Tips and Hints on getting a S-rank

Learn essential tips and strategies for achieving S-ranks in Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising. Master unit building, combat, and Fog of War tactics.

To achieve an S-rank in Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising, focus on maximizing your score across Speed, Power, and Technique. The game rewards aggressive play and efficient unit management.

General S-Rank Tips:

• Maximize Funds: Build as many units as possible with all available funds before the battle ends, as leftover money is not saved.
• Strategic Saving: Save your game right before finishing a map. If your score is low on Technique and Power despite a high Speed score, consider stalling a few days by building units and destroying enemy units. Re-evaluate your score before saving again.
• Prioritize Destruction: Before capturing an HQ, destroying a pipe seam, or blowing up a Black Cannon, destroy as many enemy units as possible to boost your Power score.

Fog of War Tactics:

• Use Sonja: If available, choose Sonja as your Commanding Officer (CO) due to her superior vision range, making her ideal for Fog of War (FoW) maps.
• Enable Battle Animations: While they can slow down gameplay, battle animations allow you to see what attacked you, providing crucial clues about enemy unit types and their locations in FoW.
• Utilize Recon Units: Recon units have excellent movement and vision range, making them invaluable for scouting in FoW, despite their low firepower.
• Infantry on Mountains: Infantry units gain increased defense and vision range when positioned on mountains, allowing them to see over the fog.
• Hide in Terrain: Units can hide in reefs and forests, becoming visible only to adjacent enemy units. Be aware that enemies also use this tactic.
• Air Unit Visibility: Unlike ground and sea units, air units cannot hide in forests or shoals. They remain visible if within an enemy unit's vision range. The in-game descriptions for terrain regarding hiding can be misleading.

Terrain Tactics:

• Forests and Reefs: These terrains offer concealment for ground and sea units, respectively, requiring adjacent enemy units to spot them.
• Mountains: Provide defensive bonuses and improved vision for infantry.