Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon

[TedNugent]

What the fuck is this "Intercept the Red Guns" mission? I keep running out of ammo before I'm even halfway through the fight, this really sucks. I guess I have to start using melee weapons again. This is the first mission to pose a challenge ever since the Sea Spider fight. Hopefully I can figure it out without googling a "correct" build for it.

I had the same issue, but here's some tips:

A) equip another main-hand weapon on your shoulder rack
B) focus on ammo efficient weaponry like the starter laser rifle or the (newly buffed) kinetic rifles. Tier 2 laser rifle runs out of ammo really quick. I was able to clear the mission by using one tier 2 laser rifle and one tier 1 laser rifle. Tier 1 was for trash clearing. Usually 1-2 shots was enough to clear trash. It's probably the most efficient weapon at the game at killing MTs. You just fly past them and press button once or twice if necessary, they usually can't even hit you.
C) focus on killing the trash mobs until they stop respawning. You'll get a message that says "they don't have anything else to throw at you," then mop up and focus on the tetra and then the boss AC. To economize your AP, roadie run boost behind the building away from the heavy hitters. Don't get yourself stuck in a rocket crossfire. Keep rotating sides around the main structure as needed.
D) Bring at least one hard hitting thing to deal with the tetrapod and the boss AC. I used the laser turrets or the laser drones, which was plenty.

As someone who played a metric fuckton of AC2 up until AC4,...

These older design quirks definitely sound appealing. It'd be cool if they took what they've learned in terms of art and presentation + modern hardware and brought that sort of mech simulator type gameplay into the modern era. Who knows? Maybe they'll experiment with it once they see that there's some appetite for it now that they have more visibility as a game dev.

FromSoft isn't going to do that shit, that's more Mech Warrior's domain at this point.

AC 1-3 got grilled by gaym journos for the "clunky" controls because gigantic mechs shouldn't have weight or awkward movement, they should literally be anime superhero characters at all times.

Side note, what got me into Dark Souls is the fucking sick knightly aesthetic with longsword and heater, and what everyone ends up with is some animu weeb faggot wearing a dress with a glowing sparkly buster sword doing tumblerolls around a giant demon's ass.

 

[Multidirectional]

What the fuck is this "Intercept the Red Guns" mission? I keep running out of ammo before I'm even halfway through the fight, this really sucks. I guess I have to start using melee weapons again. This is the first mission to pose a challenge ever since the Sea Spider fight. Hopefully I can figure it out without googling a "correct" build for it.

I had the same issue, but here's some tips:

Thanks but I already gave up on it. Tried few more times and decided it is way too fucking annoying for me to bother with it. Constant beeping and target switching thanks to million mobs was beyond irritating. By far the shittiest mission in the game so far and the only good thing about it is that it's optional. So I went with the other mission instead and did it on first try just now.

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

What the fuck is this "Intercept the Red Guns" mission? I keep running out of ammo before I'm even halfway through the fight, this really sucks. I guess I have to start using melee weapons again. This is the first mission to pose a challenge ever since the Sea Spider fight. Hopefully I can figure it out without googling a "correct" build for it.

I had the same issue, but here's some tips:

Thanks but I already gave up on it. Tried few more times and decided it is way too fucking annoying for me to bother with it. Constant beeping and target switching thanks to million mobs was beyond irritating. By far the shittiest mission in the game so far and the only good thing about it is that it's optional. So I went with the other mission instead and did it on first try just now.

Weak.

 

[Latro]

As someone who played a metric fuckton of AC2 up until AC4,...

These older design quirks definitely sound appealing. It'd be cool if they took what they've learned in terms of art and presentation + modern hardware and brought that sort of mech simulator type gameplay into the modern era. Who knows? Maybe they'll experiment with it once they see that there's some appetite for it now that they have more visibility as a game dev.

Would fail immediately because ac 1-3 is slow and only lightweights feel decent to play because of high turn speed

 

[mediocrepoet]

As someone who played a metric fuckton of AC2 up until AC4,...

