Estimated Trophy Difficulty

[Champ147]

While I did play this game ages ago, I don't remember how hard it was. So I'd say on a scale of 1-10, how hard is this platinum gonna be? I'm looking mainly at the Ace difficulty trophy as none of the others "seem" bad. 

[kidson2004]

Could be 35-40 hours? I’m just guessing in the wind. Could be less. 

 

Difficulty could be a 6.5-7.5/10. 

Edited January 15, 2019 by kidson2004

[SlyAceZeta]

The time spent will probably be about 100 hours because you need to do multiple playthroughs, four at the minimum.

 

I'm personally giving it an 9/10 difficulty, because Ace difficulty can be a real nuisance sometimes. Veteran Ace Combat players will probably feel more like it's an 8 or 7 though.

Edited August 11, 2019 by SlyCooperFan100
guide is no longer 9/10

[Winkuru]

Couldn't even beat the game originally. That one mission (it was on this one?) where you have to rescue that plane felt impossible. The plane pops towards the end of the mission and unless you shoot the planes attacking it almost rightaway you lose. I tried couple of times but because it takes a while to get that point i gave up (and i think was one easy)

[SlyAceZeta]

@Winkuru There's a couple of possibilities for what you're talking about, in both this game and many other Ace Combat games.

 

The possibilities for this game are:

 

White Noise

Spoiler

the very next mission where you have to rescue Nagase, first you have to find her, and then you have to escort Sea Goblin from both ground installations and enemy aircraft

 

and Ancient Walls

Spoiler

attack on a castle where you help President Harling escape, at the end of the mission you have to help escort Sea Goblin from enemy aircraft

 

Either of these ring a bell? It could very well have been another Ace Combat game, because that trope is done elsewhere too.

[Terra]

I'd give it a 7-8 based on my previous experience with it. It's challenging but not impossible and these trophies look to be no exception

[Champ147]

50 minutes ago, SlyCooperFan100 said:

@Winkuru There's a couple of possibilities for what you're talking about, in both this game and many other Ace Combat games.

 

The possibilities for this game are:

 

White Noise

  Reveal hidden contents

the very next mission where you have to rescue Nagase, first you have to find her, and then you have to escort Sea Goblin from both ground installations and enemy aircraft

 

and Ancient Walls

  Reveal hidden contents

attack on a castle where you help President Harling escape, at the end of the mission you have to help escort Sea Goblin from enemy aircraft

 

Either of these ring a bell? It could very well have been another Ace Combat game, because that trope is done elsewhere too.

I recognise the "white noise" mission name, and it's not bringing back good memories for me. 

[Winkuru]

White Noise is the one. Fuck that mission.

[Valkirye22]

On 1/21/2019 at 5:12 PM, Winkuru said:

White Noise is the one. Fuck that mission.

Tip for that

Spoiler

As soon as you find Nagase head back immediately for the Sea Goblin helicopter, I think 2 F-15's will spawn close to it (having SAAM/XAAM helps to deal with quickly)

But more importantly additional SAM's and AA's will spawn on the ground, not the ones you destroy prior while searching for Nagase. One SAM is pretty much spot on where Sea Goblin spawns and flies by i think 2-3 missiles on ACE and it's over.

 

1. Find Nagase

2. Double back, meanwhile take out fighters from a distance

3. Immediately take out ground troops (if they are causing you more annoyance then risk with fighters and use LASM(?) the one F-35C has, long range anti ship thingy that is 100% hit and quite fast against ground targets)

 

EDIT: Also 2 AH-64 helicopters will spawn behind SG, they are small and easy to miss but take them out quickly, soon after another 2 AH-64's will spawn and approach SG from Nagase' side. The tricky bit is that they are quite small and you can miss their small green target box in the big blue SG's FRND one.

 

Edited January 24, 2019 by Valkirye22
Extra info

[Winkuru]

Thanks. I will try that once i get motivated to play games again (Taking it slow now whent it comes to games)

[DEATHWISH1988REF]

Took me 31 hours 40 min n 5 sec

 

modertly hard mostly cuz it’s repetative

 

6 out 10 cuz I’m a veteran 

[nyonmyan]

I'm a casual who prefers novice controls and S Ace felt like 5/10 to me, thanks to the laser. The only somewhat difficult mission was the Belkan ambush (after fortress), outside of that I died maybe 4 times.

 

On unrelated note, can somebody tell me how to track defeated named Aces in this game? I can't find their list in game.

[Valkirye22]

7 hours ago, nyonmyan said:

I'm a casual who prefers novice controls and S Ace felt like 5/10 to me, thanks to the laser. The only somewhat difficult mission was the Belkan ambush (after fortress), outside of that I died maybe 4 times.

