ACE COMBAT 8 Mission 27, Fatsia the Ocean Fortress, is much easier once you stop treating every gun and ship as a separate target. Operation Rootbreaker takes place around a huge megafloat whose arms are held up by structural pillars. Destroying the supports brings entire sections crashing down, taking their air defences, parked aircraft and ships with them.
That’s only the first half of the mission. Later, you’ll need to fly inside the structure and attack its reactor through a narrow opening. Here’s how to bring down the arms, what to do during the surrender sequence and how to find the hidden Typhoon ace Stiria.
ACE COMBAT 8 Mission 27: Fatsia the Ocean Fortress walkthrough
ACE COMBAT 8 Mission 27: Pick weapons that can reach the pillars
For ACE COMBAT 8 Mission 27, an aircraft carrying effective air-to-ground weapons is the right starting point. SOD, SFFS or bombs can be more reliable than conventional AGMs against pillars hidden by platforms, because some guided missile trajectories can strike the deck instead of the support below. You will also face enemy fighters, but this isn’t an elite-squadron dogfight. Your standard air-to-air missiles should be enough for most of them.
1. Attack the arm supports instead of every turret
The fortress in ACE COMBAT 8 Mission 27 has several long arms, each packed with anti-air guns, railguns, aircraft and ships beneath the decks. The structural pillars on either side of an arm are the valuable targets. Once enough of them are destroyed, that arm collapses, taking the weapons and ships around it with it. This is far quicker than trying to clear every target one at a time.
When you approach a deck arm, look for the supports extending down towards the water. Line up your aircraft to fire beneath the platform rather than into the top surface. Keep enough distance to turn safely after each pass and avoid getting trapped under a falling section.
2. Use the gas carriers for chain reactions
Some arms in ACE COMBAT 8 Mission 27 have gas carrier ships stationed alongside them. Destroying a carrier sets off an explosion that can take out nearby supports, damaging or collapsing a large section of the megafloat. This is a useful shortcut when you’re short on time. For arms without one nearby, target the individual pillars directly with missiles or suitable special weapons.
You can order Joker Flight to spread attacks while you work on the supports. Clear long-range anti-air defences or parked aircraft if they interfere with your pass, but the arm pillars should remain the priority. A collapsed arm removes many of those smaller enemies without extra ammunition.
3. Listen to the surrender and hold-fire sequence
After the arm assault in ACE COMBAT 8 Mission 27 resolves, the mission enters a story sequence involving negotiations with the megafloat commander. Don’t keep firing at everything while the game is issuing hold-fire or surrender-related dialogue. Follow the active objective and let the scene play. A devastating attack on the allied fleet changes the situation, and the mission gives you a new target inside the fortress.
4. Fly through the structure and attack the reactor
The trickiest part of ACE COMBAT 8 Mission 27 is reaching the reactor through the narrow opening where the Megafloat’s arms connect to the centre. This is the hardest flying section of the mission. Slow down, line up with the gap and make small yaw and pitch corrections rather than throwing the aircraft into a sharp last-second turn. Get through the entrance before firing at the reactor so your missiles don’t hit the barrier.
You need another run after the first strike. On the next approach, a shutter is closing and the window is tighter, so plan your line before entering. Fly steadily through the marked opening, hit the reactor again and get clear as the structure begins to fail. Once the reactor is destroyed, head south and cross the return line to complete the sortie.
ACE COMBAT 8 Mission 27: How to get the Titan’s Fall medal
Titan’s Fall is awarded for destroying a Megafloat column with a direct hit. In ACE COMBAT 8 Mission 27, the best-supported method is to hit the support pillars directly with standard missiles or gunfire, clearing one side of a deck arm without setting off the nearby gas tankers first. Chain reactions can collapse the same structure without awarding the medal, so don’t rely on explosions from gas carriers for this particular objective.
ACE COMBAT 8 Mission 27: How to spawn Stiria in Mission 27
The optional ace in ACE COMBAT 8 Mission 27 is Stiria, a Typhoon. You must complete the campaign, then replay in Free Mission on Veteran difficulty or higher. Fly beneath the deck of one of the fortress’s arms. The ace appears nearby once you complete the low flight. Watch the radar immediately, because other fighters in the area can make the named target harder to identify.
This trigger is separate from collapsing the arms and from the Titan’s Fall medal. If you’re collecting everything, do the fly-under before destroying the nearby supports. That way the structure is still standing when you need to pass under it.
What to do if you cannot hit the reactor
If the missiles keep crashing into the outer deck, your firing angle is wrong. The reactor is inside the megastructure, so make the opening your priority before trying to lock the target. Enter at a controlled speed and fire only when your flight path has cleared the barrier. For the second strike, account for the timed shutter rather than repeating the first approach at the same leisurely pace.
For ACE COMBAT 8 Mission 27, the important sequence is: collapse the arms using their supports, respect the story transition, fly into the centre for the first reactor attack, then make the timed second pass and leave south. When you’re replaying for the optional ace or medal, deal with their specific conditions before bringing the deck down.
Official source: Bandai Namco Entertainment’s ACE COMBAT 8 overview.
