There's a few games that are so masterfully planned and well thought that it's easy to realize how good they're from pretty early on. Iconoclasts is one such gem. Even more amazing that it's a one person's dream and solo achievement.
If you like platforms with fighting and some puzzles, you'll love this game. Fluid gameplay, good mechanics, colorful graphics and even a reasonable story if that's your cup of tea.
Not much else to say, HIGHLY recommended.
I've played and finish (or almost) the 5 Sandlot games on PS3, PS4 and Vita. In my personal opinion the easiest to hardest are to finish solo, considering on the PS3 and PS4 versions cheesing some classes and missions by playing split screen solo:
- Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair
- Earth Defense Force 5
- Earth Defense Force 2025
- Earth Defense Force 2017
- Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders From Planet Space
EDF 4.1 is the easiest. There's no really hard mission with at least 1 class, as at least one is able to solve reasonably easy all of them with well below 2.000 armor, with some missions just being long. Specially for the AR many things that were downright unusable due to slowness in 2025, become problem solvers. The AR is the king of messy missions, the WD of having to sneak and caves ones and the Ranger the sniping ones.
EDF 2025 is honestly not good and becomes really hard due to the slowness and issues. In split screen solo sometimes it's unbearable. Some of the missions are hard, there's almost no missions with NPCs so all enemies always focus on you alone and become a lot harder when you're crawling but your enemies aren't. The foundations of the gameplay are there, but the hardware did not help, and the game was much over what could be done on it (or not optimized enough).
However do see that there isn't a single class in each of the 3 big console games that is able to do without difficulties all missions in inferno. Some missions will always be very to extremely hard for some classes.
The Vita games incomprehensibly were clearly even more than the big console ones developed to be played in coop... Smart option for games for a portable console... They're much harder than the other 3 with EDF 2 being dreadful to solo in inferno with any class and much, much harder than 2017. And being portable games, can't cheese any missions for a class in coop. Any shooting enemy is extremely accurate in both games, and they do massive damage compared to the big consoles games to the point that NPCs are wiped out in a snap. 5-10k armor isn't unreasonable for 2017, and for 2 well...
As it's easier to me I'll use reverse order of missions.
DLC 1-13 - Engage Aliens 3
The mission has 4 waves. The first wave has 3 deroys and several colonists. Second several tadpoles. Third even more tadpoles. Fourth, deroys from back and both sides from start, colonists from both sides and eventually 6 blue tadpoles.
Mission will not progress to 3rd wave until all deroys (and colonists) from 1st wave are dead. Keeping a deroy alive with its plasma cannons destroyed is clever to have time to prepare 3rd wave and pick crates for you and NPCs.
When starting there are 2 groups of NPCs on each side of the road below the cliffs: one of rangers and another of fencers on the left side, and 2 of rangers on the right side. It's very hard for Ranger and AR to grab both because they don't have speed for that, it's best to go to the right side as the fencers have better chances of survival than the rangers.
In the fourth wave you'll get from the right side 2 middle deroys and one multi launcher colonist, so going to the right is a lot more dangerous as you'll be immediately under their aim.
Mission 110 - The Nameless
From where you start the map end is reasonably furthest away to the left and slightly more to the front. It's good to know how much you can walk backwards before hitting the map border.
The special WD and Grim Reaper Fencer squads will show up a few secs after the appearance of the second mob of cosmonauts. They will come from the map edge at your back from start. but will be difficult to capture at this point. The WDs will stop slightly ahead of where you start in the train tracks, and the fencers slightly to the right of the starting point in the road.
At the third wave of cosmonauts the special ranger squad will also show up to the left near the indestructible area, but these will likely die anyway even if you capture them.
Mission 108 Online only - Under Siege
On the 3rd and last wave by far the best way to handle it is to have an Air Raider equipped with a KM6 Z4 and some turrets (ZEXRs or FZ-GUN MXs) on its loadout, and a Nyx Rad Guard (shields will help its survival). He should jump to and camp on the top of the transport dropping spiders. Then kill all remaining fliers immediately and piss all cosmos and frogs and wait for them to gather under the transport. He can then use Z4 to crush them, while not being hit, as Z4 does penetrate this transport. If the Nyx is being hit by Z4, jump up with it when it's coming. Other players can also turkey shoot them with sniper weapons from safe distances.
