EARTH DEFENSE FORCE 4.1 The Shadow of New Despair Ride of the Wing Divers

Wing Diver Basics

Out of the three specialized classes, Wing Diver is generally the simplest to control and comprehend. She can fly, allowing for speedy movement unhindered by terrain, and her weapons are generally more powerful than the Ranger arsenal, at the expense of range and accuracy. None of her weapons need to deal with recoil or full-body animations.

The core concept of Wing Diver is energy management. If you fly and shoot all the time, you'll quickly find yourself stranded, unable to move, unable to shoot and unable to survive. Instead, your play should consist of balancing when to fly, when to shoot, when the engage, when to flee, and when to deliberately allow your energy to run out.

Additionally, her jetpack and the nature of Wing Diver's weaponry makes her extremely well-suited to fighting unlimited quantities of giant insects, but struggle when it comes to robotic enemies; a stark contrast to Ranger where it's often the other way around.

An additional boon (and danger) to Wing Diver weaponry is that her weapons will reload even if you don't have them equipped. This means you can fire one weapon while reloading another, but it also means you have no way of stopping the weapon from draining your energy.

Finally, Wing Diver earns half the armour ranger does per armour crate, and the limits for multiplayer will also be halved. Combined with the lack of shields, vehicles, and healing weapons, avoiding attacks is more important for her than for anyone else.

- Mobility And Kiting

The fastest and safest way to move as a Wing Diver is usually via "bunnyhopping". Fly until you've consumed two segments of energy, then let go. The moment your feet touch the ground, start flying again and repeat the process. When performed correctly, your energy should refill faster than you consume it.

Jumping for shorter or longer bursts will consume more energy on flat terrain.

In practice, you'll want to use this technique to back away from enemies and dodge their attacks, but also be shooting them. Eventually you'll run into a situation in which you need to reload your weapon. This will be done automatically for you if you run out of energy, so always consult with your energy bar before firing your last shot or pressing the manual reload button.

If your weapon needs 45% energy to reload, and it reloads quickly, you'll want to have that much energy stored up before depleting. Should you lack that much, temporarily switch weapons and disengage first.

Although wing diver moves fast, on even terrain enemies will usually move faster. Your survival will hinge on your ability to lead enemies through difficult terrain, maintain stunlock on the front line, and simply killing enemies before they get too close.

- Energy

To comprehend your energy bar fully, numbers are needed.

You have a total of 100 energy

The natural charge rate is 0.1

Emergency charge rate is 0.2 (out of energy, red, beeping, smoking)

The thrusters consume 0.25, resulting in a net loss of 0.15 due to the recharge

Recharge and consumption happens at 60 ticks per second, meaning if you hold down the thrusters, you can fly for just over 11 seconds nonstop. A full recharge takes 16-17 seconds, while an emergency reloads will finish in 8-9 seconds.

The energy bar is marked at 16 distinct segments for your convenience.

Short-Range

This category is considered Wing Diver's primary weapon. Rarely do you want to deploy on a mission without a solid short-range equipped.

Common attributes for short-range weapons include: Short range

Superlative damage

Easy to use

- Rapier

Damage: ★★★★★★★★★★

Speed: ★★★★★

Range: ★☆☆☆☆

Economy ★★★★☆

Not to be trifled with, Rapier has been nerfed multiple times throughout the EDF series while other weapons have been buffed, and it's still the highest sustainable DPS weapon in the game by far. The final version boasts over 18000 damage per second.

Most insects will be torn up in a brief touch, and robots will take a couple of seconds to destroy. All you need in order to achieve this destruction is to close the distance between yourself and your enemy. That entails avoiding a lot of incoming fire.

Variant: Rapier ThrustDamage: ★★★★★★★★★★

Speed: ★★★★★

Range: ★☆☆☆☆

Economy ★★★★☆

Regular rapiers spread their damage over a very large cone, but Rapier Thrust will focus it into just a small area. This allows you to destroy enemies from the tip of the weapons' effective range, and focus all the damage on a single target imediately, but it will be less effective at stunlocking crowds. Thrust is usually the type of Rapier you want to be using.

Notable: Lv 35 MX RapierDamage: ★★★★★★★★★★

Speed: ★★★☆☆

Range: ★☆☆☆☆

Economy ★★★★★

A rapier that reloads for free. Many MX weapons suffer from low usability, but going 20 seconds without a rapier isn't so bad if you just plan for it, depending on the other weapon. If you dual wield it, you can achieve optimal mobility and terrifying damage. Total firing time is shorter than 20 seconds, but if you're firing constantly it's unlikely that the extra flight time is being used as it should.

Notable: Lv 45 Rapier G ThrustDamage: ★★★★★★★★★★

Speed: ★★★★★

Range: ★★☆☆☆

Economy ★★★★★

This particular Rapier draws less than half the energy of any other model, and has an astoundingly short 1 second reload time. A lot of later variants like Plasma Broom and Rapier G Thrust 2 suffers from far higher energy consumption and painfully long reload time. It's likely you'll stick to this particular variant all the way until Master Rapier, depending on situation.

- Plasma Whip

Damage: ★★★★☆

Speed: ★★★★☆

Range: ★★☆☆☆

Economy ★☆☆☆☆

What primarily seperates Plasma Whip from Rapier is the larger clip, and the vastly larger range. It allows Plasma Whip to stunlock a lot of enemies at once. Once the magazine runs out, however, you'll be in a pretty large energy debt, most likely ending up in an emergency reload.

It's a dangerous weapon to use alone, but in a group can be used to defend your comrades.

- Laser Lance / Hreimdarr

Damage: ★★★★★

Speed: ★★★★☆

Range: ★★☆☆☆

Economy ★★★★☆

A solid single-target option. Laser lance boasts considerable range compared to rapier, making it safer in some instances. Additionally, all the damage is done in one short, powerful burst rather than continously. This allows for hit-and-run usage, but also makes it the ideal Wing Diver weapon to use against drones and flying vehicles.

If the mission you're entering will have flying vehicles at all, think very carefully if you don't plan to bring a Lance. Regarding end-tier lances, there are a lot of equally viable options. Don't feel you have to go straight for Hreimdarr if the leaner energy economy of Laser Lance Σ appeals to you. Both are oneshots against most enemies, even online, so consider what you're trading.

Variant: X-Way Lance / LuonottarDamage: ★★★★★

Speed: ★★★★☆

Range: ★★☆☆☆

Economy ★★★★☆

The spread lances fire multiple lances in a fan. This makes aiming easier, and potentially deals more damage if you're very close. However, the range is a bit shorter. Despite of that, the spread makes it easier to hit enemies in hectic situations. The spread also allows you to hit multiple enemies at once if they're particularly packed, and what other situation is worth speaking of?

Spread lances are highly versatile weapons that work well against spiders, ants and bees alike.

Variant: Plasma Ram / Demonic LanceDamage: ★★★★★

Speed: ★★☆☆☆

Range: ★★☆☆☆

Economy ★★☆☆☆

A very strong, single-shot Lance. It can be used for hit-and-run against that one enemy you really have to kill right away. Be mindful of your energy when using it. Generally outclassed by higher-level lances.

Variant: Sacred LanceDamage: ★★★★★

Speed: ★★★☆☆

Range: ★☆☆☆☆

Economy ★★★★☆

Potentially has the highest damage per shot amongst all lances. The spread between the shots is incredibly tight, so you're more likely than you think to hit a single enemy with all of them. The long reload time and lower rate of fire hurts its DPS, but lances are all about burst damage anyway. The bigger issue is its short range.

Variant: Spark LanceDamage: ★★★★☆

Speed: ★★★★☆

Range: ★★☆☆☆

Economy ★★★★☆

The first Spark Lance isn't all that, but Spark Lance A has amazing range and crowd-killing properties. You can quickly dispatch of clusters of insects as easily as you can hit far-off fliers with it. Damage falls short of later level spread lances, but check out that snappy reload.

A top-tier Lance that must be weighed in equal consideration with any of the later ones.

Mid-Rg Laser

Laser guns fire continous, instant laser beams. They're generally easy to use, but not particularly rewarding. Most laser weapons are outclassed by electroshock weapons.

Common attributes for mid-range laser weapons include:

Medium range

Low damage

Perfect Accuracy

Like too many Wing Diver categories, this one can be largely ignored.

- LAZR

Damage: ★★☆☆☆

Speed: ★★★★★

Range: ★★★☆☆

Economy ★★★★★

The intended use case for LAZR is probably as a backup weapon. With a gigantic clip size and an energy consumption during reload that's so low your energy will still refill during it, LAZR can be depended on for a lot of things. Unfortunately, killing enemies is not among those things. Even offline, the laser must be maintained for multiple second just to kill a single ant, and the gun has no crowd-hitting capabilities whatsoever.

