Preventing Landfall

Preventing Landfall is the fourteenth mission in Earth Defense Force 2025 and Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair. It introduces Hectors and airstrikes from the Charon Tactical Bomber, is the first to take place on the Beach map, and includes the first mention of Quadruped Fortresses.

Objective
2025: We have confirmation that the mothership is travelling offshore. The mothership has dropped several Hectors, a walking battle troop, and they are attempting to make landfall. We'll set up a shore defense and coordinate with aerial troops for support from the air.

4.1: We have confirmation that the mothership is traveling offshore, and have dropped several 'Hectors' -- walking battle soldiers -- that are attempting to make landfall. We'll set up a shore defense and coordinate with aerial troops for support from above.

Storyline
HQ kicks things off by ordering all EDF troops to commence attack, which leads to a wave of confirmations from the large number of EDF units present. After most of the Flying Drones are in pieces and the Mothership has decided that discretion is the better part of valor, the Tactics Officer calls in with a notification that the Air Force will arrive momentarily.

As the EDF deals with the first group of Hectors, the Tactics Officer warns that many more are approaching, and HQ, back to his usual ways, repeats her warning and asks the EDF if they are ready, with several calling in variations on "affirmative."

However, the Tactics Officer calls back in to notify that Charon Tactical Bombers are approaching, and HQ calls in that the air raid is beginning. One of the Charon pilots, Bomber 4, confirms their approach, and seconds later bombs rain down on part of the approaching group of Hectors. The Tactics Officer calls "Impact! We defeated the enemy!" to which HQ responds "Well done!" apparently assuming she did it herself.

The Tactics Officer calls in that air raids are commencing again, and HQ, making things up as he goes along, tells the EDF troops that there is one more air raid, and that they should distance themselves from the enemy. This raid smashes the left side of the beach, to jubilant calls from the EDF troops.

The Tactics Officer counts down for the actual final air raid, afterwards summarising that they caused a lot of damage. HQ, wary the air raids will now continue indefinitely, tells the ground units they they have Air Force support and are not alone, neither of which is true anymore.

As the EDF defeat the remaining Hectors themselves, the Tactics Officer calls in that Motherships all over the world are dropping giant weapons. HQ, sounding like he just woke up, responds "what did you say?" and the Tactics Officer, with just the slightest hint of exasperation, adds that they are Quadruped Fortresses, and are already heading to this area. HQ, going two for two on remembering things, explains that the Quadruped Fortress is the biggest and strongest of "Ravager's" land weapons, a terrifying opponent but one that the EDF succeeded in destroying in "the fight" eight years ago, concluding "It's an opponent we can kill!"

4.1 Changes
Aside from taking place during a glorious sunset rather than an overcast day, the starting point is now at the opposite end of the Beach map. More importantly, the NPC force now includes six E551 Gigantus main battle tanks that will drive out onto the beach, forming up in groups of two at intervals with the EDF troops scattered around them.

Enemies
Both versions:

1 wave of Flying Drones, 40

2 waves of Hectors, 7 and 11 (first wave all Particle Gatling Gun + Spark Launcher, second wave includes 2 x Particle Gun and 2 x Spark Launcher)

Mothership (invincible)

2025
This mission features the largest number of allies seen yet, mostly basic Rangers with assault rifles but also including two units of Wing Divers, two units of Rangers with Stingray rocket launchers, some Rangers rather curiously armed with shotguns, and a pair of sniper teams. All of these units can be recruited.

The mission starts with the Mothership present, having apparently already deployed a fairly large group of Flying Drones, but it leaves almost as soon as the level begins. The Drones will attack immediately, but the NPCs are fairly good at dealing with them and even without the player's input they will all be destroyed quickly, just in time for the first group of robots to get within range.