When all cosmos are gone, stop attacks on small fish, and other players can then destroy the 2 other transports that would be dropping pillbugs and goldies, which will be in peace since all enemies will be under the spiders transport. Resume Z4s until goldies and pillbugs are gone. Run away to aggro spiders far from the transport, and again someone else destroys silvers transport in peace, then finally the silvers.
The biggest problem is organizing such action, especially without voice chat.
Mission 108 Online only - Despair
The jp wiki says the super duper pylons have 700.000 armor for 4 players. It's wrong, it's more than that. A fully upgraded Tempest ATS + Bulge Z is not enough to destroy it:
479800 + ( 389.9 * 600 ) = 713740
Pylon should have around 20 to 30k more than this.
Crappy that ATS + Bulge Z doesn't work.
On 3 and 4 players or solo super sized pylons will be on the verge of destruction with 3 fully starred on damage Bulge Z attacks.
It is possible to avoid the spawn of the 2 big enemies if the last 2 super sized pylons are destroyed at a small interval, which is tricky to do solo.
Mission 108 - Scorched Earth
The 3rd wave has 100 tadpoles, plus 2 blueish big ones. Your NPCs can't handle them very well. If the pillbugs from wave 2 were already problematic for them, these are dreadful.
On 4th wave the leftmost anchor from start "only" drops black and red ants (it will be the rightmost and back one if you are on the right map end when they spawn). The other 3 drop either spiders or bees (the 2 rightmost ones). The central large one will keep spitting queen ants and king spiders until destroyed. It will also produce tadpoles, spiders and black ants if another anchor is destroyed.
The initial wave that the 4 anchors send is larger than the following ones. It's the reason you'll see a sea of red dots in the map after the anchors spawn for the first time.
Mission 104 - Against All Odds
From your start position front, then clockwise the transports drop the following enemies:
- bees
- tadpoles
- pillbugs
- bees
- black ants
- tadpoles
- pillbugs
- black ants
All classes except AR can go forward and destroy in sequence the first 4 transports, the AR will have to go left to gain points to get a vehicle, and then he can go for the transports. By killing the 5th transport you'll also get the heavy cosmos, the normal ones spawned at the 2nd downed transport.
This was clearly created with that in thought, as the first 4 transports are the ones most interesting to destroy and they're in sequence.
The place where the cosmos drop doesn't seem to be always the same.
Mission 101 - Crumbling City
All waves spawn points from start position.
First wave is front left.
Second is front right.
Third is front left.
Fourth is 2 buildings, right just forward and right just backwards. WD cavalry will arrive before this one ends.
Fifth wave has 3 crumbling buildings one back left, followed in just a few secs by another slightly to the right of the first of this wave (back from start) and followed by another in just a few more secs just left from start.
Sixth wave will be when there's around 50 little ants alive, 2 buildings one far front from start and followed by another just back right.
A mess eh? 😋😁
Mission 100 - Greatest Final Confrontation
The 5 important waves are the small stuff ones as these are the only ones you can actively and successfully handle.
From start position:
1 - left, spiders and 5 Colonists with plasma cannons
2 - right, spiders and 5 Cosmonauts, plus spiders from front likely behind the main fight (these cosmonauts can destroy you EMCs but it depends if they focus on them or not)
3 - (after the 10 new Erginus) front, black and red ants, 2 shield bearers, 10 heavy Cosmonauts
4 - bees from back, left and right (these will likely destroy EMCs, if they're still alive and you don't deal with the bees)
5 - from all over the map, tadpoles, these are crucial killing too (difficult that EMCs, if they're still alive, will survive)
Mission 99 - Intense Battle Underground
The right teleportation pad will spawn ants. It will depend on opinion, but in mine this should be the first to go.
