Rogue Aces Deluxe Tips (Achievements Guide)

In Rogue Aces Deluxe you control an aeroplane equipped with machine guns, rockets and bombs.

You can use the throttle to change the speed of the plane, throttling up increases and throttling down decreases the power to the engines. Lift comes from speed, so the faster you go, the more your plane will rise in altitude. The slower you go, the more gravity will take its toll.

The control of the plane can be set to two different types: directional which makes the plane fly in the direction the player points in, or rotational in which the player rotates the plane clockwise or anticlockwise depending on where they want to go.

Hint: when using directional, control your plane by moving the joystick in smooth circles.

You can fire rockets or bombs separately, depending on your key binding settings.

There is an eject feature which allows the player to eject from a damaged plane before it explodes killing the player. To eject from your plane press the eject button twice. This will make the player character jump from the plane. Pressing the eject button once more will deploy your parachute. While falling with your parachute you can direct it, and also drop grenades using any button.

The main campaign mode is the first available game mode after you’ve finished basic flight training. After selecting your pilot and upgrades, you’ll start the game on your friendly carrier and will be given your first mission. Carry out missions in order leading up to capturing a base. Capturing a base establishes your dominance in that area and you can use it to land and refuel/rearm whenever you want.

The goal of the game is to locate and destroy the secret enemy HQ which is hiding somewhere in the map.

But look out, the deeper into enemy territory you go, the more dastardly the pilots and overpowered the enemy ordinance. Every 20th mission, you’ll need to take on the dreaded Baron for a dogfight to the death. Each time he returns he will be toting new and more preposterous weaponry, so make sure you’re strong enough to take him on.

You’ll have only one life but three planes at your disposal. Plus all the enemy planes you can steal.
The game is essentially open world, and the islands wrap around from left to right. If you start off flying left, you’ll come to the most dangerous area of the game, so best to start your campaign moving right…

In this mode, you have to clear islands one at a time before you can advance to the next, all against the clock. Each island has a specific set of objectives to destroy before it is liberated and you can move on to the next one. The game ends when you liberate the island which hides the secret enemy base.

Hint: Military targets have a flag flying next to them. When the flag drops, the target has been eliminated successfully.

There are lots of other games and bonus games to unlock:

• ROGUE ACE MODE – no missions, one life, your plane’s destructive capabilities cranked up to the max
• BOMBER DEFENCE – assume control of a bomber and take out the enemy planes
• HOT POTATO – no guns, your plane is about to explode. Better find another sharpish!
• SURVIVAL- it’s just you, the sky, and a bunch of baddies.

What ho, Pilots! It’s the Commander here from Rogue Aces Deluxe – the aerial combat arcade rogue-lite from Infinite State Games.

Now, for your eyes only, are some exclusive tips I like to give plucky recruits on how to achieve jolly, big and fat scores and not totally suck.

There’s nothing I enjoy more than a little friendly competition, so why not spice things up with some insider knowledge, what-what?

Feel free to ignore my missions. You’re a Rogue Ace after all, it’s not like I expect you to behave! In fact, anything with a flag on the battlefield needs destroying, so if you happen to blow something up before I ask you to do so will net you a nice early completion bonus!

You’ll need to learn to land manually. You can use autoland, but that will reset your score multiplier which goes up by one every time you successfully undertake a manual langing.
Yes, yes, it’s not very easy, it does take practice, but there’s nothing quite like the feeling of taking a burning and beaten up plane all the way back home and landing it safely. I always tell my pilots in training that as you approach, use your throttle to adjust your altitude. You can even use the drag of your plane’s nose to slow down. If you overshoot a run-way? Not a problem old chum! You can taxi along the ground, which is also handy for moving to a better take off position.

Here’s a handy guide to help you make a smoother landing

There’s been talk of some pilots undertaking an extraordinary procedure called the ‘Aerial Steal’. Word has it, they eject from their plane, land on an enemy plane, and then take control by throwing out the pilot! Now, as long as they remember to move the throttle up again on the stolen plane, that would of course technically work, but I couldn’t possibly sanction such absolute nonsense.
But, let’s say one did manage to pull off an ‘aerial steal’ as it were, one would replenished their bombs, rockets and fuel in return for such a feat of derring-do. You do however inherit the damage of the stolen plane, so best not fill it with holes first my old fruit!

This diagram explains how one might do an aerial steal should one be inclined.

