Buff to rifle/machine gun, which definitely needed it. Unfortunately they'll always underperform since they're incompatible with the stagger mechanic, which favor burst weapon.
Armored Core 6 gameplay finally revealed.
- Thread starter Worgen
- Start date
It was eating at me so much that I couldn't beat that goddamn stupid muthafuging cleaner after having finally triumphed over Balteus that I re-installed this damn game- and of course had to replay the mission- made a mech with the 4 legs so I could float, equipped missiles and dual machine guns, and just throw myself at the damn f'n thing until I finally took it down.
All this talk about how "this is not a Souls game" is bullshit, IMO, because to me "Souls game" means being mad at yourself for not beating a boss and then doing it so that you don't feel about yourself.
All this talk about how "this is not a Souls game" is bullshit, IMO, because to me "Souls game" means being mad at yourself for not beating a boss and then doing it so that you don't feel about yourself.
So I have no history with this series, I only ever played the demo of the first game that came with a game magazine back in the day, I remember it being pretty cool but that was about it. Never got into it and don't know anything about the story and so on, but it looked pretty cool from some brief gifs I've seen so I decided to try it.
I have to say, when I can lose like 4 hours in a flash, I know that the game is pretty special. Starting right off, the control feels very familiar and souls-like (especially if you put the quick boost on circle since it behaves like a dodge roll). Having an energy sword makes this game instantly so much fun, assault boosting into a charged sword slash is insanely satisfying. You are surprisingly mobile too for how big these mechs are. I'm in a constant loop of finding new cool things to try out.
Just cleared all the tutorial missions and did like 10 or so story missions. I actually died a couple times too! There was this one fight that the game tells you to avoid but screw that, and after dying a couple of times, something clicked in my head and I shifted from shooty fun time into my two handed greatsword playstyle from Elden Ring, which actually worked cause the leaping giant mech enemy actually felt like fighting an entry level souls boss. Like the asylum demon or something. You died very fast but it was pretty easy to dodge. And then later I also died to that boss that puts mines out everywhere that you have to jump to avoid, kinda like Sekiro and horizontal swipes. I'm not used to managing my hovering to not burn out my stamina yet so I'd fly too long and get exploded while out of energy.
The story is pretty simple but the way it is being told through just dialogue with no faces to the characters actually really reminds me of Ace Combat, which is a series I played back in the day (up until AC0 on ps2) and those games surprisingly managed to tell a really interesting story in that style so seeing it here added to the feeling of nostalgia this game elicits, even to someone who hasn't been a long time fan.
Oh and all the parts and gun and paint customization made me feel like I was 7 again playing with my transformers. My goal is to have enough energy to make a 4 laser rifle (1 in each hand and 1 in each shoulder) build with those octopus legs and charge all the lasers simultaneously, will be hype.
I have to say, when I can lose like 4 hours in a flash, I know that the game is pretty special. Starting right off, the control feels very familiar and souls-like (especially if you put the quick boost on circle since it behaves like a dodge roll). Having an energy sword makes this game instantly so much fun, assault boosting into a charged sword slash is insanely satisfying. You are surprisingly mobile too for how big these mechs are. I'm in a constant loop of finding new cool things to try out.
Just cleared all the tutorial missions and did like 10 or so story missions. I actually died a couple times too! There was this one fight that the game tells you to avoid but screw that, and after dying a couple of times, something clicked in my head and I shifted from shooty fun time into my two handed greatsword playstyle from Elden Ring, which actually worked cause the leaping giant mech enemy actually felt like fighting an entry level souls boss. Like the asylum demon or something. You died very fast but it was pretty easy to dodge. And then later I also died to that boss that puts mines out everywhere that you have to jump to avoid, kinda like Sekiro and horizontal swipes. I'm not used to managing my hovering to not burn out my stamina yet so I'd fly too long and get exploded while out of energy.
The story is pretty simple but the way it is being told through just dialogue with no faces to the characters actually really reminds me of Ace Combat, which is a series I played back in the day (up until AC0 on ps2) and those games surprisingly managed to tell a really interesting story in that style so seeing it here added to the feeling of nostalgia this game elicits, even to someone who hasn't been a long time fan.
