Ace Combat: Assault Horizon

51 Achievements

74-90h

PS3

Chain Master

Took down 5 hostiles in a row with an assault chain.

Silver

Ultra Rare

2.4%

How to unlock the Chain Master achievement in Ace Combat: Assault Horizon - Definitive Guide

Epsilon Theta

TrueAchievements

22 Oct 2011 15:14

During the mission Blue on Blue either in Campaign or Free Flight you can get this achievement. Play the mission until you are told to abort the approach!

You will get a checkpoint which you can restart from should you not get the achievement before you run out of enemies. When heading towards the waypoint you will encounter a flight of four enemy planes.

Shoot down one of those planes. I recommend using a long range AA missile so you can do this rather quickly. Should you have to restart this will save you a bunch of time. As soon as one enemy is down there will be more spawning. In the meantime you can use the strategy detailed by https://www.trueachievements.com/xSoGx+Jester.htm in his video below.

Below you will find some helpful details:
- Play on easy. Enemy planes are less evasive and, therefore, less likely to try and break your DFM.
- Keep your finger on the breaks. Enemies trying to accelerate out of DFM are rare and you will have a fair amount of time to react. It is also easy to counter by just accelerating yourself.
- Really, keep your finger on those breaks. The easiest way to break DFM for enemies is to break and roll out of sight. So don't give them a chance to decelerate and overshoot them in a tight turn.
- Wait for enemies to be in plain sight before shooting down your current target. Else you might loose your DFM lock which will break the chain. This often happened to me when I downed an enemy while he was trying to escape at the edge of my vision field.
- Should you loose the lock out of nowhere, don't panic. This happens if an enemy initiates DFM. It will take a second to show you the reticle of your pursuer. As long as you reverse the DFM by making a counter move this will not break your chain! Simply continue when you are behind the enemy again,
- You do not need to improve DFM or rockets with skills. Of course they will up your odds. Skills can only be chosen in Free Flight!
- You should get this achievement with a plane left to spare. Should you not have it by then, restart from checkpoint.

Review 23 September 2014: Fixed a broken link.

22 Oct 2011 15:14

26 Comments

Nice mate thanks...

By Stealth David on 02 Feb 2012 10:25

Whenever i'm on four kills it does that stupid missile kill cam thing and i'm kicked out of DFM. Rage.

Suggestions?

By Razgriz Lead on 17 Apr 2012 08:36

Thanks. Got it Mig with the Machine gun pods did the trick.

By Razgriz Lead on 18 Apr 2012 08:40

Kill the plane you're chasing as fast as possible when another one comes into view. My biggest problem was they kept doing the evasive roll that breaks your chain. There is no way to prevent that from happening.

By Faedakyn on 30 Apr 2012 01:33

You mean where they bank hard left or right? I suggest playing on easy where they do the moves less. Also, keep your finger on the breaks. They seldom accelerate out of DFM and you will notice it immediately and have a few seconds to react. The same cannot be said for the breaking maneuver.

By Epsilon Theta on 30 Apr 2012 06:05

I did it with the F-22A Raptor on my third try and in my opinion it's easier with the QAAM secondary missiles. I had trouble with the regular missiles and after switching to the QAAM it felt easier.

By SirLugash on 02 Aug 2013 23:27

Quick-Maneuvering Air-to-Air Missiles are indeed your best choice for close-quarter dogfights. However, when in DFM, your missile choice does not matter. Once DFM is locked, it is a 100% guaranteed kill no matter what missiles you chose. But to initiate DFM, I to had the feeling that a -of QAAM made it happen faster but I could never confirm.

However, packing QAAM means you can't use long range AA to fasten the first part of the mission. It is up to you what you want.

By Epsilon Theta on 03 Aug 2013 04:36

I have added the information. Just to be clear, when an enemy counters you, your chain is not broken. If you reverse his counter, you are good. As long as you remain in DFM, either one you initialised, initialised by an enemy, or any combinations of counters, the chain will not break. I even purposely let the enemy counter me at some times as it seemed more likely that more planes came closer. Therefore, aggressive enemies are good as they keep you in the chain.

By Epsilon Theta on 17 Jan 2014 07:15

That's the problem, they counter your DFM and then immediately drop out of DFM against you, breaking the chain.

By JMJimmy on 12 Feb 2014 00:10

oh and the stupid kill cam does break you out too - I've had 3 lined up all flying straight, go for the kill and when it comes out they're all gone. You have to guess which way they're going to turn and turn with them during the kill cam.

By JMJimmy on 12 Feb 2014 00:15

Figured it out - I was trying with the Raptor and getting insanely frustrated - the key is to use a slow plane. The AV-8B Harrier II plus with 4AAM - got it on the first try this way. They don't attempt to counter your DFM since you're going so slow and you don't need to break either, just turn and shoot.

By JMJimmy on 12 Feb 2014 00:42

^^ Where did you find the AV-8B Harrier????? It's not in my game anywhere.... also, this is one of the stupidest achievements ever.... definitely taking half a star off the game for this. The planes line-up, then counter move and don't engage DFM... get 4 and then the last two fly opposite directions for a long time... really really dumb.