Buildings drop a whole lot better when the explosion is at the base. So what we like to do at Rogue Aces HQ is barrel along the ground like an absolute maniac blasting the bombs at the very bottom of the building. No, it’s not very elegant, and it certainly isn’t very stealthy but who cares? TALLY HO!

Aaah, yes. You’ll need to keep an eye on the fuel gauge at the top of the screen, so you’ll know when you need to return to base. You’ll see a red dot on the gauge; this shows the distance to the nearest possible refuelling base. If that whole bar goes red, well, it may be time to consider an aerial steal. Not that such a thing is plausible.

Your plane is lucky enough to inexplicably improve its mechanical statistics by collecting wooden crates dropped by enemy planes. Best not to overthink about the mechanics behind that, but the point is, always check planes to see if they’re carrying upgrade loot after every mission. If you keep collecting crates, your plane will become more and more irresponsibly overpowered.

Sometimes you just have to bail out of your plane and deploy that parachute. But did you know you can throw grenades on your way down! Not only is it something fun to do as you descend, it is essential for ensuring that you clear a safe space below you. If you land and an enemy soldier or vehicle can see you, you will be immediately captured and you game will be over. Avoid this by parachuting so that you’re hiding out of sight behind scenery. Hmm.. perhaps you’d better not completely level the ground with those grenades before you land after all…

Earn all other trophies

Unlock all the other trophies, to get this one.

Drop a bomb on an enemy plane

You will more than likely achieve this accidentally by just playing normally in any mode that allows you to carry bombs. The easiest way of doing it deliberately is to fly straight up when an enemy plane is on your tail, then drop a bomb straight down. An alternative approach is to fly near an enemy airfield then destroy an enemy plane with guns or rockets. The plane will then respawn on the airfield, at which point you can easily bomb it on the runway.

Skid the plane along 80% of the carrier without landing

This trophy is most easily achieved in the Training Ground, because of the risk in other modes of exploding on contact with the ground. Approach the carrier in level flight slightly higher than the deck. As soon as you are over the carrier press down gently into the deck while boosting. The important thing here is to not bounce off the deck, which is the most common cause for failure. Continue to boost along the deck and right off the other end. This may take a few passes to get right but make sure you touch the deck as soon as you can and you do it gently enough to not bounce up.

Destroy 2 enemy aircraft with one rocket

This is somewhat situational but will become much easier as you progress in your Campaign. Simply wait for two enemies to be relatively close to each other then fire a single rocket to destroy both. This is easiest to achieve in Rogue Ace mode, which starts at end game levels so there are many enemy planes that will approach in a cluster and you start with a full complement of rockets. However, you will more than likely achieve this by accident during a normal play through.

Unlocked all game modes

Other than the Normal Campaign, which is unlocked from the start, each mode has specific requirements that must be met in order to unlock:

• Frontline Campaign – Unlocked this mode when you capture your first enemy base (see Domination for more info)
• Veteran Campaign – Unlocked when you prove you can reach mission 20 in the Campaign and defeat your first Baron (see Baron Schmaron for more info)
• Survival – Unlocked by killing 20 planes in Campaign
• Bomber Defence – Unlocked after 5 kills with the bomber in the Credits
• Hot Potato – Unlocked by getting 3 or more Aerial Steals in any game mode that allows it (see Grand Theft Aircraft for more info)
• Rogue Ace – Unlocked by upgrading your plane to 50% of its maximum power (see Really Dedicated for more info)

Freefall in a plane for 5 seconds with no throttle without hitting the ground

This trophy is achievable in any mode, except the Training Ground because that has non-fatal map collision. To unlock this trophy, boost straight up over an area of sea. As soon as you stop going up, remove all throttle by holding until the throttle gauge is empty. There is no altimeter but the clouds give a good indication of height because they get denser the higher you go. When the clouds have all but disappeared, apply full throttle again with . Ideally you will regain normal flight just in time to create a jet wash on the sea. If you struggle guessing where the ground is, you could try next to a land mass that will provide a marker but make sure to be facing away from the land mass when you throttle up!

Kill 20 parachutists in 20 seconds

By far the easiest way to get this trophy is to wait until you are given a mission to protect your base from enemy paratroopers. During this mission, several enemy bombers will spawn and fly towards your current airbase. When the get there they will spew out a large number of paratroopers. Simply follow them until this happens then proceed to shoot the paratroopers as they parachute down.

