable some of the enemy scouts, but will completely ignore many of them leaving you to deal with them yourself.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Destroy the communication dishes at the radio broadcaster
You can immedietely complete the mission objective by destroying the two com dishes right off the bat, but this is a VERY bad idea as the initial enemy ships will still be around to bother you on top of the new enemy ships that warp in after the dishes are destroyed. Instead, disable the rebel bomber and scouts around the communications center before destroying the dishes.
Mission Objective: Prevent the Techbomber from being disabled
As soon as the dishes are destroyed, Sally will inform you that a techbomber will arrive shortly to retake the station. Several rebel scouts will arrive soon afterwards. Dogfight them as they come, but keep in mind that your main concern should be to watch out for the techbomber. While it finally arrives and docks, Sally will tell you that a pair of rebel scouts have started to attack the broadcasting station. This is a mistranslation, in reality these two scouts are attacking the techbomber, and you must prevent them from disabling it or else you'll fail the mission (this can be annoying since the techbomber doesn't last long against EMP shots). You don't need to disable the attacking scouts, just keep them occupied long enough for the techbomber to retreat from the battlefield. Sally won't tell you when this happens, but you should be able to notice when the techbomber is finally gone.
Mission Objective: Disable or destroy all remaining rebel ships
Once the techbomber is gone, you still need to disable all the remaining rebel scouts before you can finish the mission. Don't expect any help from your wingmates, as they will simply sit there twiddling their thumbs. Taking out all the Federation scouts may take a while, but since the enemy can't actually kill you it should only be a matter of time.
This small optional mission puts you in the role of bodyguard to Vastian Greigh, a grumpy and very unpleasant CEO who ends up getting attacked on the way to work by disgruntled ex-employees. Although the map is small and you only have a total of six enemies to fight, those enemies are driving Federation scouts making them really tough to take down. To top it off you also have to prevent the destruction of both Greigh and his workplace, but fortunately your enemies aren't at all persistent when it comes to attacking those two targets.
Tips:
- Powerful weapons such as the Doom Mortar are best against the agile Federation scouts, since you don't have to worry about leaving your enemies alive in this mission.
- Although Harper will accompany you into the mission, he won't provide much help against your enemies. You're mostly on your own for this mission.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Protect Greigh from disgruntled ex-employees
Greigh is piloting an Entropol scout, but don't expect him to help out in this battle. Harper also isn't very helpful in this mission, as he's more concerned with following Greigh than helping you fight the enemy ships. At first you'll be facing 3 hostile Federation scouts. The enemies start out shooting at Greigh's ship, so be sure to shoot them to get them to attack you. As always the Federation scouts are difficult opponents, and their leader Seawolf is particularly quick. These enemies are also using hard ammo (Plasma gun for Seawolf, Vendetta gattlings for the two other scouts), so forget the EMP from the previous mission and stick to your Plasma gattling. Ignore Sally when she tells you to proceed to the nav point and instead concentrate on destroying the three scouts, as the next mission objective won't trigger until all three are dead.
Mission Objective: Prevent the disgruntled workers from blowing up the Helium 17 tanks
After the initial three enemy scouts have been destroyed, Greigh will radio you to inform you that his ex-employees are now shooting at the highly explosive Helium 17 tanks. Proceed to the nav point and shoot at the three new enemy Fed scouts to stop them from blowing up the Helium 17. Kill them all (easier said than done) to end the mission. Once again, don't expect any help from Greigh or Harper, even though they're sitting right next to you.
The game's only stealth mission can be frustrating since you fail instantly if you're detected, but you should be able to beat it consistantly once you figure out how it's supposed to be done. There's also very little fighting, so you won't have the frustration of having to destroy a bunch of tough Federation scouts like in Coup Begins or Vastian Greigh. Like in Crawler, this mission also introduces you to your enemy (Cox's fleet) which you'll have to flee from now but face in the next mission.
Overview:
Tips:
- Cox's men are playing for keeps now, using normal weapons instead of EMP. You can do the same, and no one will notice. If you're still sentimental about nameless, fictional people inside polygonal ships, you can still use EMP to disable rather than destroy them.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Destroy the communication relay
Ignore the two Federation scouts protecting the relay, instead concentrating all your attacks on the relay itself. Once it's been destroyed, proceed to the new nav point while using turbo to ditch the two pursuing scouts.
Mission Objective: Sneak undetected through the canyon to reach Cox's fleet
As in the Code Books mission, you're supposed to stop your engines and use the current to carry your ship undetected past the enemy forces. The difference here is that if you're detected you'll fail the mission instantly. You'll be detected if you use your engines too much, fire your weapons, or if any of the patrolling scouts comes too close to your ship. To get past this annoying section drift with the current and let it take you to your destination, but every once in a while use short engines bursts to hug the sea-bottom to avoid the patrolling scouts. (You DO have a silator to silence your engine, don't you? Don't you?!)
