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1945: Air Force Guide: Tips, Tricks & Strategies to Become an Ace Pilot and Rule the Sky

It’s 1945. The war is about to end and yet chaos still reigns the land, sea, and air. Something doesn’t seem right…

You’ve flown your plane numerous times but in these recent sorties, you’ve witnessed submarines that can travel as fast as planes could fly, tanks the size of a whole town, searing beams of energy, erratic lightning strikes, and aircraft from the future.

1945 air force tips

Even stranger perhaps, your biplane (if that is what you’re piloting) is now equipped with guided missiles that could set your craft ablaze on launch but don’t. Where did this technology come from? Get to the bottom of these mysterious circumstances in 1945: Air Force.

One of OneSoft’s many shoot-em-ups (the folks behind Space Shooter: Galaxy Attack and Galaxy Attack: Alien Shooter), 1945: Air Force is a homage to the classic video game Strikers 1945. While it plays completely different from its roots, it’s more similar to recent titles such as Sky Force: Reloaded and HAWK: Freedom Squadron.

1945: Air Force features numerous real-life aircraft for you to pilot, as well as a couple of game-exclusive ones. Each chapter in the game follows 10 different levels, with every 10th level featuring a final boss. The bosses get bigger and badder every time, but it only takes the best of pilots to take them down. “No guts, no glory,” as they say.

1945 air force explosion

Whether you’ve just finished basic pilot training or you’re one of the hotshots trying to be the next ace for your division, our guide should be able to help you find your way through the unfriendly skies so you can safely fly your way back to base. The battles will be long and grueling and your piloting skills will be needed alongside better planes. Either you down the enemies or turn your plane into your coffin.

What are we waiting for? Strap yourself in, take a nosedive into this 1945: Air Force guide below, and let’s party like it’s 1945.

1. Watch Ads When Able

Once in a while, you’ll find that the game will offer you the chance to watch an ad to boost your earnings, open something, or even repair your aircraft mid-flight. While it’s tedious to watch ads, this is necessary if you want to have a decent amount of cash in your pocket.

1945 air force ads
Four times richer after watching the ad.

For example, completing a stage will give you the opportunity to watch an ad to boost the amount of coins you’ve picked up while flying four-fold. Surely skipping out on this will only leave you with a teensy amount of coins. What you need these coins for are aircraft upgrades as well as module purchases from the shop.

To many of us, ads are annoying. But in this case, you’re going to need every single coin you can get if you wanna win.

Enough about ads, let’s talk about the aircraft!

2. Master Fewer Aircraft

Upon entering the game, you may quickly notice that there are a lot of planes or aircraft available to you. Some of them are locked behind a wall of gems (premium currency), but there are two starter planes that are the easiest to use. While it’s true that eventually you will need more sophisticated planes to proceed, the first two planes are actually quite solid as is. They get even better as you upgrade them.

In time, you will be able to access the more powerful planes since you can earn and save gems. But don’t go overboard; at most, it’s best to master four of these planes since these are the slots you are allowed. Of course, the same goes for the Wingmen and Devices. There are a myriad of combinations that go with aircraft and those that accompany it, but let’s talk about that later.

In the meantime, let’s focus on the Boeing P-26 Peashooter and the Grumman F3F— the starter planes. These two differ in weapons and have strengths in varying areas.

Boeing P-26 Peashooter

1945 air force peashooter
Spray and pray.

This standard fighter is equipped with a wide shot spread, ideal for taking out multiple targets at once. To add to this already impressive feature, the shots are fired at a rapid interval, capable of giving a steady DPS.

Upon using its skill, it will proceed to fire out even more shots than before, riddling every enemy aircraft in its wake. Its weakness is focus which its counterpart covers.

FUN FACT: The P-26 got its nickname from the shape of its gunsights, which looked like a slim, tiny, metal tube.

Grumman F3F

1945 air force f3f
Straight to the point.

This biplane, while smaller than the P-26, packs a deadly punch. Its triple-shot automatics turn everything in front of it to mulch. With a steady triple threat of a weapon, the F3F causes a lot of damage to bosses, especially their weak spots.

After using its skill, it will shoot massive balls of fire that deal extra damage to anything in a straight line. Its only problem is, covered by the P-26, is tackling enemies from odd angles.