If you don’t want to wait for a paratrooper mission, you can find an enemy airship. Destroying it will cause it to float to the ground dropping parachutists as it goes. Simply fly along behind it shooting them as they appear.

Land the plane 10 times without crashing (no auto land)

Landing in this game can be tricky due to the semi-realistic flight model. There is a landing tutorial which you should play until you feel comfortable landing every time.

The important thing is to reduce your speed to under half, well before you reach the runway and use a raised nose to reduce airspeed before touchdown. 10 landings in a row without crashing will net you this trophy but you can do them back to back to avoid other mission related deaths.

Defeat the last baron.

In Normal and Veteran Campaigns, every 20th mission will be to defeat a Baron of increasing difficulty. You will unlock this trophy the first time you kill him. Alternatively, if you unlock the Frontline Campaign but don’t reach mission 20, you can easily encounter a Baron in that mode, because he will chase you around the map.

As with enemy planes, the best strategy against Barons is to remember you can fly much lower than they will dare to. Use this to your advantage by flying near the ground until the opportunity to get right behind the Baron presents itself. Once you are on the Baron’s tail, stay there firing cannons until he falls out of the sky. Bombs and rockets have little effect, thus cannons are your best bet. If you take damage, don’t be afraid to get low and get back to base to repair. Also see the video under Unstoppable.

Land with 5% fuel or less

This can only be unlocked in a mode that has a fuel gauge on the HUD. Judging 5% can be tricky but it is quite a big chunk of the bar. Simply fly around until you are very low on fuel (using boost with consumes 3x as much fuel as normal flight) then land when the fuel gauge is virtually empty. Make sure to time your approach so that you can land before you are actually empty, because there is very little grace for gliding!

Hijack an enemy aircraft during flight

This trophy requires you to perform an Aerial Steal, which is a hidden but very important aspect of the game. The easiest way to do this is to fly straight up with an enemy close behind you, then double tap to eject. Be very careful not to press a third time, as this will open your parachute, rendering the steal impossible. You can move your pilot in the air with but if you went straight up, this shouldn’t be necessary. When your pilot hits an enemy fighter in freefall, they will automatically eject the enemy pilot and steal the plane. Note: The plane starts with zero throttle so immediately push to resume flight. Also note, you cannot steal a Baron’s plane.

Aerial Steals are useful because they refuel and rearm you. However you will also inherit any damage done to the plane so bear that in mind before shooting it!

Bounce 3 times on landing

This trophy is far easier to achieve in the Training Ground because you don’t explode with hard map collisions. To get 3 bounces on landing you must drop the plane onto the runway from high enough that it bounces hard enough without being too high to explode. See Touch Down for more information on landing, although you will probably do this accidentally at some point if you are doing manual landings instead of auto-landing.

Capture all bases

You can think of the Campaign map as a big circle with your carrier at the top and the enemy HQ at half way around at the bottom. If you keep flying in one direction long enough (about 10 minutes) you will eventually get back to the carrier again. Dotted at relatively even spaces throughout the map are enemy airfields which you can capture and claim for your own, even beyond the enemy HQ.

To capture an enemy base, you must first neutralise it by destroying 2 out of the 3 buildings there. You will know when it is neutralised through a notification. At this point you can land there to claim it but before you do, make sure all enemy tanks are cleared from the area, as they will shoot you on the ground and can one-shot your plane. If you bring up the stat overlay there is a bar that’s shows your progress with captured airfields.

Please note that friendly airfields can be neutralised again if enemy planes crash into the buildings or enemy tanks destroy buildings while shooting at allied troops. You will need to recapture it if this happens from the trophy to pop. Neutralised airfields are highlighted by a purple marker.

Perform a carrier landing (no auto land)

Simply land on the carrier manually. See Touch Down for more information on how to land. Landing on the carrier is slightly easier because it has an arrestor cable that means your plane comes to a stop much quicker.

Perform a carrier landing using less than a quarter of the deck (no auto land)

This is the same as Call The Ball but you must stop almost as soon as you touch down. To do this, ‘flare’ the plane by raising its nose on approach to reduce your forward speed as much as you can while still in the air.

Kill 500 infantry with cannons in a single game

This will no doubt unlock naturally over the course of a Campaign. It will be much easier as you upgrade cannon strength and fire rate to the point where you can destroy tanks in 1 hit. This will allow you to fly along at ground level simply carving through enemy ground troops. See Really Dedicated for details on upgrades.

