List of not so obvious tricks and time saves

#Skip after "Mission Complete"
You can skip most post mission dialogue once the "Mission Complete" (or similar) message pops up on your screen. Just bring up the in game menu and select Skip. This saves several minutes on most missions.

#Heavy Secondary Guns
The heavy secondary guns that the SK-25 and PW-MK1 have do not have a rate of fire limit as of 1.04C and 1.04D beta patches. You can rapidly tap the gun button to increase your rate of fire. You need to be careful about your ammo though, you will deplete it far faster than normal. Because of how powerful this is, I would not be surprised if it gets patched out in the future, or otherwise balanced.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igF_Xp8YRq8

#Changing loadout in Campaign
Want guns and AOA Limiter for your fights against Frost Druid and Crimson 1 in Campaign but don't want to take them on the missions leading up to them? Just bring up the in game menu and select Hangar. This lets you change your aircraft and loadout so you can use more optimal weapons for individual missions.

#Bomber/Transport class aircraft
Without a damage modifier like Glass Cannon or Budget Cuts, you will need more than 2 standard missiles or more than 1 special weapon missile (MLAA/SAA) to down them. Supplementing damage with guns is good, just be careful not to crash into the aircraft.

#Littoria Class Airships
These are the militarized versions of the large civilian airships found in Mission 8 Clear Skies. The shape of the wings will block your weapons fire, so the cleanest way to down them is to approach them from above and in front of them. Anti Ship Missiles (ASMs) and Railguns can oneshot them like with any other ship with a direct hit to the hull.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUbpbuswp6k

#Mission 9 Stepping Stones (Version 1.04 and older)
The FC-9s that spawn in as priority targets near the end of the mission do not need to be shot down to complete the mission. The airships that are on Mercenary however, do need to be destroyed. In the 2.0 version these targets are required.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itI8Lgl-W_A

#Mission 12 Midnight Light
When the researchers on the radio say "This is a once in a lifetime opportunity." "Emphasis on lifetime sir," set your aircraft on the end of the platform the UNKNOWN priority target spawns on and fly through the tunnel the airstrip is on. You can get quick and easy damage on the SP-34R aircraft as it is taking off with your guns.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K3DuFWbtnQ
Just don't take out the entire first HP bar out during the takeoff sequence. It likes to softlock.
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1123526043

#Mission 15 Consequence of Power
Only the starting forces on the map need to be eliminated to progress the mission. This means the Airships, the MG-29s, the F/C-16s, and ground based ADVSAMs. The neutral grounded Battleships and the F/D-14s that spawn in as the mission progresses do not count towards this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87FOc7Ukndg

#Mission 16 Wayback
You can stay on your spawning course and hold down the thrusters. The sooner you reach Rowsdower the sooner Frost Druid will spawn in. You can also continue at the same course until you reach a hill that you would crash into if you don't move. Doing a 180 at this point will put you right behind Frost Druid when she spawns in. The Master Goose wingmen do not need to be downed to complete the mission.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzxoHnZH6mM

#Mission 19 Red Sea

In 1.0.4 and older, the airships that spawn in the final wave are optional and can be ignored. In 2.0 these airships have become required and are marked as targets appropriately.

#Mission 21 Kings
Crimson 1's X-PF is invincible until he completes his second set of lines. From that point forward he is vulnerable. This does not apply to the wingmen that are in Mercenary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG-zE4wkO_c

#Frontline 59 Mission 1 Bottom of the Barrel

You can ignore the taxi lines and drive into the grass to instantly spawn on the runway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR7RWfNkH6I



#Frontline 59 Mission 4 Express Lane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p23aInr3LU

List of Softlocks and How to Avoid Them

Throughout the game, there are a number of softlocks which can trigger by trying to play as fast as possible.

# Black Flag - Container

In the first mission, the last target is a container on the docks which triggers an explosion and the end of the mission. Intuitively, the way fastest to destroy this is to be firing at it before it becomes destructible, causing it to be destroyed as soon as it spawns. However, if it is destroyed as soon as it spawns it won’t trigger the explosion nor the end of the mission, leaving you flying around infinitely until you quit.

To avoid this simply give it a little time before destroying it, what works is to start firing your guns as soon as its marker appears, in the small amount of time taken for your bullets to hit it, the softlock window will have passed, even if fired at close range.

# Presidia - Naval Targets

In mission 20 when the Naval segment starts a number of ships in the port section of the city will become active and marked as priority targets, with all ships having to be sunk to progress to the final phase of the mission. However, destroying any priority targets (the hulls of the ships, destroying any of the weaponry on the ships is fine) before a certain part in the dialogue will cause the mission to softlock and not progress after the naval targets are all sunk. Waiting for AWACS Galaxy to say “Hitman Team” in the dialogue, “*Eminent Domain reports last remaining naval forces are pushing out to meet her. **Hitman Team** provide support.*” before sinking a ship will avoid this softlock.

# Bossfights

For this, bossfights are defined as when enemies spawn and have an introduction overlay, after which health bars are displayed at the bottom of the screen. These bossfights are all believed to be softlock risks as three have known softlocks all caused by dealing too much damage before the intro overlay is finished. For most bossfights there is very little delay between the spawn and the overlay so the window for softlocking is fairly short, however for those with lengthy intro dialogue or sequences, care should be taken to avoid finishing the fight before it has ‘started’.

# Midnight Light - SP43R Takeoff

As the bossfight starts at the end of mission 12, SP34R will spawn and take off from the platform's runway during which it can be damaged, however dealing enough damage to deplete the first health bar and put SP34R into phase 2 will cause the mission to not end after it is shot down.
https://www.speedrun.com/project_wingman/guide/xkm29#ch7Mission_12_Midnight_Light

# Return - Crimson Squadron

In Return there is approx. 30 seconds between the mission update when Crimson squadron spawns and when the overlay appears (when Crimson 1 says “*Crimson Squadron, engage. Avenge this land*”). If all 8 (16 with double time) aircraft are shot down within these 30 seconds the dialogue will continue, the intro overlay will appear, and health bars appear, but despite the health bars all being fully depleted, the game will believe that the fight is ongoing as dialogue that play during the fight will continue as normal.

