Comprehensive guide to parts and missions

Tips and Tricks to all plane parts and missions.

Introduction

Hi!

This is a guide to all the plane parts, tips to how to use them and how to do their missions.

Do tell me if i made any mistakes so that I can fix it... or bold the part with mistakes to annoy you.

On with the guide, less useless talk.

Things you might want to know

Unlocking Missions

Random part/missions is unlocked when all 5 parts of that type is unlocked

SFMT missions are unlocked after killing a blimp (when you unlock SFMT mode). I didn't realize this on my first playthrough as I killed a blimp really early.

Spawning blimps

Blimp will only spawn after the difficulty is high enough.
Enemies in the background change as the difficulty increase.
Difficulty increase as you kill stuff and overtime.

It is generally agreed that blimps will spawn faster if you kill bigger stuff (im looking at you, battleships).

My theory is that difficulty is like the amount of space.
Each unit takes up the amount of space they will give as points when you kill them (before multiplier)
Enemies spawn in wave (I'm 99.9% sure about this)
Each wave, they'll spawn to fill up the space you freed up by killing stuff.
By killing heavy points targets like submarine or battleships, you free up more space. Thus increasing the chance for a blimp to spawn.

Not running out of things to shoot

Make sure you kill boats/battleships as often as you can so that you don't run out of fighters.
If you only kill fighters, you will eventually not have enough things to keep a combo running.
This is especially important for that 40combo with missiles mission. I'd love to write it there, but I've reached character limit on that section :\

Weapons

Original

Tips:

• Don't let go of fire while undamaged
  
• Don't let it's plainness fool you, it's dps is pretty high

Missions

• Kill 5 fighters.
  
• Kill a boat
  
• Kill 20 enemies total
  
• Kill a battleship
  • Battleships predicts where you will be base on the direction you are traveling and fires at that location. Try to trick it to fire away from you while you unload your payload
• SFMT:Kill a boat
  • Hmm, nuking is viable...

Laser

• Only weapon that goes through enemies and water.
  
• Turning slower is sort of an advantage. It makes it easy to aim and maintain laser on gunboats while passing overhead.
  
• You can tell if you are hitting something off-screen from the sound
  
• One of the best weapon for killing blimps at full combo, you can shoot through the missiles (to keep your combo) while continuing to damage the blimp.

Missions

• Kill 3 jets in one game
  • If you survive for long enough, you will get this eventually.
• Kill 6 enemies while undamaged
  • Gather up 6 fighters and slice through them while stalling.
• Kill 6 boats in one game
  Use nuke body if you have problem with this one.
  
• Kill an ace
  • When dealing with an ace, use your left and right frequently or you'll be shredded by it in moments.
• SFMT:Kill an ace
  • Is it just me, or is nuke the easy solution to everything

Spread

This weapon is kind of similar to the Original, where you just hold fire while undamaged. It is easier to hit stuff compared to Original, but you need to be a closer for more damage. This is the weapon I use to complete the 25,000 in SFMT mission.

Recoil makes it hard to dodge in tight spaces while firing.
However, it does make it easier to dodge certain stuff as it adds a new direction your plane can move in. Also good for maintaining momentum when you turn around to shoot stuff.

Missions

• Kill 30 enemies in one game
  • Use nuke body if you have problem with this one.
• Kill 3 boats while undamaged
  Use "shipwreak", Spread/melee/underwater. Ram into 3 boats without getting hit.
  
• Kill 20 fighters in one game
  
• Encounter a blimp
  • That's nice... you don't even have to kill it :)
• SFMT:Kill, firing nonstop 5 enemies
  • PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW

Missiles

Missile's damage is really low, you should get armor/melee/bomb/gungine to kill ace/boats easily. You will have a hard time killing bigger things with just missiles.

How to use missiles effectively:

• Control your shots well, don't shoot them all out
  
• Don't rely on them to kill anything other than fighters, ram/bomb them.
  
• Shoot missiles out at an angle to where your target is, so that it will latch. (This will take some practice to get a feel for the angle. Take the .gif below for example, If your enemy is around 3 O'Clock, the correct angle to shoot at is around 1 or 2 O'Clock)

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=241841989

Reasons to shot one missile at a time:
Firstly, you kill the fighter planes one at a time, decreasing the chance of running out of things to shoot, thus losing your combo.

Secondly, if you don't shoot all your missiles out, your plane will always be healing. Your plane doesn't heal during the interval you can't shoot (very obvious when using the cannon). This constant healing will allow you to spend more health doing damage by ramming or surviving an onslaught of aces.

