S ranking is unnecessarily tedious.

[HoboGoblin]

Why why why why WHY WON'T THE GAME TELL ME WHAT I NEED TO DO TO IMPROVE?! I've been hard stuck A ranking BAWS arsenal No. 2 for about an hour now assault boosting through, oneshotting all of the mechs with earshots and barely taking any damage. Why doesn't the end screen tell us anything? Can someone datamine the requirements for each mission or something, I'm tired of constantly hoping and guessing if this was the run.

[何]

cost.
if your run is too expensive, you dont S rank.

[Genesis]

Simple you need to be fast for that mission another thing to note is to use the head scan to track the enemies. In an case if you are planning to s rank, my suggestion would go straight to the objectives with the few exception mission such as the escort prisoner you have to eliminate a quad

[XartaX]

Originally posted by Genesis:

Simple you need to be fast for that mission another thing to note is to use the head scan to track the enemies. In an case if you are planning to s rank, my suggestion would go straight to the objectives with the few exception mission such as the escort prisoner you have to eliminate a quad

You can ignore the quad. The only important thing on that mission is to reduce the damage the chopper take. The most efficient way is to just memorize where every enemy is and go kill everything, so the chopper won't meet anything until the AC fight at the end.

[Genesis]

Originally posted by XartaX:

Originally posted by Genesis:

Simple you need to be fast for that mission another thing to note is to use the head scan to track the enemies. In an case if you are planning to s rank, my suggestion would go straight to the objectives with the few exception mission such as the escort prisoner you have to eliminate a quad

You can ignore the quad. The only important thing on that mission is to reduce the damage the chopper take. The most efficient way is to just memorize where every enemy is and go kill everything, so the chopper won't meet anything until the AC fight at the end.

Ah that makes more sense, guessing it's the same for defense mission

[KingOfFriedChicken]

Speed seems to be a main factor, but cheap weapons or ammoless weapons like swords, taking no damage, basically maximize profits. I prefer some of the older S ranking where speed wasn't always a major factor it had some part but it was more reliant on ammo costs and damage taken overall, having to speed run on top of that invites frustration.

[Key]

My man, S ranking is legit the ultimate challenge the game has to offer, is entirely optional, rewards nothing and it's meant to require absolute perfection.

Even though I don't like how time-dependant the score is, as it pidgeonholes player into super-light builds, I'd say if anything, a bunch of missions are too lenient.

[Klipwc]

Earshots are terrible for s-rank, they slow you down every time you fire. If you are using tank threads to compensate for recoil, you basically fail by default.

Speed is the biggest deciding factor for S-rank, ammo and damage taken have more allowance the further the mission is. I gotten S-rank in missions where I spammed ammo and used up all 3 heals.

If you want to 1-shot trash mobs, I suggest going for the arm plasma cannons instead, they have alot of ammo (90+ rounds), 1 shot basically every trash mob in the game even at max range, and have cheap costs because they are relatively early game weapons.

Here is my loadout I used to S-rank nearly every mission. Only one it couldn't handle was defend the mining base because the wheels were too damn annoying to melee. Plasma cannon for all trash mobs, if it needs more than 2 shots to kill, use laser lance + both needle cannons. For any bosses, just charge laser lance then fire needles when animation ends, there's basically nothing that can withstand that combo.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3028510607

P.S some missions have bonus objectives you need to fulfill for S-rank, E.g. when rusty tells you to destroy fuel tanks or walter tells you to find logs from destroyed mechs. If you clear the mission without doing them, you don't get your S.

[Castile]

Ignore ammo and damage completely, if they are counted it's such a small amount that it will never out-weigh simply finishing the mission faster. Go full tank with double gats and double stun needle for anything you need to turbo nuke, go super light weight with any consistent guns you prefer for any mission that isn't just fighting 2+ ACs or a boss rush. You'll always have to tweak things here or there depending on the mission such as the coral transport mission.

The main thing to be aware of is some random missions will require you to kill the combat log enemies, but it's maybe around 5 or so missions total that do this.

[D. Flame]

Gotta go fast. That pretty much it.

Like the chapter 1 mission where you are attacking the dam, you take out the dudes next to the first one since you will be forced to fight them anyway. The blow the generator. then you do the same at the second generator. After than you ignore everything and just go for the generators.

The MT with the log? Ignore it.
The little guys near the generator? Ignore them.
The AC near the last generator? Ignore it. Just over boost to the top of the building and blast the target, then the mission will end, and you will get an S rank.

[JackieTheDemon]

https://youtu.be/WPSwZFzKnuw?si=AtzTZqL0kXtfE5DV

Here is the fastest and easiest way to do it.

[JackieTheDemon]

Originally posted by Klipwc:

Earshots are terrible for s-rank,

Haha. That's incorrect.

[goka9696]

Go fast and, depending on the mission, take out battle log enemies. That's it.

[♋ßLUE۫۰۪♋]

already finish everything on S rank in 3 days. just finish fast get a good build for protecting and killing target's fast. i mainly use dual chain gun and song bird for bosses and that's it. im just watching some sitcom's while playing if i have the time.

[imp]

currently at 42/59 s ranks and i can confirm it is all about speed. some missions you need to get a lot of kills (basically any that rewards more money for kills) or kill specific enemies (battle log targets, hidden acs). repair and ammo costs have a very minor effect, just don't get over 80-120k in costs and you'll probably be fine. the baws arsenal no. 2 is a particularly nasty mission in that you have to be blisteringly fast. if the wall clinging snipers at the end jump away and you have to chase them more than a single time you've probably failed the time limit.

i've been using three different builds. the first is my general use build: a zimmerman, the red moonlight, and dual 6 missile launchers, on a high speed medium biped. when i need to go even faster i have a lightweight reverse joint with the same shoulder weapons, but the starting pulse blade and the lightest shotgun. lastly i have a light treads / heavy armor build with, you guessed it, dual zimmermans and more missiles, the 10 shot variant this time, for when i really need to melt something fast.

[Commander Hitman2b]

Originally posted by Chief-it Claw:

Why why why why WHY WON'T THE GAME TELL ME WHAT I NEED TO DO TO IMPROVE?! I've been hard stuck A ranking BAWS arsenal No. 2 for about an hour now assault boosting through, oneshotting all of the mechs with earshots and barely taking any damage. Why doesn't the end screen tell us anything? Can someone datamine the requirements for each mission or something, I'm tired of constantly hoping and guessing if this was the run.

well if only S rank all mission would reward you with a dope weapon