To avoid this softlock, simply leave a single aircraft alive until the overlay appears, after which it can be shot down to trigger the end of the mission.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGfqrghSlBY?t=90

# Kings

The Kings softlock is caused by depleting Crimson 1’s first 3 health bars before they appear on-screen about 45 seconds into the mission. If this is done then despite being able to damage and shoot down Crimson 1 in phase 4, triggering his death dialogue and explosion, his phase 4 health bar will remain full, and the mission will not end.

The way to identify this softlock is if the overlay and a full health bar still appear for phase 4 after shooting down Crimson 1. To avoid it, simply avoid dealing enough damage to finish phase 3 before the health bars appear.
https://www.speedrun.com/project_wingman/guide/h2i6m

# Other Bossfights

As of writing, it seems unlikely a softlock in the other bossfights will affect speedrunnig. In my opinion, the only one that has a real potential of softlocking is Crosstalk squadron in Homestead, though they can already be destroyed extremely quickly as their intro overlay appears. The other bosses are all unlikely to have speedrun softlocks as they either spawn far enough away from the player that their overlay will have happened by the time your weapons are able to connect (Intercept Specialists in Clear Skies and Crimson Squadron in Cold War), or their intro overlay starts as soon as they spawn (Frost Druid in Wayback).

# Frontline 59 - Faust ASMs

In the final mission of FL59, using ASMs to destroy the core of  the CDV Roosevelt before intended, that is all other enemies being destroyed, will cause a softlock. The airship will become passive but still spawn its future waves of attachments and the mission will contiune playing normally as if it is still alive, but without being able to destroy the core at the correct time the mission will never end.

Simply don't use ASMs on this mission. The devs are aware of this and may be patched in future updates.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmo9a9rfF0whttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmo9a9rfF0w

Mission 21 Kings softlock and how to avoid it

There are two versions of this softlock: finishing phase 3 before the title drop finishes and finishing phase 4 before he starts to say his first line ("No...no, not yet!") Doing either of these puts the game in a state that the triggers at the end of 3 and beginning of 4 can't handle. If you see an orange and a white healthbar at the bottom of the screen then it has softlocked and will never fade out after finishing phase 4. Avoid finishing phase 3 until you can see the healthbars, and avoid finishing phase 4 before he starts to speak.

Note that this may not be 100% accurate as the softlock isn't fully understood yet and further testing may be needed.

2.0 UPDATE: The phase 4 softlock is still present, however it seems the healthbars appear even if the game has not softlocked. Just make sure not to kill him before the healthbars appear.

Post Mission Summary and Mission Skip Bug (MSB)

This works in the 1.04 D patch and NOT the 2.0 (Frontline 59 and PS5) release. Any mission with a takeoff sequence can be skipped. The post mission summary can also be skipped this way at the end of a normal mission. You still get any credits you earned during the mission. You will want a high framerate if attempting higher skip counts. FalconLuma did some testing for this.
https://i.imgur.com/HhsxaAc.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Rz0twJr92E

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7bUzMn7XrI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69wedPjilng

Gray screen doesn't mean your run is dead, you should still be able to recover by restarting the game and resuming the campaign run.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLfjjI_q2SE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUJRFmtJGrQ

Save File Location

The save-files for Project Wingman are located in:  C:\Users\"USER"\AppData\Local\ProjectWingman\Saved\SaveGames

Alternatively you can type " %LOCALAPPDATA% " into the windows explorer address bar and navigate from there.

Updated Mission Skip Bug Module list

This module list can be used to determine the number of skips to get between two modules and is useful when routing an MSB run.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Qb8IcXEfyR2pywnelKgmJNW4bMow94LxI0PYNUiZAUQ/edit?usp=sharing

For more information on Mission Skip Bug, please see StarPilot87's guide - https://www.speedrun.com/project_wingman/guide/etcd7

StarPilot87

p1n91

mostcallmeliz

FalconLuma

Project Wingman

Express Lane

Express Lane: Tunnel Run

TheBlyatman

Failracer

No Modifiers

Glass Cannon

Budget Cuts

Gun Runner

Glass Cannon & Budget Cuts & Gun Runner

Glass Cannon & Budget Cuts

Glass Cannon & Gun Runner

Budget Cuts & Gun Runner

2.0 (or newer)

1.05 (or older)

New Game

New Game +

(NG+) Mercenary

Modifiers

The 2.0 version of Project Wingman made many changes to the game such as severely limiting MSB and adding more required targets in some missions. Frontline 59 and PS5 versions default to 2.0

1.0.5 or 2.0 version

This is to show if the run is New Game, NG+, or (NG+) Mercenary

Campaign Type

Frontline-59 is now available on Steam! This means the campaign is no longer a PS5 exclusive. Patch notes: https://discord.com/channels/311334325402599425/390236510408146955/1313417893245091911

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2536180/Project_Wingman_Frontline59_Campaign/

I have also just now re

Naam	Auteur
List of not so obvious tricks and time saves	StarPilot87 1 year ago
List of Softlocks and How to Avoid Them	FalconLuma 1 year ago
Mission 21 Kings softlock and how to avoid it	mostcallmeliz 2 years ago
Post Mission Summary and Mission Skip Bug (MSB)	StarPilot87 2 years ago
Save File Location	p1n91 3 years ago
Updated Mission Skip Bug Module list	FalconLuma 2 years ago