That being said, every other aspect of the gun is perfect: accuracy, shot speed, rate of fire, clip capacity, and energy cost. If you're up against enemies with high speed and low health, LAZR was seemingly made for them.

Variant: LARG-VDamage: ★★★☆☆

Speed: ★★★★★

Range: ★★★☆☆

Economy ★★★★★

Very strong compared to its level, and capable of hitting two targets at once. If you can hit the same target with both lasers you even get a decent amount of damage going on. The spread between the two lasers is uncomfortably wide, but that's just a matter of getting used to it.

Variant: Cyclone LaserDamage: ★★★☆☆

Speed: ★★★★★

Range: ★★★☆☆

Economy ★☆☆☆☆

Cyclone Laser is a funny weapon that should be tried once, then never again. The energy consumption is completely overdone, and even if it was managable, the laser is really too weak to get much done. Completely surrounding yourself in lasers gives a false sense of security, as the lasers are individually very weak and unlikely to stack on the same enemy, and just as unlikely to hit every enemy surrounding you.

Notable: Lv 45 LARG-W3Damage: ★★★☆☆

Speed: ★★★★★

Range: ★★★☆☆

Economy ★★★★★

Despite being level 45, this is actually the strongest LAZR. If you hit with two lasers, you do almost the same damage as the level 90 SIG-LAZR. Hit with all three and you'll do 40% more damage. Considerably handier than LARG-V since one of the lasers shoot straight. A decent choice for dealing with drones. You can swipe it briefly across the sky to knock many drones away at once. Even though using it in Inferno may not be the best choice, LARG-W3 is actually a very solid weapon for Hard mode.

- Laser Chainsaw

Damage: ★★★★☆

Speed: ★★★★★

Range: ★★★☆☆

Economy ★★★★☆

A beast throughout most of hard mode. Laser Chainsaw is like a rapier, but with four times the range. Also, it's a Laser Chainsaw.

Compared to rapier, it has no knockback. This means it can kill drones and flying vehicles rather than just knock them away.

Unfortunately, Laser Chainsaw has no variants except the level 25 one.

- Reflectron Laser

Damage: ★★★☆☆

Speed: ★★★★☆

Range: ★★★☆☆

Economy ★★★☆☆

Slightly stronger than LAZR just from being able to bounce between multiple enemies and hit a lot of them at once. The energy consumption is markedly higher to compensate. Most variants will shoot two lasers in a V.

Generally outclassed by Idunn which does the same thing, but better.

Variant: Reflectron Multi-LaserDamage: ★★★☆☆

Speed: ★★★★☆

Range: ★★★☆☆

Economy ★★☆☆☆

The stats makes it exactly like a horizontal Laser Chainsaw, but about 50 levels later. It's decent at keeping a large amount of bugs stunlocked at the same time, especially if you lure them between buildings. The 5 second reload is a problem that must be worked around.

Mid-Rg Electroshock

These are Wing Diver's primary means of crowd control. Electroshock weapons will bounce and curve along walls, between enemies, and over the ground. They spread and jolt and stunlock and multihit. If short-range weapons are the Wing Diver's assault rifle, these would be the rocket launchers.

Common attributes for electroshock weapons include:

Medium range

Amazing stunlock

Incredible damage

The ability to spread through corridors, alleys and caves fluidly.

- Idunn

Damage: ★★★★☆

Speed: ★★★★☆

Range: ★★★★☆

Economy ★★★☆☆

Shoots a continous stream of lightning. While its accuracy is not perfect, the high rate of fire and wide

coverage of each shot means you will definitely hit whatever it is you're aiming at.

Capable of covering the entirety of an underground tunnel, the crowd-control abilities of Idunn are not to be underestimated. You can aim it at a spawning tunnel exit to stunlock and kill everything coming out from it before they get to move at all, or just kite crowds of insects in general, stunlocking and killing them off over time.

The range is decent, so it can be used in a pinch against flying robots.

For a lot of missions, carrying two Idunns can be the best option, simply because there's often no other good alternative. Since Wing Diver weapons reload even when not held out, you can use one Idunn during another Idunn's downtime. For the same reason, it can be nice to pull out a second Idunn before the first one is empty in order to postpone energy consumption while still having a good weapon to fight with.

- Thunder Bow

Damage: ★★★★☆

Speed: ★★★☆☆

Range: ★★★★☆

Economy ★★★☆☆

Shoots a burst of lightning. While the travel range is further than Idunn, the spread is so enormous that the effective range can be considered shorter. The highest variants has a range so massive you're likely to pull aggro from areas of the map you're not even thinking about at the time. It's therefore discouraged to bring later Thunder Bows unless you know what you're doing.

In lower levels, Thunder Bow has a tighter choke, and the range is more managable. Due to weapon limits, you sometimes go so long between Idunns that Thunder Bows may be the best option, damage-wise for the level and they're a viable case. Some of the lower-level Thunder Bows fire slowly enough that it can be nice to dual-wield and switch-shoot them.

Notable: Lv 30 Thunder Bow 20Damage: ★★★★☆

Speed: ★★★★☆

Range: ★★★★☆

Economy ★★★★☆

The only thunder bow between this and level 65 Thunder Bow 30 is the Thunder Bow 20R. The 20R has less damage per shot and uses considerably more energy for its reloading, making it a very poor weapon to use for kiting. Since Thunder Bow is often a weapon you use more to stunlock enemies as they encroach closer while you kite rather than to burst out as much damage as fast as you can, Thunder Bow 20 is likely to serve you well beyond its intended expiry date.

- Eclat

Damage: ★★★☆☆

Speed: ★★☆☆☆

Range: ★★★☆☆

Economy ★☆☆☆☆

Eclat is a very special weapon. Most of the time it seems like a thunder bow that just spreads so thinly as to be useless. The secret to it is that Eclat has perfect accuracy, and all of its bolts will converge on a designated spot a certain distance in front of the gun. Finding this spot is tricky, and Eclat is therefore only recommended for the particularly interested.

Particle Cannons

Particle cannons fire rapid barrages of medium-sized particles. They're difficult to use while in motion, and generally outclassed by electroshock weapons.

Common attributes for particle cannons include:

Medium range

Medium damage

Consuming energy for every shot

Projectiles being disproportionally affected by your own motion while firing

Due to the energy consumption and motion inheritance, particle cannons are easiest used while on the ground, but with some training can be used from the air. Try to limit bursts to when you are flying directly in the direction you are aiming.

Like too many Wing Diver categories, this one can be largely ignored.

- Ixion

Damage: ★★★☆☆

Speed: ★★★☆☆

Range: ★★★★☆

Economy ★★★★☆

Shoots a stream of slow-moving particles. Generally good mileage when used on the ground, and a lot of bullets can be put out before running out of energy. There is no form of splash damage or penetration, however, so the weapon is limited to shooting a single enemy at a time.

Not nearly as effective at crowds as electroshock weapons since they can hit groups simultaneously, and not as effective at aerial enemies due to the slow travel time.

All that said, aside from the slow travel speed of bullets, straight Ixions have comparable performance in damage and range to equivalent Ranger assault rifles 20 levels ahead of itself. The level 65 Ixion Mark IV, for instance, is just as powerful as Ranger's level 85 AF100.

While Idunn is stronger in many ways, Ixion still wins in range, and the energy consumption per shots gives you a lot of control over your own energy consumption.

Variant: Ixion X-Way / Ixion Mark X / LuxardDamage: ★★★★☆

Speed: ★★★☆☆

Range: ★★★☆☆

Economy ★★★☆☆

Shoots a stream of multiple slow-moving particles in a spread. Generates a lot of damage when many particles hit, and you're more likely to hit things in general due to sheer volume. However, energy consumption is generally larger and most shots are likely to miss. If you're within such a range that multiple particles hit the same target, other options such as Rapier or Idunn are likely to do more damage while still allowing you to fly.

Works okay against basic drones, especially if you're getting your energy charged by a plasma capacitor. Most air raiders will not bother bringing one if your intended use for it is Ixion, however.

- Dynastrike

Damage: ★★☆☆☆

Speed: ★★☆☆☆

Range: ★★★☆☆

Economy ★☆☆☆☆

Works like a shotgun but weaker. If you'd like to have an energy shotgun, consider Thunder Bow which its harder, faster, and can be used while flying.

Notable: Dynastrike αDamage: ★★★★☆

Speed: ★★★☆☆

Range: ★★★☆☆

Economy ★★★☆☆

The final variant in the line of Dynastrike is a respectable weapon in its own right. On hardest difficulty it can be used to kill a lot of things from a nice, safe range. Because it uses a low amount of energy per shot, you never risk falling into an emergency reload unexpectedly.

It's considerably stronger than equivalent ranger shotguns, with the only drawbacks being the slow travel time of its shots, and how difficult it is to aim correctly while moving sideways.

