Extra Ops/Task Force

Task Force

*Task Force main theme.*

**Task Force** is a new type of Extra Ops introduced in *Metal Slug Attack*, first appearing with the 4.9.0 update.

Task Force only offers the Super Rare unit - this means it does not possess any team bonuses to lower its AP costs. It is a fairly rewarding Extra Ops that should be completed in full, as Task Force units are often very powerful, especially when used by a faction player. Other rewards include Status Strengthening items, medals, items for an Ultimate Boss' skill 3 and 4 slots, and large amounts of unit parts that can be converted into Mars Coins.

During the time Task Force is active, participating in one stage will yield 100 TF Crank Keys.

## Gameplay

### Missions

Task Force comes in three difficulties; Normal, Hard and Hell missions. Each mission contains 10 stages; nine normal stages and the final boss stage. During the first run of each difficulty, no sorties are consumed, and the primary expert is a rental for all of the stages. A one-time reward of 100 medals is also obtained upon clearing each difficulty.

Players can set up to twelve (originally five in Task Force 1st) different decks to meet accordingly to the bonuses. The pickup and previous EO unit simply provide a minor crank key bonus, while meeting specific requirements adds an additional crank key bonus alongside an attack increase for all units being used by the player for that mission.

There are ten static deck bonuses:

* Regular Army
* Rebel Army
* Ptolemaic Army
* Space Army
* Independent Army
* Normal Units
* Rare Units
* Super Rare Units
* Deck possessing 5000-9000 total AP
* Deck possessing 10000+ total AP

Each Task Force also possesses two "variable" bonuses which change from time to time, focusing on units with notable themes.

Once the player starts a mission, they cannot change the deck until it is completed or the player withdraws, but the support system can be changed. Experts only last for one stage. During the first try of each difficulty, the expert persists for the whole run, and no sorties are consumed.

In each mission there are also several events that are rolled in each level, except the boss stage. Rentals, along with pre-acquisition units (the newly introduced Super Rare and Rare unit) are not affected by negative events, and can be used on any deck regardless of its requirements to benefit from the bonuses. Use of a mobile satellite removes four of the six potential events, leaving only two to be rolled. The mission debriefing does not list all potential enemies that can be encountered in the stage.

Negative statuses are removed after the mission is over. All stages follow a specific theme, and for both the generic battle and boss fights contains enemies of one faction.

After completion of each stage, the player is awarded with an appropriate amount of TF Crank Keys, upon which bonuses from experts, faction, specific units and multipliers are factored in. In the next stage, the player must decide whether to retreat or continue. Retreating allows the player to keep their accumulated keys without penalty. Continuing allows the player to obtain more TF Crank Keys. If they lose in the next stage, they can spend medals to re-attempt the stage (much like other player vs. AI encounters), or give up, the latter resulting in most of the acquired keys being lost. Force retreating will result in the same scenario.

At the end of each successful mission run, the player will obtain bonuses to increase the effects of specific deck themes. There are 50 points in each run, regardless of difficulty, the first, along with the fourth to ninth stages, always add 5 points. The second and third stage add 2 and 3 points respectively, while the boss stage gives 10 points. These points are distributed to any deck theme bonus that isn't maxed out.

If any deck theme bonuses were used in the mission run, they're automatically reverted to level 1. They will also not get any deck point boosts even if they aren't maxed out.

The cheapest, most efficient way to acquire keys is to fill out all of the boosts in Normal mode, then select from as many bonuses as desired and attempt a hard/hell run respectively. This saves a significant amount of sorties and decreases the effective cost rate of keys as there is nearly no difference between completing unboosted normal runs to hard or hell runs. Ideally the player should use faction, Super Rare and 10,000+ AP bonuses as this yields 390% keys and 1200% attack bonus. If this is not possible, select other bonuses, although this is the most effective for players lacking the premium and/or pre-acquisition unit. If in a guild, guildmates' soldier camps can prove useful for providing a cheap and effective unit; otherwise, AP maxes will be required.

**Raiding is highly discouraged as it yields very little keys, even with high bonuses.**

### TF Box Crank

The TF Crank Keys are used to participate in the TF Box Crank. For every 10 keys the player acquires, they can perform one roll on the TF Box Crank. Up to 100 pulls can be performed at a time if the player has the appropriate amount of keys. Genies appear only when the player pulls for the featured items, but on 100 pulls they won't make an appearance if the parts are received after the first pool.

There are 11 "stages" in the TF Box Crank, with stage 1 being the lowest and stage 11 being the highest. Stage 1 starts off at 100 reward, increasing by 50 on every stage after that, capping at 650 rewards at stage 11.

In order to advance to the next stage of the TF Box Crank, the player must have obtained all rewards from the "HOT!!!" (featured) section. The player may then reset the box to advance to the next stage, or in the case of stage 11, refill the contents again. The box is automatically reset if it has been completely emptied.

Note that for stages 1-10, the featured rewards are parts of the Task Force boss; status strengthening, ultimate items and medals are not part of the featured items. The player should not skip out of these rewards as they are very useful unless they are certain they do not need it.

Stages 1-10 provide parts of the featured Extra Ops unit (the first one having 80, then the rest having 25-30 parts), alongside various Super Rare, Rare and Normal rarity units, the pool of these which gradually increase in the further stages. Each stage also possesses a section containing a single set of all currently available Status strengthening items and MSP. Stages 1-10 also have a single 100 medal reward. Starting from stage 8 , the boss' skill 4 items are obtainable, and the boss' skill 5 items become available at stage 10.

Starting from Task Force 7th, some stages provide items for the Ultimate Boss - Ultimate Wines at stages 2, 4 and 6, and Ultimate Phones at stages 8, 9 and 10. This should not be missed by players seeking to use Ultimate Bosses.

Starting from Task Force 8th, a skip feature was added to bypass the cranking animation for mass pulls.

Upon reaching specific milestones players are also rewarded with an icon of the featured Task Force unit and poison/seal resistance status items.