Carrier Air Wing FAQ Version 1.01 By Brian McLean (bmclean84@hotmail.com) Last Updated: April 23, 2001 =============================================== Table Of Contents =============================================== 0. Revision History 1. Basic Game Information 1.1 Story 1.2 Controls 2. Planes and Weaponry 2.1 Pilot background 2.2 Plane selection 2.3 The main gun 2.4 Weapons/extra items 3. Game Walkthrough 4. Secrets 5. Credits =============================================== 0. Revision History =============================================== 1.01 - Put contact information in - oops! Also added forgotten Mission 6 description and information for potential contributors. 1.0 - Initial FAQ uploaded. =============================================== 1. Basic Game Information =============================================== ---------------- The Story So Far ---------------- "The 1990's was a decade of great changed marked by growing friendships between old enemies and never before seen levels of cooperation between the powerful nations of the world. "However, in 1997, using unusual new weapons designed in secrecy, the Middle Eastern country of Rabu threatened to destroy this fragile peace. "Rabu's purported goal is to purge the world of sin and force a new morality. With her allies, Rabu quickly claimed the Middle East, then spread into southern Asia and parts of Europe. Their weaponry is terrifyingly efficient at manufacturing death. They seemed unstoppable, but when they gassed Tokyo in '99, U.S. intervention became unavoidable. If Rabu is allowed to use Japan's manufacturing facilities, there will be no end to the nightmare. "Now hoping to protect world peace, the Carl Vinson heads out to sea." ------------- Game Controls ------------- If you've played U.N. Squadron before, this game will seem quite familiar. You have a joystick for 8-directional movement and two buttons. The first is your regular gun, and it's semi-auto. You can hold it down for a few seconds and get a continuous stream of fire, but eventually it will stop. Pressing the button every few seconds will keep the fire going. The other button is for your special weapons, and each press will fire whatever's in your arsenal if you have anything to use. More on that later. An important difference between this game and its predecessor is the constantly decreasing fuel bar. Even if you aren't moving or firing, your fuel will decrease at the same rate and make you more vulnerable. Certain enemies in the game carry fuel tanks to replenish your supply and you can't die simply by running out of fuel, but several times during the game you'll be left with little to no fuel and a difficult section to fly through before you'll get a refill. =============================================== 2. Planes and Weaponry =============================================== ---------- The Pilots ---------- Rick Ford - New York - F-14 Tomcat: Placed first in his class at the Navy "Top Gun" fighter combat school. Unmatchable in air-to-air combat. James Roy - Louisiana - F/A-18 Hornet: A member of the U.S. Navy "Blue Angels" acrobatics team, his adroit handling of his plane gives him an advantage against both air and ground forces. Mark Olson - Michigan - A-6E Intruder: A former U.S. Navy squad leader, he is known for being able to drop a bomb anywhere under any conditions. ---------- The Planes ---------- There are three planes to choose from at the beginning of the game: An F-14 Tomcat (Air to air), an F/A-18 Hornet (Air to air, air to ground), and an A-6E Intruder (Air to ground). These planes differ both in the weapons they get for each stage and in the strength of their main gun. The F-14 starts with the largest shots at level 1 and the A-6 starts with the smallest. ------------ The Main Gun ------------ There are three types of main gun you can have over the course of the game, and whenever you destroy a set of red enemies you'll most likely see a capsule that starts flashing red, then blue, then green. The red shots fire slow but have the widest path, followed by the green shots which are a more concentrated autofire, and lastly the blue shots are simply straight missiles that can do the heaviest damage but are very narrow. Every time you pick up one of these weapon icons, whether it's the same one you're carrying or not, your POW count increases by one. This count is cumulative throughout the game and increases the power/spread of your weapon as you collect more icons. The levels are as follows: Level 1: 0 (you start with it) Level 2: 2 Level 3: 8 Level 4: 15 Level 5: 23 Level 6: 31 To my knowledge there are only 39 POWs in the game, and you are still at level 6 at that point. ------------------- Weapons/Extra Items ------------------- At the beginning of each mission you're offered two weapons to buy if you choose. You can only have one, but the second is basically just a stronger version of the first (and thus, costlier as well). The weapons you can buy over the course of the game and their function follow: NOTE: There are several errors in the game regarding the numbering of the weapons. All too often you'll see something like 'Missile Dispenser 2' for BOTH weapons when one is clearly stronger than the other. For the reason I'm just describing each main heading of weapon and grouping them by category. Straight Missiles ----------------- Missile Dispenser: The weak version of this fires three pairs of homing missiles from external pods before the pods themselves become stronger homing missiles. Stronger versions (they are numbered 1-3) fire more missiles per use. Shrike Missile: The weak version fires three large missiles straight in front of you. The strong version fires five in a wider spread that is taller than your plane. Standard Missile: Fires three or five missiles in the same manner as the shrike missiles, but with larger missile and more