Quick tips for new players from a series veteran

[Silentbob494]

With AC6 coming out and an influx of new player attention, I thought it might be worthwhile to provide a few starting tips/strategies I've found to smooth out the early game from my experiences playing the old games (I 100% all games except 5 and verdict day). Obviously, this assumes that AC6 mostly follows the formula of prior games so take these with a grain of salt until we know the game's final form. I write this as I've noticed a lot of first time playthroughs by streamers of earlier games are a struggle for the player as they try to field the starting AC.

--The starting AC is terrible--
The AC they start the game with in pretty much all of the armored cores is a build that does laughable damage, moves sluggishly, and will struggle to complete any mission. We can improve upon it immediately by rearranging the build using what we start with.
1. The classic starting build is a medium bipedal frame with the cheapest radar back unit, cheapest rifle, cheapest beam saber, and a small missile pod.
2. Right away the player should sell the radar unit, small missile pod, and rifle. The radar provides a worse radar than most head radars adding little value to the player and the missile pod does poor damage for an AC frame that is starved of damage output. The rifle is sold because we will be replacing it as our first upgrade. By selling these three items, we free up funds right away for some light tinkering.
3. Use the funds to upgrade the rifle into something more substantial. I'd recommend one of three choices: A machine gun, a hand gun, or an energy pistol.
4. The machine gun will produce amazing damage for its cost and is quite potent early on, but suffers from limited ammo and high ammo expense (you can actually lose money on a mission if you aren't careful). The machine gun is appropriate when the first missions involve fighting a small number of more armored enemies, or if you hit the arena from the start.
5. The energy pistol is a good long term early game choice since it doesn't cost money for its ammo. It's damage output is moderate for an early weapon and the chief drawback is that you'll have to be careful not to drain your reactor from the energy consumption and it is quite possible to run out of ammo. It is appropriate when you are fighting a larger number of weaker enemies.
6. Finally the hand gun is a possible choice (although not mine). Hand guns have relatively cheap ammo and don't do much damage, but what they do have is causing high stability damage (the stat being replaced by poise). With hand guns the idea is to "stun" your target while closing in for a beam saber kill. If you get a hand gun, also upgrade the beam saber.

--Generators and boosters are worth their weight in gold--
1. Your next priority after solving the weapon crisis with the starting core is to solve the energy/mobility one. You probably won't have enough money at the start to get a better generator/boosters but it should be the next thing you consider as you start completing missions. It is far better to avoid damage than tank it as every point of damage is costing you money. This is why its important to upgrade these systems ASAP.
2. Boosters have the biggest impact on your mobility of any possible upgrade. A super heavy tank legs mech with a powerful booster will move around quicker than even ultra light legs with the starting booster.
3. Your energy can be thought of like stamina and bottoming out on it will leave you crippled waiting for the slow recovery (energy recharges more slowly when in shutoff mode than normal recovery. Don't let that energy bar bottom out!).
4. With bigger boosters comes bigger energy drain so focus on upgrading your generator first before upgrading your boosters.
5. In most cases it is better to "fetter" the booster than to hold it when airborne. Holding the booster down continuously will drain your energy fast and is only really done when you are trying to fly straight up. Most people use a "bunny hop" method where you double tap the booster to go airborne while strafing but then just lightly tap it to maintain momentum while airborne and repeat once the AC touches ground again.
6. Energy recharges faster when standing still but standing still in combat is deadly. Use cover to catch a breath and recharge your energy pool when its low.

--Spend all your money--
1. Parts in armored core sell for the same value they buy for. (you get a full refund on sale).
2. As such, until you are rolling in money you'll be wanting to invest all the money you have into making your AC better.

--Arena for Cash--
1. The arena pits the player's AC against a NPC AC in a duel for cash.
2. Unlike missions, the player doesn't pay for repairs or ammo. This makes it a great early game activity.
3. Failure in arena has no consequences. There is no cost associated with losing a match. This makes it a riskless way to make money.
4. Some of the games don't open arena until a few missions into the game.

--Read your mail--
1. I'm unsure whether this AC will have the mail system, but if it does, check it regularly.
2. Aside from story bits or clues about upcoming missions, mail will sometimes contain free cash or parts.

--Faction Alignment--
1. If you look in the store at parts they will all contain a manufacturer who produced them.
2. Manufacturers tend to have a "theme" to them (like being a producer of energy weapons, tank treads, etc).
3. As you take missions, pay attention to which company is contracting with you. Missions won't always be available (choices will go away over time). By performing missions for a given faction, they usually offer more parts in the store and/or sometimes give you free parts as a bonus.

