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WING COMMANDER: PROPHECY GUIDE/WALKTHROUGH

By: Most Wicked

---Copyright Note

I started to write this guide because I saw that there are no WCP guides on 
GameFaqs.com
This guide may NOT be ripped-off without my written permission, not after all
the work I put into making it the thing it is today. I mean, sure, you can
post it anywhere, and quote it and take parts of it, but I want to see my name
on anything that has something to do with it, or else.... grrrrr....



---PURE VICTORY WALKTHROUGH

Note: This walkthrough assumes you win all your missions. Because of that, many
missions remain uncovered - If you lost a particular mission, the following
mission will be different than what it would\'ve been if you won that mission.
That\'s what\'s great about Wing Commander, and that\'s what causes this game to
stand apart from similar but mediocre games, such as Rogue Dquadron (and NO, I
don\'t wanna hear your opinion about how \'better\' Rogue Squadron is). Those
uncovered missions are all in the \'Other Missions\' section. Also, the entire
walkthrough is based on Ace (read- medium) difficulty level.

E-mail me at: [email protected]

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~~~H\'rekkah System~~~
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~Mission 1: Kilrathi Distress Call
~Objectives - Primary: Escort and Defend Dekker
~Objectives - Secondary: None
~Objective - Bonus: None
~Difficulty: Very Easy
~Fighter: Piranha

The first mission in the game is more of a training than a real challenge.
Autopilot to the Fralthi, then wait for Dekker and his men to dock. While
they\'re exploring the Kilrathi cruiser, unidentified enemy fighters appear out
of nowhere. There would be about 6-8 of them, probably less. They\'re easy -
even with your light Piranha fighter. Use your autocannon to damage and destroy
them quickly - try not to miss though, since autocannon ammunition is limited.
Once you run out of bullets, switch to Full Weapons by pressing \'F\', and fire
in short, carefully aimed bursts, so as not to get low on energy. If you hit a
fighter\'s rear shield with a full Piranha volley (2 Ion and 1 Laser bolt) then
the lasers alone will be enough to finish off the damaged fighter, provided
that you keep hitting him repeatedly, and not giving him time to regenerate his
shields. Also don\'t be cheap on missiles, pump them out the moment you get a
solid lock on a fighter that ain\'t moving too much, and isn\'t already seriously
damaged (if your scanners show his icon as Yellow or Red, it\'ll be a waste to
use missiles when all it takes to blow him up is a couple seconds of Autocannon
fire), you won\'t need them after this battle anyway. After the bogies are all
toast (if you have even small amount of skill you probably dispatched at LEAST
3 of them at Ace difficulty level, while fellow wingmen took care of the rest)
*go near the Marine LC* (the boxy craft, probably already escorted by other
fighters) and autopilot. Don\'t autopilot far from it, that might lose you this
mission. Once you engage the autopilot while close enough to the LC -
Congratulations, you just beat the 1st mission! What a walk in the park, huh?

~Mission 2: Black Widow Rescue
~Objectives - Primary: Locate and Escort Black Widows
~Objectives - Secondary: None
~Objective - Bonus: None
~Difficulty: Easy
~Fighter: Tigershark

Maniac screwed up, so you will now have to save his ass (which doesn\'t deserve
it much, although he WILL get friendlier later in the game). Autopilot. What do
you know? You just found Maniac\'s wing, and with them more enemy fighters...
This time you\'ll get a real mission, not single half-assed light fighters, but
larger swarms of the same half-assed light fighters as before. They\'re STILL no
threat, only a mild challenge. Use Full Weapons; the energy drain is a LOT
better with the Tigershark compared to the Piranha, as well as the overall
firepower. Although the Dragonfly missiles would seem useless, they are great
for busting enemy shields at close range - just align with the enemie\'s rear,
fire about four of them (don\'t worry if you miss with some or most of them),
then quickly, even before the orange flames of the explosion subside, follow
up with a trio of full weapon bursts (or well-charged Charging Mass Driver,
depends on your personal preference), and hasta-la-vista. Anyway, this is going
to be way harder than mission 1, even though you got a heavier fighter this
time. Don\'t hesistate to use as many Dragonflies as you like, but I suggest
saving all of your serious, homing missiles for later use. Autopilot. It\'s
pretty quiet here, but don\'t be fooled - the next Nav point is crawling with
enemies, so get ready. At the next Nav point, stay close to the Maniac and his
Black Widow Panther-class fighters. You do want them to come out unharmed,
whether you like Maniac or not (personally - although Maniac is an asshole, I
grew to like his arrogant flashy character). Chances are that the Panthers are
already visibly damaged, so be careful. If you see a Panther fighter that is
being overwhelmed, charge head-first onto the attacking enemy fighters. If
you\'re too far to help, taunt the enemy fighters to come after you (\'C\' key
opens the communications menu, \'1\' will taunt an enemy as long as you have a
HUD lock on him [not neccessarily an \'L\'-key lock]). In short - attract their
attention far from the Widows. IMPORTANT! - After all of the enemies are dead
(and your allies are alive, hopefully), stop and wait for all of your fellow
wingmen and Black Widows to get close to you, before Autopiloting back to the
Midway. If you don\'t you might lose this mission - your primary objective is
to ESCORT them, after all...