Mission 90 - Broken Land
Not very important (or less) for Air Raider but crucial for other classes. Photos of the deroys placements, with most buildings that would block the views destroyed. Destroying all would be troublesome it's hard to destroy any without alerting the deroys or smaller stuff.
Right from start, at the top left corner it's the deroy just in front of you when mission starts, NPCs are further down the same avenue.
Right side from start, but looking towards the large deroy, just left of the tall building in the background. The other missile deroy, a small one, is the second in the photo to the left of the big one, just up left from WD's jet pack. It's roughly in the middle of the highest concentrated area.
Left side from start, just under the WD is the large missile deroy, the small missiles one is just above the WD arms sight.
Mission 73 - Light Defenses
From start to right you have a red ants anchor. Back from this one slightly to left a black ants one.
From start, almost front is a spiders anchor, with a black ants one back and left, just out of the shields.
Further back from this one, roughly in the same line as the first it's another spiders anchor. The one more isolated in the back between the back spiders and the back black ants is the bees anchor.
The large anchor is only present in hardest or higher, drops 3 yellow ants and 1 silver spider per spawn.
When there's just 2 anchors remaining a large number of enemies will spawn, so it's not a good idea that the large anchor is one of the last 2.
Mission 70 - Aircrafts
If you hear the initial dialog there's details about a abandoned Railgun. The Railgun is left up, near the fountain. It has 150k armor and 25 shells which will destroy a imperial drone in 2 shots, but it's slow as molasses to use the turret. Any class will be able to use the railgun.
There will be 3 fencers near the railgun, 2 rangers before reaching them if you go left first, near the railway and 2 more further up after the fencers to the right. These besides the 3 rangers plus sarge (on the railway slightly to the left) near the start.
Approaching the sarge will spawn another imperial drone in attack mode, all others are in stand by, although it's usual that if you capture your NPCs they will aggro some of the drones.
Mission 60 - Mountain Investigation
It's advisable to capture the second Ranger squad and proceed to the top of the mountain near where the WDs are, to avoid the last 3 waves of bees coming from the hive being too spread. This last squad of rangers will be massacred anyway if you don't capture them.
You don't need to kill the Queen Bees of the last wave, just run away and your life will be easy if you still have captured NPCs alive. The mission will end shortly after the Queens appearance.
Missiles and guided weapons are a must here, due to the huge number of enemies.
You really don't want tons of bees and Archelus at the same time...
EDF 5, unlike previous iterations of Sandlot games, won't allow you to play in hardest on Inferno until you finished the whole campaign in hard. In part it's understandable. It's the way it is, unless you cheat there's no way around it.
Playing directly on hard instead of normal isn't that hard. There will be a few missions that will require more work but it can be done. I finished hard by using the WD in 90%of the missions, first using a rapier and the Spark Whip, and when I got the Stardust Cannon, I changed it for the Whip. I did try other weapons but frankly, except the Mirage for just a few missions and the Bolt Shooter for 109 (what a disappointment), everything else was insipid or a bore to use. I did 100 and 110 with the AR. 100 is an impressive mission, the most impressive one overall but like the similar 4.1 one it becomes dreadful to do as it's mostly an RNG game, you're almost totally dependent on what the NPC Bargas will do, so unfortunately it's the worst mission of the game (yep even worse than 1). 110 is easiest with the AR and I just wanted to proceed to inferno. Weapons progress is reasonable on hard, even weapons that are not upgraded will work quite well, in all missions. 109 was the hardest mission by a gazillion miles. The third stage of the mothership shield is dreadful and I wasn't figuring a solution. After trying Ranger and AR a few times, the first time I used WD with Stardust Cannon and a Bolt Shooter (more like a pea shooter, you have to fly halfway to the mothership for this crap to hit it) bingo.
Inferno is not easy in EDF 5, as weapon progression is dreadfully slow and most weapons are a joke when they drop. And at that point, you're dependent mostly on luck with weapons progress.
