Whale


 * "Hoo boy, you owe me a drink after that one!"
 * —Whale's pilot, having a whale of a time

Whale, also referred to by the much sillier title Attack Whale, is a non-playable vehicle that the Air Raider can call on for artillery support in Earth Defense Force 2025 and Earth Defense Force 4.1: The Shadow of New Despair. In the English versions, the pilot is voiced by Patrick Seitz.

Description
Seemingly an AC-130-like gunship aircraft, Whale is said to "always be circling the skies" over areas where Storm Team is engaged in combat, and is repeatedly said to be armed with rockets, Vulcan cannons and a 120mm cannon, though according to the Air Raider's unlocks it also has an extremely anaemic 105mm cannon and a more powerful 150mm cannon that the pilot doesn't like to talk about as much.

While strikes from Whale are available as soon as an Air Raider unlocks a strike that uses it, the aircraft is first mentioned in mission 6: Underground Cave. HQ orders it to be sent in following the abandonment of the assault on the underground insect nest, to deal with Spiders coming to the surface. Whale's pilot introduces himself in the next mission, Eruption.

Whale is rarely seen firing in scripted events, since the EDF tends to prefer to use Charon for such things. In 2025 it fires multiple 150mm Cannon shots at the beginning of Brute Force, though these strikes are removed in 4.1, presumably because the mission's added NPC E551 Gigantus and E651 Titan tanks provide enough supporting fire already. It also attacks a group of Deroys with its 120mm cannon at the end of Mountains Ablaze.

While Whale is a flying fortress, it is not able to take on other aircraft and is sometimes forced to withdraw from combat, such as when a huge force of Drones is deployed during Brute Force. It is almost destroyed by Dragons during City of Horror, but manages to retreat to operate from the Fortress Aircraft Carrier Despina.

Gunfire Strikes
Whale's gunfire comes down at a steep diagonal angle seemingly chosen at random; the angle remains the same throughout the strike if it fires more than one shot.

Whale's strikes were all directed by throwing a smoke grenade in EDF 2025, but in 4.1 the single-shot attacks in particular are substantially improved by switching to a marker fired from a modified Limpet Gun, which can be placed extremely accurately even at a long distance, and vastly increases the effective range of the cannon strikes. Due to the very small blast area of the single-shot strikes, this is an enormous advantage.

Artillery
Prolonged fire support with Whale's Vulcan cannons, saturating a narrow target area with fire. Reasonable splash damage and low per-hit damage make this primarily suited to attacking weaker enemies, but the total damage is very high if something is willing to stay still for it. Dropping the strike on top of a Tunnel Exit is a good way to deal with anything coming out of it for a while and often deals enough damage to destroy the exit itself. Low cost means the strike will often score enough kills to reload itself if aimed well.

105 / 120mm cannon
Powerful and cheap strike hitting a narrower area than the Artillery Team strikes, with moderate overall damage and fairly large splash.

150mm Cannon
A single powerful shot from the cannon the pilot doesn't like to talk about, with minimal splash but massive direct damage and a piercing effect. Incredibly cheap, hard to use in 2025 and very easy to use in 4.1. In 2025 it claimed to have a splash radius of 0 in its description, but actually had 12 metres like 4.1.

Missile Strikes
See Fortress Aircraft Carrier Despina for the rest of this series of strikes.

The missiles used in these strikes use a Guide Kit marker and are fired from one edge of the map to pass over the initially targeted area horizontally; they will not turn down to face the target unless the Air Raider holds the laser on it, and will simply fly off the other end of the map and be wasted.

AH Missiles
These are the weak end of a series of strikes that concludes with Despina's more powerful options, and are only really usable or useful on Easy, though AH Coastal Missiles does very respectable damage for the level. The High-Speed Missile Group sacrifices per-shot power for a larger number of missiles; these are fired over a prolonged period, allowing for adjustment of targets as enemies are destroyed. The AH Missiles are followed up on by Despina's N-Series Coastal Missiles, while the High-Speed Missile Group is followed up on by her Lionic missiles.

It may also fire this
Going by the sound cues, Whale somehow also launches the 100-metre long Tempest S1A ICBM, even though the description claims that Despina launches that, and so this strike is replicated there. It uses a Guide Kit marker. The logistics of Whale firing it are best not considered.

Trivia

 * Given the name "attack whale," it is quite likely the intended name is "Killer Whale" or just "Orca."
 * "Coastal" is a mistranslation, it should be "cruise" missile.
 * In the Japanese version the "Artillery" strikes are just called "Cannon," which is also the name of an Artillery Team strike. The change makes things less confusing, but "Artillery" is really not a correct way to refer to direct-fire Vulcan cannons.