If a few of the missions in the main campaign were already difficulty, things here start to get really hairy. There's missions in the DLC1 that are already dreadfully hard for any class, but this is only the starters, even worse will come.
I'll detail the few that I think are manageable without many issues. This is a work in progress, it's quite probable anyway I can't find any even remotely easy solutions for all 15.
Mission 1 - Engage Aggressors 1
This one is easy. There's 4 waves of ants, in wave 3 there's a queen ant, and enemies are in attack mode instead of stand by. The queen will appear isolated to the back far right from start, in the map border near a large avenue. As long as you're the right spot for the queen the end of wave 3 there's nothing much in this mission. Red Guard is enough for 1 queen ant, ZEXR is good for ants, ZEX Launcher too,Phobos 4 will make it even easier. Escape immediately to back to map border, remember turrets are not efficient with obstacles.
WD has a nice life here too, a rapier (for queen, reds and normal ants) and something else with a little more range is all you need (Stardust works fine).
Just an appetizer for the hard stuff...
Mission 2 - Engage Aggressors 2
This mission isn't very hard either. Bring ZEXR, a good exo, Phobos and whatever you want (life vendor, guard post, etc). At start capture NPCs, install ZEXRs, NPC Nix will be wiped out but all ants including golds will die. Keep moving, staying still is always the worse you can do. Call exo, rebuild ZEXR.
Move right near a large number of NPCs. Use Nix to help kill first wave of yellows. A few more will come from front, use Phobos, then Nix.
All others will come from back use ZEXR and Phobos.
Mission 3 - Airborne Enemies
A medium difficulty mission. Bring Phobos, ZEXR, Nix and ZE Blaster or ZERA or ZEX- Launcher. Best place to be is in the corner you're looking from start after a parking lot, so that's where you're going.
Capture left squad, then right and go up. Drop turrets, use Phobos in a way that levels down most of the area near the corner. You should have the nix before arriving there.
Rebuild turrets uses Phobos twice at least in the next wave. Use turrets for stray enemies, but be careful with the 4 frogs as they have long range plasma cannons, advance to them with nix when most small fish is dead to kill them.
Last wave use Phobos twice again, turrets and the 6 cosmos are less problematic than the frogs were.
Mission 4 - Reclaim Base 236
A interesting mission that can be farmed very productively. Transports are too low to hit enemies below them. Even so, Phobos will be nice to get rid of the 2 groups of frogs. ZEXR is really great here. Best second turret is ZE Blaster, yes a DLC 2 weapon. Unfortunately all other turrets suck here, ZEX Launcher and ZEX Rapid Launcher are really dangerous but I've succeeded with either, some luck needed. Best vehicle is Red Guard, for its speed and its weapons work great here.
At start capture both ranger squads while rolling towards the base. When frogs are alerted use Phobos on the group in front. Drop ZEXRs near the base or they won't kill anything. You can probably get a Red Guard now, call it. Use Phobos on right frogs. Capture WD squad to right, return to Red Guard, hopefully some of the WDS from the left squad will still be alive almost under the leftmost transport, which is the best one to farm.
At thus point all the enemies will be 15 red bees from each transport. Go to the one in the back, but if there's many bees don't proceed alone, as most bees will surround you and they will fry the mech in a short time. Go slowly if necessary picking health, so that WDs and Rangers will help.
When under a transport, the Red's burner will fry red bees that are dropping from it, even one is enough. Then hit the transport center with the cannister. Install turrets again when you can to have a easier life. Proceed to the next transport, the one that was at right from start.
Finally only one will be standing. Using the turrets and NPCs for help try to pick as many crates from the map as possible. When happy, procced to last transport.
You need to kill all WD NPCs or they'll bring down the transport. Then just install yourself under it in a position that you can hit the red bees with burner as they drop. Remember shots from 1 burner are enough. You can summon a new Red long before the burner ends.
Once in a while collect the pile of crates.
When bored or think it's enough, bring down transport.
Red bees do provide a reasonable quantity of weapon cartes. I've had 7 in a single wave of 15 red bees. This is a really good farming mission, unfortunately restricted to weapons from levels 77 to 103.
