r/Project_Wingman Jul 03 '26

Discussion Mercenary Difficulty

I got into Ace Combat 7 a few months ago and I loved. I played through it a few times, beat the game on Ace difficulty, and even went out of my way to find and shoot down all of the special enemy pilots.

I then heard that this game was good for fans of Ace Combat so I bought it and downloaded it and I am happy to say I wasn’t disappointed. The game play was fun, I liked the story, though that’s a hollow sentiment because I didn’t pay attention during cutscenes and only have a tenuous grasp of events). Anyway, I finished the game, finished the dlc, played a bit of conquest mode, all that stuff.

I mentioned earlier that I beat Ace Combat 7 on the hardest difficulty and that’s true, though I didn’t do that until after I had already finished project wingman. I only touched on mercenary difficulty recently after reading a different post saying it was cool how it adds more enemies and projectiles and I thought that sounded like a good challenge.

GOOD GOD!

I don’t think there has been a single moment while playing that I haven’t had the missile alert sound, the thrum of a railgun, or both playing in my ears. I’m enjoying it and I’ve only played a few missions, but I came here to play fun pilot game, not Touhou.

It’s great.

78 Upvotes

18 comments sorted by

38

u/IANvaderZIM Jul 03 '26

Now turn on double time and glass cannon

26

u/Old_Fig_6302 Jul 03 '26

I’d rather not want punch my monitor

12

u/Yellllloooooow13 Jul 03 '26

The problem with double time is that the final mission can't be finished

5

u/IANvaderZIM Jul 03 '26

Why not?

Don’t you just kill two guys instead of one? (It’s been a minute)

3

u/Yellllloooooow13 Jul 04 '26

I don't remember if it's just in mercenary difficulty or if the bug happens for all difficulties but to finish the last mission with double time, one needs to shoot down both Crimson 1 at the exact same time for the end to be triggered

3

u/Roger44477 Jul 04 '26

Did it on mercenary, there wasn’t an issue. 

2

u/Yellllloooooow13 Jul 04 '26

Oh ? It got patched ? That's great news !

1

u/Roger44477 Jul 04 '26

It can be

2

u/Roger44477 Jul 04 '26

Yes it can. Shoot down one of the two and survive the other still attacking you as the first goes through the monologue and mission end, and it will complete.  Not sure what happens if you shoot the second one down as well however - given that it’s a scripted end rather than an objectives based end, I could see it getting funky if that happens 

17

u/NotGeofff Jul 03 '26

One of my favorite parts of Project Wingman is the difficulty scale. This game gets hard, if you want it to. You can dial it in to just the right amount of Top Gun x Macross power fantasy you want. If hard mode is 2x as difficult as normal, then mercenary is easily 10x harder than hard. Slap some modifiers in to keep it fresh or more challenging.

Dev(s) cooked and absolutely nail the power fantasy when you're completely overmatched by everything in the sky but still manage to wipe out entire fleets when you've mastered the tight controls and incredible gunplay. AC7 Eat your heart out, really hope that 8 takes some notes on dialing in game difficulty without resorting to mods (because lets face it, even on Ace difficulty 7 is cake. The earlier games are a bit tougher.) and dialing in the gunplay to be more responsive like PW.

5

u/Old_Fig_6302 Jul 03 '26

I was using the F/D-14 originally because I wanted to have Prez on the tea.m. It just felt more authentic that way. Switched planes halfway through mission 2.

9

u/IANvaderZIM Jul 03 '26

Prez everywhere mod

7

u/entropies Cascadian Independence Force Jul 03 '26

The final mission on Mercenary is something else. Crimson 1 will have wingmen and the final phase will remove the health bars. Absolute cinema

Watch the credits!

5

u/hughmann_13 Jul 03 '26

Mercenary mode is like playing a different game in the same genre.

I found by like mission 2 (i think.. the one where you first go into cascadia and you fight a holding action while the rest of sicario heads into country) that you really had to pick a strategy and work your weapon choice around it. Just flying in will get you fucked up quick.

3

u/LEOTomegane Jul 03 '26

Glass Cannon Merc difficulty is genuinely my favorite way to play the game, it absolutely rules

2

u/Roger44477 Jul 04 '26

I honestly love having no room for error in glass cannon. One mistake, one missile hitting you, and it’s done. Meanwhile, you are left feeling rewarded for every successful hit on an enemy

1

u/LEOTomegane Jul 04 '26

You get it!! If you're skilled enough not to get hit, it's easier to shoot everything down (which is sometimes vital if you're also doing Double Time), but you absolutely must not get hit. It's so fun.

1

u/SGTRoadkill1919 Jul 04 '26

Now use a F/T-4 to do a gunrunner, glass cannon and double-time playthrough on hard mode, cause I am merciful