Once the current takes you to the last nav point, you'll drift straight into the middle of Cox's fleet, consisting of his Triops flagship, two Odysseus-class Federation frigates, and a whole bunch of bombers and scouts. You'll also trigger a cutscene and receive two pieces of information: 1) Picollini is under attack at Deepdraft and needs your assistance, and 2) Cox's ships have detected your presence!
Mission Objective: Assist Picollini at Deepdraft
Cox's fleet is simply too powerful for you to take on by yourself, so use turbo to get the hell out of there as fast as possible. Cox himself is invincible, so don't bother trying to attack his Triops flagship. Follow the nav points while using turbo to lose any pursuing scouts, until you reach Deepdraft and Picollini. Picollini is under attack from a Federation frigate, a bomber, and a couple of scouts, and the two of you will have to destroy or disable them all before the mission can end. This is easier than it sounds as Picollini can hold his own against the scouts, and the bomber and frigate succumb surprisingly quickly to your EMPactor shots as unlike the agile scouts they are unable to dodge.
The good news is that this is your last major battle against Federation forces, for which you can utter a sign of relief. From here on you'll be facing the easier, slower, less manueverable Crawlers for the majority of the missions. The bad news is that you'll be facing a LOT of Federation forces, and will have to protect a vulnerable techbomber as well. Follow the walkthrough and you should be able to make it through the first half (at least in a few tries). The second half is a straightforward cakewalk.
Tips:
- Attempting to destroy Commodore Sool now will only result in you failing the mission. There's no way for you to interfer with the game's scripted events, so you'll just have to let them play out.
- Both friendly Sool scouts and hostile Cox scouts will be on the battlefield, and the two are identical in appearance. Make sure you pay attention to your friend/foe indicator to avoid blasting your allies.
- Once again Cox's forces will limit themselves to EMP, but keep in mind certain enemies (such as the frigates and the tanks) will still be using hard ammo, so it is possible to die if you're not paying attention.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Disable the turret defenses around Parliment
As soon as the mission starts, Commodore Sool will order you to disable the Parliment building's turret defenses so they won't destroy Cox's ships when they show up. Do NOT do this, because you WILL need all the help you can get in the coming battle. Don't worry, the game won't bother you if a few of Cox's pilots end up getting killed in this mission, which makes sense considering the big event at the end of the mission. Not disabling the turrets also nets you an interesting sarcastic comment from Sool when Cox's fleet arrives.
After a minute or so, Cox's fleet will jump in. Consisting of two frigates, one transport, and a whole bunch of bombers and fighters, this is the biggest enemy fleet you've faced yet (aren't you glad you didn't shut off the turrets?). The transport's invincible and your allies should deal with the frigates, so ignore them and concentrate on disabling the bombers and scouts. Pretty soon the transport will dock and Cox will seize Parliment. Sool will send a techbomber with narcotic gas to re-take the building, which you'll have to protect.
Mission Objective: Protect the Techbomber while it docks with Parliment
The techbomber is the reason you left all those turrets operational. Normally any of Cox's scouts that are still functional will attack it once it docks, and you'll fail the mission if it's destroyed. Still operational, the turrets should distract or destroy a fair share of the scouts, making defending the techbomber much easier. A few scouts may still decide to attack the techbomber, so you should shoot them a couple of times to get them to attack you instead. As before you don't need to destroy the scouts, just keep them occupied until the techbomber can finish its mission.
Mission Objective: Help Sool against Cox's Tanks
As soon as the techbomber completes its mission, a cutscene will play showing Sool battling several of Cox's tanks. Sool will order you to finish off the tanks while he pursues Admiral Cox's frigate, the Triops. Go to the nav point and kill or disable the tanks. The Tanks are equipped with Sizzlers and Plasma guns, so take your time and don't get yourself killed if you don't want to replay the annoying first half of the mission again. While fighting the tanks a pair of rebel scouts will attack you, and you'll have to disable them in addition to the tanks. Your wingmates will follow you to help out against the tanks, but you'll have to deal with the scouts on your own.
As soon as the tanks and scouts have been disabled/destroyed, Sool's Ghost will engage Cox's Triops in a frigate vs. frigate duel. Sool will reveal his true nature, switching from EMP to hard ammo in an attempt to destroy Admiral Cox. Obviously, you'll want to stop him.
Mission Objective: Stop Sool from killing Admiral Cox
As soon as the cutscene is over, Sool's fleet (1 Federation frigate, a bomber, and several scouts) will warp into the area equipped with Plasma weapons and will quickly turn hostile on you. Ignore them and use turbo to get to the nav point as quickly as possible. Watch the cutscene and the tragic end to the mission and this chapter.
The Bionts are back, and this time they mean business! This mission is actually very short, but the Bionts make really tough opponents this time around. Don't worry, however, this is the last time you'll be pitted against them in combat.
Tips:
-Whatever else you do, buy a laser gattling before going into this mission. It's the best rapid-fire weapon you can get in the game, and it'll be a big help against the Biont scouts in this mission.
