¤¤¤this is incomplete at the moment, expect bad formatting and lots of grammar errors

=== Route ==== M01 - Use the F-5 M02 - Buy bombs: The J-35 is considerably faster, but the F-5 is a bit easier to use. M03 - F-5 w/ QAAMs M04 - Select Mission A, J-35 w/ UGB (mission C will unlock the F-16. It's XMAAs may be preferable for M05.) M05 - J-35 w/ SAAM M06 - J-35 w/ UGB M07 - Buy the Mirage & use it M08 - Select Mission A. J-35 w/ UGB M09 - Mirage, attack Excalibur directly. M10 - F-5 w/ QAAM M11 - Buy the SU-37 & use it M12 - SU-37 M13 - Buy the FAEBs for the SU-37 & use them. M14 - Select Mission A, SU-37 w/ FAEB M15 - SU-37 w/ FAEB M16/17/18 - SU-37 w/ FAEB

=== GENERAL STUFF ===

• Pre-run options Put Quick Select to ON. This will save you from loading in the 3D models in the mission hangar, and just makes the menuing a bit easier.

Using the ZERO control scheme makes weapon switching much easier, but the zoomed out map you get is pretty much useless. If you're still getting used to the mission layouts you may want to hold off on using this control scheme.

• Difficulty Very Easy mode is used for a few different reasons, but the main thing is the easier to manage AI. On Normal & above the AI will start fights in different ways to Very Easy, which requires different strats. Most of the time these will be slower then the less complicated patterns in Very Easy. The extra damage resistance helps in cases where you want to tank hits in head-on passes (although it really only matters in M16... and maybe M18). Difficulty also changes stuff like the rate of laser attacks in M08, and the speed that the XB-0 flies at in M15.

• Bomb Sniping The aiming system for the bombs is very accurate in this game. It's possible to snipe targets beyond draw distance if you know where to aim. The bombs travel at the speed that you drop them at however, so long range attacks will take a long time to hit.

• Ceiling Skipping In this game, the higher you go, the faster you'll go. Although when you go too high (around 32k feet) the game will force you to stall. When you stall though, you'll gain speed in the dive, which you can exploit to gain speed quickly by constantly "skipping" off the altitude ceiling. This allows you to reach a top speed that's about 200 mph faster then normal (1505 with F-5/SU-37, 1640 with J-35). At faster speeds there's less of a leeway to climb before you start losing speed, so ceiling skips generally start off at 15 degree climbs, but then tighten up as you approach top speed until you're barely climbing at all.

• Dogfighting tips Dogfights can potentially be the biggest time sinks in the run due to the random nature of the AI. If you position yourself at the same place & time, then generally the AI behaves in the same way, every time. However they can still do unfavorable things if you're just ever so slightly out of position, or perhaps it might sometimes just be RNG. In any case, quick-kill strats should work more often then not, but for some fights it'll just never work 100% of the time. Luckily, fighter AI has what seems to be a coded-in weakness that's fairly easy to exploit. If someone's tailing you, and if you force them to turn while you brake, they overshoot almost every time. Afterwards they just sit there in front of you as easy targets. This strat seems to work on all difficulties, although they'll react faster / maneuver out of it faster on the higher difficulties. Make sure to force them to turn though, as if you brake while they're right behind you then they'll likely not overshoot and just end up parked behind you, inches away from your tail. Also be aware that SP weapons do not one shot kill the boss aces like they do normal enemies. This makes their special properties pretty much useless, as long range XLAA shots will almost never connect, and most of the time bosses can just continuously dodge QAAMs until they run out. At least they can still be useful as extra missiles to fire while the normal MSSLs are reloading. However, the drop delay on the long-range weapons suck for the usual close-quarters shots that you need to do, so ultimately QAAMs are the only practical choice for boss fights. Although if you're feeling ballsy, bombs (in particular FAEBs) can potentially be used in air-to-air fights. Since there's no collision with small fighter craft, you can just fly right through them, and if you drop a bomb at the right time, blow them up (along with any close by enemies as well).