Mission 5 - Infiltrate Base 236
This one is a really hard cave mission. Passing the first rooms isn't hard, problem is the last maze where there will be 6 tunnel exits, 2 spitting silvers and another 2 spitting each one kind of termites.
Dealing with the tunnel exits is what the mission is all about, so either you try to wait for the number of enemies to reduce and then advance or advance ASAP once you open the door to the maze section you have to bring down at least these 4 tunnel exits or the mission isn't solvable.
I did it with ZEXR, FZ-GUN MX, Guard Assist Gun G and Depth Crawler IV Custom (V will help for extra speed and armor), but it's still a stress.
Mission 6 - Defend Base 236
A medium difficulty mission. The hardest are the 2 waves of gold ants and the one with silver spiders, each with an accompanying armored frog. Capturing the WDs at the start will help you with the stray smaller stuff, so you can wipe out the large number of armored frogs which will wipe out your NPCs.
Mission 7 - Engage Teleportation Anchors 1
This mission can be almost completely cheesed if you use a KM6 attack sideways on all large anchors and another on the smaller ones.
Still not terrible in a more normal way. If you hit a pylon all the ones around it will be active. The most important pylons to destroy are the second from the left which drops red bees and the second from the right which drops silver spiders, so if you get rid of these ones first it's easy. Do all the ones in the right or left first before proceeding to the other side.
I did it with 105mm Rapid-fire Cannon Z, ZEXR-GUN, Guard Post M3 and Powered Exoskeleton Nix ZC. Just capture NPCs and head back. Destroy buildings with cannon to optimize ZEXRs.
Mission 8 - Engage Aliens 1
A relatively easy mission. The only trouble are the 3 multiple rocket launcher frogs on the right side.
I did it with 105mm Rapid-fire Cannon Z, Heavy Bomber Phobos Z Plan 4, Electromagnetic Wall and Powered Exoskeleton Nix ZC or Red Guard. Just try to be precise with Phobos so that most gold ants will be killed. You can also use ZEXRs instead of Phobos (but then you need ZC) and Absolute Bunker instead of Wall.
Mission 9 - Engage Aggressors 3
A medium to easy difficulty mission, which due to the large number of silvers is great for weapons farming.
As long as you deal with the left group first and pick the goodies, then the right one there are no major issues. However, you must deal correctly with the silver king to avoid it crushing your NPCs. Phobos 4 is essential to clear the area and soften spiders for ZEXRs, Red Guard and NPCs.
Mission 10 - Engage Aliens 2
This is a medium difficulty mission. A bazillion armored frogs, with one multiple rocket launcher one in the second wave, and 6 in the third one.
I thought this could be done only by running away around the map border, but frontal attack also works and it's easier. Still, the frogs can easily wipe out all your NPCs and your life will be difficult. Capturing the fencers of the last NPC squad can help to stall the mission, but be careful if they fall into the water pits in the center as they won't get out and will be massacred.
Mission 11 - Underground 1
A medium difficulty mission that can be done with the right gear. Really good for weapons farming
https://cris3fgametipsandgrumbles.blogspot.com/2021/08/edf-5-dlc-1-11-inferno-weapons-farming.html
Mission 12 - Underground 2
I never thought I could do this one reliably, but it's not dreadful after all It's still hard. And long. There are 3 crucial moments in the mission. Checking the video will help since this will be easier to understand with it.
The problem is this mission are not the Araneas, which won't be a big issue if you're inside the vehicle but destroying the transporters is. There is a safe spot to conquer at the start, but still there will be extra enemies that spawn each time you destroy a transporter, the 4th will spawn a wave of silver spiders and the 5th a wave of gold ants.
There are 6 transporters, 4 in the main cave and 2 in a smaller dual cave that is the place you'll need to conquer in order to survive. In the small cave you'll find a spiders transport in a ledge near the big cave, and a fast green ants one in the smaller back cave. In the big cave there's a black ants transporter, a red ants, a bees and a spiders. Enemies are in stand-by mode, and they won't attack if Araneas try to hit you, but they will if you hit any of their transports. The first goal is conquering
You should really do this mission or at least the start on easy to know the paths, and the transporters locations.
