Notes on East Wind speedrun strats
3 years ago
Minnesota, USA

Hello - I'm just making some notes and sharing them for everyone to see in case anyone is interested in east wind speedruns. This is no way complete or the best possible strats, new stuff can definitely be found!

Firstly, it appears that all campaign missions are able to be copy and pasted in the the missions folder for the Eden editor. This makes it so that you can see where units and triggers are placed. Unfortunately it doesn't give all game logic clearly (such as what triggers cause game overs) so some testing is needed. Setting the player character to invincible is possible and a good way to check out triggers without getting shot.

This steam forum post gives good direction to find the campaign mission file: https://steamcommunity.com/app/107410/discussions/0/626329820923545391/?l=french

general notes:

  • this guide was intended with regular/recruit and time acceleration enabled in mind.
  • AI, including recruit AI are extremely accurate at close range. If you have to engage enemies try to do so at a distance.
  • friendly fire mission failures seem to only happen if there is a witness to you shooting an ally.
  • gunfights even on recruit are next to impossible to win with time acceleration enabled. Use normal speed when in firefights.
  • loading screens are long - so make saves often!

drawdown 2035 (first mission where you start with a helicopter ride to a fob)

  • unfortunately you cannot go directly to the end, even when you have Adams in your vehicle.
  • Skipping the checkpoint isn't possible, even when trying to go around and bypass the checkpoint fail triggers that extend to either side. Fastest route I've found is just going straight down the mountain and directly to it.
  • AAF is marked as friendly until the firefight at the kamino firing range. Killing them before this point causes friendly fire mission failures.
  • Doesn't appear to be much more strategies after this point. Fight with Adams and get to the end.

Situation normal

  • Best strat for the beginning I have found so far is take an immediate 90 degree turn right and then run to the next valley. Run up it and meet with the survivors. I haven't run into any AAF in my attempts at this.
  • The trigger for mission end appears to occur when the survivor team lead crosses a trigger near the end. My theory is that if you can kill all your allies via enemy fire or friendly fire and then run directly to the trigger you could end the mission early by going directly to the location and bypassing the firefights.

Blackfoot down

  • one fireteam (4 members) guard the helicopter, and two fireteams assault it when you defend it. Defeat the fireteam guarding the helicopter and blow the helicopter up immediately - that way when the helicopter pilot dies the mission will immediately end
  • The attempt to save the helicopter pilot is on a timer, so avoiding firefights until this timer is expired and when the helicopter pilot dies the mission will end immediately, presuming that you already blew up the helicopter before the firefight.

Death Valley

  • the trigger to get the darter and find the spotters happens after killing all AAF forces in the valley, so playing this level as intended is probably the best strategy.

Radio Silence:

  • playing this one from the editor was weird. AI didn't go on the correct route or hit the correct triggers so I had to practice this in the campaign mode. Hopefully the strats I've been finding so far work for the other missions.
  • I recommend going to the OP in the beginning of the mission and dropping a single mortar on each tower and then fast forward and let AI handle the remaining forces at the base.
  • For the reinforcements, I recommend dropping a single mortar or shooting some shots to make the AI go into combat (bounding movements and will move much more slowly). This will make them much easier to hit for follow up mortar strikes.

Crossing paths:

  • friendly AI need to get to each objective in order to trigger the next, so playing this mission as intended seems to be the best route.

Wet Work

  • The leutenant spawns in the same place each time, so searching in that one courtyard in the middle of the town will get you the best results.
  • It seems like the AI can do a lot of the heavy lifting here, so take cover and let the friendly AI do its work.

Tipping point

  • All AAF at the military range have to be wiped out in order to continue to the next objective
  • entering the edge of the town will cause the next bit of the mission to kick off. When you hear the comms go off then head on over to the speedboats since they are spawned at the start of the mission. If you head over immediately you will beat the paratrooper drops.

Signal Lost:

  • I haven't found any routes yet that completely avoid combat, but I have had decent luck going directly to James and not getting shot on recruit difficulty. Maybe make a safety save.
  • If there is a better route that avoids combat it will likely involve going down the left side of the beach to where there is a couple of houses along the water. There are three two man patrols and you will likely only have to face one of them. Otherwise be careful crossing the street as there are some vehicles that will easily kill you.

Common Enemy

  • Go directly to the pickup truck and enter it once able.
  • Do all the checkpoints normally
  • At the end, you can park your truck very close to the firefight area with no problem
  • If you have the high ground (don't need to be too far up) then the CSAT seem to rarely target you (probably due to the fog in the area)
  • tried going directly to end, didn't work on this mission until you do the firefight and leave with Miller.

