Any Advice for using the Gun

[Coma-Toast]

I'm trying to go through the story with just the machine gun for the medal and wow is it just... annoying. I'm using all the gun upgrades as well as the auto aim and auto fire. It almost feels like this game was never designed for this weapon and just favoring missiles. Maneuvering is sooo finicky to get the reticle in place because your hands are making micro adjustments trying to line the shot. The targets are way to small and agile for CONSISTEN kills. I'm honestly finding more success using the A-10 than a F-22 in dogfights because its slow maneuverability for making accurate shots. So I ask the question on to you for people are experts at using the gun, how do I become better at using it.

[Grimjaw]

Use controller, use your top shoulder buttons, profit

[Hobo Misanthropus]

Use MiG-21bis and MGP = Easy mode gun usage.

The gun was never meant to be the main weapon you go through the campaign with, it's something you use only when you see the opportunity (It's best in Sub 500M ranges) to conserve MSL ammo.

Important plane upgrades, IMO you should ditch Auto-Fire and Gun tracking, at least in my opinion, they make the gun less accurate in air-to-air engagements. (The Auto-aim does not properly lead targets). Auto-gun fire is not bad, but with practice, you'll be better off keeping manual control and equipping something that gives you better plane control.

YAW MANEUVERABILITY

ROLL STABILITY

PITCH MANEUVERABILITY

*Automated Fire Extinguishers (Will help on boss fights)

CUTTING EDGE AIRBRAKE (Lets you brake fast and the MQ-101s will overshoot you allowing you to gun down entire swarms of them, but it's good to have for all gun engagements)

And the 3 gun upgrades, though you don't really need better fire concentration, it might even be worse if you're not a good shot, as the additional gun spread can help you land shots within a margin of error, at a cost of direct DPS potential when you do have the perfect alignment.

[TheJournier]

I'm not world class but
Pitch, Pitch, Pitch. Pitch stability helps too.

to aim I just roll pitch. A.I. planes will move faster than you can yaw.

if you are strafing big targets or ground target use yaw though and go slow like use breaks to get down as slow as possible for maximum effect.
And most importantly try to more you stick lightly, jerky movements makes things harder.

The Mig-21 is the best at Machine guns. It's main cannon fires pretty quick and it has MGPs.
Next best... would prolly be the ones that have "800" gun ammo, they fire slower but hit harder.
I.E. Mig 29, Mirage 2000-5, Gripen E.. etc.

Best of luck ;)

[Hobo Misanthropus]

Yaw is for the minor corrections you may need to align the gun properly, not for actually tracking in pursuit of the target, lol.

[Waryth]

The machine gun reticle always shows up very late whenever you aim at a target and if it did showed up, its direction doesn't match up with the aircraft's nose when it should be.

They purposely did this to prevent the machine gun to be spammed all the way. Its effective range is at 300 meters like in Ace Combat: Assault Horizon up til 800 meters maximum. Almost all aircrafts uses 30mm machine gun cannon so 300-800 meters is your limit. They even have a MG distance upgrade.. its USELESS since aiming 1000 meters away will be a pixel of a target.

Using the auto-fire upgrade is another useless upgrade too when it fires beyond its range trying to get a hit to zero accuracy. Using the machine guns is terrible during turns and always best to use when chasing someone in a straight line. Think of it like an FPS with right click to aim function. Swaying left and right throws off your accuracy real bad and that goes the same here during turns but its the aim that's being affected and not the accuracy.

Only use it during boom and zoom attack and that's when hitting stationary targets. If you're gonna use it against air targets, its best to fire it when approaching in a straight line. Ex: Firing at the Arsenal Bird parts or a running aircraft that ain't maneuvering.

[Hobo Misanthropus]

The Gun doesn't match the nose of the plane because the Machine gun bullets of drop. Placement of the gun is also critically important.

Planes that have guns meant for air-to-air engagements mount the gun usually on the side, but always above the nose of the plane. Planes that are designed to use their gun against Ground Targets, have the gun mounted below the nose so when you factor in drop, the plane can safely strafe the ground at a low angle of attack. Dedicated attackers will have the gun angled down around 5 degrees. (SU-34 and A-10)


The MG's range is actually UP TO 2400M, particularly against ground targets, however at 2400M it's going to take around TWO FULL SECONDS for the rounds to impact their target.

Hits out to 1500M on airborne targets are also possible, but at this range, you have to compensate for both drop and enemy trajectory.


There are 3 types of primary gun in the game.

the 30mm Autocannon equipped by Most Russian and European planes deals high damage per shot, but has notable gaps between firing. This makes it good for close engagements, but it is very hard to use against nimble craft like Drones or at extended ranges.


All American Aircraft (Except the A-10) and Two Russian Aircraft (MiG31 and MiG21) are equipped with a 20mm Vulcan cannon. This has lower damage, higher rate of fire. It benefits less from the "Machine Gun Gether" upgrade, as the volume of fire benefits a slight spread to give you margin of error. With exception of the F-35/F4, the 20mm Vulcan Cannon is mounted in an air-to-air engagement configuration.


The Last type of gun is unique to Two aircraft. It's the 30mm Gatling Cannon, most famous on the A-10 but also equipped on the X-02S Strike Wyvern. This boasts nearly the same damage as the Russian/EU Autocannon, with an ROF similar to the 20mm Vulcan, and 50% more Ammo (HARD/ACE) than the vulcan.

For Damage calculation reasons, the MGP functions as a single 30mm Gatling Cannon.


The X-02 is probably the best plane to use for a gun-run, unless you're a psycho doing it on hard/ace where ammo is limited. In which case your only real option is to use MGP, and even then you might have to "Retry from Checkpoint" to refresh your ammo.

[SpaceBallOne]

Originally posted by Hobo Misanthropus:

Do you know where I can find dedicated gun stats/charts?
Interested in what guns the DLC Morgan and Falcon have.

Thinking the Morgan might have a beefy gun, with missile jamming tech.
This might make the no damage run easier, as well as guns only because the jammer wouldn't count as sp weapons kills.

[Useless Bunny]

Originally posted by SpaceBallOne:

Originally posted by Hobo Misanthropus:

Do you know where I can find dedicated gun stats/charts?
Interested in what guns the DLC Morgan and Falcon have.

Thinking the Morgan might have a beefy gun, with missile jamming tech.
This might make the no damage run easier, as well as guns only because the jammer wouldn't count as sp weapons kills.

For a gun only run you want the Mig-21 with gun pods for the large extra gun damage buff which makes the whole run much better, necromancer. The default gun difference between planes is very minimal.

[Lack of Stuff]

The Raven's pulse lasers also count if you prefer to use those.