• Yellow targets / Neutralization Neutralizing planes is not random. Particular planes are set in missions to turn yellow when initially shot, so you can identify which planes will turn yellow ahead of time, which can be handy if you want the extra points, or are trying to get the Soldier style.

• M16S / Soldier path (¤still testing this, info listed here may not be accurate) For most of the missions the Knight path is the fastest. However for Mission 16, the Soldier fight can be up to 30+ seconds faster then the Knight version, and you can get Soldier here without really losing any time in the previous missions. The thing is, you still want Knight for Mission 10, so that leaves you with very little leeway to get Soldier for M16. The path you need to take goes like this:

M01-05: You can't really lower the Ace Gauge here. M06: It's possible to takeout around half of the yellows here, but it wont do a significant dent to the gauge yet. M07-08: You naturally start to lower the gauge in M07, and in M08 you can destroy all the yellow targets without losing time. M09: You can't really afford to waste bombs on yellows on this mission, so the gauge will climb back up, but it shouldn't be back to full knight. M10: It's possible to accidentally get Soldier here (I think), but otherwise there's only a couple of yellows in this mission. M11: You have to try to get as many of the factories as you can before the mission update. This will leave you at a difficult position to take out the F-35s, but you can still do so without losing time. M12: You have a limited time frame to takeout as many yellows as you can. They fly pretty fast, but they at least get hit by missiles fairly easily. M13: It's possible to get Soldier here, which will give you a different ace, but he's still in a good spot that isn't out of the way. M14-15: You'll have to lose some gauge here. You could use some extra bombs in M14, but it's not really worth it.

=== MISSION GUIDES ====

• MISSION 01 [Glacial Skies]

The F-5 is used here even though it has a slower top speed. The semi-active nature of the J-35's SP-weapon makes it ultimately worse then the QAAMs. Aim at the right-side FRND to initially line up.

¤The other visual cues that I look for are listed here: http://imgur.com/a/K2782

Ideally you want to be close as possible to the final bomber, so that when your MSSLs reload, they'll travel the shortest possible distance before hitting the target / ending the mission. Obviously though the more you push this, the more likely you'll risk crashing into the bomber. If you finish the mission below 1:20 (18'40+ on the HUD) you'll get an extra line of dialogue before the ending script starts. What line you get is completely random, and can lead to like 5 seconds of RTA variance.

• MISSION 02 [Annex]

Buying UGB for the J-35 is considerably faster (pretty much 10+ secs for every mission it's used). However if you're just starting out, the F-5 is easier to handle with it's better braking / maneuverability. When you select a plane for the mission, the plane that you bought the SP-weapon for will be pre-selected. (So if you want to use the J-35, the cursor will already be on it when you go to start the mission.).

¤These are the various markers I use to line up: http://imgur.com/a/k6n7t

Climb to about 5000-6000 feet before attacking the final group of TGTs. The higher the altitude, the steeper the dive, which will end up making the first 4 bomb drops easier (although it'll make pulling up out of it trickier). When attacking the targets by the river, aim the bombs more towards water so that they won't fall short. If you take out the final group fast enough, you can skip a lengthy bit of dialogue that will save some real-time.

• MISSION 03 (K) [The Round Table / vs. Indigo]

The F-5 ends up being faster here, even though the J-35 is ~5 secs faster in the first section. The J-35 just loses too much time in the dogfight. Climb at the start to perform ceiling skipping. Your climb angle doesn't really matter too much, but 30 degrees is what I usually do. At 29-30k ft, push the nose to 15 degrees, and skip off the ceiling at 15 degrees until you reach 1400 mph. Then decrease the angle to 10 degrees until 1470, then 5-3 degrees up to max speed (1505). The mission update will trigger once you cross over the middle of the map (right over the central mountain range). Since the mission update only resets your speed, you can let the nose drop a bit right before it to gain some extra speed / distance. Although if you drop too much altitude, you'll dive at a less extreme angle / accelerate slower right after the update.

