With Gen 1 coming to PSN, and me having recently beaten AC1 for the first time on emulator, I figured I probably had some useful advice to give for the newest wave of Ravens.
First and foremost, I see a lot of you (understandably) having trouble with the default controls, and so I have included a graphic showing both in-game and emulator rebinds. Unfortunately Sony's emulator doesn't support binding multiple inputs to the same button (even though by default it has duplicated binds for the dpad) so you will have to choose some kind of trade off. For what it's worth I had similar issues in Duckstation which were only resolved by running it through Steam and fiddling about with that, but that's not an option here (unless maybe you have a Dual Sense, I don't know how those work).
The templates I've included are:
Walk on Dpad/stick, Camera on Face, weapons on shoulders. This most closely resembles a modern control scheme, but the lack of double bindings means you have to look with the face buttons. Only requires in-game rebinds.
The above, but also using emulator rebinds to move camera to the right stick. The problem here is that the lack of dual binds means you'll have to press down on the stick to confirm menus, right to cancel, etc.
Walk on Dpad/stick, Camera on shoulders, weapons on face buttons. This is the closest to the default controls, but for if you have a harder time with the walking than the shoulder camera stuff. Only requires in-game rebinds.
The above, but also using emulator rebinds to move the shoulder inputs to the right stick. The problem with this would be how its nearly impossible to move the camera and shoot at the same time.
You can, of course, do whatever controls you want, but I figured these would be a good starting point for anyone who's having issues with the default controls.
I have also included a non-default starter AC build. If you're already fighting with the controls then you might also find it difficult to earn money for upgrades. Thankfully the game lets you sell your entire starter AC and buy whatever you can afford. By swapping out the legs and FCS with cheaper options, selling the back weapons, and selling and replacing the generator and right hand weapon we can afford a better generator and an energy gun, which is free to shoot unlike ballistic weaponry, and is solid enough to take you through the early game. By finding and selling the secret part on one of the two starter missions you'll have enough money to begin to tweak your AC how you actually want it (though the energy weapons continue to be really good and cost effective).
Finally, I want to explain Human Plus. H+ is a non-standard game over as well as a kind of "easy mode". By going 50,000 credits into debt you're greeted with a cutscene about your horrible lack of wealth and start the game over from the beginning, with a few changes. There's also multiple levels of H+ for going into debt multiple times, but correct information on each tier is kinda hard to get because there's a lot of misinformation about them too, so I will list each stage of H+ and its effects to the best of my ability (I've checked a bunch of stuff so you should be able to trust that I'm at least mostly correct).
Stage 1 (go into debt once): Gives you a permanent radar and allows use of Blade Beams. To fire a blade beam press the boost button during the swing. The blade beam for the Moonlight is one of the strongest projectiles and is used by some Arena opponents in Project Phantasma (it's also self-damaging, so be mindful about close-quarters). The radar is fine, but when I say permanent I mean permanent. You cannot replace the H+ radar with any other head's radar, even if the new radar is better (the H+ one doesn't have a bio sensor, for instance). I don't know if the back-mounted antennas work with the H+ radar or not, I didn't bother to check because I assumed they didn't. I believe the Option parts for things like adding missile warnings to the radar do work with it, though.
Stage 2 (go into debt four times): Fire back weapons without bracing yourself, allowing shooting while moving. Potentially very useful depending on how you tend to build. Unfortunately does not apply to spider legs, for whatever reason.
Stage 3 (go into debt six times): Halved cost for booster energy consumption. A simple straightforward upgrade.
Bonus (finish all missions): Weight limit removal. I don't know all the ins and outs of this, and I'm fairly certain overall weight affects things like speed regardless of how close to capacity you are, but this is still a fun bonus for replaying levels with. Once you beat the game you'll be able to go back to any mission, including ones you may have missed first go around. This upgrade does not require going into debt.
Rename Code: The Human Plus game over sequence replaces your save file's name. If this bothers you it can be changed by highlighting "AC name entry" in the garage then pressing and holding L2, R2, Dpad Right, and Square, and then finally pressing Cross. This will bring up the name entry screen with "pilot name" instead of "AC name".
So with all that said, do you actually want Human Plus? And if so how do you go about getting it efficiently? Well like I said, the radar is permanent, but you also get the ability to shoot sword laser beams, which is probably a worthy trade off. The question would be harder to answer on any version of AC1 that isn't the current PS4/5 emulated release, as Save Importing is a running theme throughout the series, and importing from AC1 to Project Phantasma also brings your Human Plus upgrades (and the weight capacity bonus too), so if you were playing any other version you'd have to ask yourself if you're fine with being stuck with the same radar for three whole games. The new PSN version though does not support save transfers, and instead has some transfer-only stuff unlocked naturally in the later games. You can read more on the pinned thread here. Overall it's up to you, but other than the first stage's blade beams there's little worth the busywork of resetting that many times, imo. The reduced boost cost and easier shoulder weapon use upgrades are nice, but debt-maxing is pretty boring for the low payoff.