You'll need 3 turrets: the ZEX Launcher, the ZEXR-GUN and the FZ-GUN MX. Although the ZEX is usually dangerous it's key for the silver spider's time. I tried using the ZE Blaster but wouldn't work at this phase. The vehicle can be either the Depth Crawler IV Custom or the V, you just have to be a lot more conservative with the IV, ai's a lot slower and it has less 5000 health.
At start you need to get a vehicle. So throw in the opening the ZEXRs and ZEX Launchers down, more towards the left. Then throw 2 FZ-GUNs below your ledge, put one on each side of the opening and one in the back of the ledge to cover enemies coming from below. If you have less than 6 FZ-GUNs, the ones covering your ledge are the essential ones. Activate ZEXRs, then activate FZ-GUNs. You should have a vehicle in some time. Summon the vehicle in the back of the ledge to avoid issues. climb on top of it. When ZEXRs are ready install them on the top of the vehicle. Activate ZEX, force rebuild of FZ-GUNs as you'll need them ready shortly, activate ZEXRs and proceed to the small cave with the green ant's transporter (left side of the big cave). Ignore everything on the way except an Aranea that is in your path after you entered the smaller cave. You must eliminate this one as it's too near your safe spot and will create trouble, use the DC cannons to help, the ZEXRs will too. Once the Aranea is dead proceed to the smaller cave. If there are green ants alive wait until the ZEXRs kill them, then exit and throw the FZ-GUN Launchers towards the corner so that will be used if it's needed which is likely.
From this point on the goal is always to wait until all small enemies are in stand by and all the ones that would be attacking you are dead.
When this happens the next step is destroying a spiders transport and an Aranea that are on a ledge just top of the second cave, which was totally ignored at the start. Install 2 ZEXRs on the sides of the DC, one on each side. 2 more on the cave corner. Always have the ZEX Launcher and FZ-GUNs installed on the corner for the enemies that will come, and remember that these 2 if they're active they'll trash your vehicle besides the enemies. Don't be hasty if necessary do this on several steps, just get to safety when enemies are coming. While destroying this near transport you should activate the ZEXRs before going to action, you can do that later on other occasions. Remember when enemies are coming retreat to the safety of the inner cave and activate at least the FZ-GUNs. It's useful if you have the ZEXRs, the FZ-GUNs and ZEX Launcher in your inventory in this order.
Once this is done it's a lot easier to handle the big cave. At this point, the 4 transports in the main cave remain. Your issue are them ignore the Araneas unless needed. You can't hit all transports from the smaller caves. The spider one is above and behind the main pillar in the big cave and it's out of reach. The bees are your less problematic enemies they have problems going inside the smaller caves. The worst enemies for now are the black ants as they're faster. So destroying the black ants transporter to the left is the first step. You'll have to destroy 2 Araneas webs (and respective Araneas if possible, but not essential), so do this first.
Always return to safety when necessary, always summon new vehicles, always rebuild turrets, always install 2 ZEXRs on each DC, and 2 more on the ground, always leave the ZEXRs chosen so that they can be easily activated by doing that in a snap exiting and entering the vehicle. If you don't do this, you'll probably die.
Remember once any transport is destroyed more enemies will spawn in the big cave. The black ants one will be easy. Once it's gone and all is calm you'll have to deal with the reds one. This one will be harder for 2 reasons it's difficult to hit and you'll get a nice bunch of silvers to deal with. Although you can really see the red ants transporter, you can hit the ground / pillar near it with the bazookas and the blast will eventually destroy it. You should test this on easy first, this is finicky to achieve. During this retreat, it's ESSENTIAL to activate both FZ-GUNs and ZEX Launcher simultaneously when you retreat as the FZs are not enough to handle the horde. Rebuild ZEXRs and install them all in the ground as the Launcher will end long before the FZs, and you can't take risks. Silvers can be slow and it's not unusual that 2 or more will come later. This is the more dangerous step along with the start phase.