Thirdly, if you spam all your missiles in the same direction, chances are if one misses, all of them misses. If one hit and destroys a fighter, the others will lose their target.

Don't be limited by shooting out your missiles one by one though. There are plenty of situations which calls for using all 4 missiles.

Missions

• Kill two battleships in one game
  • Use nuke body if you have problem with this one. You need to survive for long enough. Once there are enough battleships, just explode.
• Kill 8 boats in one combo
  • Doing this without nuke isn't too hard. Ram into boats, while maintaining combo with fighters (kill one at a time). Make an effort to cover distance horizontally, see the .gif above.
    
  • Use nuke body if you have problem with this one. You need to survive for long enough while only killing fighters and jets. Once there are enough boats, just explode.
• Kill 40 enemies in one combo
  • This one isn't that hard if you know how to use the missiles right. Look at the tips for this weapon above.
    
  • If you still have problem, look up Mekhazzio's video on youtube "Luftrauser: missile combo example"
• Kill a blimp
  • Use nuke body if you have problem with this one.
• SFMT:Kill 3 boats in one combo
  • Nukes, anyone?

Cannon

Tips:

• Cannon does more damage if you hit the center of enemies as more of the projectiles after its explosion will hit the target. For example, a cannon can one hit aces almost all the time. (yes.. even though it is rare, you can kill a ace with 2 shots)
  
  
• Cannon kill fighters too fast with its explosions. With cannon equipped, fighters shouldn't be shot at directly unless you will lose your combo otherwise. You should focus on boats/aces and let the explosion catch the fighters.
  
  
• Cannon+bomb body combo is very strong. You can kill battleships with 2 cannon shots and one bomb.
  
  
• You can tell when your next shot is ready if your plane is damage by listening to the repair sound. Yes.. there is a repair sound, go ahead and turn that music off.
  
  
• Cannon can explode twice if it hits 2 enemies at the same time (such as 2 boats stacking). It will explode into 2 circles of projectiles, doing extra damage to nearby foes.
  
  
• A powerful combination with the cannon is using melee or armor. You can shoot the plasma ball from inside the enemy without worrying about dying. Battleships die in 2 shots.

Cons: Hard to maintain combo. This can be split up into 3 parts
a) Need to dodge really well as you cannot heal for quite some time after shooting. If you are going to shoot again right after it recharges to maintain combo, you won't heal at all.

b) If you miss one shot, you have minimal time to hit your second shot before combo timer runs out. Sure, you can ram into stuff, but getting damaged with cannon is not trivial (see [a]).

c) You kill fighters very fast in the aoe explosion. Refer to tip 2 on how to counter this.

Missions

• Kill 20 enemies without mission
  • If you have problem with this one, aim boats and let the explosion catch fighters. If you die, just launch again and continue from where you left off.
• Kill 2 aces in one combo
  • Use nuke body if you have problem with this one.
• Kill 60 enemies in one game
  • Once again, use nuke if too hard.
• Kill a blimp
  • Yea... nuke ftw?
• SFMT:Kill a blimp (again!)
  • You know what to use by now :)

Random

This is my weapon of choice :)
Don't you just love how randomness adds to replay value...

Missions

• Kill a submarine
  
• Kill 15 enemies firing nonstop
  
• Kill 2 battleships in one combo
  • You can do this easily with a body part that starts with N and ends with E
• Kill 3 blimps with your eyes close
  • Start closing your eyes when the blimp is smoking
    
  • Remember to use a webcam so that the game knows your eye is close
    
  • ha.... or maybe just nuke it 3 times?
• SFMT:Kill 10 enemies firing nonstop
  • Dodge bullets, shoot stuff, Victory!

Body

Original

Nothing much to talk about here :\

Missions:

• Kill 30 enemies total
  
• Kill 3 enemy type in one game
  • Kill the following stuff: fighter, boat, jet
• Kill 40 fighters in total
  
• Kill 80 enemies total
  
• SFMT: Kill 5 enemy types in one game
  • Kill the following stuff: fighter, boat, jet, ace, missile.

Armor

75% More hp
20% Slower

Don't use a slow engine and spread at the same time or you won't be able to move while firing. No... actually, use it! Adds to the challenge :P

Missions

• Kill 6 Jets in total
  
• Kill 10 enemies while on fire
  • Easiest way to do this is by ramming into stuff
• Kill 5 enemy types in one game
  
• Kill 100 enemies in total
  
• SFMT: Kill 15 Jets in total
  • Let them ram into you and die a horrible death

Melee

Very hard to master because you die from 2 circle bullets or 3 non-circle ones.

