Attention pilots!
There are new threats arriving in Metalstorm, and you’re going to have to bring your best efforts if you want to survive and maximize your rewards. Allow us to introduce Ace Challenges!
Ace Challenges are a new beta feature set to go live on September 1st, 2025 at 12:00 PM PT. This is a brand new 3 player co-op PvE (player versus environment) mode which will have you go after unique and powerful Aces. These Aces will not be so easy to get to as you will first have to get through waves of enemies including Basic enemy aircraft, more deadly Elite variants, and maybe some things you haven’t seen before. We’ve adjusted our matchmaker a bit to help make sure you’ve got the backup you need as well. Trophies will not be considered, you’ll be paired with people up to 6 levels away from your equipped aircraft, and a reduced matchmaking time to get you back in the action quickly.
As you attempt an Ace Challenge run, your score will increase based on eliminations, medals, time, and damage taken. Efficiency and coordination are key if you want to earn the maximum rank of 3 stars. There are 3 difficulties to choose from with increasing rewards but be wary of biting off more than you can chew. Speaking of rewards, Ace Challenges provide a unique way of building up and claiming a variety of parts, silver, and cosmetics! Each day you’ll have 3 Reward Tickets which will reset at 12:00 PM PT. Ticketed runs will grant you free parts based on your performance, Silver which gets added to a bounty, and you’ll also still earn Pilot Level XP, Mastery XP, Flight Pass and Squad Event progress. If you’re out of tickets you can still compete for leaderboard positions, but keep in mind that the Leaderboard is only for runs completed on the Hard difficulty level.
That’s not all there is to fight for either! Each Ace Challenge comes with an Ace Bounty with unlocked Silver rewards, a unique Pilot Icon, and a Memento that will be added to your Trophy Case for 3 Star completionists (any difficulty). The Silver from this works retroactively as well so you’ll see your bounty increase over the course of the event based on ticket-runs.
Your first Ace target: RUNWAY 🎯
This first Ace Challenge will be available for one week. As mentioned previously, this is very much a “beta” event. We know there are many pilots wanting a PvE experience in Metalstorm, and we want to make sure we get Ace Challenges right. There will be a survey message in-game after the event, and we encourage all to provide feedback to help make Ace Challenges the best PvE experience possible.
We look forward to seeing your best runs, and we encourage you to share clips or content you make from Ace Challenges with us.
Happy hunting!