25th March 1918, four S.E.5 aircraft of No.2 Squadron, AFC.

The career mode is a singleplayer oriented game mode where you fill the shoes of a pilot serving on the Western Front between September 1916 through to the end of the war, in November 1918. Just like a real pilot, you can rise through the ranks, be awarded for your actions and even take some liberties when it comes to the actions of the whole squadron!

For the majority of your time you will be doing missions with your brothers-in-arms (well, the AI controlling them) and they too will gain aerial victories and whatnot, giving you a healthy dose of competition on the front. To save your progress however, you will have to be logged in online.

Firstly, press the Career button at the bottom of your screen. (obviously)
It should pop up with an empty list titled "Career Selection". At the white bar at the bottom, click "Create New ". It will come up with two maps.
The WESTERN FRONT and CHANNEL maps. The Channel map comes with the Channel Battles DLC, and in my opinion, it's the best DLC to get first. It has a career map, and a bunch of planes that will really expand your options of squadron.
After you choose your theatre of war, it will take you to this screen.

It's daunting at first, but this'll become key in your future operations. So, who do you want to be?
At the moment, (and probably for forever), there are only a handful of countries you can fly for in RoF. They include:

• Great Britain (Which also includes Australian Squadrons)
  
  
• Germany
  
  
• France
  
  
• United States
  
  
• Belgium (Note: Only available on the Channel Battles map.)
  

For this example, I will make a US pilot named John Smith. But on this screen, I can't see any US squadrons! That's what the dates at the top of the screen are for. You can select a real day during the war and see all squadrons available on that specific date. We are looking for an American Squadron, so if we want to look for day one, I have a special hint.

At the bottom of the screen, there is a prompt for Filter by Squadron. Click it. Boom, a whole list of every squadron in the game. To sift through this, click the drop down menu for country. I'll click "United States."

John shall be in the infamous "Hat In The Ring Squadron", the 94th Aero Squadron. It will come up with lines in the top bar to symbolise where the 94th was available and flying. I'll scroll across, then click a day where it was available.

Woah, heaps more squadrons now! How do I find the 94th in all this?
See the big ol' icons for each airfield? Each country has it's own insignia. US Squadrons have Red, White and Blue going in this order.

Because we filtered by Squadron, the 94th will have a BLUE dot above it. If you sort by plane, it will be GREEN.
Found it, now what?

Hover over it to see which planes the squadron currently flies. Don't worry if you only own a singular plane in the squadron. You will automatically fly the one that you own. If the supply runs out though... tough luck.

Okay! Now we are at the personal info screen. Go wild with this. Select your backstory, an avatar and your name. If you want to be on the global leaderboard, make sure "Global Statistics" is checked.

(Tip: If you want a custom avatar, it requires some digging around in the files. Convert your image into the DDS format and make sure it is 256x256 pixels. Anymore, the game won't recognise it. MAKE SURE IT IS DDS. Next, go to the RoF local files, then go "/data/swf/avatars". If you can't find "/avatars" in the swf file, make it yourself. Drop your custom avatar in there, then restart the game. Retry it if you can't see your custom avatar in the custom avatar tab. It will not be visible on other people's leaderboards.)

Select your rank! If it's your first time playing the career mode, you have no choice but to be the lowest rank. In the future, if you rank up, you can start a career at that rank. If you start as a major, you're more than likely going to start out as the Squadron Commander. More on that later.

Click "Ready" and you're all set! Welcome to the front!

After you've made your new pilot, you'll be welcomed into the squadron and prompted to take a look around.
This is the main screen. It shows the history and even Post-WWI History of your squadron. Here, I have the No.2 Squadron, AFC.

Your pilot will be highlighted in the leaderboard of AI in your squadron, and will have a point score tallied from all of your doings in the field.
Your score is an amalgamation of your successful missions flown and how much you've done on those missions. For example, in one mission I'll shoot down two balloons. You also get one point for successfully completing a mission. That will be 3 added to your score.