~Mission 3: Sweep and Rendezvous
~Objectives - Primary: Patrol All Nav Points
~Objectives - Secondary: None
~Objective - Bonus: None
~Difficulty: Very Easy
~Fighter: Piranha

Yep, you got your old good Piranha back. Don\'t know about you, but personally I
like it more than the Tigershark, although the Piranhas are weak after their
Autocannon ammo is wasted... Anyway, this mission is a simple patrol of the
territory surrounding the Midway. Autopilot to your first Nav point. You\'ll
find about 4 light enemy fighters - a complete joke. Use the Autocannon to kill
them all, save your missiles. You can also do the opposite - use Full Weapons
and a few missiles, to save the Autocannon ammo for later. Do as you wish, but
wasting any sort of ammo on such a small harmless group is not recommended.
Also, don\'t expect from your dumb wingmen to be much of a help here - chances
are that you\'ll end up fragging most or all of the fighters here completely by
yourself. The next nav point is nearly identical - same light fighters, same
low numbers... Sometimes there are up to 6 there tho, but maybe I just imagined
things then. Right. Kill them just like last time, but be slightly less cheap
on the ammo. There aren\'t many more after these... At the third and final Nav
point, you\'ll face slightly higher numbers of fighters, but this time there
will be a couple of medium fighters of new type to guard them. Still easy.
Since it is your final Nav Point, feel free to waste all the ammo you like.
Then return to the Midway via the next Autopilot. The end. An extremely routine
mission, way easier than mission 2. It\'s also good for easy kills to boost you
higher on the Killboard, and to practice your skills if you\'re tired from the
simulator in the Rec Room.

~Mission 4: Wasp Intercept
~Objectives - Primary: Intercept Inbound Fighters
~Objectives - Secondary: None
~Objective - Bonus: None
~Difficulty: Easy
~Fighter: Wasp

Now this is my idea of a fun mission! This time there would be no Autopiloting,
no Nav points (no that\'s not the reason that it\'s fun). You will probably
remain within eyesight of the Midway for this entire mission. After you\'re
catapulted out as usual, turn to face the enemies on your sensors. They are
pretty far, aren\'t they? Make sure there\'s nothing between you and the enemy
(like the Midway for instance) and press the \'B\' key. Enjoy the ride. I really
do like the Wasp, not only for its fun (but unfortunately one-time) Booster
Pack, but also for it\'s awesome Swarmer missiles, that rip through fighters
like nothing else in the game. Also, Countermeasures are virtually useless
against them. Reach the enemy forces, and enjoy ripping them to pieces. You
got only 4 shots on your Swarmers though, so I\'d suggest not using them right
away but to wait for an unusualy hard-to-hit fighter. The swarm of missiles 
will rarely miss - in the least the enemy will have enough damage to register 
as Yellow in your sensors (usually just about everything would be destroyed). 
This time the fighters are numerous, and there are some of those stronger 
medium ones among them. Fight, kill, enjoy. Don\'t expect to destroy all the 
fighters, more will arrive. Eventually you will recieve a transmittion from the
Midway.  It will say that the Midway is approaching the Jump-Point to the 
G\'Wriss system, so all fighters should be on standby to return to the Midway. 
At this point you should turn towards the Midway, and forget about killing 
enemies (if you were in the middle of a dogfight when the transmittion came,
you have my written permission to kill the fighter before heading back ;-) ).
If there are pursuing fighters, shoot to scare them, then afterburn away.
When you\'re close enough to the midway (i.e. you are close enough to fire on
it if you want to), engage any nearby fighters. Very very soon the order to
return to the Midway will be sound. It\'s not as urgent as you may think. You
can keep picking off enemy fighters, ignoring the orders, and there would be
no consequences whatsoever. Don\'t wait TOO long though, because the ship WILL
eventually leave without you in case you are stupid enough to either forget
about the orders, or get too far from the Midway in the heat of battle so you
can\'t make it in time. After you decided to return, you will have to enter
the fighter bays by yourself, there would be no Autopilot availible. To do
this first find the bays. They are located at the rear part of the ship, below
the tail-like projection. Head in their direction at any speed you like, and
when you\'re close enough your fighter will dock automatically. Next, the Midway
will perform an interstellar Jump, and evade the pursuing fighters. Welcome to
the G\'Wriss system.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~G\'Wriss System~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~Mission 5: Convoy Rescue
~Objectives - Primary: 1- Rendezvous and Escort Convoy. 2- (Defend Midway).
~Objectives - Secondary: Eliminate Alien Fighters
~Objective - Bonus: None
~Difficulty: Medium
~Fighter: Tigershark

