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.

OK, in the last few days I've tried a couple of strategies to get the highest rank in the 2nd playthgough...

"SPEEDRUNNER" - DOESN'T WORK

Destroy red TGTs and aces only. It's not enough. The max rank you might get is Major.

"LAST RESORT" - DOESN'T WORK

Just like "Speedrunner", but in the last mission destroy as many F-15s as possible. I killed off 28/30 planes (lost the count myself) but I got "Major General" only (which is two ranks below Commander in Chief).

I think that it's worth trying to improve my "Last Resort" strategy or Nemesis' speedrun strategy.

If someone has a better route, let me know!

I think, I optimized my run soon. I hope my gamepad won't let me down :D

Is Cuckoo's Nest worth playing to later fight less time-consuming enemies? It gives way more points than Rising High (55,5K to be exact)

The problem is that in Cuckoo's Nest you will spend more time, while in Fighter's Honor it will be faster for you to destroy 5 F-15S (which give 60k points, 12500 for one plane)

Cuckoo's Nest is more efficient, but potentially slower. By playing that Mission, I achieved the highest rank right upon completing "Last Resort".

I still can't understand the ranks mechanic. Are they calculated based off your score or the number of targets destroyed?

I mean, would it be more efficient (and I say "EFFICIENT", not necessarily faster) play "Midnight Assassin" (more points) or "Bear Tracks" (more targets)?

Seems like Nemesis's strategy is the fastest so far, but I'm still figuring out if there are more efficient strategies for the 2nd playthrough, you younger folks will tell me if they are feasable and faster, my reflexes aren't what they're used to be =D

They are calculated based on the number of destruction targets and how many points do you get for them. However, if they were calculated based on the total number of points, we would try not to take damage and not destroy planes in missions where we have to land. Plus, a large number of targets does not equal the number of points

Feasible. I can cut my run time by about 5 minutes :D Today I tried to realize that and will try again today or tomorrow :))

Is it really just number of enemies counted and not score related (damage/death/wingman excluded from the count)? Because I have an idea:

Just did a quick run getting all possible aces + some extra enemies and savestated at Fighter's Honor, crashed like 6 times while getting there. I then did 2 tries of the last mission: first time, only TGT. Got Lieutenant Colonel rank. Second time, I destroyed every single F-15 until I had 1 missile left, so ~40 aircraft (also used the gun). This time I got Lieutenant General. I wasn't paying much attention while getting to Fighter's Honor so I don't know exactly how many extra enemies I shot down, but not more than 15 total, that's for sure.

Fact is, since later targets rewards a lot more points than earlier enemies, is it possible to get Commander in Chief while starting the final level at rank Colonel? This way we could (if it's faster than the current strategy obviously) blitz the early part of the campaign, get to Colonel and farm F-15s at the end

Did someone tested only killing non-moveable optional targets?

Every flying enemy is a RNG-factor we should avoid as much as possible.

A certain enemy has a certain number of points. This needs to be checked, but do not forget that planes can dodge missiles and it is not a fact that you will get 40+ kills

About ground/gun/missle non target ground give 10 pts gun give 10/15/20 pts depending on the mission missle give (20?)/25 pts depending on mission

I will be able to fully describe the entire point system and who gives how many points, but it will take me time

one F-15S give 120(+)pts therefore, I concluded that there is no point in destroying ground targets, because it will be faster to destroy F-15S