Over 60% of the game's owners are now past Balteus.

[Steve]

If you're in the 40%, DON'T GIVE UP. Don't listen to sour grapes about "bosses shouldn't be this hard" or "this is bad game design" because it isn't on both counts. It's definitely beatable.

In fact, you can only lose if you give up.

Keep fighting. You got this.

[Obsidus]

Especially since after Balteus, the game becomes extremely fair by comparison. Plenty of other REALLY challenging bosses, but they're all quite fair. Balteus for when you fight him is a real ball buster. After him the game gets better. Don't give up.

[Grimacetexas9]

you will see as soon as you realise that you need to build a new ac every other bosses because they are designed to be beatable only with a few strategies you will be able to pregress the game. it just becomes a game of build 8 different AC's until you find the right one for some of the hardest ones.

[Naqel]

Got stargazer today, and I still think the souls-like bosses are the weakest part of the game.

Where it shines is AC on AC combat, even 3v1 doesn't feel like complete ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ the way all of those "bosses" do. They just aren't fun, and the number of viable strategies against them, especially in S-rank runs is absolutely abysmal.

[Steve]

Originally posted by Grimacetexas9:

you will see as soon as you realise that you need to build a new ac every other bosses because they are designed to be beatable only with a few strategies you will be able to pregress the game. it just becomes a game of build 8 different AC's until you find the right one for some of the hardest ones.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3029231324

There's your 8 different ACs in one AC.

[Obsidus]

Originally posted by Grimacetexas9:

you will see as soon as you realise that you need to build a new ac every other bosses because they are designed to be beatable only with a few strategies you will be able to pregress the game. it just becomes a game of build 8 different AC's until you find the right one for some of the hardest ones.

This is generally true, but dual shoulder lasers and dual Zimms does ♥♥♥♥ on most of the game. So there is at least one fool-proof setup that can clear the game out in a brain-dead manner.

[LUHLUH]

i gave up after the pca chopper and went back to ac:4a

[Steve]

Originally posted by LUHLUH:

i gave up after the pca chopper and went back to ac:4a

You can do it! That's one of the toughest ones because you're in a trash build to start. The keys are to keep pressuring with the machine gun, get airborne once its telegraphed rockets go off, and assault boost toward it to land melee (don't charge it, use the 2 hit combo because hit 1 is usually enough to stagger if you're pressing with the guns/missiles so hit 2 will deal more damage).

Remapping controls might be a good idea to more easily do this. As soon as I remapped Assault Boost and Reload to the side buttons on my mouse, I became God.

[Silamon]

Originally posted by Grimacetexas9:

you will see as soon as you realise that you need to build a new ac every other bosses because they are designed to be beatable only with a few strategies you will be able to pregress the game. it just becomes a game of build 8 different AC's until you find the right one for some of the hardest ones.

I used the same shotgun build for the entirety of the first run, with only one change after beating Balteus (changed normal shottie to zimmerman).

I've only made minor changes to it now that I am in ng++ and it still makes every fight that seems challenging a lot easier...

[Silamon]

Originally posted by Calteru:

Originally posted by LUHLUH:

i gave up after the pca chopper and went back to ac:4a

You can do it! That's one of the toughest ones because you're in a trash build to start. The keys are to keep pressuring with the machine gun, get airborne once its telegraphed rockets go off, and assault boost toward it to land melee (don't charge it, use the 2 hit combo because hit 1 is usually enough to stagger if you're pressing with the guns/missiles so hit 2 will deal more damage).

Remapping controls might be a good idea to more easily do this. As soon as I remapped Assault Boost and Reload to the side buttons on my mouse, I became God.

I had to rebind assault boost on controller as well. I kept starting it by accident. Put on dpad left instead and that works great.

[Samnson]

Originally posted by Calteru:

If you're in the 40%, DON'T GIVE UP. Don't listen to sour grapes about "bosses shouldn't be this hard" or "this is bad game design" because it isn't on both counts. It's definitely beatable.

In fact, you can only lose if you give up.

Keep fighting. You got this.

Well,
both can be true?

Bosses really shouldn't be hard to the point of depressing frustration.
You don't feel good even after beating it, because the second you find the "correct" build that stomps it, you feel like its wasted your time.

---The core problem of the Balt boss fight is that the game does a very poor job of preparing you for it.---

It is the first fight in the entire game that you cannot relax on,
if you try to find a second to breath at any point in the fight, it will punish you for it;
by either 1 shotting you with a full missile barrage, or slapping you with an attack that you can't actually see because the screen is a cluster ♥♥♥♥ of particles and missile trails.

The HC Helicopter and the Juggernaut before it are both easy fights,
And the Juggernaut will actually punish you for trying to throw yourself at it with damage.
You spend that fight just maneuvering around it waiting to shoot it in the back.

Where as Balt is literally the opposite,
If you're not immediately and constantly trying to murder it, you will just die over and over and over again.

If I were to give a Fromsoft comparison,
Balt is principally designed like Almost all Blood borne bosses,
beating it before it beats you requires hyper aggression. Most of the bosses after Balt also follow this pattern of design.

[Dezra]

Theres plenty of youtube videos now on builds or tactics to kill Balteus with the stuff you have and then plenty of boss killings under 1 min once you redo the game in NG+ lol.

[Clockmed The Teenage Terror]

Originally posted by Dezra:

Theres plenty of youtube videos now on builds or tactics to kill Balteus with the stuff you have and then plenty of boss killings under 1 min once you redo the game in NG+ lol.

Yeah, because watching someone else play the game for you and copying them is the best way to enjoy gaming. Tutorials for complicated hidden things, sure, I understand completely. If I've emptied my resources and still cant figure it out, okay maybe. But half the fun is learning how to do it yourself. What good are you to anyone if you never do anything for yourself to improve? Essentially just a bunch of clones running around doing the same things bc they cant figure out any other way to play.

[Corps/Peau/Rate]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuG8c4g6bS4

use pulse sword and pulse gun

[Steve]

Originally posted by Samnson:

---The core problem of the Balt boss fight is that the game does a very poor job of preparing you for it.---

I would disagree. The helicopter fight, for example, does a great job of teaching you to look for the visual/audio cues for big attacks in their animation (even calling attention to where to look by way of flashing red target boxes) and teaches you to avoid ground sweeps by taking to the air. It also impresses upon the player the importance of melee strikes, and even goes so far as to make sure their starting blade is pulse -- which wrecks shields.

Subsequent missions offer practice with tracking fast-moving targets and avoiding incoming fire.

The leadup even has you warming up against a miniboss after dodging laser snipers.

If one fights the current of Armored Core's bosses, one is very likely to be eroded and swept away. If one learns to read its ebb and flow, then one becomes an unstoppable stargazing killing machine.

Just gotta keep at it, take what the game gives you, and learn how to work with it to the best of personal ability.

[Stübi Senpai]

I would heavily recommend against sticking to it. Balti is your warning sign to "get out". If you had problems there, you're gonna be even more annoyed once you get to Ibis, which somehow manages to be even dumber than Balti.

Chapter 1 is basically there to tell you "This game is 80% smashing your head against unfair bosses. Go play something fun instead."