It's crystal clear that in general EDF 5 is a major improvement over 4.1, which itself was already way better than 2025. Considering that the main platform (PS4) is still the same, as there was a huge hardware boost between 2025 which ran on the PS3 and 4.1 which was developed for the PS4, the game almost feels like a completely different one which is amazing. Sandlot made also major changes to each class, some were beneficial some were detrimental.
It's interesting how much the game enemies changed back to EDF 2 looks. Sometimes it seems more than I'm playing a Vita EDF 2 sequel, than a PS4 4.1 one. It's clear that while developing the Vita games Sandlot had to learn even more about polygon count issues and translated that to EDF 5. Let me state that both EDF Vita games are amazing considering the hardware limitations. They're tough as hell to play solo unfortunately.
General improvements
- all classes will heal captured NPCs when picking up health 😍😍😍😍😍
- the DLC weapons are a great idea
- almost all DLC missions are really good, on 4.1 many DLC missions were stupid, dumb and pointless
- NPCs are much better than in 4.1. The special squads are actually really useful many times. NPC fencers don't die like idiots 99% of the times like they did on 4.1
- much less slowdowns. You can use a rapier near a shield without making the game absolutely crawl
- some of the new enemies are much better than I expected. Pillbugs do require some thought how to handle (except on mission 87...). Colonists and cosmonauts are interesting enemies. New deroys are not as bad as I thought they would be.
- the giant ships are really good and impressive. The mothership quality is open to discussion. The last boss is good.
- unlike most missions in 4.1 where there were waves of enemies, in most missions in 5 when that happens there's no delay or wait until all enemies from previous wave are dead before the next wave spawns. This does create more difficult situations to solve, because you have no break between waves to prepare for the next. More stress, more fun? 😋
General retrogressions
- the dreadful double weapons grind. Now you have to grind for the weapons, and then a gazillion more so that they're not mostly worthless. 😑😐😐😐🙄🙄😣😣
- NPCs are even dumber than in 4.1 in one thing. They love to put themselves in the line of fire when you're shooting. It's a fetish for sure, or a death wish. It's dreadful to use explosives or many AR weapons because of this. I think I lose almost as many missions from friendly accidents as from enemies.
- why change the names of so many weapons? Was this useful? Why not change all if it was the point?
- tadpoles are dreadful. It's understandable that the polygon count of dragons was too great, but these things are plain bad. The movement, attack and behavior is at least exactly the same as dragons, and red dragons (the bluish ones)
- you can't farm weapons for just 1 class. I understand the reason behind this, but I have 0 or near interest in farming Fencer weapons for instance, even less now that there isn't thankfully a 100% weapons achievement, and you get them anyway. Also this makes weapon farming for a second class annoying, as in 4.1 you could finish a mission with your main class, then revive if necessary or possible and use a second to optimize weapon pickups for that one.
Ranger
Pros
- his running mechanic is nice, and yes the starting and end of the run are understandable
- the support mechanics are a nice addition
- he now has vehicles
- some missiles like the Prominence and the MLRA are actually useable and useful now. But a Prominence, a missile carried by a person is actually much more powerful than a railgun that needs a tank... 😂
Cons
- most of his snipers were nerfed. Yes the J9 was way beyond what it should be on 4.1, but now it's the opposite
- shotguns are too good and their range is ridiculous big
- the ranger has the Epsilon but now it's mostly a toy. It's so, so ridiculous that many weapons the Ranger carries do almost as and some even more damage as a railgun installed in a tank... Yes I know ridiculous is standard in EDF games but this one...