Able to take down a blimp extremely fast by flying around inside it, dodging bullets.

It takes some practice to battleships. It normally takes two passes to kill it, so don't stay too long in the battleship or you will get shot down. If there is another battleship nearby, it will become extremely difficult and risky, shooting is recommended instead.
Here are two ways to do it reliably.
1) Stall above the battleship and wait for it to shoot at you. Then dive down between the two streams of bullets.

opps, I lost the combo


2) Fly above it in one direction until it starts to shoot, if you are above the boat, do a sharp turn (tap boost repeatedly while holding turn) and dive into the battle ship from another direction. If you are not above the boat, simply lose altitude before running into it.

Remember to shoot in between your rams/while ramming. It will take forever (not really) to kill a battleship from collusion damage alone.


Note that you don't have to be melee to ram stuff. Ramming ace/boat/planes/smoking-subs are completely acceptable tactics on other body part as well. However, ramming into anything bigger is unproductive and counter-effective.

You still take damage from touching missiles :C

68.75% hp compared to original



What to do when ramming:
Remember to shoot in between your rams/while ramming. It will take forever (not really) to kill a battleship from collusion damage alone.

Try to do a "swoop". So that you:
1) Won't touch the water
2) Won't get nearby battleships shield your target with a shower of bullets
3) Won't get nearby battleships to block your escape route after losing altitude.






What not to do when ramming:
Do not ram a gunboat when you don't know when it last fired and the turret is pointing in your direction. Like in the gif, you will die in less than 1second and there is no way you can react on time and turn away. Simply make sure that it is reloading or that the turret is facing away.


Do not rush towards a battleship just before it starts to fire. It will predict your location in the near future and shoot there. So if you rush towards it before it fires, one cannon will likely be shooting parallel to the boat

Executing tactic 2, followed by 1, then rushing towards boat a little early resulting in death. Another mistake I made here is that I wasn't shooting even though I was at full hp.

Missions:

• Kill 10 enemies without ever firing
  • If you have problems, try using Gungine
• Kill 30 boats in total
  
• Kill 15 enemies without ever firing
  • Same as above. If you have problems, try using Gungine
• Kill 120 enemies in total
  
• SFMT: Kill 10 enemies without ever firing
  • Once more, Gungine.
    
  • If gungine doesn't work for you, try underwater engine. Go in and out water to kill stuff. Missiles that go underwater to find you will be a bonus

Nuke

Your best friend for making missions a hell lot easier

Note:

• On impact, you don't do more damage, you take more damage.
  
• Kills after death doesn't add to score
  
• Not practical for normal runs, only good for doing missions easier

Missions:

• Kill 5 battleships in total
  • Suicide!
• Kill 80 enemies after dying
  • More Suicide!
• Kill 5 aces in total
  • Even more suicide!
• Kill 140 enemies in total
  • Even even more suicide!
• SFMT: Kill 3 blimps after death
  • How many lives do I have still have?
    
  • The hp of the blimp is more than the damage nuke does.
    
    
  • Even though many times it looks as if the blimp is killed, it isn't actually.
    
    
  • This is because blimp's altitude is base on the hp the have remaining. After you nuke them, they lose altitude, but remain alive.
    
    
  • Be sure to damage the blimp before suicide.

Bomb

My personal favorite body part.
Heals 75% the speed of other parts
Takes 2 bombs to kill an ace.
Use bomb while ramming to get a definite hit and kill gunboats/aces extremely fast.
Always take note of which direction the battleship is traveling in if you are going to bomb from above.

Example of "Use bomb while inside":

Full hp ace getting killed in less than a second... and you ask why this is my favorite body part?


Missions:

• Bomb 5 boats.
  • Takes some practice.
• Kill 30 enemies firing nonstop
  • Buggy with certain weapons, try using the laser
• Kill 3 submarines in total
  • Killing battleships will encourage submarines to spawn faster
    
  • When you see missiles around without a blimp, There is a submarine.
    
  • Get them quick! Before they submerge.
• Kill 150 enemies in total
  
• SFMT:Bomb 10 enemies in total
  • Kinda hard not to hit with so many fighters around.... NOT

Random

All that spinning is making me dizzy.

Missions:

• Kill 250 Fighters in total
  • They should have trained to pilot blimps instead
• Kill 50 enemies while on fire
  • Easiest way to kill while on fire is by ramming
• Kill a Classified No.1
  • It's a laser ace
    
  • Whenever wave of ace spawns, there is a 1.6667% chance they will spawn as a laser ace.
    
