If DLC1 missions are already peachy, DLC2 ones are a lot more. Many of the DLC2 levels are simply dreadfully hard. Even so, some of them can be done with some ease or cheesed, and some are good weapon farming levels.
Mission 1 - Engage Teleportation Ships
Sandlot decided to start DLC2 differently from DLC1, difficulty couldn't be further apart in the 1st mission of each DLC. This one is very, very hard.
Mission 2 - Engage Aliens 4
This is relatively easy to do with the right gear and it's an awesome weapons farming mission due to the huge number of crates and low time it can be done.
https://cris3fgametipsandgrumbles.blogspot.com/2021/08/edf-5-dlc-2-2-inferno-weapons-farming_25.html
Mission 3 - Engage Drones
This mission is a piece of cake with the AR. Just bring Absolute Bunker, descend from the building install it in open space and shoot around. I suggest bringing along the reliable ZEXR-GUN to kill drones and the 105mm Rapid-fire Cannon Z to handle the big drones and get rid of buildings. KM6 is not very useful as most drones are flying too high and fast. Powered Exoskeleton Nix ZC or even better Naegling Self-Propelled Missile Launcher XEM will help to deal with the last few drones, but it will still be hard as most missiles will fail the target.
The mission is lousy for crates though.
Mission 4 - Engage Alien Troops 1
This one is hard and long. There's a ton of shield bearers, with progressively hard frog troops defending them, including the always nice multiple rocket launcher ones. Also for each shield you enter, between 1 and 3 deroys will be dropped around the map, sometimes inside the shield's area which makes killing them difficult.
I did it with 105mm Rapid-fire Cannon Z, ZEXR-GUN, Guard Assist Gun G and Nix Red Guard (Nix ZC would be awesome for its firepower but it's too slow, Assault will make it easier). It's really hard to explain due to the complexity of the level. The hardest groups to handle will be the ones at the front right extremes that have 2 of the nice hard frogs each. It's also a pain if the deroys stay inside the shields which makes destroying them a pain, as you can't use the 105mmto wipe them out. You only have 10 NPCs which will be bait, once they're wiped out the mission becomes dreadful, so try to keep them alive, by going all the way back to start, wait for them to get there then attack a shield and its group of frogs. It's essential to install ZEXRs on the mech sides and use the Guard pellets.
It's still hard as nails, but there are a lot worse missions on this DLC.
Suggestion for attack flow (from start):
- first group you can't avoid it's the one in front, 2 middle deroys will land in your back (so both have equal priorities)
- next up the same road, 3 deroys, 2 small in front and 1 middle to the right (priority to this one)
- next single upper shield bearer front slightly right, this can force you to chance the order of next 2 steps if multiple launcher colonists aggro
- right, annoying as the path near the group isn't straight, the priority after killing 2 colonists and shield bearer is getting back to map border to make it easier to kill deroys, but remember that a third colonist that it's hard to kill immediately will be alive and can wreck your NPCs later, 3 deroys will drop, one small to the front, another small right and a middle one back right
- front right in the rail tracks, with 2 multiple launcher armored colonists, 2 middle deroys on front left, the other front right, one of these can make your life miserable while you kill the multiple frogs; as I said above you can be forced to do this step before the previous one
- right near map end, with 2 multiple launcher armored colonists, the sole giant deroy will land to back left (don't play with this one, I did a few times with smart ass options like destroying the guided-missile pods first and mostly regretted it...)
- last, center right group, but before going for these come from the bottom map and destroy 2 upper position shield bearers, 4 deroys will drop, 3 in your back (from left, 1 small and 2 middle ones), and another small one right almost back
- there will likely be a single shield bearer between the center group and the rail tracks one and you can pick crates at this point, which is not fun due to how spread they will be, and likely many on top of buildings
Tips:
- try to get rid first of middle deroys which have more cannons in their legs, but don't be picky
- be careful by going back to protect your NPCs, if you make changes to your path while jumping to your attack position they can go in a path that leads them to another group of colonists that was idle
With ZEXRs:
With the gunship attack for the deroys and 2 support guns:
Mission 5 - Engage Teleportation Anchors 2
Another PITA mission.
