EDF 5 - DLC 1 Mission 4 Reclaim Base 236 AR / WD Semi Automated Inferno Weapons Farming

Weapons

Air Raider:

ZEXR-GUN

ZE Blaster (or ZEX Launcher or ZEX Rapid Launcher)

Combat Bomber KM6 Plan Z4

Nix Red Guard

Wing Diver:

Rapier Super Nova, Rapier Nova or Star Rapier (it's likely that even M5 Rapier will work if almost or fully upgraded)

second weapon is irrelevant

A extremely productive mission for farming in split screen. The AR and WD shine here (you can change Fencer for WD (dual Jackhammer without being synchronized will work too).

Transports are too low to hit enemies below them. I suggested in the DLC 1 missions to use Phobos, but KM6 Z4 works better as not only will help to get rid of the 2 groups of frogs although not very efficiently, but also will be possible to use it to kill bees, since you can't or shouldn't use the Phobos for that. 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. Send KM6 Z4 to group of frogs in front, hopefully you'll get some hits. Drop ZEXRs near the base or they won't kill anything. You can probably get a Red Guard now, call it. Fly WD to as near left transport as possible, leave it there she will probably get killed in a snap. Use KM6 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. You can also go for the left WDs first, it's difficult to get both WD squads.

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. Go near it, revive WD when most or all bees are dead, put WD almost under transport, aim rapier forward, pause the game and rubber band fire button.

You now need to kill all NPCs with the AR or they'll bring down the transport. Pick all other crates on the map, as you can only have 128 crates in the map and this will fill fast under the transport. Each bee will drop 1 or 2 crates, 15 bees for each wave, at the 6 or 7th the limit has been reached, and that if every other crate on the map has been collected. WD will pick one crate or another, but don't be too much near the dropping bees, as one can move the WD and there goes the farming session.

Once in a while collect the pile of crates, use the Nix, it will survive a few passes by the Rapier shots.

When bored or think it's enough, bring down transport.

Red bees do provide a reasonable quantity of weapon crates. 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.

https://youtu.be/B15-gP0sjiA

You can also do this with the Ranger or Fencer in another way. At the end keep calling Red Guards, even one can sustain a large number of bee waves. The flames of one burner are enough to massacre all falling bees from the transport. But you can't have it with a rubber band...

It takes 50 secs for each cycle of the transport (including opening, dropping bees and closing).  In mission 40 the cycle is just under 25 secs but loot quality in weapons is much inferior, not only in level but quantity. Mission 40 is better for armor farming, but I don't farm armor however if it's what you want it's a better option.

The only other main game missions that have transports are either too long, too difficult or the transports can't be farmed (moving transports, scripted droppings, dropping tadpoles that don't fall to the ground, Archelus pays a visit missions) so only mission 40 is a good option.

Theoretically you could install the WD with the rapier in a way to get most crates, killing bees as they would fall over you. It's not feasible because the reload is fast but not 0 seconds and you just need a small problem and the WD can be slightly moved or her aim will change and mission failed. I tried...

EDF 5 - Wing Diver weapons analysis, what's good, what's bad

It's very likely you'll divide the weapons between the ones that work in 4.1 style with a reload and a clip or the ones with a charge and full empty clip at once. The mechanics of charging won't appeal to everyone so this is the main choice reason between all weapons.

Besides the charging mechanics there are other buffs and nerfs for some weapon types. Many WD weapons now have recoil in varying amounts, many have damage attenuation (damage will vary according to enemy distance) and a few have drawbacks as the clip empties.

The main objetive of weapons is that they help solve missions specially in inferno. If they don't you're just wasting your time. You can't rely on nice weapons that will work once in a while, you need to have reliable tools that will be efficient and fast in dealing with your problems.

Short-Range

Once you know how to play the WD these will be your main workhorse. They can only be used in close quarters but that's precisely the main virtue of the WD.

The rapiers are now to me the most reliable and useful of all short range weapons. They start slow, but as you progress in weapon levels the higher ones will improve a lot in efficiency and usability. Still was one of the weapons I used in 90% of the missions in hardest, and not much different in inferno. These are normal reload type weapons.

 

The Phalanx series are the rapier thrusts of 4.1, a single focus rapier. Problem is that they're charge and single use weapons, with the benefits and drawbacks these have. They're good to handle big enemies or anchors, dreadful for smaller stuff.

Lances. Oh boy... Once I learned how to really play and have fun with the WD the lances were my weapon of choice in 4.1. Laser Lance Sigma is a stellar weapon. In 5 they're charge weapons, and they also each shot can also be more or less charged for a lighter or higher power attack. They have usually a longer range and do more damage than in 4.1. There's also double and triple simultaneous shots versions. They do consume a small amount of energy.

A variation is the Dragoon series which have ridiculous range for a short weapon (almost 300m for the higher one ?!?!?!?!?). They also deliver ridiculous amount of damage, have penetration power and although greedy in energy comparing to other lances have a better damage / consumption ratio.

The Spark Vines are a sort of poor brother of the original lances. They are reload weapons with a clip, but damage per bullet is very small, so it's a nuisance to kill anything with them. They're the closest thing you'll get to a old lance in theory, but now very useful in practice. Low energy consumption and very short range.

The Spark Whip is a short range Thunder Bow that only damages horizontally. It's reasonable to handle large numbers of smaller enemies, usually one of the weapons I used with a rapier in hard, but become less useful in inferno. Low energy consumption and short range.

Medium Range - Kinetic Weapons

The lasers from 4.1. The ridiculous mechanic they introduced in these weapons is that although they're reloading weapons with a clip their efficiency drops as the clip empties. This mechanic is so stupid that it can't even be understandable why they bothered, because obviously, no one uses them what else were they expecting? Sandlot does make some smart choices sometimes...