- Power Stringer

Damage: ★★☆☆☆

Speed: ★★☆☆☆

Range: ★★★☆☆

Economy ★★★★☆

Some variations works like Ixion, some variations works like Dynastrike. The common factor is that they're weaker than their counterparts.

It's not completely without merit, as the explosive property is condusive to stunning and launching spiders.

Sniper Weapons

Sniper weapons include the Wing Diver's long-range options. They generally contain long-range variants of previous categories.

Common attributes for sniper weapons include:

Relatively long range

Poor damage over time

Consuming energy for every shot

Instant hits

With a couple of very noteworthy exceptions, Wing Divers are generally not recommended to bring sniper weapons in a party. The other classes are generally better suited for such tasks.

- Thunder Sniper

Damage: ★★☆☆☆

Speed: ★★★☆☆

Range: ★★★★★★

Economy ★★☆☆☆

As expected, this is a long-range Thunder Bow. It beats Ranger snipers in distance fired, but being a thunder weapon none of the shots will hit precisely where you aim.

The firepower is generally low, and you're often better off moving in a bit closer and using a regular Thunder Bow instead. A good use-case for this weapon is using it as a long range thunder-bow during cooperative low health runs.

A notable aspect of thunder sniper is its insane range. It's not going to reach the full 1900m that's stated due to the lightning curling around, but it's still a very long distance that goes further than most other sniper rifles.

Variant: Thunder Sniper 40Damage: ★★★★☆

Speed: ★★★☆☆

Range: ★★★★★

Economy ★☆☆☆☆

The name of this gun is highly misleading. With "sniper" in its name, you might be forgiven for thinking you're supposed to snipe things with it.

The real use-case for this level 62 gun is to kill everything three corridors ahead in underground missions. More or less functions as a wide-coverage thunder bow.

Variant: Thunder Sniper MXDamage: ★★★★☆

Speed: ☆☆☆☆☆

Range: ★★★★★

Economy ★★★★★

This is the same amazing gun as Thunder Sniper 40, but recharges for free!

The recharge time is, however, 40 seconds long. Not a very good alternative.

- LRSL / SIG Sniper

Damage: ★☆☆☆☆

Speed: ★★★★★

Range: ★★★☆☆

Economy: ★★☆☆☆

With absolutely dreadful firepower and poor range, LRSL's only redeeming quality is how easy it is to use. You'll often see rookie players resort to this and not do much with it.

Very good for drawing precise aggro.

- Monster

Damage: ★★★★★

Speed: ★☆☆☆☆

Range: ★★★★★

Economy ★☆☆☆☆

When you're sniping something, it's generally because it's dangerous and must be disposed of as quickly as possible. Monster outputs a tremendous amount of damage in a flash, but fires so quickly that you're most likely to end up in an emergency reload.

Note that if you don't have an Air Raider recharging your energy after each shot, damage over time is still weaker than with other classes' sniper options, but the instant damage is still very impressive and can make a difference.

The accuracy is not pinpoint either, and it's possible to miss far-off targets or precise shots around cover.

Despite this, Monster is generally Wing Diver's best long-range option.

- Raijin

Damage: ★★★☆☆

Speed: ★★☆☆☆

Range: ★★★★★★★★

Economy ★☆☆☆☆

Raijin is a mix of Monster and Thunder Sniper, mixing the advantages of both. Each hit is heavy, clocking in at 2000 damage, but the energy cost is an instant, steep 70%. While not great for continuous sniping, this is the best you're going to get until Monster-S.

Raijin only has one model, but there's a spiritual successor that makes this mighty lightning bolt look like carpet static.

- Gungnir

Damage: ★★★★★★★

Speed: ☆☆☆☆☆

Range: ★★★★★★★★

Economy ☆☆☆☆☆

With Monster, if you're incredibly light on the trigger, you can avoid an emergency reload by only firing one or two shots. Gungnir gives you no such options and will always fire a triple-shot burst.

The damage is straight-up 150 000 when all three lasers connect, often enough to bring down bosses offline, and at the very least soften up some of the online ones. However, you pay a steep price for this as you're forced to endure no less than seven emergency reloads after each shot.

Don't bring this without a plasma charger or a very good plan.

Note that it makes a difference whether Gungnir is equipped in your first or second weapon slot. If placed in the first slot, Gungnir will hog all of your energy until it has been fully reloaded. In the second slot, the weapon in the first slot will be granted one tick of recharging before Gungnir takes the rest. This is enough to fill up one charge of Monster between each emergency reload with the obvious drawback that you will have to go through more downtime in general.

Ranged Attacks

Ranged Attacks contains various plasma-based explosives that mirror Ranger's grenade category.

Common attributes for ranged attacks include:

Medium range

Exploding projectiles

Consuming energy for every shot

Shots being affected by your intertia, but not to the degree of particle cannons

A hell of a lot of knockback

- Plasma Launcher

Damage: ★★★☆☆

Speed: ★★☆☆☆

Range: ★★★☆☆

Economy ★★★☆☆

Plasma Launcher are fairly powerful grenade launchers you can blast a lot of insects with. Compared to Ranger's launchers, they pack a lot more power and cover a larger area in their blasts.

Notable: Lv 45 Ex Plasma LauncherDamage: ★★★☆☆

Speed: ★★★★☆

Range: ★★★★☆

Economy ★★☆☆☆

A very powerful launcher for its range, the notable difference with Ex is not just its awesome blast area, but the extreme shot speed. It can be used to snipe down aerial targets with barely any compensation for gravity or the target's movement.

- Plasmafall

Damage: ★★★★☆

Speed: ★★☆☆☆

Range: ★★☆☆☆

Economy ★★★☆☆

A fine grenade launcher that'll serve you well at its level range. Its power and blast area is sure to earn you envious looks from Rangers. The sharp arc is a significant advantage if you're good at calculating the trajectory; it means you can lob it in the middle of a cluster of insects without needing to fly first.

Variant: Plasmafall ΣDamage: ★★★★★

Speed: ★☆☆☆☆

Range: ★★☆☆☆

Economy ☆☆☆☆☆

While incredibly destructive, Plasmafall Σ suffers from being prohibitively expensive. A class that lives or dies based on having enough energy to escape at all times can't afford launching away most of their energy like this.

Fun, but not to be used recklessly. Don't bring without a good plan.

- Plasma Grenade

Damage: ★★★☆☆

Speed: ★☆☆☆☆

Range: ★☆☆☆☆

Economy ★★★★★

Plasma Grenades are decently powerful, but cannot be launched far. Instead, they consume no energy at all. This allows them to be used while on the move without worrying about energy management, but it does take a few seconds to reload.

Can be used for kiting insects.

Variant: Plasma Grenade 20/Wide Grenade 40Damage: ★★★★☆

Speed: ★☆☆☆☆

Range: ★☆☆☆☆

Economy ★★★★★

These grenades have no gravity of their own. While the total damage is fearsome, you need to throw all of your might into getting the grenades anywhere, and you're unlikely to hit anything but a close range static target that you might as well get with Rapier.

The interesting use-case, rather, is to throw them while moving backwards, creating a static wall of grenades that will blow away enemies trying to pass through it.

Notable: Lv 87 Plasma Grenade ΣDamage: ★★★☆☆

Speed: ★★★☆☆

Range: ★☆☆☆☆

Economy ☆☆☆☆☆

Instead of consuming no energy, this plasma grenade opts to consume 100% energy. There is no reason why you'd ever want to use it.

- Plasma Shot

Damage: ★★☆☆☆

Speed: ★★☆☆☆

Range: ★★★☆☆

Economy ★☆☆☆☆

A hybrid between Particle Cannons and Plasma Launchers, launching weak explosive projectiles at a high price. They're not very good.

Variant: M15 Plasma Launcher/M30 Plasma LauncherDamage: ★★☆☆☆

Speed: ★★☆☆☆

Range: ★★★☆☆

Economy ★☆☆☆☆

See above, but it's more like Wideshot than a Governor.

Homing Weapons

Homing weapons include the Wing Diver's various automatically locked-on lasers. Unlike most homing weapons in this game, there is no need to hold down the attack button to achieve locks. Instead, the Wing Diver will do this automatically using her psionic powers, and all that's needed from the player is to look at the enemy and pull the trigger.

Common attributes for homing weapons include:

Medium range

Screen-covering automatic lock-on

Consuming energy for every shot

Exploding, curvy laser beams

Like too many Wing Diver categories, this one can be largely ignored.

- Mirage

Damage: ★★☆☆☆

Speed: ★★★☆☆

Range: ★★★☆☆

Economy ★★☆☆☆

A nimble missile launcher, usually capable of locking onto many targets.

The firepower is far too low to get anything effective done with it, but through sheer amount of targets it can be used for a little bit of stunlocking and knockback.

- Geist

Damage: ★★★☆☆

Speed: ★☆☆☆☆

Range: ★★☆☆☆

Economy ★★☆☆☆

On paper this launcher seems really good. Okay damage, decent locks, insane blast radius.

