How are you supposed to dodge missiles

[Mental Paradox]

I've only ever played Ace Combat 7 before this. I know how to jink to dodge missiles, but is there a way to perform high-G maneuvers (that would make dodging a lot easier)? And how do I release flares? I've gotten pretty lucky so far, the en enemy missiles in this game appear to have a really low hit rate.

[Zyhgar The Phoenix]

There's not really much too it other than just turning and rolling and dumping flares when it gets too hot. I don't know if AOA is really all that useful for evading I always just use flares since its just a get out of jail free card.

[Mental Paradox]

Originally posted by Zyhgar The Phoenix:

There's not really much too it other than just turning and rolling and dumping flares when it gets too hot. I don't know if AOA is really all that useful for evading I always just use flares since its just a get out of jail free card.

AOA?

How many flares do you have, anyway? In AC7 you're limited to... 5?

[Zyhgar The Phoenix]

AOA you get on some late game planes it allows you to do an instant turn and I'm pretty sure flares are infinite in this game.

[Mental Paradox]

Originally posted by Zyhgar The Phoenix:

AOA you get on some late game planes it allows you to do an instant turn and I'm pretty sure flares are infinite in this game.

Oh, wow. Infinite flares? Doesn't that kind of cheapen the combat? AOA sounds like some Belkan black magic, looking forward to it

[KillerDuck]

On some missions on Mercenary and later stages of Conquest mode, you will NEED the infinite flares lol. As far as AoA goes, it's only as good as you are. If you're damn good then you can do some magical stuff with it. If you're not-so-good then you will most likely prefer flares as badly timed AoA will get you killed. There's also an option in the settings to have the AoA camera follow your plane which is basically a necessity.

[Kappatalism]

Infinite flares, just on a cooldown. On a controller, it's left stick to use them.

For actually evading a missile, the most important factor is going fast. The higher your speed, the narrower the angle a missile can successfully track you. If a missile gets in that angle, steer away from it when the warning beeps faster.

[King Fossil]

The game is a lot more fun with AoA. It's overpowered, but it's still fun to use. Flares turning off every missile in the world every 7 seconds is overpowered in a boring way.
Fulcrum/Super Hornet/Flanker and all the top tier planes have AoA as an option, so look forward to getting one of them.

[Mental Paradox]

Those odd (yellow?) geometric shapes that appear on screen as a missile approaches, how exactly should I read them? Are they indicating where the missile is coming from, or are they an "escape vector" of some kind like in Elite: Dangerous?

Their shape also appears to change.

[CaoLex]

Dodging most missiles is easy (so long as it's not Deadly Ammunition in the Conquest mode), just keep decent speed and turn down or up when missile is near. You can barrel roll too but it's a game of chance so I don't recommend it.
Flares are very good and unlike AC7 you have an infinity amount of them.
AOA are NOT usefull for dodging missiles because sharp turn with it will reduce your speed while turning and it will make missile to have bigger chance to hit you. You CAN use AOA early to sharp turn and then accelerate at angle what makes missile unable to hit you, but this way you will spent majority of your flying just dodging.
AOA is for dog fights and for dealing with ground targets, not for dodging missiles.

Originally posted by Mental Paradox:

Those odd (yellow?) geometric shapes that appear on screen as a missile approaches, how exactly should I read them? Are they indicating where the missile is coming from, or are they an "escape vector" of some kind like in Elite: Dangerous?

Their shape also appears to change.

Danger vectors from which missile is approaching. Counterintuitively dodging toward them is more effective than dodging against them because missile will need to turn less to hit you.

[Mental Paradox]

Originally posted by CaoLex:

Dodging most missiles is easy (so long as it's not Deadly Ammunition in the Conquest mode), just keep decent speed and turn down or up when missile is near. You can barrel roll too but it's a game of chance so I don't recommend it.
Flares are very good and unlike AC7 you have an infinity amount of them.
AOA are NOT usefull for dodging missiles because sharp turn with it will reduce your speed while turning and it will make missile to have bigger chance to hit you. You CAN use AOA early to sharp turn and then accelerate at angle what makes missile unable to hit you, but this way you will spent majority of your flying just dodging.
AOA is for dog fights and for dealing with ground targets, not for dodging missiles.

Originally posted by Mental Paradox:

Those odd (yellow?) geometric shapes that appear on screen as a missile approaches, how exactly should I read them? Are they indicating where the missile is coming from, or are they an "escape vector" of some kind like in Elite: Dangerous?

Their shape also appears to change.

Danger vectors from which missile is approaching. Counterintuitively dodging toward them is more effective than dodging against them because missile will need to turn less to hit you.

