Finally managed to S rank Infiltrate Grid 086

[SoulHunterWirriam]

This mission legitimately took me more tries than S ranking all the endgame missions. The speed requirements are a little bit on the absurd side.

Anyway for those still trying my setup was

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3031428552

Strategy: rush,rush,rush, ignore enemies and fly as fast and efficient as possible. Minimize damage, kill mad stomp in one rotation, ignore the 2 heavy MTs and just open the door, attack the MTs with the tetrapod (remember about the fuels tanks on the ceiling), fly over it,stagger and kill it in one rotation.
Don't resupply because you need every second. Fly over the boss and use pulse shield to mitigate damage and stagger him as fast as possible. Once hes staggered do him a full rotation of pilebunker-zimmerman-bosna-pilebunker. Once he recovers from stagger he should have lost around 90% hp. Finish him off and enjoy S rank.

Good luck Ravens.

[Unknown]

You only need to kill Mad Stomp & the targeted MTs right before the Smart Cleaner throughout the entire area. The moment you kill Mad Stomp, basically all you need to do next is to head over to the Smart Cleaner immediately.

Resupply doesn't affect rank results, so there's no need to be frugal.

[SoulHunterWirriam]

Originally posted by Unknown:

You only need to kill Mad Stomp & the targeted MTs right before the Smart Cleaner throughout the entire area. The moment you kill Mad Stomp, basically all you need to do next is to head over to the Smart Cleaner immediately.

Resupply doesn't affect rank results, so there's no need to be frugal.

I know resupply doesn't affect rank but it's always a couple of seconds of extra time to get the rank.

[ZTL-Altima]

The speed requirement is indeed high. If you kill the 2 LOG tetrapods you are awarded a lot of time, though. But still, killing the cleaner fast is required.

[ImHelping]

This is legitimately harder than S ranking all three final bosses. Because actually shooting the weak spots seems very much luck over skill. So bad even when they are staggered you can miss their front grill with super FCS that has nearly 500 drain. The model is also a bit jank so I have had the pile spike no-clip harmlessly through theirs staggered body a lot.

Considering the maimings I have had on S ranks at times, speed does seem to be the #1 concern. "Man I am out of health kits and almost dead. No way that is S-I got S on the NG++ fight, okay then."

Thanks, chainsaw! You are trash in the air, but real good if the enemy ever risks hitting the ground.

[SoulHunterWirriam]

Originally posted by ImHelping:

This is legitimately harder than S ranking all three final bosses. Because actually shooting the weak spots seems very much luck over skill. So bad even when they are staggered you can miss their front grill with super FCS that has nearly 500 drain. The model is also a bit jank so I have had the pile spike no-clip harmlessly through theirs staggered body a lot.

Considering the maimings I have had on S ranks at times, speed does seem to be the #1 concern. "Man I am out of health kits and almost dead. No way that is S-I got S on the NG++ fight, okay then."

Thanks, chainsaw! You are trash in the air, but real good if the enemy ever risks hitting the ground.

Same. Final bosses, both coral convergence missions and other were a cakewalk to S rank compared to this.

[hoimingmissile]

Odd, I killed E V E R Y T H I N G on the level and then wacked the boss with songbirds+starter sword in short order. If you had twin stun needles, the ashmead, AND the zimmerman and still had trouble I don't know what to make of that.

https://youtu.be/oLdmYyzCri4?si=1DsPEqh1abPgBqoI

I cut out the footage of doing the chores sweeping up the MTs around the map but you can see by my endscreen Bonus Pay of 566k that I left a path of destruction.

EDIT: https://youtu.be/wlMOIUCt4og

[Wutever]

The mission is weird. From what I could tell how much damage you take is a LARGE factor in getting an S-rank.

A lot of melee weapons are also inconsistent when hitting the front of the oversized roomba. Pile Bunker seems to be the best as it hits from below and doesn't move you much so you can't accidentally hit the excavator arms.