The problem is that the projectiles are incredibly slow. So slow that you're unlikely to hit the enemies being locked onto, and very likely to just hit some terrain somewhere or yourself.

Use with caution.

- Psiblade

Damage: ★★★★☆

Speed: ★☆☆☆☆

Range: ★★★☆☆

Economy ★☆☆☆☆

Launches a laser that goes straight for a while, then curves around to hit your target.

Damage, range and movement speed is right where you want it, but the energy cost is prohibitive. The lock-on window is also far too large for a launcher that only fires a single missile, so it's very prone to locking onto random garbage you're not interested in hitting.

- Fenrir

Damage: ★★★☆☆

Speed: ★★★★☆

Range: ★★☆☆☆

Economy ★★☆☆☆

A mirage that trades lock-on count and range for damage and firing speed.

Still too weak to be useful, not to mention the energy cost racking up quickly, but if you take a Fenrir 3-Way you can burn through lower difficulties with extremely low effort.

- Ghost Chaser

Damage: ★★★★☆

Speed: ★☆☆☆☆

Range: ★★☆☆☆

Economy ★★☆☆☆

Launches up to thirty lasers that scatter out randomly, then curves around to hit your targets.

Damage, movement speed, and energy cost seem about right, but the shots are extremely likely to hit the ground you're standing on when you launch, even if you aim upwards. It simply must be used while flying, making it impractical for sustained combat.

A secondary problem is the range, which is much worse than the numbers make it appear. Ghost chaser shots spend a lot of travel time flying out randomly before curviing around, so effective range is around half what it says. Ghost Chaser has a tendency to lock onto targets that are too far away to hit.

As it's explosive and decently powerful, Ghost Chaser is capable of knocking dragons around.

Special Weapons

Special weapons all involve indirect attacks generated by orbs the Wing Diver can throw out.

Common attributes for special weapons include:

Throwing out one or more orb a short distance

The orb fires attacks over time

Reload time of around a minute, effectively reducing your charge rate over that time

Never hitting anything most of the time

A very big problem with special weapons is that the thrown out orbs will instantly disappear if they touch terrain or objects. Special weapons that might seem decent if thrown into an enemy horde, therefore, will just disappear entirely and still waste your energy for a minute.

A secondary problem is the long reload time where your energy charge suffers. For the minute after you throw a special weapon, you should have a plan that involves being on the ground more than usual, probably in cover.

- Pandora

Damage: ★★☆☆☆

Speed: ★★☆☆☆

Range: ★☆☆☆☆

Economy ★★☆☆☆

Fires a bunch of projectiles in a small area either upwards, downwards or in all directions. In all cases, if it's close enough to hit any enemies, it's close enough for an enemy to bump into it and make it disappear.

In either case, Pandora ends at too low a level to be considered for Inferno.

Still, some use-cases:

Fly under a static transport ship and drop an upwards-firing pandora before it opens. If the lids and the enemies don't hit the orbs to glitch it away, the pandora can eventually bring the transport ship down. This has been executed with a transport ship that was simply too high up to rapier, but just low enough that it was possible to reach peak altitude and leave the Pandora.

Leave a downwards-firing pandora over a tunnel exit. This is not a complete supression, but some damage is done. Surpression is usually much better performed with rapier or idunn, but this can be used to cover multiple exits at once. Pandora might also eventually kill the exit.

Deploy in front of you to help with incoming insect hordes. Wing Divers usually don't need help with insect hordes, and the reduced energy might hurt worse than the help you get.

Deploy in alleys and around cover terrain to help deal with flying enemies.

- Psi Cluster

Damage: ★★☆☆☆

Speed: ★★☆☆☆

Range: ★☆☆☆☆

Economy ★★☆☆☆

Fires a bunch of lasers in a small area either forwards or in all directions. In all cases, if it's close enough to hit any enemies, it's close enough for an enemy to bump into it and make it disappear.

In either case, Psi Cluster ends at too low a level to be considered for Inferno.

- Thunder Cluster

Damage: ★★★☆☆

Speed: ★★☆☆☆

Range: ★★☆☆☆

Economy ★☆☆☆☆

One or more orbs scatter bouncy lightning around. Works okay at hitting crowds and dealing stun, especially underground.

- Heaven's Gate

Damage: ★★★★★★★

Speed: ★★☆☆☆

Range: ★★★☆☆

Economy ★★☆☆☆

A cluster of orbs fires lasers straight down. The lasers will hit the ground from almost as high as you can fly. These are surprisingly decent at crowd control, and the damage output is astounding.

Some use-cases:

Deploy over a bridge or ceiling cover otherwise, then hide under it. Flying enemies will swarm to attack you and get hit.

Leave over a tunnel exit. This is not a complete supression, but some damage is done. Surpression is usually much better performed with rapier or idunn, but this can be used to cover multiple exits at once. Heaven's gate will also definitely kill the exit.

Deploy reasonably high up in the air for a tall column of light you can fight around. Aerial enemies will get knocked to the ground where you can grind them up quickly with Rapier. This works particularly effective next to a wall as even if the aerial enemies don't hit the Heaven's Gate directly, the wall will slide them into it.

- Final Days

Damage: ★★★★☆

Speed: ★★☆☆☆

Range: ★★☆☆☆

Economy ★☆☆☆☆

A Heaven's Gate that fires forward. Considerably weaker than Heaven's Gate, but due to the way it's aimed you can more easily hit things with it. Tends to scatter vertically to form a wall.

Some use-cases:

Deploy in front of a static target such as a hive or a tunnel exit just for damage.

Throw sideways to put a wall between yourself and your enemies. Particularly decent against dragons.

Align with a road hectors are forced to walk down.

Note that Final Days can be aimed through your momemtum to fire slightly up or down.

Missions

To list every single mission in this guide would be unecessary. In general, you pick a set of weapons that you feel comfortable with and suits the situation. It's not a guarantee that any mission not listed in this guide will be easy, only that it hasn't been found necessary to use anything other than core skills, good weapons, patient kiting, and tactics mentioned for other missions to beat them.

Not every mission listed will be particularly difficult, some might be mentioned because strategies exist to beat them with great speed and ease, allowing for repeated completions should it be desirable to collect weapons and armour from them.

In addition, these guides will not always be complete from start to finish, and might only highlight difficult sections within the missions. It is assumed that the reader of this guide is reasonably familiar with the game and has already attempted the mission before.

Should you struggle with a mission not listed in this guide, it might get added, possibly with a video, if you mention it in the comments and specify an amount of health you're trying to attempt it with.

Any tactic mentioned here has been personally used in offline single player with 2000 armour or less with two notable exceptions.

The easy way

This guide will usually try to push the limit downwards as for the easiest possible strategy with the lowest possible equipment. Just as a guide telling you to grind 40 000 armour would be considered worthless, I also believe that a guide telling you to use level 90 weapons in an early mission is less than optimal.

By sticking to this principle, not only is the guide helpful for someone who isn't skipping ahead in terms of weapon progression, but the advice becomes more generally useful for any difficulty level.

However, these sections are added just because the mission in question is particularly brutal, and because these weapons make the mission so much easier that it seems worth mentioning. They'll usually involve level 90+ weapons that might take a lot of grinding to acquire.

- 11. Air Force

Recommended equipment:

1500 Armour

Lv50 Heaven's Gate D10

Recruit the soldiers to the right. These soldiers have sniper rifles and will provide useful distractions and killing power. Do not recruit the soldiers on the left, as they have rocket launcers and will destroy your cover.

Retreat into the alleyway behind the left soldiers. There'll be a comfy space between four buildings where you are going to spend the rest of the mission hanging out. Fly up about 2-3 times as high as the buildings reach straight up and throw your Heaven's Gate slightly forward at full force. If performed correctly, the lasers will spread over your alleyway and form a wall of protection around you. If you deploy too high, the lasers won't reach all the way to the ground, but if you deploy too low, there's a high likelyhood of drones running into the orbs and cancelling them.

Stay behind the Heaven's Gate and run a bit back and forth close to walls, dodging lasers as best you can. Do not engage your jetpack, as you want it to be charged back up again for your next Heaven's Gate deployment. When your first Gate is half-reloaded, fly up and deploy the next one. Try to time it so that there's always at least one gate active at any time.

Drones will fly into the gate all on their own, and will be promptly pushed into your alley, mashed into paste, and turned into crates. Collect health from the crate pile whenever you need it.

When the Naeglings show up to kill the remaining drones, fly out in the park to collect health and crates.

Alternate strategyRecommended equipment:

1500 Armour

Lv47 Idunn-E Custom

This one can work with even lower armour or online solo with stronger equipment since it keeps you in cover for longer.