  • Heads up... something weird is coming your way
    
  • Nuking is the easiest way to do it.
• Kill a Classified No.2
  • It's a ace marine/submarine
    
  • Only appears after killing at least one sub(which you would if you nuked plenty)
    
  • Has a 1/3 chance of replacing a regular subs when it spawns.
    
  • When you see a neat line of non-circle bullets. There is an ace sub
    
  • Get them quick! Before they submerge.
    
  • Nuking is the easiest way to do it.
• SFMT: Kill 100 enemies in total
  • PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW

Engines

Original

This is the engine plain Jane uses. That's what she said.

Missions:

• Score 1000
  
• Get a x10 combo
  • See trick 1 for at tips for scoring
• Score over 5000
  • See tips for scoring
• Get a MAX! combo
  • See trick 1 for at tips for scoring
• SFMT: Score over 5000
  • This is going to be really hard at first... Try to get max combo and maintain it.
    
  • Missiles are good, but use it with bomb body. Don't use cannon unless you can dodge really well in SFMT
    
  • I realize the first tips sounds stupid because its easier said than done

Superboost

Tips:
When there are bullets behind, tap boost repeatedly when turning instead of letting it go to do a sharp turn. This actually works for all engines but is most applicable for the superboost.
This is especially important when you dive into the water, tap boost repeatedly to exit the water faster or you will suffer massive water damage

Missions:

• Score over 2000
  
• Kill 5 enemies boosting nonstop
  • Fly in one direction. Just cause their music is too good
• Kill a boat at MAX!!!! combo
  • First in a long line of Kill X at MAX! Combo. Get ready, it's going to get a lot tougher
• Score over 10000
  • See tips for scoring
• SFMT: Get MAX! combo
  • This is easier than scoring 5000
    
  • Easy with missiles

Gungine

Very underrated. The true strength of the gungine lies in its ability to maintain combo while healing. My personal favorite engine.

Missions:

• Kill a jet at MAX! combo
  • Maintain max combo for long enough and you'll get it easily
• Kill 20 enemies boosting nonstop
  
• Kill a battleship at MAX! combo
  • I think it's easiest with cannon/bomb or laser
    
  • If you have a hard time, try to make it smoke before getting max combo, then finish the job
    
  • Note that this is what you should aim to do every game when you are going for score. Battleship spawns very early in game, so it's easy to down one in your first combo. Sometimes I even down a battleship before my combo reaches MAX!
• Score over 15,000
  • See tips for scoring
• SFMT: Kill 10 enemies, boosting nonstop
  • Shouldn't be too hard. One lucky canon shot can kill 10 enemies

Underwater

Waterproof O.o
Great for ramming into ships without fear of getting wet.
Jump into the water to heal? (This is pretty scary, a line of bullets above the water surface from a nearby battleship might be waiting for you when you resurface)

Missions:

• Score over 8000
  • See tips for scoring
• Kill 10 in a row, fighters only
  • Why would anyone give you a waterproof plane and as you to keep away from the water?
• Kill an ace at max combo
  • You can do it!
• Score over 20000
  • See tips for scoring
• SFMT:: Kill an ace at max combo (again...but in SFMT)
  • This one is pretty hard. Good luck! If you made it this far, you should have enough experience to do it just fine XD

Hover

Why fall down when you can fall up.
Use spread with this and you won't need to boost!

The advantage of using hover is that you spend more time shooting down(ships) because you need less time to boost upwards.
Another advantage is the amount of control and dodging potential.

Hover's biggest enemy is the ace due to slow acceleration, it's easy to get caught in their line of fire. Try to move irregularly to trick them.

Missions:

• Kill 10 enemies, falling nonstop
  • Using spread is the easiest as you can still control your plane with the recoil
• Kill 3 boats, falling nonstop
  • Using laser is great as you can pretend to be in star wars.
• Kill a Submarine at MAX! combo
  • This one is pretty tricky. Personally I use "Fist of God" Cannon/bomb/hover.
    
  • Submarine tends to appear after you kill a battleship.
• Score over 20,000
  • If you killed a sub at max combo, without dropping the combo from the start of the game, you should have exited 20,000... and now you have to do it again.
    
  • See tips for scoring
• SFMT: Kill 10 enemies, falling nonstop
  • Use laser or spread for best effect

Random

I CAN'T DECIDE WHAT TO USE!

