The mission strategy page was getting too long, split it in parts so that it would be easier to manage.
Mission 90 - Broken Land
I did this mission on hard with the Naegling to farm drops from Deroy legs and make them almost harmless. On inferno that is very hard. The mission can be easily be solved by using a powerful gunship attack that will mostly destroy deroys in one shot (105mm Rapid-fire Cannon Z is a good one, Vulcan can miss due to buildings), ZEXR and a good Nix to survive.
But as I was writing this I thought if this couldn't be solved in a messy total war run and after all it can. Using your reliable Phobos and the sometimes very useful Electromagnetic Wall it can be done without many issues. Nix ZC will help in teasing Deroys due to attack power and armor. The always reliable ZEXR will cover your ass, and the NPCs one, while you're playing with the deroys. The max deroys I was able to piss or destroy at once was 9, of the 11 that are on the map. The 11 at the same time would be hell as there's 2 missile deroys and these are a pain as you'll have the map full with their missiles.
And even the frail Naegling can do it too...
Nix ZC run:
Naegling run:
Mission 89 - Flying-type Extermination
There are 2 ways to do this mission. The fast and the slow ones. Either has risks. Everything in this mission is tied to how much health the hive has, as passing certain thresholds will trigger a wave. The danger is always advancing the mission too fast which will trigger several tough waves at almost the same time and things can get REALLY hairy. I'll only detail the waves in the slow way.
It's very important to roll, dash or fly IMMEDIATELY to the front right when the mission starts to capture the WD squad. This isn't that difficult to achieve and it will give you more control of the mission, as the WDs will be the first ones to start the fight if they advance. It's crucial for the slow version too.
Fast version requires Combat Bomber KM6 Plan Z4, Guard Post M3 and Life Vendor ZD, the last 2 reasonably to full upgraded. For vehicle, Nix ZC provides the easiest life.
Capture WDs and both ranger squads, follow left Nix. When Nix's starts shooting install Guard Post, preferably in a way it covers both Nixs. Stall the game until you can get a Nix ZC, don't use KM6 for now. You can either use now a Life Vendor or leave them all for the end.
When you have the Nix, start using KM6 on the hive. The first big wave of bees is easier to kill, they spawn in the hole in the hive middle right, shoulder howitzer helps in that. As you use KM6 a voice will say a giant bee is coming. Turn around and align Nix's feet to the giant bee. Exit Nix and use KM6, as the bomber attack will be done from your current position and direction you're looking if you don't choose a destination area. When the giant bee is gone turn around, the next step will be when 2 anchors drop, one on each side of the hive. Keep sending KM6s all the time when you can, replenish Life Vendor and Guard Post (you should have 5 of the first and 3 of the second, so take this into consideration and how long they will last, Guard Post can be rebuilt but there's no time for that).
When anchors drop turn Nix feet to left anchor, exit, use KM6. Turn to the other anchor, repeat. Anchors should go down with one KM6 Z4 attack. As you continue to use KM6 you'll hear a message that a giant bee is coming, it will be from the front right, roughly where the right anchor was. Another large wave of bees can spawn from the hive after this, so keep using KM6 on the hive until it goes down, which will also kill many bees. If you want to pick crates leave the last giant bee alive. As long as you keep moving it's no big deal as most stings will miss, but try to pick all health crates for the NPCs
Of course it's also important to get more Nixs when you can. It will probably lead to some failures but it works.
Slow version requires Combat Bomber KM6 Plan Z4, Guard Post M3 and ZEXR, the last 2 reasonably to full upgraded. For vehicle, Nix ZC provides the easiest life.
The most important for this version is the waves of enemies that will appear that are related to the nest health. In order:
- bees, red and normal from the hole just right up from middle of hive (easy to use shoulder howitzer to kill most of them)
- giant bee + bees coming from the back
- bees, red and normal from the hole near the bottom left down of hive
- 2 anchor, both dropping drones, left one also spiders, right one red ants
- giant bee coming from right back, roughly position of right anchor + bees from all over the map
- bees, red and normal from the hive
Between all these waves bees will stop coming from hive to you if you don't attack them after the last ones that were aggroed are killed. At most 1 or 2 stray bees will show up, NPCs will take some time but will kill them. However some of the Rangers have rockets, they can inadvertently summon a group of bees, thankfully it will be a small one.
There are a few VERY important things to notice:
- after the third wave, when the next one will be the 2 anchors it's highly advisable to use the shoulder howitzer to destroy the hive, because if you use KM6 Plan Z4 you won't have it when anchors drop and it will take some time to get it
- it's EXTREMELY important to check and be sideways or in an oblique angle so that the hive is not hit inadvertently while you're using Z4 to kill bees, I lost a few times by doing that mistake in the 5th wave, and you'll have in a snap more than 100 bees around you. And the queen. So turn the Nix feet reasonably away from the hive (but not 180 degrees...). Remember Bombers will be sent in the direction you're if just called immediately without positioning, by just exiting Nix, calling bomber and enter again quickly.
