Ace mode is the hardest difficulty available for the story mode and is only unlocked after completing the game on Rookie Mode or Cadet Mode. This guide will apply to those modes too but they are really not too much of a challenge.

Gaining credits and upgrading your ship are a key parts of the game and you will not finish the game without either. As you progress through each stage you will constantly be collecting credits and at the end of each stage you can enter the shop to buy upgrades. You can upgrade your weapons, speed, shields, armour as well as add some special items, all of which make your life easier.

One good thing about this game is that you have infinite lives, so it's really just a matter of time until you complete it. Also, if you die during a stage you will start from the beginning of that stage again as well as keeping all the credits you earned with your previous ship and this is key to your success.

So now to the important part, the tips & tricks I used to make completing Ace mode easier.

During the early stages of the game you will want to upgrade your weapons to Triple Cannons and your reloader to Robotic Arms (reloaders allow you to shoot faster). Don't bother about upgrading armour, shields, rechargers (shield regeneration) or ship parts just yet as it's very unlikely you will need them early on. Only upgrade these if you're having trouble staying alive. Don't add missile launchers just yet as they will not help much, in fact they will hinder your progess if you follow these tips.

The next thing you'll want to purchase is the Hybrid Magnet item. This is a passive upgrade that will draw all credits to your ship so you don't have to actively pick them up. This will be hugely beneficial early on when there are several enemies and lots of asteroids flying about.

It's very easy to farm credits and this is the next step to beating Ace Mode. If you don't then it's very unlikely that you will have enough credits to fully upgrade your ship by the time you reach the final boss. On some stages you can get to a point where you only have one enemy ship left to destroy. Instead, avoid it and shoot the asteroids on the other side of the screen to farm some extra credits, perhaps enough to get the next upgrade to your weapons or relauncher. This is why you don't want missile launchers as they will home in on the enemy and destroy it while you farm for credits.

Continue progressing through the stages and feel free to upgrade your shield, armour and recharger at this point, at least by one level as they are cheap to buy. As you progress you will find that you are sometimes accompanied by other NPC fighter pilots. They seem to be invincible so let them do the hard work for you while you hide behind them to avoid enemy fire and clear out any remaining asteroids.

The critical part of this guide happens at stage 11. At the beginning of this stage you will find the asteroids become much harder to destroy. However, you will be joined by an NPC pilot and the asteroids will start giving out much higher value credits and plenty of them. With minimal ship upgrades you should be able to farm about 500 credits in a few minutes. Once the first wave of asteroids has been cleared, or if you die, pause the game, go to the shop and buy your next upgrades as you see fit. When you start again you will be at the beginning of stage 11 so just keep doing this until you have plenty of fire power.

Once you've upgraded to The Plasma Cannons along with the Portable Portal relauncher you will have no trouble getting to the latter stages of the game, most ships will be destroyed in a few seconds. To get some perspective, upgrade your ship to one level beneath these and clear the asteroids at the start of stage 11 then see the difference once fully upgraded.

You may want to buy the Quartz Earring quite early during credit farming as I think it produces more credit drops but I'm not 100% certain about that. The Bobblehead Dog adds a bit of time to the invincibility you get after being hit without an active shield. The Plain White Egg is a small companion who fights alongside you at all times but I'm not sure they are much help. The Caesar Bomb will destroy almost everything on the screen but will also damage your own ship and it has a cool down period before it can be used again. The Bobblehead Dog and Caesar Bomb will not be much use until the end of the game if your weapons are fully upgraded.

Finally, the last two stages are where you might find some real difficulty. For me these stages were mostly about damage limitation as it was impossible to clear all enemies. At times you will be overwhelmed with enemy fire so look for areas where there are pockets without any and try to stay in these as best you can, you may need to sacrifice some of your shields and armour to get to one and don't forget to use your Caesar Bomb if you have enough shields and armour.

I hope this guide is useful to some players, if you have any questions, suggestions or tips of your own please leave a comment and I will respond.

Good luck!