Mission 6 - Underground 3
Not terribly hard, but you need to know a lot to solve this one. There are 7 enemy spawn points triggered by approaching certain positions (you can solve the mission by avoiding some of them). There are 16 araneas, roughly in 6 groups (one with 5, another with 1, the others with 2 which includes the 2 near the start position).
It's a cave mission so expect the usual issues with being hit over walls, pretty common to get NPCs dragged by araneas way beyond their reach.
There's a weird area where neither NPCs or Robot Bombs will not follow the normal path. In the place where you'll bottleneck 2 queen ants, one gold another normal, if you go through it and proceed right you won't be able to either throw robot bombs or have the NPCs follow you along the way. You have to revert to the original start position and go the other way (the gold ants spawn point).
With Robot Bomb DZ:
With ZEX Launcher and Depth Crawler IV Custom:
Mission 7 - Engage Aliens 5
Another really hard one. There will be spawns all around the map along with the mission. Although the wiki states that only some waves are time connected, I think all are time (or kills related of course). The best place to be is in the front left corner from start, as it "only" has an easy spawn of normal spiders and an easy cosmos.
I did it with Heavy Bomber Phobos Z Plan 4, ZEXR-GUN, ZE Blaster and Powered Exoskeleton Nix ZC. Managed once with the Red Guard, but its firepower is underwhelming for this mission, so the ZC is slow as hell but its weapons are a major asset. Rebuilding turrets at crucial times is essential as usage of the Phobos. Don't let too many waves accumulate it becomes a lot harder, as enemies will wander around the map somewhat. There's a laser cosmos midway, and 2 heavy laser cosmos in the last wave, prioritize these along with gold ants and silver spiders.
The Nix Assault can also do this, but its firepower is inferior to the ZC, however you can take a lap around the map if necessary and return to the safe spot. I succeeded once with the Red Guard but I would advise skipping that option.
Mission 8 - Engage Aggressors 5
Not totally easy but a good mission for weapon crates, just takes a long time to do in the best crate picking way possible.
https://cris3fgametipsandgrumbles.blogspot.com/2021/09/edf-5-dlc-2-8-inferno-weapons-farming.html
Mission 9 - Engage Teleportation Anchors 3
This mission is mostly annoying. It's not hard for the AR, but somewhat dangerous when using a Nix there's always a chance to fall in the water, and it's game over.
You need to memorize the waves and falling places of the pylons, as some require immediate attention.
Mission 10 - Engage Alien Troops 2
This mission requires a LOT of patience. It's long, you need to take some care not to piss many enemies at the same time and the Red Drones are a royal PITA to get rid of and there's nothing really good to deal with them due to their speed.
It's crucial to get rid of all flyers first. And only a few at a time. If you wake deroys, flyers and heavy cosmos at the same time you're extremely likely dead.
Using gunships in this mission is a gamble. Shields are nice but the biggest issue is blindness from heavy cosmos, deroys and imperial drones, so if you piss a few of these at the same time you won't see squat. The 150mm Cannon ν Lapis is the only choice over the crappy Limpet Sniper.
Suggestions for loadouts for multiplayer on this mission:
Same strategy as I used for single player.
No missiles or guided weapons. No bombers or wide gunships, No explosives.
AR is essential with the same loadout as I used in single player (Absolute Bunket DZ, 150mm Cannon ν Lapis (yes it's a gunship, but a single shot one and something to destroy scenery is necessary), ZE Blaster and Nix Assault. Install in one of the back corners.
Ranger second best class here with Blazer and MA9/10 Slade or Buster Shot. Blazer is exceptional for heavies, deroys, drone bombers and type 2 drones.
WD Gleipnir and Monster GZ or Raijin Limit Custom or Dragoon Lance ZM. Yes I know I said no guided weapons, but Gleipnir thrown towards to the sea will only hit enemies near you, and it works pretty well against red drones. Raijin Limit Custom has spread! Like the Gungnir in 4.1 has. For this reason, it's extremely dangerous to shoot towards the static group of enemies, or flying ones if there are possibilities of enemies in the back. Either of the other 2 is probably a better choice.
Fencer has the worst loadout for this mission. If he's good with 35mm Battle Cannon or 38mm Rage Cannon he can snipe attacking deroys, heavies and big flyers. For help perhaps Spine Driver MA and Dexter Automatic Shotgun ZG or ZGXE. Mortars terrible idea, Missile Launchers too.