- if you have 1k armor or less staying outside the Nix with bees it's a gamble, you can die in a sec, so avoid it. NPCs have more health and last longer than you.
- using the shoulder howitzer is really dangerous when there are bees around, the chance you'll hit a passing one is high and you'll wipe out almost all NPCs as the cannon blast is big and they can't survive a 10k hit.
From start roll, capture the 3 squads, follow NPC Nixs, install ZEXRs when the shooting starts to help them. Fall back to the road near the canyon which was left from your start. I stayed just after the cliff to the left of the road starts, and there's a small path to go down to the canyon. The cliff to the right gave some protection and you have a clear view of the hive. Install next ZEXR for stray bees. All going well you should have the Nix shortly. If bees settle down before you have it use KM6 on the hive. If you have the Nix do the same, but it's safer.
Before using KM6 always install 3 ZEXR turrets in front of you and another to the left side of the Nix near you, install Guard Post(s) When you use KM6 the first large wave of bees will spawn. If you have the Nix try to use shoulder cannon on the spawning point, hole almost top right. Whatever happens it's likely the NPC Nixs and the Tanks that will arrive are wiped out. From this point on all enemies will focus on you. Kill everything, rebuild ZEXRs reinstall them, but just this time put 3 behind the Nix and the last one on the same position, as the next wave of bees + giant one will come from your back.
Use KM6 on hive. Giant bee will come, you can use KM6 if you position it towards the giant one but it's dangerous, revolver is usually enough to kill the big one and smaller ones too. Use the cannon on the big one if you're sure no issues can arise (kill NPCs...).
When it's quiet rebuild ZEXRs, Guard Posts, install, etc. Use again KM6 on hive, another wave of reds and normal bees.
When it's quiet rebuild ZEXRs, Guard Posts, install, etc. Now DON'T use KM6. Next wave is the 2 anchors you want KM6 ready to use on them. Start using cannon from nix on hive. Refrain for activating ZEXR. When the message says and anchors drop, exit Nix, activate ZEXRs and use KM6 on left side anchor. It's important to put the marker over just half or slightly more of the anchor towards outside, that is not the hive side. This is important to avoid hitting also the hive which will trigger the new wave. Don't worry the anchor will blow anyway. This will refill KM6 again use on the other anchor, remember you'll have to do the same, hit it towards the outside. Kill all enemies, there will be drones, spiders and red ants besides bees.
When it's quiet rebuild ZEXRs, Guard Posts, install, etc. Now DON'T use KM6. The reason now is that a KM6 attack can trigger the next 2 waves simultaneously (I did that twice...). So again use Nix cannon, activate ZEXRs, kill all small bees.
Now 2 options. Either you want to pick crates, you should not kill giant bee. She'll probably be over the cliff to your right it will likely not hit you and NPCs.
If you don't care about crates, kill giant bee, rebuild, install, use KM6 on hive, hive will die, last bees wave will come, abuse the KM6 as now it's safe.
If you care about crates and the giant bee is in a harmless position, rebuild everything, install, use KM6 on hive, hive will die, abuse KM6 on bees, and walk around dragging the giant one picking crates when almost all small bees are dead, just as I did in the fast version recording.
A nice deatiled description for the TL;DR people 😋😊
Mission 88 - Threads Everywhere
This one can be almost a joke. Just capture the NPCs for minimal protection, and Phobos Z the road ahead, until you get to center and do the same to the 4 anchors. Vesta can be used6, keeps the road /burning for sometime. ZEX Launcher 1 to front, 1 to left and 1 to right, to level down buildings and clear view a bit more while killing the very few stray small fish. Naegling will help in the total laziness, so you don't even have to move to finish mission as you'll be able to kill the wandering Retiarius (oops Araneas) from your starting spot.
It will be just more boring waiting for some small fish to rebuild Phobos if necessary.
Plenty of ways of solving this one, you can probably figure out one even easier.
Mission 87 - Approaching Monster Balls
Largely known to be exploitable (go right along the river, hide in rocks to right of waterfall, use any non explosives weapon to kill pill bugs), but it's also easy to do even with hard class weapons.
Mission 86 - Secret in the Dark
I did wrote in one of the pages of the blog that the AR had much improved weaponry to handle cave missions. However he can only take advantage of them if he has bottleneck points. This is a open cave mission so it's not easy at all to him.
You can't do this mission with the AR without reasonable to good control of the Depth Crawler, likely including wall climbing and some ceiling travel.
Due to how complex the cave is, it's very easy to get killed by a single stupid ant or similar enemy. The radar map doesn't help a lot here, due to the complexity and varying height of the terrain, you're never sure where the nearest enemies really are. You have some NPCs but they'll die pretty fast, and on this mission you can't have them join you
Mission 85 - Incoming Larvae
A relatively easy mission that the only difficulty is to survive until you have a exoskeleton.
