When using the standard missiles, fire when the "Shoot" icon appears on the HUD. When used in dogfights, the missile will fly in a straight line to where it will make contact with the plane, rather than fly at its 6 o'clock and turn to stay behind them. If the targeted plane is flying right and you fire when the "Shoot" icon appears, the missile will fly off to the right, intercepting it along the target's flight path. The missile will also immediately adjust its flight path if the targeted plane veers off of their line. This works very well against evasive enemies, such as Strigon and Drones. You must aim the nose of your plane to where you can hit your target with your gun or lead the enemy (even if it is out of range) in order to get the "Shoot" icon. Even though it does not guarantee a hit every time, it will greatly increase the chances of making contact against mobile enemies.
When using the standard missiles, fire when the "Shoot" icon appears on the HUD. When used in dogfights, the missile will fly in a straight line to where it will make contact with the plane, rather than fly at it 6 o'clock and turn to stay behind them. If the targeted plane is flying right and you fire when the "Shoot" icon appears, the missile will fly off to the right, intercepting it along the target's flight path. The missile will also immediately adjust its flight path if the targeted plane veers off of their line. This works very well against evasive enemies, such as Strigon and Drones. You must aim the nose of your plane to where you can hit your target with your gun or lead the enemy (even if it is out of range) in order to get the "Shoot" icon. Even though it does not guarantee a hit every time, it will greatly increase the chances of making contact against mobile enemies.
To unlock Ace Difficulty, beat the game once through on Expert Difficulty.
Successfully complete Campaign mode on the Expert difficulty setting to unlock Ace Of Aces mode.
Complete the following achievements to unlock Xbox Live Gamerscore points.
| Achievement | How to unlock
|
|---|
- 10 Operations (10 points)
| |
- 10 Frontline Landings (10 points)
| - Complete 10 total frontline landings.
|
- 10 Named Aircraft (30 points)
| - Destroy 10 Named Aircraft.
|
| - Destroy a total of 1000 enemies.
|
| |
| - Attain purchasing ability for all aircraft special colors.
|
- Allied Assault Record (20 points)
| - Attain complete Emmerian assault record.
|
- Aerial Defense (10 points)
| - Destroy 50 enemies using airborne allied support.
|
| - Attain purchasing ability for all aircraft.
|
- All Operations (30 points)
| |
| - Unlock all hidden contents.
|
- Battle Royale (10) (10 points)
| - Win 10 Battle Royale matches.
|
- Battle Royale (30) (20 points)
| - Win 30 Battle Royale matches.
|
- Battle Royale (50) (30 points)
| - Win 50 Battle Royale matches.
|
- Battle Royale (100) (40 points)
| - Win 100 Battle Royale matches.
|
- Clear Campaign (20 points)
| |
- CO-OP Stage 1 (25 points)
| - Clear Stage 1 of CO-OP Battle.
|
- CO-OP Stage 2 (35 points)
| - Clear Stage 2 of CO-OP Battle.
|
- Electronic Support System (10 points)
| - Destroy 100 enemies while receiving electronic support.
|
- Enemy Assault Record (20 points)
| - Attain complete Estovakian assault record.
|
- Ground Defense (10 points)
| - Destroy 50 enemies using ground force allied support.
|
| - Successfully retreat from the fallen capital Gracemeria.
|
| - Prevent the aerial bombardment of Vitoze.
|
| - Attain victory at Sipli Field.
|
| - Destroy Bartolomeo Fortress, and recapture Khesed Island.
|
| - Ensure the success of allied ground forces Anea mainland landing.
|
| - Rescue allied ground forces cornered in Silvat.
|
| - Rescue allied forces amidst Aigaion attack.
|
| - Capture the Cavallia Air Force Base, and establish an Aigaion attack point.
|
| - Destroy the heavy command cruiser Aigaion.
|
| - Capture the Ragno Fortress.
|
| - Attain victory in the Moloch Desert invasion.
|
- Online Kills (50) (20 points)
| - Shoot down 50 total other player aircraft online.
|
- Online Kills (100) (30 points)
| - Shoot down 100 total other player aircraft online.
