Conquest mode

**Conquest mode** is one of the two gameplay modes in *Project Wingman*, alongside the campaign.

## Intro

Notice
Conquest will put your skills to the test from unrelenting waves of enemies.
Do your best to survive.

Disclaimer: May contain spoilers from the campaign.
This note will only appear once.

I understand

## Gameplay

The player starts in one of four territories (Beaver Bay, Acid Coast, City-29, or Jorgens Peak) on a map of Cascadia, and must capture all 43 territories occupied by the Pacific Federation. Each territory is taken by playing a mission on it, after which one or more connected territories (indicated by the arrows on the connecting lines) are unlocked. There are several mission types with different objectives, and all enemies here have points and plus signs on their HUD target boxes from a distance. Once the mission objective is completed, normal enemies stop spawning while a boss enemy squadron appears and must be defeated to complete the level. These boss squadrons give double the score points of regular enemies and will become regular spawns as the alert level escalates.

The player receives credits and sometimes cordium for completing each mission. These can be used to purchase allied fighters and airships which assist the player in combat and have greatly increased health or are invincible (the airships). The regular pilots (including the "Mercenary Pilots") and airships fly using CIF skins while the aces are all mercenaries.

An *Alert* gauge increments with time spent in each mission. When the gauge reaches its maximum level, the alert level rises by one (to a maximum of 30, aka "Red Alert") and the gauge resets. Higher alert levels result in more and stronger enemies spawning during missions, so completing objectives quickly is generally desirable. At higher levels, the player can expect to be inundated with enemies, making use of the PW-Mk.I and swiftly completing the objective almost mandatory. The alert gauge increase rate can be modified in the beginning, ranging from halved to normal to doubled to quadrupled.

Conquest uses a *permadeath* mechanic; the player can exit to menu at any time during a mission (this retains the alert level reached mid-mission), but if they are killed for any reason, the current playthrough ends and must be restarted.

While most boss units (including the last ones) spawn with the Federation stars intro recurrent in some campaign mission bosses, some have unique emblems displayed below.

### Hiring Den

It is worth noting that the ace-type allied fighters have a SAM attachment which allows them to fire backwards. In total, the player needs 479,000 credits and 42 cordium engines to purchase all allies and their upgrades.

### Loadout management

Aircraft unlocks in Conquest are separate from the campaign. The player starts with one aircraft (the T-21) and must unlock more using prestige earned by completing missions. Unlike credits, cordium, and allied aircraft, player aircraft unlocks and prestige are carried over between playthroughs.

### Mission types

Different missions have different target objectives:

* Score Attack: No specific targets; kill enemies to get points to reach the required threshold.
* Fleet Hunt: Airships
* Experimental Unit Sabotage: F/E-18s with special equipment
* Anti-Air Defense Suppression: AA guns, SAMs, C-RAMs, L-SAMs, radars, and railguns.
* Most Wanted: Ace squadrons
* Transport Hunt: C/T-17s

## Aces and bosses

### Standard aces

These aces may spawn as final bosses on occasion, but from Alert 10 onwards will spawn as regular, if not harder named enemies.

### Kickstarter aces

These aces are named after Kickstarter backers and will only spawn as final bosses. Some of them have individual TAC names.

There is also a Federation Strike Fleet final boss comprised of both airships and aces, a teaser at the final boss below.

 F/C-15 | 500
 Airship Battlegroup

### Final boss (Federation Airship Battlegroup - Task Force 01)

This assortment of PRIORITY targets spawns at the end of the forty-third and final territory mission.