Mission 84 - City of Giant Pylons
A extremely easy mission. A few giant anchors, but enemies will be in standby mode once they spawn again, soit's just a matter of handling one by one. Pick NPCs, fill back. The level 43 Heavy Bomber Phobos Plan 4 is enough to level down the area and kill small stuff, bring Vulcan or similar to destroy anchors, ZEXR to kill the enemies and a Nix or anything to just hop inside and probably kill a very few stray enemies. Only drones will annoy you for sometime.
Mission 83 - Defeat Archelus
This mission is easy, as long as you don't almost use the Barga 😂. Bring ZEXR to handle the small stuff wave, then Vulcan or similar to damage Archelus, possibly a Bulge Laser too or whatever you want to try (no, Tempests are a bad idea here). A good exoskeleton that you'll be able to summon once the small stuff is gone.
Barga is slow as molasses, Archelus keeps running away if you're unlucky. So get rid of him using your own weapons and it will be fine and faster.
Mission 82 - Reclaiming Base 228: Retreat
Like 83 this mission is easy, as long as you don't almost use the Barga 😂. Bring ZEXR to handle the small stuff waves, Phobos to massacre Colonists and help with Cosmos, Guard Gun is good for keeping exoskeleton alive. Either Red Guard or Nix ZC, the first if you want to pick weapon crates.
Hide in Barga when necessary until exoskeleton shows up. Use beginning to install ZEXRs for later, while the Barga is activated and enemies are in standby. Activate ZEXRs when the first wave of ants shows up. Both ant waves will likely eat Barga if you do the mission with him alone. In the end focus on laser cosmonaut and everything will be fine.
Mission 81 - Reclaiming Base 228: Stage 3
This is a scripted mission and it's not hard with the right gear. On each wave you can actually let all NPCs die, they will respawn at wave end. Bring FZ-GUN MX and ZEXR. Third weapon can be ZEX Launcher, but it's dangerous, ZERA-GUN works too. Depth Crawler IV.
It's crucial to advance rapidly before the scripted NPCs so that you can install the flame turrets on the walls just next to the closed doors (2 on each side, 3 on one if you have 5), and the ZEXRs on the floor (all on the floor just before the door). Activate them all once the doors open. If you have the ZEX Launchers, throw them inside the room AFTER the doors open (it will surely massacre the NPCs too). Summon DC when possible, use it to kill stray enemies that manage to exit room.
For wave 2 (pill bugs) and wave 4 (red ants, spiders, colonist and cosmonaut) only approach doors when you have rebuilt what you need, so that the script wait for you.
In the ramp after 1st room, use DC or ZEXR to kill pill bugs. If you use ZEXR, rebuild them fast.
Do the same as 1st room for third wave.
For 4th wave, don't install any turrets, throw them to the distance when door opens and activate. When everything is mostly dead, don't advance too much to avoid triggering wave 5.
Wave 5 will be pill bugs coming from back, and spiders from below. install flame turrets in the long tunnel where wave 4 was. If necessary use exoskeleton in room 3 to help with pill bugs. Install ZEXR in the tunnel going down to kill spiders.
Wave 6 will be after another door, use the same strategy with turrets on door sides and floor. On this one door will seem to be broken but it will work.
Wave 7 is another door. Use same technique, but do expect your NPCs to die on this one and a bunch of ants and cosmos survive and go afer you. Either use DC or exoskeleton from room 3 to help.
Finito, but likely not much time to pick crates from last room, unless you keep one of the cosmos alive, which will be better to do with the exoskeleton.
Mission 73 - Light Defenses
I really wasn't seeing the light for a easy solution for this one. In the end I checked the wiki and the obvious was there. You need to take the Red Guard for its speed and more importantly the Guard Assist Gun G which will help your Nix last while you go anchor hunting.
Bring ZEXR, capture NPCs and use ZEXRs while falling back to collect points for the Nix. When Nix has arrived, shoot Guard Gun to feet. Optional, if ZEXRs are available, or want to wait for them, install 2 in the Nix legs and activate them. Your first goal is to go inside the labyrinth of shields and destroy the spiders anchor at front, then deal with the other spiders one in back and finally the bees one. This will destroy the spawns for almost all troublesome enemies. Then recover and summon new Nix.
Repeat procedure and destroy the shield bearer at the center that is protecting the oversized anchor and destroy oversized anchor using Nix or a third weapon (bulge laser, gunship attack).
Deal with the isolated black ants anchor, then all the shields that are alone. Finish the last black ants anchor, leave the red ones as the final as reds won't do much damage to your Nix.
Hopefully the rangers are almost all still alive, so that the ones equipped with rockets can help clear the landscape to help with crate picking.
Mission 60 - Mountain Investigation
Mission 58 - Hidden Threat
Ouch! A mission completely in thick fog, with just a few moments of some visibility. It's not easy at all. I couldn't figure out the pattern of the less foggy moments, so you can't even rely on that. Anyway, it's a really good idea like night missions.
There are roughly 90 enemies on the map (10 of them silver spiders). When they're down to 70, you get a middle deroy, another when their number drops to 50, and 3 more when there's just 30, with one of these a nice missiles one 😑.
This is the city map of mission 108 (more destroyed there) and 85 among others. You start roughly near the start position of 85.
