Mission 03: Two-pronged Strategy

Operation Dual-Wielder

This is a purely anti-air mission so bring AA sp weapons and equip upgrade parts that will increase your standard missile and spw reload time, max loadout etc. You can replay the first two missions if you want to increase your funds.

Try to unlock the Directional Proximity Fuze Lv1 (+standard missile power) part first then get the F/A-18F. After getting it, you’ll be able to unlock the parts listed below. These parts can be equipped generally to all other aircraft and will have a considerable edge as you unlock better planes.

Multiple Enemy Detection Device (MSL) LV.1 (Decreases standard missile reload time)

Thrust-Adjusting Steering Device (MSL) LV1. (Improves standard missile homing)

Takeoff Weight Augmentation (MSL) LV1. (+standard missile load limit)

Onboard Self-Defense Jammer (Reduces enemy missile homing when locked to you)

Using carrier-based aircraft like the F-14D and F/A-18 will give you a chance to take off and land on a carrier while other aircraft like the F-16C will give you a chance to do a mid-air refueling sequence and normal airfield landing. Doing these sequences successfully will give you a good point boost.

After the carrier takeoff or mid-air refueling sequence, step on your afterburners to join your allies already engaging several bogeys. After destroying them, you’ll get missile warnings coming from outside the operation area. You can get hit by these so make sure to speed up and prepare to evade. After a short while, the Arsenal Bird will arrive at the scene.

The Arsenal Bird is capable of launching multiple several drones at once but they’ll be flying in formation shortly after getting launched, making them vulnerable to multi-target AA SP weapons like the 4AAM, 6AAM, and 8AAM.

You can’t destroy the Arsenal Bird but you can knock off some of its propellers and AAM systems for some good points (500 each). Several of these parts can be easily destroyed at once using the multi-target AA SP weapons mentioned above. The main challenge when doing this however is that the drones will be actively attempting to shoot you down so you’ll have to quickly turn away to evade as well.

After a while, the Arsenal Bird will be activating it shield, making it invulnerable to damage for the remainder of the mission. Take note that you’ll also get damaged and even destroyed if you get caught inside the shield so watch out when you see some sort of halo forming above it. That means the shield will be activated shortly.

After the Arsenal Bird activates its shield, your allies will start retreating the area and break off into several groups. You’ll have to destroy all drones attacking each group; the faster you kill them the better. The best way to shoot down these drones is by following them and use your allied aircraft as bait so you can shoot the drones from behind.

You can’t save Brownie. Even if you attempt to escort her, she’ll just be flying around in the northeastern grid and even if you go to her position, you won’t find the enemy ace stalking her.

Mission 3, first run

ACE(S)

Rosie Lucas “BAYONET”

Destroy all 6 initial targets within 1 minute and 30 seconds (timer starts as soon as you enter the operation area so hit the afterburners). BAYONET will spawn in the northwest corner of the map, behind the Arsenal Bird once it appears. You have to kill all six bandits quickly so using long-range, zero-delay weapons like TLS, PLSL, and EML is strongly recommended though those weapons’ accuracy will heavily depend on you. More details here.

Rank S Tips

Get an air-superiority fighter with excellent speed and maneuverability with multi-target AA Missiles. As you get more parts, upgrading your SP weapons’ homing, max loadout capacity, flight speed, or reload time will help you shoot down several drones or destroy several of the Arsenal Bird’s parts at once. You have to kill aerial targets quickly and take out as many parts of the Arsenal Bird as possible, before it activates its shield. You’ll get an S rank for shooting down most of the targets and completing the mission in around 9 minutes.

Free Mission, Rank S (Normal)