Star Fox Switch 2 Guide: How to Earn Every Medal and Keep Your Squad Alive

Quick Answer: Snagging every campaign medal requires hitting strict score thresholds while ensuring Falco, Peppy, and Slippy never retreat. You need to rely on charged laser splash damage, aggressively steal kills from your teammates, and restart from the checkpoint immediately if your mid-level score is too low.

Playing on Easy or messing around in the post-game won’t get you any shiny hardware. Medals are exclusively tied to the Normal and Expert campaigns. Earning them boils down to two punishing requirements: you must hit a specific kill count, and your entire squad has to survive the mission. If a single wingman bails out, your medal is gone, no matter how high your score climbed.

Sweeping all 15 medals on Normal is the only way to unlock the Expert campaign. If you manage to survive and grab all 16 medals on Expert, the game rewards you with a neat alternate title screen, a hidden multiplayer mode, and the ultimate bragging rights of 100% completion.

The Official Hit Target List

Do not fly into these missions blindly. You need to know exactly what numbers you are chasing. The hit requirements are identical across both difficulties, but Expert turns every single encounter into a lethal threat.

Pro Scoring Tactics

Surviving the Lylat System is one thing, but dominating the leaderboards requires a completely different playstyle. You have to get aggressive and exploit the scoring mechanics.

Prioritize Charged Splash Damage

Holding down the fire button and spraying lasers is a terrible habit. To generate high scores, you need to rely on charged shots. Nailing a cluster of enemies with a charged blast grants multikill bonus points, which are absolutely essential for hitting the higher thresholds. Save your bombs for emergencies or targets about to escape the screen, as bomb kills grant zero multikill bonuses.

Steal Every Kill You Can

Your team might be your friends, but out here, they are stealing your points. If Peppy or Slippy shoots down a fighter, that hit does not add to your total. Pay attention to what they are tracking and blast it before they get the chance. This hyper-aggressive kill-stealing is practically required on Katina, where your squad gets incredibly trigger-happy.

If the pressure of babysitting your squad while chasing scores gets too frustrating, you might want to switch gears for a bit. Check out our guide on conquering all 192 Challenge Mode objectives to test your skills in completely different scenarios.

The Checkpoint Trick

Do not waste time dragging a dead run to the finish line. Pause the game right as you hit the mid-level checkpoint and evaluate your score. Enemy density changes drastically in the second half of most levels. If your number is lagging behind, just restart the level immediately.

Strategic Suicides and Laser Maintenance

Entering a massive dogfight without any bombs puts you at a severe disadvantage. Sometimes, intentionally crashing your ship right at the start of a level is a smart play because you respawn with a fresh stash of three bombs. This is highly effective on chaotic maps like Venom 1, but be incredibly cautious doing this on Expert, as running out of lives completely wipes your run.

You also need to prioritize grabbing the green H-shaped laser power-ups immediately. Maxed-out lasers shred through waves, but you lose that upgrade the second you take wing damage. Fly clean.

Stage-by-Stage Checkpoint Goals

Memorizing enemy spawns is the secret to consistency. Here is exactly where your hit counter should sit at the halfway mark of every level, along with the hidden tricks to spawn more targets.

• Corneria: Aim for 70 hits by the checkpoint. Make sure you fly under the stone arches in the second water area to trigger a hidden wave of enemies.
• Meteo: You want 90 hits at the halfway point. Dive into the warp rings to access massive, dense clusters of ships.
• Sector Y: Pick the upper path at the initial fork and use bombs to wipe out the massive ship formations. Look for 50 hits by the mid-level mark.
• Aquas: Spam your torpedoes relentlessly. Blast every single cracked pillar and focus on boss weak points to hit 90 by the checkpoint.
• Katina: You need to hit your full 150 target before the Saucerer countdown even starts. Stay in front of your wingmen and steal everything.
• Fichina: Aim for 30 hits before Star Wolf arrives. Eliminating each rival pilot quickly grants a 10-hit bonus, which easily pushes you past the low 50-hit requirement.
• Zoness: This one is brutal. Hit 140 by the checkpoint, and shoot out the searchlights. However, intentionally let one specific searchlight catch you near the gate right after Rob drops supplies. This spawns a massive bonus wave required to reach 250.
• Solar: Aim for 40 hits halfway through. This level is empty, so you cannot afford to miss a single rock or stray enemy.
• Sector X: Always veer right at the fork for better enemy density. Hit 80 by the checkpoint, and melt Spyborg fast so Slippy does not get swatted down to Titania.
• Sector Z: Pace yourself against the missile waves. You want 25 hits before the first missile drops, 40 before the dual missiles, and 70 before the last wave hits.
• Macbeth: Shoot every boulder and train car to hit 100 by the checkpoint. Triggering all eight track switches nets you a nice bonus, but your raw score should already be solid.
• Titania: Target the massive four-legged mechs with your bombs. You need 70 hits by the mid-level mark.
• Area 6: Enter with full bombs. You need 175 hits by the checkpoint and 300 total. Memorizing the spawn waves here is not optional; it is mandatory.
• Bolse: Rack up 40 to 70 hits before the core opens. Destroying the core fast grants about 80 hits, and wiping Star Wolf quickly gives you another 40.
• Venom 1: Arrive here via Area 6 so you can fight Star Wolf for extra points. Aim for 180 by the checkpoint. The Golemech drops 10 points, but Andross gives zero.
• Venom 2: You must take the hard route to access this stage. You need three fast-kill bonuses against Star Wolf to hit 180 before entering the tunnel. Destroying Andross’s eyes grants 6 hits each, and his final form gives you the last 11.

For more tips, walkthroughs, and everything else covering the game, check out our full collection of guides.