Wing Diver
Pros
- the cores are a interesting mechanic that provides good choices and strategies for solving missions
- some people will love the way most weapons work now, pre-charging them before use and full clip use at once
- the dash mechanic is useful, although it is abused which I hope it was not Sandlot's intention. It should be a escape or quick faster but temporary advance mechanic, and not a almost infinite flight one
Cons
- the way most weapons work now, by forcing you to charge them before use and then empty them in one use is not consensual. Some people love it, some hate it. I'm on the haters side, as I think it introduces pointless issues, it actually is worse in energy management which is the core mechanic of the WD. The only benefits are for using high energy consumption weapons, which are the ones you shouldn't be using anyway. Also the sounds for weapon charged will drive you insane. At least could be optional, old way or new way
- most useful weapons for the WD have been nerfed so much they're basically useless, mainly the Idunn's. Yes the Idunn's were too powerful, but now they're absolute junk with ridiculous damage and hopeless accuracy. Well to me the lances are junk now too due to the charging mechanic, they're interesting for big guys, dreadful for general use
Air Raider
Pros
- bombers have been greatly improved, and the ground markings are awesome
- he has 3 weapon slots instead of 2, but can't have duplicates of the same item, which has not become a issue due to many viable alternatives
- satellite attacks have improved a lot too, they're actually useful now
- gunship attacks are awesome, specially against powerful enemies
- the new turrets, the flame based FZ-GUNs and the laser based ZE Blaster are great
- turrets no longer destroy your own vehicles, so they can be installed on them without issues 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍
- shields can be installed on vehicles, on 4.1 they would stay in the ground if you tried to do it.
- you don't need to hold a weapon for it to rebuild, which was frankly ridiculous 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍
- many useful weapons now refill over time and not points
- the hysterical Spritefall operator is absolutely awesome
- exoskeletons now are actually useful and mission solvers, with different characteristics between models
- the Depth Crawlers are easier to control
Cons
- why can't he run like the ranger? He's he incompetent? Weak? This was like the choice on 4.1 that only Ranger would heal NPCs by picking health for him.
- the summoning mechanic for vehicles is dreadfully dumb in 5. It's no longer possible to ask for a vehicle to a point far from where you're. So in inferno summoning one vehicle or new ones becomes a nightmare or pointless in many missions, as you can't ask your enemies to take a small break while you wait for your new vehicle or that they don't ruin it as soon as it's dropped. Alas, it's how wars in real world should be done, you ask for supplies to the middle of the action and then wait on the spot, so that it can be destroyed too with you while you're being overwhelmed. Yes it will surely work... This is only credible in multiplayer where AR should theoretically be far from action and then can summon vehicles with more peace of mind. Only different in caves, as DC's spawn instantly.
- helicopters are still junk to control, grapes and naeglings are now too easy to turn on their sides or upside down
- yes, exoskeletons now are good and useful, but his Epsilons were removed. And nerfed anyway. At least now he's no longer the Epsilon Railgun class 🤣😑😑😑😑
-the supress guns were not necessary, and I doubt anyone uses them. If you do, well...
- the limpets are still mostly stupid, pointless and extremely situational (at least to me). The limpet sniper I think it's the only sniping weapon in the game without zoom. Unfortunately they're now necessary several times, since you can't summon vehicles at start and some things will be out of range of all his vehicles, or a PITA to be.
- Blackers are nice for movement, but almost useless otherwise. Lousy shooting angles, dreadful for precision shooting and too much recoil
Fencer
Pros
- he now can almost fly, the jumps and dashes make his movement much better than the WD, since there's no energy management to consider
Cons
.
Armor, armor, armor... Tell me magic mirror, how much armor do I need to handle Inferno? 😍🤣
The mirror won't answer, and neither you'll find it in a crystal ball.
Let me tell a simple story. When I tried to play EDF 2025, it was a PS Plus free game and I hated it for probably the same reason as everyone that tries these games: dreadful graphics, bugs (and I don't mean the insects), die, die, die. What's the point of the stupid Air Raider? This guy can't do anything! The Fencer? Slow as molasses? The Wing Diver is a junk character always in emergency recharge. This was the first phase.
The second, I made a effort and discovered how good the game really is. Unlike most games, the gameplay is excellent. But still I couldn't believe it was possible to finish most inferno missions with 10k armor. Or most likely 25k. Or more... The simple reason was that I did not know how to play the game. At least reasonably well.