 

On unrelated note, can somebody tell me how to track defeated named Aces in this game? I can't find their list in game.

I know there's a list but I'm mixing AC5/7 as i platinumed them back to back, check flight data either from the main menu of campaign menu between missions -  it has a list, those that are shown you've shot down.

[nyonmyan]

On 18.02.2019 at 3:29 AM, Valkirye22 said:

I know there's a list but I'm mixing AC5/7 as i platinumed them back to back, check flight data either from the main menu of campaign menu between missions -  it has a list, those that are shown you've shot down.

Couldn't find it, lol, had to use my memory.

 

Anyway, I got the plat in 22 hours. No idea where the guide maker pulled the 9/10 diff and 100 hours from and why 30 min long tutorial is marked as a 'Grind', but w/e.

[Pumpkin Head Cthulhu]

right now I am stuck trying to S rank mission 18+ 8492. No matter what I do I get missiled. I am at 17hrs with almost all other missions at S rank, just need a few more but 18+ is defiantly a killer mission.

 

Much like nyonmyan i prefer novice controls, unless I get a flight stick.

Edited February 24, 2019 by Void

[Valkirye22]

1 hour ago, Void said:

right now I am stuck trying to S rank mission 18+ 8492. No matter what I do I get missiled. I am at 17hrs with almost all other missions at S rank, just need a few more but 18+ is defiantly a killer mission.

 

Much like nyonmyan i prefer novice controls, unless I get a flight stick.

Novice controls actually rob you of a lot of immediate mobility and missile avoiding maneuvers you can pull.

As for S18+ on ACE to do it easy get a Falken with a laser, as you fly in dodge the first 2-3 missiles they shoot long rage, get back on track fire laser

1. Aim for the E-767 jammer, you'll get rid of a lot of fake TGT's

2. Try and get as many other enemies as you can with the laser (2-3+) but don't over do it as they will shoot 4-5 missiles your way that can one shot you

3. Keep flying in small circles, once you find a target stick on it and follow until it dies, sometimes SU-47's will cross path you can get 2 at once with a laser

4. At some point reinforcement show up, again shoot the E-767 jammer, to avoid chasing empty targets.

 

If you don't have the Falken it is also doable with the F22. You might get shot down by a random missile as you turn - bad luck - happens.

But you'll get a hang of it in a few tries.

[Pumpkin Head Cthulhu]

Thanks, I  have been using the Falken, The 2 wing-men do not seem to kill any either even after setting them to Attack and SPW.

[ElBolovo]

Falken turns this game almost trivial. Hubris can spell your doom and you have to keep you wits, but the laser destroying 12+ grounds in the target giving you time to aim in a air target instead of doing 4 to 5 passes to destroy the same things is a absurd game changer. 

 

Mission 18+ for example, I only hugged the ground with full throttle until I passed the first barrage of missiles, turned up with the laser on and and destroyed some things that I didn't even know where there. 

[Valkirye22]

On 2/24/2019 at 4:14 PM, Void said:

Thanks, I  have been using the Falken, The 2 wing-men do not seem to kill any either even after setting them to Attack and SPW.

 

I don't think they'll shoot anyone down in that mission.

It's all up to you, Falken makes it really easy in 1-2 tries you'll get the hang of it but you can also pull it off with the F-22, F-15 MTD or SU-47.

Just make sure to drop the target and fly away if you see a missile coming at a bad angle on your radar. You'll always be spammed while chasing someone if your turn makes you pass directly in front of an incoming make sure to split, avoid and then come back to the target. If you get hit on ACE there it's all over.

[Pumpkin Head Cthulhu]

Ace and Expert 1 hit is Game Over. I am terrible with the other control scheme but I might have to try it for that one mission. I usually try to get the Jammer first, i wonder if it is better to stay low or high. I am doing a few other missions before I try again.

 

Edit I managed Hard mode on 8492, but I was badly damaged.

 

Thank you all, I found a workable strategy for myself. Once the fighters appear i 180 and blast as far away as I can using the mountains as cover. Once I have some distance I 180 again and use TLS and they fly right into it. If they start to gang up I repeat the process. Done with 8492 now.

Edited February 26, 2019 by Void

[minh2t]

On 2019-02-23 at 10:06 AM, nyonmyan said:

Couldn't find it, lol, had to use my memory.

 

Anyway, I got the plat in 22 hours. No idea where the guide maker pulled the 9/10 diff and 100 hours from and why 30 min long tutorial is marked as a 'Grind', but w/e.

 

No mention of the Falken either in the guide...