As usual, recruit the soldiers to the right with the sniper rifles, but not the rocket launcher soldiers. Next, find a building with pillars along the bottom and a tight alleyway. Two possible locations is to the right of where you start, or all the way forward to the edge of the map on the right side of the park.

The one to the right provides more cover, but the rocket soldiers have a tendency to hit it with a stray shot, destroying it. The further one should be safe from that, but gives inadequate cover if you're all alone. For offline, in the company of NPCs, it's plenty good.

After positioning yourself behind the pillars, simply maintain Idunn at all times until you win. Dash for health when there's opportunity and need.

- 13. Takedown

Recommended equipment:

1000 armour

Lv45 Rapier G Thrust

Lv55 Monster-S

Monster-S will be powerful enough to take down the ships in one burst each. If a ship survives, it means one of your shots missed. You can try to compensate for it later by quickly squeezing off 1-2 shots and avoid going into emergency reloads

If you're fast enough, your men should be able to keep you from getting swarmed until the very end, just use the rapier to take out ants that get too close and use it for mopup afterwards.

If you run out of men, you can spawn more flying to the edges in each cardinal direciton.

- 22. A Trap

Recommended equipment:

1500 Armour

Lv57 Idunn-E Custom 2

Lv57 Idunn-E Custom 2Fly up and "plug" a tunnel by firing Idunn in there. As the tunnel clears out, follow it inside in order to seek shelter.

Keep using the tunnels as chokepoints and rely on your lightning guns following the corridors.

This general strategy works for almost every underground mission.

- 23. Giant Robots

Recommended equipment:

1000 armour

Lv65 Ixion Mark IV

Walk forward, recruit men, shoot robots until they die.

Keep pace making a circle around the map, approaching or retreating from hectors so that they always come from only in front of you. Ixion IV will kill the hectors in a few seconds from a long range, and it packs enough power to make the hectors shoot wildly off course. As long as you keep NPCs between you and the hectors, you can shoot them down unchallenged.

Certain areas of the map triggers spawning of more NPCs you'll want to recruit. Take care of your soldiers, and they'll take care of you. Don't stray too far from them.

- 26. Crimson

Recommended equipment:

150 Armour

Lv5 Rapier Thrust

You really shouldn't have any problems with Crimson as a Wing Diver or any other class, but in case you do, you can fly up on a tree and fire Rapier Thrust at an angle until everything is dead. Fire too low and you risk hitting the tree.

- 28. High-Speed

Recommended equipment:

750 Armour

Lv57 Demonic Lance

Lv0 LRSL-33

Two Demonic Lance shots will kill a drone, and they start un-aggroed. With their random flying patterns, one drone will soon seperate far enough from the others that you can kill it by itself.

There are two options:

Either equip two demonic lances and fly over to the drone, then alpha strike it with both at once to avoid a battle.

Or use LRSL to draw aggro while it's isolated, then use your men and the terrain to cover your while you wait for an opportunity to get in two lance strikes. Attached video shows this method.

If you mess up, retreat to your men and hide in scenery. Wait for the drone to miss with an attack before moving in. Each downed drone should drop enough healing for a full replenishment and there's only 5 enemies.

- 29. Brute Force

Recommended Equipment

2500 Armour

Lv75 Laser Lance Σ

Lv65 Ixion Mark IV

Recruit all the men and bring them to the right flank. From as much distance as it can reach, start bringing down hectors with Ixion while your men catch up.

When the shield bearers spawn, bring the hectors and NPCs to meet each other, using Ixion to even the odds until the forces can meet. When they do, fly over them to the now exposed shield bearers in the rear and bring them down.

With all the shield bearers down, you'll want to retreat back to the mission's starting point where all the tanks are, using ixion to cover your retreat from the freshly spawned insects. You'll need as many men as possible to survive the drone wave.

Whittle down the final hector spawns carefully.

- 30. Charge Phase 1

Recommended equipment:

1500 Armour

Lv67 Thunder Bow 30

Most of the mission is pretty straight forward. Follow the tunnels, kill things with thunder bow. If the enemy mass gets close, switch-shoot them for extra power, but usually you just want to use one while the other is reloading so you can sustain fire. Stay behind NPCs and cover the general area around them with lightning.

If you get lost at any point, your lightning weapon can illuminate your surroundings.

The tricky part is the final hall at the end. Aggro them with thunder bow, then make your way back to the previous encounter with the spiders. You'll have to keep some shots going to surpress the enemies chasing you, switching to your other bow before you run out in order delay energy drain. The more NPCs you still have alive at this point, the better. Stay behind them, and prioritize golden ants heavily.

The easy wayRecommended equipment:

1500 Armour

Lv90 Idunn-FF

Strategy is same as above, but much easier.

- 31. Charge Phase 2

Recommended equipment:

1500 Armour

Lv67 Thunder Bow 30

Lv62 Thunder Sniper 40

To your diagonal right is a dead-end tunnel where you can put your back to the wall and use spread lightning to keep everything at bay. You can get there either by taking the tunnel in front of you and going right, or turning 90 right then going left,

Shoot your way there, get your back to the wall, and use all your firepower to clear everything nearby. Thunder Sniper is very powerful in this mission and should be used whenever you need a particular tunnel to instantly empty, as a panic bomb, added firepower against silver spiders, or just generally damaging every enemy in the map.

The easy wayRecommended equipment:

1500 Armour

Lv90 Idunn-FF

or Lv92 Thunderbow XD

Once more these ridiculous late-game superweapons will make a joke of the mission

- 32. Charge Phase 3

Recommended equipment:

1500 Armour

Lv45 Rapier G Thrust

Lv62 Thunder Sniper 40

While a poor sniper, Thunder Sniper 40 makes for a terrific purging device in caves. FIre it, and watch the minimap ahead of you clear out. Pairing it with Rapier G Thrust gives you a good backup weapon if you run low on energy, but the sniper will be your primary hitter.

Most of the mission is nothing special. Just proceed and fire at enemies from positions that either are safe, or will become safe once Thunder Sniper empties the corridor ahead of you.

The pain point is the queens at the end. You can wait for the NPCs to arrive and charge in before you, but nothing's stopping you from simply shooting in with the sniper to kill things right away. Just position yourself to the right of the entrance so your shots can bounce in without you having to make line of sight with the queens. Back off at the first sign of acid damage.

Before long, you will have killed every queen without ever having seen them.

- 33. Thunder

Recommended equipment:

1500 armour

Lv72 Master Rapier

Lv65 Ixion Mark IV

The core strategy in this mission is to pick your battles. Find the most isolated shield bearers, then rush in and destroy the hector followed by the shield bearer. You'll want to recruit the rangers you start with as well as the wing divers that spawn up the park.

For the gold ants and any troublesome hectors, make sure you keep your distance, let the NPCs draw their fire, and shoot them down quickly with Ixion.

Try to stay out of the ruined area of the city. When there's only the last two shield bearers left, get on top of a close building and fire at any insects wandering out of their shields to pull aggro, then retreat back to the park-area to fight.

After this, the mothership will start spamming lasers. Just backpedal while letting your NPCs take the hits until it's over. If you'd don't have any, you'll need to scramble for cover behind buildings and keep on the move as the buildings will get successively destroyed.

The mothership will then fire a final genocide cannon and leave. Clean up.

- 35. Convergence

Recommended equipment:

1500 armour

Lv72 Master Rapier

Lv65 Ixion Mark IV

While this mission may seem daunting, the secret is that you control the pace.

Recruit the men and move forward close enough to start shooting the hector. The left one will wake up and join the fray. Keep your distance, take them both out, then the mutants. Back off and defeat enemies until there's no aggro left.

At this point it's possible to attack the ship dropping spiders. EIther fly into it with rapier and back off after the ship is destroyed, or take it out from a bit of distance with Ixion. There's no rush.

Use this general approach for all six transport ships: Clear robots and mutants, fight off the retaliation, then attack the ship.

- 36. Inferno

Recommended equipment:

2000 armour

Lv67 Thunder Bow 30

Recruit the men and start walking backwards slowly. This will keep the men in front of you where they can take heat for you, but also keep them moving backwards so they can avoid hector artillery. Use the radar and judge where your lightning support is most needed, then provide it there. When everything is dead, move forward to kill the hectors, but be careful to not get sidewinded.

When the queens spawn, move a good distance behind your NPCs and provide covering fire. As they fall, you need to run. Keep fleeing until the wing divers and railguns reinforcements spawn in.

At this point you've won, but don't let your guard down. Assist with taking down the golden queens and elite drones asap, then go for the ships.

- 37. Starship

Recommended equipment:

1000 Armour

Lv72 Master Rapier

Lv55 Monster-S

A group of wing divers spawn at your rear. Recruit these.

Find a good vantage point and start taking out hectors with Monster. Get the transport ships as well. After those are all down, destroy the cannon.