The game has a steep learning curve. There's no way around it. It will only be easier in another iteration when you've really learned one of them because at that point the changes will be small but the core game is the same and it's easier to adapt.
If you need more than 5k to solve a mission of the main game, you're certainly doing something wrong. Weapons, strategy, tactics, use of NPCs (not really possible in most 2025 missions), use a different class. The game becomes a boring dumbness with a ton of armor. You can't play this game CoD or Battlefield style, if you do then you'll need a gazillion armor or die again and again and again. It does not work this way.
If you really learn the game you'll find out that you can solve the majority of missions with the same class, using the right weapons, which don't have to be the same for everyone, but more importantly by thinking on the right and best way to do it, by taking advantage of the map, environment and enemy behavior. At that point skill is not important. I'm no skill master and I solve all EDF 2025 and EDF 4.1 missions with reasonable armor and surely will all the ones in EDF 5. Do see some missions will take time, effort and thought to be solved. Took me years to find a easy and reliable way to solve easily Star Eaters on 2025, I would play it once in a while, and finally one day I found it (AR had the solution). Do remember some classes will struggle on a few missions. It's by design, the game clearly was made to be played in teams of different characters and taking advantage of each class.
Don't farm for armor, you'll find out game progress will provide you with more than enough. On EDF 5 is even less necessary, the big areas for crates picking for the ranger and vehicles mean that you can't cherry pick just weapon crates in many missions. And armor progresses is very fast on this game.
Air Raider will usually be the class that needs less armor for obvious. He's on vehicles most of the time, so it does shield him more than other classes. Solving missions with him is more a question of doing it or not, not how much armor you have.
Unfortunately most people seem to go for the armor way. It should be norm for anyone posting or giving information on EDF missions to clearly say how much armor they have, as what I see the majority of times is that either there's a ton of western EDF players that are absolutely stellar beyond the best japanese pros or they really have a ton of armor and then what they say or suggest is plausible.
The feeling of finally solving a mission in a easy and reliable way is what EDF is all about. At least to me. Hope you find this too.
PS
Yes DLC is a different story, but DLC 1 and particularly 2 were created to be extreme.
This is a discussion like the gender of angels. None. All. The game was clearly developed to be played with 2 or more people and take advantage of each class benefits. All classes will struggle in one or more missions while playing solo.
In the end the best class offline will be the one you manage to solve missions with, preferably all of them. One of the best features of EDF Sandlot games is how different the 4 classes are from each other (or were) and how much the gameplay changes when you use one or another.
To me the best and most interesting classes are by far are the Wing Diver and Air Raider.
The Wing Diver is the most fun (or was 😐😐😑😑😑... see next) class to use, and it's a very aggressive class. Energy management is the thing you need to learn how to deal with. However it's very different playing the WD in 4.1 and 5, a few things are equal but many are not.
The Air Raider can deal tremendous amounts of damage and it's the class requiring more strategy, tactics, planning and advanced knowledge, and I love that. It's the most different class of all 4 due to its wide and varied kit, and also the one that is more viable to do missions with different loadouts. He's to me the absolute top class in EDF 5, so much fun to use him now especially in inferno. He rocks on most missions, especially chaotic ones, only struggling in some cave ones. However, it must be said that most of his weapons have a luck factor in their use. But now that the WD is the annoying queen of the weapon charged beeps among other dumb options, he is a gazillion miles away from her.
Do realize that AR is ultimately the class that will likely take more time to really be good at.
The Ranger is the usual boring FPS character. He had a good start on 4.1, but struggled in Inferno. He has been improved a lot in EDF 5 with the vehicles, running and abilities, since now he can at least escape if necessary. His biggest plus in 4.1 was that it's the only class that will replenish health of NPCs when picking up health crates, something that thankfully Sandlot changed on 5 as it was ridiculous so it's no longer his uniqueness, although he has enhancements that can still make that better than other classes. He has the best, easiest and most effective sniping abilities in the game by a mile, only thing where he really excels as he's average on everything else.