FUN FACT: The F3F actually retired from service in 1941! This means that the plane is obsolete given the game’s title. The plane is also nicknamed the “Flying Barrel” due to the shape of its fuselage.

It’s simple enough to try out and learn how each of these planes operate by using the “Try Now” function. However, this function only allows you to see what the plane can do at maximum upgrades. If you’re going to start fresh with a vanilla plane, what better way is there than to play through the Campaign?

3. Play Through The Campaign

Ah, the Campaign — the pathway to fulfillment in every other video game out there.

1945: Air Force boasts of a challenging Campaign filled with waves of deadly enemies, terrifying bosses, and stages that require lots of skill to get past. It’s here where you’ll learn to fly and it’s here where you’ll crash your plane over and over again. But don’t worry, completing every stage of the Campaign gives you helpful rewards that you can use to upgrade and strengthen your loadout. Do note that each difficulty varies in the rewards given (we’ll talk about this soon).

1945 air force campaign
And there are even more stages yet!

One important thing worth noting while you play the Campaign is that having more planes on you may further your success. This is why we talked about owning multiple, but few planes in the previous item. To further elaborate on this, once your plane is shot down, your second plane, if you have it, will be flown next. Running out of planes means failure.

To keep your plane from getting shot down, one thing you might notice is that every stage has a pattern. Memorize these patterns and you’ll be able to see into the future. This is important because repeating a level on a higher difficulty will reward you with items necessary for upgrades. Here are what is expected of the different difficulties:

  • Difficulty 1 (Easy) – Aircraft Module
  • Difficulty 2 (Medium) – Wingman Module
  • Difficulty 3 (Hard) – Device Module

What makes each difficulty unique from each other is that on higher difficulties, the enemy aircraft are meatier than before. Naturally, this means you’ll need more firepower if you wanna finish them without crashing all your aircraft.

The best way to get more firepower is to make your aircraft better. Let’s have a look at the different ways you can do this.

4. Upgrade Your Aircraft

As with most action-packed mobile games, 1945: Air Force comes with an upgrade system. It’s through using this system that you can make your aircraft stronger and more survivable. Here are your options:

Upgrade

1945 air force upgrade
Easy peasy.

By spending a sum of gold, you’ll be able to give a small boost to your plane’s stats. This includes its overall health and shot damage. You will need to do this every time it goes up a rank.

Promote

1945 air force promote
Harder, better, faster, stronger… Well, better and stronger anyway.

This is where you grant your plane an overall improvement. By increasing its rank, you may also give it extra guns that may help you in your missions. For example, some planes will be able to fire guided missiles after a certain rank upgrade.

Certify

1945 air force certificate
Think you’re an ace?

The most difficult way to upgrade a plane, but it offers a massive boost to its improvement. Included in this are the other planes it is related to in the upper tiers. Be warned that attempting to fulfill these requirements is just the tip of the iceberg. The real challenge is getting the required Wingmen and Device for the certification course. Start saving up those gems and participate in events. Good luck!

With your aircraft sufficiently upgraded, you’d better try upgrading the other parts of your loadout as well. By that we mean the Wingmen and the Device you have equipped. But do all of these mesh together?

5. Create A Loadout That Suits You

Let’s answer the question above: it all depends on you, the pilot.

If you’re a shmup connoisseur, you might already know what you want. Many of those who have played these types of games will settle for what they feel comfortable with. But if you’re someone who doesn’t frequent this genre, here are some suggestions.

1945 air force loadout
This is what it says about you.

Pick out a well-balanced loadout. If your aircraft’s main guns spread out, choose Wingmen that fire in a narrow pattern and a Device that affects everything on screen. Otherwise, if your aircraft’s main guns fire in a straight line, get Wingmen whose guns fan out at wide angles and a Device that complements that.

If you aren’t sure how your aircraft really performs, you can try checking the Power Info of your loadout (the primary screenshot of this item). The image directly above this very paragraph is how you can access such information. Simply tap on the tiny question mark next to the word “Power” while you are at your hangar and you’ll be able to see where the strengths of your aircraft lie and what can be improved still.

1945 air force power info

Of course, the skills of your aircraft and your Device matter a great deal. These should be the very functions of your loadout that you could rely on when things get a bit too crowded in a level.

