Earth Defense Force 5 is coming to PC via Steam on July 11th

[iFirez]

I've been playing for most of the day. On mission 25 now.

I'm not sure which weapons are best for my class (ranger) but I love spawning in vehicles. The tank I use right now doesn't have great range but destroys everything directly in front of me. The bike is hilariously buggy, sending me spiralling into rag doll quite often but I still love it.

Other than that, I'm mostly using an assault rifle and a rocket launcher. Sometimes I switch to the lock-on missile launches but rockets are my go to most of the time. What weapons should I be looking out for? Or trying out as I get them?

 

[Guppeth]

I've been using Destroyer Blaster 2 and Plasma Big Cannon M2. Dunno which mission drops Stardust Cannon.

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You might not have reached them yet. Stardust Cannon is a level 20 weapon.

There are some very strong weapons in column 1 if you can cope with the short range.

I've been playing for most of the day. On mission 25 now.

I'm not sure which weapons are best for my class (ranger) but I love spawning in vehicles. The tank I use right now doesn't have great range but destroys everything directly in front of me. The bike is hilariously buggy, sending me spiralling into rag doll quite often but I still love it.

Other than that, I'm mostly using an assault rifle and a rocket launcher. Sometimes I switch to the lock-on missile launches but rockets are my go to most of the time. What weapons should I be looking out for? Or trying out as I get them?

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Try some shotguns. The piercing bullets are a godsend when the swarms come. They're much improved over the 4.1 shotguns.

Vehicles are great but often you're better off with a movement buff or, if you're using missiles, a range/lock-on time buff.

 

[Deleted member 82]

With tons of what? I played the hell out of that game and I only saw creatures that look exactly like humans.

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Of course, my apologies. Don't know what I was thinking. Those were clearly humanoids... But do you think they were aliens, or just weapons from another country?

 

[Guppeth]

Of course, my apologies. Don't know what I was thinking. Those were clearly humanoids... But do you think they were aliens, or just weapons from another country?

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Well they command swarms of monsters, and the monsters sure don't look like any Earth creatures. If they did I'm sure someone would mention it at some point.

 

[JoeyJungle]

I can never figure out the progression on these games, are you meant to go into Hard to get better weapons that demolishes the normal difficulty? Or just stick with one difficulty level the whole time?

 

[Guppeth]

I can never figure out the progression on these games, are you meant to go into Hard to get better weapons that demolishes the normal difficulty? Or just stick with one difficulty level the whole time?

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Demolishing Normal is the best tactic if you want to unlock Inferno fast. Other players don't touch Normal at all and try to clear Hard first. You're free to do what you want.

 

[Chance Hale]

The it's not edf without framerate drops crowd are crazy, just as exhilarating and awe inspiring in scale at a smooth 60 fps <3

Normal is a cakewalk unless you're playing solo so I recommend playing hard via coop first. Cant imagine wanting to go from normal to inferno anyway.

 

[Chance Hale]

Mission 62 is shite and so long

 

[Shantae]

I don't think I can plop down the cost of picking up EDF5 right now, but I was eyeballing EDF 4.1 on steam, which while not on sale currently, is considerably cheaper.

Is EDF4.1 any good? Worth picking up?

 

[test_account]

I can never figure out the progression on these games, are you meant to go into Hard to get better weapons that demolishes the normal difficulty? Or just stick with one difficulty level the whole time?

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Demolishing Normal is the best tactic if you want to unlock Inferno fast. Other players don't touch Normal at all and try to clear Hard first. You're free to do what you want.

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And just to add to this, if you want to go for 100% completion, its best to start with hard, because when you complete a level on hard, you also get completion for easy and normal as well. This only applies to hard. Beating the game on hardest and inferno will only give you completion for that particular difficulty level. Or, its of course possible to start on easy and work yourself upward to normal and then hard etc.., but then you need to beat the game 20 times to get 100% completion, in comparison to "only" 12 times if you start on hard. But yeah, as Guppeth mentioned, play the way as you like. Its not really any right or wrong way to play :) The game allows for different type of playstyles.

One thing i miss in EDF5 regarding getting 100%:

Spoiler

You dont get anything for doing so. In EDF 2017 Portable, you got super weapons, like the Armageddon gun. Not something i really used much, but it was cool to get something (basically completing a challenge in the game), and also fun to play around with for a while :)

 

[squall23]

As much as I like these games, honestly, I miss how broken the weapons used to be in the old games.