When the cannon is destroyed, move towards the bridge under the mothership. She'll descend low enough that you can fly into the core and vaporize her with Rapier and careful energy management in one bound.

The easy wayRecommended equipment:

150 Armour

Lv92 Gungnir

Shoot the cannon with your gungnir.

Shoot the mothership with your other gungnir.

- 42. Waterside Bugs

Recommended equipment:

2500 armour

Lv72 Master Rapier

Lv67 Thunder Bow 30

Time is of the essence in this mission. As long as the NPCs are alive, they'll draw the majority of the enemies. You'll want to fly from exit to exit, taking them out quickly with rapier.

The order matters. When 4 out of 7 exits are down, the remaining 3 will spawn mutants. You definitely want the bee spawners out, and it's pretty safe to leave the red ant spawner, so it's up to you whether your want to deal with golden ants or silver spiders in the end. The spiders spawn at each flank, and the ants spawn in the lane closest to where you start.

When the mutants spawn, keep taking exits out, then aid your men in battle. If the last NPC dies, you can retreat into the town where the enemies will have trouble navigating, allowing you to fight them fewer at a time.

- 54. Air Mobilization

Recommended equipment:

2000 Armour

Lv67 Thunder Bow 30

Lv55 Monster-S

If you attack this mission head-on, it's brutally difficult.

While it can be made easier by drawing out one elite drone at a time, there's a way to completely trivialize the mission.

Recruit all the men and move to the left of the parking lot you start at. There'll be a three-pronged alleyway between two tall buildings and a low one. These structures will serve as a funnel. Enemies will get funneled into a tight area above your heads where it's easy for you to hit them, but hard for them to hit you. Additionally, the buildings will funnel your lightning shots into those enemies. The third thing the structures will funnel is a ton of health packs, spreading them neatly along the alleyway.

When everyone is gathered, draw aggro with Monster-S, then kill the aggro with Thunder Bow. Don't hesitate shooting the transport ship with Monster when it opens; drawing the attention of every enemy on the map only means you can kill them faster.

- 58. Crazy Skies

Recommended equipment:

1500 Armour

Lv55 Monster-S

Lv67 Thunder Bow 30

First order, as always, is to recruit everyone. After this, start taking out Earth Eater nodes with Monster-S combined with a few Thunder Bow shots. Keep taking them out until you've established a safe-ish zone in the corner of the map where lasers won't bother you. From this vantage point, snipe Deroys with Monster.

When the second wave hits, take out nearby nodes again, but also retreat into the canal. The canal keeps you safe from most lasers and gives you a lot of room to dodge. Prioritize Deroys, then nodes, until reinforcements arrive.

- 60. Ill Omen

Recommended equipment:

1500 Armour

Lv67 Thunder Bow 30

Dragons are pretty scary due to their speed and nigh-undodgeable fire. To avoid getting hit, recruit all the NPCs on the map and stay behind them. While doing this, spread lightning over the dragons to stun and kill them, keeping your NPCs alive as long as possible.

This mission in particular isn't very difficult, but this strategy is good for dragons on a general case.

Should you be genuinely struggling there's two tall towers with a raised plaza to the left of where you start. You can hide under there, forcing the dragons into a melee battle. That's not a battle you win against a wing diver.

- 62. Mountains Ablaze

Recommended equipment:

2000 Armour

Lv57 Idunn-E Custom 2

Lv80 SIG Sniper

Recruit everyone, then pull some nearby dragons to deal with them, but try to avoid waking any deroys at first.

When you've thinned the dragons out a reasonable amount, find a far-off hilltop and tap the left deroy in the leg furthest away from other deroys. This will wake that deroy up alone, and no others. Let it walk out of aggro range from the other deroys, then start sniping down its cannons, then body. Prioritize dragons attacking you or nearby thick clusters of active dragons, however.

Repeat until the next three deroys spawn.

When they do, wake one up from a very safe distance, and take out laser legs of any that looks like they're getting too close. The air strikes should mostly do the work for you here, but if anything survive just snipe it down.

- 65. Fortress Attack

Recommended equipment:

2000 armour

Lv72 Master Rapier

Lv65 Ixion Mark IV

Recruit everyone, kill the hector on the right, then the fortress' cannon. Help with taking out the bugs.

Follow the fortress from directly underneath, and fly straight in as it opens. Kill it with Rapier in one go.

- 66. Mountain Liberation

Recommended equipment:

2000 armour

Lv72 Master Rapier

Lv67 Thunder Bow 30

This is a high risk strategy. The payoff is clearing the mission quicly, with every box dropped in a small area for easy collection and quick, abundant healing.

Recruit the NPCs and move forward to the black ants. Attack with thunderbow when in range. During the fight, try to always keep NPCs between yourself and most of the enemies, supporting with thunder bow.

The ridiculous reach of thunder bow will cause aggro across the entire map, allowing you to collect their drops at the initial conflict site. As long as you can keep up killing things fast enough and keeping your NPCs alive, this is good.

With everything dead, begin moving downwards, but retreat back to the initial battle site when the dragons appear. The final dragon wave will appear in the middle of this fight.

- 69. Towering Beasts

Recommended equipment:

500 Armour

Lv55 Monster-S

Fly to the rear left flank of the map and shoot everything with Monster. Prioritize active Deroys close to your position first, and Hectors and Deroys threatening the NPCs second.

The video shows a Monster + Gungnir combo, but it's actually easier with just two Monsters as you can be more flexible with energy and the big deroys go down pretty fast regardless.

- 70. Teeth Of The Universe

Recommended equipment:

1500 Armour

Lv82 Master Rapier Thrust

Lv67 Thunder Bow 30

What makes this mission difficult is the second ship spawning red dragons the second time it opens. As long as you can prevent that, the mission is managable.

Kill the red ants, then recruit all the NPCs. Fly on top of the hill where the red ants spawned, and reload everything. When your energy is full, and the nose of the ship is getting close to you, fly up and rapier it. It's possible to time it just right so that you reach the ship while it opens, completely denying any spawns. Don't worry too hard if you don't manage that.

After killing the first ship, move to the right cliff besides the valley at a vantage point as high as possible. When the second ships spawns, count to five and fly up for a rapier kill. This specific ship is the most important one to get early.

If you timed the second ship just right, you'll be left standing on the lower plate while the ship sinks. You can use this vantage point to fly to the third ship as soon as it spawns, denying that an opening.

In case you couldn't pull that third ship off, don't worry. Simply pull back to the rangers and fight off enemies while taking thunderbow potshots at the ship as it opens.

The easy wayRecommended equipment:

1500 Armour

Lv82 Master Rapier Thrust

Lv92 Gungnir

Kill the red ants, then recruit all the NPCs. Gather underneath the bridge in the canyon.

When the first ship spawns, Gungnir it.

When the second ship spawns, Gungnir it.

Move around to keep enemy attacks on your NPCs, use Rapier sparingly so it'll last the full minute you need it. When Gungnir is done reloading, also reload your Rapier, then Gungnir the third ship.

Survive the next minute, then kill any remaining enemies.

The even easier way (co-op)Recommended equipment:

150 Armour

Lv92 Gungnir

To perform this strategy, you need a second player. It works equally well online and split-screen.

Let your partner and NPCs kill the red ants, then Gungnir each ship. Your first Gungnir should've finished reloaded by the time the third ship spawns in. Shoot them before any drops occur.

The only reason you need a partner is for the wave of red ants at the end, that are simply too much for your NPCs to handle alone.

- 71. Giant Ship

Recommended equipment:

2000 Armour

Lv82 Master Rapier Thrust / Lv72 Master Rapier (Untested, should be same result)

Lv67 Thunder Bow 30

Thunder Bow 30 will reach 600 meters, and Argo is so big that most bolts will easily hit him for full damage. Recruit both squads of rangers, then make sure to keep them between you and Argo. Pull down to the bridge and fight him around that general area while staying highly mobile.

His only dangerous attack is the blue twin orbs, as they can be aimed in any direction and has an enormous blast area. They're most easily dodged by flying up and directly towards Argo.

When the flying vehicles spawn, focus on them. Keep around your men and take out vehicles one after another, always keeping yourself aware of Argo's position and on the move to avoid his blasts. After they're down, continue to attack Argo, but only when he's close by or moving fast in your direction.

If performed succesfully, Argo will turn into a robot and land somewhere within map bounds. Hurry over to him and rapier his foot. He'll go down extremely fast.

When he does, fly back to the bridge and use it for cover with the NPCs. Fight off the last wave of fliers from under the bridge.

- 73. Tower Siege

Recommended equipment:

1000 Armour

Lv72 Master Rapier

Lv67 Thunder Bow 30, or your preferred weapon vs beesRecruit the wing diver, then fly up to the hill on your direct right, emptying your tank to emergency reload.