Missions:

• Play 5 games
  • Urgh.. this is hard
• Kill 50 enemies in one combo
  • Don't drop that combo~
• Kill 7 enemy types in one game
  • Shot everything you see!
• Score over 10,000
  • IT'S OVER 9000!!!!!!!!!!
• SFMT: Score over 25,000
  • Hardest mission in the game
    
  • Easiest way to do this is by getting 16x combo or more then killing an ace sub
    
  • Example:
    
    

Tips and Tricks for Scoring

This section is more for people who are stuck below 20k.

Trick 1:
At the start, fly across the surface of the water killing boats while ignoring fighters. If the spawn happened to have a higher ratio of boats, kill at least 3. Else, if you don't see much boats after travelling for quite some time, killing 1-2 is enough. When you are done with that, there should be enough fighters in the air to get 15-20 combo. Start killing the fighters before the 1x combo from your boat fades.

Trick 2:
Covering distance horizontally is useful for getting a higher score because:
1) By moving horizontally, you get to kill more boats (worth a lot more than fighters). As a result more planes spawn, and you won't run out of combo fodder.
2) If you don't move enough horizontally, battleships will spawn on/near each other making them harder to kill.
3) You need to have vision of the sea while you fly across the map or it defeats the purpose. Kill every boat you come across.

Trick 3:
Conserving fighters when killing big targets.
Shoot battleship --> Dodge it's wave of bullet while clearing a few fighters (but not all...hopefully). Then repeat.

Tip 123:
If you really have problems getting scores,
Have at least one of the following --> missiles, bombs, armor, melee, gungine
Note: don't use melee if you can't dodge.
The special thing about this parts, in some way or another, they allow you to maintain combo while healing. Allowing you to make more mistakes (again, not melee where mistake = dead)

Tip 101:
If you are just aiming for 20,000 mission and you suck at killing battleships.
Killing ace/fighters/jet/boats while not dropping your combo at all is enough to pass 20,000.
Though honestly I think that doing it this way is harder than just killing those battleships.

Tip 4:
Make sure you have a high combo when killing big stuff. If it is too hard to maintain your combo while attacking the bigger targets, make the big target smoke before you get your multiplier, then finish the job.

Tip 5:
Never let that combo drop. If your current score is no where near 20k, it's always worth risking your live to maintain your combo.

Tip 7:
Kill ace before battleships, or they will rip you apart while you are trying stalling in the air and shooting the battleship.

[mats the cat]

"SFMT:: Kill an ace at max combo (again...but in SFMT)
This one is pretty hard. Good luck! If you made it this far, you should have enough experience to do it just fine XD"

dude that doesnt help one bit THIS IS THE LAST MISSION SOMEONE PLEASE HELP

[Nay]

i've been stuck on the "kill 30 ennemies, firing non stop" for hours now, thank god your guide was there to say it was bugged

[DEAMON]

Still useful, though at times states the obvious

[Moostache7]

Sorry to necro something really old at this point, but have a quick question about the Laser Ace (Classified no. 1) that I haven't seen answered before.

Can a Laser Ace appear in the same round as a regular Ace?
I've gotten 4 Laser Ace appearances, in which I've failed to kill them every time, and haven't been able to recall whether or not I've seen a regular Ace in the same round beforehand.

[the gensokyo grim reaper]

>SFMT:: Kill an ace at max combo (again...but in SFMT)
This one is pretty hard. Good luck! If you made it this far, you should have enough experience to do it just fine XD

Gee, thanks

[Groove Wizard]

(I recommend Laser + Big Hull + Hyperboost/Water Body/Hover for this)

[Groove Wizard]

Apart from the Acemarine method for scoring 25k in SFMT, there might be another method. You can sometimes reach a point where no enemies spawn anymore because multiple blimps are taking all the available room. At that point, you can fly horizontally, as close to the water as possible, and frequently turning back to destroy the missiles that are tracing you to keep your combo up. I just managed to score 17k doing this.

[Rudey]

... and by utter luck, I just encountered a laser ace and I happened to have the nuke body.

[Rudey]

Nuking isn't really good advice for killing a Classified No. 1, considering you don't get to choose your body part for that mission.
Is there a strategy for getting it to spawn? I have been trying to find a laser ace for hours, but no luck yet.

[Joueur 1]

"kill X enemies while on fire" is totally random, it counts like 1/3 total kills. Damage yourself with water, ram into enemy while firing to keep the damaged state.. repeat. Fuck this game

Also for the missiles, nuking doesn't work, tried twice and that took a long time since missiles can't kill shit with a nuke body. And you can't damage it before because the missile will never land on the blimb, never