Ace Combat 8 Mission 9: stop the Land Battleship

Prepare for exposed ground targets

Bring an available ground-attack weapon and keep ordinary missiles for individual components. PowerPyx uses FA-36/SOD, but that is a replay loadout, not an aircraft you must already own for a first clear. Its route first removes point-defense guns that interfere with attacks. Check the actual selected component; target-selection checks can help when the hull hides the intended label.

George Yang’s June preview independently describes protecting friendly units while they open the track armor. It calls those units drones; the retail walkthrough calls them bomb trucks. Use the current HUD and radio labels rather than treating the preview wording as a separate retail objective.

Protect the trucks, then destroy exposed treads

1. Reduce the battleship’s bow guns and watch for newly launched quadcopters.
2. Intercept those UAVs before they destroy the friendly trucks.
3. Let the trucks reach the track armor: the launch route reports four detonations per side.
4. Attack the exposed secondary treads with missiles. Opening armor and destroying a tread are different steps.

There are two slowdown lines in that walkthrough. If trucks repeatedly die, the next attempt should focus on the threats killing them, rather than spending the opening on hull damage. If your lock is on a finished component, break away and reacquire the remaining marked target with room to maneuver.

React to the demolition and propulsion phases

After the tread phase, watch for reactivated weapons and fresh UAVs. When Deathless Leader announces the demolition change, attack the three designated buildings before the battleship passes them. The source reports multiple hits per building.

The last described escape uses rockets. Destroy both port-side thrusters; continue attacking the surviving one after the first disappears. Confirm the mission-completion/result screen before treating the sortie as finished. The checked route does not supply a universal missile count or invulnerability timer.

A first clear and Judex collection are different goals

The separate PowerPyx ace directory places Judex after destroying all eight secondary treads before the second slowdown line. That is stricter than merely opening the armor. For a record attempt, use the named-ace directory and its difficulty/completion conditions; retain your result if the reported trigger does not produce the target.

For a first clear, prioritize surviving trucks and the current operation instead of adding a collection detour. For S rank, keep the difficulty, checkpoints and result screen comparable. This page does not establish a score cutoff, a medal condition or a guaranteed S loadout.