Still
Freespace 2 (vanilla, no mods, Insane difficulty level)
Earlier today I completed the mission
Exodus. It was a very hard mission... but in a good way. I had to retry it countless of times, but instead of frustrating me, it did give me a slight feel that I was usually doing better and better with each retry, and quite soon it became clear on what I should concentrate. Another good thing was that the hardest parts of the mission are in the beginning so there is no need to wait for minutes until reaching the hard parts, like in some other missions.
It was one of the most satisfying, if not the most satisfying, mission in the Freespace saga so far. Still four missions left...
My walkthrough instructions for Exodus (Insane difficulty):
First, hopefully you have completed the special operations mission "Into the Lion's Den" so that you have access to the GTF Ares fighter as I feel it is the best choice for yourself. Equip two Kayser guns (yay! they rock!) and at least one bank of Trebuchet long range missiles. To the other missile bank also Trebuchets, or e.g. the swarm missiles (but I wanted as many Trebuchet missiles as possible, due to their range and damage level; if I was close enought to an enemy bomber to use swarm missiles, I could just as well destroy them with my Kayser guns).
For your two wingmen, maybe select some more nimble fighter so that they don't die too soon to enemy fighters (if I gave them Ares heavy fighters, they seemed to die very soon). Give them also Kayser guns, and either swarm missiles or Trebuchets, or both.
As soon as you enter the mission:
- Set speed to full.
- Target the big ship Abraxis (its beam cannon, should be in your sights by default).
- Press C + 4 +1 to call for backup.
- Hurry towards Abraxis (keep pressing afterburner, evry second counts), and fire a double Trebuchet missiles at its beam cannon as soon as you are locked on. Try to do this ASAP so that Nebtuu corvette takes as little damage as possible from it.
- Right after firing the missiles (don't wait!), press B to select the first bomber, and fire double Trebuchets at it. (remember to use afterburner). Don't wait, but:
- Press T to select the second bomber, and fire double Trebuchet at it. Don't wait, but:
- And a third time, press T to select the third bomber, and fire double Trebuchet at it.
- Press B to target the first bomb going towards Nebtuu, and destroy it with your guns ASAP.
- Do the same to any other bombs the bombers may have been able to launch (three at max). If any of the bombs hit Nebtuu, I suggest you restart the mission, up to you. Sometimes you might also get lucky and the Abraxis enemy corvette blows up just as the enemy bombs/bombers are going past it, destroying them at the same time.
- At this point, or earlier, press C + 5 to call for the resupply ship. Just let it follow you around until you think there is a good lull time to let it replenish your Trebuchet missiles, but not before.
- If no other bombers or bombs are there, try to kill enemy fighters (Leo wing) as effectively as possible. But as soon as one or two bomber wings appear, target them and try to destroy them (and their bombs) ASAP, maybe also telling your wingmen to attack the other bomber wing, or let them fight the enemy fighters.
- The friendly Nebtuu corvette WILL most probably get destroyed by the constant bomber runs, but the longer you can keep it alive, the better (and easier for the rest of the mission). I think I managed so that it was the fourth or fifth enemy bomber wing which finally managed to destroy it, and that was good enough.
- At this point it is a bit hazy, there are probably enemy fighters and bombers all around you, just try to destroy them ASAP, bombers first if possible (and possibly tell wingmen to attack some bombers too), press that B button to check if there are any. There is that new big enemy ship too and you are told to destroy its beam cannon, but frankly I had absolutely no time for that, too busy with bombers and fighters.
- At some point when there were less fighters and no bombers around, I recall telling all my wingmen to attack that big Shivan cruiser (Gibborim) and they destroyed it quite fast at that point.
- After this, I think there is a couple of minutes of lull time. Hopefully all your friendly big ships are still in good condition, and you hopefully have one or two wingmen with you. Make sure you let the resupply ship replenish your missiles at this point (that is: STOP, by either pressing Backspace or Z (keep Z pressed down)). Get near Lambda 1 and also make sure your wingmen are there (e,g, tell them to form on your wing, or tell them to protect Lambda 1), there will be still a couple of fighters and bombers coming later.
If you have made it this far, you can probably give a sigh of relief, you are close to winning the mission.
- As soon as enemy fighters or bombers come, tell your wingmen to engage (C + 3 + 9) and hurry to kill them yourself as well, remember also your Trebuchet missiles if they are too far from you. If I recall right there was only one fighter, and later one bomber, coming, so you should be able to handle them, but the lone bomber did manage to fire and hit one bomb to Lambda 1. Fortunately Lambda 1 had enough hull strength to take the hit.
- Then just wait until all friendlies have teleported out and you are told to go home. Go home, nothing more to see here.
Very nice and challenging mission.