 PW-MK.I | 2000
 Task Force 01

## Strategy

* It is advised to prioritize on air-to-air weapons when organizing your loadout, as the overwhelming majority of enemies you'll encounter are airborne. Unguided bombs can be rather difficult to use, especially when you are at high altitude and under heavy fire from multiple enemy fighters. MLAGs, while much easier to use, can still take up valuable hardpoint space. Also, STDMs are capable of destroying most ground based targets with just one hit, barring certain advanced enemy types like railgun turrets or large radars that requires two hits.
* Avoid flying at altitudes greater than 33,000 feet/10,000 meters. Go any higher and your plane's afterburner will cease functioning, making it impossible to accelerate over 600 km/h, which can be extremely problematic on high alert levels.
* Keep your distance when engaging large enemy aircraft such as I/A-52s, C/T-17s, FC-8s, or airships. When large aircraft are destroyed, their wreckage still have hitboxes, and crashing into them will bring your progression to an abrupt end.
	+ Be sure to keep an eye out for friendly airships as well, as due to enemy fighters' tendency to group around them, you may end up colliding with your own airships in a heated dogfight.
* Plan carefully which aircraft you'd want to spend your hard-earned prestige points on. Especially take into consideration whether the plane's handling characteristics and special weapons loadout matches your playstyle.
* When hiring wingmen and airships, sometimes quantity is better than quality. Even though lower-skilled wingmen may not be as effective as higher-tier wingmen, they are more affordable and can take much heat off from you. Friendly airships are invincible regardless of upgrades, and wingmen have vast HP to take cover in.
* Disengage when necessary. If you get stuck in a turn fight with a slippery enemy in an ungainly plane, it is recommended to switch targets and engage another enemy. This will help you save time and reach the target score threshold in Score Attack missions more quickly.
* Advise to take on missions with specific targets during low alert levels, as usually, these priority targets tend to be scattered across the airspace over great distances and it can be rather difficult to even reach them on high alert levels when so many enemy fighters are hot on your six.
* When on high alert levels (10 and greater), it is more advisable to focus more on finishing the objective than scoring as many kills as possible, or else you might be overwhelmed by the endless stream of constant reinforcements the Federation throws at you. Once the final boss squadron arrives on the scene, the reinforcements will stop.

## Regions

The region pictures are in order from left to right and up to down.

* **Acid Coast**
* **Sin Valley**
* **Area 39**
* **Area 85**
* **Hark Valley**
* **Karyovin**
* **Area 63**
* **Gold Bay**
* **Faren Island**
* **Lliama**
* **Beaver Bay**
* **Channel-294**
* **R20 Range**
* **Terran Blight**
* **Area 94**
* **USF-102**
* **Briggs Range**
* **Yorkland**
* **H-40**
* **Palter Range**
* **Trent Plains**
* **Salvemini**
* **City-29**
* **Ioii**
* **Solstitium**
* **Inertia**
* **Yellowstone**
* **Dempdar**
* **Prospero**
* **PF Zone**
* **Presidia**
* **Wensleydale**
* **Aitor**
* **Warden**
* **GA-12**
* **Momentum**
* **Area 49**
* **GA-23**
* **Jorgens Peak**
* **Angels Bridge**
* **P-49**
* **Bering Strait**

Acid CoastSin ValleyArea 39Area 85Hark ValleyKaryovinArea 63Gold BayFaren IslandLliamaBeaver BayChannel-294R20 RangeTerran BlightArea 94USF-102Briggs RangeYorklandH-40Palter RangeTrent PlainsSalveminiCity-29IoiiInertiaYellowstoneDempdarProsperoPF ZonePresidiaWensleydaleAitorWardenGA-12MomentumGA-23Jorgens PeakAngels BridgeP-49
## Victory and defeat messages

* Defeat
* Victory

**Killed in action**
Better luck next time

**Total victory**
Cascadia is yours

## Behind the scenes

According to the Gamescom 2019 interview, Conquest mode will have new content in the future. This is further evident by the demos and cut content stating there were originally going to be land battleships, naval ships, and tanks in the mode. Below is the following cut spawn rate for them:

## Trivia

* Matthew Nguyen has clarified that the region names in this mode are non-canon, and to an extent their borders. He also stated he would've written down Files Archive entries for the mode's aces and squadrons were it not for time constraints. Despite this setback, he promises to complete the remaining Conquest enemy ace emblems.
	+ He also said his favorite Conquest mode squadron is Donuts, solely because of its huge size and goofy name which he wished he had more of.

## References

1. ↑ I would like to note that the CQ sector names aren't like canon They're just names in a gameplay mode -Discord statement by Matthew Nguyen, December 27, 2020, 11:32 PM
2. ↑ If it were up to me I would've done one for every CQ Ace and Squadron but that would've taken an unbelievable amount of time pre-release -Discord statement by Matthew Nguyen, February 24, 2021, 10:04AM
3. ↑ One day we'll finish up emblems for the cq squadrons -Discord statement by Matthew Nguyen, June 30, 2022, 11:18AM
4. ↑ Nguyen, M. [FlyAwayNoVV]. (2022, 24 Mar). *One of my favorite bits about the CQ squadrons is that like, of all the effort and thought put into* [Comment on the online forum post *Halo Reach moment*]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/Project\_Wingman/comments/kdvr7l/comment/gg1o7y3