By Shadow 00 Fox on 20 Aug 2015 00:42

It's part of the Online Multiplayer Pack - http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-CA/Product/Online-Map-Pack/1d... - I actually got this on the GFWL version where that's included for free. Any slow plane with 4AAM should work.

By JMJimmy on 20 Aug 2015 02:12

oh okay, thanks for replying so fast!!!

By Shadow 00 Fox on 20 Aug 2015 05:39

waittt.... you got that map pack for free? Did it somehow count for the 360 version then too?

By Shadow 00 Fox on 20 Aug 2015 06:01

YES!! Finally!! Using the MIG21 with MGP.. didn't use the MGP, but it seemed like the enemies flew more together when it was equipped??

By Shadow 00 Fox on 20 Aug 2015 06:24

Perfect solution, only took a few tries.

By The Globalizer on 17 Jun 2017 19:46

I was having trouble with them doing the hard break behind you maneuver or getting to many kill cams until I just flat out held down the brake button fully once I engaged DFM on the first one. Instant completion. I was using the F-22 with QAAM.

By SuperJay416 on 29 Dec 2017 05:12

Edit:
JMJimmy's sollution in the comments isn't possible as DLC is delisted sadly

By on 28 Jan 2021 01:05

The specified solution does not suggest using a specific plane. I did not own any DLC and, therefore, did not use a DLC plane. If you are referring to the video; it is about the chain of events, not necessarily the plane.

By Epsilon Theta on 28 Jan 2021 14:31

I have ammended my comment to reflect what I meant sorry. I have upvoted your guide already but haven't managed to get it yet as I'm quite terrible at this game

By on 28 Feb 2021 10:00

No worries. If you want some more pointers, let me know. I'll see what I can do!

By Epsilon Theta on 28 Feb 2021 21:06

There is another mission where you can do blue with blue, I don't get a free mission. I don't know why I have played the entire campaign

By Vila 84 on 01 Jan 2022 21:18

The kill cam does not prevent you locking on further. If you get thrown out it is because no other enemy was in the vicinity. Sometimes, while you are viewing the cam feed, enemies are "reset" meaning that they seem to scramble. I found that avoiding using missiles that were fully charged helped a lot as they never seemed to get the cam feature. Also, after you locked on and happen to fully charge your meter, you can realign yourself so you don't have the enemy in the middle of your reticule. Don't do it for long though or you will loose your lock. But not having the reticule centered also seems to decrease your chances of getting a cam.

By Epsilon Theta on 17 Apr 2012 08:49

My thoughts:

- When an enemy does a DFM on you, it does not break your chain as long as you counter back onto offense. I was put into a defensive DFM twice while braking and waiting for more enemies to group up.
- The missile cam thing does not break your chain.
- Don't kill your current plane until more enemies group up in front of you. If there isn't an enemy that you can see in front of you within 500 meters or so, your chain will end.
- Keep your target about 300 meters away. This is too far for them to loop behind you and close enough for you to catch up if they try to accelerate away.
- Even on rookie, enemy planes take two standard charged missile hits to die. Use a plane with QAAM, like the F22 Raptor, to kill them with one hit.

By Mobius Evalon on 05 Jun 2016 01:49

Please update your solution. I thought a chain was 3, than 4, but it seems to be 5 KILLs. The achievement description doesn't tell you that untill you unlocked it.

Also SirLugash above here in the comments is right: as soon as the enemy you are chasing is counter maneuvering on you, you will lose your lock-on/chain. This counter is recognizable by the small red arrow pointing down-left on the enemy green square you are chasing. I actually never noticed this arrow till I replayed the Inferno mission.

This counter move happened to me A LOT. And as I kept retrying the mission, the enemy also seemed to be more aggresive by constantly DFM'ing me. It took me an hour to get this achievement because of it

I also tried the Mig with the pods, but it made no difference for me. And even after reading your solution and comments, I still dont understand why I lost my chain even though there were 2+(!!) enemies surrounding the one I just killed. It makes no sense in the game.

Other than that, thanks for the solution and the details. I wouldn't know where to start when hunting this achievement without it.

By Basanakin on 17 Jan 2014 01:06

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KingUbu

PlaystationTrophies

This trophy CANNOT be done in multiplayer. This is without question one of the hardest trophies in the game, but there are a few missions that you can get it with a bit of luck and patience. An assault chain is when you have an enemy plane in DFM and you destroy them, instead of the game going to the slow motion sequence, it then automatically locks onto another plane which is nearby.

However the one mission which seems to generate the most success is “Blue on Blue.” Select it from the free mission menu and set the difficulty to Rookie. Then pick the F-22 and make sure you have skills such as advanced machine gun/missiles and DFM enhancers etc.

After you abort the landing sequence at the start, head to the waypoint and lock onto the first red target. Enter DFM and just wait. Eventually a second plane will fly into view, at this point fire your missiles and machine guns, it should then lock onto the second plane... again... just keep it locked on and wait... a third plane should then appear. Destroy the one you have locked on (in DFM) and it should auto lock onto the next.

Be aware, that when the second wave of reds appear, they will try to get you into DFM, if this happens it will break your chain, if you still can’t get it due to enemy planes locking on, try doing it with a plane that has the ECM special weapon, this will prevent enemy planes from locking onto you.

See this topic for more information and advice on this trophy: How I got Chain Master!

This video shows you what should be what happens when you go for chain master.