Earth Defense Force

@JAF

Err, yes in fact the last few posts have mentioned that it has been out, in the US at least.

The release date for gamestop was pushed to July 2nd.

Ian: I have found a number of pick ups and a Blessed with Suck Missile launcher. It has pretty good damage, excellent homing ability that chases after silicon based life forms. The catch. Ravagers are carbon based.

I have a feeling I will find the various unique weapons at higher tiers for trooper.

I can safely say having a carrier ship land on your head is a very bad thing. Total team wipe thanks to a sneaky spider.

edited 4th Jul '11 2:10:53 AM by TuefelHundenIV

I've been having a lot of fun leveling up my Jet and Trooper. I'm up to Hard mode, and I can say that beating it on Hard gets an alternate ending. I wonder if Inferno gets a third ending.

I just realized after watching a EDFIA vid that your armor can get stained. Nice touch.

It really is. This game really deserves more exposure than it's currently getting. It did make the Top 10 Forums on Gamefaqs for Xbox360 though.

The lead game designer gave some tips over at Gamefaqs:

Apparently folks have been looking at various stores and some ran out because they under ordered.

There is a third ending for Inferno.

I can say for certain that tactical armor gets all of it's deployable items at Tier 6. Auto-cannon turret for the win.

I have had some fun on public game co-op modes Got most of the way through the second campaign before I stopped to grind to tier 6 to get the better turrets. Much better now.

The previous two ED Fs were an acquired taste so I'm not surprised that stores didn't stock enough copies.

Niche game is Niche.

I have to say my only let down with the game is that there were not more levels. You really get into it and the intensity is up then...ending. I was like...wow that came fast. Lol.

Hopefully they sell well enough and will add missions in DLC...maybe even more enemies and weapons :D

There were actually 3 other edf games. 2017 was the the third one.

edited 6th Jul '11 2:01:29 AM by TuefelHundenIV

Oh. I only know of the first game and 2017. What's the other?

I think the first one was called Monster Attack, the second was Global Defense Force, then the third was EDF 2017, according to The Other Wiki. It's kind of confusing.

D3 is already working on an EDF 4.

edited 6th Jul '11 1:16:10 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Ok the game has been for a little bit what do you folks thing? Anything to add to the works page? Questions/Comments?

While lying in bed and trying to fall asleep, I realized that there's really a lot more depth to this game than on the surface, kind of like 2017, but even more so now with the different classes.

I have some tips on how to use the Jet Armor's energy efficiently. It is at its best when in the air, and here's how to maximize your air time.

• Learn to hover by holding the trigger halfway. It was already mentioned, but you should know that hovering uses less energy than full thrust.

• The shorter your weapon's reload time, the better. Normally when you're on the ground your energy recharges, but it won't recharge at all while you're reloading, so the quicker you reload the quicker your energy can go back to charging. Besides reload time, it also helps if your weapon holds a lot of ammo, so you have a long time between reloads to recharge.

• Different types of weapons eat up different amounts of energy, and it is not dependent on reload time. I haven't tested them all out yet, and I think it shortens with each level, but sniper rifles and missiles seem to consume the most energy, while rockets and assault rifles use less.

• If you're low on energy and firing, leave at least one ammo left to let it recharge. Once you use all your ammo, you start to reload, which drains energy, and once it reaches zero, it forces you to wait until it's filled back up before you can continue reloading.

• Try to perch on rooftops as often as possible.

• You can only fly so high before you hit a maximum altitude, but you can still get higher by roof hopping.

• You can dodge in mid air. This eats up about 20% (at level 7 anyway).

And now for some weapon and combat tips.

• The weapons I use most are rocket, grenades, and sniper rifles. Rockets and grenades do well for raining death from above, which is a good strategy for Jet. The sniper rifles have good damage. I use them mostly on bosses, carriers, wasps and gunships. Hover sniping bosses is also a good strategy.

• Jet is at its best fighting from a distance. That mean flying to a rooftop and lay down cover fire and snipe. Their speed and flight and maneuverability helps them to gain that distance. That's why assault rifles are generally not good weapons to use, being better suited for ground level forces. When you get up high, you get a good idea of where the enemies are and can make better decisions of where to fire your explosives to take out the most enemies. It also makes sniping easier, since enemies have a harder time getting to you, but most can climb, so be aware.

• While Jet does lack the firepower of the other classes, it makes up for it in support and survivability. The speed really helps in avoiding attacks, especially attacks from the Mantis and large Hectors. Plus, the speed lets you get to downed teammates quickly to revive them, as well as scoop up health drops quickly and keep your squad alive.

I hope all these tips are useful.

edited 8th Jul '11 10:11:02 AM by StarOutlaw

On Battle Armors and Tactical Armors.

Battle armor is your tank. They can absorb the most damage and dish out the most in close range.

• Your slow but that is not as bad as you think. In multiplayer let the faster players dash forward and trigger events. As you close on the fight give fire support with your machine gun. Save your splash damage weapons for breaking up enemy groups.

• Use your Energy Shield. This thing is tough and can soak up a lot of damage. As you level it becomes tougher and it's special attacks much more powerful. You can throw up the shield at the last second to protect yourself.

• Try not to walk around with your shield up as you will walk at a crawl. Learn to pop your shield take the hit and then run to a new spot. Your shield can recharge slowly while deployed but it is too slow to be able to keep taking hits. Let the shield rest between hits.