Enter the hole near the nest's top, then laser the hive for roughly 20 seconds until you can no longer hear hit sounds from the hive. Your wing divers will cover you during this, but it may be safer to strafe a bit sideways regardless.

Return to your men and clear out any bees that remain.

- 74. Den Of Thieves

Recommended equipment:

500 Armour, 150 if you're patient

Lv67 Thunder Bow 30

Lv62 Thunder Sniper 40

To defeat the intial hall, jump between your cliff and the opposing cliff with wing divers, and fire Thunder Sniper downwards. About five or so shots should do it. You can also instead fly down into the cave with rangers on the left (away from the next enemy hall), as that makes a good position to defensively hit many spiders.

No need to ever see the next hall with all the enemies in it, just fire Thunder Sniper from around the corner until you eventually win. Use thunder bow if any spiders try crawling in. The more armour you have, the morey you can risk poking around the corner to hit better.

The spiders bosses tends to crawl over to your opening eventually, that's the time to hit them with all you've got.

Bling Diver strategyRecommended equipment:

2000 Armour

Lv75 ARC-LAZR

Lv87 Plasmafall Σ

Fly over the the wing divers on the other side while launching Plasmafall downwards. Do it a second time to eliminate the rest, then recruit the rangers. Leave at least one box in this room, in order to use it as a navigational beacon later.

Approach the opening to the next hall with the enemies carefully while at full energy, then fly diagonally left until you hit the very end. You can use ARC-LAZR to probe your way and orient. Ideally, you want to land on a plateu that's almost at the ceiling, but there's a lower plateu that also works fine. Most enemies will converge on the ranger, and you can plasmafall a lot of them all at once. Try to hit the kings as much as possible, in order to keep them out of play.

Eventually, reinforcements will spawn on the higher plateus. You can spawnkill at least one side with plasmafall if you have the opportunity, but if not then just pull back to the opening you first entered the hall from. Should you have trouble finding your way there, orient using boxes from the previous room on the radar.

From this position, simply launch plasmafall out in the cave. The enormous blast area should take care of most enemies for you.

- 75. Death Queen

See the previous mission. The only difference is that this one is even easier.

This also happens to be the first mission capable of dropping level 92 weapons, the highest level weapon available for Wing Diver.

- 76. Machine Squad

Recommended equipment:

150 Armour

Lv55 Monster-S

Irrelevant. Probably just a second Monster-S.

Recruit the wing divers, then fly on top of the lighthouse to your rear left. From this vantage point, prioritize deroys that are closing in on you, then deroys that are attacking your men.

When the big deroys spawn to your left, fly away and down them with Monster while your wing divers distract.

- 77. Monster Party

Recommended equipment:

2500 Armour

Lv72 Master Rapier

Lv92 Thunder Bow XD

This is a very brutal mission. You're given a scant 4 rangers to deal with 4 waves of dragons coming from all directions. If you're very skilled, you could recruit them, keep a bit of distance between you and them, and clear off dragons as they swarm your men. If you keep them alive until the fencer unit spawns, maybe you can survive. You'll be in danger of a oneshot from a red dragon during the 20-30 minutes this will take.

But let's not do that. Instead, ignore the rangers and find this exact house on your left side:

There are many houses similar to it, but they don't all meet the strict requirements needed:

Square corner roof that provides extra cover and soaks up health crates so you can heal by jumping.

Beam that provides extra cover and confuses dragons.

Surrounding hedge that provides cover and bounces thunder bow shots.

Elaborate gate that blocks fire and dragons but easily allows laser and thunder weapons through.

Neighouring houses at both side of front door provides vital cover against long-distance fire.

Located far enough away from the initial dragon cluster that you can get there unseen.

Using Thunder Bow, pull a reasonable amount of aggro and take cover. After the dragons mince up the rangers, they'll converge on you. By this time, you should hug the entrance door of the house and use your weaponry to kill dragons from safety. You can use your radar and audio cues from your weapons hitting (or not hitting) dragons to help with aiming.

If enemies are visible, Rapier is likely the best choice. If red dragons are visible, Rapier is absolutely the best choice. Any other situation, use Thunder Bow and bounce your shots off walls to hit dragons. You should at most times alternate between firing left and right to cover all angles, putting priority on the left side where there's a small opening that dragon fire can get through.

If you get grabbed, Rapier your way out and use your invincibility time to find your way back, possibly picking up health along the way.

Sometimes the dragons will thin out enough that it's safe to come out and clear them off the fast way. Take these opportunities to gather boxes.

- 79. City Flaws

Recommended equipment:

3000 Armour

Lv90 Idunn-FF

First off, a note about the armour recommendation. For almost all of the mission, you can comfortably handle everything on much less, and the author used 2000. However, the Plasma Hectors do a bit over 1000 damage per beam. If you get nailed by a double beam, that's instant death at anything below around 2200. It's very avoidable, but it's also very possible to get too distracted by other, closer targets that take more priority.

As enemy movement is highly randomized, the guide can not accurately describe how your battle will go, but the general strategy is to recruit all the NPCs and move into the dense area of the city on the left side. From there, launch guerilla ambushes by attacking small enemies that are as far away as possible from the main cluster of enemies, then pull away to the map's edge with the long street. This'll usually earn you retaliation from 1-3 queens and hectors. Use your judgement on how much to bite off.

During retaliation, you want to get red bees first, as they're fast and will reach you first, and also very dangerous to your allies. When queens come closers, those are your priority. Stun them with constantly maintained Idunn fire and continously head towards corners of buildings to cover you from any other queens involved in the fight. Hectors might destroy your cover so make sure to keep moving. This also keeps your NPCs moving, which helps for keeping them alive.

Hectors are very dangerous, but they're usually further away from you, and your ranger and fencer squads can keep them busy until you kill the queens. Shield bearers should not be pursued too hard, and definitely shouldn't be followed over to unaggroed enemies. Deal with them when opportunity presents itself, and if they're interrupting your battle, simply tap them with Idunn to make them retract and get back to focusing on any bigger targets.

Between strikes, there's usually a lot of crates available. Heal up, and pick up any non-healing crates so you can more easily locate health mid-battle later.

- 80. Monster Camp

Recommended equipment: 2500 Armour

Lv90 Idunn-FF

Lv92 Thunder Bow XD

In the offline campaign, this is one of the game's most difficult missions. It won't require as much armour as some other mission, but that's only because all the armour in the world won't save you as soon as the last NPC dies.

What makes it difficult is the map. Against dragons, you can usually rely on some sort of cover to keep you safe, but you don't get that luxury in the mountains. Because of this, the strategy is more abstract than the usual affair, requiring you to think of yourself as the queen sacrificing pawns at a controlled rate in a gruesome game of chess. First off, here's a video showing the strategy off:

It's difficult to explain the strategy exactly with just text, but the video may need interpretation, as it might not be clear how important every single move made in it is. Here's what's going on:

First, recruit the wing divers. Wing diver npcs will hover around you and use lightning weapons. This makes them good at drawing fire and stunlocking enemies, preventing you from taking damage.

The next step is to attack the enemy from a safe distance, allowing the waves of Thunder Bow to flow over the rangers and crash against the enemy. Rangers are small, but enemies are big, and this means that at a distance you can do little damage to one and a lot of damage to the other even if you're shooting at both directly.

Before the wave is over, recruit the rangers and fencers on top of the mountain. They're in a bad position and need to be moved to safety so you can sacrifice them in wave 3.

Get in position by the slope where you can attack around the last group of unrecruited fencers. Wave 2 will converge on them, allowing your fire to hit almost all the enemies in the wave. If you can destroy most of the wave before the last fencer falls, you're almost home.

For wave 3, your routing needs to be precise.

First off, head down the cliff corner at the edge of the map and stay there until the dragons arrive. The non wing-diver NPCs will come along slowly and guide the dragons to spread along the cliff wall where your Thunder Bow can hit optimally.

As the battle goes on, slowly backpedal and keep taking out the dangerous targets. The wing divers should be in front of you taking most of the hits and aiding with stunlocks.

- 81. Fallen Flagship

Recommended equipment:

2000 Armour

Lv75 Laser Lance Σ

Lv92 Thunder Bow XD

Jump straight down and take out the shield bearer. Once all the NPCs have moved into the valley, they become recruitable. As you need them to survive, your next objective is to make a circle around the valley, recruiting NCPs and aiding in battle. Stay away from the large deroy while doing this, as it's too inconvenient to fight with all the shields.

Once the shields and hectors are gone, you can take out the big guy with Thunder Bow. It's probably best to start with the laser cannons, as killing the body is relatively slow, and the cannons will badly harm your men and present a tangible threat.

With everything else cleared, make sure you have everyone recruited, heal up, gather boxes, move to the top of the valley. From this vantage point, it's simple to hit the brain with Thunder Bow. Once Eath Eaters spawn, jump back down to your men and focus all fire on the red nodes. Taking them out quickly will prevent spawns and laser fire, making the remainder of the mission easy.