damage capability. Bombs ----- Bomb: Drops a spread of three bombs close to each other just slightly forward from you. Super Bomb: Drops three bigger bombs than Bomb, and as expected is more powerful. Napalm Bomb: A spread of bombs that hit the ground and cause a small chain of explosions around them. Super Napalm: A spread of four napalm bombs that have a wider blast range than the regular napalm bombs. Big Boy: A single bomb that drops and damages everything on screen. Wide Area Weapons ----------------- Apache: External pods come out and spread bombs both above and below, then shoot themselves straight forward and continue spreading bombs in both directions. Super Bomb Dispenser: The same as an Apache, but releases several more bombs before firing themselves off. Napalm Dispenser: Same as Super Bomb Dispenser, but even more bombs dropped to each side (above 5 up and down) and more bombs released as the pods fly away. Homing Missiles --------------- Sparrow Missile: The smallest homing missiles. Sidewinder Missile: Slightly larger homing missiles that do more damage. Amraam Missile: Even bigger homing missiles. Phoenix Missile: The biggest homing missiles. Offered only to the F-14. Special (Mission 10 only) ------------------------- Super Shell Pod: Fires a pair of laser-like shots from external pots, which then come back to your plane and fire a single larger shot directly in front of you. Stronger versions fire more lasers before ejecting themselves. In addition, there are four items that are offered every mission. You can have one of two increases to your fuel tank and you can also buy a shield that will either absorb 3 or 5 hits, again depending on what you want to spend on it. ------------- Basic Enemies ------------- This is a short list of the names I've given to various common enemies in the game, followed by a brief description of how they attack. Strategies for the non-trivial ones will be given in the walkthrough itself as you first run into them. Helicopter: A slow-moving chopper, always in a group of at least two. They come in several potential attack formations and fire normal bullets. Big chopper: A much larger transport air vehicle that fires either spreads of bullets or larger, arcing shots while it drops other minor enemies off below it. Missile fighter: A plane that usually flies in horizontally with a squadron, making a 90-degree turn halfway across the screen and firing indestructible missiles when they reach your horizontal plane. Missile launcher: Usually a vehicle on the ground that launches up to three missiles in your direction. These missiles home in on you but can be shot down. Can also be a mounted turret that accomplishes the same purpose. Circle bomber: A plane that flies in high on the screen, then turns around and drops a bomb. This bomb explodes into a widening circle of bullets that can be very difficult to dodge if you're near it when it goes off. Big plane: A (naturally) larger plane that flies in from the top or bottom and fires a set of three missiles behind it. Most common in mission 1, but they crop up again once or twice after that. Big tank: A rather large tank in two sections. It fires sprays of three bullets towards you while the main gun fires a slightly larger shot. If the top portion is destroyed, the tank itself is defenseless but launches several mines up into the air, usually forcing you to destroy at least one to clear a path for yourself. =============================================== 3. Game Walkthrough =============================================== --------- Mission 1 --------- Mission Description: Your mission is to regain Tokyo. You will have to fight your way through the enemy's air force. Weapons Available: Missile Dispenser 2 (weak & strong) Finishing Bonus: 5K points, $5K Perfect Bonus: 1K points, $500 A dogfight that's about as close to a cakewalk as you can get. Planes come in easy formations of 3 or 4 while you're high in the air. You'll start making a descent over the water while big planes come from above and below one at a time, up to six of them if you're quick. After you get to the water there will be several more easy formations that end with a group of red planes holding a blue fuel tank. Grab that while the boss is on its way down... The first boss is no trouble as long as you're paying attention. It has two attacks, both firing lines of small missiles out of its tail while the wings release bombs that explode into spreads of three bullets. You can destroy the wings and keep those bombs from coming out. Once they're gone you only have the small missiles to contend with, and they're so slow that you can take your time staying out of their way and getting your licks in on the plane itself. --------- Mission 2 --------- Mission Description: Destroy the enemy occupation forces and prevent Rabu from using Tokyo's factories at any cost. Weapons Available: Standard Missile (weak & strong) Finishing Bonus: 10K points, $8K Perfect Bonus: This second fight takes place in the city. Formations of four choppers will harass you along with tanks and missile launchers on the ground. The screen is sometimes split into top and bottom by an elevated road, making it tricky to destroy all of the enemies in this area without prior knowledge. Also, near the end of this section there are tanker trucks on the top road that will blow up when shot and damage you if you're close enough. You'll eventually fly under a road and between its supports, battling big choppers all along the way. As you keep destroying them, they keep coming so take them out as quickly as you can to increase your score. If you can't take them out immediately, they drop missile launchers into the water and shoot three curving shots from the front. Coming out of that section, fly immediately up and to the left. Shoot around the area where the elevated road ends to