I decided to go with full attack mode, so I brought Phobos Z 4, Phobos 4, ZEXR and Naegling XEM. ZEXR is mostly useless here, as you can't really stay quiet, and there are too many structures around, so I changed to ZEX Launcher, which is always dangerous and you definitely want to get as away from it as much as possible for he sake of your and yours WD NPCs health. KM6FX and the second highest Phobos are also useless, as they only have a narrow hit area and deroys especially move very fast, so by the time the attack arrives it will certainly hit zilch. Phobos 4 may be a hard level weapon, but reasonably upgraded can still kill normal spiders in inferno, but even better will destroy deroy leg segments.
I started by dropping 2 ZEX to front, capturing WDs and rolling left. When I reached next intersection, you'll have a small open area to the left, dropped last 2 ZEX Launchers I had. Then started to Phobos the area where enemies are, which is reasonably easy since the Phobos marker will help to locate it, this while moving back to map border.
You'll get several Phobos refills, I used them all, which always meant that I got the 5 deroys in a row 😂. You should try to use Phobos on deroys when you can to help reduce their attack power, or with some more luck destroy them. When you get XEM destroy all deroy segments you can, and hopefully also hit silver spiders. Then drive back along with the map towards the right from start and then up when you reach its end. The biggest issue will be the missile deroy as this one is usually the rightmost one from the start so it will be the last one you'll hit. The most troublesome part is getting a new XEM due to the dreadful option now that you can only summon it to the heat of the action.
In the end, you'll have a few remaining Araneas and spiders in the middle. Still took me around 10 tries to achieve this. There's still luck involved.
I also did it with the NixZC, but stayed with this one in the border map area after dropping the last ZEX
launcher. Also works, but hitting the Deroys with the cannon shoulder or machine gun is not easy at all. The missiles are slow as hell but help a bit too.
In both cases you must rely on WDs to kill silver spiders, as you can't handle both the deroys and silvers at the same time. But I should probably not be must and handle it more easily, By killing at least the 2 first deroys before asking for the last 3.
It's a fun mission and I don't think that anyone except a full mobile fencer can have a easy life on this one, using missiles across the map.
Doing this mission with weapons below level 78 which are the ones you could get on mission 57 would be peachy... Nix ZC, Naegling XEM, Phobos Z, ZEXR are all beyond that range. 😋
Publishing videos of this mission is really useful... 🤣
Mission 53 - The Army Group Raid
If you want to try the robot toys this is the mission to do it. Robot Bomb DZ or a very upgraded Robot Bomb Type D (both damage and range) is fun to use, but it's only viable in a easy level like this one. Even so be careful not to piss more than 3 enemies at once, be aware of the Robot Bomb blast area as enemies can go near you and bring a Blacker for its speed as a escape plan (or a powerful exoskeleton, speedy probably better due to area needed to cover). Gunships will be much more effective, or a bulge laser. Spritefall is not a good option for powerful enemies in Inferno.
Mission 52 - Underground Trap
This mission with weapon limits on is very hard. Well it's still hard without them.
With weapon limits you're limited to level 75. At that level only decent turrets are ZERA-GUN, FZ-GUN MD and ZEX Launcher. The mission is a lot easier with the ZEXR-GUN, FZ-GUN MX and ZEX Launcher, but still problematic. Depth Crawler is mostly irrelevant as it has a minor role.
All tunnels have enemies, except a small one that you can see in the attached video, it's roughly in your back left.
Pick your NPCs and head there, this must be done in a snap without failures and always rolling. I had to find specific drop locations and order to make it work with weapon limits. At first you must focus on the extremity where you enter the safe spot as gold ants will come that way, then you must focus on the other one as silver spiders will come from that end. However this is unreliable, and you can still get all kinds of enemies from both ends. There's only 2 FZ-GUN MD, so you need one on each end. You need to be focused on when to rebuild the ZERA, as you need it ready when ZEX Launcher ends.
ZEX Launcher is extremely dangerous to you and NPCs. You can expect to die roughly half the times from it. It's important to try to launch it as far as possible towards the other caves, to try to avoid these issues, so if necessary take some risks to throw them.
Of course you can always have bad luck and the turrets will land in a enemy or corpse and they will be gone in a snap.
Mission 51 - Attacking the Fleet
Another Archelus pays a visit mission, a not that easy one. There's a very important change mid mission that I detail in missions data.
I did bring Phobos 4, which is almost useless except for levelling down the area, as the transports block its effects. 150mm Cannon D, but 190mm Cannon will also work, just with a really long reload. ZEXR for bees and general killing, you need the 150mm and Phobos so that the area has few structures or these won't be even remotely effective. A Red Nix.
Level what you can at start but avoid the 2 or 3 big items between the NPCs and the bees transport, don't capture NPCs. Keep destroying the area in front of you so you can attack and kill the red ants. Do this until you can summon the Nix. Use ZEXRs when bees come, reload them as soon as all bees are killed. Be aware bees are dangerous for a still AR, keep moving.