In order to rank up, you need to have a certain score. On average, this will be every 25 points.
For Great Britain, this'll be:
Sergeant: (0-25pts)
Flight Sergeant: (25-50 pts)
2nd Lieutenant: (50-75 pts)
Lieutenant: (75-100 pts)
Captain: (100-125 pts)
Major: (125+ pts)

Next is the Personal Room.

This has your backstory, what you've done, what medals you have, and the last few aerial victories you've achieved. This screen also houses the personal leaderboard, which has every single pilot displayed here. Your point score determines how high up you are.

The world news.

This is a virtual newspaper pretty much. Every few days in the career, you'll get fresh mail delivered to your squadron, detailing events that are happening at this point in time in the war. It also has a list of the top few aces of the time... see if you can beat the Red Baron in aerial victories!

This is the Headquarters screen.

This has every airfield that is active, and what squadrons are stationed there. It also has where your missions for the day are held.

This is the mission screen.

This screen has what you'll be doing for the day, and who with. When you become the squadron leader, you can choose who goes where, and with what plane and what loadout. Pretty cool stuff. You can even select who's leading the mission.

Righty-o. You'll be selected to do some missions regarding your squadron, i.e Offensive Patrols for Fighter Squadrons, Bombing missions for Bomber Squadrons.

Unfortunately, not every squadron lasts for the whole war. Then, you must transfer out if you want to keep playing! Select "Transfer" when prompted, then select the squadron you want to transfer to in the Headquarters menu. (IT MUST BE A LIGHT BLUE AIRFIELD. YOU CANNOT TRANSFER TO ANY OTHER SQUADRON.)

When your mission is over, check that you didn't die. If you are happy with the results of the mission, click proceed. When you click it, it locks in whatever you did, including dying. When you die, it is game over. Forever. Make a new character. Don't delete a dead character just yet! You'll also get rid of their medals when you delete them.

Also! If you shoot down 3 friendly aircraft during the duration of your career, you will be executed "Breaker Morant" style.

Everyone wants medals. In Rise of Flight, it's no different. Every country has it's own set of medals, and different prerequisites to get them. Big thanks to LukeFF on the IL-2 forum.

The medals in RoF are very similar to the Flying Circus IL-2 Medals, so I got most of mine through this info.

France:

Croix de Guerre:

• Eligibility: all ranks
  
• Awarded in 1916 for every air victory or every 5 ground objects destroyed
  
• Awarded in 1917 for every 2 air victories or 10 ground objects destroyed
  
• Awarded in 1918 for every 3 air victories or 15 ground objects destroyed
  
• Can be awarded up to 16 times

Order of The Legion of Honour

• Eligibility: all ranks
  
• 5% chance of being awarded this medal once 12 air victories have been scored. This percentage gradually increases as the number of your victories grows.

OR (for higher rank of medal)

• Eligibility: all ranks
  
• 5% chance of being awarded this medal once 12 air victories have been scored. This percentage gradually increases as the number of your victories grows.

French medals can be awarded for ALL allies. Including US and Great Britain.
All allies can get the Victory Medal too.

World War I Victory Medal:

• Eligibility: all ranks
  
• Awarded at the end of the war in November 1918

Great Britain:

Air Force Cross:

• Eligibility: all officer ranks from June 3, 1918
  
• Awarded up to three times at random for completing a given number of career days

Victoria Cross:

• Eligibility: all ranks
  
• Awarded up to 2 times for scoring 7 or more victories in one mission or 5 or more victories in one mission that also resulted in the pilot being wounded in action

Distinguished Flying Cross:

• Eligibility: all officer ranks from June 3, 1918
  
• 60 percent chance of being awarded once 3 air victories have been reached
  
• 60 percent chance of being awarded for scoring 3 victories in one mission
  
• Awarded for completing 50 missions

Distinguished Service Cross:

• Eligibility: all officer ranks serving in RNAS squadrons (and their RAF successors) until June 2, 1918
  
• 60 percent chance of being awarded once 3 air victories have been reached
  
• 60 percent chance of being awarded for scoring 3 victories in one mission
  
• Awarded for completing 50 missions

Distinguished Service Order:

• Eligibility: all officer ranks
  
• Awarded up to 3 times for the following:
  
• Command of the squadron and completion of 100/200/300 missions
  
• Scoring 4 or more victories in one mission

I am not entirely sure on how to earn the Military Cross.