¤Indigo fight After the mission update, dive at 20 degrees, and command Pixy to GRND-DSP (so he doesn't interfere with the fight). Brake hard at 8000-7000 to the flight lead, he'll do a U-turn in front of you and should give you an easy shot. Turn to the right at full A/B in a slight dive until you see the next TGT. Brake at 4000, and wait until you get an opening. Now at least one other guy will be attacking you. Angle yourself to him to make him turn, and brake hard. He should overshoot for an easy kill. If both of the remaining guys attack you, shoot the first guy with 2 QAAMs, and the last guy with regular MSSLs. (As far as I know it's random if the last guy attacks you or not.) If you're super lucky, you can finish the mission fast enough to skip Pixy's "one for you, one for me" line.

• MISSION 04 (A) [Juggernaut / Gelnikos]

Out of the 3 choices for this mission, the top variant (GELNIKOS, A) is the fastest, however completing the bottom variant (COSTNER, C) will give you the F-16. The XMAAs it carries are nice & easy to use, although it's ultimately a much slower path to take (Longer M04 + having to go into the shop an extra time + just being slower top speed wise).

Preemptively command Pixy to enable SP-WEAPON so you don't have to worry about it later. If you miss the first J-35, then continue on like normal, then take him on later after shooting down the two F-20's at the very end of the mission. He should've been following you around the entire time, so if you turn back to where you came from then he should be there, and he'll end up as an easy head-on kill. When you go to take out the first pair of J-35's, you can kill them faster then just shooting 4 MSSLs (and waiting for them to recharge), but doing so can risk putting Pixy out of position for the final group. Often times if you're too fast, he won't be in range to fire at the last two guys, and will just ignore them. You can remedy this by commanding him to AIR-DSP instead of ATTACK, although this is less consistent, and he's not guaranteed to shoot at both TGTs.

• MISSION 05 [Flicker of Hope]

Remember to preemptively command Pixy to enable SP-WEAPON. Be careful not to hit the houses, particularly on the first group of TGTs. Fighters will start spawning in once you take down 8 ground TGTs. They spawn in waves, so one pair will spawn in front of you at first. Once they get shot down, then another group will spawn in, and then another, and etc. After taking out the northern group of ground TGTs, I make sure to be locked onto the SAM in the distance and wait until about 11000 from the target to command Pixy to AIR-DSP. If done right Pixy will take out the 2 fighters that end up behind you with decent consistency. However, the speed you have when you the exit the attack on the previous ground TGTs can change things up (more speed = earlier timing I guess). Assuming Pixy does his job, a 2nd pair of fighters will spawn right in front of you, these guys will take you head on every time. The 3rd pair that spawns may not attack you head on, but instead may go for the friendly C-130 if they're close enough to it. A 4th pair will spawn in after, but you should ignore these guys for now as they wont go at you head on for an easy shot. The pair that's attacking the cargo plane will ignore you at first so you'll need to get behind them to take them both out. You can take advantage of the semi-active nature of the SAAMs by locking on, but then firing off the missile off to the side and waiting before turning back in to have the missile track the target. This will effectively curve the missile, putting it in a more favorable position of attack. After you take out the pair attacking the C-130, the final TGT will spawn in (a single F-16). However now the other pair of TGTs will turn towards you for a head on attack. With the right positioning you can take these guys out head on, which saves a nice amount of time considering how sluggish the J-35 is at dogfighting. Now since you spawned in the final F-16 eariler, it should be within firing range as soon as you take out the last pair. Otherwise he spawns pretty far away, so if you don't take out the fighters in the correct order, then you'll lose a lot of time traveling over to this guy.