uncover a white astronaut for 10K. After that, choppers will attack normally and also use two new tactics against you; a group will approach from the upper left, pass you by and make a big loop on the right side of the screen, ending it by flying straight up and off the screen. The easiest way to take them out is to wait at the bottom of the loop and shoot them as they fly into your range of fire, but a daring pilot can also slip up behind them as they're flying on and take them out early on. After that, choppers fly up towards you from behind and STOP when they're on the same vertical plane as you. This can be annoying if you're not expecting it and are hanging out on the far left edge. They will move like this a few times and eventually fly away. It's easiest to hang a bit forward so that you can slip behind them when they get close and take them out without dealing with their hesitant movements. After that short area you'll find yourself flying through a building that takes up the top half of the screen. Plenty of ground-mounted turrets and choppers that fly in so stay low and destroy everything with a steady stream of fire. When you come out again you'll have more choppers sneaking up from behind and from the front as well. Buildings will be completely in your way now, so you'll just have to destroy a section of each to be able to fly through them. Near the very end you'll have a few circle bombers, stay near the top to get them before they can fill the screen with bullets. With all that gone, you finally meet up with the boss. It's a big walker with a cannon on top and six missile launchers. It constantly walks backwards as you fly around, shooting missiles fairly quickly and more rarely firing its main gun. The gun itself is the weak point and it moves up and down just a little during the fight. There is a secondary weak point that exposes itself on the bottom when the gun is down, but it's generally not worth the trouble. I recommend the red shot to take out the missiles as they come, and any excess shots will hit the main gun with little aiming. If you stay just above or just below the line of fire and slightly back from the boss, you're in essentially no danger of being hit. Fire away until it's gone and move along. --------- Mission 3 --------- Mission Description: Reinforcements are coming! An enemy fleet has been spotted in the Japan Sea. Prevent the landing. Weapons Available: Bomb, Super Bomb Finishing Bonus: 15K points, $10K Perfect Bonus: This one starts out on the outskirts of the city with the same easy formations and tanks of before. There are a few more cars to blow up for fun, but soon you're thrust into slightly more dangerous territory. You'll head up a hill and meet up with a large tank for the first time. It's in a fairly easy position to destroy, just stay low to the ground and under its main cannon and it will go down rather quickly. Clear a path through the mines it leaves and wipe out another small hill with turrets and missile launchers. Beyond this you'll find a tank hidden in some trees; your gun can destroy these trees, so fly low and destroy it. There will be more trees, but they simply block a shot or two before being destroyed and do not hide any more enemies. Once the hill starts to slope downward again, hit the dip at the very end of the hill to reveal the Capcom cow! Even more curiously, if you continue to shoot the cow it will spin around slowly. Pick it up for a 10K point bonus. You'll head down the back side of the hill and then over some water, dealing with diving fighters and now gunboats that fire missiles straight up into the air. Flying over a ship, there will be a few points on it that can be destroyed (the ship itself is harmless) and tanks on the deck. Just before the front of the second ship, fly down into the crevice between the rock and the ship and shoot away to uncover a green figurine of some kind. At any rate, pick it up for another 6K bonus to your score. This second ship has some turrets on it, but as long as you remain just above horizontal with them, you're in no danger. The third ship is a lot like the second, just with sneaking choppers from in front and behind while you're taking everything out on it. You'll be assaulted by a few more circle bombers and gunboats, and then finally you meet up with the boss. Appropriately, it's just another (larger) ship! This boss really isn't very hard if you work at it quickly. There's a slightly larger turret in front you'll need to remove, and then there's a row of eight missile launchers behind that. After the big turret is gone, fly low and in front of the launchers and wait until they pop up with their missiles since you can't hit them until then. Only two or three will pop up at a time. Quickly destroy the groups as they pop up, and that should take care of most or all of them on the first pass. Beyond that is the control tower, so blaze away at that once you're past the missile launchers. You can afford to get up right next to it and use your autofire to its fullest at this point. Once the top is blown off of the tower it will start to spew what looks like volcanic debris from it, as well as firing sprays of three bullets. Stay just below horizontal with the origin of the sprays and continue to hose down the boss, whereupon you'll start to pull back from it again. Destroy any missile launchers you missed, then get up close to the tower again and finish it off. You'll have sunk the boat without even dealing with the guns on the back! --------- Mission 4 --------- Mission Description: According to naval intelligence, Rabu is nearing completion of a new carrier. Destroy it before it becomes operational. Weapons Available: Apache, Super Bomb Dispenser Finishing Bonus: 20K points, $12K Perfect Bonus: A rather drastic change of pace, suddenly you're in a forest in winter. Choppers, missile