Ace Combat 8 comes with four difficulties right from the start, appealing to newcomers and veterans; each difficulty provides a unique experience for the player. If you want to burn through the game by focusing on the story, you are allowed to do that; the same goes for anyone who wants something more challenging.
In this guide, I will talk about how to unlock the Ace difficulty, details on all the difficulty levels, for you to get an idea on which of these will be perfect for you in Ace Combat 8.
How to unlock Ace Difficulty in Ace Combat 8
You must complete the campaign on Elite difficulty to unlock the Ace difficulty in Ace Combat 8. Do note, you just need to complete the campaign on Elite difficulty; no need to grab the S rank or partake in separate challenges. The goal here is to reach the end of the campaign on Elite, and you will have the difficulty unlocked in the game.
I would recommend completing the game, or atleast trying out a few missions first on Pilot before trying out Elite to make things a bit easier than starting out on Elite on your first playthrough. You will unlock aircraft, parts, weapons, and MRP on the Normal or Hard playthrough; these items will help you immensely on difficult runs such as Elite or Ace.
Which Difficulty Should You Choose for Ace Combat 8?
Starting out, you have four difficulty options: Rookie, Pilot, Veteran, and Elite. All four difficulties are geared towards providing the player a different experience in gameplay.
- Rookie: It’s mainly focused on the story of the game. When you do decide to choose Rookie, you can enable or disable settings to reduce the damage taken by your plane, making the gameplay even easier. If you want less combat and to focus on the plot, then Rookie is the best difficulty option.
- Pilot: A perfect entry for any newcomers who have never tried Ace Combat 8 or any game based on aircraft combat. If you have never played a game like Ace Combat 8, then pick Pilot difficulty to get a decent, challenging experience. The game does a good job of introducing most of the basic mechanics right away, so you will not head into battle without any idea of what to do.
- Veteran: Veteran is a perfect choice for seasonal players with tons of experience in the past entries. It’s for the people who have played games like Ace Combat or any game that shares the same aircraft-focused gameplay. Enemies here have more health and are aggressive at times; missile lock-on is also hard to strike, and damage recovery will be based on the loadout. Long story short, you must know what you are doing to survive on the Veteran difficulty, and be able to pull off difficult maneuvers like PSM. Rushing into the game will lead to a quick demise.
- Elite: Here you need nothing but pure experience in the game to survive the battle. A split- second decision will either lead you to victory, or you will see your plane crash into the ocean. The game here is much more than just shoot and kill; you pick the targets efficiently and focus on the mission objective to survive the chaos of the combat encounters.
- Ace: Now we have reached the end of the line; prepare for the worst the game has to offer.
Completing the campaign unlocks the free missions. You can choose the difficulty to try out the missions without having to go through the entirety of the campaign. I will advise focusing on completing the mission first, then trying to get the S rank. Look at both of them as two separate objectives.
Completing a mission on Ace will be a difficult task, but once completed, you will be aware of what needs to be done to get that coveted S-Rank, making your second run at the mission stronger. Especially if you are trophy hunting, then there is an achievement, Ace of Aces, which requires completing all missions on Ace difficulty with S Rank.