There is absolutely no harm in experimenting which loadout best suits you by playing through the campaign. Mix and match what you have and settle for what you find the most fun or useful to you. As much as possible, it’s ideal to keep your weaker aircraft in Slot 1 and your aircraft just get stronger in the succeeding slots. This should give you a better edge.

However, your loadout alone won’t save you in a tight spot. This is where you’ll have to learn how to weave through enemy fire like an ace.

6. Maneuver Through The Bullets

This is a quintessential mechanic in every shmup! Not dodging means death and failure. But 1945: Air Force has an interesting spin to it.

Sure, you have all kinds of aircraft each with varying wingspans (like the Black Widow, for example, having really long wings). These should hardly be of any concern. What you should know here is that the bullets that fly at you will only damage your aircraft if they hit its fuselage.

Incoming!!

An aircraft’s fuselage is essentially its body. The area between the aircraft’s nose and tail is what is known as the fuselage. If you can keep this in mind while the bullets harmlessly pass your aircraft’s wings, you will be fine. Don’t panic if you see a ton of bullets on screen — fly the aircraft through them.

If it isn’t bullets that you’ll be dodging, keep your eyes peeled for these:

Missiles: Do you hear a beeping noise? That’s a missile alert and it’s coming for you! These fast-moving projectiles can be quite troublesome if they caught you left unawares. The worst part about these is if you fail to dodge one of them, your aircraft will be destroyed in an instant. Sometimes, these missiles may track you, so observe the top of the screen if any of them seem to be following you.

Lightning: Do you see a slim white line appearing on screen? Does this white line widen in width? Get out of there or risk your aircraft getting destroyed by mother nature. Bolts of lightning occasionally appear in different stages. Their appearances are brief and dodging them can be quite easy since the white telegraph that it appears with is completely harmless. Just like real lightning, the lightning bolt itself flashes in an instant, and it’s only that very instant that could destroy your aircraft. Cross over the telegraph to a wider space and you should be fine.

Low-Flying Aircraft: See an aircraft smaller than usual and you can fly right through it? This isn’t a bug, that aircraft is below you. If you happen to collide with it, either your aircraft will be severely damaged, or you go down immediately. Keeping a safe distance from anything by staying at the bottom of the screen is strategy enough when it comes to these.

As we’ve stated earlier, every stage has a pattern. Not only will these patterns help you know ahead of time what’s gonna happen, but they’ll also let you attempt your dodges better. Knowing where the bullets, missiles, lightning, or enemy aircraft are gonna come from is all part of knowing how to dodge.

Your dodging skills can always be honed. If it isn’t through the campaign, it’s through the other modes that 1945: Air Force has to offer.

Check them out below!

7. Attempt Special Missions

1945 air force special missions
Toughies only!

Campaign too linear and grindy for you? How about you try some of these special modes?

Don’t mistake them for the same difficulty you face in the campaign, though. These could be even more challenging!

After completing a number of these, you should have some currency per mission type. With these special currencies, you’ll be able to buy upgrade materials from their respective shops.

Bombardment

1945 air force bombardment
Special delivery!

Your mission is to set up beacons at enemy encampments. Fly close to these targets until the timer completes to trigger an airstrike. The challenge here is that the enemy won’t relent while you’re setting the beacons up. Watch out! Your success is measured by how many installations you’ve destroyed.

Protect

1945 air force protect
Time to block some bullets… with your plane.

Your allies need supplies and the quickest way back to home base is through a route heavily guarded by the enemy. The supply transport will be able to dodge missiles on its own, but when it comes to bullets, you may have to sacrifice your aircraft a bit. Get in there and be a hero! Your success is measured by the remaining health percentage of the supply transport.

Stealth

1945 air force stealth
Huh? What was that noise?!

Your task here is to steal precious enemy intel. The only problem is that they know you’re coming. Flying into the radii of their lights won’t immediately alert them, so at best, keep yourself moving about. There is a caveat, though. The stations from where you obtain the intel are well-lit. After the timer completes, get out or suffer an aircraft full of holes. Your success is measured by how much data you’ve successfully stolen.

WARNING: If you ever get shot down completely the first time and revive after, you might be immediately shot down again. This game seemingly does not have mercy invincibility.

Assault

1945 air force assault
Don’t you get that sinking feeling?