launchers and kamikaze planes greet your entrance. A short water section throws in a few gunboats as well, but they shouldn't be a threat. After you get to land again you'll see tanks coming out of caves carved in the mountain. You can destroy these caves, but be CAREFUL when you do so. They do explode and can damage your plane if you're too close! In fact, be mindful of any containers on the side of the mountain. They're all explosive and will shoot jets of flame out to the sides when you shoot them. When you reach the top of the mountain, there will be big choppers dropping tanks on the ground and firing spreads as they fly away from you slowly. Take out the choppers first, as they're the greatest threat, and then get rid of the tanks if you have time. At the next ridge you're given a blue fuel tank; take this tank as late as you possibly can! This is the first time you're exposed to the death-by-fuel-loss phenomenon, and you want to minimize the distance you have to go before your next fuel tank. You'll start to descend the mountain again, and this time planes will taxi out of the caves, stop for a moment in midair, and then fly off again. These almost pose more of a threat by collision than by their shots, but stay to the upper left as much as you can through this section. Some planes and missile launchers will also be in the upper right as you're flying down, and shooting them immediately will make your life a bit easier. When you reach the bottom you'll run into some missile planes for the first time. They're going to be quite common after this, so practice whatever technique you're comfortable with for taking them out. I like to wait until they make their turn and move up or down with them, keeping up a spray of fire for them to run into with no risk to myself. There's a wall to destroy and then you'll fly into a tunnel dug in the mountain. Missile launchers and turrets on the ground and ceiling abound, along with waves of kamikaze planes. The first real threat, however, comes from a large tank after the first section. There is very little room to move around in front of it, and if you fly all the way down your gun will hit the containers just behind you, setting off an explosion that will damage you. The best you can really do here is to stay just above the main gun and fire until that is gone. If you can safely destroy the bottom section, go for it. If not, move on because there's still a ways to go before that precious fuel tank. Another section of kamikaze planes and turrets follows the big tank, and before long you're presented with another big tank. This is the crucial point of the mission, and unless you bought extra fuel you should be nearing empty at this point. Stay just above the main gun again and well back, peppering the tank with shots until the top half is gone. There is also a line of gun turrets on the ceiling over the tank, so fly up and take those out before you pass. A few more turrets and kamikaze planes later there's a red turret - Finally, a blue fuel tank! Don't get overeager though, there are missile planes just behind it. They fly straight up and down until they're destroyed. Stay near the bottom of their flight pattern and eventually they'll all fly right into your fire. Grab your tank and fly onward. The only thing of note past that are the kamikaze planes that now drop aerial mines as they pass. Destroy them at your leisure and relax a bit as you approach the game's easiest boss. It's a simple aircraft carrier that looks rather similar to the boss of the mission prior. It has turrets at the front and bays that release fighters this time. Once the turrets are gone you'll have little trouble flying right up to the bay and smothering it with fire. The next little tower is defenseless and goes down just as easily, and then suddenly you're at the boss' control tower. Fire away at it until the top blows off, and once again you'll see that volcanic debris return. This time it hits the ceiling on its way up and drops straight down, but there are no bullets to worry about. A lone missile turret fires at you from behind the tower, and you should have no difficulty keeping your fire on the tower long enough to destroy it and thus the boss before things get any farther. --------- Mission 5 --------- Mission Description: We have uncovered the location of Rabu's experimental weapon testing area. It is believed that they are testing their new submarine there. Destroy the testing area and find the submarine. Weapons Available: Amraam Missile, Phoenix Missile Finishing Bonus: 25K points, $14K Perfect Bonus: Back in the air again, you'll be fighting against a few grey planes now. Get a decent look; you won't see these again for some reason. After those you'll run into stealth bombers, which are actually rather easily dealt with. Let them slip up behind you and just when there's enough room to slip behind them, they'll start their spray of bullets. Hang a little forward and above or below them until they do, then quickly slide behind them and fire. The spray should miss and the proximity of your plane to the bomber will destroy it in no time. You'll run into a few more grey planes, then you'll be above frozen water. Missiles will launch from the bottom of the screen and arc from the background into the foreground, then drop again. They're only dangerous once they're on their way down, but keep in mind that these count as enemies towards a perfect round! They should be relatively easy to avoid or shoot down, but getting all of them would be a challenge. After those missiles there are smaller stealth bombers that fire bombs which explode into three bullet spreads. A few more big stealth bombers accompanied by small squads of planes show up after that, and then the boss swoops from the sky. The plane flies out in front of you, releasing six mines at a time. These are