Autopilot as usual. At first there would be very light resistance, about 3
light fighters. Destroy them easily. Spare no ammo - you\'ll get refueled and
re-armed in the near future, so it is unneccessary to save on ammo, although I
do reccomend saving all of the homing missiles for annoying enemies that will
appear later, but before the rearming. In fact, you can simply Dragonfly the
entire wing of baddies here, though it\'ll be easier to simply shoot n\' score as
usual. Next Nav point is empty. Third point has the same type light resistance
as Nav 1. Dispatch them just like you did earlier. You will receive a
transmittion pleading you to hurry up, but in fact you don\'t have to, you can
wait hours and still be successful on the mission. The REAL mission will come
later on... Finally, you arrive to the convoy, only to see one of the ships
blow up. There are significant fighter forces here, so start fighting. Soon
enough the second transport will blow up as well - it is unavoidable, and you
can do nothing to change that (and it will NOT fail your mission). Now kill all
the fighters. There are the usual light and medium fighters here, as well as
new fighter type, a \"bomber cluster\". It\'s a large, slow fighter with serious
firepower. Do NOT attempt to charge head on into the front of a cluster, only
attack from the rear or side. If you\'re stubborn and still insist on attacking
head on, you\'d better revert all power to front shields (hold the \'S\' key and
push the \'up\' arrow) before attempting that, or else your Tigershark won\'t be
able to take the punch of their cannons. Now, after you destroy a cluster, it
will divide into three separate fighters, with undamaged sheilds and armor (it
doesn\'t matter how you killed the cluster when it was whole, the small ones
will be undamaged when they are separated). These \"cluster fighters\" are small,
very fast, and have weak sheilds and armor. They would\'ve been way easier than
regular light fighters, if not for their tremenous speed, maneuverability, and
most of all - an annoyingly small profile. It will be a pain in the arse for
you to target these thingies. The great thing is that the cluster fighters have
completely no countermeasures. That\'s why I recommended on saving your homing
missiles earlier. Cluster fighters + missiles = quick kills & easy time.
Cluster fighters + no missiles = long minutes of frustration when you try to
chase the hideous little bugger, while another one is pounding on your back.
Then you turn around and shoot back at him, he starts to escape, then the one
you chased earlier starts pounding at your back. Repeat forever, or until your
dumb wingmen arrive and distract them long enough for you to kill them. Not
dangerous at all, but annoying as hell. If you carelessly wasted your missiles
at an earlier point and now have difficulties in killing the suckers, try to
taunt them - that causes them to turn and attack you, thus slowing them down
and making them somewhat easier to hit. After you (finally) dispatched the
enemy fighters, you will need to refuel your ship. Personally, I think it
makes the stage twice easier than it could\'ve been (and it\'s a GOOD thing,
since I do like a challenge, but not tedious frustrating work rather than a
fun game). Why? Not because of the extra afterburner-fuel (though it\'s more
handy than you might suspect), but because your ship is also completely
re-armed! Yes, you\'ll get your homing missiles back! To refuel, find the SAR
vessel (the yellow boxy one) and approach it. When you\'re close enough,
refuelling will take place automatically. After that, Autopilot away. The next
2 Navs are empty, but the third will have few light enemies, and then you will
receive a transmittion from the Midway. The ship is under attack! This is when
you get your second primary objective. The next autopilot will get you back to
Midway. The place is a mess. This time around, there are PLENTY of fighters
here, including several of the new, cluster-type ones. Start blasting them out
of the skies. It\'s gonna definetly be the hardest battle you had so far, so
keep that in mind. If you get a missile lock warning, release countermeasures
(\'E\' key) and make a turn in any direction to lose the lock (my favorite
direction in this situation is up :-P). I advice to keep close to the Midway
and its support fire, but try not to be sandwitched between enemy fighters and
the Midway\'s turrets. A tip for quick kills - in many occasions the Midway\'s
turrets will score kills agains enemy fighters. Take advantage of those turrets
- when you see a very damaged fighter that the turrets are finishing off,
quickly snatch their victory and add another kill to your Killboard count :-).
Anyway, this is going to be a tough battle. Remember that if the Midway is
damaged (that\'s right, not destroyed but merely DAMAGED) you will fail the
mission despite killing all the fighters, so keep close to the Midway and
destroy all fighters as quickly as possible (speed is an important factor in
this mission).

