What exactly is an Ace? What does it mean to be Ace of Aces? These questions, and more, are explored in today’s Friday Feature.
To understand what an Ace is or what it means to be Ace of Aces, you first need to understand what a squadron is. It's basically a pilot faction, or NPC guild. It is a separate tree of missions, each of a different “tier” (which is like a level, or group of levels, perhaps in the mindset of 20-30, 30-40, etc). Each tier has 4 or 5 missions in it, and there are 5 total tiers in Ace of Aces (with Ace, or master pilot of that squadron, being the 5th tier). When you master a squadron, you are an “ace”.
*This pilot has mastered one squadron, and is an “ace” of that squadron.*
Next, you need to understand that there are 3 squadrons for each major faction (Imperial, Neutral, and Rebel). Three squadrons, per each of the three factions, equals nine total squadrons. Someone who “aces” (completes the squadron and is a Master Pilot of it) all 9 of these squadrons is considered an Ace of Aces and is awarded a title, a badge, and a hanger deed.
*This pilot has mastered all nine squadrons and is an “ace of aces”.*
*Starship Hanger Reward.*
The hanger uses 3 lots, holds 350 items (one of the best cost/lots ratios), and costs 26 credits per hour in maintenance (if you have a trader pay the maintenance this will drop 20% to 20 credits per hour). One of the really nice things about this house is that you can store at least 4 ships in it (outside of your normal ship allowance at the starship terminal), ready to be swapped out with the starship terminal ones (already geared up and ready to go). You can also display them inside the hanger, as if they were furniture.
*A Krayt displayed inside a hanger*
I know what you must be thinking. NINE times? Well, it’s not quite that intense. You see, there are some advantages to having mastered one pilot ace then moving to another. The two biggest are extra experience and preloading of ships.
Every time you master the first of one of the three main factions (Imperial, Neutral, Rebel) squadrons, you get 1x more experience. So, if we took them in that order, after your first Imperial squadron (first major faction), you’d get double experience, after your first Neutral one (second major faction), triple experience, and after your first Rebel (third major faction), quadruple experience! As you can imagine, that makes going through them much faster.
You also get the ability to preload ships. A preloaded ship simply means a ship that has parts and droids already preloaded on it, above the ability that you would normally have. You still have to wait until you are certified to fly that class of ship, but the parts and droid on the ship don’t matter. For example, when I do an Imperial run (all 3 of the Imperial squadrons), The first time, you have to do it the hard way (use tier 1 parts when you are tier 1, tier 2 when 2, and so on).
However, once I have mastered the first time, I can the “preload” my ships. I typically take a Heavy TIE (the 96k mass TIE) and a TIE Bomber, and set them up with the best parts and droid I can fit on them (at Master level). Then, when I reset and can use the TIE again, I’m flying a ship that is decked out with parts that are much higher level than I’d normally be able to put on it. Once I unlock Bomber, the same is true.
A word of warning on preloading though, if you remove a part that you aren’t yet certified for (a tier 4 part when you are tier 3, for example), you will be unable to add it back until you are certified for it again. I have done this, by accident, more times than I care to count.
The only catch to this is that only Imperials can fly Imperial ships. So, when I change to one of the other major factions, I’ll have to start over, meaning you have to do each of the three major factions, the hard way (tier 1 while tier 1, etc.), at least once each.
So which route is better? You could either Ace one of each major factions’ squadrons, then go right to the next major factions squadron (for the experience bonus), or you could do all three squadrons in a major faction (for the ability to preload). My personal favorite method is to do all three of one major squadron (and preload) first. As I find that the experience, even at just double, comes in fast enough to not be a burden for me. However, there is no “right” or “wrong” answer there. It’s entirely up to you.
I hope everyone now understands what it means to be an “ace” and an “ace of aces” better now. As you can see, even with these tricks, it’s still some hard work and dedication. You can understand why we’re so proud to be an “ace of aces”.
https://swg.fandom.com/wiki/Ace_of_Aces