Retaliation

Retaliation is the eighth mission in Earth Defense Force 2025 and Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair. It is the first to take place in the City Outskirts map, and includes the first proper mention of the Ravagers.

Objective
2025: Ranger team is fighting a gigantic creature in the residential area. Head out and support.

4.1: Giant insects have shown up in a residential area. EDF soldiers are already engaged in battle there. Please head out to the scene.

Storyline
HQ kicks things off as usual by ordering Storm Team to back up a Ranger team already engaged in battle. Things then get into gear as Aurora Situation Report chips in and identifies what the "information" that leaked in the previous mission was: multiple Ravager Motherships have been detected on the surface of the Moon. The reporter complains about the EDF hiding this information, but says the important thing is that the world is threatened again.

Ohara ponders the coincidence of giant insect activity resuming just as the Ravagers returned, wondering what influence the two have on each other and again implying he was asleep for the entire 2017 war. Aurora's reporter makes the same connection between the giant insect activity and the return of the Ravagers a few seconds later, proving herself a much better Ravager Researcher than Ohara is.

Aurora's reporter continues that the leaked information shows that there are ten Motherships on the Moon, a force ten times the size of that in the 2017 invasion, and wonders if even the EDF can deal with it.

The Tactics Officer speaks up, saying there is an emergency transmission from Command HQ that the Ravager fleet is on the move. This surprises HQ, who is apparently not the same thing as Command HQ, and he wonders aloud who has the means to fight ten Motherships.

The Operator cheerfully interrupts his defeatist muttering with a notification that tracking stations across the world have locked on the the Ravager fleet and all Tempest missiles are ready to launch. Not to be outdone, the Tactics Officer adds that the Equator Linear Cannon's startup sequence has commenced, and they will aim for the Motherships' atmospheric entry; a legitimately good idea since the heat would blind their sensors and prevent the detection of approaching missiles.

HQ grumbles that the EDF still cannot expect to destroy them all, adding "this is gonna be Hell."

4.1 Changes
The mission's location has been changed significantly, now starting on the opposite side of the map next to the trench and taking place entirely on the "town" side. There are technically only two waves, but a group of ten Spiders in the first wave are always active at the start of the mission while the remainder are not, and so it plays as a 10-Spider mini-wave and an 80-Spider wave rather than a single 90-Spider wave.

The "second" wave spawns all across the town area and the final wave spawns all along the trench, where the second wave did in 2025. Both waves contain more Spiders, with the second wave having twice as many and the final wave more than twice as many. Neither of the final two waves are accompanied by civilians, although on the plus side this does mean they do not spawn aggro'd by the inconsiderate and creepy actions of the civilians.

There are also more NPCs: four extra units of Rangers, two with shotguns (and the first group now have shotguns as well instead of assault rifles), one with sniper rifles and one with rocket launchers, a unit of Fencers, and a unit of Wing Divers have been added; they appear when the player moves into a preassigned area, dotted throughout the town area, and are all recruitable. There are a total of 22 EDF NPCs in the town and 6 in the group right ahead of the starting location. These are important since the mission now contains far more Spiders and these groups help to spread them out and deal with them.

Enemies
2025:

3 waves of Spiders, 20, 40, 33

4.1:

3 waves of Spiders, 10, 80, 80

2025
In 2025 this is a simple and straightforward mission that feels like a continuation of Eruption, and is easily handled using the same tactics that worked there. The only new difficulty comes in the very wide second wave that spawns quite nearby, which virtually guarantees that Storm Team will be attacked from the front and sides at the same time and requires a careful eye on the radar, though some helpful civilians spawn in to distract them at least a little. The final wave is actually easier to deal with than the second wave, being small and all coming from the same direction, and also spawning with a group of civilians directly in front of them which will occupy most of their attention.

City Outskirts consists of distinct "city" and "town" areas divided by a deep trench containing an ornamental stream, crossed with several bridges. This mission begins in the town area, then has Spiders spawn along the line of the trench, then spawns a final group in the city area, in a plaza in the shadow of the enormous Space Needle-like structure. It is worth noting for future reference that the third Tunnel Exit in Land Collapse will be located in the middle of this plaza.

As before, an area-effect weapon and a close-range weapon are a good combination; a Fencer will have a good time using High-Altitude Impact Missiles in this mission if they have them, and these can be used to destroy the final wave before even going near it.

Players should be sure to bring an explosive weapon so they are not disappointed at being unable to blow up the Space Needle the first time they encounter it.

4.1
This is a much trickier mission in 4.1 given the ridiculous shotgun blast of spiders that forms the second wave and the lack of civilians. The spiders in the second wave start out not alerted, and will tend to cluster around the six new EDF teams spread across the town with only the nearest part of the group attacking Storm Team and their accompanying Rangers. The idea of the new spawns is that they will appear between Storm Team and groups of Spiders as they clear out the town, but Spiders will tend to randomly detach from groups menacing EDF soldiers to attack from unexpected angles.

There is a lot more close-range combat in this mission, but Fencer High-Altitude Impact Missiles are still effective at softening up the second wave and thinning out the third a little. Dispersal Mortars are probably better since they will flatten large areas of the town and make engaging the Spiders with direct-fire weapons easier; as long as the Fencer remains near where the first group of Spiders was fought, the EDF reinforcements will not appear and he can obliterate the town without harming allies. A Buster-type BM03 Vegalta or one of the Ranger's Stampede grenade launchers are good here for the same reason, and a Wing Diver can manage the same thing with something like the M30 Plasma Launcher.

The third wave is enormous and difficult to funnel into something manageable, so it is best to recruit as many EDF troops as possible to at least give them more things to shoot at; the Wing Divers are particularly good at distracting them. It should be noted, however, that the final wave, like the second, does not spawn alerted and will hang around in the vicinity of the trench until Storm Team comes near; they seem to even ignore the Wing Diver unit if it has appeared. Attacking one end of the group can sometimes split the wave with only part of it becoming aggro'd.

A wide-angle weapon that can hit many Spiders at once like a Wing Diver's Thunder Bow is effective here. Using one of the Air Raider's straight-forward Bombing Plans from the bridge where the Wing Divers are found or throwing the marker for Bombing Plan C or E into the trench will devastate the third wave if done quickly enough after they spawn in.