~Mission 6: Alien Starship Encounter
~Objectives - Primary: Ensure Destroyer Elimination
~Objectives - Secondary: 1- Defend Shrikes. 2- Elimimate 66% of Destroyer 
 Turrets. 3- Eliminate Alien Corvettes.
~Objective - Bonus: Eliminate 66% of Alien Fighters
~Difficulty: Easy-to-Medium
~Fighter: Tigershark

In this exciting mission, your Alpha Wing\'s job is to escort the Shrike-type
light bombers in a bombing run against a couple of destroyers. Winning this
mission is easy, but because it is a lot more difficult to simultaneously also
succeed in all Secondary and Bonus missions, I gave this mission an
Easy-to-Medium difficulty level. Autopilot. You will immediately arrive to the
destroyers, without any other Nav points. Now, while your wingmen are probably
going to take point in the attack, I suggest you to stay close to the Shrikes,
and attack whatever is coming at them. This way you are defending them, as well
as killing fighters and getting closer to completing the Bonus objective. I do
want to warn you about the new type of alien fighters - the Squids. These
fellows don\'t seem like much, but they are very fast - they can outrun the
fastest Confed fighter with full afterburners any day of the week. They also
have great countermeasures, so missiles simply won\'t do, unless you\'re close
enough to fire them normally. The best idea is to keep taunting them, so that
they keep attacking you and stay close and within your reach. OK, back to the
mission ahead. Soon after that, you should take on the single corvette to
complete the 3rd Secondary objective (the easiest one in my opinion). The
corvette is the large, fish-like ship that registers orange in your radar
(along with the two destroyers). Go right behind the corvette so you would
have a clear shot on its engines, and also its turrets won\'t reach you because
you are in their blind spot. Now match your speed to the corvettes one by
pressing \'Y\'. Now launch full volleys/charging mass along with many 
dragonflies. Although it has strong shields, it WILL eventually succumb to your
attack, it just takes some time. Other enemies will rarely harass you at this
point, because they are too busy dealing with your fellow Tigersharks and
Shrikes. If you want to take out the corvette more quickly, order your wingmen
to attack it too, and together you\'ll waste it in no time. After it\'s gone,
do your best to find the Shrikes again in all this mess - use the radar and go
to the slower-moving blue dots. Go near them, defend them from fighters if
neccessary (taunt fighters that attacking them). After a short while, go for
the closest destroyer. You\'re gonna take out some turrets now. Press the
Backspace key. Your speed drops to 0 KPS. Use only your afterburner to maneuver
as close to the destroyer as possible. If you\'re close enough, the turrets
cannot even dream of attacking you. Now, using the afterburner to carefully
maneuver close to the hull, search for the bulbous things with protruding
arrow-like projections. These are the cannons. Shoot at them, they\'re easy to
kill, mainly because they can\'t dodge you like fighters can, and if you\'re low
enough they also can\'t fire back at you. You can also use your Dragonflies on
them to quicken the job. Destroy several of them (as many as you can) and
afterburn away when you\'re tired or bored. Chances are that at least one of
the destroyers (if not both) already took a torpedo to the bridge, and is now
dead (register as grey dot on your radar). Go kill some fighters, turrets
(if remaining) and occasionally check on the Shrikes so you wouldn\'t blow the
1st secondary objective (which is the hardest of all to achieve, at least for
someone like me who tend to veer away and engage dogfights far from the
Shrikes). After all the fighters are gone (if you got most of them you complete
the bonus objective, and it ain\'t difficult), get near the Shrikes and
autopilot away. Don\'t worry if your 1st Secondary objective lists \'incomplete\'
- if it doesn\'t show \'failed\' it means that it will turn to \'completed\' once
you get back to the Midway. And indeed, the autopilot brings you directly to
your beloved carrier, without any stops in the middle.