Just ignore these.

EDIT It does have its uses on fringe missions where you can't rely on charge to use weapons as they will always consume energy at likely problematic timings, and a rapier and one of these become the best options. A fantastic example in this video from lemonleafier:

https://youtu.be/ktXStpfQd5U

Medium Range - Energy Weapons

This was the other main weapon series for almost everyone in 4.1, the Idunns and Thunder Bows.

The Lightning Bows are the Idunns. The problem is that not only they're now charge and one clip use weapons which is completely idiotic for these kind of weapons, but they decided it wasn't enough and they also are more diffuse and imprecise as the clip empties. Yes, toys department, not even in tunnels they're useful.

The Bolt Guns are similar to the Eclat in 4.1. They're again energy hogs and with little benefits. Reload type, but not very useful.

The Thunderbow Gun are the saving graces of the energy weapons in EDF 5. They're still similar to the 4.1 ones, a large somewhat spread electric charge with a long range. Although it's the best energy weapon by far, the shot speed is slow and you must charge it fully to use, or the shot power and accuracy will be a lot lower. It's a charge weapon 😑, and it consumes a lot of energy for each shot.

Medium Range - Energy Weapons

The Stardust series are the only original weapon for the WD. They shoot a cloud of energy pellets at a long range. They're surprisingly interesting, good against hordes, flying enemies and even big guys. The drawbacks are high energy consumption and how easy it is to blow yourself, by either hitting the ground, the environment, an enemy or an NPC. It's still a really fun to use weapon, and one of my main weapons in hard (after struggling to finish mission 109, I did it first time with the Stardust Cannon Type A and used it in 99% of the mission as the sniper I chose was a fraud 🙂).

EDF 5 - Ranger's road to Inferno's end

Although I'm not a fan of the Ranger there's always missions that are enjoyable with him. If the AR was the Epsilon Railgun class on 4.1, he now seems to be the Free Bike class.

Mission 107 - Invader Assembly

A moderate, but long mission. The AR has a easier life here as expected but the Ranger isn«tin real trouble too.

Bring a sniper, preferably a powerful one, as  the cosmos run like rabbits when have no armor, so it's better to have real damage shot than a few ones that can be hard to land, specially if you're interested in finishing them with headshots for extra crates. Lysander Z, MR100 Fang and if you want to "cheat" Lysander ZF will be good choices. For second, either a rifle or a shotgun will work, just bring one with decent range to help with the 2 waves of Type 2 Drones. Hybrid Protector E9 is a nice choice as enhancement, or the DLC version.

The strategy is the same as the AR. Deal with cosmos / colonists, then 1 ship at a time. As long as you handle each group of 3 colonists / cosmonauts, the only annoyances will be the shield bearers bugging you, the missile shooting heavy cosmos (there's one at the front group and another 3 in the same squad in the back, these last ones were not present in hard), the laser cosmonaut and the 2 waves of Type 2 Drones. Once most or all big guys are gone, dealing with the transports is easy. Remember NPCs won't deal headshots.

Of the 3 NPC groups, the rangers will respawn once no enemies are aggroed to you (cosmos that you annoyed but lost you and are humming while stopped are still aggroed to you). The jp wiki says all squads will respawn it's wrong, I did this mission 4 times already in none of them the WDs or Fencers did.

Handle nearer big guys, then keep pissing each group of 3 always from the start zone, use second weapon to handle small stuff that comes or leave them to NPCs. Machine gun and flamethrower heavies are easier to handle since you'll be able to kill them before they can shoot you. A powerful sniper shot will kill frogs with1 headshot, cosmos with 2, heavies with 4 (first helmet armor is beyond even MR100 power).

Finally front ants and spiders transports, then right bees and pillbugs ones, and then it's almost over. At the 4th and 6th transport taken down a Type 2 drones wave will come. When type 2 drones come, fall back to remaining buildings in the back ASAP, and using rangers as decoys shoot drones.

A new ranger squad and2 NPC Nixs will show up really late for the party when the 2nd wave of Type 2 drones spanws. They will come from the back of the start position and proceed to the tracks area. They will be irrelevant.

It's just time consuming as you must take things in small batches.

This is Massive Mobilization from 4.1, just as long but thankfully easier as no gold ants and silver spiders. And no PITA giant walker...

This will take between 30 mins and 1 hour, depending if you're optimizing head shot kills. Don't rush this...

I didn't try this with the HU04 Brute SA9, but it's probably a good choice to handle cosmos, transports and drones, will just be very hard to get headshots.

Mission 98 - Coastal Defense Line

There are 2 ways to solve this mission: focusing on big enemies (cosmos and colonists) or focusing on small enemies (drones).

The problem with the first approach is that the 3rd wave of drones is really bad as it brings 3 imperial type 2 drones which are a absolute pain to deal with and can wipe you out in one attack. The Ranger has a better life in this strategy than the WD as his sniper weapons are more effective, and the Emerald is more useable for stray drones than WD's homing weapons. However this is always difficult as the margin for error is minimal and you can always be in trouble with one or more stubborn Cosmos that go after you.

So the second strategy is easier but you need quite upgraded MEX5 Emerald, the handy and wonderful Reverse Shooter X to extend the life of NPCs and the EX Radar Support System to make the Emerald work better. You just need to be careful and really retreat during the 3rd wave of drones to avoid a imperial one reach you. Without the help of the final cavalry's WDs and Fencers bringing down the transports will be a pain.

At any point the NPCs on the beach are wiped out, without the cavalry arriving there's 99.99% chance you're dead too.

https://youtu.be/DURQtciw84g