Mission 15 in Ace Combat 8 which is called Wings of Wax, is the first real wall in the campaign. Operation Deal Cards starts as a quiet fleet escort. Then two Ladon bombers erase Banker Squadron in a single volley, and Joker Flight has to save the ships alone.
The Ladons look like XB-70s and outrun almost every jet you own. They hide in thick cloud behind heavy ECM, and each one eats a silly number of missiles. The fight has a trick to it though, and once you know it the mission gets a lot shorter.
Here is the quick version:
- Cut the Ladons off at their turns. A straight chase never works.
- Shoot the engines and leave every other part alone.
- Damage both Ladons evenly, so the second one dies seconds after the first. That skips the ugliest part of the fight.
- Bring two air-to-air special weapons and keep the gun firing.
What You Will Read:
Best Aircraft and Loadout for Mission 15
Mission 15 is not a carrier-only mission, so land-based jets are on the table. Speed matters most here, with a deep stock of air-to-air missiles right behind it.
| Aircraft | Special weapons | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| F-15J Eagle | HPAA and HCAA | HPAA hits hard enough to wreck an engine quickly. My first pick. |
| F/A-18E Super Hornet | 6AAM and QAAM | Big volleys from a jet you probably own already. It needs speed parts. |
| MiG-31B Foxhound | QAAM | The fastest option on a first playthrough, so a missed turn costs you less. |
| Su-47 Berkut | HPAA | Quick and agile, with the same hard-hitting HPAA. |
The F-15C with 4AAM does the same job if you have not unlocked the F-15J yet. On a later playthrough, the F-22A or Su-57 makes all of this far easier.
Fill both special weapon slots with air-to-air missiles. There is nothing to bomb, and a single engine can soak up more than ten missiles. HPAA is the best choice. 4AAM and 6AAM are good for volume, and QAAM is a solid second slot.
Skip LAAM as your main weapon. The Ladons’ ECM cuts your lock-on range so badly that long range is wasted.
For parts, top speed and acceleration come first. After that, add missile power for both standard missiles and SP.W. Lightweight Blisk is exactly the kind of part you want.
If you normally fly in third person, switch to the HUD view for this mission, because the Ladons are much easier to keep in sight that way. Order your wingmen to use their SP weapons whenever you are on an engine, too.
How to Beat the Ladon Bombers in Mission 15
1. Wait Out the Opening
Banker Squadron takes the lead at the start, and it lasts about as long as you would expect. You cannot target the Ladons during this part, so save your ammo.
Use the wait to line up. Stay near the fleet with your nose pointed the same way the bombers are heading. They slow down for their first attack on the ships, and you can slot in behind them right there. The first cruiser takes an anti-ship missile in every run, so do not restart over it.
2. Cut the Ladons Off Instead of Chasing Them
Both Ladons fly the same fixed route on every attempt, in wide sweeping arcs. On the straights they simply leave, even if you are in a MiG-31.
They brake hard for turns and for each dive on the fleet, and their wings swing open when they do. That is your window. Turn inside their arc so you come out on their tail, then tap the brake so you do not fly past them. After a failed run or two you will know the route, and the cloud banks even work as landmarks.
Every dive is an attack run on the ships. Lose too many and the mission fails. The game warns you when you are one ship away from an abort.
3. Shoot the Engines and Nothing Else
A Ladon is covered in sub-targets, and target switching loves to pick the AAM launchers and CIWS at the front. Ignore them. Cycle targets until Main Engine is selected, then put everything into it.
On Elite, an engine takes roughly 10 to 15 missiles. Rotate standard missiles and both special weapons so something is always in the air, and hold the gun down the whole time. The ECM only lets you lock on at close range, but your gun reaches further than the sight suggests, so start firing early.
4. Damage Both Ladons Before You Kill One
This is the tip that changes the mission, and I think it matters more than which jet you bring. If one Ladon dies while the other is still healthy, the survivor goes into a second phase with a laser CIWS and swarms of self-destruct UAVs.
So spread the damage. Hurt an engine on one Ladon, then switch to the other and keep them level until both are close to dead. Finish the second one a few seconds after the first, and phase 2 never starts. Done well, both bombers are down before their second pass at the fleet.
How to Keep Track of the Ladons in the Clouds
The target marker only shows up at close range, so most of the time you are tracking by eye.
- Follow the contrails. They mark the route even when the marker is gone.
- Hit an engine early. A damaged engine trails black smoke, which is easier to spot than a contrail.
- Climb above the cloud layer if you lose them, then pick the trails up again from there.
- Zoom out on the radar. The jammed areas show up on it, and the Ladons are inside them.
Try not to sit inside cloud for long either, because your aircraft ices up.
What to Do If the Second Ladon Reaches Phase 2
Sometimes the timing goes wrong and one Ladon is left alone with plenty of health. It now has a laser CIWS that shoots your missiles down, and the space directly behind it is a kill zone.
- Fire standard missiles and special weapons together. The CIWS cannot stop a whole volley.
- Lean on the gun. It is the one weapon the laser cannot intercept.
- Gun down the UAVs as they launch, and stay out of their blast radius.
- Destroy the weapon bays if the missile spam gets too heavy. With all of them gone, the Ladon cannot fire missiles at all.
When its missiles turn toward you, pop flares and stay on course. Every evasive turn costs you the bomber.
Mission 15 S Rank and Named Ace
The S rank comes down to speed. Both Ladons down before their second pass at the fleet is enough for it. Checkpoint restarts eat into your score, so if a run goes badly, restart the whole mission instead.
Mission 15 also has a named ace on Veteran difficulty or higher. It only appears after the first Ladon is destroyed, and you have to shoot it down before the second Ladon falls. That clashes with the double-kill plan above, so save the ace for a separate run. The kill only counts if you finish the mission afterwards.
Your reward for all of this is the Downing a Dragon trophy. Mission 16, Singer, is next.