These older design quirks definitely sound appealing. It'd be cool if they took what they've learned in terms of art and presentation + modern hardware and brought that sort of mech simulator type gameplay into the modern era. Who knows? Maybe they'll experiment with it once they see that there's some appetite for it now that they have more visibility as a game dev.

Would fail immediately because ac 1-3 is slow and only lightweights feel decent to play because of high turn speed

Is that intrinsically part of the design though? You can have meaningful ammo/energy costs, prices for failure, more actual trade offs between part and build decisions without making it walk at the speed of a senior citizen.

 

[Damned Registrations]

As someone who played a metric fuckton of AC2 up until AC4,...

These older design quirks definitely sound appealing. It'd be cool if they took what they've learned in terms of art and presentation + modern hardware and brought that sort of mech simulator type gameplay into the modern era. Who knows? Maybe they'll experiment with it once they see that there's some appetite for it now that they have more visibility as a game dev.

Would fail immediately because ac 1-3 is slow and only lightweights feel decent to play because of high turn speed

Is that intrinsically part of the design though? You can have meaningful ammo/energy costs, prices for failure, more actual trade offs between part and build decisions without making it walk at the speed of a senior citizen.

It wasn't even true back then. For PvP, sure. But mission variety was the key. Plodding tanks had their uses back then, because sometimes you were just acting like a turret defending a location anyways, or fighting your way through such a cramped base that evasion and turnspeed was meaningless while defenses and ammo were king.

There wouldn't have been an AC2-4 (and all their expansions) if that slow gameplay didn't have any value. It's a smaller niche for sure, but it's one that's been criminally underserved ever since Miyazaki took over. Not every action game needs to be a ritalin fueled twitchfest at all times.

 

[TedNugent]

Some more statsheet breakdowns to demystify some of the stats with the more useless tooltips:



Missile lock correction apparently reduces missile lockon time and has no effect on tracking.

 

[Lyric Suite]

So yesterday i had a day off work so to dick around i managed to S rank most of my left over missions up to this point. Here's my current S rank status so you can see my autism lul:



Attack on the spaceport was another interesting mission (Infiltrate Grid 086 remains my favored mission so far though), almost panicked when the worm showed up after depleting all my repair kits in the duo AC fight but the game was just trolling me lmao.

Speaking of AC fights, i only managed to A rank Attack on the Refueling Base because that duo AC fight at the end is almost impossible with my current gear. I tried to cheese the AI by getting them to split somehow but i couldn't pull it off. I need something powerful enough to cut them down super quick as i can't fight one without the other wrecking my shit and vice versa.

Ho, Eliminate the Enforcement Squads was easier to S rank than to get all logs, since the last log require you to fight an extra AC (and no supplies so you are shit out of luck if you use too many repair kits before the HC at the end). I tried some sort of panzer build, which worked, but barely as i never used thread wheels before and i couldn't figure out how to move with this thing. On the last AC fight i gave up trying to dodge his shit and just dunked my head and went in full brawler mode and only managed to outlast him by an hair:



Playing a tank was fun but i'm not used to having my manouverability curtailed so much so i reverted back to my standard medium AC build.

BTW, chapter 3 is longer than expected. I was sure the fight with the worm boss was going to be the next mission but it seems i have three more missions to chose from.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Just S ranked Attack the Old Spaceport. Not that hard, Rusty drew the second AC to himself which made the last encounter easy. Kinda of silly i had to dodge the Dune worm thingy for 10 minutes waiting for the mission to end so i could see what rank i got.

I also did all the B rank Arena stuff and on a couple of those fights, it seemed the game was trying to tell me something. Like when fighting Carla, she started telling me something about the "sim...". I assume she was trying to say those arena fights are not "simulations" (never thought they were though?).

Rusty was the hardest mech in the entire Arena so far. It's funny how fast ACs are seen as shit if you use them but they are annoying as fuck if you are fighting against them. At the end of Attack On Old Spaceport i killed the shielded HC in a nanosecond taking barely any damage but when i fought the second one i was forced to use a repair kit and unlike the first that was two against one. Even with hard lock i always lose track of fast ACs which i think it's the main problem.

