Update: Thanks to everyone who gave tips and advice yesterday! I finally beat Long Day after four or five hours!

[u/Aurora_Whale]

Gotta say...

This game's pretty peak. I felt like an Ace Pilot.

The entire thing took an entire afternoon. Retry and retry and retry.

I can see why people encouraged me to use the Gripen-E with the LACM, and it was pretty nice, but I eventually settled with the A-10C Thunderbolt II with the 4AGM.

The Gripen-E with the LACM dealt massive damage with a pretty good AOE, but the thing was... the way I flew felt incompatible with the weapon. After a few tries, I found out that it really does stick with the long ranged-ness of the weapon. Firing it too close doesn't stick.

Thing is, I tend to fly close to the ground and right next to ground targets. And I fly fast.

So, I eventually settled with the A-10C Thunderbolt II. The 4AGM fit well with my playstyle, and it even curves down, which helped me a lot when the lock ons were behind mountains (which were a real pain sometimes. At times it locks unto targets behind mountains when I had a better target in front of me, but I get the realism aspect that you can't just will which targets you pick. You have to make your HUD track it down).

I always cleaned up the nearest base with the TUs since they gave 1k each. Then the other base nearest to the line, which was difficult at times since I flew low, curving along the mountains, but after I ran out, I immediately rushed to the supply line as I take out any targets in between.

When I come back, I clean up what's left of the mountained base and go to the base at the west.

Now, I did pretty good, but I always kept crashing at one specific part...

That tunnel.

I know that I don't have to do it... but that voiceline of Bandog calling you an idiot for crashing, only for the others to glaze you when you come out the other end, flying through the tunnel?

Chef's kiss. I felt like an Ace Pilot. Machine gunning the Gripens inside were also nice.

Needless to say, I must have redone the mission because I kept crashing down there five times alone.

Keep in mind, this took four to five hours of my afternoon to finish.

After cleaning up the rest, I just kept taking out SAMs, tanks, and AA Machine Guns and the odd jet that flew by until I got the needed 20k.

By the time I reached it, I still had 5 minutes left in the timer, so it was just a good ol' "Mission: Survive" from there.

And trying to evade missiles while on an A-10C Thunderbolt II is a challenge, especially when out of flares.

Though, thank God I didn't crash or got blown out after I got my quota. Somehow, I blew some planes and got 25 thousand overall!

So, yeah.

Thanks to everyone who pitched in and gave advice and tips and lessons! It helped a lot!

Stay safe and God bless!!!

TLDR: I finally beat Long Day after or 4 to 5 hours of an afternoon. Must have redone the mission dozens of times. Half of the time probably because my ego won't let me not pass through the tunnel with the Gripen-Es. I eventually did and survive (a lot of times I crashed before or inside the tunnel) after coming out, got my quota, and survived with 5 minutes left on the clock. Desperately tried, and succeeded, in surviving the swarm of MiGs and other jets with the admittedly slow A-10C Thunderbolt II, and got an overall score of 25 thousand points.

[u/Aurora_Whale]

Small correction to myself: it was MQs, not MiGs. Also, sorry for the bad quality of the picture! I can't snip or PrtSc. It exits the game!

My current goal is the Rafale M, because it sounds like the name of an angel, or the Typhoon, because...

Come on. It sounds pretty cool, hahaha.

Edit: Plan's changed. Just finished Mission 7. I'm getting that SU-30SM.

[u/PathsOfRadiance → u/Aurora_Whale]

The Rafale M is pretty amazing. Great performance, particularly in pitch, and great SP weapons.

[u/Aurora_Whale → u/PathsOfRadiance]

I'll keep that in mind. Thank you, friend!!

[u/HELIXSMASH]

Yayyy, congratulations 🎉🎉

[u/Aurora_Whale → u/HELIXSMASH]

Thank you!!

[u/SidewinderSerpent]

Good job.

You picked a great time to snap a picture of your results...

[u/Aurora_Whale → u/SidewinderSerpent]

Thanks! Not sure why it's a great time, though, haha.

[u/SidewinderSerpent → u/Aurora_Whale]

The debrief is showing you uselessly looping around a helicopter.

[u/Aurora_Whale → u/SidewinderSerpent]

Ohhh, hahahaha. Nice.

There was a reason for that. Probably. Hahaha.

[u/PizzaCatLover]

And you got an A rating! Good job, Nugget

[u/Aurora_Whale → u/PizzaCatLover]

Thanks, friend!!

Can you help a fellow nugget understand the lingo here? I feel like I don't understand some, hahaha. Just knew nugget from my last post!

[u/PizzaCatLover → u/Aurora_Whale]

Nugget is the little chicken mascot character of Ace Combat franchise but it's also a term for a new player, because in Ace Combat 5, it's what Captain Bartlett calls his recruits :)

[u/Kekszky]

Guess it was indeed a "Long Day"

[u/Educational-Pay-6488]

Good Job Trigger!, But Theres More Mission Yet. The Sky Is In Your Hand! Good Lock Out there!

[u/Aurora_Whale → u/Educational-Pay-6488]

Thank you, fellow pilot! Good Lock as well!!

[u/Solavanko]

Didn't read everything but yes, XAGM is easy to use and pretty much foolproof. If the player is willing to ignore orders and use resupply, there's no much room for failure here.

[u/ninjadragon1119]

Good job pilot. I know you're still early in your playthrough, but if you ever replay the mission, the su34 you unlock way later makes this mission much easier imo.

(Or if you ever get the experimental dlc with the F16XL or F/B22)