When you have Nix, put 2 ZEXRs on each side of it, leave 2 near NPCs (don't capture them), destroy nearest bees transport, turning on ZEXRs just before reaching it.
Level the area near NPCs more.
Continue attacking red ants in the back front, until you have at least another Red Nix (I would suggest 2). Use ZEXRs if more bees come from the remaining transport that has them. When you have 2 more Nixes, install all ZEXRs near NPCs and destroy the leftmost transport that had red ants.
Archelus will come, and the last bee's wave will come too. Retreat to NPCs, capture them and activate ZEXRs. Now using Nix make Archelus go away. ZEXRs will probably handle the last bees, and all you'll have is red ants from now on which are easy to handle with a flamer nix and don't do much to damage to them.
All NPCs will certainly die in this phase, but they'll recover once Archelus is gone and there's no red ants. Killing the remaining 2 red ants transports is a joke, compared to the rest of the mission.
You'll never make it if any of the 2 remaining transports when Archelus arrives will drop bees, as handling them and Archelus is hell.
No crappy limpet needed 😋
Mission 50 - Airborne Fighters: Part 2
The fun way to do this mission is with the Naegling. However it's no piece of cake. Only the XEM is able to do reasonable damage to the Deroys, which is a weapon beyond what you could get in this mission, but with the level 65 one you'll get nowhere.
Mission 47 - Survivors
This is not a totally easy mission. There's 30 Cosmonauts, 4 of them with shotguns. That's 11 more than in hard. They're all in a small area of the map, so it's very difficult to get just the attention of one group and it's highly likely that a few more will come. It's not unusual for half of them to come and then it's hell. A Blacker will be really nice to escape around the map edges due to speed, and its cannon can be useful too. If you want to use weapons within the mission range 105mm Rapid-fire Cannon and Vulcan Cannon M1 will work, but most times won't kill cosmos in one attack.
From start, wait a little, then gather the nearest NPCs to use as bait, from front right and then doing a arc to the left (Rangers, WDs, Fencers, Rangers, Rangers). Unfortunately they will likely piss some cosmos and the dance will begin sooner than you want.
There's a group of rangers on the far left that have rocket launchers, you should leave this guys to their own problems.
Mission 44 - Culling the Flying-Type
A really hard one. 4 waves of bees, with the second and third having 120 of them, 30 red ones in the third. The 4th wave has a giant bee, not a red thankfully.
It's the only mission where there will be Naegling NPCs, 2 of them along with 2 exoskeletons. The problem with these 4 NPCs is that they do the worst thing with flying enemies: stay put. So, they're massacred in a snap. If they're alive by the 3rd wave it's truly fantastic. Be aware that all classes face death shortly after all the NPCs are wiped out, unless there's just a few bees left (REALLY very few, and yes it can include the giant one which is the least of your troubles).
Decoys can help, if you have time to insert them in a nice place before the next wave comes and you must know where they're coming (see mission data page). ZERA even fully upgraded is a joke here, it will kill 10 bees with some luck. Only ZEXR will work, which is a high end weapon for this mission, ZEX Launcher is within limits but due to the huge number of bees it's a bad idea as you'll likely help to wipe out the NPCs even faster, and you too. KM6s are the most useful weapons here. Spritefalls don't work as bees are too much spread and over the NPCs and you.
Naegling isn't viable, once the bees come to you it's wiped out in a snap. Or worse you just need 1 or 2 stray bees to wipe it out (but managed to do this mission once with it).
On EDF 5 everything is too fast, specially wave transitions, and it's unlikely you can breath between them, let alone plan quietly things for the next wave. Rebuild times for most weapons are not realistic to use on this one.
I've done it with some loadouts but none is peachy. If I find a stellar one that makes this a walk in the park I'll post.
Mission 41 - Assaulting the Outpost
This one seems daunting but it's not. Can easily be done with Nix Red Armor, ZERA-GUN, Spritefall Power Mode and Vulcan Cannon M1 or 105mm Rapid-fire Cannon Y. These are all weapons below level 70, within the range you could get by reaching this mission.
At start capture both ranger squads, then hide right behind the first buildings, proceeding forward. When NPC Titans and exoskeletons are within the outpost range, start killing frogs with Vulcan and hitting cannons in the outpost with Spritefall. Spritefall will penetrate outpost and hit batteries and cannons below the hull.
When you have the nix, there are 3 other squads to capture around the outpost: Rangers with sarge to right, WDS in the back and fencers to the left. Outpost will walk later to the right so starting in this side is probably a good idea (not what I did 😁).
There's good detail of the outpost here:
https://www.gematsu.com/2017/10/earth-defense-force-5-details-aranea-giant-outpost-enemies
Prioritize taking down all the batteries, especially the ones above that have missile pods on their sides and the red rays smaller cannons. Vulcan or 105mm will hit anything protruding from the outpost. Spritefall will hit everything. Use both extensively to destroy everything you can. They're spread around the outpost.