- The Biont scouts have gone from being rather easy to rather hard. Don't be lulled into thinking they'll be the same easily shot down pieces of scrap from Chapter 1.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Fight the Bionts
On your way to a leisure trip at Scavenger you, Harper, and Picollini will run into a large group of disabled Federation ships being preyed upon by mineral-and-protein-hungry Bionts. These Bionts aren't the floating pieces of scrap you might remember from the first chapter. Their shields and systems are at full 100% capacity (allowing them to absorb exceptionally large amounts of damage), and their rate of fire is dramatically faster. They're also a bit more manueverable, but fortunately nowhere nearly as fast as Federation or even Crawler scouts. Engage the Bionts in combat for a minute or so, but bear in mind that you're just killing time until Sally gives you your next mission objective.
Mission Objective: Protect the rescue capsules
Sally will soon tell you to proceed to the new nav point and protect the ejection capsules from the Bionts there. Don't worry about the Biont bomber Sunjammer you pass on the way to the nav point, Harper and Picollini will take care of it. Your job is to engage the three Biont scouts in combat. Don't worry too much about the rescue capsules, and focus on doing as much damage to the scouts as possible. Eventually a rescue transport from Scavenger will show up, which you'll have to protect.
Mission Objective: Protect the rescue transport
The good news is that no additional Bionts will show up to harrass the transport. The bad news is that the three Biont scouts can be surprisingly difficult to destroy, so your main objective should be to keep all three of them occupied until the transport can complete its rescue mission and leave the area. Don't get into a war of attrition with the Bionts, their rapid-fire Plasma 2 shots can eat away at your shields quite quickly. As long as you can keep the transport alive by preventing the Bionts from attacking it, you should be able to complete this mission even if you don't manage to kill a single Biont yourself.
This is the largest battle against the Crawlers you've faced yet. Not only will you have to take out a total of three frigates, more than half a dozen bombers, and more scouts and tanks than you can count, but the Crawler's huge battleship Magma Eater will also make a brief appearance at the end of the level. Fortunately, your new laser gattling and improved ship will make destroying Crawler ships (even frigates) much easier, and you'll have quite a bit of help from both your wingmates and Iwan King's fleet.
Tips:
- Crawler frigates have no turret coverage at their rear and thus this is the ideal spot to shoot them from. Attacking a Crawler frigate from the front is ill-advised as they have a forward-mounted Sizzler laser.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Help King's fleet defeat the Crawlers
As soon as you enter the mission, you'll fly into a battle between King's fleet and the Crawlers near the city of Atacama. King's forces consist of his mighty flagship Creole Girl, along with a Tornado Zone frigate, a bomber, and several scouts and buggys. The Crawler forces consist of a frigate, 2 bombers, and several scouts and tanks. Go after the frigate and bombers first, then mop up the scouts and tanks. Your wingmates fight fiercely here, and your new laser gattling should make destroying the larger Crawler ships much easier than a couple of chapters ago.
Mission Objective: Defend Brainfire from the Crawlers
As soon as the Crawlers have been defeated, a cutscene will play showing a Crawler attack on the Brainfire station. Even though Sool wants to do bad things with Brainfire and the orbital laser, you and your allies still need the technology aboard and thus must defend the station. Brainfire is at 50% shields when you reach it, but it's still incredibly durable and thus you shouldn't worry too much about it being destroyed. The attacking Crawler forces consist of the usual assortment of bomber, scouts, and tanks, and all of them need to be destroyed before the next mission objective is triggered.
Mission Objective: Help King's fleet against another wave of Crawlers
As soon as the area around Brainfire is cleared, King will send a message stating that his fleet is once again under attack. Follow the new nav point back to where you came from, and you should find King's forces once shooting it out with a Crawler fleet consisting of a frigate, a couple of bombers, and several scouts. When the area is finally cleared of Crawlers, a cutscene will play giving you a new objective.
Mission Objective: Search the Canyon for Crawlers
After the cutscene, follow the nav point down the canyon. Once you reach the nav point you should find a Crawler bomber accompanied by a few scouts and tanks, which you should promptly destroy. As soon as they're all dead you'll hear messages of renewed fighting over the radio, and soon King will once again order you back to Atacama to help against the Crawlers. Follow the new nav point as soon as it appears for the final enemy wave.
Mission Objective: Help King's fleet against the third and final wave of Crawlers
Same deal as usual. Crawler frigate, bombers, scouts. However THIS time when the Crawler frigate is destroyed a massive energy signature will be detected and Major Mad Sam Korhonen himself will warp in with his huge flagship Magma Eater (the largest frickin' entity in the game save for the final boss) and engage King's Creole Girl in combat. Don't attempt to attack the Magma Eater yourself, just concentrate on fighting any remaining Crawler scouts and bombers. Eventually the Creole Girl, although badly damaged, will be able to drive off the Magma Eater.