Same for using regular bipedal legs instead of reverse joints. The additional quick boost range can be detrimental and make you clip an arm.

[MaverickHL]

I think the issue is, this is more a cost rank factor. The amount of bullets and the damage you incur during the mission plays as one of the major factors in this specific run. Speed is basically ignore everything but the required fights to get to the boss. However from my experience the cost of repair/ammo used affected this one greatly.

[SoulHunterWirriam]

Originally posted by hoimingmissile:

Odd, I killed E V E R Y T H I N G on the level and then wacked the boss with songbirds+starter sword in short order. If you had twin stun needles, the ashmead, AND the zimmerman and still had trouble I don't know what to make of that.

https://youtu.be/oLdmYyzCri4?si=1DsPEqh1abPgBqoI

I cut out the footage of doing the chores sweeping up the MTs around the map but you can see by my endscreen Bonus Pay of 566k that I left a path of destruction.

Apparently if you kill the duo log tetrapods you get a lot of additional time. That would explain the differences.

[overmage]

Originally posted by MaverickHL:

I think the issue is, this is more a cost rank factor. The amount of bullets and the damage you incur during the mission plays as one of the major factors in this specific run. Speed is basically ignore everything but the required fights to get to the boss. However from my experience the cost of repair/ammo used affected this one greatly.

Can confirm, 4 minute fight, 6k in repair costs (basically took 2k damage only the whole mission), 216k bonus rewards, but B rank because 100k in ammo costs.

[Cupcake Foxxo]

Strat for me was to kill anyone along the most direct path to the mandatory fights as well as the two tetrapods. I used double shotguns and pile driver with no 4th weapon to keep ammo costs extremely low. Kept damage minimal but nothing crazy. I think proportion of enemies killed to money spent on ammo and repairs is the key.

I also agree with everyone complaining about how S ranking is so difficult to figure out, should be way more transparent.

[OgenLink]

For anyone struggling with S rank or dealing with cleaner in general, plasma explosions do silly damage to its smoke stack (exhaust pipe weak point on its top). If you run tetrapod with two plasma rifles and the two shoulder mount plasma cannons you can clear smart cleaner in roughly 30 seconds with minimal damage ezpz

[BKo]

I had no issues with this one and I think the criteria are not that heavy speedwise. I think I even spent some time looking for a chest. Maybe you need to avoid high cost ammo like gatling guns, take little damage, and kill some enemies with decent bounties like I did. Anyway I'm pretty sure this only took one try.

[JenkemGaming]

Originally posted by hoimingmissile:

Odd, I killed E V E R Y T H I N G on the level and then wacked the boss with songbirds+starter sword in short order. If you had twin stun needles, the ashmead, AND the zimmerman and still had trouble I don't know what to make of that.

https://youtu.be/oLdmYyzCri4?si=1DsPEqh1abPgBqoI

I cut out the footage of doing the chores sweeping up the MTs around the map but you can see by my endscreen Bonus Pay of 566k that I left a path of destruction.

EDIT: https://youtu.be/wlMOIUCt4og

Yeah don't listen to ^this^ nerd who thinks he's a gift to the world of AC. The only thing you need to do is kill the two log tetrapod MTs in addition to the mandatory gateway enemies.

[Babbaloo]

I just S-Ranked this one after a slog of attempts. Even if you kill the two extra Tetrapod MTs above Mad Stomp, getting the S rank is not easy if you are accumulating ammo cost and/or taking damage. I tried a ton of attempts with double songbirds, gat, and laser lance while killing the two Tetrapods, but my costs were always over 50k, likely because of the gat. Eventually, I swapped out the gat for a zimm and then S-Ranked on a run where I SKIPPED the two Tetrapods, accumulating only 7K Repair Costs and 33K Ammo Costs. I didn't kill the Smart Cleaner that fast either. I had to stagger it a couple times to kill it.