Earth Defense Force 4.1 Wing Diver The Shooter Import Guide

Index:
Page One: Story and How to Buy
Page Two: Gameplay Tips & How to Play
Page Three: Missions & Walkthrough
Page Four: Weapons and Enemies
Page Five: Navigating Menus
Page Six: Trophies

Weapons

Wing Diver The Shooter has a total of 60 weapons to find, with Trophies for collecting 10% (six weapons), 50% (30 weapons), 80% (48 weapons), and 100% of them.

The weapons received from green weapon crates at the end of a mission are randomly determined based on the mission and difficulty level. The higher the mission and difficulty, the higher the weapon levels that can be collected. Thus, you’ll want to return to lower difficulty levels if you lack any low-level weapons.

Weapon Statistics

Using the stat translations from these two weapon categories, you can interpret the stats for all weapon types.

Particle Cannons

1. Fire Rate: X Rounds per second
2. Damage
3. Accuracy
4. Energy Consumption

Homing

1. Fire Rate: X Rounds per second
2. Damage
3. Lock On: X Enemies
4. Lock Time
5. Energy Consumption
6. Blast Range: Radius X meters

Weapon Types

Particle Cannons

The only weapon type that does not consume energy, particle cannons rapidly fire one or more projectiles. Unfortunately, the other weapons eventually out-level particle cannons, making them harder to rely on at high difficulty levels. But using a particle cannon will allow you to boost a lot more, so they can be worth the tradeoff.

Short-Range

One of the more enjoyable beginner-weapon types in 4.1 is sadly far less useful here due to their typically limited range. The rapiers’ energy consumption often exceeds their damage-dealing capabilities as well.

Homing

While homing weapons seem useful in theory, their rate of fire is too low to be useful in this game.

Electroshock

This category includes Thunder Snipers and Thunder Bows. Snipers deal strong damage at a high rate of energy consumption, making them suitable for bosses or vertical lines of enemies. Thunder Bows do good damage for less energy than snipers, but the medium range of their conical blasts reduces their utility during boss battles.

Lasers

The most all-around useful weapon type in the game, these will eventually replace particle cannons in your arsenal. Lasers deal high damage-per-second. But you’ll have to periodically let up on the fire button to recharge energy, so be careful.

Ranged Attacks

Plasma launchers consume too much energy to be relied upon as a primary weapon, but they deal excellent damage to bosses and crowds of enemies. Considering bringing one along as your secondary weapon.

Enemies

Black Ant

Black ants are the first and most common enemy you’ll face. Most black ants are harmless, but some will stop and fire damage-dealing acid at the player.

Crimson Ant

Crimson ants are a stronger, more evolved form of ant. In Wing Diver The Shooter, they behave identically to black ants.

Gold Ant

Gold ants are a mutant form of ant, appearing only in the Epilogue Missions. They fire far more acid projectiles than other ants.

Spider

If not killed quickly, spiders will fire web projectiles. Webbing causes continuous damage until the spider that fired it is killed.

Silver Spider

These armored spiders fire even more webbing than regular spiders. They appear only in the Epilogue Missions.

Hornets

Flying insects present a dangerous threat to players. If not killed quickly, they’ll fire a spray of damage-dealing stingers.

Crimson Hornets

In Epilogue missions, you’ll encounter these red hornets. They fire blue energy beams and balls instead of stingers.

Hornet Eggs

Appearing only in Mission 5, hornet eggs explode into a spray of dangerous projectiles when shot.

Flying Drones

In Mission 6, the primary enemies you’ll face are flying drones. They fire damage-dealing red projectiles.

Red Drones

Epilogue Mission 6 features against red drones, the extra-deadly flying drones that have thwarted many a player in previous Earth Defense Force games.

Bosses

Retarius

These gigantic spiders can be quite dangerous in Earth Defense Force 4.1, but as a boss in Wing Diver The Shooter, it’s not so bad. Retarius has two basic attacks: short webs fired in a spread pattern and long, solid webs. Short webs cause instant damage like any other projectile. Long webs cling to the player, slowing her down and causing continuous damage for a short time.