all destroyed with a single shot, so if you have the red gun you can clear yourself a path rather easily. Three sets of mines are released, and then the plane suddenly fires a barrage of indestructible missiles aimed at you. After you avoid these, the simple pattern repeats. Just count the releases of mines and you'll have no trouble with the missiles. Several seconds of fire to the tail of the plane will take care of this rather easy fight. --------- Mission 6 --------- Mission Description: We have located the new sub! Proceed immediately to intercept and destroy. But be careful: We have no data about its attack potential. Weapons Available: Standard Missile (weak & strong) Finishing Bonus: 30K points, $16K Perfect Bonus: This mission takes place out in glacial waters. There are floating columns of ice that can be destroyed (sometimes in two parts) to clear a larger path for you. The first column that has two parts to destroy hides a snowman at the base; grab it for another 10K. There's a big tank on a nearby ice floe, and afterwards you'll be dealing with kamikaze planes, gunboats, and missile planes as well. You'll eventually come to an icy cavern. You have to blow open the entrance yourself before you can fly in, but once you do it's more of the same in slightly closer quarters. The gunboats have flame-throwers on them now, so be mindful of their fairly long reach while you're taking them out. As you leave the cavern, you'll meet up with two big choppers, then another set of assorted kamikaze planes, turrets, and the like. Soon afterwards you're in another ice cavern, but this one has balls of ice embedded in the ceiling that will drop as you get near them. They can be readily seen before they fall, so just approach them and slip away again once they start to fall. This time there are several chambers to the cavern, and you'll have to destroy the ice walls as you fly through. There's a chamber with a load of missile planes that slide up and down as in mission 4, and soon after that the cavern ends. There are more big choppers dropping tanks, and once you reach water again the boss surfaces. This sub is probably second only to the final boss in difficulty. Unlike all the others, it's difficult to get any sort of good position to hit the core without being in the line of fire yourself. When the sub comes up, you'll notice that there are two rows of missile bays, one in front and one in the rear. The sub may use either one in its opening attack, but not both. Stay just above the front of the sub as if you were going to strafe the front missile bays, hanging back a little. If it starts with the front bays, you've got an easy job of taking them out as they pop up. If the rear bays start to fire, you'll have to weave up and around to get above the main missile launcher so you can take those other bays out. Alternately, you can slide up just far enough to be above horizontal with the main launcher and hit the bays from there, but the damage will be very slow and you probably won't destroy them all before the sub dives again. Once the sub dives, you'll be attacked by kamikaze planes and missile launchers on an ice floe. Once the floe ends the sub will surface again and repeat the first attack, firing missiles from one set of bays as well as its main launcher. If you take out the front set of bays, a smaller launcher just below the core will open and start to fire as well, though these missiles can be destroyed. Resist the temptation to fly close to this part as that would put you in the line of fire of the core. The sub dives again soon after this, leaving you with more normal enemies to destroy. You should be rather low on fuel at this point whether you've been hit or not, and luckily there's a set of red choppers that will give you a blue tank when destroyed. The sub resurfaces for a third time and pulls back, this time using its frontmost gun to fire. This gun is a bit unusual; firing three shots at a time that quickly change elevation to meet you, then simply fly forward. If you have the red gun, you can stay just above the gun itself and fire away, doing damage with no risk to yourself. After a few seconds of this the sub will dive AGAIN (frustrated yet?), and yet more minor planes will assault and harass you. Coming up one last time, the boss slides back and forth and uses any guns that haven't been destroyed yet until you take out the core. Congratulations, that was a monster! --------- Mission 7 --------- Mission Description: An enemy fighter-bomber squadron is heading for our fleet in the Mediterranean. Scramble now and intercept. Weapons Available: Missile Dispenser 2, Missile Dispenser 3 Finishing Bonus: 35K points, $18K Perfect Bonus: You start out over some villages that are set high atop rocky outcroppings, the presence of which basically fills up the bottom half of your screen. A few easy formations of missile planes will spin towards you. Take these out and that section will end, putting you down just over an airstrip. There are a lot of hangars here, and they're easy to destroy. In fact, if you simply lower yourself to a position to strafe the hangars from, you'll get the hangars and everything else that tries to attack you during this area. Not shabby, eh? You'll take to the skies again and a pair of big camo planes from mission 1 show up again, this time with two extra, smaller planes that hang towards the rear. They fire at you until you're close to being vertical with them, whereupon they slide forward and conveniently allow you a shot at them. Curiously, this is the only point in the entire game where these particular planes show up, and there's only the two of them. Beyond that you'll be dealing with a section of mixed water and ruins, populated mostly with planes and ground targets all firing missiles. Take care of them and fly higher once more, whereupon you meet