Ten Million Relief Plan
"Ten Million Relief Plan" is the third and final DLC mission for Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. The objective of the mission is to find and sink the Alicorn.
The mission released worldwide on November 27, 2019, and can be accessed within the "SP Mission" main menu option. Players can purchase this mission standalone for USD$4.99, JPY¥540, or regional equivalents, or purchase the Season Pass to access this mission and other DLC packs.
Objectives
The first phase of the mission focuses on protecting four friendly maritime patrol aircraft as they drop sonobuoys across the entire airspace in order to locate the Alicorn. The player must contend with multiple SLUAVs and Rafale Ms operated by the Alicorn's attached squadron. The mission will fail if all four patrol aircraft are destroyed.
The second phase involves the player attempting to determine the exact location of the submerged Alicorn within the sonobuoys' circular search area using an onboard Magnetic Anomaly Detector (MAD). This functions similarly to White Noise from Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War - a waveform indicator is shown at the top of your HUD. When the player is below speeds of 430 knots (800 km/h; 490 mph) and an altitude of 6,230 feet (1,900 m), it will begin to beep. The beeping becomes more frequent and the waves become higher in amplitude the closer you are to the Alicorn. Additionally, the waveforms will point in the direction the player needs to go in to find the sub, much like a compass.
When the Alicorn is found for the first time, it will jettison jamming buoys, inhibiting the MAD's detection capabilities. The player must destroy all 6 jammer buoys. After a small wait time, a new search area will then appear. The player is then given a time limit of one minute to find the submarine once more. It additionally launches 8 SLUAVs to attack the player during this search. Once the Alicorn is found, an allied fleet damages it with anti-submarine weaponry and forces it to surface.
The third phase of the mission is a boss battle against the Alicorn. The goal in this phase is to destroy all ballast tanks, but the player can choose to strip the sub of its defenses before attacking the ballast tanks, as these weapons will not respawn in later sections of the mission. The Alicorn utilizes multiple attack patterns using its railguns and missiles, which can be extremely dangerous if the player is careless. It launches both SLUAVs and Rafales to attack the player, but also releases barrier drones, which intercept the player's missiles and deal damage to their aircraft if it is inside the barrier (much like the Arsenal Bird's APS). Barrier drones can be destroyed during a short window between their launching and the activation of their shields, making it highly recommended to thin the swarm in order to create a clear path for an attack run on the submarine. After around five minutes elapse during this phase, the Alicorn will activate a built-in jammer, hampering missile homing and lock-on time; destroying the jammer as soon as it is activated is highly recommended. The Alicorn cycles between several distinct attack patterns in this phase:
- Fires railguns once, aiming directly at the player. Does not launch barrier drones on the first surfacing, launches them in all subsequent surfacings. This pattern is always used when the phase starts, and after the first dive/resurfacing. It is the most common pattern.
- Fires four volleys of railgun fire in three-shot bursts. The Alicorn aims for allied aircraft in the first and fourth volleys, and for the player in the second and third volleys. This attack pattern is the only one utilized in the final phase. Additionally, this pattern is only utilized after the second dive/resurfacing.
- Launches barrier drones, does not fire railguns. This pattern is only used after the fourth resurfacing.
The phase is completed when all four ballast tanks, marked as TGT, are destroyed.
In the fourth phase of the mission, the player has 15 seconds to damage the Alicorn's rail cannon before it can fire. The cannon is extremely fragile and will crumble under a single missile hit, but a large swarm of barrier drones between the player and the Alicorn is immediately generated upon the phase starting, forcing the player to weave between them in order to complete the objective within the time limit.
In the final phase, the player is given two minutes to destroy the vulnerable base of the Alicorn's rail cannon before it can fire its second shell at Oured. The sub uses all of its remaining weaponry to defend itself—making this phase much easier if the player destroyed said weaponry in an earlier phase, and conversely making this phase much harder if they did not destroy said weaponry—and will continually launch SLUAVs to hound the player relentlessly. The Alicorn will also activate its jammer if it has not already been destroyed, making it a top priority target. The Alicorn will progressively flood from the stern as the phase goes on, causing the sub to list backwards and forcing the player to adjust their attack angle. The rail cannon's core is only able to be attacked from the front and sides of the sub; attacking from the top and behind will simply cause most attacks to miss, however weapons with large splash damage like the FAEB will still deal damage, if meager. The mission is completed when the rail cannon's core is destroyed.