Back then, by the half way point, Rangers would unlock multi lock on launchers that would wipe out the entire screen in a second even on hard difficulties.

Lol, I guess that's why the story and setting in the newer games are so gloomy and full of dread. Your guys aren't one man armies anymore.

 

[Deleted member 82]

As much as I like these games, honestly, I miss how broken the weapons used to be in the old games.

Back then, by the half way point, Rangers would unlock multi lock on launchers that would wipe out the entire screen in a second even on hard difficulties.

Lol, I guess that's why the story and setting in the newer games are so gloomy and full of dread. Your guys aren't one man armies anymore.

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What are you talking about? I have a lvl 21 missile launcher that locks on to 41 targets in less than 2 seconds. Each missile doesn't do much damage, but couple that with an assist item that allows you to lock on to the same target multiple times and you get a pretty crazy weapon. Keep in mind that, unlike 4.1, 5 has a weapon lvl up system. Some weapons might start out not that great, but if you pick them up multiple times they become really good.

 

[squall23]

What are you talking about? I have a lvl 21 missile launcher that locks on to 41 targets in less than 2 seconds. Each missile doesn't do much damage, but couple that with an assist item that allows you to lock on to the same target multiple times and you get a pretty crazy weapon. Keep in mind that, unlike 4.1, 5 has a weapon lvl up system. Some weapons might start out not that great, but if you pick them up multiple times they become really good.

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Yeah, that's the difference. They don't do much damage. Like I said, the old games had it where weapons would just wipe out everything in sight and had amazing reload speeds. It also didn't need a separate accessory to send all the missiles on one enemy if it was the only one on the screen. Yet despite all that, the difficulty was still pretty brutal.

 

[Deleted member 82]

Yeah, that's the difference. They don't do much damage. Like I said, the old games had it where weapons would just wipe out everything in sight and had amazing reload speeds. It also didn't need a separate accessory to send all the missiles on one enemy if it was the only one on the screen. Yet despite all that, the difficulty was still pretty brutal.

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Yeah, I know what you mean, but... It's a lvl 21 weapon :p.

 

[Shinobido Heart]

I have to say, the game gets a lot better as you progress.

I'm around Mission 40 or so now , and these missions are getting crazier and crazier.

Unlike 4.1 where you had missions where you had to fight alone with no allies, EDF5 has a lot of missions where you fight with your allies. I like that, because it feels like your fighting with the EDF.

 

[Guppeth]

I have to say, the game gets a lot better as you progress.

I'm around Mission 40 or so now , and these missions are getting crazier and crazier.

Unlike 4.1 where you had missions where you had to fight alone with no allies, EDF5 has a lot of missions where you fight with your allies. I like that, because it feels like your fighting with the EDF.

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The first two missions in 5 are terrible for newcomers. Cramped corridors and slow NPCs you have to wait for. But the campaign gets awesome really quickly and keeps ramping up the carnage for 100 more levels.

 

[The Shape]

I just impulse bought this on Steam and the first couple of missions were boring and nothing like the madness I remember from the Xbox 360 (don't which EDF that was).

Then it gets to the flying saucers mission and holly molly... that was batshit crazy. There were so many UFOs flying around shooting lasers and everything was exploding while Armored Core like robots walked around. It was just so chaotic and satisfying. I'm already hooked. Played 7 misisons and I'm done for tonight but I'll definitely play again tomorrow.

 

[PKrockin]

I really have no idea what they were thinking with those first two missions, it's bizarre.

But yeah, I picked it up and started playing with friends. It's chaotic fun just like EDF 4.1. Seems like they massively increased Air Raider's vehicle call-in credit costs in exchange for giving him another weapon slot and making the gunship strikes recharge on time. I think it's a good thing as it keeps you from just being able to sit in tanks or power suits the whole mission so easily, and the extra slot makes support items much easier to justify.

Quite unfortunate that the guy from 4.1 I call Dr. Scientist is gone, I miss him. And the battle hymn is much worse. But I do appreciate all the soldiers being traumatized at having to kill the frog guys because they look almost identical to humans. lol

This series is exactly what I thought games would do with the extra horsepower of future consoles--massive, insane battles against endless hordes of giant enemies that results in the entire city being leveled. Shame that the vast majority games only shrunk in scale instead. You'd think this series would have immediate, obvious appeal to the mainstream and be highly successful, I have no idea why it isn't. Probably the horrible job the publisher does promoting the game.

