Summary
The Air Raider is an interesting classin theEarth Defense Forcegames, for a variety of reasons. First, at a glance, this class appears to be incredibly similar to the Ranger class (though this isn’t actually true). Second, inEarth Defence Force 6specifically, the Air Raider’s abilities are limited for around the first 14 missions or so.
And third, the Air Raider is a class all about calling in drones, bombing strikes, missile strikes, laser bombardments, and more. And, because the Air Raider has such a wide variety of gadgets, weapons, drones, call-ins, and vehicles, the best weapons at its disposal are very different from one another. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the best weapons for the Air Raider overall inEarth Defense Force 6, and elaborate on exactly whythey’re so worth farming for.
Because most of the ‘best weapons’ for any class inEDF6require beating the game and reaching some of the hardest missions on the Inferno difficulty, we’ll be talking about both the high-level weapon and the weaker variants of it, so players can know which weapons are best while leveling up as well.
10N1Y Silent Copter (Sniper) Drone
Amazing Single Target Damage
First up is one of the drone weapons available to the Air Raider, the N1Y Sniper Copter. The Sniper Copter, Machine Gun Copters, and all the other ‘copter’ type drone weapons are pretty interesting overall. Essentially, the player has a gun that fires a tracking beacon, and when that tracking beacon is fired and sticks to something, drones flying around the Air Raider (while they have this weapon out) will then fly to the said beacon and unload on it before flying back.
What each copter drone does, its maximum range and its utility differs from drone to drone obviously, but the Sniper Copter especially is incredible for single-targets or for picking off enemies across the map. The only difference between the basic Silent Copter and the N1Y high-level one is the raw damage and flight speed of the drone, so any variant of this weapon is pretty useful.
9Spritefall Super Destroy
Devastating Area Clear
There are a couple of different call-ins available to the Air Raider which literally call in gigantic laser beams from orbit, and the Spritefall is one of them. All variants of the Spritefall weapon are useful and are some of the best area-clearing tools in the game for the Air Raider, provided they can kite the enemies into the Spritefall’s area of effect and they have backup weapons to use while the Spritefall recharges.
Yes, the Air Raider has access to a lot of other area-clearing weapons and call-ins, but none of them are as immediate as the Sprite Fall is, and the damage of the lasers, overall, is high enough to typically take out whatever basic mob it hits while other options might not do as well.
8Bulge Laser Beam Mode Z
One of the Air Raider’s Best Tools
The Bulge Laser, at really any level or variant, is one of the Air Raider’s best tools. This is essentially a large laser beam that is constantly firing at the area the Air Raider designates. It lasts an absurdly long time and can be moved by switching back to the weapon and re-pointing the designator at something else, or players can just set it and forget it, it really does it all.
And, the Bulge Laser Beam Mode Z is just the strongest version of this, being able to clear swathes of bugs, robots, and frog-aliens, all without much effort at all. Seriously, do not sleep on the Bulge Laser, it’s not only a fun weapon to use, but just a great weapon to always have on standby.
7Deathbird M4 Gas Drone
Area Denial, Area of Effect, & Damage All-in-One
Gas weapons in theEDFgames have sort of been pretty extreme in the sense that they’re either extremely good or extremely bad. When it comes to the Deathbird M4 Gas, it thankfully can be described as ‘extremely good’. To sum up why this weapon is worth using in as few words as possible, it has damage and area denial. In the laterEDF6missions, it can be incredibly easy to get surrounded, snuck up on, or flanked by enemies on all sides.
In those scenarios, what players need the most is the ability to keep enemies on multiple sides of them occupied at the same time. Playing in a group is great for this, but even then it can be rough. The Deathbird M4 Gas is another solution that allows theAir Raider to complete a lot of the hardest missions solo, as it discharges a gigantic area of pink gas that deals constant damage to anything in its range, has no upper limit or limit to how many enemies it can affect at once, and tend to keep enemies constantly locked down due to their stagger animations.
6Tempest ATS Missile
Just an Absurdly Large Missile
The Tempest ATS is what would happen if someone atEDFHQ said “Why should we send a bunch of smaller missiles? Why not just send one giant one?” and then people took that comment seriously. This is quite literally an absurdly large missile that takes forever to fly in, but once it makes contact it has a gigantic area of effect and easily deals 300,000+ damage to anything in the blast zone.