I see. Thanks for that, that's very helpful. Makes sense AOA would be a poor choice for dodging missiles. I follow a lot of fighter pilot channels like C.W. Lemoine and they always say that maintaining your plane's energy (usually speed and altitude) over your opponent is super important. Purposefully almost stalling yourself like in a cobra looks cool for the pictures but is rarely effective in a dogfight

[CaoLex]

Originally posted by Mental Paradox:

I see. Thanks for that, that's very helpful. Makes sense AOA would be a poor choice for dodging missiles. I follow a lot of fighter pilot channels like C.W. Lemoine and they always say that maintaining your plane's energy (usually speed and altitude) over your opponent is super important. Purposefully almost stalling yourself like in a cobra looks cool for the pictures but is rarely effective in a dogfight

I will not claim that I am professional pilot, for I am not, but I playead all but two AC games and in them in the dogfigts AOA allows for two thing:
Failling on the tail of the enemy due to increased maneuvrity and rapid drop of speed. You can use your gun or missile then.
Getting advantage in "circling" each other (which isn't really common thing in real life but happens all the time in the Project Wingman in Ace Combat, especialyl if you are dealing against common enemy) which allows you to use your guns to attack the top (or sometimes bottom or side) of the enemy plane when they can do nothing. Heat seeking missiles aren't going to be usefull here but any direct fire weapon will.

[Kappatalism]

Originally posted by Mental Paradox:

Those odd (yellow?) geometric shapes that appear on screen as a missile approaches, how exactly should I read them? Are they indicating where the missile is coming from, or are they an "escape vector" of some kind like in Elite: Dangerous?

Their shape also appears to change.

It's gives 3D directional and proximity info about the missiles.

Tiny triangles with little to no beeping is far away. Large triangles with frantic beeping means it's time to dodge.

Red triangles means the missile is approaching from your (technically the camera's) rear hemisphere, yellow is in front.

The indicators face their flat surface area towards the missile, like someone blocking with a shield.

[Mental Paradox]

Originally posted by Kappatalism:

Originally posted by Mental Paradox:

Those odd (yellow?) geometric shapes that appear on screen as a missile approaches, how exactly should I read them? Are they indicating where the missile is coming from, or are they an "escape vector" of some kind like in Elite: Dangerous?

Their shape also appears to change.

It's gives 3D directional and proximity info about the missiles.

Tiny triangles with little to no beeping is far away. Large triangles with frantic beeping means it's time to dodge.

Red triangles means the missile is approaching from your (technically the camera's) rear hemisphere, yellow is in front.

The indicators face their flat surface area towards the missile, like someone blocking with a shield.

Very detailed information, thanks a lot. I'm another couple missions into the game now, I can see why the infinite flares are no unnecessary luxury!

[Shodingus]

Originally posted by Mental Paradox:

Originally posted by Zyhgar The Phoenix:

AOA you get on some late game planes it allows you to do an instant turn and I'm pretty sure flares are infinite in this game.

Oh, wow. Infinite flares? Doesn't that kind of cheapen the combat? AOA sounds like some Belkan black magic, looking forward to it

you'd think infinite flares would cheapen it but I've found that I get up to 5 missile locks on me at once quite regularly and they're sometimes extremely difficult to shake off, that and of course the fact that death means starting from the very beginning I've found it's almost a necessity. It's just a bit of shame that you can't use high-G manoeuvres while carrying flares

[XXX_SniperSlayer42069_XXX]

Originally posted by Mental Paradox:

Originally posted by CaoLex:

Dodging most missiles is easy (so long as it's not Deadly Ammunition in the Conquest mode), just keep decent speed and turn down or up when missile is near. You can barrel roll too but it's a game of chance so I don't recommend it.
Flares are very good and unlike AC7 you have an infinity amount of them.
AOA are NOT usefull for dodging missiles because sharp turn with it will reduce your speed while turning and it will make missile to have bigger chance to hit you. You CAN use AOA early to sharp turn and then accelerate at angle what makes missile unable to hit you, but this way you will spent majority of your flying just dodging.
AOA is for dog fights and for dealing with ground targets, not for dodging missiles.


Danger vectors from which missile is approaching. Counterintuitively dodging toward them is more effective than dodging against them because missile will need to turn less to hit you.

I see. Thanks for that, that's very helpful. Makes sense AOA would be a poor choice for dodging missiles. I follow a lot of fighter pilot channels like C.W. Lemoine and they always say that maintaining your plane's energy (usually speed and altitude) over your opponent is super important. Purposefully almost stalling yourself like in a cobra looks cool for the pictures but is rarely effective in a dogfight

You use AoA to stay on target easier during a dogfight (I.e if someone passes you, or one of the elite enemies does an AoA maneuver) and to cut downtime between ground strikes in half, it's not that reliable for dodging missiles, simply keeping your energy and continuously turning in any direction is enough to throw off every missile in the game, and since energy retention is extremely high you can do it for a ridiculously long amount of time.