The Hectors ("Walking Arms" in the Japanese version) are new for this level. They are large, gangly silver robots which mount weapons on the ends of their two noodly arms, and are much tougher than any armed enemy seen so far. While they have a "head" which folds in and out of their upper body, this does not appear to be a weak point and hitting it does no more damage than hitting the Hector anywhere else. Hectors will walk in range of a suitable target and then will walk backwards and forwards firing at it until it is destroyed.

All of the initial group of Hectors are armed with the machine's most basic combination of weapons; the "Particle Gatling Gun," a large machine gun that rapidly fires blue energy bolts which can stunlock characters, particularly Wing Divers, and a stubbier orange-glowing "Spark Launcher" that fires a spread of slow-moving red-orange explosive projectiles which will knock targets off their feet and have a small blast radius. On higher difficulties the Spark Launcher fires faster and in longer bursts, with a tighter spread, and it is possible to be juggled for multiple hits if the player character hits another bolt in mid-air after being knocked off the ground by the first.

Hectors with these basic weapons are best fought at long range where they cannot use their short-ranged Particle Gun and have trouble hitting anything with their inaccurate Spark Launcher. As a result, bringing high-powered long range weapons like the Ranger's Lysander or Stringer sniper rifles (at lower difficulty levels his Air Tortoise is surprisingly effective against Hectors too), the Wing Diver's MONSTER or Raijin sniper rifles or Plasma Cannons, the Air Raider's Epsilon Armored Railgun or the Fencer's Hand-Cannons, is the safest way to defeat them. The Hectors tend to stand close together, so penetrating weapons will often be able to damage more than one with each shot.

Hectors are also very easily semi-stunlocked by rapid-fire weapons: they will keep moving, but flinch and be unable to point their arms at an enemy shooting them constantly with any reasonably powerful weapon.

A Hector usually drops around three items when it is destroyed; it will fall to the ground or break apart, then a few seconds later explode spectacularly.

After the first wave of Hectors is disposed of, a second will appear, but at this point the EDF will launch a series of airstrikes that will thin out their numbers considerably, though unfortunately also leave a lot of items in deep water where it is impossible to retrieve them. There are three bombing runs, two targeting the distant Hectors and one along the left side of the beach where a group are sneaking ashore on the flank.

The bombing runs will likely leave a good few Hectors still up and about. The group on the left are more dangerous since they all have twin Spark Launchers, while the ones on the right mostly have twin Particle Guns.

One minor but useful note is that if items are underwater near to the beach and too deep to be visible, it is still possible to see what they are by tilting the camera upwards while in shallow water so it is partially below the water. A character can collect things very slightly deeper than their character model, and it is possible to collect items too deep to get from the surface by dropping onto them from the air if playing as a Wing Diver or a Fencer with a back-thruster weapon.

4.1 Strategy and Weapon Farming
This is fundamentally the same mission only vastly easier; all the same tactics apply. In fact, with the addition of six tanks which can easily deal with all of the Hectors, Preventing Landfall replaces Air Force as 4.1's "mission that will beat itself even on Inferno." As a result, the power-levelling strategies for 2025 in the article for Air Force now use this mission instead.

With an underlevelled character on Inferno it is wise to back up and hide near the path that leads to the map border, or jump up into the treeline with Fencer or Wing Diver, since sometimes Drones will break off from the main group to attack Storm Team even there. It is a good idea to bring a high-damage weapon just in case, since an Inferno-level Drone can kill a character with near-starting health instantly. Once the Drones are gone, it is safe to move near the top of the beach and wait for all the Hectors on the left to be destroyed. When they are gone, the player should rush down to grab items and retreat before the second wave arrives; an Air Raider should bring something reasonably fast like an Armored Vehicle Grape (and not like an SDL1 unless they do not want the items). It is necessary to retreat before the second wave arrives, and it is not safe to return to grab items until the only remaining Hectors are on the opposite end of the beach.

This is only really difficult for a Ranger, since they only have rolling to get around, and in this case it is better if the player uses split-screen co-op and has the other character as an Air Raider to provide a vehicle for the Ranger.