 

[Shinobido Heart]

The first two missions in 5 are terrible for newcomers. Cramped corridors and slow NPCs you have to wait for. But the campaign gets awesome really quickly and keeps ramping up the carnage for 100 more levels.

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Yeah I know what you mean. I was surprised they actually did a few tutorial missions but I preferred getting straight to the action like in 4.1 with the ants.

 

[Deleted member 82]

Folks, why aren't we playing together online with voice chat? I'm sure it would be a ton of fun. Who's in? Not right now, but later today (I'm in EU).

Should we exchange Steam IDs?

 

[Deleted member 82]

Also, I don't know about you guys, but I've encountered a couple incredibly racist servers:
- one was called "no naggers EU" (yes, naggers). And sure enough, once you enter it, someone had "nignog" as a nickname, and someone else had another racist name that I forgot
- just now, I saw a server whose description is literally "no jews allowed"

I'll never ever ever understand this mentality. Ugh.

 

[PKrockin]

Folks, why aren't we playing together online with voice chat? I'm sure it would be a ton of fun. Who's in? Not right now, but later today (I'm in EU).

Should we exchange Steam IDs?

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I've already got a group I play with, but any of y'all out there playing this single player, you need to give co-op a shot. It amps the chaos up even more.

 

[Guppeth]

Also, I don't know about you guys, but I've encountered a couple incredibly racist servers:
- one was called "no naggers EU" (yes, naggers). And sure enough, once you enter it, someone had "nignog" as a nickname, and someone else had another racist name that I forgot
- just now, I saw a server whose description is literally "no jews allowed"

I'll never ever ever understand this mentality. Ugh.

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EDF itself can be pretty sketchy. The tone is relentlessly jingoistic, but it's also lighthearted so I think it's alright. But soldiers refer to the aliens as "illegal immigrants" several times, and at one point someone refers to "illegal immigrants doing illicit work". It's a joke, but I don't like it one bit. I bet the "no naggers" crowd love it.

 

[Deleted member 82]

EDF itself can be pretty sketchy. The tone is relentlessly jingoistic, but it's also lighthearted so I think it's alright. But soldiers refer to the aliens as "illegal immigrants" several times, and at one point someone refers to "illegal immigrants doing illicit work". It's a joke, but I don't like it one bit. I bet the "no naggers" crowd love it.

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The jingoistic thing is so over-the-top and obviously a parody that I can only take it in jest. Even what you describe with "illegal immigrant" thing I find strangely clever in its ridiculousness. But I play the game in Japanese, and my level isn't good enough to pick up on all the jokes, so it's very much possible that I'm missing some of the more questionable elements.

 

[Guppeth]

The jingoistic thing is so over-the-top and obviously a parody that I can only take it in jest. Even what you describe with "illegal immigrant" thing I find strangely clever in its ridiculousness. But I play the game in Japanese, and my level isn't good enough to pick up on all the jokes, so it's very much possible that I'm missing some of the more questionable elements.

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If I thought they were serious I wouldn't play the game. I'm not totally sure they're not serious though.

 

[test_account]

How is the community size on PC so far? I tried the PS4 version again yesterday (the english release. The japanese version has seperate servers), and there are still a few people playing.

You're right that you have to finish either easy, normal or hard before you can play the hardest or inferno missions, but there is no way that one can go into inferno from the get go and progress through the game like that.

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Just quoting myself here because yesterday when i played, i decided to to test split screen and compare it to online play. I noticed that the damage scaling for online and offline play is noticeably different. I tried out split screen offline, and one grey ant required 2 shots from a specific rifle to be killed. When i tried the exact same condition online (2 players), the grey ant required 5 shots to be killed, using the same rifle.

There also seems to be no different in damage scaling if you play one or two players. I tested that as well (with only one player), and the grey ant required the same amount of shots to be killed. I found that curious. Maybe the developers made the game with the intention of playing at least two players together, and seemly only scaled the damage being delt to two player as a minimum? I didnt get the opportunity to test with 3 and 4 players either to compare the damage scaling there, but i assume that its higher with 3 or 4 players (would make sense since then its more fire power). Have anyone done any testing on this?