The outpost will eventually get up. When it does prioritize urgently green small cannons under it. Use Spritefall on them. These will damage extensively you and NPCs. Cannister shots from the Red also work but take more time and it's more difficult. Ants and drones will be a good source of points, kill them with flamer, machine gun and ZERAs
Use ZERA to help reduce numbers of drones and ants. Pick all health crates possible.
When you destroyed all the cannons above and under the outpost, follow it, use fresh ZERA and hit orange center when it's opened. Try to do this in an area without buildings to be easier. Eventually, some colonists will also drop and they will be easy to massacre as they show up with the Red flamer and machine gun.
Rinse and repeat until the outpost goes down.
An impressive mission, the outpost is really well done.
Using more powerful weapons this mission is a lot easier of course.
Mission 40 - Brutal Battlefield
Mission 39 - Current Headquarters
What an absolute, royal, giant PITA to do this mission with weapon limits. Be prepared, it takes 45 mins to 1 hour... if all goes well.
I did it with the same loadout as 41, Nix Red Armor, ZERA-GUN, Spritefall Power Mode and Vulcan Cannon M1. Just the ZEXR would make this gigantically easier. The Nix ZC would be awesome too. But being stubborn as a mule I decided to go the hard way.
It's going to be long...
First problem. You have 8 transports, 2 with juicy silver spiders, 1 with purple ants which are thankfully toys compared to the silvers. The problem is when 4 transports are down you get a bonus of 50 bees plus 5 red ones. Which will be located around the areas where the silver spider transports are. Nice eh?
Second problem, There are a ton of drones, 80 to be exact. Well not A ton but you don't want them all at the same time, so reducing their numbers a few at a time is a smart option.
Third problem. There are 18 frogs. 8 of them with plasma cannons. These will hit you from across the map. They also have a weird behavior in this mission, as they attack in squads, in a different way from most missions. If you want to know more check the japanese wiki:
OK, plan. First thing you want to get rid of is all 18 frogs before downing ANY transport. So piss with Vulcan the drones that are more advanced. Use ZERA to help kill the ones that follow. Keep doing this until you can't get any near drones. This should not be enough for the Nix. Next step is killing the spiders from the nearest leftmost transport, using Vulcan and ZERA. Always rebuild ZERA of course...
When you have a Nix, should be safe to deal with frogs. Start with the red ones, the shotgun ones. They'll come in squads, but with some luck just 3 or 4 at a time. They're far enough for you to be able to kill them with Vulcan while the ZERA and NPC rangers deal with likely spiders and drones.
The most delicate part will be to deal with the 2 groups of plasma green frogs that will be near the silver spiders transports. They're too far to use the Vulcan, you'll likely to have to resort to the Spritefall (at least my Vulcan couldn't even get near, it never changed to red meaning that it had range). Spritefall hits a large area, so you can be sure besides the frogs, silvers will come too (and normal spiders and drones 😐😁).
At least there's one plus in the mission. Since all enemies are in standby mode the ranger squad will recover if you kill all near enemies, so they can die in all skirmishes, there's no problem as they'll reappear,
Now that all frogs are dead, next problem. Transports. There's 3 that need to go first. Yep, the 2 silvers and the purple ones. These are on right but to the back. You can't make any of these the 4th to be destroyed as bees will come immediately once you down the 4th transport.
So you have to go right a lot to avoid the first normal spiders transport and wait for NPCs. Then proceed to the purples one in a path that is far from the transports to each side. Remember you'll have to babysit the NPCs so they don't make a mess...
To deal with each transport do this:
- approach the transport in a way that enables you to shoot the opening but not alerting the enemies below it
- install ZERAs
- just after the transport opens, aim and shoot spritefall to the opening center. This will help to hit the center of the drop area and hopefully more bugs.
- activate ZERA, enter Nix, shoot cannister shots from both sides to transport opening, it probably won't come down before closing
- deal with enemies if necessary (only in the silvers will probably be really necessary)
- when it opens again finish the job
- rebuild ZERAs if there's no aggroed enemies
Spritefall step won't be necessary for transports with normal spiders, the ZERA is enough to kill them.
Rinse and repeat for the first silvers transport. Silvers take some time to die with ZERAs, with Nix's revolver and flamer. Use cannisters wisely you need them for the transports.
You'll probably have a few Nixs near start perhaps you'll have to make a big boring trip back to get another and return.
The second silvers will be the more troublesome as it's at a very low height, but can still be done. Abuse the revolver and flamer.
Now that the 3 bad ones are gone, return to start position. Take down right transport with spiders. Bees will come and settle in areas where the silver spiders transports where located.
The bees will be separated in 2 groups, but near each other.
Next goal is kill bees. Install ZERAs in road with some distance between them, doesn't need to be big. Next check the more isolated group of bees (probably the left one), and use the Spritefall in a bee towards its end horizontally, but if possible in the middle back to front. This will kill a few bees, while minimizing chances of pissing too many enemies at once. Activate ZERAs, enter Nix and walk backwards using revolver to kill bees.
Rinse and repeat until there's just a few bees (less than 5). If you need point for anything (nix, Spritefall) kill spiders from left transport as many times as necessary until you have what you need.