--Keep an eye out for the Kawasawa and Moonblade--
1. Every armored core game has these two weapons hidden somewhere in them.
2. Look for strange looking crates or out of place doors for hidden secrets.
3. The Kawasawa is an insanely powerful energy rifle (borderline broken/unfair) that does thousands of damage per shot and explodes on impact causing a small AoE. I'd be willing to wager the first time you use one, you'll probably want 2 and as much ammo as you can cram on your frame for a while.
4. The Moonblade (for which the Moonveil in Souls games is named for) is traditionally the most powerful melee weapon to the point that it can 3-5 shot most ACs. This makes it an incredible weapon for missioning or for melee builds.

I'll post some more advanced tips later, but I think this listing should help a lot of new players.

Feel free to add your own tips below.

[Seb]

Remember to bunny hop to conserve energy.

[giganova]

Originally posted by Seb:

Remember to bunny hop to conserve energy.

Feather that throttle!

[Dexaldem]

Good advice in general. A+ thread. ^_^

[REhorror]

Thanks bro!

[Blackmage]

As a fellow veteran, I second this post up until generation 4. That being said, I've heard AC6 is not going to play like AC4, so it might not matter. But if you're going to try gen4, here are a few caveats to take note of.

For AC4 specifically, the first thing you will want to do is remap the controls because they assigned X and Square for left/right weapon on a dual-analogue control scheme. You literally can't shoot and turn at the same time unless you really want to experiment with the Legendary Armored Core Control Grip (which is a joke for those who don't know).
Map boost, quick boost, and shooting to your bumpers/triggers. You don't need to adopt a claw grip.
I do not remember if you will need to remap the controls for 4ForAnswer.
And keep Auto-Boost on, or you'll sink in the water.

Armored Core's speed got cranked up to 11 in gen4 with much greater freedom for aerial maneuvers. "Bunny hopping" isn't going to cut it. Starting in this generation, quick boosting is a feature for everyone, not an extension. And it's going to be your best friend. Also:
- energy weapon ammo comes with a price tag in gen4, just like all ballistic weapons.
- you won't find parts in the field. Ain't nobody got time for that, too busy going fast!
- The KARASAWA was replaced by the CANOPUS in AC4, but MOONLIGHT is still present.
- Bipeds, inverts, and floats can use heavy back weapons without having to stop in gen4. Sad day for treads and quads!
- energy consumption is more forgiving in gen4. Instead of having an energy error for over-consumption, you're just going to be operating on low energy. That's still bad, but not as bad being unable to boost or use energy weapons. But as with all AC games, energy output is king for mobility. Energy capacity comes second.
- over-boosting is a death sentence in gen4 because it will eat your primal armor, a kind of radiation shield that mitigates damage. When it's gone, you take the full damage from incoming projectiles until it recharges. So don't use the OB.
- When quick-boosting, you can "quick-turn" in gen4. You can do this while turning and pressing Q. Boost with the move stick in the neutral position. This will help you keep enemies in your sights better than regular turning, unlike previous game where the Moving Ability and Turning Speed stats were very important factors to consider when buying new legs.

Pro-tip for Armored Core gen3 and older, where your R2 and L2 buttons allow you to look up/down, you can press both buttons simultaneously to center your view. Most people seem to either forget to mention this, or maybe they don't know about it, but now you do.
Also, don't underestimate treads and quad-legs. They will let you shoot your back weapon without stopping, and the chaingun and grenade launchers are nasty AF. So go to town with the big guns in the arena. After all, unspent money is doing nothing for you.

[Plus Escapee]

All advice can be subverted with player skill. One of the cool things about Armored Core, and games in general, is that practice can really allow you to get away with less equipment. Once you have beaten the game, you may get an itch to try things different.

Often, you develop a play style that has more to do with your personality than what is "meta." Sometimes there are parts with stats that are a bit too well rounded and balance isn't always present in Armored Core. Even so, there are often multiple ways to approach a mission and multiple ways to express power with wildly varying configurations. With skill, perhaps you will be able to beat the game with multiple configurations, and tackle missions with builds you would never guess would work.

After the endgame, I like to go back and try to figure out if there is ONE build I can beat the entire game with, even if that means being compromised. I find that when players do this, they understand themselves as a fighter much better.

My advice, here, is to encourage experimentation. Just try a lot of different things, and test your builds before deploying them A LOT. Testing what your machine can do, and getting familiar with mechanics beyond just the basics, and falling in love with your own builds is what this game is all about.

Try taking things to the extreme, what is the heaviest AC like? What's the lightest? Are you taking too many weapons into the fight and slowing yourself down, or are you running out of ammo? What is it like to equip the lowest energy drain parts, combined with the highest energy output generator? Do you end up with more energy than you can even use? It's important to balance out your machinery after understanding what the extremes are like, meaning you will have tons of experiments to do far after you find every part in the game.