Once this is over, deal with the bees transport, easily visible on the right side. Although the gold ants are easier to handle than the silver spiders still activate both FZs and ZEXs and do the same. One or more goldies can also take a stroll and arrive later, be careful, they can trash your vehicle in a snap.
When this is finished all that remains is a few Araneas and the spiders transport. Install FZ-GUNs and ZEXRs on top of the vehicle, and proceed to the main cave by the right side to the place where you started. Hiding there from the Aaranea threads activate both turrets and continue to the right until you can hit the spiders transport on the main pillar. Ignore the Araneas, just focus on the transport. Retreat to your safe spot if needed and return again. Remember even normal spiders webs are dangerous and do SERIOUS damage to the DC in the open, so don't take risks at this point or you'll regret it (it happened to me a few times when I thought I was a superstar 😂😐😐😐).
Once this final transport is gone, all that will remain are Araneas, which will be easy to handle as they don't do too much damage to the vehicle.
A few notes:
-ZEX Launchers can't be installed in the DC they will crush it. They and FZ-GUNs MX will damage the vehicle if they're on the ground, ZEXRs won't
- a normal spider can do close to 5000 damage in an attack on a vehicle, of course silver spiders and golden ants are much worse, but always consider this when you're in the open
This is a fun mission to do. It's still hard. It's dreadful for crates, due to how long and hard it is. Don't try to shorten things you'll probably die, do this carefully and with time and it can be done.
Mission 13 - Engage Aliens 3
This mission is dreadfully hard, especially the 4th wave, after the 3rd probably wiped out almost all your NPCs.
I already did it but had to use Nix Assault and ZE Blaster, although perhaps there was a slim chance that Red Guard could have worked too.
Although most people seem to prefer using bomber attacks (KM6 or Phobos) I stick with turrets. They work pretty well with tadpoles and ZE Blaster is awesome with frogs if you can bottleneck them. Bombers don't allow you to avoid destroying deroys during the 1st phase as this can always happen while you're attacking frogs, and hitting them in the 4th with them is always a gamble. Gunship attack is more precise and needs no points to replenish, although perhaps a Spritefall could work too.
During the first wave focus on the frogs, as the Nix and other NPCs will deal with the Deroys. The problem is that the frogs will concentrate fire on you and it becomes hard. Gathering the NPCs is useful as they will be massacred if you don't, and it becomes more troublesome with fewer NPCs. The ones on the right side are in bigger danger as they don't get support from the Nixes. If you don't destroy all Deroys you can stall the start of the 3rd phase until this happens, which is very useful for replenishing NPCs health.
Lay down ZEXRs for the 1st wave of tadpoles near the Nixes. Gathering the NPCs before was useful as the rangers and fencers that were more away would be massacred at this point if you didn't do that.
Lay down the ZE Blasters again near the hopefully still alive Nixes for the 2nd wave of tadpoles and try to get as many health crates as possible for the NPCs. If you can install ZEXRs near the ZE Blasters better.
When this wave shows up activate all turrets you can and proceed along the road to its left from your start position. The 4th wave will spawn when there are less than 30 tadpoles alive from the 110 that compose the 3rd wave. When you reach a pronounced left turn, you'll have a small hill in front of you and the goal is to reach the other side of this hill. Go along the road and you can follow a path to reach your destination. During this travel, you'll surely encounter at least 3 frogs that spawn precisely on the spot you'll be aiming to reach. Try to deal with the deroys you can along the way.
Rebuild ZE Blaster and ZEXR ASAP when you reach your goal and install the ZE Blaster in the small canyon leading to the hill back from the road, for the frogs, and the ZEXRs (not all) in the hill back (for the blue tadpoles). Kill as many deroys as possible, the 2 further back and left are likely the 2 middle ones with more plasma cannons that are more important to destroy.
Mission 14 - Engage Aggressors 4
A medium difficulty mission,
I did it with Heavy Bomber Phobos Z Plan 4, ZEXR-GUN and Red Guard. The third weapon can be a guard post, life vendor, whatever you want Just capture NPCs and deal with the 4 waves. Judicious use of the Phobos and correct rebuild of the ZEXRs will help a lot.
Bad for weapons.
Mission 15 - Engage Outpost Base
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