At this point all that should remain is 3 transports with spiders, 1 with red ants, some drones (or none) and a few bees (or none). Just handle each transport as before, skipping the Spritefall step as it's no longer necessary.
Phew, this really was long.😂
This mission is troublesome to do with low weapons. It takes time, cool head and patience. With high end weapons it will be a lot easier but I don't think it can be done in full frontal assault mode. Too few NPCs, too many spiders.
EDIT
With Heavy Bomber Phobos Z Plan 4, Nix Red Guard, ZEXR-GUN and Guard Assist Gun G this mission is a lot easier, but still not possible to do full assault. Phobos is really good here since most transports are high from the ground, it's effective against colonists and bees will be on the ground after they show up.
This mission is long. An Outpost will show up once you've downed 3 of the 7 transports on the map. It will stay for more than 10 minutes on the map...
The best weapons are the ZERA-GUN and a gunship attack like the level 50 105mm Consecutive Destruction Rapid-fire Cannon or the level 43 105mm Rapid-fire Cannon D. Complement with Guard Post M3, which will be better than the Gun one and since most enemies are in standby you've got plenty of time to install them on the exoskeleton. For vehicles use the Powered Exoskeleton Nix C3, which although slow as molasses will have the benefit of being the Nix ZC little brother, so plenty of options to deal with everything. I tried to be a smart ass and use the level 45 Nix Red Shadow but was creamed twice. This is if you want to respect weapon limits for the mission (level 68).
If not bring ZEXR, an even better gunship attack, and either the Nix ZC or the Red Guard and it will be a lot easier.
At start pick both ranger squads and farm the ants from the first transport until you have a nix. You'll get rid of most of the drones too in the bargain. When you have the nix follow the river, pass by the bridge, and pick the fencer squad from ahead.
Now you should kill all 8 colonists walking around. A good place to snipe some is a small hill just to the right after the bridge in the road going to the beach. Some ants will probably come along with the colonists. Two are patrolling near the beach, you'll have to climb a hill, just opposite the one I mentioned across the road. These 2 will walk around the red and gold ants, it's better to wait for them to exit the beach to the road above it before pissing them.
When you finish the colonists, you should decide which of the 3 transports to take down. I would advise making it the third one the black ants one near the bridge, just up the hill to the left. This will enable you to quickly go back beyond the bridge by the road to the back of the map so that you're away from the outpost hits and in peace to handle the incoming drones and 5 colonists. BTW the 5 colonists will always come in a compact group (that's why the Red Shadow which is clearly a hard-level weapon was creamed...😂).
If you're respecting weapon limits it's probably wise to get rid of the 2 worst transports, the gold ant's ones. To get the one on the other side of the map you have to go almost near the waterfall, then follow the road to the beach. The WD squad will show up, but it's not easy to save them, as you'll need to concentrate on the golds and not the reds. You should always send the turrets before advancing (install Guard Post...) and you can throw them nearer the beach so that they kill the reds once the golds are dead, but it's not easy. I managed to still have 2 alive after I downed the gold ant's transport, but when the WDs arrived most golds traveled to the reds transport and I used the Nix revolver to shoot most while I was crawling towards the gold's transport which was closed by now. Remember the idea is not to down the reds transport... Of course, this will be a gazillion easier with the ZEXR as these will cream the golds, the reds, and everything else that will come.
Return to the bridge and go down the road for the next gold's transport. This one is easier, but be careful descending to the beach. I put the ZEXRs on top of the cliff instead of the beach, so when I started to go down the golds creamed my Nix C3. I could return to the bridge where I could get another spare Nix but decided to summon another. Stayed slightly out of the transport and when the golds dropped, shot the gunship attack to the first, it will kill almost all, and NPCs dealt with the rest (install Guard Post...) as long as you don't stay quiet which is the worse for some enemies. Just my luck the Nix got stuck on the top of the transport. The only resort was to wait for the NPCs to bring down the transport. They did at the 5th or 6th gold ants drop. This long chat just to show that with some creativity and thought you can solve some thorny issues successfully.
Golds gone, return to the bridge, go up the hill, down blacks transport.
Go immediately back the road before the bridge rebuild turrets and wait for the onslaught of drones. C3 revolver and burner will help too (another problem for the flimsy Red Shadow, not much luck with drones). When the 5 colonists arrive, kill one with a gunship attack then use Nix to cream the other 4.
Bring down the last 4 transports when the outpost is gone. Finito.
Mission 34 - Cave Invasion Final Stage
This mission is interesting, except that the map is a mess, and difficult to figure where to go.
There are 5 queen ants, one of them gold. And unlike hard and below, two waves of termites (wasn't expecting these).
Being the Limpet hater I did use them since I made a mess in my first run when the second termite's wave come and wanted to see if it also worked.
Bring ZEXR, FZ-GUN MX, Depth Crawler IV Custom, and either ZEX Launcher or Limpet Splendor ZD.
The idea is to bottleneck enemies at the entrance to the cave where you started and further back, so always fall back to this place when necessary. At the start throw ZEXRs to kill frogs and ants that will come, use FZ-GUN too. You won't get a DC for now.
