Ace Combat

ACE COMBAT 8 FA-36 Game can look like a normal late Aircraft Tree destination until you reach the point where the expected node still is not purchasable. The original Fighter has an additional progression condition beyond simply holding enough MRP, and that is where most of the confusion around the unlock comes from. Planning the…

ACE COMBAT 8 Best Upgrade Parts are difficult to reduce to one permanent build because every airframe begins with different strengths, weaknesses and slot limits. BODY, ARMS and MISC upgrades solve different problems, while Campaign missions keep changing whether speed, turning, missile pressure, surface work or survivability is the thing costing you time. Spending heavily…

ACE COMBAT 8 Best Special Weapons is a mission-dependent question because the campaign repeatedly changes what it asks you to destroy. A weapon that feels dominant against agile aircraft can be a poor use of a slot when the next operation is built around armoured columns, ships or a huge target with many components. The…

ACE COMBAT 8 EA-36 Barricader is one of the more confusing original aircraft to trace through the Campaign Aircraft Tree because its availability depends on another endgame purchase rather than a simple visible branch during the story. Players can reach the end of the campaign with plenty of MRP and still find that the expected…

ACE COMBAT 8 Best Aircraft becomes a much more complicated search once the campaign stops giving every sortie the same kind of target. A jet that feels excellent in a clean dogfight can become awkward when the next operation is packed with ships, armoured columns, long travel distances or multiple objective phases. The Aircraft Tree…

ACE COMBAT 8 S Rank runs are scored differently on each of the campaign’s 30 numbered missions. To earn Ace of Aces, you must finish every mission with an S rank on Ace difficulty, using either the main Campaign or Free Mission after the story. Destroying valuable targets quickly is usually more important than wiping…

ACE COMBAT 8 Campaign Medals has 29 challenges tied to campaign kills, S ranks, special mission objectives and complete playthroughs. You only need any ten medals for the Meritorious Service trophy, so there’s no need to finish the hardest six campaign restrictions just to earn that achievement. The trickier challenges include protecting every landing craft,…

ACE COMBAT 8 Aircraft Skins are easy to collect before the game makes the cosmetic system feel completely transparent. Campaign rewards, named enemies, edition content and online progression can all put cosmetics in front of you, yet the place where a particular skin is earned is not always the same place where it can eventually…

ACE COMBAT 8 Wingman Commands make Joker Flight more than a collection of radio voices, but the system can be easy to underuse during a hectic first campaign clear. Baxter, Tasha and Coster can be directed in real time, and the right order becomes increasingly relevant when several threats are active at once or a…

ACE COMBAT 8 X-40 Nightmare is one of the most obvious endgame targets in the Aircraft Tree, yet it is also one of the easiest nodes to misunderstand when the aircraft does not appear just because your MRP balance is high. The superplane has more than one condition attached to its availability, and those conditions…

The Aircraft Tree is the Campaign progression map for buying planes, weapons and upgrade parts with MRP.

Unlock the F-35C Lightning II through the Campaign Aircraft Tree by progressing through the Mirage, Super Hornet and EA-18G branch.

ACE COMBAT 8 Annihilation Battle brings back the series’ open-ended destruction format, giving you a time limit, a large battlefield full of targets and far more freedom over what to attack first than a tightly scripted objective mission. Bandai Namco used Mission 7 as its showcase, with Sotoan facilities spread across the area and return…

ACE COMBAT 8 Characters are split between Joker Flight and the people keeping the aging carrier Endurance operating while the Federation of Central Usea fights back against Sotoa. Bandai Namco’s official roster profiles Jan Cope, Ellington Baxter, Tasha Severskaya, William Coster, Kate Evans, Jessica Pike, David Jenkins and Adelina Santos, while the campaign places the…

ACE COMBAT 8 Weather is part of the combat model rather than a layer of decoration over the sky. Bandai Namco’s proprietary Cloudly system creates dynamic multi-layered clouds, while rain, strong winds, lightning and changing visibility are used to alter how you read and approach an engagement. The practical effect is that the sky itself…

ACE COMBAT 8 Difficulty Settings give you four standard choices from the start: Rookie, Pilot, Veteran and Elite. Bandai Namco lets you change the campaign difficulty at any time, so picking the wrong setting at the beginning does not lock the entire save into a challenge level you no longer enjoy. The differences become more…