At first this level is just another routine skirmish against Crawler fighters, but towards the end you'll find yet another potential instant mission failure situation when you find yourself in the ridiculous position of preventing the Crawlers from blowing up a frigate that you're going to detonate anyway.
Tips:
- Your wingmates are invincible during this mission. They'll lose shield energy when shot, but when they finally reach 0% shields they'll keep fighting instead of ejecting from their ships like they usually do.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Capture the Crawler frigate
The Crawler frigate is initially protected by several Crawler scouts, catapillars, and tanks. King's Tornado Zone tank and buggies should take care of the Crawler's ground forces, so you should concentrate on helping your wingmates blow up the scouts while taking care not to fire on the frigate itself. As the battle progresses more Crawler ships including a bomber will arrive to fight you, but they shouldn't be a problem. After all the Crawlers are destroyed, Harper will dock with the frigate and will start piloting it through the canyon while your wingmates fly in formation behind it. After a minute or two, the frigate will reach the open ocean and be attacked by a swarm of Crawler scouts coming from the ocean depths.
Mission Objective: Prevent the Crawlers from destroying the frigate
You must prevent the Crawlers from destroying the frigate. These Crawler scouts are dedicated, they will continue firing on the frigate even if you start shooting them. Fortunately, this makes them easier to kill as they won't try to dodge your shots. Destroy the Crawlers one after the other as quickly as possible while keeping an eye on the frigate's shield energy. Although the Crawlers are only armed with Vendetta gattlings, there are so many of them that they can quickly wittle away the frigate's shields down to nothing. When Harper says he's activated the frigate's self destruct and Sally tells you to retreat to the nav point before the frigate explodes, DON'T LISTEN. You MUST eliminate all Crawlers attacking the frigate no matter what, or else you will still fail the mission when they destroy it before it explodes. Once you've made sure no Crawlers are left to attack the frigate, go ahead and flee tothe nav point. You probably won't make it before the cutscene plays showing the frigate exploding, but you shouldn't be harmed by the explosion either and will finish the mission successfully.
This end-of-chapter mission is surprisingly easy and relaxed, even though you'll once more and for the last time be pitted against agile enemy Federation scouts. Once again the combat takes place around Brainfire, only this time you'll be assaulting the station rather than protecting it from Crawlers or Zoners. The only tough part comes at the very end when Sool sends all of his remaining Federation scouts out to kill you, but even then it's not too much trouble since you only have to avoid their attacks for a couple of minutes to win the mission.
Tips:
- The Sizzler laser is an excellent weapon against the fast moving Federation scouts, it hits instantly and only takes about 2 shots to destroy one enemy.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Knock out as many of Commodore Sool's defenses around Brainfire as possible
Your first order of business should be to destroy the Odysseus-class frigate. Just circle strafe while blasting with the laser gattling until it explodes. Resist the urge to attack Sool's flagship, the Ghost, as it's marked as a neutral target and you will fail the mission if you fire upon it (weird, I know. At least it doesn't shoot at you). Follow up by destroying as many bombers and scouts as you can. Eventually an allied Techbomber will appear to take back the station.
Mission Objective: Defend the techbomber while it docks with Brainfire
Sool's scouts won't bother the Techbomber. However the hostile Federation bomber guarding the docking bay will, so obviously you should destroy it (the bomber, not the docking bay).
Mission Objective: Survive against Sool's final wave of Federation scouts until the conflict inside the station is resolved.
Once the techbomber docks, Sally will start giving you a play-by-play of what's going on inside the station which lasts for several minutes. Additionally, a large swarm of Sool's Federation scouts will enter the battle soon after the Techbomber docks. Your wingmates won't last very long against them, and your should be more concerned with avoiding their attacks and staying alive than destroying them. Just let them chase you around and around the station for a couple of minutes and eventually the ending cutscene of Sool escaping with the satellite uplink codes will play, ending the mission.
This mission is essentially one big battle against Mad Sam Korhonen's massive flagship Magma Eater, which you first saw in Atacama Burning. This mission also introduces a new faction in the form of the monsterous Old Ones (also referred to as "Squids" by the inhabitants of Aqua) that were released when Sool fired the orbital laser and blew a huge hole in the planet. There's one annoying part where you can die instantly for no good reason, but otherwise this mission isn't too frustrating.
Tips:
- Like Federation scouts, the sperm-like Squid scouts know as Schax are fast moving and difficult to hit, not to mention slightly smaller than the other scout-type enemies in the game. At this point in the game the Sizzler laser is probably the best weapon to use against them, even though it takes 2-3 shots to kill a single one. The easiest way to fight Schax is to put some distance between you and them with turbo, then snipe at them with the Sizzler's sniper secondary fire. Enemies don't move around much at long range and thus are much easier to hit.