 

[TedNugent]

Apparently, just use the cheese build of dual gatlings and stun needles:



Rusty was a squish against laser spam, didn't even remark on the name for a second until I remembered he's that "Buddeh" dude. In fact, none of the arena fights are remarkable.

The real buttfuck fights so far have been the voice in your head chick and the one mission where you have to take on 3 ACs overlapping each other, and the first two are tanky as fuck. You end up fighting two at a time in the mid no matter what you do. Then again, I haven't tried the cheez build on that one. I had to switch to dual needle guns/tank legs to kill voice in your head lady (got an A rank hurr durr, while barely dodging anything), I absolutely can't even clear the mission without them, and it is driving me nuts.

PS, lol@this game balance:

Spoiler

Ah, whoops. I was really struggling to take down Ayre with my kinetic rifles/missile build and just barely scraped past clears by the skin of my teeth with the Ransetsu RF and the Harris rifles with B ranks. Then I realized that I was using mind alpha arms instead of the Nacht arms.

Fixed that and got an A rank with Ransetsu RF + 10x missiles on the back. Pretty happy with this build now. The Ransetsu isn't bad.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Yeah, but i only got the stun needles now. I managed to S rank everything prior to the Ice Worm except for Attack the Refueling Base and the one where you have to kill "Honest" Brute (i ended the mission with two repair kits left and i still got an A ranking so i guess that's not possible either, i mean with pre-Ice Worm gear and upgrades). The one i had an easy time S ranking was the one where you fight the other Raven. Slow ACs are just easier on average and it seems it is just as difficult for the AI to land a Pile Bunker attack as it was for me when i had that weapon, bosses notwithstanding. Every time he tried to use that thing on me he ended up eating a double Singbirds volley.

Anyway, Ice Worm. FromSoft really loves to throw one of those gimmicky bosses in every one of their games, don't they. Was getting flashbacks from Bed of Chaos when fighting this thing:



I don't know if it's possible to kill it without the needle and i don't want to know. No way i'm going to repeat the shit show that was my spearless fight with Rykard lmao.

 

[TedNugent]

Needleguns are almost necessary for most of the boss fights. It's pretty essential against the tankier enemies, especially on NG+ and ++, they start throwing more bullshit encounters into the mix, and rifles just don't cut it.

You get ricochets unless you're basically in their kill zone, and they're bullet sponges.

And it's too easy to whiff it with the grenades reload is too long. Best time to time it is when they're coming in for a melee attack, unload both of them right in their face.

 

[Crayll]

I've had a lot of luck with the linear rifles, mostly Harris, medium weight biped with two of those and missiles carried me through NG++. More than enough range to keep your distance, decent projectile speed, decent damage, and a lot of stagger on demand with the charged shot when you want to lock someone in place for a missile barrage or a direct bazooka hit.

Haven't tested the weaker linear rifle since the patch.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Needleguns are almost necessary for most of the boss fights.

Wow, just tried those things on actual missions and they are truly the most OP shit ever. And there i was thinking the Songbirds were much. Sure enough, all it took to S rank both of those missions was the Needles:




This is completely broken. I'm glad i tried to master all the missions before i beat the Ice Worm as this new gear makes all the previous content trivial.

 

[TedNugent]

I've had a lot of luck with the linear rifles, mostly Harris, medium weight biped with two of those and missiles carried me through NG++. More than enough range to keep your distance, decent projectile speed, decent damage, and a lot of stagger on demand with the charged shot when you want to lock someone in place for a missile barrage or a direct bazooka hit.

Haven't tested the weaker linear rifle since the patch.

I switched over to Harris in my NG+ but the Ransetsu RF fits the bill, too.

Honestly, I don't use the charged shots because I cannot be bothered to jumblefuck with my button presses in order to stand there, not shooting, so that I can charge one derpshot that is just as likely to miss as my spam attacks and force a reload. It not just forces you to stand still and stop firing with all your other weapons, it pushes you back a bit.