• If your shield goes down from running out of energy start running and don't stop till it is recharged.

• Your bug zapper is not a good crowd weapon or good against strong enemies. Save it for killing ticks, finishing off bugs while you reload, and killing off that last couple ants or spiders still lingering. Even if an enemy is not being zapped by a bug zapper ability it drains energy. When not using it on enemies either hit the bug zapper button again or drop and raise the shield real quick to clear it off.

• Raise your shield when your reloading and keep moving in semi-circular motion around your target. After your reloaded start firing then drop the shield.

• Machines are better then your missiles, rockets, and grenades. The machine gun has a nice damage output at all tiers and are good at long and close range.

• Rockets and grenades are good for crowd control becareful though the grenade/mortars have a short range but are good in tight quarters. A good strategy is to raise the shield and start unloading grenades onto the enemy group. Avoid the multi-shot grenades they have fewer shots and slower rates of fire usually.

• The shields blast attack is great for clearing off a crowd of bugs that are getting too close or are surrounding you. T His blast can be very powerful and will hurt allies so be careful. When reviving an ally and the enemies are all over you use the blast to push them back and clear hte area. This also works when clearing off ant hills.

• Sometimes you will need use the missile launchers for levels with a lot of aircraft. Take a manual lock as they will more likely nail the enemy ships on the first hit and do more damage per missile.

• Shotguns are ok for really close in fighting but suck at range. They can be handy for low flying enemies or jumping spiders. Ants if they start crowding you are good targets for a shotgun.

• The Shield of a tier 6 armor can take the blasts from every enemy attack type at least once. The Shield even at tier 6 can take the full blast of a pesticide weapon.

You will start to see some serious improvement in firepower at Tier 4. At Tier 5 Normal is easy. Then on hard mode at tier 6 is an improvement Tier 7 is easy. So on and so forth. If you want to do well in inferno, play inferno for completion at tier 6 or 7.

Tier 7 is when your armors are absolutely powerful even in inferno. The weapons are really expensive though so you may need to spend time grinding for points to buy weapons.

A good level to grind is Campaign 1 Level 1. Most armors can complete it at Tier 4 (Tier 3 is possible but can be pretty difficult). Once you are Tier 5 instead of just playing through the mission you can leave the second anthole open and blast the ants as they come up. If you need a breather pound on the hole with your weapon fire until it caves so you can blast the surivors and collect health. Keep a strong area of effect weapon for this.

When your done farming blow up the hole and finish the mission.

Every armor no matter how much they seem to suck when you start out will get better. Just keep playing and leveling up the armor.

Tier 8 is a real grind in points and can only be gained on Inferno. I strongly suggest you play online if you can. If not trying playing in Remix mode on inferno.

Pesticide guns are deadly and powerful. When they are fired and hit there will be a sudden flash followed by a deadly blast wave. This will kill even most boss enemies on Inferno. Keep your distance from your target. If a team mate is using one in online play stay back and keep away from the enemies they will likely just keep dumping fire into the enemy with it.

I finally reached rank 8 with Jet. The Pesticide Rifle is neat. I tried using it on the Ant Queen on Inferno and found that it doesn't seem to work on her.

I also discovered that the Pesticide guns will apparently demolish ant hills.

I'm on to leveling up Trooper. If you play on the 360, my gamertag is the same as my username.

Ahh groovy. Some of the enemies are more robust and take repeated hits or are hard to hit with it I have noted. Try hitting the ant queen multiple times.

Ill be adding you btw.

edited 11th Jul '11 3:02:19 AM by TuefelHundenIV

I managed to beat the game on Inferno. I still need 7 more weapon drops to get them all. I hope that they release the weapons pack for purchase online. Even at level 8, Inferno is still tough.

It is supposed to be.

If you want to see how bad and tough you are do inferno solo but using your pesticide weapon.

Go to hard mode and do the last mission a few times lots of drops.

edited 12th Jul '11 5:42:42 PM by TuefelHundenIV

I just had a bit of Fridge Brilliance on why Jet Armor uses energy weapons instead of kinetic weapons; All the ammo from kinetic weapons would probably weigh it down and prevent the armor from flying.

Heh I never thought of it. It is like the suits have a nuclear battery or atomic power source or something.

There's what looks like a big battery on the back of the Jet armor, so maybe that's it.

I read on Gamefaqs forums that the game is selling pretty well in Japan, around #3 or 4 in sales, behind some of the more AAA titles.

I've got my Trooper up to 7. I'm enjoying the increased firepower that Jet lacked. I've also been leveling up Battle. here's a quick tip, the Hotfoot assault rifle has incendiary rounds, which actually do twice as much damage as what is listed in the stats.

I was thinking that, if Trooper did have some sort of special ability for the left trigger, maybe it could be for locking onto an enemy, possibly for a limited time. It would make fighting the wasps a hell of a lot easier. That, or an ability that buffs both you and your teammates in some way.

Well, with the amount of stuff in this installment the series is getting close to what we normally expect from 'traditional' 3A so it should be able to compete.

There's probably going to be DLC at this rate. They've mentioned a mothership battle, a beach level, and a tunnel level like in 2017.

Oh where did you hear about that Outlaw?

The sales from the EU should hopefully boost it enough that they put stuff out. They are also going to offer the weapon pack pre-orders as dlc.

I've been reading the developer's posts on Gamefaqs.