Mission 11 - Engage Mysterious Monster
Although the start can be dreadful, it's a relatively easy mission for the AR. However, death is always a possibility at any time if you're out of the mech and have low armor.
https://cris3fgametipsandgrumbles.blogspot.com/2021/09/edf-5-dlc-2-11-inferno-weapons-farming.html
Mission 12 - The Last Stand 1
This is one of the missions I thought I could never do. It's very hard but not impossible. There are 4 nests, 2 spitting red bees and 2 silver spiders, and 2 large pylons spitting gold ants. Once you destroy 2 of these you'll get a ton of armored colonists, and once you destroy 4 you get 6 giant enemies, 2 of each and one in the elite type (normal and red giant bee, normal and silver king spider, normal and gold queen ant). The worst is handling the colonists, there are at least 6 multiple launcher ones (it's mentioned in the jp wiki, but I think there are more) and the red giant bee, although this last one can be wasted without issues with a fully upgraded Phobos. There are no NPCs in the whole mission so you're on your own from start to end, they would be wiped out in a snap though.
After trying a few options I settled it with 105mm Rapid-fire Cannon Z, Heavy Bomber Phobos Z Plan 4, ZEXR-GUN and Nix Assault. No other exoskeleton will work, ZC is too slow and Red Guard's weapons are too feeble. The ZEXR-GUN does help, even though its search range puts it into the dangerous territory, but FZ-GUN is useless here and ZEX and Blaster have a too great range. Before settling on the 105mm Cannon I used other weapons, like the Bulge Lazer Z and other gunship attacks, but this one is the most useful. The Phobos Z is awesome as one of its attacks will destroy a nest, but it can't hit the pylons as they're too high, and it's awesome to zap enemies following you as you go around the map.
From my last phrase, you can infer that this is a Merry-Go-Round mission. Yep, the only strategy is going around the map border and killing everything that's coming, as enemies will eventually settle down. Your 2 first issues are getting a vehicle while not dying until that happens, and destroying all buildings on the map border as it's fantastically easy to be stuck on one otherwise. The 105mm Rapid-fire Cannon Z is awesome for this, but you have to be careful as its shots have an oblique trajectory that's random and you can hit inadvertently something else, especially the red bees nests that are very near the map border. So to wipe out the buildings near these nests use the nix's explosions.
The most important of the 6 initial spawners to destroy are the 2 red bees ones, as these can easily reach your Nix and they do considerable damage, worse it's difficult to exit Nix and use any attacks with them around. So these are crucial to go ASAP.
Next the 2 gold ants pylons, as gold ants are faster than spiders, and more unreliable as at least a few will walk around for a longer time and show up at the worst possible timings.
Silver spiders are good for the large number of points they provide which is always good for Phobos and new Nixes, so these should go last.
A few important notes:
- the Nix Assault always skids reasonably so be really careful when you exit the mech especially when the multiple launcher frogs are shooting as you can die easily by exiting too far as he'll continue moving. Skidding is worse on the map border you face when the game starts.
- the 2 corners nearer the gold ants pylons are safe to install ZEXRs they will likely never reach any standby enemies, it can happen on the other 2 that have silver spiders near them as these usually jump around further from the nest
- the attack angles from the 105mm will vary so be really careful using it around the bee's nests which are very near the map border, as they can hit the nest at a bad time for you
- using the 105mm gun is dangerous if you just exit the Nix, as it has a spike between its legs and you can inadvertently target it instead of the enemies, something that is more prone to happen if you're zooming (I did it in my video at 45:35)
- you should avoid exiting Nix if you're moving for a while near the map border and multiple launcher frogs are near it too, one of the barrages will likely hit you, changing jumping or walking path slightly to the map interior will avoid this
- silver spiders and gold ants (and red bees) will revert to non aggroed once you kill all and roam around their spawn points until aggroed again
- 105mm attack in armored colonists is always unreliable, it can kill them at once or not
- remember Nix Assault's machine guns have damage fall off and are only really effective at close range
Faster but more stressful strategy:
Mission 13 - The Last Stand 2
The timings and conditions for new waves in this mission are really weird and varied, that makes it a lot more difficult to solve it reliably.
Mission 14 - The Last Stand 3
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