|
- Online Kills (200) (50 points)
| - Shoot down 200 total other player aircraft online.
|
- Original Aircraft (10 points)
| - Attain purchasing ability for original aircraft.
|
- Siege Battle (10) (10 points)
| - Win 10 Siege Battle matches.
|
- Siege Battle (30) (20 points)
| - Win 30 Siege Battle matches.
|
- Siege Battle (50) (30 points)
| - Win 50 Siege Battle matches.
|
- Siege Battle (100) (40 points)
| - Win 100 Siege Battle matches.
|
- Team Battle (10) (10 points)
| - Win 10 Team Battle matches.
|
- Team Battle (30) (20 points)
| - Win 30 Team Battle matches.
|
- Team Battle (50) (30 points)
| - Win 50 Team Battle matches.
|
- Team Battle (100) (40 points)
| - Win 100 Team Battle matches.
|
Beat the game on Hard difficulty. It will appear in your hangar, purchase it for $229,500.
In Co-op Stage 1, after you have eliminated the ships out in the sea, a carrier should release the Strigon team. Use this time to have you and your wingmen to take them out from the front or back. If you let them go, the fight will be a lot longer and difficult.
Use the CFA-44 Nosferatu's ADMM in the "Liberation of Gracemeria" mission. There are a lot of targets to kill. This mission should give you a boost in enemy kills.
Play the first mission "Invasion of Gracemeria" for easy gun kills.
Use the CFA-44 Nosferatu's ADMM in the mission "Liberation of Gracemeria" under Ace difficulty setting. There are a lot of targets and enemies worth a large number of points. You can get a lot of money this way for each completion.
Play any mission that allows you to capture an enemy airport, then repeatedly land in the airport that you've just captured 10 times. After that, successfully beat the current mission you're playing on.
Beat the game on Ace Difficulty.
Beat the game once.
Getting the Night Owl Medal
You’ll need to finish the campaign using ONLY any of the following: A-10A, Tornado GR.4 and F-117A
Note that attackers are the slowest and least maneuverable planes in the game so facing enemy fighters may be a problem. Personally, I only used the A-10A with FAEB for ground based operations/missions and the Tornado with ECMP for the anti-air missions. Since the medal requires you to finish the game using an attacker type plane, then you can give your wingman the best plane you can get and equip him with AA weapons. That way, you will just have to rely on your wingman and allied units for support so you can concentrate on the mission.
The FAEB (see Special Weapons section) of the A-10A is probably the most destructive antiground weapon you can get in the game. It pretty much destroys light-medium armored targets in a very large area, making a fast, clean sweep pretty much easier.
The Tornado’s ECMP is very useful when facing enemy aircraft and “spoof” their missiles. Since the Tornado is really hard to maneuver, it is almost impossible to evade a missile fired at short range.
Out of fun, I used the A-10 on Mission 09: Heavy Command Cruiser. Since the enemy cruisers are large targets, it was exhilarating to drop FAEBs on their decks and watch several targets destroyed at once. Try it for once.
Getting the Sharpshooter Medal
(Disable Autosave!)
This is both good and bad. Good because you can easily acquire all the Marksman medals. Bad because you will destroy ALL targets using machine gun only.
I suggest finishing this mode using F/A-18F with ECMP. At the start of each mission or after taking off, switching your SP weapon to ECMP will prevent any accidental missile firing and at the same time will allow you to use your ECMP faster.
You can use other more powerful planes but remember, it will just take one missile or SP weapon misfire and your machine gunning streak is over. You will need to restart the mission or the last checkpoint in case that happens. Make sure that during debriefing, your machine gun kills should register 100%. Anything else than that, you will need to retry the mission.
Handling the CFA-44 Nosferatu
The CFA - 44 is very unstable. Using High G is useless as that will stall it out quickly. To prevent this from happening, never use High G. The best way to handle this plane is by using the throttle up and down separately.