- Besides physical damage, the energy attacks of Schax and other Old One units do a respectable amount of EMP damage as well. There's a bug where in certain missions at the end of the game, if your EMP shields drop to 0 they won't recharge and your ship will simply sit there doing nothing. If this happens to you, you'll just have to restart the mission.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Sneak past the Crawlers to reach Deepdraft
Don't bother cutting your engines, you shouldn't be spotted by the Crawlers no matter what you do. It doesn't matter much anyway, since as soon as you reach the nav point Sally will inform you that you've been detected.
Mission Objective: RUN past the Crawlers to reach Deepdraft
Ignore the Crawler frigate and scouts and use your boost to reach the next nav point quickly (take the time to dodge the mines, though). After the cutscene, following the new nav point to reach the Magma Eater. A fierce battle between Federation scouts and turrets and Crawler scouts will rage around the Magma Eater, but you should resist getting involved as you need to keep your shields near 100% for reasons which will be explained later. DeGrange will soon ask you to find a weak spot.
Mission Objective: Seek out a weak spot on the Magma Eater
Do NOT approach the front of the Magma Eater (the part that looks like a giant fish head) as it's equipped with a nasty super-weapon called the scalar howitzer than can blow you to bits in one hit. Instead stay near the rear of the Magma Eater (the part that looks like a giant drill) as it has no turret coverage back there so you should be relatively safe. Don't worry about the mission objective, it will fulfill itself after a minute or so.
Mission Objective: Destroy the Magma Eater's propulsion system
When DeGrange orders you to destroy the propulsion system, just start blasting away at the Magma Eater's rear with your laser gattling. As long as you stay behind it you should be able to hit the Magma Eater without being hit back. Take care of any Crawler scouts that stray by and start targeting you. The Magma Eater has a truly enormous amount of shield energy (A big bang II strike doesn't even take off one energy bar), but you only need to hurt it a little to trigger the next mission objective.
Mission Objective: Destroy the Magma Eater's turrets
Just ignore the order to destroy the turrets when it comes through, and continue shooting at the propulsion system with your laser gattling. The next mission objective will trigger when enough time has passed or when the Magma Eater is reduced to a certain amount of health, regardless of whether or not the turrets are still active.
Mission Objective: Fight the Schax
After the Magma Eater loses a couple of bars of shield energy, a cutscene will play where Picollini warns that the ocean is coming alive just before a wave of scout-sized, sperm-shaped creatures burst onto the scene. Beware! As soon as you regain control of your ship, you'll find yourself in the path of the Schax swarm which will do enormous damage to your ship if any of them crash into you (don't worry, this only occurs in this particular mission). You'll also find yourself directly in the path of the Magma Eater's scalar howitzer, which will blast you a few seconds after the cutscene ends. To avoid dying again and again in this part of the mission, you should make sure you're at near full health when going into the cutscene. Anyway, the newly arrived Schax will start attacking the Crawlers as well as you and your allies. Just use your turbo to get away from the bulk of the fighting, and take your time blasting the four Schax which follow you. Your allies and the Crawlers should take care of the Schax which stay behind. The Magma Eater will retreat from the battle after you've killed the Schax that specifically attack you. You'll then receive orders to kill any remaining Crawlers.
Mission Objective: Destroy the remaining Crawlers
This is a routine clean-up. Blow up any surviving Crawler scouts until you're told to return to base.
A climatic mission very close to the endgame, you'll have everything thrown at you except the kitchen sink. Not only will you be scooting back and forth all over Neopolis repelling both Crawlers and Squids, but you'll also receive help from all the folks you met during the game, including the Federation, Sergei Chang's Entropol, and Iwan King's pirates. Even the Bionts chip in against the Squids at the end. This mission is big, yet not particularly hard. A whole bunch of stuff happens plotwise and actionwise, yet there aren't any annoyingly difficult areas or any parts where you have to worry about instant mission failure (expect perhaps the very last part, if you're playing on normal or higher difficulty).
Tips:
- Your wingmates are indestructible right until the very last part of the mission, so don't be shy about letting them do the brute of the fighting, especially against the Magma Eater.
- Despite what the mission briefing says, you don't need to bring EMP weapons into this fight. Your allies will able to disable the Magma Eater without your help. Instead, stick to the standard laser gattling/sizzler combination.
- You really should bring a couple of Big Bangs and some good guided torpedos like Maneaters or Hammerheads into this mission. This mission will introduce you to a couple very nasty Marax monsters (the Squid equivalent of the bomber) which can do lots of damage to you with its energy shots and eye-beam attack. These Marax are best dealt with quickly with a Big Bang II followed by a burst of laser gattling fire. The guided torpedos are useful in the final battle against the Schax, and should be used against any Schax that start attacking the Creole Girl.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Defeat the Crawler fleet attacking Navy Headquarters
Follow the nav point to Navy HQ, which is under siege from a pair of Crawler frigates, a few bombers, and several scouts. The HQ itself is fairly well protected by friendly Federation bombers, scouts, and turrets. You should first destroy the two frigates with your laser gattling (your wingmates will help out alot with torpedos and big guns), then start blowing up as many other Crawler ships as possible. Eventually a cutscene will interrupt the fighting and send you off to your next mission objective.