Have a score of exactly 1,940 points

This trophy can be a bit tricky and may need a few retries to achieve. The best source of score early on comes from completing missions. Each mission awards 10x the mission number on completion and double that if you complete it before it’s assigned (e.g. if you bomb a radar before it gets assigned as a mission target you will automatically complete that mission when it’s assigned).

Complete missions and destroy enemy units until around 1,850 points or so, then very carefully pick off enemy ground units and as you approach 1,940 focus only on infantry as they award a single point. Be careful not to progress too far from the carrier, else you will start getting a x2 or more bonus that could make you overshoot the target score. Overshooting can possibly be rectified by performing auto-landings to remove score.

Max out one stat (campaign mode)

See Really Dedicated.

Max out all stats (campaign mode)

As you progress through the Campaign and kill enemy planes, you will notice they sometimes drop crates on parachutes. When collected, these upgrade one aspect of your plane by a fraction. The attributes that can be upgraded are:

• Acceleration
• Armour
• Bomb Capacity
• Cannon Fire Rate
• Cannon Power
• Fuel Capacity
• Rocket Capacity
• Turn Speed

The number of upgrades dropped by enemy planes is capped by the mission you are on so every time you complete a mission, kill enemy planes until they stop dropping crates (they won’t necessarily drop crates after every mission). Barons are also guaranteed to drop 1 Repair crate when you disable them, then 2 upgrades when they explode into the ground, so follow that kill down!

The stat overlay shows you your upgrade progress per attribute. This trophy will pop when you collect the final crate to fill the final attribute.

Survive a landing without a plane or a parachute

This trophy can be unlocked by flying towards a cliff just under the ground level. Right before you hit the wall, double tap to eject (don’t press a third time or your parachute will open and the trophy won’t unlock). If you got the height level right, you will land on top of the cliff without going splat and this trophy will pop.

Kill a plane with an enemy plane

This trophy is related to Aerial Steals (see Grand Theft Aircraft). Perform an Aerial Steal then use your newly stolen plane to kill any enemy fighter plane and this trophy will pop.

Lose all your planes but don’t die

When you start a Campaign there are three planes on your carrier deck – these are your ‘lives’ but you – the pilot – have only one life, which can be lost by hitting the ground in free fall with no parachute deployed or landing on a parachute too close to an enemy ground unit. If your pilot ejects safely and doesn’t get captured you get to take off in another spare plane, if there are any. To achieve this trophy simply use up all your planes without getting your pilot captured or killed.

Note: You can land in water from any height without deploying your parachute.

Score 10 points in Survival without firing a single bullet

See The Whole Package for details on how to unlock Survival mode. This trophy is related to Aerial Steals (see Grand Theft Aircraft). Simply keep performing Aerial Steals in Survival mode until this trophy pops.

Use your own empty plane to neutralise an airfield

To neutralise an enemy airfield you must destroy two of the three buildings there. Fly to your nearest enemy airfield and proceed to bomb one of the buildings – the best way to bomb a building is to fly in front of it at ground level and drop a bomb right in the centre. Now fly up and dive down onto one of the two remaining buildings but just before you hit the ground, eject and parachute by pressing three times. Make sure you manually eject before you hit the ground and auto-eject (in Normal Campaign) else the trophy won’t pop.

Destroy your own plane before it hits the ground after ejecting from it

This trophy is related to Aerial Steals (see Grand Theft Aircraft). Perform an Aerial Steal then use your newly stolen plane to destroy the plane you just jumped out of before it crashes into the ground. The plane you destroy must be a green allied plane but it won’t work if you destroy a previously stolen enemy plane. To make this trophy a bit easier, perform your Aerial Steal at a 45 degree up angle.

Reached a multiplier of x25 in Survival

See The Whole Package for details on how to unlock Survival mode.

Getting a multiplier of x25 in Survival can take a bit of practise but is made easier with liberal use of Aerial Steals (see Grand Theft Aircraft). Pressing opens up a damage meter that shows how much damage your plane has taken. This can be useful for knowing when it’s time to jump to another plane. When you do want to swap planes, try and isolate one from the pack as when there are many enemy planes you may be instantly destroyed if they all fire at once. Similarly never go head-to-head with a pack on planes as you will come off much worse. Also remember that you can fly near the sea to take a breather from enemy fire because they won’t follow you so low. Never land on the carrier, because this resets your multiplier.