I think this might be one reason why i had the impression that it was seemingly pretty much impossible to start fresh off on inferno difficulty and beat the game without doing any grinding, because i basically only played EDF5 online. Dont get me wrong though, beating the game offline regardless is absolutely no easy taks, far from it. I still think you have to be one of the best EDF player in the world to be able to do that, so i'm not trying to take any accomplishment away from it. I'm just saying that this is one reason why i thought it would be impossible to beat inferno with such little health. And for all that i know, maybe its even possible to do it with only two people online as well :) Its not just the damage scaling that matters, but also using strategy to avoid almost any attacks.

 

[Guppeth]

How is the community size on PC so far? I tried the PS4 version again yesterday (the english release. The japanese version has seperate servers), and there are still a few people playing.



Just quoting myself here because yesterday when i played, i decided to to test split screen and compare it to online play. I noticed that the damage scaling for online and offline play is noticeably different. I tried out split screen offline, and one grey ant required 2 shots from a specific rifle to be killed. When i tried the exact same condition online (2 players), the grey ant required 5 shots to be killed, using the same rifle.

There also seems to be no different in damage scaling if you play one or two players. I tested that as well (with only one player), and the grey ant required the same amount of shots to be killed. I found that curious. Maybe the developers made the game with the intention of playing at least two players together, and seemly only scaled the damage being delt to two player as a minimum? I didnt get the opportunity to test with 3 and 4 players either to compare the damage scaling there, but i assume that its higher with 3 or 4 players (would make sense since then its more fire power). Have anyone done any testing on this?

I think this might be one reason why i had the impression that it was seemingly pretty much impossible to start fresh off on inferno difficulty and beat the game without doing any grinding, because i basically only played EDF5 online. Dont get me wrong though, beating the game offline regardless is absolutely no easy taks, far from it. I still think you have to be one of the best EDF player in the world to be able to do that. And for all that i know, maybe its even possible to do it with only two people online as well :) Its not just the damage scaling that matters, but also using strategy to avoid almost any attacks.

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Enemies do 2.4x more damage online, and have 2.64x health. No difference with multiple players.

 

[test_account]

Enemies do 2.4x more damage online, and have 2.64x health. No difference with multiple players.

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Oh, they do more damage as well? I didnt really check into that.

Do you know why they did it like this? I mean, two player online or offline should technically be the same. Its still two people, and still the same weapons.

EDIT: Are you sure theres no different scaling with 3 or 4 players? I tought some enemies were easier to take down with two players. I played with one guy yesterday, and he was surprised why it took two Tempest missiles to take down a big pylon (level 108 or something). I said it was because we were 3 players. I didnt checked if only one is needed with either 1 or 2 players however.

 

[Tagyhag]

Can I go from normal to very hard or should i follow the natural difficulty progression?

Yeah I know what you mean. I was surprised they actually did a few tutorial missions but I preferred getting straight to the action like in 4.1 with the ants.

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It was weird, I was not expecting it at all. That said, I can't see myself going back to those levels haha.

 

[test_account]

Speaking of the first tutorial mission, is this present in the japanese version? I noticed that the japanese version has one less mission than the english version (at least when it comes to PS4).

Can I go from normal to very hard or should i follow the natural difficulty progression?

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It depends on your skill level, but i'd say its possible. You do get better weapons on the higher difficulty levels afterall, and you can grind for extra health if needed.

 

[Guppeth]

Oh, they do more damage as well? I didnt really check into that.

Do you know why they did it like this? I mean, two player online or offline should technically be the same. Its still two people, and still the same weapons.

EDIT: Are you sure theres no different scaling with 3 or 4 players? I tought some enemies were easier to take down with two players. I played with one guy yesterday, and he was surprised why it took two Tempest missiles to take down a big pylon (level 108 or something). I said it was because we were 3 players.

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I don't know why. Offline there's no change at all with a second player, so it makes everything way easier.

I double checked and I was wrong about the effect of multiple players. And weirdly the scaling for 1 player is the same as for 4.

https://www65.atwiki.jp/edf5/pages/310.html

In the online multiplayer, the enemy's status is corrected not only by the difficulty level but also by the number of people, and the offensive power and endurance increase more than the same level of offline difficulty.
Also, the status correction of the enemy changes depending on the difficulty level, and in the case of 4 participants in the INFERNO, the enemy's attack power is 2.4 times and the endurance is 2.64 times, and the correction seems to decrease as the number of participants decreases.
However, in the case of online solo play (one-player play), the same correction as that of four online participants is applied .
If you do it normally, the level of difficulty will be very high, and it is inevitable that you struggle. Let's rely on someone online.
Clear all of the online INFERNO, and if you are still lacking or confident you should try it.