Mission Objective: Defeat the Crawler fleet attacking Parliament
The situation at Parliament is pretty much the same as at Navy Headquarters: Federation bombers, scouts, and turrets defending against a pair of Crawler frigates, some bombers, and several scouts. As before, destroy the frigates followed by whatever other Crawler ships you can manage, and eventually you'll be given your next mission objective in the middle of the battle.
Mission Objective: Defend the Data Broadcaster from the Magma Eater
A cutscene will bring you into the middle of a battle between the Magma Eater and Sergei Chang's Entropol forces, consisting of a bomber, a scout, and another bomber piloted by Chang himself. Don't worry too much about fighting the Magma Eater, your wingmates and Chang will do enough damage to the Crawler battleship on their own. If you want to be useful anyway, go ahead and use your Sizzler to snipe the Magma Eater's turrets from outside their range of fire. After a couple minutes of fighting, a cutscene will play where you pursue the Magma Eater as it attempts to retreat towards the Parliament.
Mission Objective: Disable the Magma Eater
As soon as the cutscene ends, King will bring the Creole Girl broadside with the Magma Eater, and the two capital ships will begin exchanging fire. Don't worry about King, he and your wingmates will be able to disable the Magma Eater before the Creole Girl sustains too much damage. In fact, the Creole Girl's shields are restored to 100% as soon as the Magma Eater is defeated. If you want to make yourself useful during the fight, go ahead and blow up the two Crawler bombers that show up, then snipe at the Magma Eater's turrets with your Sizzler laser.
Mission Objective: Protect the Magma Eater and the techbomber from the Schax
A few minutes into the battle and just before the Magma Eater is fully disabled, several Marax and Schax will enter the area. Sally tells you to protect the Magma Eater from the Squids until the Federation can capture the Crawler's Scalar technology, but you don't need to worry about it. Do NOT attack the two Marax that begin blasting at the Magma Eater, the Crawler flagship is simply too tough for them to do any significant damage to it, and wasting time fighting the Marax will only make it easier for the Schax to kill you. You also don't need to worry about protecting the techbomber that docks with the Magma Eater either, since the Schax never seem to attack it. The Schax WILL however go after you, and can kill you quite quickly if you're not prepared. Dogfight them if you're able, but don't be afraid to use turbo to flee the battlefield if you feel yourself being overwhelmed.
After the techbomber leaves with the Scalar Howitzer technology, a cutscene will play with Iwan King calling for help as the Marax and Schax gang up on his flagship. Surprisingly, none other than the Bionts come to the rescue.
Mission Objective: Defeat all of the Schax while protecting the Creole Girl
The Bionts are on your side, so don't shoot them. They're pretty good help against the Squids. Your first order of business should be to kill the Marax before it destroys the Biont bomber (your wingmates will help you gang up on this Marax, and the bomber may also have weakened it during the cutscene). There's another Marax patrolling the battlefield, as well as several Schax. Deal with the second Marax if it starts to attack you or the Creole Girl, otherwise your first priority should be to attack any Schax that start shooting at the Creole Girl. The Creole Girl has 50% shields and only one functional turret, and loses shield energy surprisingly quickly. You'll have to replay the entire mission if the Creole Girl is destroyed, so make damn sure that doesn't happen (be especially sure not to hit it with your own stray shots, since it's such a big target on the battlefield). Don't get so caught up in protecting the Creole Girl that you let the Schax gang up on and destroy your own ship, however. Your wingmates will help you out initially but will quickly leave without telling you as the battle goes on. Fortunately the Biont bomber and two Biont scouts will stick around until they are destroyed or the mission ends. The Bionts aren't quick enough to actually kill the Schax, but at least they provide a helpful distraction. You'll have to hold out for quite some time against the Schax before the mission ends, but don't worry it does eventually end.
The plot starts to come to a head in this, the second to last mission. You'll meet the biggest monster yet, lose one of your wingmates, and face the long-awaited final battle against your megalomaniacal nemesis Commodore Sool. This mission is also a rather tough one, since for the first half you lose instantly if Bonham dies and for the second half you'll be facing a series of consecutive battles against heavy targets.
Tips:
- Load your ship with big bang IIs. You'll have to take down several heavy targets in this mission, including a Crawler frigate, a Squid Crocell, and Sool's modified Federation frigate.
- Your brand new scalar howitzer is an excellent weapon against the Schax, it hits almost instantly and kills with one shot. Make your shots count, however, as the weapon takes several seconds to recharge between shots.
- Harper's invincible throughout this mission, which can be useful.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Protect Lisa Bonham while she defuses the power plant
Although Commander Feralli tells you to go after Mad Sam Korhonen in his Tursas (the squid-shaped Crawler scout/bomber) your real objective here is to clear the way for Bonham to dock with the power plant. Korhonen will leave the battle very soon anyway, so damaging him is irrelevant. Besides, he's got his own personal scalar howitzer and can be a real pain if you tick him off.
