I'm opening this thread to discuss the best/fastest strategies to achieve the 100% completion in AC2.

Just as a reminder, the rules are:

• Start with a blank savefile;
• Collect every medal (thus you must play the game twice);
• Buy every plane in the game - all 24 of them;
• Achieve the highest rank - Commander in Chief.

So far, NemesisXploder's strategy seems to be the most clever and efficient.

1 st playthrough - Priorities: planes, medals, time

• Played on "EASY"
• Destroyed only some of the enemy aces
• Played "Alphaville"
• Stopped at "Kingpin"

Nemesis's strategy is brilliant.

The rank you get on the 1st playthrough doesn't get carried to the 2nd one (=your rank starts from zero), so it's useless to destroy everything on screen.

He played on easy, just went for the red targets and some aces. He then played "Alphaville" because the ground targets on "El Dorado" and "Sentinel" aren't as much a pain in the neck on easy difficulty. He didn't get past "Kingpin" - it's just a waste of time.

Basically in the 1st playthrough you should get all the "normal" aircraft and the medals from "Tin Castle" and operation Alphaville, while taking as little time as possible.

2nd playthrough - Priorities: planes, medals, score

• Played on "HARD"
• Destroyed all the enemy aces he encountered
• Played "Bellissima"
• Played 'til "Fighter's Honor"

Here things get more complicated.

You must destroy ALMOST everything you see, without missing any enemy ace. Contrary to normal speedrunning strategies, he played "Opera House", "Midnight Assassin" and "Cavalry" during operation Bellissima. The main task for this playthrough is to destroy as many enemies as possible in order to get the highest rank. That's the reason why the 1st playthrough is basically a normal speedrun.

Player ranks are set according to two variables: targets destroyed and time taken to complete a mission. It just means that you have to finish within a reasonable time.

He then destroyed the Z.O.E. on "Kingpin" and reached the good ending - which is obligatory to get the highest rank.

Here's what more or less Nemesis killed off in his second playthrough (red targets won't be mentioned):

1. GAMBIT: everything
2. EASY MONEY: everything except Superfly
3. CITY ON FIRE: everything
4. OPERA HOUSE: everything + 2 x Death Cowboys
5. GREASED LIGHTNING: C5
6. MIDNIGHT ASSASSIN: everything + 2 x Razorbacks
7. SLEDGEHAMMER: Z.O.E.
8. RISING HIGH: red TGTs only
9. SWORDSMITH: aircraft only + Tallman & M. Sphere
10. TOY BOX: almost everything + Stalker [as you know, this mission is RNG dependent]
11. SEAGULL: everything + 2 x Hangmen
12. ONE NIGHT STAND: TGT only
13. POWER PLAY: all planes + Z.O.E. + 2 x ships
14. DARK STAR: 3 x Death Rave 2000
15. DEAD END: everything, except the guarrd towers + 4 x F.F.F.
16. CAVALRY: everything
17. FINAL COUNTDOWN: everything
18. JEWEL BOX: every aircraft + 6 x mssl + 7 x guns [most likely the AA defenses near the red targets]
19. KINGPIN: all aircraft + Z.O.E. + 3 x guns + 3 x mssl
20. LAST RESORT: TGT only
21. FIGHTER'S HONOR: Z.O.E. + 10 x F-15

Some testing for 2nd playthrough

Destroying red TGTs and aces only gets ya the "Major" rank.

Nemesis' strategy seems to be the fastest so far, but maybe it can be improved a little by destroying the following enemies as well:

1. EASY MONEY: destroy the Superfly as well
2. SLEDGEHAMMER: 5 x AH-64
3. RISING HIGH: 2 x X-29
4. ONE NIGHT STAND: 2 x Mi-24
5. POWER PLAY: 1 x gun, 3 x mssl
6. DEAD END: 2 x towers
7. JEWEL BOX: 3 x guns, 4 x mssl

By doing this you might not need to destroy the F-15s on the last mission, but I'm not totally sure...I have to run some more testing before confirming this.

Hi,

I'm writing this because unfortunately I have no more spare time to dedicate to this site. The problem is that I am a moderator for the following games:

1. Treasures of the Deep, PS1 (I'm the only moderator);
2. Strikers 1945, PS1 (I'm the only active moderator; the other one hasn't been active for over a year)
3. Disney's The Little Mermaid II, PS1 (fortunately the other moderator is active)
4. Xenophobe, NES (the other mod is active)

I want someone else to replace me, so that whoever submits a speedrun doesn't have to wait too much long for it to be approved/rejected

Thanks

SINGLE LEVEL RUN RULES

TIMING Timing is in-game time: when you submit a run the video MUST show the mission's results, where time is displayed.

