This is by far the most interesting cave mission on EDF 6. It could be done on Hardest without many issues and it was quite fun, but on Inferno it's a whole new ball game. There are a few constraints, problems, and changes and unless you have some knowledge of them it's extremely unlikely you'll succeed in the mission by just shooting around. This is a very long mission, 40 minutes to 1 hour is the norm with this strategy.
The basics of the mission are destroying a huge hive inside a big cave, protected by 10 small hives (that spawn red bees on inferno) and a giant bee. However, there are important changes in Inferno on the mission: - after the first huge wave of bees is spawned from the huge hive, delivering more damage to it will spawn a wave of androids and 3 red super androids from a cave behind your starting point - after the second huge wave of bees is spawned from the huge hive, delivering more damage to it will spawn a wave of nakers and 2 red super nakers from a cave behind the huge hive from the starting point of view There are 2 possible strategies to deal with the mission. Either by staying on top of the cave around the start position, or going to the bottom and trying to deal with all enemies there. Although there is a cave mid-way to the bottom it's very hard to deal with the mission by staying there. One of the biggest issues in this mission is that once you start going down the slopes or even approach the borders of the the upper cave paths there's a HUGE PROBABILITY that the NPCs will fall to the bottom of the cave and it's impossible to recover them (the WDs can sometimes do it but it's seldom). Since the NPCs are useful you must consider how to handle this. Another HUGE PROBLEM is that, at least on inferno, the huge hive can be at a stage where no matter how much damage you'll do to it its destruction won't progress. There are at least 2 situations that I've seen that trigger this: - there are still small hives on the map - even if not aggroed, if the number of enemies is above a certain level (all nakers are still alive plus non aggroed bees around the huge hive will make this happen) To solve this when there are no aggroed enemies I go in a first quest to destroy all small hives, and then in a second to kill most nakers. You can go for all the small hives at the start but you'll surely lose all or almost NPCs. When the Giant Bee becomes aggroed there will be a spawn of bees. Usually, the farthest 2 Ranger NPC squads that spawn on the opposite side of the map will aggro her, but it's random.
You're stuck with the crappy drones. Although they eventually do the job they're awkward as hell to use. I chose the level 87 G4γ Portable Attack Machine [cannon], which is a sort of KM6. It can deliver a theoretical whopping 217K damage but it's almost impossible to do it all. But it works well with the huge hive and the small ones too. For the second and third weapons, the Electroncopter M5 [Discharge] and its younger brother the level 52 Electroncopter M4. These are area damage drones that will fly to a spot you chose and deal damage for a period. Better known as the NPC and teammates killers 😂🤣, these weapons are extremely dangerous as if accidentally installed they do absolutely massive damage to them (and you too) or if they approach the weapons range. It's extremely easy to kill yourself in this mission using them.
In the backpack we have the always useful and almost unique Guard/Capsule A4W. For vehicle, the level 77 Depth Crawler IV, since many times the higher Custom is a bad idea because the bazookas have explosive shells, and it would be terrible here (killing the androids at extremely close range for instance).
MISSION FLOW
At the start, I avoid capturing NPCs and sneak left to destroy one hidden hive below the cliff. It's not easy to get this done. After this, I capture all NPCs and destroy the 4 small hives visible high on the right and front walls. There will be another 2 squads of NPCs coming later from a path above, capture them too. There are 2 other NPCs squads on the opposite of the cave, but trying to capture them is a really bad idea. Although you can see some small hives below in the right wall and they seem to be targeted by the G4y for some reason it's extremely hard to hit them staying at the top of the cave. So these have to be handled later. The Electroncopter attacks stupidly can't destroy the hives... ALWAYS retreat after going near the edge to the bottom of the cave to avoid that NPCs jump to the bottom. Suicidal tendencies... Start attacking the huge hive. The more G4y shots you manage to hit the better, I got 3 before being overwhelmed by bees. This is important to trigger both the first huge wave of bees, aggroing the giant bee and later the androids wave. Retreat to the end of the small cave when bees start coming in droves. Send Electroncopters to the beginning of the small cave to keep killing bees. When enough bees die, the androids wave will spawn in the tunnel you're on. Have the G4y ready to shoot, the Guard/Capsule A4W too (if possible I didn't have) and use extensively the Depth Crawler IV cannons to help kill the androids (don't use the DC Gatling you'll likely kill your NPCs). This should be pretty easy to handle. Deal with the last few bees in the main cave with Electroncopters, the giant bee should be the last alive. The Giant Bee should be easy to handle. I did stall this so that I could pick the crates from it, but failed on that. Did get a lucky G4y shot on the giant bee though.
Although I did not do it because it wasn't needed, you can get some Ranger NPCs stuck on the tunnel. Make a barrier with 1 or 2 old DCs near the tunnel end, drag all NPCs to its end, then proceed in walls with a new DC. A few of the Ranger NPCs will be stuck in the DCs that stay behind.
No aggroed bees should be around so I go on a quest to kill the last 5 small hives. The ones you kill on the wall by staying near it (3) are hard to hit and you may need several G4y attacks to get the job done. Always verify that they're gone, or see the damage numbers piling up. Bees will aggro at this stage and things can be hairy. Check the video for the places to reach them. I failed number 4 and had to repeat its destruction.
Return to the top of the cave. I was dragging a Ranger squad main, the red helmet one, and could have dragged it to the top if I wasn't dumb.
Hit again huge hive as much as possible, then retreat to the tunnel and kill all bees. When it's quiet it's time to go for the nakers.
Go down the path and near the next tunnel start sending down Electroncopters. Be careful, it's EXTREMELY easy to aim an Electroncopter at a place near you and it's almost certain death. Do this until most are gone. The 2 red ones will almost surely survive to the end.
Retreat to the top of the cave once most Nakers are dead. Hit the huge hive again, and retreat immediately to the tunnel to handle bees, as you likely won0t have any NPCs to use as a distraction.
Once all bees are gone, you can hit the huge hive again, and it's likely destructed. If not rinse and repeat kill all bees and hit it again.
When all bees are gone, go for the last Nakers, but be really careful with the Red elite ones as they're nasty and you don't want to lose the mission at the end after almost 45 minutes do you? I managed to collect the crates at the bottom, as the last Naker alive was an easy one. Don't try to be smart with a Red one.
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