The first and second phases of the fight are very similar; the Retarius just fires more projectiles during round two. Round three sees the boss drop to the ground from its web, getting closer to the player. This lessens your maneuvering room, but you should be able to weave between the webs and finish the Retarius off without breaking too much of a sweat.

Queen Ant

During the first and second phases of this throwdown, the queen has three attacks: a wide downward spray of acid, a tighter downward cone of acid that must be dodged from the left or right, and two radial bursts of acid fired from the center of the screen.

Phase two adds black ants into the mix. They sometimes drop health items, so you should kill as many as possible. During the third phase, the black ants start shooting acid and red ants join the fray. The ants no longer drop healing items, so focus on the queen unless their fire gets too thick. The queen also gains a new move in which she sprays acid at the top of the screen and it then falls down to the bottom. In the Epilogue version of this battle, she also fires blue energy from her tail.

King Spiders

King spiders have the same two attacks as the Retarius: short webs fired in bursts and long, solid webs. The long ones cling to your WIng Diver; the short ones don’t. Try to find a safe spot between both types of webs.

During the first phase of this battle, you’ll face a single king spider. A second king spider joins during the next phase; attacking either enemy during this time will reduce the duo’s life meter. In the third phase, both king spiders jump on top of buildings. Dealing sufficient damage to either enemy will disable it, at which point you can focus on defeating the remaining king spider.

Erginus

The kaiju first introduced in Earth Defense Force 4.1 is here to wreck your day. During the first phase, it attacks by firing sprays of small energy balls from the horns on its head and tail; as well as long chains of energy that follow the player from its chest.

At the start of the second phase, the Erginus becomes invulnerable while running across the screen. Hornets will attack while the boss fires energy balls from its tail. The hornets can drop items, so be sure to kill as many as you can. Once the kaiju stops moving, you can damage it as in the first phase.

The third phase starts like the second, with Erginus moving across the screen in a hail of energy balls and hornets. After a short cinematic, the final fight begins. Erginus gains a new attack in which he crooks his head down and then raises it, firing a huge blast of energy from its mouth. Watch the arc of the blast as it begins and then boost out of its path as soon as possible. Immediately after the mouth blast, the boss will follow-up with either a spray of small energy balls or a circle of the large balls that turn into bolts and chase you. Stay far away from the small energy balls, weaving between them, or in the center of the large ones to avoid damage.

Death Queen

During the first phase of this gigantic queen hornet, she will fire sprays of stingers that can be safely dodged at a distance. Regular hornets appear from the sides, but don’t present much threat. More dangerously, the death queen can spray volleys of pink energy beams from her back. Again, just stay back and move between them while you fire. She can also shoot green globs from her tail, just like hornet eggs.

Regular hornets will actually fire on you during the second phase. The queen moves around more, but otherwise attacks in the same way as before. Death Queen fires stingers much more aggressively during the final phase, so stay at the bottom of the screen and dodge quickly.

Mothership

Immediately after the Shoot-Up Time sequence, the fights against the mothership begins. First, you’ll have to shoot the vulnerable pink core while flying drones mount their defense; ignore them and keep your eye on the prize.

Next, you’ll have to destroy a cannon that fires sprays of energy balls and pink beams. This is immediately followed by a different cannon that shoots green beams that curve towards you. They move slow enough to easily dodge out of their way after they lock on. Meanwhile, several long structures rotate around the cannon and fire energy balls. You can destroy them if you want, but you only need to wear down the central cannon’s health to beat it.

After destroying the first green beam cannon, you’ll fight another one at a 45-degree angle. Panels rotate by the mothership’s surface and spray pink beams, but the tower should go down without much trouble. This is followed by a battle against two cannons at once. The dual-cannon battle is a great farming spot – just destroy one cannon and then blast away at the rotating panels at the top of the screen for item drops.

Having knocked out the final cannons, you’ll face the mothership core one last time. The core will flood the screen with projectiles and energy flares on higher difficulties. The density of projectiles makes dodging tough. But as long as you have enough armor and damage output, you should survive and complete the mission.

Check out Page Five of our guide to view the full menu translation.

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