Overview:
- Achievement Difficulty: 5/10
- Offline: 8 [1000]
- Online: 0
- Approximate Completion Time: 10-15 hours
- Minimum Number of Playthroughs: 2
- Missable Achievements: 3 [Unknown 1, 2, 3]
- Does difficulty affect achievements? No
- Unobtainable/Glitched Achievements: None
- Extra Equipment Needed? No
- Cheats? None
Useful Links:
Zoid's Assault Wiki
Zoid's Assault Guide
Zoid's Assault Walkthrough
Introduction:
Zoid's Assault is a turn based Strategy Role Playing Game (SRPG) that was released in 2008. It is based off a popular Anime show and toy line. As with most strategy games, the game does not rely heavily on graphics; although the little cut scenes (that you can skip) of when your Zoid moves to a point and attacks is kinda cool, but gets old fast.
You are in control of 5 Zoid's, 2 Wolf, 2 Liger, 1 Dibison. When you first start you have limited movement and attack range. The battlefield is basically just squares that are highlighted that will show you where you can and can't go to. Your Zoid's will acquire many upgrades and unlockables as you progress and level up your heavy metal animal machines of death.
You should spend approximately 10 to 15 hours during the 2 campaigns it will take you to complete all the - achievements. 5 of the achievements are story related and will unlock as you complete so many missions; generally after completing 3 missions you will unlock a % completed achievement. The final 3 achievements are missable and specific criteria needs to be met to fight the hidden Zoid's.
Playthrough 1:
You will earn 5 achievements upon completion of the 14 campaign missions. Each mission has specific guidelines such as defeating all enemies, destroying certain installations, or even protecting buildings from the enemy assault. As you progress and defeat enemies you will earn and find new weapons and upgrades for your Zoid's. You can upgrade your Zoid's inbetween missions as you see fit. It is highly recommended that you avoid destroying the "S Crates" during this playthrough as they will cause the 'Unknown' Zoid's to appear; and on your first run through they will pound you into scrap metal. It is recommended however, that you destroy the regular crates on the battlefield... if you can. It's possible that they'll contain beneficial items for your Zoid; but it isn't necessary to go out of your way.
Playthrough 2:
Your second playthrough will be easier. You will be starting a New Game + and all your Zoid stats, weapons and armor will carry over. If some levels gave you trouble before, you will breeze through them now. Your main focus for this playthrough is to find and destroy the 'Unknown' Zoid's. As you progress through the same missions again, you will have to destroy "S Container" on certain levels which will cause the 'Unknown' Zoids to appear. The "S Container" are different from normal crates and have a yellow health bar.
Your secondary focus of this playthrough is to attain the Satellite Laser weapon on Mission 6! You will need to have a Missile type weapon to get the "S Container" that contains the laser. The Satellite Laser is by far the best weapon in the game with the 2nd highest damage and the largest range. (It is possible to get this on your first campaign; just highly unlikely, as you won't have a missile type weapon yet. The only way to get one is luck and a data disk drops from an enemy that uses a missile launcher.)
Missable Achievements:
A quick overview on the 'S Containers'. These are different from normal containers as they have a yellow hitpoint bar. They are found on specific levels: 2, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14.
Unknown 1: You will need to destroy 2 'S Containers', one can be found on Mission 2 and the 2nd is in Mission 5. Upon destruction of the 2nd crate, the Unknown boss will spawn in Mission 5.
Unknown 2: Destroy the 'S Containers' on Missions 6, 8 and 10; upon destruction of the last S Container on level 10 the boss and some friends will spawn in that mission.
Unknown 3: Destroy the 'S Container' on Missions 12 and 14, once the last container is destroyed on Mission 14 the final 'Unknown' boss will spawn with a squad.
Please refer to the guide for more detailed information on the Unknown spawns.
Conclusion:
Overall the game isn't too difficult; except a couple of missions. At the time I played it, I wasn't very familiar with SRPG's but I managed to make my way through it. You should spend no more than 15 hours to make it through the campaign twice. As long as you follow the guide, and possibly the walkthrough should you get stuck, you'll finish with 1000.
[we would like to thank Xenolith666 for this roadmap]