Unlockable Service Medals:
| Medal | How to unlock
|
|---|
| - Complete the campaign using only Multirole type aircraft.
|
| |
| - Destroy 10 enemy aircraft with a machine gun
|
| - Complete the campaign mode on Normal with an S rank.
|
| |
| - Destroy 200 enemy aircraft with a machine gun
|
| - Complete the campaign mode on Expert with an S rank.
|
| - Complete the campaign without getting your wingman shot down.
|
| - Complete the campaign mode without getting damaged.
|
| - Perform 10 consecutive frontline landings
|
| - Complete the campaign using only Attacker type aircraft.
|
| - Complete the campaign mode on Ace with an S rank.
|
| - Complete the campaign in record time
|
| - Complete the campaign using only Fighter type aircraft.
|
| - Complete the campaign using only machine guns
|
| |
| - Destroy 50 enemy aircraft with a machine gun
|
| - Complete the campaign mode on Hard with an S rank.
|
Beat the game once.
Co-op Stage 2: In Stage 2 Co-op, there is a F-22A flying around after destroying half of the enemy forces. Its name is CERES.
Here's how you unlock new paint schemes. Complete the game once through on Normal mode, and unlock the Estovokian scheme. A third paint scheme can be unlocked by shooting down the enemy aces found only in Expert and Ace difficulty modes.
You can unlock each plane in the game, save the two most powerful, by clearing the game once through on Normal difficulty. The two strongest craft are thereafter unlocked by completing the game on Hard and Expert difficulties.
Below are a list of planes that can be unlocked in Normal difficulty. Simply defeat the mission listed for the corresponding planes.
Default - F-16C Fighting Falcon
Mission 4 - A-10-2 Thunderbolt / Mirage 2000
Mission 5 - Panavia Tornado
Mission 6 - F-14D Tomcat / F-2A / FA-18 Super Hornet
Mission 8 - Sukhoi 33 Flanker
Mission 9 - F-15E Strike Eagle / Rafale M
Mission 10 - F-117 Nighthawk
Mission 12 - EU Typhoon
Mission 13 - F22A Raptor / Sukhoi 47 Berkut
The second part of Mission 13 (fight with Pasternak) is a little tricky for getting an S rank.
You need to shoot down drones during the battle with Pasternak. These are just
rough estimates but I think they are close after repeating the mission over and over again.
C = 0-10
B = 11-20
A = 21-30
S = 30 +
Take note that this is based if you got S ranks on any of the four initial operations. Of course, the plane I used is the CFA-44 and with the assistance of allied ESM fields. It also took me at least one frontline landing (while the drones and Pasternak are looming overhead) to get a fresh load of ADMMs.
Beat the game once.
To unlock SP GamerPicture, beat the game once through on Ace Difficulty.
Team Battle mode: Avoiding XLAAs
In Team Battle the thing to do against XLAA users is to attacking them from above. These users are always at or near surface level. Use this to your advantage by going above 24,000 feet in altitude and strike from above. If you are using the CFA-44 Nosferatu, use its EML Cannon to take the XLAA users out from a distance.
Team Battle mode: ESM advantage
If you have ESM control, have all of your battles be placed within the ESM range. Having ESM increases your missile capabilities and reduces theirs slightly.
Team Battle mode: Preventing ESM
If you are in a tight spot because the opposing team is using ESM, concentrate all of your fire on the ESM user. Do not worry about the other planes around you. As for the missiles, flying out of the ESM range will reduce its capabilities.
Third/Final Paint Scheme for CFA-44
I have the final color scheme for the CFA-44. I unlocked it by getting the following medals: Bronze Ace, Silver Ace, Gold Ace, all Marksman medals, Needle's Eye, Night Owl, Raging Falcon, Blazing Griffin, Guardian, Legendary Ace, Bronze Star, Silver Star, and Gold Star medals.
I picked up the Blazing Griffin medal last and that's when it gave me the paint scheme. Since I did have the Legendary Ace medal I cannot confirm that it is either necessary or unnecessary that you have it. My safest guess would be that you need a total of 17 medals regardless of which ones you have.
Complete campaign once on any difficulty setting.
More Cheats, Tips, Secrets & Walkthroughs