CHEATING Cheating during the speedrun (aka pausing the game to input cheats during the video you want to submit on the leaderboard) is STRICTLY FORBIDDEN.

However, being a single-level category it is pointless to force players to endure long money grinding sessions. After all the point of this category is to complete only a single level ASAP.

As a result you are allowed to use the following cheats to unlock the game content faster: all equipment; all missions available; all weapons; extra gold. Forbidden cheats: infinite health, infinite ammo, unlimited payload, no fines, super speed and unlock all doors

But once again I repeat: CHEATING DURING THE LEVEL YOU WANT TO SUBMIT ON THE LEADERBOARDS IS FORBIDDEN!!!

That is all.

Now you may submit speedruns for single levels.

The categories are "Any%" and "Greek Tablet".

Runs of "Training dive", "Hitler's lost gold" and "Atlantis" submitted in the "Greek Tablet" category will be moved to "Any%".

Check the specific rules on the leaderboard.

I made this post just to avoid misunderstandings about the required objectives for every category.

ANY% Finish the game as quickly as possible. Police chases are NOT required (except for the 6 obligatory chases at the beginning).

100%

1. Complete the game;
2. Complete all the police chases.

EXTRAS ANY MEDAL Complete all the following extras with AT LEAST a bronze medal:

1. Driving School;
2. Spotlight Missions:
3. Combat Missions.

EXTRAS ALL GOLD Complete all the following extras with a GOLD medal or "Recoil" badge:

1. Driving School;
2. Spotlight Missions;
3. Combat Missions.

MAX%

1. Complete the game with ALL the police chases ;
2. Complete all the extras mentioned above with at least a BRONZE medal.
3. Complete all the tracks in "Race Mode". This is basically a 100% + EXTRAS ANY MEDAL + Race Mode.

SUPER%

1. Beat the game with ALL the police chases;
2. Complete the following extras with at least a GOLD medal or a "Recoil" badge:

• Driving School;
• Spotlight Missions;
• Combat Missions;

3. Complete ALL the tracks in "Race Mode". This is basically a 100% + EXTRAS ALL GOLD + Race mode.

To get info about time start/ending, check the categories on the Leaderboard.

I think you should consider the idea to split the leaderboards into different sections for each console.

N64 has faster loading times than PS for example, and any run will always be faster.

Hi, I've got a question for who plays on arcade: is there a difficulty selection screen on the arcade/emulator?

I want to add a rule for future speedruns: to show clearly the difficulty selection screen before recording.

Hi everyone, I've got a question about the rules. Basically, the rules state that you have to start from a clean save, showing that you are erasing all your progress.

The problem is that I've got a free version of the game for android (vers. 1.4+), and resetting the file means that to unlock every floor I have to watch advertisements, which is a waste of time and a real pain. Do I really have to erase the progress? Or may I stop the timer when playing the advertisements to unlock the levels?

I'm planning to do a simple any%.

Thanks in advance

This game can be frustrating and hard as f@ck sometimes. Does anybody know an effective way to dodge the missiles they fire at you?

In the hard difficulty a missile is enough to one-shot you. Although I managed to complete a speedrun on Hard, I can't find a way to dodge 'em consistently.

Thanks.

Some time ago, I've uploaded a video walkthrough for all the locations of the Greek tablets in the game, it might be useful for you, if you want to make a 100% speedrun.

Enjoy!

Hi, are you going to add a separate category for emulated runs anytime soon?

Thanks.

Hello, I've submitted two speedruns (any% Monkey and Child) more than a month ago. Are the moderators still active around here?

Thanks.

Hello there, I have a doubt about the "Expert%" category. It says "play on expert", right? Now when you say "Expert" you mean the expert controls of the plane or the Hard difficulty? I know it is a stupid question, but I don't understand.

Dear slimehunter, I submitted my two speedruns almost a month ago, but they haven't been checked yet. Are you still active in this site?

Hi there, I'm the new moderator, as imduckdamnyou has been inactive for 4 months. You're able to submit you runs and have them verified in a reasonable time. If you have any questions or problems, feel free to contact me on social media.

Hi imduckdamnyou, I submitted my any% emulated psx run in mid september, and it still hasn't been approved. It's been almost 2 months since the submission, are you alright?

Hi Pandora, I've seen that you added 21 seconds to the final time. It's okay, maybe I'll do a faster run in the future. Best regards.