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[CaptSpaulding]

Is there any reason to pick this up if I already have it for PS4?

 

[test_account]

I don't know why. Offline there's no change at all with a second player, so it makes everything way easier.

I double checked and I was wrong about the effect of multiple players. And weirdly the scaling for 1 player is the same as for 4.

https://www65.atwiki.jp/edf5/pages/310.html

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Thanks for the info :) I wasnt really aware that it was a noticeably difference between online and offline play in that regards. And also just to add one thing in regards to what i said earlier about online VS offline difficulty, playing splitscreen on the same TV/monitor gives less view of the enviorment, so i guess that can add some extra challenge in that regards.

And yeah, i dont know why they scale the difficulty for 1 player the same as 4 players. Maybe they want people to at least play two or more players since its online hehe, but i dont know.

 

[Tagyhag]

Speaking of the first tutorial mission, is this present in the japanese version? I noticed that the japanese version has one less mission than the english version (at least when it comes to PS4).



It depends on your skill level, but i'd say its possible. You do get better weapons on the higher difficulty levels afterall, and you can grind for extra health if needed.

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Thanks! I'll probably give it a shot. I enjoy the game but I don't want to beat it more than 3 times heh.

Is it doable with Ranger or should I really be trying to get better with the other classes? Enjoying Wing Divers as well but I'm having difficulty understanding how Fencers work and if Air Raiders should even be used playing Solo. Both those classes are still fun mind you.

 

[Guppeth]

Speaking of the first tutorial mission, is this present in the japanese version? I noticed that the japanese version has one less mission than the english version (at least when it comes to PS4).

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The first tutorial mission (look around, shoot targets, watch soldier get eaten by ant) is offline only, so that might account for the difference.

 

[WellbornWarrior]

If anything that tutorial mission at least gave me a safe space to adjust and test the button layout for every class. That said, it's still shit we can't even see or change the controls for the vehicles anywhere.

 

[test_account]

Thanks! I'll probably give it a shot. I enjoy the game but I don't want to beat it more than 3 times heh.

Is it doable with Ranger or should I really be trying to get better with the other classes? Enjoying Wing Divers as well but I'm having difficulty understanding how Fencers work and if Air Raiders should even be used playing Solo. Both those classes are still fun mind you.

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Just wondering, why 3 times? You mean to complete it once on hard, hardest and inferno?

Yeah, i think its doable with Ranger, at least the lower difficulties. I'm not really sure which class that is the best, they all have their strength and weaknesess.

The first tutorial mission (look around, shoot targets, watch soldier get eaten by ant) is offline only, so that might account for the difference.

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Good point, although that would make it 112 missions offline and 111 mission online (as mentioned, i have hardly played offline that much, so i cant confirm if its 112 missions offline. I've only unlocked 17 missions there, but i've unlocked all missions online, and thats 111 in total). The videos posted earlier in the thread shows the last mission offline being 110 in the japanese version, so i found that curious.

 

[Tagyhag]

Just wondering, why 3 times? You mean to complete it once on hard, hardest and inferno?

Yeah, i think its doable with Ranger, at least the lower difficulties. I'm not really sure which class that is the best, they all have their strength and weaknesess.

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I was thinking normal-hardest-inferno or normal-hard-inferno.

 

[Thorn]

Game's fun but man playing solo is a lonely experience.

 

[WellbornWarrior]

How are you supposed to do some of these missions solo? There are moments when there is such a big mass of enemies rolling into you that you cannot win even if you mow them down in the dozens per second. Not even Air Raider strikes seem to get the job done.

Only way I've found so far is to kite them with the Wing Diver since they can practically fly endlessly now. But it takes ages this way.

 

[Guppeth]

How are you supposed to do some of these missions solo? There are moments when there is such a big mass of enemies rolling into you that you cannot win even if you mow them down in the dozens per second. Not even Air Raider strikes seem to get the job done.

Only way I've found so far is to kite them with the Wing Diver since they can practically fly endlessly now. But it takes ages this way.

