Delta Force Ace Hunt: 8v8 Air Combat From 21 August

Ace Hunt runs from 21 August to 7 September, and it strips Delta Force down to something the game has never really been about: pure air combat. The mode is an all-aerial 8v8 — no infantry, no ground vehicles, nothing but pilots hunting other pilots. In a game where helicopters and jets normally exist as a support layer above the real fight, Ace Hunt makes them the entire fight. It arrives as part of the Warfare mid-season update alongside the Faction War tournament and the Wild Mystery Box mode, and it lands inside a window with a few expiry dates worth watching. Here's what the mode is, how to approach it if you've never flown seriously, and what else is closing around it.

What Ace Hunt actually is

Eight players per side, all airborne, in a dogfighting format. No infantry spawns, no ground vehicles, no objective capture in the usual sense — the match is aircraft against aircraft.

That removes almost every layer Delta Force normally builds around. There's no anti-air fire from the ground to suppress, no infantry to spot for, no reason to hold altitude for safety from small arms. Every threat in the match is another pilot, and every advantage is positional flying rather than gear or loadout economics.

For a tactical shooter where matches are usually decided by infantry holding angles, that's an unusually clean break — closer to an arcade dogfighting game wearing Delta Force's aircraft models.

Why it plays completely differently

Three things change the moment ground threats disappear.

Altitude stops being safety. In standard Warfare, climbing puts distance between you and the majority of what can kill you. In Ace Hunt, the things that can kill you are at your altitude by definition. Height becomes a positional tool — energy for a dive, angle for an attack — rather than protection.

Skill gaps widen sharply. Infantry modes let a weaker player contribute through positioning, objectives and teamwork. In a pure air mode, flying ability is close to the only variable. Expect the first few days to be lopsided while the good pilots find each other.

Team coordination gets simpler and more decisive. With eight aircraft per side and no ground clutter, focusing a single enemy is straightforward — and being focused is fatal. Flying alone in an open sky is the fastest way to fill the enemy scoreboard.

If you don't fly, this is the window to learn

Here's the honest opportunity: everyone is inexperienced at once. Delta Force's playerbase doesn't spend much time in aircraft, because standard Warfare rarely rewards it enough to justify the learning curve. A limited-time mode where flying is the only thing that matters means the entire lobby is climbing the same curve you are.

Two practical steps before jumping in:

• Get comfortable with the controls in normal Warfare first. Take a helicopter or jet out in a regular match and spend a few rounds just handling the aircraft rather than trying to score. Learning basic control response while under fire from eight enemy pilots is the hard way to do it.
• Learn one airframe rather than sampling all of them. Helicopters and jets reward completely different instincts — hovering, angle-holding and rotor management on one side, energy retention and turn rates on the other. Pick the one you find intuitive and stay with it for the event.

Limited-time modes reward players who commit early, because the skill curve flattens for everyone else within a week.

What else is running alongside it

Ace Hunt is one part of a broader mid-season package running to 7 September:

• The Warfare mid-season update — complete challenges and stay active in matches to earn Season EXP, redeemable for the Retro Waves firearm appearances (VSS, AUG, M1911, Vityaz), limited Spray Paint and Tactical Supplies.
• Faction War — a dual-mode online tournament joined through the Event screen.
• Wild Mystery Box — a new limited-time mode running on its own arms-race style loop.

If you're playing Ace Hunt anyway, Season EXP accrues from staying active across the mid-season window, so the cosmetic track progresses alongside it rather than competing for your time.

The deadline most people miss

One trap worth flagging: Limited-Time Delta Tickets expire at 23:59:59 UTC on 4 September.

Those tickets come from the Delta Ticket Giveaway running 8–28 August, worth up to 2,600 tickets, with a login pack on 8 August guaranteed to contain at least 1,000. They're free currency — and free currency that expires three days before the mid-season window closes is exactly the kind of thing players discover the day after it's gone.

Also worth clearing: the Free Legendary Bundle event closes on 27 August, awarding a collaboration-limited bundle and Armament Vouchers for playing matches in both modes.

Priority order

1. Spend your Limited-Time Delta Tickets before 4 September. Free, expiring, easy to forget.
2. Clear the Free Legendary Bundle track before 27 August.
3. Play Ace Hunt early in its window, while the skill gap is still narrow.
4. Let Season EXP accumulate toward the Retro Waves appearances through normal play.
5. Join Faction War if you have a squad — tournament formats reward coordination more than individual skill.

For context on how Delta Force's seasonal structures have been reshaping match flow, our Season 8 Morphosis breakdown covers the design direction the game has been pushing toward.

Get event-ready

Limited-time modes come and go, but the seasonal tracks running alongside them reward consistent playtime — which is the part a busy schedule breaks. Browse the Delta Force marketplace for progressed accounts with stash value and unlocked loadouts, book Delta Force hourly services to keep event missions and Season EXP moving, or push through the seasonal grind with Delta Force boosting before the mid-season window closes.

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