United States:

Distinguished Service Cross:

• Eligibility: all ranks
  
• Awarded for the first time for a pilot's first aerial victory or for destroying 5 ground objects on one mission
  
• 60 percent chance of it being awarded for every 3 subsequent aerial victories or for destroying 5 ground objects in one mission.
  
• Can be awarded up to 12 times

Medal of Honor:

• Eligibility: all ranks
  
• Awarded for scoring 7 or more victories in one mission or 5 or more victories in one mission that also resulted in the pilot being wounded in action

Germany:

Pilot's Badge:

• Eligibility: all ranks
  
• Awarded for completing one mission

Wound Badge:

• Eligibility: all ranks from March 3, 1918
  
• Black: 1st time wounded in action
  
• Silver: 3rd time wounded in action
  
• Gold: 5th time wounded in action

Iron Cross Second Class:

• Eligibility: all ranks
  
• Awarded in 1916 for scoring 2 aerial victories or 10 ground objects destroyed
  
• Awarded since 1917 for scoring 3 aerial victories or 15 ground objects destroyed

Iron Cross First Class:

• Eligibility: all ranks
  
• Awarded up to January 1917 for scoring 5 aerial victories or 25 ground objects destroyed
  
• Awarded since January 1917 for scoring 8 aerial victories or 40 ground objects destroyed

Knight's Cross with Swords of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern:

• Eligibility: all officer ranks
  
• Awarded in 1916 for 7 aerial victories or 35 ground objects destroyed
  
• Beginning in 1917, awarded for 10 aerial victories or 50 ground objects destroyed. By the war's end, these numbers stand at 15 aerial victories or 75 ground objects destroyed

Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Maximilian-Joseph:

• Eligibility: all officer ranks
  
• Awarded until late 1916 for 20 aerial victories or 100 ground objects destroyed
  
• From late 1916, awarded for 32 aerial victories or 160 ground objects destroyed. By the war's end, these numbers stand at 40 aerial victories or 200 ground objects destroyed

Knight's Cross of the Order of St. Henry:

• Eligibility: all officer ranks
  
• Awarded until late September 1916 for 5 aerial victories or 25 ground objects destroyed
  
• From late September 1916, awarded for 10 aerial victories or 50 ground objects destroyed. By the war's end, these numbers stand at 50 aerial victories or 250 ground objects destroyed

Pour Le Merite:

• Eligibility: all officer ranks
  
• Awarded until early November 1916 for 8 aerial victories or 40 ground objects destroyed
  
• From early November 1916, awarded for 10 aerial victories or 50 ground objects destroyed. By the war's end, these numbers stand at 40 aerial victories or 200 ground objects destroyed

Order of the Red Eagle:

• Eligibility: all officer ranks
  
• Awarded for 80 aerial victories or 400 ground objects destroyed

Hindenburg Cross:

• Eligibility: all ranks
  
• Awarded at the end of the war in November 1918

Not sure about the Belgian Medals! If someone who's played Belgium before could let me know in the comments, I could put it up here.

Most of these medals are up to chance after you hit the requirements. It is VERY hit or miss. I have 80+ victories on one of my pilots, and I only have 2 bronze palms on the Croix de Guerre.

Happy hunting, folks. Shoot straight, aim for the aircraft (not the man) and don't die.

Have a good one!


No.4 Squadron. June 1918.