• MISSION 06 [Diapason]

If you want to get Soldier for M16, then it'll help to take out yellow targets in this mission. (Take them out when waiting for the boss fight to avoid losing time). It's not a bad idea to kill the ace in this mission (WILDGANG) just for the points. Especially if you want to buy the XAGM for the Mirage when you first buy it (not really recommended but w/e).

¤Gelb fight The Quick-kill for the Gelb fight is pretty much the most precise thing in the run. When you go at either of the two planes head-on, they'll try to out climb you. However if you keep going for one of them, the other will eventually stop climbing, and just attack you straight on. This is when you can switch over to the other guy and take him out (My cue for this is when AWACS says the word 'Intercept'). Be wary though that he can still randomly avoid your attack. Climbing above him as you approach helps to avoid this. When you turn to meet the last guy, you'll need to end up right in his flight path, otherwise he'll dodge you. I brake + turn as soon as I fire at the first guy, but I hit the throttle again midway through the turn (My cue is generally when the sun comes into view, although the turn will require different timings depending on how far to the right you were when attacking the first guy). If done correctly, there should be just enough time to fire off a shot before you fly past. Otherwise if you just brake, he'll have enough space to roll out the way. If you miss, it's best to just continue straight ahead for a bit before turning back. Gelb can literally run circles around the J-35, so trying to do slow-speed dogfighting is pretty much useless. Although at that point it's pretty much up to Gelb to decide when the fight ends.

• MISSION 07 [Bastion]

You'll want the Mirage for this mission. If you got enough points in M06, then it's also possible to buy the XAGM here too if you want.

The APPROACH targets are designed weirdly, but if you take out one of them, then the other approach on that side of the mountain will also blow up (so basically you get 2 for 1). When you close in on the CTRL TOWER, there's a group of "phantom" AA guns that despawn when you get close enough. (They get re-positioned into their normal placements). The mission will open up after you take out the big CTRL TOWER, and enough of the AA Guns/SAMs surrounding it (the pillboxes do not count). If you take out even more AA guns, then a trio of MIG-29s will spawn in front of you. They're worth slightly less points then the MIR-2000s however (320 vs 400). You need at least 7000 points before heading onto the ACC. However if you get lucky, and Pixy bags some kills, then you can potentially save more time later on. You need at least 7660 points at the ACC to clear the mission. 8560 will allow you skip IRIS (worth 900 points). IRIS will spawn in your current direction after all the green targets are destroyed at the ACC.

• MISSION 08 [Merlon / Alpha Team]

The J-35 is about 12 secs faster then the Mirage here, but it's considerably riskier to use. (Partly due to it's sluggish ground attack, and partly due to the laser skip). For the first part of the mission, the script needs to go through particular lines before it will move on to the next phase. You want to take out the last TGT before this line ends: "Actually we lost contact with him a few days ago. We're in a lot of confusion here". If you're going for Soldier M16, then take out the yellow targets before the mission update. Just be careful that you can potentially get Soldier for M10 if you've taken out too many yellow targets up to this point. The laser skip has some weird behavior. The game will usually allow you to phase through the first attack without killing you. However since the J-35 is so fast, it can go far enough down the map that the game won't give you a free pass on the first attack, and you'll take full damage instead. If you're fast enough you can still survive at 99%, but if you climb above the altitude ceiling breifly you can escape taking damage and survive at much less stressful margins. On Normal difficulty & above, the attack will come fast enough that the J-35 will be able to phase through without taking much damage, but the changes to enemy AI make changing difficulties not really worth it.

