Mission 12: Midnight Light

Project Wingman’s campaign has 21 missions in total, with each mission averaging around 10-15 minutes to complete. On a good run without restarts, accidents, or grinding, you may finish the entire campaign more or less around 5 hours. Of course, accidents will happen and you may encounter challenges but don’t worry! We’ll do our best to help you.

While we’ll offer pointers and tips, ultimately, the pilot behind the plane is still you so if you’re having problems completing a mission, try a different plane or approach, or even swallow your pride and attempt the mission on a lower difficulty. In this page, we’ll discuss how to complete Mission 12: Midnight Light, including the recommended aircraft, strategies, and more.

Mission Overview

You’ll be fighting off a highly experimental unit in this mission. If you want to keep using the F/E-18, it’s still a viable aircraft - just make sure that you have the AoA Limiter module installed. Thankfully, there’s not much missile threats so you can rely on good old evasive maneuvers rather than flares. Besides, the experimental plane that you’ll be fighting near the end of the mission doesn’t use any guns so that little boost of evasive action will be appreciated.

If you have purchased a newer plane, you can use that, just ensure that you load out with anti-ground weapons. There are targets that require precision bombing so use of MLAG is encouraged.

Mission Walkthrough

For the first part of the mission, you’ll have to take out the railgun batteries, AA emplacements on platforms, and enemy patrols. The railgun batteries have a slow rate of fire but will require two MLAG shots each (1 MLAG + 1 STDM) in order to be destroyed.

You can destroy the optional targets such as the buoys and cargo ships for extra credits. Once the enemy heli squadron and planes get deployed, prioritize taking them out first since they can sneak in a missile hit or two while you’re busy evading or doing attack runs on the railguns and AA emplacements on the platforms. The static AA defenses have limited range while these aircraft can follow you and harass you around.

You’ll be fighting against an experimental unit in the latter part of the mission, so try to keep as much HP as possible. It’s quite challenging to evade her rapid fire railguns and MG shower. Even if direct hits from those weapons won’t do that much damage (in normal difficulty), she can easily chip down your HP considerably if you’re unfortunate enough to maneuver in her line of fire. To be safe, try to maintain at least 70% HP. If you start the boss battle lower than that, there’s not much wiggle room to avoid getting damaged and eventually getting shot down.

Later on, two optional EP-215 transports will take off. You can shoot these as well for extra credits. Continue wiping out the enemy forces surrounding the main platform then take out the remaining priority targets. There’s an unknown HVT (high value target) that will appear on the platform but not on your radar so destroy it as well for some extra credits. After clearing the area and a short dialogue on the enemy comms, the experimental aircraft will appear next piloted by Frost.

You’ll be facing off a prototype unit called SP-34R. This aircraft doesn’t have missiles but makes up for it with excessive gun barrages and rapid-fire railguns. As mentioned above, the individual hits from the guns won’t hurt that much but your plane’s hull can easily get shredded with the ammo of bullets she releases per strafing run.

The battle against Frost will have three phases, as represented by three health bars. For the first phase, Frost will dance with you and will make sharp turns and maneuvers to charge towards you while guns ablaze. While AoA active, keep up with her sharp turns then fire missiles just when she’s about to turn towards you. Your squadmates can also catch up her movements and land some hits at this point.

For the second phase, Frost will stop using the guns for the meantime and will utilize her rapid-firing railguns instead. You still have to match her movements while also evading the Railgun trails. The railgun weapon can damage you both via direct projectile hit or even by passing through the trail the projectile left. One good way of increasing your chances of hitting Frost is by making a sharp turn as she does then quickly firing two missiles at the same second you get a lock.

Finally after depleting the second health bar, you’ll enter the last phase. In this phase, Frost will utilize both her guns and railguns - which will have increased fire rate as well. Your strategy won’t change that much at this point. You have to match her movements with AoA, quickly fire missiles the moment she recovers from her turn or before she starts it. Don’t hesitate to rain your guns by leading your bullets to her while you’re matching her turn. It’s a tough fight at this point and it is easy to get shot down if you’re unable to keep a high hull strength/hp at this point of the battle. Keep the offensive and maintain somewhat close distance so she’ll have lesser time to react to your missiles.

Mercenary Difficulty

Six F/S-15s will appear along with Frost. Though shooting them down is not required to complete the mission, they can still make your life harder by keeping you busier than ever. It will be ideal to take them out so you can focus on Frost.