Proceed in the large cave. There will be a big pillar in the center, with a shallow water area behind it. There are 2 queen ants there, along with some smaller stuff. They're usually separated by the large pillar, so you should go to the left and drop one or 2 ZEX Launchers, then retreat and go right and drop all other ones, but these are more difficult to place as there's a lot of smaller pillars in this area. Once you get a look at the queen ant moving it's good.
The other 3 are further away behind the right queen. The limpet will reach them if you shoot some pellets to the right place, which is not easy. DON'T ACTIVATE anything for now. Retreat to start cave, activate either limpet or ZEX Launcher and they will come. What they mean depends on what you get, but at least 2 queens should come. Queens do enter your start cave so fall back to the tunnel. Drop ZEXRs first and FZ-GUNs further near the tunnel. You'll have the DC but be careful, some gold ants can still manage to go near you.
When everything that was coming is dead return to the water shallow area, by the left side. No enemies should be here, if there are then repeat the last steps. Go slowly to allow rangers to keep up with you. When you're reaching the end of the shallow area wave of termites will spawn in your back. Use ZEXRs, stay inside DC. If you left the rangers behind they will be crushed and it will be harder for you.
What will remain is the eggs area, hopefully without the 3 queens. If they're still there, repeat the process you did before, falling back to the start cave until all queens are dead. Don't advance too much near the eggs to avoid triggering the last termite's wave.
Proceed to the eggs by the left side (it's easier), always wait for the rangers. When you're reaching them, the second termite's wave will spawn. Repeat, use ZEXRs when they're arriving, stay in DC.
Dealing with the eggs is a joke compared to the rest of the mission.
Another mission I just finish and forget, if it wasn't the dreadful maze would be better but I guess that was the difficulty Sandlot wanted to add.
Mission 33 - Cave Invasion Stage 2
Oh crap. A scripted mission in a giant cave 😑. If you want to follow the script this is hard as during the 2 last waves you'll be in the open cave or almost.
Hating this mission I cheated, and used the ZE Blaster, as I was losing my patience with the ZEX Launcher issues. I still used it thought.
There's 2 groups of NPCs, the sarge group is the scripted one. They will recover if they die. But stupidly, if the sarge dies but other soldiers are alive, you must return and kill them or the mission won't progress, as only when the leader is present they will proceed...
Bring ZEXR, ZEX Launcher, ZE Blaster and Depth Crawler IV Custom. Drop ZEXRs and activate near first group of ants. Drop below to cave bottom ZEX Launcher, activate, this is to kill spiders wandering below.
You'll get the DC probably before second group. Repeat, hopefully ZEXRs will rebuild before that.
Next is a tunnel with a smaller cave holding spiders, one of them silver. Use ZEXRs, some installed on DC top if you want.
From now on there will be 3 waves that are traps and need some attention, especially the last 2. As you're exiting the cave where the spiders were, drop ZEX Launcher turrets along the tunnel before reaching its end. When the wave spawns activate ZEX Launcher, they will be dead in a snap. Rebuild them ASAP.
You'll cross an arch, enter a tunnel, go into a cave, then another small tunnel going down where you'll reach a ledge that will be larger to the right. Here 2 large waves will spawn in the wall opposite the ledges, with black and gold ants. As they spread all over the place this is hard, so try to install ZEX Launcher on the wall where they spawn, and ZEXR and ZE Blaster on the ledge.
Once finished, the script will proceed to the last wave, which will be near the bottom maze. Throw ZEX Launcher below, ZEXRs too, and use ZE Blaster near you on the edge of the path. These 3 will not probably be enough to kill all silvers but will almost do it, making it easy to finish the mission.
It's unreliable. You can try to use FZ-GUN instead of ZEX Launcher or ZE Blaster and always try to fall back to a tunnel where you can bottleneck enemies, the only problem is that ants can easily come from your back too.
This is one of those missions I just finish and forget.
Update: This mission is HELL to do with weapon limits, you'll be limited to weapons level 66-67 and the AR has mostly crap or toys for inferno. Well, I did it after all, but yes it's hell. The strategy is significantly different from the better weapons version. If it's already dangerous to follow the sarge to the 2nd trap, to the third it's suicide. A goldie can wipe your ass any sec thought.
Mission 32 - Cave Invasion Stage 1
This mission isn't awful because you're able to bottleneck enemies on small tunnels when there's a ton of them. ZEXR and FZ-GUN will be your friends, the third is largely irrelevant probably a Guard gun/post and install it on the Depth Crawler. You can also try the robot toys, but they behave very badly in caves. In the last cave all enemies are on standby, enter it drop ZEXRs then retreat and block the tunnel with FZ-GUNs, just be careful because there's an upper tunnel before reaching the large cave, so further back in the corner is the ideal position since you will avoid shots from enemies and it will be easier to keep yourself and NPCs healthy. Use DC to help as the number of enemies can be overwhelming and some can pass the flames (it's a large number of golds and purples, along with spiders).