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Gather your weapons, put on your armor and show those bugs that the EDF is still kicking. InEarth Defense Force Sixit seems the alien Primers are back once again, and this time they’ve got some new toys courtesy of a bit of time travel shenanigans.
The battlefields are bigger, filled with more hordes of monsters than ever before and if this is your first time experiencing an EDF game, it’s going to be a rough ride. You’re thrown in the proverbial deep-end with this series and every little helpful hint can go a long way. So to help you send those aliens packing once and for all, here are some handy beginner tips for Earth Defense Force Six.
You Don’t Need To Play On Hard Right Away
First and foremost, when you start up a campaign in Earth Defense Force, you may feel likesticking it onthe hardest difficultyis the best option. It is, but if you’re new you don’t want to do it right away. The game scales its mission difficutly very quickly and if you’re alreadystruggling with your classes loadout, then you’re going to have a miserable time.
Normal, for beginners, is a much better time. It eases you into the game and even though you won’t be gettingthe big crazy strong gunsas fast as you would in Hard,the item retention is much higher. For example,on Normal you lose less items and armorwhen you fail, whereas on Hard and above you’re lucky if you gain one new gun or armor piece for a game over.
If you switch difficulties mid campaign, you have tostart all over againon that new difficulty setting.
Pick A Class And Stick With It
There arefour classes in Earth Defense Force Sixand when you pick what one you want to play at the beginning, stick with it. The gamelevels up the class you play as, so if you go Air Raider for 20 missions, then jump to the Ranger,you’ll have nothingin your inventory.
Each class is unique, has their ownspecial weapons and vehiclesthat are exclusive to them and strengths and weaknesses to playing them in a group or solo. To help you pick a class, here’s ahandy outlineof each one;
Description
Ranger
Thebest class for beginners. The Ranger is the most accessible as they’re just your standard dude with a gun running around.
Wing Diver
An aeronautical anime girl with a jetpack, Wing Divers aregood for beginnersbecause they have a lot of mobility and unique energy balancing mechanic.
Air Raider
The class that calls in the big bombs. Air Raidersrequire a lot of support from other players. Also, carry at least one offensive weapon as your call-ins require kill credits. No dead aliens, no big bombs to phone in.
Fencer
A chunky tank with ahigh degree of challenge and skill entry. Great on offense and defense, but better left to those that are familiar with the game or have sunk a lot of time into the Fencer.
Playing split screen co-op offline allows you tolevel up two of your classesat once.
It’s Ok To Restart
Normally in most games when you have to restart a mission it’s a big disheartening moment as youlose all your progressand have to reset your loadout. In Earth Defense Force Six, restarting a mission orfully retreatingis encouraged.
A big part of the game is gettingslammed into the dirt over and over, then having to sit and figure out as a group which loadout and class combination works best for a particular mission. You’re not going to breeze through all of them asbad loadouts or call-ins blockedby some arbitrary mission rule are commonplace. So if you suddenly hit a wall,it’s not you or the game’s fault, it’s your team’s loadout.
Remember Where Your Favorite Grinding Mission Is
To use our last tip as a springboard, one thing you reallyneed to drill into your headis to remember where your favorite grinding mission is. There’s147 missions in totaland like previous EDF games there’s quite a few that are just padding.
Despite that, there are some very good grinding missions. Everyone has their own personal favorite and it’s up to you to find which one works well for you and is themost enjoyable for farming boxesfor better weapons or armor. A general bit of advice is, if there’s alot of trash mob spawn points in a mapfull of bottlenecks or easy to create killzones, then it’s good for grinding.
Get Those Boxes
On the subject of boxes, you shouldalways be picking them upwhenever you see one. Armor is the red one and it’smore valuablethan weapons. Each oneincreases your healthby a small increment depending on how many boxes you got during the mission.
The green weapon boxes will often justrank up your current gun and drip feed new onesthat might not be as powerful as what you’re currently using. Whilst that’shandy in the early game, once you hit the endgame late levels you’re going to needas much health as you can getas everything hits like a truck.
Extremely mobile classes like the Wing Diver, Fencer with rocket leaps, and the Ranger with a maxed out sprint Support Item areperfect for box collectingduty.
Use A Controller
If you want to spare your hands and fingers then it’shighly recommendedyou play Earth Defense Force Sixusing a controller. Keyboard and mouse is possible, but not recommended as you’ll bespamming a lot of buttons, primarily roll and shoot, a lot.
Using a controller also means you’ll be able toactivate your abilitiesa lot faster. And when you’re being swarmed, being able topop everything with a quick button pushis vital. Also, whilst the aiming on a controller is admittedlya little clunky, you can tweak its sensitivity to your preferred levels.
Don’t Abandon A Vehicle Because It’s Out Of Ammo
One of thebest features of EDF gamesis the vehicles. There’s a ton of them and they range in size from little speedy motorbikes, tomedium sized mechs and tanks, large weapons platforms, and even giganticPacific Rim style Jaegersthat stomp across the battlefield.
Each one fills a role and it’s highly advised that when they run out of ammo,you don’t get out of themright away. Especially if you’re being swarmed. Vehicles not onlymove faster than you do on foot, but they provide achunky layer of armorthat can keep you alive until you get back to friendly lines or regroup to a safer location. Which isgreat for Air Raidersas they don’t have any mobility at all.
Fencers can’t use vehiclesbecause of their chunky armor. But they’rewalking tanks, so it balances out.
Rotate Around The Map If You Get Overwhelmed
EDF Six likes to throw anungodly amount of enemiesat you. But that’s what makes the franchise great. It’syou against the hordeand with plenty of teleport ships, poles and other plot contrivances there’s only going to bemore monsters cominguntil you’re dead.
You’realways going to get overwhelmedat one point and the best you can do is to form a firing line, retreat slowly and try not to get cornered. Ideally you should besplitting up packs if possibleand rotating your team slowly around the map. Each mission is in anenclosed arena, you can go anywhere and you definitely shoulduse that freedomto your advantage.
The second youstop movingwhen facing down a horde, you’re dead.
Turn Off Screen Shake
A simple and quick tip for not only beginners, but anyone playing Earth Defense Force Six,turn offScreen Shake. Whenever artillery lands, big explosions cook off, or something massive hits nearby, your screen is going toshake wildly. It’s a little over the top in EDF Six, and it can cause a lot of issues.
Aside from motion sickness,ittanks your frames, makes it harder to see what’s going on and in certain circumstances will just crash your game. you may find it inthe game settings menu. So just set it to off, enjoy a muchsmoother gaming experience, and thank us later.
Experience With EDF Five Helps, But Isn’t Mandatory
As we close out there’s one last tip worth mentioning, but isn’t something you should really go out of your way for. And that is you should have alittle experiencewith Earth Defense Force Five. EDF Six isthe back half of the storythat unfolded in EDF Five and it’s a bizarre tale that goes to some weird places.
The plot has always been something that’shappening in the backgroundor just over the horizon in these games. But this time around they’re more focused on apretty interesting narrative. It’ll also help with thestrange time travel story beats, and will provide more context to certain missions. For example, atthe end of Earth Defense Force Fiveyou killed God.