You need to protect Bonham throughout the first half of this mission. If she dies, you fail. Start out by destroying the Crawler frigate hanging around the power plant with a couple of big bangs, then blow away anything else that starts shooting at Bonham when she docks with the power plant. After a couple of minutes of fighting, several successive waves of Schax will warp in along with a Marax. The Crawlers will also stick around for a minute or so, but they'll warp out soon so there's no point in fighting them any more.
Mission Objective: Fight the Schax
You still need to keep Bonham alive to finish the mission, but fortunately her health is restored to full when she undocks with the power plant. The Marax tends to target Bonham, so blow it away with a big bang and your laser gattling as soon as possible. Make sure to also blast any Schax that start to attack Bonham with your S. howitzer. It seems to be purely random whether the Schax concentrate on Bonham or your other wingmen, so if she dies real quick just play the mission again and hopefully you'll have better luck next time. Ignore Charlotte when she tells you to attack the Head-schax, and instead wait for her to announce the appearance of the Crocell. When it shows up, turbo right up to it and start blasting it with everything you've got including a couple of big bangs (don't bother aiming for the sonar dome or flashpocks as Gilmore suggests, since the important thing is to hurt it real quick before the Schax or the Crocell can kill Bonham). If you can halve the Crocell's health before Bonham dies, a cutscene will play and move you to the next part of the mission where the Schax will no longer attack and Bonham will be safe.
Mission Objective: Fight the Crocell
It's just you, Harper, and Chaka (if her ship's still active) against the Crocell. While you're fighting the big fish, you'll hear Bonham battling Crawlers and Schax off-screen over the radio, but she's pretty much invincible so don't worry about her and take your time attacking the Crocell. You can hang back and snipe at it while letting your wingmen do the brute of the work, or if you've still got lots of shields go ahead and use the same in-your-face tactics as before to beat it quickly. After doing enough damage to it, yet another cutscene will play with Commodore Sool making his grand entrance and giving you yet another reason to hate him. Guess you won't have to worry about Lisa anymore.
Mission Objective: Send Sool to Hell once and for all
It's time for the big showdown with your bitterest enemy, Commodore Sool. If you're badly damaged from the fight with the Crocell, go ahead and rest a while to heal your ship. There's no time limit for this fight. When you're ready, follow the nav point for the battle with Sool. Bristling with laser gattling turrets, Sool's Ghost is much nastier than the regular Federation frigates. The circle-strafe-until- dead tactics you might have used against the Odysseus-class frigates won't work. Instead use your turbo to get right in Sool's face and cram a big bang down his throat, followed by a scalar howitzer blast, and finally blast him with the laser gattling until he croaks. The turrets will have trouble locking on to you as long as you cling directly to the Ghost's hull, so you should manage to avoid taking too much damage. Ignore the hostile Federation scouts that warp in, they'll flee as soon as Sool dies. If for whatever reason you take a lot of damage before you can reduce Sool's shields to zero, use turbo to retreat and restore your shields before returning to finish him off.
Mission Objective: Finish off the Crocell
The Crocell will emerge once again after Sool's done giving his little see-you-in-hell speech, and Harper's still busy fighting it. Go ahead and take your time finishing the big guy off, and feel free to back off and regenerate your shields if they start running low (the last thing you want is to replay the mission all over again just because you died here).
This is it, the final battle for the fate of Aqua. You and all your wings, the Federation Army, Iwan King's pirates, and the Biont remnants against Samuel Korhonen's Crawler Fleet and a limitless army of Squids. And that's the easy part. Towards the end, you'll be thrust into battle against the Squid big bad endboss and be forced into one of the most annoyingly difficult "protect the targets" missions yet.
Tips:
- A good torpedo compliment for this mission is 9 big bangs II and 3 stanleys. You'll need the stanleys for the fight with Forneus, since it's easiest to hit his sonar dome with these fast, unguided torpedos.
- Your wingmates are invincible for the duration of this mission, so don't worry about them.
- If you're having trouble beating this mission, you might want to switch to a lower difficulty setting. Especially if you're tired of getting a Mission Failed! message in the "protect transports from Schax" section over and over.
Walkthrough:
Mission Objective: Defend power plant from Schax
Ignore the Schax fighting your allies and instead concentrate on the ones attacking the power plant. You lose if the power plant is destroyed, so it's a good idea to minimize the damage it takes early on. The Schax tend to cluster on one side of the plant. Blast them with your s-howitzer but be sure not to hit the power plant by mistake. Trying to distract the Schax with warning shots won't do any good, they'll dodge around for a few seconds but will soon continue attacking the power plant.
After all but a few of the Schax have been destroyed, Crawler scouts and bombers will start dipoling into the area. You'll probably want to ignore them for half a minute or so and eliminate any remaining Schax to prevent them from shooting the power plant. In a minute or so Korhonen himself will jump in piloting his personal Tursas fighter and accompanied by two frigates, five bombers, and some more scouts.