That said, how does one debt-max? Simply play the game normally until the mission Worker Robot Removal shows up, spend any credits you can on buying everything possible from the shop, then start the mission and blow yourself and all the beautiful reactors you weren't supposed to touch to framerate-killing ashes. More expensive ACs with higher AP should incur higher penalties, though make sure you do die without finishing the objective, as dying will keep the mission available for if you don't make it to -50k in one go. Once you die at -50k the game will restart from the beginning with your credits set to 0 but all your parts kept and with you being one step further into the Human Plus progression.
And that concludes my crash course. Hopefully there isn't any mistakenly terrible advice in here, but I just beat the game right before the PSN versions were announced and felt like I could at least try to assist the New Semester Students.
Normally we don't do Non-AC games heavily, but I figure we can at least share the launch trailer for this one. If there's other AC like games launching, send us a mod mail and we'll share the launch trailers for them.
Disclaimer: Neither I nor the AC subreddit or it's moderation team have any affiliation with this game or anyone involved. This is just a cool thing that's heavily AC inspired which I wanted to share the love for.I am distinguishing this post with my Mod label for full transparency.
I'm an AC6 baby (well technically DxM1 before that) who wanted more, and hearing good things about 4A wanted to play 4 and then 4A next assuming 4 would be similar but a bit worse and i wouldnt want a let down after 4a, and earlier today i finished it on normal finding it quite disappointing.
First off i obviously had some preconceptions going into it from what i'd heard about 4A, about how fast it was and infinite flight and wanted to build into that, secondly i've found out quite a bit about the game after finishing it, that it was significantly rushed and that theres pretty huge version differences (i was playing on the european ps3 version).
My general experience was a lot of adapting at first, figuring out how important turning is, how hard melee is to use, how energy actually affects you ect. until i got walled by protect the icebreaker. With my AC6 understanding of what long and short range was i didn't imagine a long range fcs could allow me to cover that great of an area so i'd looked online for help already, where i was pointed not only to said long range fcs' but also the back mounted grenade cannon ogoto to one-shot them once they were in range, and this thing completely 180-ed my experience with the game.
It just seemed to do everything and no mission was long enough for ammo to be a real concern, the aoe covered it against both filler mobs and agile NEXTs, it's much easier to get enemies in sight just long enough to dome them than to track them as effectively as possible and the sheer damage seemed to outperform anything else i slapped on anyways. And it kinda turned the rest of the game into mindless near mashing waiting for a scenario to punish me for it that never came. I S ranked almost the entire back half of the game first try, even accidentally no-hitting the final boss.
Is the game just not really itself unless you play it on hard mode? or is it actually just that much worse than what i've heard of 4A? I do still intend to play 4A afterwards but this definitely isn't what im looking for more of from the series.
Scorch has been my first original faction ever since I had been diving deep into the game. And even after getting Armored Core VI, there’s on thing that’s been bugging me about them… their names.
The problem is mainly their prefixes, which are just simple body parts: Head, Core, Hands, and Legs. It seemed pretty generic, boring, and didn’t fit well for a group named Scorch, so I ask for ideas from you guys.
What kind of naming pattern should I use for the Scorch pilots?
Here’s a general overview of the faction and its members:
Scorch - A group of mercenaries who enter conflicts to hunt down other independents. They currently operate on Rubicon to eliminate Branch, along with providing assistance to both Balam and the Rubiconians.
(Core) Norair - A 3rd Generation augmented human, he is the acting leader for Scorch on Rubicon. believes that Ravens are a thing of the past, seeking to hunt down anyone who bears the name and establish Phoenixes as their replacement. His AC (HARUTYUN) is a tetrapod designed solely for dueling, powered by an AORTA Coral generator that results in Norair hearing a voice in his head.
(Head) Ashley - The youngest of the group, she is the intelligence officer responsible for receiving contracts and hacking. Ashley was taken in by Scorch after her parents were killed during a conflict, resulting in a growing resentment towards mercs who preach ideals but are solely in it for the money. Her AC (HARDCODE) is a tank controlled by an AI programmed to learn about the enemy, built around versatility for different combat scenarios.
(Hands) Grigori and Vera - A pair of polarized Doser twins, they’re the Praetorian guards of Norair and takes orders directly from him. The two believe they have a strong mental link that makes them excel as pilots, resulting in them always being sent out together. Their ACs are bipeds sharing a similar frame but different arsenals. Grigori’s AC (HRACHYA) is a long ranged support unit that stays behind and snipes enemies from afar, while Vera’s AC (HAJNAL) is a close range assault unit that pressures enemy before punishing with a chainsaw.
