SAMs? How the heck?

[Demon of Razgriz]

I am trying to do the steal helicopters/planes missions for the Rebels in an area with HEAVY SAM presence. I know it says to fly low to avoid them, well, I was flying so low my wheels hit the ground and they were STILL locking on to me. How the heck are you supposed to do this? Also, there are too many to blow up with C4. That doesn't even help though, since they just respawn.

Edit: In case anyone is wondering, Media Luna is the zone I am trying to do.

[Devlin]

We tried blowing up all SAM sites in the areay.... then do the mission and fly away... but that doesn't work - becausse SAM sites quickly respawn. SAM's are just bugged I guess. So I don't have a solution I'm afraid - just hoping that devs fix that dead SAM sites stay dead longer (pref. for ever!).

[GoBlue]

Fly low to the ground, the radar wont pick you up.

[Snipy]

Take off quickly high up, also spinning around will help to avoid the rockets.
After you achieve high altitude, you will be out of range of SAMs

[Rickenbacker]

Come in low from the mountains to the east, that way only one SAM can see you, and if you're low enough it won't have time to shoot. Worked for me :). Or fly in the river canyon, that way you can avoid all of them if you're low enough.

[jinx_shunter]

It's not just about flying low, it's also about flying lower than the SAM sites. Fly through the canyon and you have to go around almost the whole area, not in a straight path. Check the map to identify where the SAMs are and avoid getting too close to them. They appear as small black rectangles in the map.

Maxing out Aircraft Shield also helps. You might survive one hit.

[ZeroAffex]

Yea was going to say flying low doesn't always work if your in the mountains. I have had a few missions I have just abandoned because the sam site locations are positioned in a way that you have no choice but to dodge the incoming missle. I've tried to watch the missle and dodge to no avail, end up smashing into the moutain lol

Kinda offtopic. They need to patch in counter measures for the military aircraft. Very lame that an apache like heli has no flares, same with unidad heli's. It makes sense for civiian aircraft to lack countermeasures but yea, we'll have to see in the future if they address it or not.

[p30pl3h4t3m3]

fly low
use mountains for cover
don't use direct flying routes
rocket launched and locked ? time to go up and down, left and right, up and down, left and right, up and down...

[Todd]

This happened to me too. I tried flying low, high, dodging and nothing worked. I think what I ended up doing is flying the opposite direction of the drop off point very low and flew around the area with the SAM's.

[BOT Cecil]

Originally posted by p30pl3h4t3m3:

fly low
use mountains for cover
don't use direct flying routes
rocket launched and locked ? time to go up and down, left and right, up and down, left and right, up and down...

Usually going left or right (and maintaining that direction until the rocket missed) is good enough, but good overall tips.

I generally try to avoid waving because you're a sitting duck when you change the direction and momentum is shifted, more so on heavy and slow choppers.

[StormSpiritGB]

keep looking back few seconds before sam gets close do sharp turn they cant track quick anuff also texi plane to end runway turn around then take off and go straight up sams do have hight limit on tracking.

i fly around in the area with all the sams just for fun have yet to be shot down

[Democracy Officer 0311]

closest i've come to figuring this out is having a multiplayer team. One pilots the package while the rest scout out SAM's and takes care of them along the route.

[Crow]

Had a group dress up in hijabs and fly planes into the sam sites. Was working until we flew the mission into the sam #justreligionofpeacethings.

[Plasmis]

It seems to me that the missiles have been upgraded or my response times has been downgraded (tha latter is more propable) , but at least in the early days of the game the SAM:s could be fooled in the traditional way: exceeding their manouverability. As you have ample warning, take the helicopter behind a hill or land, if you can't do that then fly towards the missile and use gravity to your advantage. And fill the cockpit with hands. ;)

[Rickenbacker]

Originally posted by ZeroAffex:

Yea was going to say flying low doesn't always work if your in the mountains. I have had a few missions I have just abandoned because the sam site locations are positioned in a way that you have no choice but to dodge the incoming missle. I've tried to watch the missle and dodge to no avail, end up smashing into the moutain lol

Kinda offtopic. They need to patch in counter measures for the military aircraft. Very lame that an apache like heli has no flares, same with unidad heli's. It makes sense for civiian aircraft to lack countermeasures but yea, we'll have to see in the future if they address it or not.

Keep turning once a missile is launched, there's a decent chance it'll miss as long as you're not flying straight ahead. And try to put a mountain or house between you and the missile launcher as soon as possible :)., So far I haven't seen any missions that were made impossible due to SAMs.

[Ghostie]

I know it's really late and you've probably done it already, but for new players struggling: It may sound stupid, but for the airplane, try to kill the guard near it, destroy the two SAMS near it (just for safety), then proceed to *DRIVE*, yes, DRIVE, the plane (be cautious to not hit any road signs or anything with the wings. Drive it as far as you can, when you cannot anymore, fly a bit and if you have more SAMS in front of you or if you are getting targeted (which happened in my case), get on the ground fast again, and destroy the SAMS. For me, I was on a ridge, then got down to the canyon surrounding the Landing Zone, then just proceeded to fly cautiously around the Peninsula of the Landing Zone and the flew up a bit and made it to the Landing Zone.

TL;DR: Just DRIVE the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ plane and only fly only when you REALLY need to.


Now for the Helicopter, which is just as stupid as the Plane one, but still works: Steal the Helicopter (to do it faster, just kill the three guys surrounding the Helicopter, then the Sniper and just steal the Helicopter), then go as fast as you can in San Mateo, then just go to the left to the border of Remanzo, when you get there, then just go up to Koani, until you reach the closest point to the Peninsula of the Landing Zone, then just go up in the air until you reach at least 1200 metres of altitude, then, go to the Landing Zone and be above it, now, what you have to do is to CHANGE SEATS and pretty much leave the Helicopter go in to FREEFALL (what this does is make your Helicopter fall faster, which makes it almost impossible for the SAMS to hit you), then change seats to the driver at like 100-200 metres and just hold the fly up button as hard as you can, otherwise, you'll just crash on to the land, then just get down as fast as you can to the Landing Zone so you won't get SAM'd.

TL;DR: Get around Media Luna to Koani. Get high (over 1200 metres); Get above the Landing Zone; Change Seats to passanger; Freefall; Change to driver at 100-200 metres; Pray.