Beginner’s Guide

Project Wingman lacks dedicated training missions for newbies so you’ll be forced to jump right back to the action through the campaign. If you’re playing other arcade combat flight sims then you’ll have a comfortable head start since you’ll be familiar with the mechanics of the game of this genre. Furthermore, if you’re a fan of the Ace Combat series, you’ll immediately feel at home when playing Project Wingman since a lot of the controls and button mapping are quite similar between the two games. In this page, we’ll provide 10 of the things in the game that will help beginners or casual players who are just trying out this game.

1. Use Game Controllers

The game can be played using a mouse and keyboard but for a better experience, using a game controller is recommended. Of course, if you want better immersion, playing using a VR headset and flight stick will give the best experience.

2. Use Free Missions to Train and Earn Credits

After completing a mission, it will become available in Free Mission where you can try the mission again to try out different difficulties and planes. You can also keep the funds you’ve earned during free missions, which you can also use during the main campaign. Free Missions are also great training grounds for trying out new planes, SP weapons, or strategies, especially the easier ones.

3. Save your funds!

If you’re not doing free missions, you’ll only receive an ample amount of funds for completing the preceding missions to buy new planes. While there are new planes unlocked after completing almost every level, you don’t need to buy them or every unlocked plane, at least, early on. There are certain stages where you can even use the same plane you’ve used from the previous mission(s). Applying this mindset will enable you to afford the more better planes for the later missions.

4. No checkpoints

There are no checkpoints in between missions so try to avoid crashing or getting shot down. If you happen to get shot down, you’ll be forced to restart from the beginning. Thankfully, if you crashed during landing or takeoff, you’ll only have to do the landing/takeoff sequence. Missions are usually long, comprising at least three objectives. Also, completing the objectives doesn’t end the mission instantly; there will still be a few seconds of radio chatter before the debriefing starts. During this chatter, your plane is still vulnerable to crashing so don’t let go of the controller until your post-battle results are displayed.

5. No Return Line

Several of the missions don’t have a resupply point or return line to reload your ammo or repair your aircraft so you’ll have to complete the mission with the loadout you’ve selected and the ammo stock for those missions. The game is quite generous with the amount of standard missiles you can carry and this amount is usually more than enough to take down priority targets and then some. Your SP weapons also have a good amount of ammo stock so switching between them and properly picking your targets can further increase your efficiency.

6. You have reliable allies.

While you’re a part of a squad, you don’t have any direct influence on them or issue orders to them. However, don’t feel alone. Your allies can reliably destroy targets - both priority or not to whittle down the enemy numbers. You’ll still have to do most of the heavy lifting but rest assured that your allies also destroy targets for you.

7. You don’t need to buy SP weapons for your planes

When you buy a plane, all the SP weapons it can equip will be included in the package as well. As such, you’ll have access to the plane’s full loadout options; it’s just a matter of selecting which SP weapons to equip your plane during missions. Obviously, when you sell an aircraft, all its SP weapons will be sold as well as part of the bundle since SP weapons can’t be shared between all aircraft.

8. Flares vs. AoA Limiter.

Most aircraft come along with flares as a standard defensive module. Later on, you’ll encounter planes with AoA Limiter. This is basically Ace Combat 7’s PSM (Post Stall Manuever) which allows your plane to do tight, acrobatic turns (when the system is engaged) to get easily behind pursuers and get into a favorable shooting position. It will take a while to get used to but can be very useful in dogfights. While favorably used offensively, AoA Limiter can also be used to effectively avoid missiles and counterattack. However, use this depending on the mission area. Preferably, you’ll want the AoA Limiter on aircraft-heavy missions where you have a lot of sky to pull maneuvers on. However, for ground attack/neutralization missions which will require you to fly low or close to the terrain, flares are strongly recommended so you don’t need to make tight turns to avoid missile locks.

9. Certain targets require additional steps to destroy.

Aside from the standard enemy aircraft and AA installations you’ll encounter throughout the campaign, you’ll eventually encounter different hostile targets. For example, you’ll encounter air cruisers. These large, flying fortresses are filled with various armaments that you have to destroy before you can target the actual hull and shoot them down. For naval ships, you have to do the same thing; destroy the armaments before you can shoot and sink them.

10. Consider choosing the right aircraft and SP weapon loadout for the mission.

This goes without saying that bringing the right aircraft and SP weapon loadout for the mission will make things a lot easier for you. Thankfully, the planes in the game can carry at least two SP weapons per mission, and each aircraft has a variety of weapon types per slot so it’s up to you to adjust your loadout prior to starting a mission.