up with another new, short-lived enemy. These seem to be recon planes with big dishes atop them. They fly towards the center of the screen and drop a set of six air mines, then target your plane (a crosshair actually appears over you!). A set of six missiles fly straight from the right side, then turn and all converge on that point. If you stay directly to the left of where you were when the crosshairs covered you, you should be fine. Each of the recon planes should go down after one set of mines and missiles, just be careful of the active volcanoes beneath you and take care to time your movements with their eruptions (they telegraph them readily with big splashes of lava from their mouths). The boss flies down shortly thereafter... A gold plane takes to the right side of the screen, firing lasers from its tail. From each wing it fires off sets of three missiles, and just like the recon planes of before it tries to target you with a crosshair occasionally. When it finds you it will fire a single aimed missile that will follow your movement somewhat. Your first priority is going to be to take out the wings and thus get rid of the missiles. The missiles from the wings should be no problem, but the aimed one will require you to break off and slide out of the way as it flies past. The right wing is larger on the screen than the left, so you should find it easier to make your shots count on the right one first. Once both wings are gone, the plane also stops firing those lasers and missiles. It trades it all for a single attack, firing twin missiles from its tail that move similar to sine waves opposite each other. This sounds dangerous at first but you will find that the space immediately behind the boss is now a safe spot and you can blast away with no chance of getting hurt. The only time you'll be in any danger here is when you fly over the volcanoes again, and during this time you'll have to watch a bit for debris to make sure you're not damaged as it's likely that you'll be low in fuel now. Polish him off and move on, the best is yet to come... --------- Mission 8 --------- Mission Description: We have located the enemy's primary weapon depot in the Rabu desert. Destroy it immediately. Weapons Available: Super Bomb, Napalm Bomb Finishing Bonus: 40K points, $20K Perfect Bonus: You're out in the desert now, and rather soon into the start of the mission you run into napalm fighters that fly across the screen in pairs like circle bombers, then turn around and drop a single bomb onto the ground. Be careful of the flame that shoots up from the explosion. There are some turrets mounted along buildings and big choppers that approach from the front, dropping tanks. Once you start to head up a slope with a plethora of turrets, you'll find that you can stay about a third of the way from the bottom and fire continuously, taking out turrets and diving fighters alike without any trouble. On the downward slope there are tanks on the ground that harass you and are difficult to hit because of their positioning. They're not much of a threat, but if you're going for a perfect you'll simply have to fly down until you're practically on them, quite probably taking a bit of damage as well from contact with the ground. The rest of the stage is simply more turrets and fighters, punctuated with one big tank at the end. When you get to a cliff and fly down suddenly over some tracks, you'll know you're at the boss. Every shooter needs a train boss, and this one is no exception! Car by car, you'll see mounted missile launches and turrets to take out along with squadrons of choppers to get in your way. There is, however, nothing difficult about all of it and you should be able to destroy much of the train's weaponry in a single pass. When you turn around at the very end, part of the car will pop up and begin firing spreads of shots and missiles at you. Stay slightly below horizontal with the origin of the spreads and you should be able to dodge easily. The missiles themselves are a bit more of a pain and are difficult to dodge correctly (there's a gap in the wall of missiles it shoots at you, but there's precious little time to move towards it). Simply know that the missiles and bullets alternate and duck downward when it's about to fire its missiles, and you should be all right. Once you destroy this 'core', you'll begin to move back over the train again. Pick off anything you missed on the first run through, and once you get to the center of the train the boss itself will detach, you'll turn around again, and the fight will get started once more. This boss is one of the simpler ones as long as you don't let it keep its annoying weaponry for along. It has a set of three missile bays in front, a set in back, and a rotating laser cannon in the middle. Don't worry about the set of missile bays in back, the ones you want to destroy are conveniently placed the closest to you. Stay below horizontal with the laser cannon and fire away at the missile launchers, dodging the arcing missiles the back bays will fire towards you. Once the front bays are gone you can work on the laser cannon in much the same way with little threat of being hit by it. Occasionally the cannon goes into an attack pattern where it will shoot, turn clockwise 30 degrees or so, shoot again, and repeat until it's firing to the right. This offers you even more time to wail on the boss virtually unmolested except for minor dodging from the back missile bays. --------- Mission 9 --------- Mission Description: According to our intelligence, there may be an entrance to Rabu's secret base near their mountain fortress. Take off immediately to confirm the report. Weapons Available: Apache, Super Bomb Dispenser Finishing Bonus: 45K points, $22K Perfect Bonus: The last mission of any length puts you in the mountains, making an assault on Rabu's fortress. Fans