X-Wing | Y-Wing | A-Wing | B-Wing | All Four

Description: You fly solo against top ace Frigates.

Intent: In this mission you learn how to defeat varying stages of Frigate difficulty.

Enemy Craft:

1. Stationary - one, Top Ace
2. Mover - one, Top Ace
3. Circler - one, Top Ace
4. Attacker - one, Top Ace

Goal: Circler must be destroyed.

Time Limit: 45 minutes.

Setup: Each subsequent Frigate will enter on, or shortly thereafter, the destruction of the preceding one.

As you enter, the first Frigate will be stationary, but not disabled. Move directly behind it to a distance of 2.0 kilometers, line up as close as you can judge with the center of the engine array, and crawl in to a distance of 1.5 kilometers exactly. If you're in exactly the right position, Stander will not fire at you. Conversely, if it's firing at you, then you're not in the right position and you should turn around and try again. If you do have to make another attempt, you should be able to do so without taking damage as long as you're a little cautious.

Once you get into the right position, and you're sitting with your engines shut down, you should have noticed your laser targeting grid flash just before you became stationary. It is not lit up now, but don't worry about that at this time. Start firing. This is a Frigate's blind spot. It's the only one a Frigate has, and it's REAL hard to find at first.

Now, if you want to check to see that you actually are hitting the Frigate, hit the "C" key and start your on board recording system. Let it run a few seconds and shut it off. Stop firing and hit the "V" key so you can view what you just recorded. Switch the "Object" and "Track" both to the Frigate and maneuver the camera so that you are looking at it's engines which are point exactly at any right angle to your view point. Play the clip. You should be able to see and hear your lasers striking the hull of the Frigate. Switch out of the Clip Review and back to "real time", and continue firing until Stander is gone.

This is called the "Greedo Maneuver".

Set your speed to full and and go to meet the next incoming Frigate. The tactics will be the same for this one, except that instead of shutting you engines down, you will have to match speeds exactly with Mover. This is a pretty tough piece of work here because if you fall back at all, your lasers won't make it to the Frigate, but if you go any closer to it that 1.48 kilometers it will fire at you. You also have the added complication of staying exactly in the very small area of the Frigate's blind spot.

In any event, fire on Mover until it is gone. If you have the option of disabling it, do so.

When Mover is gone, Circler will enter. Using lasers only - save all your projectiles for Attacker - make your attack runs. Keep your runs fairly short and distant from Circler. It's not going anywhere and you've got plenty of time. Use ions if you have them when it's shields go down. If you don't have ions, then you'll just have to be persistent.

The key is not to be over-zealous. Continue making short attack runs from a distance and take as much time as you need. It helps if you can anticipate Circler's movements and "lead" it with your lasers, but that takes practice too. Don't worry about your accuracy - it's not going to be high no matter what you try to do, so just try to hit it with as many shots as you can.

If you have ions, you'll have to make one or two closer runs, but be real careful on these. A Y-Wing is pretty vulnerable.

When Circler is gone, Attacker will come in. This one is going to chase you, so run out to a safe distance and unload your entire compliment of torpedoes or missiles at it - the sooner you can get this one gone the better. Attack runs on Attacker are going to be short, because it's playing "chicken". It can afford to 'cause it's a whole lot bigger than you are. It's also going to try and serve you up like a tennis ace given half an opportunity. Or, given the general shape of a Frigate, imagine yourself the ball, and the golfer is going for an eagle on a par five! If you allow yourself to get close enough, it'll have plenty more than ample opportunity to get "up close and personal". Get it gone as quickly as you can while being cautious. Retreats to "safe distance" will take longer, and the inbound part of the run will take only about half as long. Disable it if you can. When it's gone, hyper out.

If you have any questions, please see Castor's "X-Wing Hints" page, "General Tactics and Strategies" chapter, "Frigates" section.

Good luck!