Ace Combat Infinity/Nicknames

 are personal accolades in Ace Combat Infinity. New nicknames can be unlocked by achieving certain feats or reaching a certain rank with an aircraft through the Aircraft Tree system.

Nicknames only show up in the intro and outro of Online Co-Op Missions and Team Deathmatch. Players' nickname cannot be edited until they reach the Second Lieutenant rank.

Rank
When a player reaches a certain rank, that rank will be available as a nickname. The available player ranks, which can be used as nicknames once they are achieved, are as follows:


 * Warrant Officer
 * Second Lieutenant
 * First Lieutenant
 * Captain
 * Major
 * Lieutenant Colonel
 * Colonel
 * Brigadier General
 * Major General
 * Lieutenant General
 * Full General

Aircraft Lv. Up
The following nicknames are awarded by leveling up the respective aircraft to the respective level.

Campaign
The following nicknames are awarded by completing certain tasks in the Campaign mode.

Event Rewards
The following nicknames were awarded during Ranking Tournaments.

Online Co-Op Missions
The following nicknames are awarded by sortieing in certain co-op missions a certain number of times.

Challenge Rewards
The following nicknames are awarded upon the completion of Challenges.

Ticket Exchange
The following nicknames were available through the Special Supply Ticket Catalogue. Each one costed 50 Special Supply Tickets.


 * Gilgamesh
 * Ki
 * Mappy
 * Goro
 * Gosenzo
 * Jean-Louis
 * GALAXIAN
 * DIG DUG
 * POOKA
 * Omega 11
 * Solvalou

Other
The following nicknames were awarded by some means not listed above.

Beta Nicknames
These nicknames were only available during the beta, and are not available anymore.

Unavailable Nicknames
These nicknames were only seen in trailers.
 * Enemy of the People
 * Fear From The Sky
 * Grendel
 * Pixy of Lake
 * Steel Gunner
 * UGSF
 * Vermillion

Trivia

 * The nickname for the Lv.10 Super Hornet, if playing on Japanese rather than English, translates to "Beware of Horn", referring to a rhino's horn since the United States Navy refers to the Super Hornet as the Rhino.
 * The nickname Sturmovik which is gained by upgrading the Su-25TM Frogfoot to Lv.3 refers to the Il-2, a famous Soviet Attack Plane from the second World War.
 * The nickname Ski Jumper which is gained by upgrading the Su-33 Flanker-D to Lv.3 refers to the fact that the Su-33 Flanker-D lifts off the Admiral Kuznetsov, which is an aircraft carrier that has a ski jump at the end of the runway.
 * The nickname Golden Eagle which is gained by upgrading the Su-47 Berkut to Lv.3 refers to the direct translation of the namesake aircraft.
 * The nickname Grey Ghost which is gained by upgrading the YF-23 Black Widow II to Lv.10 refers to the second YF-23A prototype.
 * The nickname The Stuka Bloodline, gained by upgrading the A-10A Thunderbolt II to Lv.15, refers to the World War 2-era dive bomber, the Junkers Ju 87. Additionally, consultations from the most decorated ace of this type, Hans-Ulrich Rudel, were used in the development of the A-10.
 * The nickname 40 Seconds, gained by upgrading the F-15C Eagle to Lv.15, refers to Col. John "40 Seconds" Boyd, a USAF fighter pilot and strategist whose energy-manuverability theories helped in developing the F-15. During his career as an instructor pilot, Boyd claimed that, starting from a position of disadvantage in a dogfight, he could outmanuever his opponent turning his disadvantageous position into an advantageous one within 40 seconds, hence his nickname.
 * Related to the previous is the nickname Aircraft Mafia, gained by upgrading the F-16C Fighting Falcon to Lv.15. It refers to the "Fighter Mafia", a group of officers and civilian consultants within the USAF in the 1970's, who advocated for Boyd's energy-maneuverability theory as the base for the design of then future fighter aircraft. They claimed that the F-15 was still too large, heavy and expensive as a fighter, and pushed for the development of a smaller design, which ultimately resulted into the F-16.
 * The nickname Balalaika is a reference to an Ace of the same name who uses a MiG-21-93 Fishbed in Ace Combat Joint Assault. This was also the popular nickname given to the aircraft for it's planform view resemblance to the instrument of the same name.
 * The nickname Spider is a reference to an Ace of the same name who uses the same aircraft, the YF-23 Black Widow II, in Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception. This was also one of the nicknames given to the first YF-23 ever built, alongside the aforementioned Black Widow II.
 * The nickname Good Loser refers to how the YF-23 lost to the YF-22 Lightning II when both competed in the Advanced Tactical Fighter competition in 1991.
 * The nickname Eye of Argus is a reference to the 100-eyed beast, Argus Panoptes, from Greek mythology.
 * The nickname Lightning Bird is a reference to the mythological creature of the same name from South African mythology.
 * The nickname Jack Knife is another name given to a pocket knife. The way it folds could be what inspired the Wyvern's folding wings.
 * The nickname Dragster is a term for a type of racing automobile that is open-wheeled, having long length and is capable of reaching high speeds quickly, a reference to the MiG-31B Foxhound's long fuselage and incredible speed.
 * The nickname Hero of the Russian Federation, gained by upgrading the T-50 PAK-FA to Lv.15, refers to the highest honorary title of the same name that is given to recipients who provided notable assistance to the Russian state.
 * It is also the same title given to Andrei Markov, the main antagonist in Ace Combat: Assault Horizon who is a notable user of the PAK-FA.
 * The nickname Chief Consulting Pilot refers to the position Cynthia Bridgitte Fitzgerald holds in the Neucom Emergency Unit (NEU).
 * The nickname Russian Knights, gained by upgrading the Su-37 Terminator to Lv.15, refers to the aerobatic team of the same name that operates the Su-27 Flanker, the aircraft from which all subsequent variants, including the Terminator, are based from.
 * The nickname Overlord is a homage to Operation Overlord, the code name for the Battle of Normandy. The Normandy landings, commonly known as D-Day, were the inspiration for the mission Operation Bunker Shot from Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies, from which the campaign and co-op missions Operation Bunker Shot and Adriatic Sea Landing Operation in Infinity were based on respectively.
 * The nickname Lilldraken is the unofficial nickname for the Saab 210, which was the testbed for the double-delta conept in the development of the J35J Draken.
 * The nicknames that are unlocked during the upgrade of the ASF-X Shinden II contain references to entities in the series that either depict or mention it in operation.
 * The 1st nickname, Sea Lightning, refers to its naval variant, the F-3C.
 * The 2nd nickname, Ridgebacks, refers to the squadron of the same name that operate the Shinden II. A special version of the squadron's aircraft was even available as a Ranking Tournament reward.
 * The 3rd nickname, Icarus, is most likely a reference to the book Ace Combat: Ikaros in the Sky.
 * The nickname Millennium, gained upon upgrading the F-16C Falcon to Lv.20, is a reference to Han Solo's iconic YT-1300F light freighter from Star Wars, the Millennium Falcon.
 * The nickname Quick Strike refers to the first proposed upgrade of the F-14D Super Tomcat, specifically on improved air-to-air and air-to-ground capabilities.