- 82. Heaven's Army

Recommended equipment:

150 Armour

Lv92 Gungnir

Kill the two ships on the side. They're faint, but well within range. You'll have to wait for the middle ship to open a second time before you can shoot it.

Your men are exceedingly prepared for dealing with a single cycle of red bees.

- 83. Encircling

Recommended equipment:

1500 Armour

Lv92 Thunder Bow XD

Recruit everyone and move forward. Shoot down ships with Thunder Bow as they pass overhead. If there are no ships at the moment, or a falling ship is blocking your shots, aid your squad instead.

- 84. Divine

Recommended equipment:

2000 Armour

Lv82 Master Rapier Thrust

Lv92 Thunder Bow XD

After disposing of the dragons that spawn with him, wait for the Greater Wild Dragon to swoop downwards, then fly on top of him. Upon his back, stunlock wither Rapier until dead.

Repeat for next two GWD's. These two have considerably less health, so it's even easier.

- 86. Battle To The Death

Recommended equipment:

1000 Armour

Lv92 Gungnir

Fly straight up to the recruit the wing diver NPCs, then recruit the fencer and rangers on the left and right side. Fly up again to get a good view, then Gungnir the plasma/shield hector on your right. Walk back to the right where the hills provide you a lot of cover.

Wait for Gungnir to recharge, then wait for the ships open up. Kill both ships.

There are a few more hectors with shields at the beach, take out each one as soon as your Gungnir recharges.

Wait for both Gungnirs to recharge. At this point, the only enemy left should be Argo.

Walk forward until your rangers and fencers shoot Argo. He should still be distracted by various vehicles at the beach.

After Argo takes enough damage, two ships should spawn. Kill both ships, but prioritize the right one.

Wait for Gungnir to recharge, then kill Argo.

- 87. Massive Mobilization

Recommended equipment:

4000 Armour

Lv75 Laser Lance Σ

Lv55 Monster-S

This is the hardest mission in the offline campaign, if nothing else then by virtue of how long it takes. While it can be done on less armour as long as you don't make any mistakes, the mission will last for at least 30 minutes, and as such having a good amount of buffer health can prevent a lot of lost time.

BriefingQuad fortress, spawning a few flying vehicles.

Five large transports, spawning purple ants, spiders, golden ants, golden ants and silver spiders.

Three deroys, one small and two mediums.

Five blue hectors equipped with all possible blue hector gear.

An armada of flying vehicles.

No new enemies will spawn in apart from the bugs from the transports and the flying vehicles from the quad. What you see is what you get.

None of it has aggro on you at the start. Your objective is to work your way around the ships with Monster, then kill what that draws towards you. Ideally, absolutely everything else should be dead before you wake the quad up.

Your opening moveFor every move described, assume it is followed by "while dealing with the flying vehicles and insects that retaliate". The vehicles are your utmost priority target. If you are attacked by a flying vehicle and a golden ant, the vehicle takes priority, that's how dangerous they are.

Immediately fire Monster at the small deroy to the right, under the purple ant transport. This will kill it in one shot before any ants have spawned to retaliate. When your energy recharges, fire at the deroy on the left before the golden ants have a chance to be dropped there. Wait for the deroy to move away from other enemies before finishing it off.

You are now ready to recruit your men. When recruited, move to the corner on the right side of the map where you will make your stand. If you don't wait for your fencers, they will die. Your men will all eventually die, so it is up to you whether you think you'll need them.

Guerilla StrikesYour next objective is the three ships in the front, going from right to left. Since the guarding deroy is already dead, might as well start with the purple ant transporter. Fire two bursts of Monster-S, deal with the flying vehicles and purple ants, then repeat. Four bursts is enough to bring the ship down. Don't be tempted to fire three a a time; conserve your energy for battle.

For the spider spawner, you want to first deal with the two guarding hectors. Be careful to draw them one at a time, and aim for their cannon arm or foot for maximal damage.

With the spider spawner done, you can risk going for the final deroy. Only do this if you're feling confident you can do it without waking the quad up; otherwise just leave it for last. To defeat it, do not attack it while it's sleeping. Doing so will wake the quad. Instead, wait for a flying vehicle to fly nearby, and snipe that. When the deroy moves away from the quad, snipe it dead.

At this point, the majority of flying vehicles should already have been aggroed and taken care of. If their numbers are stil daunting, maybe snipe a few.

Next up are the two gold spawners. The left one is unguarded thanks to your first strike at the start of the mission, might as well deal with that one. Despite the transport being very far away from its spawns, it's magically linked to the golds it dropped, and the golds will come for you. Do not fear the golds, simply keep them at the exact range of your Laser Lance at all times and take them out one shot at a time. With the left one down, destroy the hector guarding the right one.

At this point, your men are most likely dead, but downing the golden ship should spawn Omega Team right behind you.

The last ship is the silver spawner. You'll probably have to move to a better vantage point to get a good view of the ship and the hector. The hector is highly dangerous and will obliterate omega team if given a chance. Try to snipe him dead first, then stay ahead of omega team and dodge spiders so they can aid you.

The EndWhether you have Omega Team still with your or not, with all the transports gone it's now time for the quad. If the deroy underneat is still alive, get as much distance as possible and snipe it dead. Otherwise, you could chance going close to get some hits in, then back off. Do not try to kill the fortress yet.

Get as far away as the map allows, and then snipe out the gatling. After that, wait for grind buster.

You'll now have to use buildings and rubble for cover while sniping out the laser nubs. At this stage, the map should be absolutely littered with health crates, so you should be fine as long as you don't lose your patience.

With every laser nub dead, you can finish the fortress with whichever weapon you prefer.

Good luck.

- 88. Scorching

Recommended equipment:

2500 Armour

Lv90 Idunn-FF

Lv92 Thunder Bow XD

This mission isn't too bad, but it can get very chaotic.

Wave 1First off, recruit the wing divers, omega team rangers, and fencers. Specifically do not recruit the rocket launcher rangers; leave them to die.

Pull your group a little bit behind the rocket launcher guys, and use Thunder Bow to deal with enemies as they come in. When the deroys come close, make them a priority. Without any ranged weapons, you might want to focus on the laser cannons first, then move in closer for a kill with Idunn.

With all the deroys dead, finish the wave and move to the right where there's a lone, small building.

Wave 2Take cover on the side of that building facing away from the dragons. From the safety of the building, start hitting dragons, then move to the other side of the building as cover from the death queens.

When there are few enough enemies left, kill the death queens, but do not touch the shield bearers. With those dead, recruit all three groups of newly spawned NPCs, then move forward to the open, uncluttered space. The shield bearers will eventually walk into your NPCs and die, so be fast.

Wave 3You should be in position to quickly take down one of the ships, then move over to the other one and quickly take that out too. Ignore the third ship in the back, as it's too dangerous to approach and the few ants it spawns isn't worth it. Instead, pull back and focus on killing the bosses. Use Idunn if you're close enough, Thunder Bow if you're not.

After that, just take out the red drones and hectors (with the amount of NPCs you should still have at this point, neither is a problem), and you'll be left with just a transport ship.

You'll have all the time in the world to gather all the boxes across the battlefield, and could potentially get even more from the ants continously dropped by the ship. If you're still missing Gungnir, this is one place to get it.

- 89. Star Eaters

Recommended equipment:

4000 Armour

Lv55 Monster-S

Lv92 GungnirThe order is crucial. If Monster is in the second slot it won't be able to reload before Gungnir is done.

For the purposes of this mission guide, you start the North edge of the map, with The Brain being to your South.

Phase 1Run east towards the Wing Diver NPCs, shoot at the hatch to your upper-right with Monster until it's down. When the brain is exposed, fire Gungnir at it and continue your stroll towards the NPCs.

Phase 2Shoot down a plate to expose the brain with Monster while recruiting the Wing Divers. When gungnir is reloaded, fly back west and fire at the brain from mid air when you're clear of the park. If done correctly, you should land by a pair of buildings that has a lot of columns you can take cover behind for the duration of the mission.

Phase 3When Gungnir has reloaded again, wait until the radio chatter about dragons spawning, then fire Monster-S and Gungnir at your first available opportunity. The reason to wait for the radio chatter is that the Brain is immune to damage until that. You need to have enough energy for at least two shots of Monster-S.

Survival is optional, but there's a certain grace period you need to live past for the mission to clear.

Closing Thoughts

And that's how to beat Inferno as a Wing Diver.

I hope you found this guide helpful, and will appreciate any feedback you may have, positive or otherwise. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask, and if any of the mission strategies don't work out for you, I'll happily demonstrate them in video form and add that to the guide.

If any missions you're having troubles with are not included, I can do that too.

Should you have any tips or tricks you find missing in the guide, do let me know and they'll be added.

If you have been, thanks for reading.

Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1139318531