[Falken-N7]

On 24/2/2019 at 4:14 PM, Void said:

Thanks, I  have been using the Falken, The 2 wing-men do not seem to kill any either even after setting them to Attack and SPW.

Disperse and SPW worked fine for me, they earned me S rank on Veteran difficulty even.

 

The 9/10 and the 100 hours indicated in the guide really make no sense to me: I got the Platinum in about 25 hours (briefings included) and it was a 3-4/10, the Falken makes almost everything trivial. But even without it, the F/A-22 and FB-22 really shine for S-ranks.

[SlyAceZeta]

My sincerest apologies to everyone who's been providing feedback on the guide. It's been in the back of my mind for so long. I finally got around to adding a section on the ADF-01 FALKEN and I also reduced the guide's scores to 7/10 difficulty (Ace difficulty is still fairly challenging for newbies, even with the FALKEN) and 50 hours. Please let me know if there's anything I missed or need to update.

[Davidov34]

I Finished my four S-rank campaign runs in 22h 24m 36s and my arcade mode run (bottom route) in 24m 09s.
I've only used the Falken on my ACE run, gotta love that laser haha.
It was a 4/10 difficulty to do for me.

[BlakeTheDrake]

9/10 sounds about right to me. This is one of those ‘keystone’ plats where a SINGLE thing is going to stop a lot of people from ever getting it, me included. Not some random bronze-trophy that’s just super hard in this case, but a single MISSION: 8492.

 

Seriously, FUCK that mission with a SAAM! Clearing it isn’t hard since you just have to run away, but fighting through it for the S-rank is nigh-impossible. I’m still not sure how I managed to do it on Normal, I’m about ready to give up on doing it on Hard even though I’ve already (easily) S-ranked everything ELSE there, and I HAVE completely given up on even TRYING it on Expert or Ace. So far, I’ve tried it on Hard something like 20 times with no luck. My previous successes on Normal - to score the S-rank there as well as lure out the named Ace for that mission - also inevitably took a dozen tries or so, and inevitably involved the Falken, a whole lotta luck, and me limping home with 90% damage or more.

 

And why the heck are people claiming that the Falken makes everything easy even on Ace, anyway? Sure, on MOST of the missions it’s a real game-breaker, and some that are otherwise really tough are made laughable by its power - like White Bird Pt.2. But it’s useless in 8492, since the designers apparently decided that there was no reason to fit their high-tech superfighter with a friggin’ GUIDANCE-SYSTEM for its main weapon! The moment you spend focusing on manually aiming your laser at the enemies is the moment their buddies ram half a dozen missiles up your tailpipe... though, of course, on Expert and Ace, ONE will do.

 

Not that trying to just dogfight it out with missiles, be it with the Falken or some other high-mobility Fighter, is any easier. Stabilize your craft for a microsecond to get a lock at an enemy’s rear, and the guy behind you blasts you away, boom. And there’s NEVER not a guy right behind you, ever. Doesn’t matter if you set your wingmen to Disperse or Cover or whatever, there’s still only two of them, and that’s not enough to keep the endless stream of bogeys off your tail. Slow way down to outturn them so that YOU can get behind THEM? Oh, their buddies further out just sent a SAAM your way, and you’re going way too slow to avoid it now, boom. The way the mission’s set up, each successive wave arrives just as you’re starting to whittle down the last one, instead of waiting for you to actually finish them OFF. You never get a moment to breathe, not a SECOND in which you can focus on attacking your enemies - you just dodge and dodge and dodge and dodge until eventually, inevitably, a missile manages to catch you despite all your aerobatics. Boom.

 

Somebody, earlier on, posted a strategy about outrunning the opposition to make them form a conga-line behind you, then spinning around to laser the lot of them. But how’s THAT supposed to work, exactly, when the Falken - for all its other stellar qualities - ISN’T a hypermach-fighter like the MiG-31M to similar? It’s barely any faster than the enemies you’re up against in 8492, so even going flat-out across the full length of the map isn’t enough to build up any significant lead - not enough to turn around and get a bead on them before they overfly you, anyway, and when they do so it’ll be along with the requisite dozen or so SAAM and regular missiles, forcing you to jink or die. Nor do they form a neat, easily-lasered line - they tend to wind up fairly spread-out, unless it’s that last formation of perfectly-coordinated Berkuts, perhaps. Might work on them - I wouldn’t know. Never managed to survive long enough to try it.

 

So yeah. Rest of the game? 5/10, maybe, if you abuse the Falken. Mission 18+? 11/10, estimated duration infinity. Guess that adds up to about a 9/10 overall difficulty.