• MISSION 09 [Sword of Annihilation]

If the J-35 had more bombs then it would be used, but since it doesn't have enough, the Mirage is used instead. Since the first attack isn't aimed at you, you don't need to dodge it. Just be wary that the beam will insta-kill you no matter the difficulty. Snipe the right & far power stations with bombs as you approach. When going at the tip, aim the W on the HUD at the tip of the laser to aim the bombs, and drop all 4 when close (the bomb pipper doesn't really aim correctly near the tip). The Gun & MSSLs on the Mirage fire at the same downward angle, so keep that in mind when attacking the surronding TGTs. It'll take another salvo of bombs to takeout the tip. If you missed 1 before, then you'll still be fine. After attacking the last power station, veer off to the side for a bit before turning back. Otherwise you end up looking down the slim side of Excalibur and it'll be really difficult to hit your missles & bombs. It takes 4 UGB & 3 MSSLs to take out the final TGT (also the gun does 1 damage to both the tip & base of excal; so pretty much useless).

• MISSION 10 [Mayhem / vs. Silber]

This mission's on a timer and you'll have to wait for about 5 mins before the boss fight starts. Although you still need take out fighters in a timely fashion in order to keep the mission script going. It's possible to have enough credits to buy the SU-37 before this mission, but you want the F-5's QAAMs for the boss fight anyway.

For the quick-kill you want to take out the fighters from right to left. Go fullspeed at the rightmost guy, and let off the throttle + fire MSSLs as soon as he gets in range. Turn towards the next two, but make sure to not touch the throttle. Takeout the close guy with QAAMs (pray that it locks onto the right target), then use MSSLs on the far guy (the F-4E). These guys can very easily dodge your attacks, and as far as I know it's just random if they do. Gaining height on them can help prevent them from climbing above the missile shots. When you turn towards the left guys, again don't touch the throttle, and takeout the far guy. If you're lucky there should be only 1 guy left.

• MISSION 11 [The Inferno]

Buy the SU-37 now (sell the Mirage), you'll need the XLAAs on this mission. Be careful on the ground attack section, the ground targeting on the SU-37 isn't the greatest. The SAMs & AA Gun TGTs on this level also have more health then normal, and will take a few more bullets to kill. Out of the first two pairs of fighters that spawn, you want to go after the MIG-31s first as they ignore you and go full speed towards the allied bombers. The next TGTs spawn based on your position (at 10k feet). It's ideal to be north of the city, because otherwise the B-2 bombers will dive down when over the city, dodging missile shots in the process. The first northern group of F-35s ignore you, so you need to fly right into their flight path for the missiles to hit. When attacking the other fighters, it's best to keep looking at them until the missiles connect. Otherwise they can easily dodge the shots when they move to adjust for your turn. Also be prepared to fire off MSSLs, as the XLAAs still miss from time to time. The thin profile of the B-2s can make missile shots with any sort of verticality miss very easily. Just be prepared to fire off more shots. If you're going for Soldier M16, you need to takeout as many yellow targets as you can in the time between killing the first pairs of fighters & the mission update.

• MISSION 12 [Stage of the Apocalypse]

The first part of this mission is just waiting out the dialogue script, so it ends up being better to climb all the way up to the altitude ceiling and gain speed before the mission update. I use PJ's "I'll stop them" line as my cue to dive down onto the bombers (30 degree dive). It's possible to take out all the bombers before the lengthy "too many enemy craft" line from PJ. However this just puts the script out of order and doesn't really end up saving time (???). If you want Soldier M16, you'll need to take out as many yellow targets as possible here (make sure to not kill any fighters before they turn yellow). As you wait for the nuke to go off, you can intercept the yellow MIG-31's coming in from the north. The final group of TGTs will spawn after Pixy's "magical carriage" line (unless you put the script out of order). You can lock & fire at the TGTs before you can see their boxes pop up on the HUD. Check the minimap to confirm that you're locked. On higher difficulties the final group will fly in a weird way that will dodge any immediate shots, but on Very Easy they're vulnerable from the start.

• MISSION 13 [Lying in Deceit] ¤¤todo

• MISSION 14 (A) [The Final Overture / Mars Strike Team]

http://imgur.com/a/ZZnUo Simple mission. The final ship will need to be taken out with guns&missiles, as it doesn't die in a FAEB blast for whatever reason.

