Ace Combat Zero Mercenary Ace Style: How to Change Your Reputation

Ace Combat Zero Mercenary Ace Style is earned by destroying yellow optional targets, including damaged planes that are already withdrawing. You’ll get more credits for the extra kills, but the game remembers how Cipher behaves and sends different, often tougher ace squadrons after you.

If you want to fight Rot Team in Mission 03 or finish with the Mercenary Ace medal, start early. Your reputation carries over between missions. A handful of extra kills near the end won’t necessarily undo a campaign spent sparing yellow targets.

How to Get Ace Combat Zero Mercenary Ace Style

To build Ace Combat Zero Mercenary Ace Style, clear yellow targets before completing the required red TGT objectives. Look for low-threat facilities, ships and planes marked NEUTRALIZED. You don’t need a special aircraft or a higher difficulty setting.

1. Look over the tactical map at the start of the sortie. Identify the red TGT objectives and the yellow optional markers.
2. Deal with active threats as required, but do not rush through a mission-ending objective if there are optional yellow targets you still want to hit.
3. Destroy yellow ground facilities, low-threat targets and other optional objects where available.
4. When an enemy aircraft becomes critically damaged and turns yellow, a further hit will count as the Mercenary choice rather than simply finishing a required objective.
5. Check your debriefing gauge. Mercenary is at the left end. Keep adjusting your behaviour until you reach the section you want.

Which Targets Actually Count?

For Ace Combat Zero Mercenary Ace Style, target colour matters more than the weapon you use. Red TGT targets are necessary mission objectives. Green markers are active enemies that are often optional. Yellow targets are a separate category: harmless or low-threat units, facilities and aircraft that have been neutralised.

A damaged plane is the easiest thing to miss. After taking critical damage, a fighter can turn yellow and try to escape. Destroying it moves your Ace Combat Zero Mercenary Ace Style gauge left, sometimes much more than destroying an ordinary yellow ground target. The exact effect varies, so don’t work from a fixed kill count.

Situation	Mercenary decision	Consequence
Yellow ground facility	Destroy it before finishing the mission	Extra credits and Mercenary movement
Disabled aircraft marked NEUTRALIZED	Finish it off	Mercenary movement, potentially stronger than a normal yellow object
Required red TGT	Complete it as ordered	Advances the mission, not an optional-yellow decision
Allied call for support	Mission-specific choice	Allied rescue can influence the opposite, Knight direction on certain missions

Ace Combat Zero Mercenary Ace Style: Rot Team in Mission 03

Annex, Mission 02, is a good place to establish Ace Combat Zero Mercenary Ace Style. There are plenty of yellow targets to destroy before heading to the Round Table. Check the debriefing bar when you finish. If it’s still in Soldier, continue taking optional targets in the next mission.

With the Mercenary gauge active at Mission 03, you’ll encounter Rot Team: four Typhoons. Later, Schwarze Team appears in Mission 10, Mayhem, and Sorcerer Team in Mission 16, The Demon of the Round Table. Knights and Soldiers fight different formations in those missions.

Is Mercenary Worth the Extra Credits?

Ace Combat Zero Mercenary Ace Style is the most lucrative route if you’re trying to earn credits. Yellow targets pay out, although the extra money comes with the risk of harder enemy squadrons. This isn’t an easy-mode setting or a shortcut that immediately unlocks the entire hangar.

Zero unlocks certain planes by finishing specific missions with a particular Ace Style. The Typhoon becomes available to purchase after Mission 03 on Mercenary, the MiG-31 after Mission 10 on Mercenary, and the F-15S/MTD after Mission 16 on Mercenary. They still cost credits. Ace Combat 8 has a separate aircraft tree, which doesn’t apply here.

How to Get Mercenary Ace and Supreme Mercenary

Finish the story with Ace Combat Zero Mercenary Ace Style to earn the Mercenary Ace medal and the Mercenary paint scheme. For Supreme Mercenary, you need the gauge at or very close to the left-hand edge. Simply landing somewhere in the Mercenary section isn’t enough.

The paint reward is separate from Special colours tied to named aces and the Wingman paints for the F-15C and F-16C. Getting every style colour also means completing runs as Soldier and Knight, not just Mercenary.

Can You Switch to Mercenary Late?

You can switch your behaviour mid-campaign, but Ace Combat Zero Mercenary Ace Style is cumulative. Most yellow ground targets disappear after Mission 14, so there may not be enough opportunities left to move the gauge all the way from Knight. Starting another campaign retains your Ace Style position; Free Mission replays do not move the gauge. Use the first few sorties of your next campaign to change direction.

For Rot Team, set the gauge before Mission 03. For Supreme Mercenary, monitor it throughout the campaign rather than trying to force it at the finish. Bandai Namco says the modern Ace Combat Zero included with eligible Ace Combat 8 preorders is a port of the original 2006 game, not a remaster.

Official source: Bandai Namco’s Ace Combat Zero gameplay and Ace Style system.