[Seb]

Sell parts. Most games allow you to sell used parts at no loss, so don't be afraid to sell your entire AC and experiment.

[REhorror]

Originally posted by Seb:

Sell parts. Most games allow you to sell used parts at no loss, so don't be afraid to sell your entire AC and experiment.

Off-topic but this tip can also be applied to Front Mission.

Surprisingly some tips here can also be applied to Front Mission, hmmmm.

[Silentbob494]

Originally posted by Blackmage:

As a fellow veteran, I second this post up until generation 4. That being said, I've heard AC6 is not going to play like AC4, so it might not matter. But if you're going to try gen4, here are a few caveats to take note of.

For AC4 specifically, the first thing you will want to do is remap the controls because they assigned X and Square for left/right weapon on a dual-analogue control scheme. You literally can't shoot and turn at the same time unless you really want to experiment with the Legendary Armored Core Control Grip (which is a joke for those who don't know).
Map boost, quick boost, and shooting to your bumpers/triggers. You don't need to adopt a claw grip.
I do not remember if you will need to remap the controls for 4ForAnswer.
And keep Auto-Boost on, or you'll sink in the water.

Armored Core's speed got cranked up to 11 in gen4 with much greater freedom for aerial maneuvers. "Bunny hopping" isn't going to cut it. Starting in this generation, quick boosting is a feature for everyone, not an extension. And it's going to be your best friend. Also:
- energy weapon ammo comes with a price tag in gen4, just like all ballistic weapons.
- you won't find parts in the field. Ain't nobody got time for that, too busy going fast!
- The KARASAWA was replaced by the CANOPUS in AC4, but MOONLIGHT is still present.
- Bipeds, inverts, and floats can use heavy back weapons without having to stop in gen4. Sad day for treads and quads!
- energy consumption is more forgiving in gen4. Instead of having an energy error for over-consumption, you're just going to be operating on low energy. That's still bad, but not as bad being unable to boost or use energy weapons. But as with all AC games, energy output is king for mobility. Energy capacity comes second.
- over-boosting is a death sentence in gen4 because it will eat your primal armor, a kind of radiation shield that mitigates damage. When it's gone, you take the full damage from incoming projectiles until it recharges. So don't use the OB.
- When quick-boosting, you can "quick-turn" in gen4. You can do this while turning and pressing Q. Boost with the move stick in the neutral position. This will help you keep enemies in your sights better than regular turning, unlike previous game where the Moving Ability and Turning Speed stats were very important factors to consider when buying new legs.

Pro-tip for Armored Core gen3 and older, where your R2 and L2 buttons allow you to look up/down, you can press both buttons simultaneously to center your view. Most people seem to either forget to mention this, or maybe they don't know about it, but now you do.
Also, don't underestimate treads and quad-legs. They will let you shoot your back weapon without stopping, and the chaingun and grenade launchers are nasty AF. So go to town with the big guns in the arena. After all, unspent money is doing nothing for you.

All fair points for gen 4. For gen 4 I just built an ultralight machinegun bunny and shredded everything. I eventually switched to a more balanced medium for late-game.

[DespiseTheSun42]

if it's anything like the earlier games in the series, be prepared to absorb a lot of information and get kicked around a bit. Stick w it though, these games are so much fun once they click.

[Krausser]

Having played AC4 and AC4A recently - if your AC no worky in a certain mission, try different parts. I'd imagine it's gonna be true in AC6 as well. There's no golden ticket to one trick the whole game usually, and some match ups just require completely different set ups, plain and simple.

[Seb]

Painting your AC red will make it 3x faster.

[Dexaldem]

Originally posted by REhorror:

Off-topic but this tip can also be applied to Front Mission.

Surprisingly some tips here can also be applied to Front Mission, hmmmm.

Not QUITE so in FM3 as I recall correctly. I don't remember what the money loss was, but there was also upgrading you had to do as well. Even ignoring upgrading, FM3's sale system wasn't perfect, even if making money was pretty easy in it thanks to the surrender mechanic.

[Nightmarian]

I feel like a huge number, if not all of these tips, are either pointless, flat out wrong, or made on dubious assumptions. For instance, we don't know if the boosters vs legs thing is true anymore, and based on the director himself, seems to no longer be the case.

[Silentbob494]

Originally posted by Nightmarian:

I feel like a huge number, if not all of these tips, are either pointless, flat out wrong, or made on dubious assumptions. For instance, we don't know if the boosters vs legs thing is true anymore, and based on the director himself, seems to no longer be the case.

That's why I included the statement "Obviously, this assumes that AC6 mostly follows the formula of prior games so take these with a grain of salt until we know the game's final form."

All of these tips are presuming AC6 follows the form of a traditional AC game.