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Rangers can avoid a lot of damage by rolling/jumping, and the high level sprint mods allow you to charge right through packs of enemies without getting hit. Fencers are incredibly mobile with the right mods/weapons equipped. Air Raiders can kite pretty well with APCs or Crawlers.

If you can't kill fast enough, you brought the wrong gun.

Some missions require you to be very methodical, taking out pillars and dropships without aggroing the whole map.

 

[zon]

How are you supposed to do some of these missions solo? There are moments when there is such a big mass of enemies rolling into you that you cannot win even if you mow them down in the dozens per second. Not even Air Raider strikes seem to get the job done.

Only way I've found so far is to kite them with the Wing Diver since they can practically fly endlessly now. But it takes ages this way.

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Which missions? I'm at mission 85 and I haven't had any real issues while playing solo.

 

[WellbornWarrior]

Rangers can avoid a lot of damage by rolling/jumping, and the high level sprint mods allow you to charge right through packs of enemies without getting hit. Fencers are incredibly mobile with the right mods/weapons equipped. Air Raiders can kite pretty well with APCs or Crawlers.

If you can't kill fast enough, you brought the wrong gun.

Some missions require you to be very methodical, taking out pillars and dropships without aggroing the whole map.

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I already have some weapons that shred through the enemies but there are still situations where they respawn as fast as I kill them and don't get any chance to actually destroy the anchors or dropships in question. And forget calling in vehicles or actually use those slow ass Fencer weapons, even if I like the Fencer myself. Wouldn't be so bad if the AI teammates would actually hold ground on their own but we all know how good those are, even if they got a buff in this game.

Which missions? I'm at mission 85 and I haven't had any real issues while playing solo.

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Mission 43 at the moment and there were some roadblocks before that as well. I'm playing on hard by the way.

 

[Guppeth]

I already have some weapons that shred through the enemies but there are still situations where they respawn as fast as I kill them and don't get any chance to actually destroy the anchors or dropships in question. And forget calling in vehicles or actually use those slow ass Fencer weapons, even if I like the Fencer myself. Wouldn't be so bad if the AI teammates would actually hold ground on their own but we all know how good those are, even if they got a buff in this game.



Mission 43 at the moment and there were some roadblocks before that as well. I'm playing on hard by the way.

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43 is hard yeah, plus you have that terrible French accent distracting you. I think the first time I beat that I used a Wing Diver with a rapier and took each tower down at point blank range before too many enemies spawned. Ranger with sniper/shotgun is good, but it's harder to stay alive.

Cheap way is to bring an Air Raider with an APC. Dump air strikes on the towers while you drive around the streets kiting the enemies. I did that on inferno though, not sure you'll have a APC fast enough yet.

 

[Philtastic]

I already have some weapons that shred through the enemies but there are still situations where they respawn as fast as I kill them and don't get any chance to actually destroy the anchors or dropships in question. And forget calling in vehicles or actually use those slow ass Fencer weapons, even if I like the Fencer myself. Wouldn't be so bad if the AI teammates would actually hold ground on their own but we all know how good those are, even if they got a buff in this game.



Mission 43 at the moment and there were some roadblocks before that as well. I'm playing on hard by the way.

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43 is hard yeah, plus you have that terrible French accent distracting you. I think the first time I beat that I used a Wing Diver with a rapier and took each tower down at point blank range before too many enemies spawned. Ranger with sniper/shotgun is good, but it's harder to stay alive.

Cheap way is to bring an Air Raider with an APC. Dump air strikes on the towers while you drive around the streets kiting the enemies. I did that on inferno though, not sure you'll have a APC fast enough yet.

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I'm also playing on hard as Wing Diver, and have to agree with others that a lot of it is bringing the right weapons for the particular circumstance. For example, one of the 40-50 missions is one with huge swarms of the wasp-like enemies and very little cover. It was incredibly difficult using what I had previously used against flying enemies (a midrange laser and a 5-way homing weapon) because there were just so many of them, but it became pretty easy when I brought the Stardust 100-shot burst weapon that randomly hit everything in the sky and the Monster sniper to instantly kill the red wasps. I also have to agree with Guppeth that, for Mission 43, bursting down the towers point-blank with the Rapier worked really well for me too.