~Mission 7: Cruiser Assault
~Objectives - Primary: 1- Ensure Cruiser Elimination. 2- (Eliminate Bombers)
~Objectives - Secondary: 1- Defend Shrikes. 2- Eliminate 66% of Cruiser 
 Turrets. 3- Eliminate Corvettes
~Objective - Bonus: Eliminate 66% of Alien Fighters
~Difficulty: Medium-to-Hard
~Fighter: Wasp

This mission is much like the 6th one, only a lot harder. Once you\'re out, find
the single Cluster Bomber. Although it is pretty hard to locate among the
swarms of enemies (the fact that they are still so far of you makes it seem
almost impossible), I have a trick that might help you. Press \'SHIFT+T\' to
disable the so-called \"smart\" targetting (that does more harm than good in my
opinion, since when it\'s on and if there\'s even the wimpiest enemy somewhere
very far around, you can\'t target fellow wingmen when neccessary). Press \'L\'
to enable the target-lock mode. Now press \'CTRL+N\', you\'ll enter a 3D map of
the area. The red dots are, naturally, enemies. Look for the red dot with the
name \"Skate T\" written below it. If you have difficulties in finding it, don\'t
touch anything and don\'t move the mouse, and after awhile the view will start
to rotate, giving you a better angle on the situation (if you move the mouse it
will freeze again at its current position). When you found the right dot,
right-click on it. Now exit the Nav-map. Tada! Your radar is now locked on the
cluster bomber, and you can easily find it either with the help of your radar,
or HUD. You can disable the auto-locking (\'L\' key) if you want to (I DO
recommend disabling it), but if you do be carefull not to lose sight of the
cluster, since then your sensors will target something else. Activate your
booster pack and zoom in towards the cluster. Only now you\'ll get your orders
(and a second primary objective) to destroy the cluster bomber. When the
booster pack is expended and you\'re close enough, lock and release a homing
missile (NOT swarmer, save those for the annoying squids) and proceed to blast
the bomber. Next proceed to kill the fast cluster-fighters (preferably by
non-swarmer homing missiles). Now start blowing up some squids with your
swarmers. Watch for the Shrikes though, you\'ll have to defend them just like
in your last mission (use the Nav-map if you have trouble finding them). Now
there is a single fighter of a new type around. It is slow and heavy, and has
a small swarm of tiny fighter-like crafts surrounding it. This thing is a
complete joke at first (since despite the slowness, its firepower and shields
are far from being impressive), but when you blow one of them up it will
release those tiny fighters that are swarming around it. They are very small
and shieldless - that makes them very fun to hunt down! A single hit from any
weapon will destroy one of these insects, I have yet never seen one of these
fighter-drones in yellow condition (that\'s cuz the first shot makes them red
and dead in a flash). They are quick and have teeth though, so follow the green
reticle closely and have fun hunting. When there are little to none enemy
fighters left to protect their capitals, order your wingmen to attack one of
the corvettes. While they do that you should get close to the cruiser and
start blowing up turrets, just like in the previous mission. This time it\'s
slightly harder, since the weird design of the cruiser leaves open spaces that
you think you can pass through, but in fact the shields that cover the alien
ship extend to them too, so it\'s like bumping into an invisible wall.
Nevertheless, without fighter escort the cruiser is toast. While you kick the
turret\'s arse, your Shrikes are patiently waiting for their torpedo lock. Soon
after, they\'ll launch. You won the mission! Now, if there\'s nothing left to
blow up, you are free to return to the Midway. Don\'t whine if some of the
missions list \'incomplete\', be glad that you pulled through this mission at 
all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~H\'hrass System~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~Mission 8: Relay Station Insertion
~Objectives - Primary: 1- Escort and Defend Dekker. 2- Defend Relay Station
~Objectives - Secondary: none
~Objective - Bonus: none
~Difficulty:
~Fighter: Tigershark


---OTHER MISSIONS WALKTHROUGH

~Mission 3: Patrol and Rendezvous
~Objectives - Primary: Patrol All Nav Points
~Objectives - Secondary: None
~Objective - Bonus: None
~Difficulty: Easy-to-Medium
~Fighter: Piranha
~Branch: Lose at Mission 2

It\'s exactly like Sweep and Rendezvous, only there are way more enemy fighters
at each Nav point, so watch yourself out there (running out of Autocannon ammo
is too damn easy).