of U.N. Squadron will find this fortress assault rather familiar! As you fly up to the fortress shoot near the bottom of the screen to uncover a red astronaut worth 10K. The turrets and fighter bays should be no problem now, just stick close to them and let the autofire do the dirty work. Near the top a large laser cannon will pop up. Stay BELOW the line of fire as you work on this turret! Being above the laser's fire seems to cause the turret to raise higher, exposing some four extra laser cannons below the main one. This makes the turret nearly impossible to kill in one pass and just makes a headache out of what is normally a fairly easy kill. Once you've destroyed the laser cannon, slide in front of the fortress' core and get a few hits in when it opens. Be mindful of the three lasers it'll fire (there's a buildup before it fires) and dodge the few bullets it throws your way. You'll pass over the rest of the fortress which is simply more of the same, but you'll have to let most of it go until you turn around unless you're daring. Once you do finally turn around, grab the green fuel tank offered by the end turret and take out each fighter bay, leaving the fortress defenseless except for the core. Attack it again and destroy the core if you get the chance. If not, you'll get one more pass to do the job. If you fail to destroy the core after three passes, it blows itself up and opens a passage into the base itself. Missile fighters and a rather large number of turrets greet you as you fly in, but luckily there are quite a few red turrets as well. The lower two will both offer up green fuel tanks! Don't be hasty in collecting them, though, let them float a bit and shimmy through the narrow opening to collect them on the other side. Be quick about it once you fly to the other side, though, since missile planes will quickly show up to join you. Take a hit if you must after you've grabbed the fuel tanks, you should be in no danger of dying through this level once you reach this point. There will be yet another green fuel tank shortly thereafter and then a long section with girders that can be destroyed. Knock out the supporting girders and anything that survives the drop (there are a few big tanks about). Pick up yet ANOTHER green fuel tank near the end of this section. The next area is a simple zigzag that should be non-threatening at this point. Each time you go up there will be planes that shoot bombs into the wall, which subsequently explode and send missiles after you. Each downward movement is accompanied by missile planes that fly up and down. The next section is very similar, though now each time that you head downward there will be a big tank to take out. Fly down as soon as you're able to so that you'll get a good position, then fire away to take out the tank's gun as soon as you can. Just before you move down the second time in this area there's a yashichi which will completely refill your fuel bar. The game is obviously feeling sorry for the times it screwed you over with the lack of fuel in previous missions! Pick it up and take out the last big tank, and after a short tunnel you finally meet up with the boss. This wall of cannons and lasers looks intimidating at first, but it's actually quite easy to destroy. Concentrate your fire at the center for a few seconds so you can destroy those small turrets that are firing bullets at you. With them gone, slide over to either one of the spinning laser wheels and just fire continuously (the red shot is best for this, again), taking out the cannons as they come into play and dodging the occasional laser that may be lined up with you. When all the cannons on one wheel are destroyed, the wheel itself explodes and is out of play. Take out the other wheel in the same manner, leaving you with only the center cannons to deal with. The boss will finally start firing bullets again from two rear cannons, but it can't take much punishment from your guns. Take it out and move on. ---------- Mission 10 ---------- Mission Description: Urgent mission. Rabu has just launched the ultimate satellite-based beam weapon capable of hitting any target in the world. Destroy the launching rocket before it makes orbit. Weapons Available: Super Shell Pod 1 (weak & strong) Finishing Bonus: 500K points, $24K. All excess cash is converted to points 1:1 as well. Perfect Bonus: 10K points, $5K The final mission! It all takes place high in the air and is nothing but an elongated boss battle. You'll fly by the ship rather quickly, then turn around and approach it from the right. You should be able to take out the missile launchers and turrets easily until you come up against a wall of laser cannons. This will move up and down and alternate between firing lasers and a hail of missiles at you. Combined with the turrets hiding behind it, this can actually be fairly difficult to dodge if you're trying to get any hits in. Stay near the bottom edge of the column and get your hits in as you can, slowly whittling it down to nothing. Take out the remaining turrets and blow up a few side thrusters on your way to the back of the ship. You'll turn around again once you reach the back, leaving you to face off with the main thruster and two side thrusters. The sides are fairly easy to pick off, but be sure to do so quickly to get rid of all the flying debris and to make the laser cannons next to them easier to pick off. Be careful as you're moving about the main thruster; it moves around as it fires and CAN trap you at the bottom of the screen and force a hit if you're not careful. After a few seconds you'll be able to damage the main thrusters as well, and once those are destroyed you'll move to the top of the structure. The top is simply two turrets and another wall of lasers. This one is much easier to destroy and the red turret holds a yashichi, giving you one precious refill