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.

[SCamp]

Originally posted by Armored Core Living Room:

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.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/291171246408859648/1152887573983793272/image.png

Speed requirement isn't that high.

Just kill enemies out of convenience that are on the direct path through the level or during some sort of forced wait. That should provide enough points to provide an acceptable buffer for the time. Just make sure you aren't wasting ammo when making kills.

Opportunistic kills:

- 1 missile turret on top of a boxcar on the way to Rummy. Kill it with one shot. Usually as part of a energy recharge stop.
- 1-2 toybox MTs during the door ambush. Able to kill 1 while opening the door. Killing the further toybox isn't recommended.
- 1 spider MT (on the way)
- 1 toybox MT that drops down (on the way)
- 1-2 tick MTs when going down. Usually just kill the one in front of you and proceed into the forge.
- 1 spider MT, 1 basic MT, 2 walker MTs. Can ignore the walker MTs, the spider MT and basic MT are in front of you.
(Last set of MTs in the tetrapod arena are required kills.)

In total, that's 7-11 quick and accessible kills for a casual speedrun.

Any further time saves for a casual speedrun would be knowing how to 1-cycle the boss from the front (not the top).

I use the Assault Boost thrusters that have max AB speed and good AB efficiency.

Route basically look like the video below (but with a lighter/faster build):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhNJIgYABC0

[Sin1328]

this was a tough one? huh...pretty sure this is one of the easier missions to S rank.
Attack the old spaceport is a more challenging S rank mission, or investigate Baws no 2. NOt because they are particularly difficult just that the requirements are quite tight.

[D. Flame]

Use the Buerzel/210 boosters and a coral generator, and it makes S ranking the mission very easy. (The boosters that focus on assault boost speed and efficiency over everything else)

The trick is that when you get to the outside area on the other side, you can bypass most of the level just by flying over the open gap to land by the door.

Also, you can shoot the hanging explosives to drop them yourself, and you can let them drop to wipe out all the MTs instantly, so you can just focus on the Tetra,

I did it with handheld missile pods and plasma missiles. You can lock onto the boss's front grill and just unload forward firing missiles non-stop.

But yeah, the requirements for S-Rank should have been made much clearer.

[opus132]

Just s-ranked this one myself yesterday, and did it exactly like everybody else here is saying. Skip what you can and go straight for the boss, all though my distaste for this way of doing things kicked in and was thus compelled to still kill some things along the way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpEOGztBPNU&t=10s

BTW, i had no idea supplies didn't affect ranking. Now i feel like an idiot for skipping them.

[SCamp]

Originally posted by Sin1328:

this was a tough one? huh...pretty sure this is one of the easier missions to S rank.
Attack the old spaceport is a more challenging S rank mission, or investigate Baws no 2. NOt because they are particularly difficult just that the requirements are quite tight.

Attack the Old Spaceport is just as easy. Maybe even easier due to there not being any forced midbosses (Rummy, tetrapods) between the player and objectives and the bosses being out in the open and easy to kill. It just becomes a small routing game (under ship -> 3 ships -> resupply ship)

BAWS arsenal is hard because there aren't very many enemies to kill for points to buffer the timer, so you can't waste ammo or take too much damage.

[Sin1328]

Originally posted by opus132:

Just s-ranked this one myself yesterday, and did it exactly like everybody else here is saying. Skip what you can and go straight for the boss, all though my distaste for this way of doing things kicked in and was thus compelled to still kill some things along the way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpEOGztBPNU&t=10s

BTW, i had no idea supplies didn't affect ranking. Now i feel like an idiot for skipping them.

some missions don't punish you for using repair kits, they take the damage on your mech at the end as a the value, so if you repair in time it affects it less.

Why...I have no idea, just seems to be the case for at least one mission.

[REBirthTheEdge]

I think finding all the logs and chests in this mission is harder than S-ranking it.
Like everybody said already, just bee line towards the Cleaner while killing the Stomp and a bunch of enemies in the way.

For the Cleaner, now I just hover and shoot at its top, and when it's staggered, attack its face.

Now the mission in NG+ that precedes this one, now that one is a wee bit harder for S ranking but I'm not spoiling.

[poppindancers]

I ran through it and killed everything along the way and still got S rank,

Not hard, just fun.

[overmage]

Originally posted by Sin1328:

this was a tough one? huh...pretty sure this is one of the easier missions to S rank.
Attack the old spaceport is a more challenging S rank mission, or investigate Baws no 2. NOt because they are particularly difficult just that the requirements are quite tight.

I found investigate baws no. 2 way easier to s rank than this one, funny how from games always have different walls for different folks

Originally posted by opus132:

BTW, i had no idea supplies didn't affect ranking. Now i feel like an idiot for skipping them.

You save about 5 seconds from not resupplying, which can be helpful for tight runs