Ace Combat 8 Mission 7 Walkthrough: A Lifeline in the Desert (Annihilation Battle Guide)

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Ace Combat 8 Mission 7 is nothing like the missions before it. “A Lifeline in the Desert” is the first Annihilation Battle in the campaign, so there is no set path. You pick the targets and decide when to rearm. It feels great until you realize you are short on score with two minutes left. This guide covers everything from the Faith Park route to that Ladon everyone keeps chasing.

Spoiler Alert: The article below contains mission and story spoilers. Proceed with caution!

Ace Combat 8 Mission 7 Quick Facts

Faith Park feeds Land Battleship 1, which is heading for White Valley. Your job is to wreck the depot and cut that supply line.

You don’t have to destroy everything. The clear condition is just a target score. That’s a relief. The 33,000 figure comes from one full run with no difficulty stated, so trust the number on your own HUD.

Once you hit it, the game says the supply lines are beyond repair. The mission keeps going, though. Keep destroying targets until the timer ends for extra score.

Best Loadout for Mission 7

The best loadout for Mission 7 depends on how many times you have played it so far. Here’s how:

First Playthrough

I recommend one anti-ground and one anti-air special weapon: UGB for the supply facilities and 4AAM for interceptors. UGB is an unguided bomb with a wide blast, so it chews through clustered targets. The 4AAM slot is cheap insurance, because enemy fighters will show up and interrupt your bombing run. It’s not mandatory, just a mix that works.

Replay and S-Rank

For the Ace-difficulty S-rank route, I would use the FA-36 with SOD. The area attacks wipe out big ground groups, and Mission 7 is full of them. This is postgame advice, so don’t count on having that setup on your first campaign run. Aircraft, weapons, and parts you buy do carry over to Free Mission.

Faith Park Route: All 4 Sectors

The briefing lets you hit the four sectors in any order, so there’s no single right route. Pick the next one based on distance, remaining ammo, and how fast you can clear it.

North: Solar Power Plant

This is a solar and thermal station full of heliostats and thermal storage. If you wreck it, the enemy reports power output dropping fast. Use your guns on the lighter structures and save missiles for denser clusters later. I suggest starting at the northwest solar panels and working south toward the airstrip.

West: Airfield

This former cargo hub now holds active enemy fighters, plus hangars and AA. Clear the air first. Once you have air superiority, the game pushes the return line west. Running SOD? It won’t lock parked aircraft, but hitting nearby hangars and AA emplacements catches them in the blast. A fast bomber also takes off from here. Ignore it. I’ll explain below.

East: Ammunition Storage

AA protects this sector, and the dense ammo dumps set off plenty of secondary explosions. The land battleship is nuclear-powered, so it never needs fuel, but it does need munitions. That’s why this area matters. One depot sits inside a tunnel and can’t be hit from above. Drop low to the hillside entrance and fire through the opening.

South: Oil Refinery

Expect heavier ground defenses here. Two Land Aegis ships guard the refinery, firing SAM and VLS missiles and launching machine-gun drones. They can intercept your missiles, but only so many at once, so fire a saturation volley to overwhelm them. The oil tanks chain-react, which saves time and ammo, and honestly it’s the most satisfying part of the mission. Want Orcus? Don’t blow the tanks yet. Details below.

How to Use the Return Line

Fly across the return line at the edge of the map to replenish your weapons. You can change your loadout there too. AWACS reminds you about it once 30% of the base is destroyed.

Don’t hoard ammo. Rearm while big clusters remain, and your best anti-ground weapon is nearly dry. Check your ammo, the timer, and the HUD objective first. Then head for an untouched cluster instead of retracing cleared ground.

Skip the trip if you’re close to the target score. Note that crossing the map just to reload can cost more time than finishing with guns and leftover missiles. If ammo is fine, go north and hit dense groups with SOD until time runs out.

How to Unlock Orcus (Enemy Ace)

Orcus flies an EA-6B Prowler and only spawns on Veteran difficulty or higher. On Casual or Pilot, you can do everything right, and nothing shows up. Veteran is the easiest pick for Ace hunting, since the enemy pressure is lighter than on Elite or Ace.

The trigger is destroying a Land Aegis with an oil-tank chain reaction. Timing is the whole trick. Leave the tanks alone until the Land Aegis moves up beside them, then blow them. If you detonate too early, you waste the trigger for that run. I’d just circle and wait until the ship is in position.

Orcus appears near the easternmost refinery. This kill is worth roughly 2,000 points. Finish the mission afterward, or the record and unique paint scheme won’t save.

Can You Shoot Down the Ladon

No, so don’t try. The fast bomber that takes off from the airfield is a Ladon. AWACS Dealer says outright that it’s no threat to the operation and tells Joker Flight to ignore it.

Plenty of players tried anyway. Its jammer blocks normal lock-on unless you get very close, and then it accelerates away before you can do much. Save your ammo for ground targets. The Ladon returns later in the campaign, and that time you can actually intercept it.

Mission 7 S-Rank and MRP Rewards

Your rank score comes from destruction score, time bonus, and checkpoint restarts. Damage taken matters too. A no-damage run adds a 5,000-point bonus. Restarts hurt, but they don’t kill S-rank.

MRP payouts swing a lot. S-rank runs earn around 84,570 MRP, not counting the first-clear bonus. Players report about 60k on an Elite Free Mission run and 90k to 105k on Veteran. Of course, all of these are examples, not promises.

Ace Combat 8 Mission 7 is a solid early farm. Players who have unlocked later missions (16, 23, 27, 29) prefer those. If you finished this mission, you are now ready to S-rank Mission 8: Retaking of Theve II.

FAQ

ACE COMBAT 8: WINGS OF THEVE

Shooter Story Rich

Release Date

October 2, 2026

Developer(s)

Bandai Namco Aces Inc.

Publisher(s)

Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.

Official Site PlayStation Xbox Steam

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