Supply Network

  • Immediately head to the RV with Omega at mission start.
  • Get the soldiers in the car as soon as possible.
  • Head to the road where the convoy is and lay down both charges and then drive away to a point with cover. Blow the charges when the supply truck is there. This will mean you don't have to drive the truck back
  • Drive your pickup truck back to the base and immediately start heading up the valley to the exit. The valley is very rocky so you can lose a lot of time and health running into rocks.

Exit Strategy:

  • For a better position for the ambush you can use the hills to right of where you spawn and use the trees and hillside.
  • I recommend going for the helicopter ambush as it doesn't involve taking down an mrap - just a fireteam of CSAT.

Bingo Fuel:

  • You can use the hairpin turn directly to the west of the starting point to cross the road without issue, as you should outpace a patrolling strider. Your AI will likely be spotted and die but you shouldn't have an issue.
  • You can stop and grab more AI on the other side of the road, but this isn't necessary.
  • The best strat I've found for grabbing the first cistern is sneaking in through the AAF base from the northwest and going straight for the truck. This will still trigger the next part even though all AAF aren't dead. It's likely you will be spotted and shot at, so I recommend a safety save beforehand.
  • I haven't found a way to sneak in and deal with no CSAT, but my best strat so far is to attack from the west side and eliminate any threatening CSAT before grabbing the fuel truck. Watch out for patrolling striders when you exit. I do use the support option for distraction, but I'm not sure how much it overall helps.
  • The fastest option is delivering the fuel truck and not giving it over to Miller.

Breaking Even:

  • Break concealment when you have the first opportunity and assault the outpost.
  • Sometimes the AI absolutely wrecks the outpost and you don't have to do anything and sometimes the fall left and right and you have to help. Hopefully its the former.
  • The mortar spawns can happen in three locations. Hopefully you get lucky. Note the locations (northeast of church block, just northwest of the church, and south of the church block).
  • After interrupting or killing mortar team, head to mission exit directly. You do not have to participate in the defence.

Within Reach

  • Choosing to save the fuel in the earlier mission will only start you further up in this mission. With time acceleration enabled it isn't much of a difference, so its likely choosing the faster option in bingo fuel is the correct strategy.
  • Head to the immediate right of the church and then go directly to the mountaintop. There is a minefield to the right of this area, but I have had good luck with these directions and haven't hit any mines myself. Otherwise, divert slightly more to the left and you should be fine as it is on the edge of the minefield. When descending the mountain stay in cover by going to the right side of the mountain so the outpost doesn't see you. After crossing the road head directly towards the boat.

Attention Defecit (this one is more from memory)

  • The mission calculates chaos points in the background. A certain threshold has to be met in order to succeed
  • I recommend bringing an AT launcher for the strider reinforcements, and as a backup to your explosives.
  • Destroying all vehicles at the stationary chopper and road block, and potentially the strider reinforcements should be enough to complete the mission.
  • Unsure if the extraction is RNG or spawns on the opposite end of where you chose, need more research.
  • According to the wiki, 2000 chaos points are needed. Chopper = 500, and all other vehicles located at the road block and stationary helicopter areas are worth 250, as well as an ATV worth 100. There are six large vehicles total that spawn in these two areas so it meets the 2000 point threshold.
  • 450 points total at the camp for the vehicles. transport = 250, atv = 100.
  • 1400 points at the weapons depot. 600 for chaches under the camo netting, rest is vehicles worth 100-250 points each.
  • 500 points for destroying the lighthouse, 250 for the transport.
  • 1000 points at anti air camp, 500 for the tigris and 500 for the other two vehicles.
  • Unsure of the value of reinforcement strider, research needs to be done.

Beyond Recognition

  • For the artillery part just destroying the artillery is enough to advance the mission. You can leave any stragglers. I have not found a great angle to take this objective just yet.
  • AAF occupy the town but only taking down the CSAT in the HQ area is necessary to trigger the CSAT attack - find a way in and use the same way out to avoid any extra stragglers
  • One group of CSAT spawns to the Northwest and one spawns in the helicopter to the West. The helicopter is invincible. There are some buildings that look over the site but its concealed by trees. Overall for this objective it may be the best strategy to find somewhere to defend and wait for the CSAT to come to you.
  • Once the CSAT attackers are defeated head over to the pilot and be careful of any stragglers in the town. Clearing out the attackers is necessary to have the pilot radio in and end the mission.

Resurgent West

  • By hugging the left end of the area after picking up your allies you can skip all firefights and go straight to the defence objective.
  • use the static titan missiles as well as the launcher in the box. User the top down firing mode as it is more effective

edit 1: included more general info and findings on more missions.

To be continued...

Edited by the author 3 years ago
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Hi there!

I'm Dan, frequent speedrunners of this game won't have heard of me because I've only done a couple of Arma runs before ':D, if you're on the Discord server, you'll likely know that 23Banzaj is resigning from (most if not all of) their sr.c mod positions, and I've offered to take up Arma 3

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