ACE COMBAT 8 Time Bonus: Ranges and Limits
Learn how the community time-bonus endpoints affect a scoring scenario, why intermediate values stay uncertain, and which result fields not to combine.
The current tool uses published time-bonus endpoints, not an invented decay formula. It offers conditional full-bonus and zero-bonus scenarios, and keeps intermediate times as a range. This is a deliberately limited interpretation of the community material.
Read the three timing brackets
The source describes a maximum time bonus, a time when it starts to decrease, and a time when it reaches zero. For each supported mission, the dossier displays those fields from the same data registry used by the diagnostic.
A result before the start belongs to the reported maximum-bonus scenario. A result beyond the end belongs to the reported zero-bonus scenario. A result between them has an unknown precise bonus in this implementation. Exact boundary rounding and subsecond handling remain untested, so do not plan a guaranteed rank around landing exactly on an endpoint.
Why we do not draw a straight line
Two endpoints do not uniquely determine what happens between them. A straight line, a stepped function and a curved decrease can share the same endpoints. Choosing the straight line without sufficient evidence would silently introduce a new game rule.
A range is less precise, but allows useful conclusions. If the destruction score plus the maximum possible bonus is still short, no position inside that band fixes the gap. If the band crosses the target, you need the actual bonus or stronger evidence before reaching a conclusion.
Keep the inputs distinct
Use the destruction score and the completed mission's result time. Do not enter MRP, a total already including bonuses or the time spent navigating menus. Menu and loading time can matter for farming efficiency, but that is a different calculation from this scoring reference.
The tool requires a time in minutes:seconds, with seconds from 00 to 59 and a total greater than zero. It rejects negative scores, decimals and missing values. Validation protects arithmetic; it does not turn community data into official data.
What to record when the estimate disagrees
Preserve the actual result, platform, version, difficulty, mode and retry history. Check whether the score already includes a bonus. Keep the screenshot with the attempt rather than matching one run's score to another run's time.
The diagnostic never stores an S rank. Record the real result in My Progress. For a worked example, compare Nomad with Singer, which has a much larger listed bonus relative to its target.