It really angers me that so many of the rifles are garbo without the charged shots, particularly the Karasawa and the Coral Rifle. Their stats just suck outside of the charged attack.

Why does this game want me to desire standing still and getting knocked back, doing so is retarded unless I have tank legs. Another reason I loathe tank legs. Grenade launchers, bazookas, stun needles, laser cannons, plasma cannons, linear rifles, plasma rifles, laser rifles, coral weapons, the game wants me to park my ass and charge one derpshot for half the weapons in the game, including the best weapons. It's just stupid without tank legs, where I can keep zipping around and throw whatever big booms I want on my back.

I use rifles and missiles so I can keep moving, specifically because I want to avoid self rooting mechanics, which are awful. Tank treads are lazy.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Meh, ass ranked the Worm boss but once i figured out the patterns it was basically trivial to do:



This is one boss i'm glad isn't hard though. I hate scripted, gimmick boss fights and i would have found it frustrating to redo this mission over and over. Bed of Chaos still remains the king of obnoxious gimmick bosses.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Ho no, another patch.

Please don't nerf shit again lmao.

 

[TedNugent]

Patch notes

Just bug fixes looks like.
PvP targeted patch was suposed to come out later. I anticipate huge shakeups then.

https://www.bandainamcoent.com/news/armored-core-vi-fires-of-rubicon-patch-notes-v-1-03

 

[Lyric Suite]

Heh, cute boss:



Might be a pain in the ass to S rank. We'll see tonight. Sticking to Songbirds since they are OP enough as it is. If i can't S rank it i'll lower myself to use the Needles again.

 

[TedNugent]

No need, try putting a pile bunker on left shoulder and double melee.

I posted a vid a few pages back of someone killing it in less time than the intro cutscene.

 

[Lyric Suite]

You can do that? Double melee?

Too late to try it now just did it with basically the same set up, mission was more generous than i expected, especially since i made some mistakes:



First time i'm using shotgun and i messed it up completely. My brain is still wired from when i had the bazooka in my main hand and i kept using the Zimmerman in the same way. It only dawned on me to use it properly at the last minute when fighting the last boss. I wasn't actually paying much attention as i wasn't expecting to S rank it because of all the damage i took, first from Ignazus blowing that bomb (tried to use the bobble shield but his timing was faster), and then from that stupid laser the last boss shoots, which seems near impossible to dodge, but despite all those errors i still got it. Songbirds are still plenty powerful, which means if i had used the Needles i would have made this way easier.

Ho, also towards the end it seems i met some kind of glitch. Was using the radar to blow up the inert MTs hanging from the cieling but the last two were invisible to it, even at point blank range. Made me lose precious seconds thanks game.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Meant to post this a few weeks ago
Beat Baltheus
Couldn't do it with my go-to mech - "Chicken Legs"
So I grinded missions and build a fat quad mech dualwielding pulse guns and the songbirds + sword for when the shield went down
Killed him on the second try
Overall the game is pretty cool

So far the negative are mostly nitpicks:
- why isn't there a loadout list so players can easily select between custom builds
- free aim sucks, I never expected for it to useful against other AC's given on fast they are, but the shitty crosshair placement means it's not even useful to use against fodder mobs

 

[Crayll]

So far the negative are mostly nitpicks:
- why isn't there a loadout list so players can easily select between custom builds

The AC Data menu under the assembly menu lets you do this

 

[TedNugent]

- why isn't there a loadout list so players can easily select between custom builds

There is a loadout list

You can do that? Double melee?

Weapon racks OST chip

 

[Lyric Suite]

Ho, ONGBAL. That guy is something else.

This is a bad game for him to show off his talents though. You can trivalize everything without much skill. Just did the S rank ACs in the Arena with Stun Needles and they barely lasted seconds. I'm doing Intercept the Redguns right now and i'm intentionally reverting back to my pre-Ice Worm gear not to break the mission.