Oh and all the parts and gun and paint customization made me feel like I was 7 again playing with my transformers. My goal is to have enough energy to make a 4 laser rifle (1 in each hand and 1 in each shoulder) build with those octopus legs and charge all the lasers simultaneously, will be hype.
Psh, I just call that the "third boss in Link to the Past" when I was like 6, experience. And/or Megaman
I've finished one playthrough and am onto new game plus. I like the game very much, with my main problem being the weird difficulty curve, especially where bosses are concerned. Nothing in the game is as hard as Balteus and after you beat the spider all the bosses are much easier. I think the culprit for this is having access to a very obvious boss obliteration enabler in the form of the light tank legs. The light tank legs offer excellent movement on the ground and a good load capacity in exchange for poor aerial movement, but you don't really need to fly for most of the bosses, and you can swap out your AC when you restart from a checkpoint, so I could use my lightweight dual shotgun build to traverse the levels, get to the boss, eat shit, and then get into my Paralympian death machine and rip it to pieces with massive guns.
Quad legs also seem to have gotten a raw deal as the ability to loiter in the air for extended periods is only useful a couple of times and is generally a poor trade off for very slow speeds compared to bipedal and tank legs.
Quad legs also seem to have gotten a raw deal as the ability to loiter in the air for extended periods is only useful a couple of times and is generally a poor trade off for very slow speeds compared to bipedal and tank legs.
I think the game is implicitly relying on the desire among some players to chase the S ranks, which you can’t get if you change your build.
The first playthrough it definitely the toughest. At that point you don't have the best body parts, weapons, or internals, and the bosses are brutal. They test your builds and skills to an insane degree, and help prepare you for the rest of the game. By the time NG+ and NG++ rolls around you're much better than if the first playthrough was a cakewalk. NG+ felt like a decently smooth ride save for a few missions, cause by then you've got a majority of the good stuff, your builds are vastly improved, and you've got experience under your belt. NG++ is when the game starts putting all your work to the test and doesn't pull its punches at various points.
The light tank legs are hilarious and I love them. If a boss was giving me trouble I'd bring them out, and even then they weren't a guaranteed victory. They'd just be the difference between me attempting the boss over a dozen or more times versus less than a dozen times. Though, again, NG++ threw a few curves at me and the lack of air mobility options made life difficult, so I just had to buckle up and get myself in gear.
A lot of enemy types have a harder time dealing with airborne targets at a base level, especially if you've got decent booster mobility. It might not seem like the hover has a high use at first, but it's extremely versatile and is even good against opponent ACs by flying over them where they can't target you.
While they didn't end up being my most used type of legs for things like boss battles or missions/opponent ACs where I need to move fast, they were the ones I brought out when I needed to get most shit done. I like what this game did for tank legs, but I love what they did for quad legs
So I just cleared chapter 1 and man that final boss there was nuts. Totally a souls experience, that one. Though part of it was me being stubborn and not wanting to redo the mission with an appropriate weapon type (I went in with short ranged focus and that thing clearly needs mid to long range cause it keeps running away). I did get it eventually though, and to do so I had to optimize my burst damage during those posture break moments, which was great. The next big boss where you had to shoot in its chimney was tough too, I died a bunch there as well though not as much. I lucked out in having gone in with a more overall balanced build so I could do ok. Though yeah it did 1shot me the first time with that one huge pincer attack it does that hits for like 8k lol.
We're at the same place.
The cleaner boss annoyed me because I saw a youtube video where someone was able to smash it in the middle between the arms but of course it keeps it blocked most of the time.
I really do not like using the tank or quad legs, but the only way I could deal with this thing was to make a quad leg build so I could hover over the chimney.
One of the things that's annoying me about the bosses is that despite the game and fanboys telling me I should experiment, there ends up being only one practical way to win and it involved equipping two of the same weapons to stagger it (machine guns or pulse guns, depending on the boss). This is exactly like Elden Ring where it was- so many different ways to play, except really just use mimic tear and bleed.