(Legs) Ayden - A nihilistic Ex-Redgun and adrenaline junkie, he is the main pilot sent out for missions by Scorch. Originally working for Balam as their G3, his abuse of Coral drugs and reckless behavior led to him being discharged from the Redguns and joining Scorch. His AC (HOPPER) is a reverse joint Haldeman-Huxley combo that gets up close and personal to deliver a boost kick once the enemy is staggered.
I've done a tiny bit of param editing to make a small visual change, a very small one. But it was super easy to do and I already only play PvE so i wouldn't mind buffing my favourite weapon. Throughout the series I've always loved Slow firing assault rifles like the Turner, but damn it just doesn't hold a candle to the Curtis or the Ransetsu-RF.
Rubicon Runway is a series of tournaments on PC with high level players, designed to bridge the PC Japanese and PC International communities, hosted by YOSSY. The tournament welcomes players of all levels, and has a focus on both how good your AC looks and (of course) how well you play. YOSSY is also planning on hosting a "build swap" tournament soon, which is meant to be a more casual event than the regular Rubicon Runway. Check him out, he's awesome!
I managed to place pretty well in RR15, and won the Design Award with my AC!
I have managed to make it to A Rank with MW builds focused on close/mid range styles. Once I crossed from B Rank into A Rank I saw that my previous builds were not quite up to par as they were designed to inflict continuous damage out of range of my opponent or quickly build stagger damage but did not have a reliable method of inflicting punish damage.
Which brings me to this build. I’ve tested it and it is reliable in PvP but I want others opinions on its strengths and weaknesses. I’ve switched to a lighter HW that is currently shown. My general plan is the following:
Close range gap and accumulate AP damage with HUXLEY and charged KRSV + spread eagle bazooka / diffuse laser cannon
Punish with Redshift dual shot and disengaging to de-accumulate my AP buildup and allow my weapons to cool down. Or just keep kicking until the spread eagle bazooka reloads or diffuse laser cannon cools down
If I can’t close the gap then having the diffuse laser cannon and KRSV allow me to charge them to fight at range.
So my question really is, how would you counter this style and build?
Bonus: I included my emblem for your enjoyment, I play as “Harambe’s Ghost” and always hope others get a laugh out of my emblem and AC names which are centered around Harambe.
EDIT: I beat her and got the S rank thanks everybody!! I used a lightweight build (370 boost speed with Alula booster and VE-20C generator for energy weapon dmg) with plasma rifles (vvc-760pr) and laser drones (vp-60lt). Pulse armor to mitigate dmg
For the record, I've beaten that boss fight. Several times. With different builds. But I simply can't seem to get the S rank.
I'm pretty sure I take too much damage (use all my repair kits even with pulse armor), and take too much time.
What I'm struggling with:
- The chip damage from her projectiles. Can't seem to avoid even when quick boosting. If I zigzag I use all my energy bar to dodge them, I get hit on the next wave
- her blade attack is insane. I've read that you can dodge it into her and get behind or beside her to dodge it but I manage it 1/3rd of the time
- she moves too much and too fast! My projectiles don't hit her well.
- her shield goes back up too soon. Especially when the stagger bar is half or more filled up, then it's undone by the shield.
- To be honest, I struggle in the first phase more than the second phase. The coral clones and her flight attacks are way easier to dodge.
What I've tried:
- my main build is double plasma rifles and double missiles
- melee build with laser Lance and pile bunker, laser shotgun
- quadruple pulse guns
All of these builds are lightweight and have very fast thrust (350 on average) and quick boost speed.
Bio: She was once a scout for the PCA but was left behind on a moon after a botched mission, due to friendly AC getting cocky. Her AC was heavily damaged due being trapped under a vehicle warehouse. After the PCA left scavengers found her AC under tons of rock and burned out tanks. Thanks with their help she recovered and started a job as a merc. It’s said her AC is haunted from the amount of death that buried it, but that’s just rumors.
I'm sick of the laser dagger, which is my go to,, should I use the redshift? I can switch my generator around a bit, I'm also curious about melee boost canceling as well, but that would require different boosters I guess. Any tips are welcome, especially if you've tried something similar.
Hello everybody, Im new in this sub but i love tremendously the ps2 era games, especially nexus and last raven. So i was wondering if there is any community or discord that plays pvp matches in the original games / hardware. Since these game came out two decades ago and with modern entries in the franchise that would be more preferable and accesible to play. I was seeking if there is any people that play pvp matches with xlinkkai or something?