On that note, I've been recording every mission as I beat them the first time. I did the first 6-8 missions on normal and then switched it to hard once I got more familiar with the game. If any of you are interested in how I've been playing the game, you can find my expanding playlist, which is a bit behind where I'm actually at since it just takes awhile to upload all of the videos.
EDF 5 Missions Playlist

 

[Guppeth]

I'm also playing on hard as Wing Diver, and have to agree with others that a lot of it is bringing the right weapons for the particular circumstance. For example, one of the 40-50 missions is one with huge swarms of the wasp-like enemies and very little cover. It was incredibly difficult using what I had previously used against flying enemies (a midrange laser and a 5-way homing weapon) because there were just so many of them, but it became pretty easy when I brought the Stardust 100-shot burst weapon that randomly hit everything in the sky and the Monster sniper to instantly kill the red wasps. I also have to agree with Guppeth that, for Mission 43, bursting down the towers point-blank with the Rapier worked really well for me too.

On that note, I've been recording every mission as I beat them the first time. I did the first 6-8 missions on normal and then switched it to hard once I got more familiar with the game. If any of you are interested in how I've been playing the game, you can find my expanding playlist, which is a bit behind where I'm actually at since it just takes awhile to upload all of the videos.
EDF 5 Missions Playlist

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Stardust is the best weapon in the game I reckon. At least until the mission pack weapons.

 

[test_account]

I was thinking normal-hardest-inferno or normal-hard-inferno.

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Ah ok, i see :)

 

[Philtastic]

Stardust is the best weapon in the game I reckon. At least until the mission pack weapons.

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After trying out this weapon more, I'd say that it is definitely one of the best weapons for some limited use cases. It's great point-blank (although you have to be careful about instantly one-shotting yourself if anything gets directly in front of you including being too close to your target, your teammates, lamp posts, and newspaper stands) and if the enemy is very spread out. Stardust is terrible, however, at killing any individual enemy at a distance, and, given how much damage certain enemies do and how incredibly accurate they are, it can be challenging to get into and stay within Stardust's optimal range.

I'm currently at around mission 70 on hard, and my pick for best all around weapon is the Mag Blaster DA. At my current upgrade level, its stats are the following:
Capacity (8*): 1359
ROF: 60/sec
Damage (7): 34.9
Range (5*): 192 m
Acuracy: S++
Energy Cost (3): 296.3
Charge Time (5*): 3.8 sec

Not only does it have really high DPS (2,094 damage/sec peak) but it does so exactly where you point it and at medium range. It can burn through small pylons in 4 secs and the first gold-armoured enemies in ~3 seconds which is actually a lot faster than my average Stardust kill since you can focus on a single armoured segment rather than have your shots spread out over the entire enemy. And this can be done from range instead of having to get point-blank. The Mag Blaster DA also acts like an AoE weapon because normal enemies pretty much instantly die, thus you can sweep it across a group to mow them all down. The only negative about this weapon is the high energy cost which can leave you vulnerable if you reload at the wrong time. Overall, this weapon absolutely melts enemies from a decent distance. If you don't need as much DPS, I'd also recommend the Mag Blaster B2 which has basically the same qualities with half the damage but only 1/4 the energy cost making it far easier to reload and keep it at max damage.

 

[Marcus Brutalius]

Stardust is the best weapon in the game I reckon. At least until the mission pack weapons.

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That might be true, but Stardust has killed me more often than any enemy in the game, lol. That moment when a NPC walks straight into your line of fire or a corpse somehow rolls in front of you...haha.

 

[Guppeth]

After trying out this weapon more, I'd say that it is definitely one of the best weapons for some limited use cases. It's great point-blank (although you have to be careful about instantly one-shotting yourself if anything gets directly in front of you including being too close to your target, your teammates, lamp posts, and newspaper stands) and if the enemy is very spread out. Stardust is terrible, however, at killing any individual enemy at a distance, and, given how much damage certain enemies do and how incredibly accurate they are, it can be challenging to get into and stay within Stardust's optimal range.

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True. I find it most fun against squads of Colonists/Cosmonauts in cities. There's lots of cover so you can quickly get into range and out of danger, especially with the mod that doubles your dash speed. The risk/reward of using Stardust at close range without blowing yourself up, plus the risk/reward of dashing through the streets without crashing and getting killed, is the most fun I had in EDF 5.

That might be true, but Stardust has killed me more often than any enemy in the game, lol. That moment when a NPC walks straight into your line of fire or a corpse somehow rolls in front of you...haha.

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With great power comes great responsibility.