Reached a multiplier of x5 in Frontline

See The Whole Package for details on how to unlock Frontline mode.

This trophy requires you to complete 4 islands in Frontline mode without dying. Each completed island adds 1 to your campaign multiplier, while crashing your plane resets the multiplier. See this video for the recommended way to complete a Frontline island:

Reached a multiplier of x65 in Bomber Defence

See The Whole Package for details on how to unlock Bomber Defence mode.

This trophy can prove a bit tricky. In Bomber Defence you are tasked with controlling the gun turrets on a stationary bomber by choosing a direction with either stick. When you press a direction any gun turret that can fire in that direction will. The bomber will be attacked by an ever increasing number of enemy fighters. Each fighter killed fills up a bar in the top right, and when it’s filled the bomber will get upgraded with better armour and stronger guns. However, you can never get more health. With this in mind, your priority should be planes that are yet to attack the bomber over planes that have already made a pass. Also exploding planes do splash damage to nearby enemies so try and aim for groups as much as possible. You can also aim at the indicators to hit fighters off screen. Even hitting fighters once or twice can be enough to ruin their turning circle meaning they can’t bring their guns to bear on you quickly. Beyond that, there isn’t really much you can do except keep trying until you achieve the required multiplier.

Score an infantry kill in Hot Potato mode

See The Whole Package for details on how to unlock Hot Potato mode.

This is a bit of a trick trophy because in Hot Potato mode you can only perform Aerial Steals (see Grand Theft Aircraft). The best way to achieve this trophy is to get into a circular loop where you are flying vertically up over the carrier as the timer reaches 1, then manually eject with an enemy behind you. By manually ejecting, the plane won’t explode and will instead fall back down to land on the carrier deck. As you steal more and more planes, the ejected enemy pilots will also float down onto the carrier deck. Keep doing this and eventually one of the falling planes will land on one of the pilots running around on the carrier deck.

Score 50k or more in Rogue Ace mode

See The Whole Package for details on how to unlock Rogue Ace mode.

This isn’t as bad as it seems, especially since the update added a multiplier for all enemy kills that goes up to x10 as you approach and pass the enemy HQ. Simply progress right from your starting carrier, strafing ground units and destroying planes as you go. Use Aerial Steals to replenish fuel and ordnance as needed without the need to capture bases, although capturing bases is also viable.

When you reach the enemy HQ, you can destroy it (see The Head Of The Snake) to ‘win’ the mode which also doubles your score so as long you have 25,000 points or more the trophy will pop without further farming. If you do need to farm more score, the easiest method is to camp over an active enemy airfield and destroy planes as they take off.

Completed 50 missions in a single game

See All The Way.

Completed 100 missions in a single game

This is probably the single hardest trophy in the game. It requires you to survive 100 missions and destroy the enemy HQ. There isn’t much more advice that can be offered that hasn’t been given for one of the other trophies already. The only advice I would give is to take your time and watch out for the ground. Fly high but if you must go low, don’t boost.

Started a veteran campaign

See The Whole Package for details on how to unlock Veteran mode. Simply start a Veteran Campaign for this trophy to pop – it should unlock as soon as you appear on the carrier for take off.

Destroy the enemy’s HQ

Even though every Campaign map is randomly generated, there are two constants: the carrier and the enemy HQ. The map is really a big circle that loops back around to the carrier and halfway around that circle you will find the HQ. It’s very distinctive because it is a U-shaped piece of landscape, with a radar on top of the hill at either side. There are also 2 enemy airships patrolling the skies above it. It isn’t necessary to destroy the 2 airships but it will make your life easier if you do.

Inside the bowl of the U you will find 2 factories, a unique HQ building and a number of office buildings, as well as a load of ground units and turrets. Simply destroy all the buildings, including the two radars on the edge hills, to destroy the HQ. Use Aerial Steals to rearm without running back to base if need be.

Every military target in the game has a little flag next to it. When the target is considered destroyed, the flag will be lowered but this also applies to the HQ. If the flag isn’t lowering but you feel you’ve destroyed all the buildings, you probably need to hit at least one of them again (the factories on the shelves are the worst offenders). This trophy will pop as soon as the flag lowers.

By Infinite State Games