This is a weapon best used for clearing nests, absolutely demolishing incoming waves of enemies (as long as the player starts designating the target before the enemies have a chance to land/move), or for one-shotting some of the biggest and most elite enemies in the game. Granted, it can’t be undersold just how long players will need to wait after designating the target for the missile to actually fly in and make contact, but as long as the target doesn’t move the Air Raider can just designate it until the missile is fired and then use other weapons or focus on other things while the missile flies in.
5Heavy Bomber Phobos Z Plan 4
Rain Fire Down Upon the Insect Invaders
As for the last weapon on here that isn’t a vehicle, let’s take a look at the Heavy Bomber Phobos Z Plan 4, which is somehow more ridiculous in terms of overkill than the Tempest ATS is. Now, a reader might be asking “How could it possibly be more ridiculous than using a missile the size of a large building for one strike?” and that’s a fair question. However, once they see the Heavy Bomber Phobos Z Plan 4 in action, it’ll become immediately clear.
Essentially, while using this weapon, the Air Raider holds the fire button to zoom the map out and designate the area they want this bombing run to cover. Then, after letting go of said fire button, the bombing run begins, andthe sheer amount of explosions on-screenwhen it does can absolutely tank a player’s frame rate for the next 10-20 seconds. Truly this call-in is the definition of a ‘scorched earth’ type of option, which is exactly why it has such a long recharge time.
4Caliban Armored Rescue Vehicle
Transportation & Support in One Loud Vehicle
Moving on to the vehicles, which are just as iconic to the Air Raider as their call-ins and drones are. The Air Raider gains access to a lot of different vehicle summons, but the Caliban Armored Rescue Vehicle is almost always worth using,especially when playing with multiple people. The reason for this is simple, it’s a vehicle that heals players who hop into the back of it. Granted, it doesn’t have an infinite healing capacity, but it usually has enough to heal up to 2-3 players who are almost dead.
Additionally, this vehicle can be used to get around the map relatively quickly, allowing anyone on any class to hop into it for a free ride. It has virtually no attack capabilities, which can be a bit tough to adjust to, but as far as utility goes, there’s no better vehicle summon available.
3Depth Crawler Custom (Vehicle)
Better Than People Make it Out to Be
The Depth Crawler Custom is the first offense-focused vehicle on here, and it’s even more unique in that its primary use is in underground missions. However, while this thing is an amazing tool underground, it’s also pretty helpful in any aboveground mission due to its mobility, decent damage, and low cost of summoning.
To go a bit more into what this vehicle actually is, the Depth Crawler Custom is a 4-legged spider-like vehicle that has the ability to climb any and all terrain as well as leap when needed. Overall even the basic Blacker Tanks will be more efficient at killing, but the Depth Crawler is a lot more likely to last when under duress and can be used in a variety of ways, which is exactly why it got the spot on here.
2B651 Titan M3 (Vehicle)
A Three-Soldier Fortress of Pure Destruction
The Titan M3 is up next, and it’s pretty much the best Tank the Air Raider will get access to. For the majority of their playtime, the Air Raider will be using different variations of the Blacker Tank, but once they get the Titan M3 it’s hard to ever go back. Not only does this vehicle have multiple seats making it a lot of fun to use when playing with friends, but the power its main gun outputs is just ridiculous (so much so that firing it actually sends the tank backward a bit each time).
Outside of that the B651 Titan M3 also has two side seats that give the player inside access to auto-locking homing missiles as well as a powerful energy projectile. All-in-all this Tank just has pretty much everything anEDF6player would need from a vehicle, with the only real downside being how weighty and slow it is overall.
1Special Vehicle Warbalga
The Ultimate Air Raider Vehicle Summon
And finally, it wouldn’t be a list of Air Raider weapons and vehicles without talking about the giant mech. In past games, this was the Walking Fortress Balam but inEDF6Air Raiders now have the Warbalga, which is essentially the brawler version of a giant mech. This thing has no ranged options, which might sound awful, but because of its sheer size andthe absurd amount of Armor it has, it’s very easy to just walk up and punch, slam, or jump on anything that needs to be killed.
The damage this mech puts out is astronomical, as one would expect, but it takes an equally astronomical amount of Request Points to even call it in, so don’t try using it on any mission that seems like it’ll be short. However, if it does manage to get called in, the Warbalga almost guarantees that the Air Raider will clear the mission, though that still depends on the Air Raiders themselves and how well they use this weapon of mass destruction.
