ACE COMBAT 8 Best Planes: The Post-Launch Aircraft Guide

The post-launch hangar: 34 aircraft, four roles

The game shipped on October 1-2, 2026, and the hangar is now a fact instead of a rumor: launch guides count 34 aircraft, organized into four roles — Fighter, Multirole, Attacker and Electronic Warfare. The verified roster spans four decades of aviation, from the MiG-21bis and F-4E Phantom II through the Rafale M and Su-57, alongside Project ACES’ fictional designs. The full airframe-by-airframe table lives in the aircraft list; this page is about which planes deserve your money and flight hours.

F-22A Raptor: the air-superiority benchmark

The F-22A is the aircraft tier guides and community discussion converge on for air-to-air work. It combines top-end speed, agility and missile loadout in a package that holds up in both campaign duels and online play, where it is frequently cited as a top PvP pick. If your benchmark run is failing on the air-to-air half, the Raptor is the fix. Pair it with multi-lock or long-range special weapons — the special weapons guide explains the two-slot system — and the drone-swarm missions stop being a fight.

F-35C Lightning II: the best all-around pick

Where the F-22A specializes, the F-35C generalizes. It is the most-recommended all-rounder: capable in air-to-air, competent on ground targets, and forgiving enough to fly every mission in the campaign without a hangar swap. Guide tier lists treat it as the natural endgame destination — the plane you settle into once the Aircraft Tree is open — and it is the sensible answer to “what single aircraft should I buy first with a big MRP budget?”

The fictional endgame: FA-36 and X-02

Project ACES’ invented aircraft are where the ceiling sits. The FA-36 carries the strongest base firepower of the base-game roster and is one of the late-tree unlocks, which makes it the post-game reward plane: expensive, powerful, and best bought when your MRP income is no longer scarce. The X-02, the series’ signature swing-wing design, also appears in tier guides as a strong multirole option. The ADFX-02 Morgan from the Ace Pass is a different category — premium DLC, instantly usable online with the Deluxe voucher — and the multiplayer guide covers how it fits online play.

How the Aircraft Tree spends your MRP

Aircraft unlock through the Aircraft Tree, a branching tech tree paid in MRP (Military Result Points) earned from mission scores — the same economy that scores your benchmarks (see the score and ranking guide). Parts are purchased from the same tree, so every MRP decision is a choice between a new airframe and better equipment for the ones you own (the parts and loadouts guide explains the slot system). Early unlock guides put the full tree at roughly nine million MRP, which is why spending order matters.

An unlock order that does not waste MRP

1. Buy for the role you fly worst. If ground missions cost you score, an Attacker branch beats a second Fighter.
2. One all-rounder early. The F-35C or a strong multirole covers every benchmark while you accumulate MRP.
3. Specialize mid-campaign. A dedicated air-superiority pick (the F-22A branch) pays for itself as ace encounters get harder — the aces and wingmen guide shows why positioning matters more than raw stats there.
4. Leave the fiction for the endgame. The FA-36 and X-02 are the tree’s expensive branches; they are rewards, not tools for the first ten missions.

The starting four are still your first answer

Before the tree opens, the game hands you the F/A-18C, F/A-18E, F-2A and F-14D — and that default flight is deliberately balanced. How to fly those first hours well is the job of the starting aircraft guide; this page is what to buy once MRP starts flowing. The pre-order F-14A slotting into that early hangar is a nice bonus, but no launch-guide tier list makes it a must-own.