The enemy has deployed a powerful and speedy submarine prototype that you need to destroy. While this may feel like a standard boss battle, the catch here is that the submarine can reel in the powerups present as long as they still remain on supply boats. Destroy these supply boats to keep the submarine from repairing itself or becoming stronger, and you’ll find this mission a short one. Your success is measured by how much damage the submarine has taken.

8. Try PvP For Extra Practice

Under the multiplayer category, there are three modes of PvP. Here you will engage with other pilots from all over the world, each varying in skill and aircraft quality. Unlike most of the Campaign levels that follow patterns, PvP matches are quite unpredictable. The game will try to throw almost anything and everything at you just so that one of you will fall.

Just like the special missions, PvP is quite rewarding on its own. With every victory, you will earn a Victory Container that holds upgrade material and currency. Think you’ve got what it takes to earn these? Then try out these modes available:

Eliminate

1945 air force eliminate
Three minutes of hell.

You and a rival pilot face off against enemies for 3 minutes. If either pilot loses all their aircraft, the pilot that remains airborne is the victor. However, after three minutes have passed and both pilots remain flying, the pilot that was able to destroy more enemies than their opponent wins.

Last Stand

1945 air force last stand
No time limit, no score bar, no mercy. To the death!

The truest endurance run of 1945: Air Force. You and an opponent face off in an endless sea of enemies. The first pilot to lose all their aircraft loses.

United We Stand

1945 air force united we stand
Work together or fall apart!

Here, you will be matched with three other pilots, one of which becomes your ally and the other two will become your opponents. You and your ally pilot will have to protect a supply transport. Should the supply transport or both of you fall, you lose.

If it ever feels like the whole game is a grind of some sort, there is a way you can keep track of your progress.

9. Finish Quests

Just like most games today, even 1945: Air Force has a quest system.

This quest system lays out various objectives for you to achieve. Upon their completion, you will be rewarded with gold and gems. Managing to fill up the meter at the very top of the quest window, you will be given a chest containing more upgrade material.

1945 air force quests
Get to work!

In other words, completing quests is another way you can strengthen the aircraft in your fleet. Be careful as some of these could be difficult (like one requiring you to spend at least 100 gems), and some of them may take a while to complete (like those requiring you to finish 10 special missions but you can only play 3 at a time).

With all your earnings thus far, they should be enough to be spent in the in-game shop.

10. Check The Shop From Time To Time

In the shop, you’ll find a gaggle of goodies.

From lootboxes to upgrade modules, the shop has a lot of things for sale. For the sake of this guide, let’s focus solely on the upgrade modules.

1945 air force shop
That Grumman F3F is mine! Mine, I tell you!

One reason why it’s important to check on this shop occasionally is because the goods on display are refreshed every day that passes. These deals aren’t forever, and sometimes the shop should have modules that you need for the next star on any of the aircraft that you own. Aside from aircraft, they also have modules for your Wingmen and Devices.

Don’t like the goods you see for sale? At the cost of 100 gems, you’ll be able to change them up. This will be completely random, though, so only do this if you’re feeling lucky. Who knows? Maybe the next time you do this, you’ll finally get what you need.

Whether you’re out there fighting the campaign or competing with other players on a daily basis, 1945: Air Force will surely improve the way you fly your aircraft as you keep playing it. Upgrading and knowing how to dodge is one thing, but practice in all aspects will make you the best pilot the old world has ever seen. Will you find yourself ending the war, or will the war end you? Best of luck out there!

Did anything fly over our heads while we made this 1945: Air Force guide? Got some intel on the enemy we don’t? Let us know about them in the comment section below this article!

Yoyon

Sunday 28th of January 2024

How do I get beer? Please provide information 🙏

Yoyon

Sunday 28th of January 2024

How do I custom kit an airplane? And what are the conditions? Please help 🙏

Alan

Friday 22nd of September 2023

How do you unlock planes that aren't purchasable because it say "unlock at event"?

Yannis Paras

Tuesday 12th of September 2023

How do I upgrade my plane engine? Ive got enough tools but it says "not enough battery"...

Sj

Monday 31st of July 2023

How can i reset the amount of certificate tries. I have tried 5 times for the basic voor the boeing peashooter and now its saying you need atleast one try

Cameron

Saturday 2nd of September 2023

@Sj, resets every day apparently