ACE COMBAT 8 Endgame Guide: Aces and Post-Campaign Content

At a glance

ACE COMBAT 8 keeps counting after the credits, and the clearest official record of what is left is the game's own achievement list. It sets targets for a completed campaign on ACE difficulty, for 16,000,000 and 25,000,000 MRP accumulated in total, for owning every aircraft, special weapon and upgrade part, for all assault records, and for ten medals. Those are published achievement conditions written by the developer, not descriptions of how the endgame plays.

Two limits belong in the first screen. There is no New Game+ mode announced or documented for this game — what the list points at is replay and accumulation rather than a second story pass. And the endgame advice that circulates most — where Free Mission is unlocked, how S ranks are scored, where the named aces appear — comes from third-party guides, not from Bandai Namco Entertainment.

What keeps counting after the campaign

The achievement list is the only place the developer states endgame goals in its own words. Every condition in the table below is quoted from the achievement descriptions published on the game's Steam achievement page, which was checked on October 15, 2026.

The two MRP figures are the load-bearing ones for anyone planning a long session. They are stated as totals obtained rather than a balance held, so they measure everything you have ever earned across the campaign, not what is sitting in the account. The gap between the tiers — 16,000,000 and then 25,000,000 — is the only official indication of how long the currency curve is meant to run.

The parts and aircraft conditions sit in the same range. Owning 20 aircraft types is reached by 12.1% of players; owning everything, including every special weapon and upgrade part, sits at 3.8%. The publisher's official walkthrough page describes the same two systems in prose: additional fighter jets are unlocked with MRP, "an in-game currency earned in mission", and a jet is built for a mission "by freely combining parts to upgrade your aircraft".

What is not in the game

This is the half of the question that guide pages usually skip.

• No New Game+. Nothing in the publisher's announcements, the official site or the achievement list describes a new-game-plus mode. That is a statement about what has been documented, not a claim that a hidden mode has been tested for. What the list does document, in its place, is mission replay and accumulation.
• No published explanation of what ACE difficulty changes. ACE exists — the publisher's own achievement description names it — but enemy behaviour, damage or missile evasion under ACE is not described anywhere official. The four difficulty levels the publisher does describe are Rookie, Pilot, Veteran and Elite, covered on the controls and difficulty page.
• No official S-rank formula. S ranks are widely discussed; the scoring rules are not published by the developer. See the guide-reported section below.
• No official description of Free Mission. The publisher's site and announcements do not describe a Free Mission mode, how it opens, or what it allows. It is a guide-site claim only.

ACE difficulty and the rarest entry

Two entries in the achievement list are the clearest official markers of how far the endgame is meant to stretch.

• The Ace — 2.5%. The published description is a single sentence: "Completed campaign mode on ACE difficulty." It confirms that ACE applies to the campaign as a whole rather than to individual missions.
• Ace of Aces — 1.7%. This is the rarest entry in the list, and the publisher has not published a description for it. The achievement data exposes an internal name ending in a suffix alongside the ACE clear, which is where the widely repeated reading of "all S ranks on ACE" comes from, but the developer has not written that condition out. The name of the achievement is the only public statement.

MRP, aircraft and parts after the campaign

The endgame loop the official material describes is spending, not new story. MRP is earned in missions and spent unlocking aircraft; parts are combined to tailor a jet to a mission. The achievement list names the Aircraft Tree directly, in a condition for buying the same aircraft for your wingmen, which confirms the tree is a real purchasing screen and that wingman aircraft are bought there too.

How fast MRP arrives, which missions are best for it, and how difficulty affects the rate are separate questions with a different evidence base — the currency's official thresholds are documented here, but the farming routes are player measurements. They are covered on the MRP and farming page, and the tree's structure and costs are on the aircraft tree page.

Free Mission, S ranks and named aces: what is guide-reported

Three topics dominate searches about the endgame, and none of them has a publisher statement behind it. They are set out here so the source level is visible rather than implied.

• Free Mission. Third-party guides describe a mode for replaying completed missions, usually said to open after clearing the campaign once, with your own aircraft and parts. The publisher has not documented it. Treat the unlock condition as third-party.
• S ranks. Third-party guides describe a score built from destruction, time and a no-damage component, with a penalty for restarting from a checkpoint. The numbers differ between guides and no official formula is published. This page does not reproduce a point value for any of it.
• Named aces and assault records. Assault records are confirmed as a collectible set by the achievement condition "Obtained all assault records." What a record contains, how many there are, and where the named aces appear are guide-reported, including the claim that some only appear above certain difficulties.

None of the three is a publisher statement, and each is attributed here as a third-party claim. Where guides and the achievement list disagree, the achievement list wins on this page.

A short endgame checklist

Everything below is drawn from published achievement conditions, with the completion share as a rough measure of how many players bother. Percentages are the October 15, 2026 snapshot.

1. Finish the campaign once. The all-missions achievement sits at 48.3%, against 94.8% for the first mission — the baseline everything else builds on.
2. Fly it again on ACE for The Ace at 2.5%.
3. Collect assault records for A Record of Rivalry at 2.0%, the second-rarest entry.
4. Complete the aircraft and equipment set for Patron of the Parts at 3.8%.
5. Reach the MRP tiers at 16,000,000 and 25,000,000.
6. Clean up the graded actions: a wingman kill after each of the three wingman commands, 3,000 aircraft destroyed, 100 special weapons and parts obtained, ten medals, and every takeoff and aerial refuelling completed.
7. Use the viewers: an aircraft preview and a replay watch are each their own condition, at 14.5% and 11.8%.

The full list, with names and rates, is on the ACE COMBAT 8 achievements page. Mission count and campaign length are on the missions and length page.