Still, it's probably the most difficult class to be successful overall.
The Fencer, well is the Fencer. You either hate the idiot, or you love the powerful guy. It's the most difficult class to use and master initially. The rewards can be very good, even more in EDF 5 as he now can almost fly like a WD, with no energy issues and a limited cooldown. I still hate the idiot, and probably ever will, as I find it too much of a hassle to use for too little fun to play. Ok, eating my own words 😂🤣. Since the WD is mostly annoying and not a joy to play now, I started to play around with the big guy. And I must say it's fun. Although I'm still a basic Fencer player there are quite a few mission that are a joy to play with him. Still, he's difficult to master.
In the end it's your choice. Try them all, settle with the ones you can adapt better. And be more successful with. And more important the one you have more fun playing. That's a major plus of the game anyway.
I do advise everyone to master as much as possible at least 2 classes. This will make you enjoy the game more, and put all missions within reach, as they'll likely all be easy or almost with one of them.
Ranger doesn't have a life as easy as the AR, but still can manage it. However there will be different steps from the AR strategy and almost certainly the amount of surviving NPCs will be a lot smaller.
Ideal weapons:
- MEX5 Emerald, the more upgraded the better. The MEX5 has a big advantage as their hits will usually make colonist and cosmonauts stop and move in some direction, which will make them loose attack momentum and make them easier preys for your NPCs. This makes it invaluable. that also helps destroy the scenery it's anther plus 😋
- MR100 Fang, or another powerful sniper will help kill high armor enemies (aim for body, NPCs will not usually make headshots so it doesn't help them, except if you can kill the enemy with one, like a frog)
- the best Epsilon Blast Railgun, is the best option, as it will help to bring down anchors (9 shots with level 84 one, how crappy it's now compared to 4.1 and Ranger does not have power enhancement either) and will make it easier to do weapon pickups in the end as it's not a good idea to be on foot. EMC could be interesting for the massive damage but it's slow as molasses for anything else.
Armor: 1000+
If it was difficult not to be hit with AR, ranger is a lot worse. Keep moving while shooting the Emerald.
Plan:
It's similar to the AR. Either stay where you spawn or go ro left to the slightly higher area. Capture zero NPCs until the end. Keep on using Emerald and moving, be careful as you can't roll while shooting.
Use sniper when it's useful, but do kill the second laser sniper from left when the 4 show up. This is the most troublesome part, as the heavy cosmos that come at the same time as the snipers are the most difficult to kill, will probably wipe out your NPC Nixs and you'll be targeted easily,remember these guys make heavy damage. Leave the 4th one alive and take down both pylons with Epsilon. Be careful engaging heavy cosmonauts with Epsilon, it's not a exoskeleton with 70k armor.
If all NPCs die before all heavies are dead you'll probably be in deep trouble. Armor less heavies will outrun the Epsilon and you and won't be able to kill many. It's a good time to pick all surviving NPCs when the pylons are gone, and start to pick all possible health crates to heal them. Remember don't shoot cosmonauts avoid that as they fry your Epsilon.
Last enemy alive will be the rightmost laser sniper cosmo, but remember the surviving NPCs can wipe him out if they're in range.
UPDATE
I tried a few variations to see if a weapons pickup scheme would work. Well it does, not reliably but sufficiently. When possible summon Epsilon, then pick from left the fencer squad, the WDs, the Rangers in the park, the Laser ranger and the last fencers. Then walk around picking up as many crates as possible.
Two choices for end: leave a sniper alive or a anchor. If it's the anchor, kill both snipers. If it's a sniper, kill both anchors. always leave the rightmost from start anchor or sniper alive. Almost all NPCs will be dead at the end, and this can still go berserk in a snap.