Enemy Lists
| Section | Unit | Points | Count | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Initial | 
|
RAFALE M "SACS" | 900 | 5 | [note 1] |
|
|
SLUAV | 800 | 26 | ||
|
ALICORN | 1500 | 1 | [note 2] | |
|
|
JAMMER BUOY | 150 | 6 | ||
| Mission Update 1 | 
|
ALICORN BALLAST TANK SAM CIWS RAILGUN SAM VLS SHIP GUN JAMMER |
1500 1500 400 200 1000 200 200 200 200 |
1 4 2 2 2 2 4 4 1 |
[note 2] [note 3] [note 4] [note 4][note 5] [note 4] [note 4][note 6] |
|
|
RAFALE M "SACS" | 900 | ∞ | [note 7][note 1] | |
|
|
RAFALE M "SACS" | 900 | 1 | [note 8][note 1] | |
|
|
SLUAV | 800 | ∞ | [note 9] | |
|
|
BARRIER DRONE | 200 | ∞ | [note 10] | |
| Mission Update 2 |
|
RAIL CANNON | 2000 | 1 | [note 11] |
| Mission Update 3 |
|
CORE | 2000 | 1 | [note 12] |
|
|
CIWS | 200 | 2 | [note 13] |
S Rank
Earning an S Rank on this mission requires earning a combined score and time bonus of 117,000 points or more.
The maximum time bonus available is 81,000 for completing the mission in a total of 14 minutes or less. This includes time spent retrying from the checkpoint. If the player can complete the mission in that amount of time, they only need 36,000 points from destroying targets in the mission itself to earn the S Rank.
If the player goes past the 14 minutes threshold, the time bonus decreases by 225 points every second, so the player must compensate by destroying more targets to hit the 36,000 point threshold.
Gallery
Images
Videos
Trivia
- This mission's terrain map (the Spring Sea) is the only one of the three SP missions to be unique—"Unexpected Visitor" uses Artiglio Port from "Pipeline Destruction," while "Anchorhead Raid" uses the Anchorhead map from "Last Hope."
- However, the Spring Sea map was not created specifically for this mission. Unused data in the game's files indicate that the scrapped VR Mission 04 would have been set in the Skully Islands. While VR Mission 04 was removed during the game's development, it is likely that the developers chose to reuse the mission's already-existing terrain map for "Ten Million Relief Plan," rather than using more resources to develop a brand-new map.
- Count makes a quip in reference to the Tom Clancy novel and film The Hunt for Red October, saying during the search phase that it "would be easier if they [the Alicorn's crew] would just sing and let us know where it was." This quote is a shout-out to the famous scene where the crew of the Red October sing the USSR's national anthem.
- The player can shoot down the allied patrol aircraft at the beginning of the mission, resulting in a mission failure. However, much like Roper 1 from "Transfer Orders," they become invincible after a short time.
- If the player crashes into or shoots down a P-1 aircraft while they are vulnerable to attack, Count will quip, "Oh, come on!" He does not say this line when receiving a mission failure in any other way during this mission.
- There is a small chance for a line referencing Trigger as Mage 2 ("Mage 2, watch your six!") to play when receiving a missile alert. This erroneous line is present due to the allied F/A-18F Super Hornets reusing generic callout lines from Gargoyle Squadron.
- Part of the terrain on a particular island is not placed together properly with the water. This error allows the player to fly under and inside the mountain.
- The P-1s can still be destroyed by the Alicorn and its aircraft during the boss fight. This will not end the mission in failure, but does have an effect on gameplay—the player won't get any early underwater detection, meaning they will have less time to prepare an attack run against the Alicorn before it surfaces.
- Like the Gripen Es in Long Day, the Rafale Ms on the Alicorn's runway can be destroyed even if they do not appear on radar and are not initially targetable.
- After a small dialogue exchange during the ballast tank phase (provided the player takes long enough), a unique SACS pilot—Lieutenant Louis Barbieri—takes off from the Alicorn alone, unlike other pilots, who spawn in flights of two. Barbieri, while otherwise indistinguishable from other SACS pilots, has improved AI compared to the others.
References
References
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 SACS Rafales take three missiles to destroy, unlike other Rafales which normally take just two.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Alicorn's targeting box will show up if it is detected underwater, but it cannot be attacked.
- ↑ Once all ballast tanks are destroyed, the Alicorn loses the ability to dive and moves into a mission update.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Appears after the Alicorn surfaces enough times. If not destroyed, it will show up in Phase 3.
- ↑ Missiles fired from VLSes have greater homing capability but lower damage compared to the ones from SAMs.
- ↑ ECM causes the player's lock-on and missile speed to become slower when near the Alicorn.
- ↑ Rafale Ms will regularly take off from the Alicorn in flights of two.
- ↑ Lieutenant Louis Barbieri is a unique unit that, while otherwise indistinguishable from other SACS Rafales, has different AI.
- ↑ SLUAVs will be deployed in groups of either four or eight from the Alicorn during every dive, with the number launched depending on the total number of damage dealt to all four ballast tanks.
- ↑ Barrier drones will generate spherical shields that block shots and damage the player if they're within the barrier. They can be destroyed by before they activate their barriers, or by entering the barrier and shooting them, though the latter tactic is risky and not sustainable due to resulting in severe and unavoidable damage.
- ↑ The rail cannon's barrel cannot be destroyed, though damaging it is mission critical.
- ↑ The core can only be attacked at certain angles. The Alicorn will gradually list backwards, requiring the player to adjust their strike angle.
- ↑ These new CIWS emplacements will appear only when the Alicorn's rail cannon core can be attacked.