of your fuelbar. Hold off on it as long as you can, you won't get any more after this. The main rocket detaches once everything is destroyed, leaving the shuttle and the big booster beneath it. Stay low to avoid the initial blast from its thrusters, then slip up and fire for just a second or two. It will recover quickly and fire again, and after that second blast you'll have your chance to slip in and destroy all three thrusters. Once that is gone the booster falls away and the shuttle starts its attack! The first blast from its thruster comes without warning, so don't be in line with it when it first drops down! After that it telegraphs when it will thrust and fires a hail of lasers all around it as it moves about. Stay slightly above horizontal and fire away, sticking with it as it moves around. Once the shuttle takes enough damage, its hatch opens up and releases the satellite... finally! But even the satellite is no pushover, firing several barrages of missiles right off the bat. Once it unfolds its solar panels it switches to a wall of lasers with a large blue one at the center. When this happens you'll want to stay just above the center laser and move with it as best as you can to avoid harm. This also allows you to rack up damage on the satellite quickly. Eventually the panels will be blown off and it will start firing twin lasers from the center and go back to the nearly continuous missile fire. The lasers are relatively easy to dodge, but the missiles themselves can be a pain from sheer numbers. The red shot will be much help here, wide enough to take out the missiles before they get to you. If you're using a different gun, you'll need to do a bit of fancier dodging to lead the missiles astray while you line up your shot. The satellite also will occasionally send out two small flying mirrors that it will bounce lasers off of, aimed right at you once they come off of the mirrors. They fly away after one attack, though, so they're well telegraphed and can be avoided accordingly. Keep up the fire and eventually the satellite will go up in flames. Well done! ------ Ending ------ There are two possible endings for the game and I believe it has to do with whether you finished the game in one credit or not. Bad ending (2+ credits) - Upon re-entry into the atmosphere, your plane bursts into flames. It flies for a few seconds longer before you eject out and the plane explodes. Some text is displayed about how you successfully completed the mission, and then you can enter your initials to a shot of you being rescued from the ocean. Good ending (1 credit) - Your plane bursts into flames just as in the bad ending, but you manage to make a landing onto your carrier with it. The carrier's fire truck speeds up and douses the flames, and you climb out of the cockpit to a gaggle of waving folk streaming onscreen. The same ending text is given to you, and you enter your initials to a shot of a bunch of pilots congratulating you. =============================================== 4. Secrets =============================================== I'll recap all the hidden items here and add two little bonuses. If you manage to get through an entire stage without taking a single hit, you'll get a 10K bonus added when the game tallies up your bonus for remaining fuel and such. Good luck getting that on more than one or two stages. :) Perfect Bonus: If you manage to destroy EVERYTHING in a level, you'll get this bonus. It varies from level to level and even the number of things that must be shot is not consistent. For example, the number of big planes that show up in Mission 1 is entirely dependent upon how fast you shoot them down. Whether you just get two planes or six, you must shoot them all if you want the perfect bonus. I have only recorded the bonuses for the first and last stages and have made no real attempt to find the others as they're quite small for all the effort it would take to find them. Mission 2: After you fly under the elevated road with the big choppers, fly up and left and shoot around the empty space there. A white astronaut hangs in the air to collect for 10K. Mission 3: Just before the big hill starts sloping back down into the water section, there's a conspicuous mound of dirt. Shoot that and the famous Capcom cow will appear. Keep shooting it and it spins around, which looks odd but doesn't appear to do anything. It's worth 10K. Mission 3: In the same mission, you can fly down just in front of the second boat of the fleet and fire into the crevice between it and a rock, exposing a statuette worth 6K. Why this statue is 6K while everything else is 10K is beyond me. Mission 6: Right at the beginning of the stage, the first column of ice that has two parts to break off hides a snowman worth 10K at its very base. Mission 9: At the beginning of the stage, shoot at the base of the mountain fortress. A red astronaut shows up on the ground for 10K. =============================================== 5. Credits =============================================== Got something to contribute? Send it in to bmclean84@hotmail.com with "Carrier Air Wing FAQ" in the subject and if I use it in here, I'll add your name to the list of credits. As always, thanks go to Capcom for making a worthwhile shooter. I still prefer U.N. Squadron, but this was a pretty worthy sequel. Shameless Plug - If you're interested in seeing these tactics in action, go to the MAME Action Replay Page at http://marp.retrogames.com. It's a storehouse for .inp files that allow folks to watch games in MAME exactly as they were played by someone else. There are recordings for both romsets of the game that finish it on one credit. This FAQ copyrighted 2001 by Brian McLean. Permission is granted to print out or keep an electronic copy for personal use. Any non-personal use (aside from being hosted at GameFAQs) is expressly prohibited.