Don't shoot anything with the tank or avoid it! Except the anchor (s). I did kill the plasma cannon frogs but it was risky, as all cosmos will focus on you. The plasma frogs are dangerous as their hits are powerful and have a lot of area damage. It must be said that if you're not picking up the crates in a vehicle and still hitting enemies, the 4 plasma frogs from the last wave are the most dangerous enemies as they'll hit you from anywhere on the map and they do considerable damage. While trying to do this mission without vehicles I would lose the mission almost every time because of them as it's difficult to be focusing on all enemies and be alert to the shots of 4 different plasma frogs, even worse when there's 2 on each side and they do move all over the map. As I already told elsewhere unlike 4.1, cosmonauts and colonists will focus fire on you if you hit one of them.
One of the pluses is that cosmonauts have some difficulties in hitting very near enemies, so NPCs are not massacred all that easily.
You can bring Reverse Shooter X instead of a sniper, but then you'll have to use the Railgun to kill them. Not terribly difficult though.
Nerfed or not the Railgun is ultimately a better vehicle for picking up crates than the exoskeletons. Probably using a blacker isn't a bad idea either...
I'll use this posts to show a few things that can help in your game.
WD Rapiers - The Wing Diver rapiers are exceptional weapons, which have been improved from 4.1. They were somewhat nerfed, but they are much more effective. This is a close call weapon, and as such it requires some finesse and talent to use. It's the top weapon to shred large spawning mobs and big bosses as it stuns its prey. With its massive DPS, low recharge time and reasonable energy consumption they're awesome. Unlike Phalanx which is a focused rapier and one charge use, they have a large spread that will stun multiple enemies at the same time. Or still do massive damage to a big one with tons of exposed flesh 😋.
Queen ants - The best way to kill them is by flying over its back or sides. Once it's hit it will be partially stunned and easy to finish. Take advantage of the acid throwing animation, it follows a pattern and take advantage of the timing when she's going to send a new spit. However be careful attacking 2 near ant queens at once.
King spider - Like the queen bee the king spider does massive damage with its attack. However the king spider does have one plus over the queen ant. It won't shoot webs while it's moving, so if you catch it jumping or moving it's easy to stun and kill with a rapier. Preferable spots will be front or under, but sides will work too. Once you start it's easier than the queen ant.
Queen bee - This one is a PITA with a rapier but can be done. The major issue is that if you try to fly to her, unless she's attacking something else, she'll always fly away. In city maps, it's possible to make her land on buildings and then it's a lot easier to attack quickly, she'll die in a snap. You can hide behind buildings, where the stings won't hit you. Don't fly. Major issue is if you have WDs in your NPCs they keep on flying and it's more difficult for the giant bee to settle.
Imperial drones - They usually fly really low near you and it's easy to attack them and they get down really quickly.
Blue tadpoles - These have a ton of health, only chance is when they land. They do massive damage to your NPCs, so getting rid of them is a good idea
Deroys - You can Rapier to death Deroys, isn't a major issue, but ONLY once you got rid of the leg weapons (clearly the way Sandlot devised them to be handled). The Mirage works great for that. A Deroy without leg attacks is a third rate enemy
Red drones - Don't even try, you'll send them away. A nightmare to kill them with a rapier
Spiders (silver or normal) - the best way to rapier spiders or groups of them isto keep bunny jumping in circles around them. Yes it's effective and considering the huge health silvers have it's one the best weapons against them. Still be thoughtful how you do this, it's probably not going to work if you have a ton of siders coming from all over the map at the same time. At least group them first.
Red or purple ants - They're extremely aggressive on EDF 5, but they're the easiest bunch to handle with a rapier
Gold ants - Usually not a good idea. Golds are the fastest attacker in the game and their attacks can deliver absolutely devastating damage. They're much worse than silver spiders.
Colonists / Cosmonauts - They're better to finish them off instead of full kill, but you can start between their legs and aim up, it will fry them. Not fast enough thought and some of their near friends can make your life miserable.
Giant bees
Best way to handle giant bees is to have buildings or terrain between you and them, as they eventually hover in the same place, or even land on the other side. After they send the stings peek and hit them. NPC WDs can sometimes be a pain for this as they keep flying and it's difficult to have the giant bee settle in a specific spot. Still easier to handle than giant ants or spiders. 😁