Mission Objective: Prevent Crawlers from docking with power plant
Korhonen will attempt to goad you into a dogfight by talking smack about all the people you care about that he's killed, but you should ignore him and instead concentrate on preventing the frigates or bombers from docking with the power plant. Hit each frigate with a big bang, then let your allies finish them off. Next, turbo over to the power plant and destroy the four bombers attempting to dock (they won't fight back, but you will have to dodge around a little to avoid the fire from the Crawler scouts). When all of the bombers have been destroyed a cutscene will play showing Korhonen warping away to a remote area.
Mission Objective: Defeat Mad Sam Korhonen
Korhonen wants to throw down mano-a-mano, so follow him for the final battle. Ignore any Crawler scouts that might still be shooting at you, just use turbo to outrun them. When you finally reach Korhonen a cutscene will play of your Phobocaster against his Tursas, but before the two of you can begin fighting the biggest monster you've ever seen appears behind him... and eats him! It's time to pay your respects to the great God Forneus, the mightest of the Old Ones. Chaka will warp in to lend you some firepower, but this fight is really all up to you.
Mission Objective: Destroy Forneus' sonar dome
In case the dramatic last boss music didn't clue you in, this is the big finale. Ignore the mass of giant tentacles, the huge egg sac,or the body bristling with flashpocks. Your only concern is Forneus' turtle- like head. Your goal is to destroy Forneus' sonar dome, the white spot in the center of his forehead surrounded by a triangle of three glowing blue flashpocks. The sonar dome can only be destroyed by precise shots (splash damage has no effect on it), and it's difficult to hit with guided torpedos (although you can certainly try if my method doesn't work for you). Fly in as close as possible directly in front of Forneus' forehead, ignoring the flurry of energy blasts and beams he shoots from his flashpocks. Shoot the sonar dome with s-howitzer shots or stanley torpedos, using the targeting reticule to tell whether or not you've got a precise shot. Forneus likes to slowly swing his head back and forth, so your target won't stand still for very long. He will also occasionally turn away from you, forcing you to use turbo to reposition yourself back near his forehead. There's a time limit on this fight, so don't take too long or you'll lose automatically.
Locking onto the sonar dome is tough because the name doesn't appear in the targeting box, so you won't know if you've locked onto the dome, Forneus' body, or one of his flashpocks. If you want to use guided torpedos and are trying to lock onto Forneus' sonar dome instead of Forneus himself, try pressing the targeting key only when the aiming reticule is directly over the sonar dome. Another tactic that might work is to hit the dome once with a s. howitzer shot, then rapidly target it until it appears in the target box. You'll know you've targeted the dome because it will have a large chunk of its health missing.
Mission Objective: Protect transports from Schax
This is probably the toughest, most annoying part of the entire mission and perhaps the game. With Forneus disabled for now, you're sent back to the power plant area, where you have to protect the power plant and the evacuation transports from everything the Squids can throw at you including a Crocell, two Head-Schax, and wave after wave of unlimited respawning Schax. If more than two transports or the power plant are destroyed, you fail the mission. Start out by destroying the two Head- Schax as quickly as possible with your remaining big bangs to make the Schax less aggressive (one Head-Schax is floating near a sphere-shaped building, the other is floating in open ocean within clear sight of King's Creole Girl). Next, kill the Crocell with whatever you've got left. Spend your remaining time blasting all the Schax you can find with your s-howitzer. Drive by the power plant once or twice to see if any Schax are shooting at it, but mainly you should be protecting the transports. Your allies will help out quite a bit, so don't worry about killing every single Schax. Just shoot targets of opportunity as they come along. If you manage to hold out long enough the transports will evacuate, but before you can declare a victory the restored Forneus will appear out of nowhere and start blasting the power plant.
Mission Objective: Destroy Forneus' flash pocks
Things actually get EASIER when Forneus shows up again. The Transports and the Creole Girl will warp outta there so you no longer need to worry about them, and the power plant doesn't seem to take much damage from Forneus' attacks, so you don't need to concern yourself with the fact he's really laying into it. Ignore the order to destroy Forneus' flashpocks, all you have to do is stay alive a while longer. Your wingmen should distract Forneus, so all you have to do is blast any Schax that decide to attack you (to be absolutely safe, you might also want to shoot any that start attacking the power plant). After shooting Forneus for a while Harper will complain that it can't be killed with weapons, and Gillmore will realize the only way to destroy Forneus is to blow the power plant.
Mission Objective: Destroy the two power plant relays
Destroy the two remaining relays around the base of the power plant (DO NOT shoot the Power Plant itself), then when Sally tells you to run like hell flee to the new nav point as soon as possible. Dodge, dodge, dodge away from anything that's still shooting at you. You'll probably smash your computer if you get yourself killed now. Once you reach the nav point, you win the mission and the game. Enjoy the ending.