I personally struggled to hit it's top weakpoint so killed it by shooting smgs and rockets in it's face then jumping over it with reverse jointed legs. I don't hate the big bosses but the kind of challenge they pose is wildly at odds with the kind of challenge posed by the rest of the levels they're in, which is how I ended up with the aforementioned pair of primary ACs, with one set up to traverse levels and one solely to fight bosses (other than ACs which my level traverser could fight just fine)
Between what I've seen other people beat these bosses with, as well as my own personal experience... yeah, naw, that's not the only "practical" way to beat these bosses. Those are good and possibly efficient ways to beat them, but rarely did I ever beat a boss dual wielding a weapon type. My builds tended to focus on an array of options that worked for me through, as you say the "fanboys" suggest... experimentation. Finding what I like and what works for the AC I'm building around.
A lot of past AC games were easy enough (even on hard mode missions) that I could build 1 AC, maybe swap a few weapons out as needed, but otherwise could keep it the same over most of the game. AC6 put me in positions where I actually felt compelled to have 4-6 builds at the ready for different purposes, and there was rarely a one-size-fits-all AC I could apply to a mission. Doing so helped even the odds when I was put on the disadvantage.
This is the takeaway I got from the game very early on. By the end of the game I had an AC for lengthy missions and ease of use, a "general purpose" AC for shorter missions and a wide range of attack options for whatever could be thrown at me (but it lacked firepower and ability to survive high pressure skirmishes), a reverse joint lightweight AC, an AC vs AC build, and a tank AC. All of them got extensive use over the course of the game.
It's a very different kind of Armored Core compared to what we had before. I welcome the changes personally, cause it makes sense for you to not be able to just fly by with one or two AC builds that let you plow through every situation without issue. That defeats the purpose of the whole thing... building your AC with tons of available options.
Is the game frustrating? Oh yeah, for sure, but I guess it depends what you have the patience for. I had the patience to persevere, some people didn't, and that's totally fine
Oh I never tried dual weapons yet outside of that one training mission, I'm all for the energy saber builds with laser cannons or shotguns, something else that's ok in close range, so I want high boost and high assault boost and just chasing things down. Also I like using those shoulder laser cannons cause you can charge em all up as you're about to break something's posture and then fire em all at the same time to destroy it totally. There's stats for things like how much stamina your energy sabers use and how fast you fly during those attacks so I tend to pick those mech parts.
The cleaner has this platform in front of the chimney where you can land at and regen your stamina, and then in the second phase you can attack the lower weakpoint, also when you stagger it you wanna go low too cause it's much harder to do a long combo all in the chimney. There may be a better way but I was playing a fragile unit that died in 1-2 hits in exchange for crazy boost speeds and energy shotgun/shoulder laser combo so that's what worked for me.
Saying dual wield stagger tactics is the only practical way to play is like saying that only dex builds are valid in Souls games. As someone who was always a strength focused player, I laugh at the face of those small minds while charging my heavy attack. Also that assault boost kick is broken cause it doesn't cool down or use ammo and it staggers the enemy letting you charge your lazors. It seems kinda minor and not very impactful but it adds up when you need it.
Last edited:
Sea Spider down. Again, best strategy ended up being to overwhelm it with force and not let it do it’s spinny death move.
It also introduced me to the piledriver weapon, which is neat.
It also introduced me to the piledriver weapon, which is neat.
- Feb 7, 2011
- 8,084
- 2,450
- 118
- Country
- 'Merica
- Gender
- 3 children in a trench coat
If it was a souls game you wouldn't be able to change your build whenever you want and there wouldn't be a checkpoint right before the boss.
Did you end up turning up your sensitivity like I recommended?
- Feb 7, 2011
- 8,084
- 2,450
- 118
- Country
- 'Merica
- Gender
- 3 children in a trench coat
Dark Souls 1 and Demon's Souls don't let you reallocate your stats, so you are essentially locked into a build, and Dark Souls 2, 3, and Elden Ring limit the number of times you can respect per play-through. In Bloodborne your stats basically don't matter, and in Sekiro you basically don't have stats or a build.
Also, most bosses in all of the souls games don't have a bonfire right before the boss. A few do, but most make you run though some bullshit to fight the boss each attempt.
Elden Ring having save points very near boss rooms and save points more frequently in general was a big change that made it feel a lot nicer to play.
I missed or forgot this recommendation, sorry, but I will try it next time I play, thx for reminding