• MISSION 15 [Talon of Ruin]

Lots of cutscenes to skip here.

[Video of quick kills]

Espada will generally do two different things here. Either one will fly upwards, or one will fly downwards. If one of them goes up, wait until they go off screen, then quickly follow them up shoot as soon you lock on. This should hit every time. If they go down, then wait a tad until they're near the bottom, then nose down & shoot. You could also switch targets as the other guy will attack you head on (Although the one that's left alive then won't go down as easily as in the other strats). On Very Easy difficulty, the XB-0 flies slower then the SU-37's stall speed, so you'll need to loop around to attack the cockpit.

• MISSION 16 [The Demon of the Round Table]

You can realistically get either the Wizard (Knight), or Gault (Soldier) fight here. The Wizard fight is slower but more consistent. The Gault fight starts sooner, but is dependent on agreeable AI. Each of the fights will start after a certain amount of time passes, so feel free to mess around, give your hands a stretch, or w/e.

• WIZARD

Aim at the lower pair. Aim at & gun down the right one, and lock on (and fire MSSLs) at the left one. There's only a very small window to get both kills, and the guy you shoot missiles at can dodge from time to time. Continue forward at full speed after you pass. Wait until PJ's line is about to end before turning around. Try to take out the rest in the head on. Two stealth fighters pairs can spawn to the north & south. When attacking the north group dive below them (until they're just off screen), and they'll eventually attack you head on. Fire at the left guy. You want to attack south group in a similar fashion, but generally you want to go for the right guy instead. The stealth fighters have a bit more health then usual, so gunning them down takes too long. Since the timer keeps going after defeating the last guy, a good attempt usually ends up getting a 2'30 or so (although my PB is somehow a 2'16; skipped a line of dialogue I guess).

• GAULT

Gault has a strange AI pattern where 2 guys get out in front, while the rest of the swarm begins to line up behind you, eventually opening fire on you. If you manage to reset this pattern, you can notice a "grace" period where they won't even lock onto you. Ideally if you let them gang up behind you & start firing, a couple fighters will pop up right in front of your nose, and basically set themselves up as easy targets for a mid-air FAEB drop. Ideally you would get most of the fighters in this blast, and there would only be one or two left remaining. If done well then it's possible to get a time around or under 2 min.

• MISSION 17 [Valley of Kings]

First of all switch the camera back to HUD view, as the 3rd person cam will lag at certain parts here. There's a soft altitude restriction on this level. Going above 1800 feet for too long will cause you to take damage from "phantom" missiles that you can't actually see or dodge. However the period you have before you get hit is long enough to skip over parts of the mountain to save time. The most important skip is near the end, by the 3rd bridge. There's not much time to dive back down below the alt. limit, but on Very Easy you can just easily tank the hit if you want, instead of potentially crashing into the mountain. The tunnel at the end can be taken pretty much at full speed, although the final section will require you to let off the throttle for a bit. Although the tunnel doesn't matter too much anyway since the game still has dialogue that it needs to go through which you can easily beat before it finishes.

• MISSION 18 [Zero]

Lead Pixy a bit to the left to pepper him with bullets when you first pass him. Wait until AWACS finishes his "Analyzing the situation" line before turning back. Make sure Pixy is going head on with you, and then shoot gun+missiles until his 1st phase falls (let off the throttle, or brake if you have to). You have until 9'00"00 on the clock before the next phase can start. This should give you leeway to miss 1 or 2 shots without losing time. Firing off 2 missiles, and then turning away seems like the best way to get shots to connect. At the start of the 3rd phase, veer off a tad to the right. Cut left & fire when in range, you want to end up aiming at the V-2 rocket's smoke. This should cause Pixy to do an earlier then normal turnaround. It's possible then to gun down Pixy here, therefore skipping having to do another pass.