Armored Core General!

[wooden nimbus]

I got S in the ||mia|| mission because I wanted a screenshot that I wound up not taking

[ashen monolith]

the shield LC is the one in the middle, but that one is a bit spotty. i do know the two snipers are required for some reason

a guide i looked up mentioned them and i had to kill them between my a rank and s rank attempts yeah

funny enough, on s-ranking it i had some trouble before switching to steel haze as per the lore of rusty doing the mission in your stead if you pick the other decision

aced it first try with that

truth really can match fiction

[cursive agate]

I think those 2 are loghunt target too.

[ashen monolith]

they are

[ripe crow]

The Ice worm introduction scene is really annoyingly long when you're trying to see if you got an S rank this time.

Nope, B rank again

[frank pivot]

Steel Haze is probably the strongest preset

The uh, sampu? The handgun is the only mediocre thing on it

It's like actually fun to play 😂

[serene kettle]

They’re not required, i skipped the down-canyon ones on my S-rank

I did get the LC though

[serene kettle]

It always emerges in the same spot, near some visible rocks you can use to position yourself

You can essentially skip the first bit by positioning yourself between the rocks and shooting it in the face as soon as it shows its face

[ripe crow]

Wrong mission.

[serene kettle]

Oh!

Oops

[ripe crow]

finally!

[serene kettle]

Yeah that one took me a few tries

Oh nice!

[ripe crow]

...in defend old spaceport... I think I just alpha'd down Raven before she could use her repair kits.

[serene kettle]

Classic

[ripe crow]

yea, did the same to King in defend the dam. Piledriver stagger into blender damage is crazy.

[serene kettle]

Ah I usually do it to Chartreuse

King is a tougher nut to crack

[frank pivot]

I accidentally deleted rusty right as flatwell spawned on my last stream, he DOES have different dialogue

[river junco]

out of curiosity

NG++ spoilers ||Is it ever proven that kate is just ALLMIND?||

[ripe crow]

Same voice actor is highly suspicius.

[cursive agate]

[NG++] Well:

[midnight pine]

||technically the mind beta set seems to also be usable by humans (considering the fact that you can use it) but||

||kate being allmind w/ glasses and a fake moustache is pretty obvious regardless||

[ripe crow]

any trick to the last gauntlet? I presume I have to stop every transport for S rank.

[ashen monolith]

yup

the medium laser rifle, LRA, will kill them in one shot with a decent energy spec

[dawn stag]

or just a double shot from the light laser rifle, which has a lot more ammo

[midnight pine]

i ran double LRA for that mission and didnt run into any ammo problems

[ember carbon]

Hand missiles
A single volley will take out a transport and they have great range

Very good for that last part as you can park yourself on one of the bridges and hit both high and low targets

[distant forge]

sleeper pick: laser turrets

become engineer tf2

[midnight pine]

laser turrets my beloved

[midnight pine]

OH ALSO ONE MORE THING FOR THE S RANK

there are coral tanks across the mission that you have to blow up

they're the canisters w/ red emissives at the top

[ashen monolith]

they aren't automatically locked onto for some reason so you have to use manual aim, but they count for it and give money when destroyed

[cursive agate]

I brought dual Laser Cannons (+bazooka, and Ransetsu RF), Coral gen, and Burzel for a complete shooting-gallery.

[ashen monolith]

quick update on those, they're not necessary but do give some leeway for the rank, there's one in the starting zone and three in the first canyon, but two of them are super out of the way so probably not worth it

it should be noted that while destroying the other stuff does offer points the helicopters are artificially inflated in value, so you have to get all of them and stuff like the tanks don't add much in comparison

[cursive agate]

Jeez the other stuff is adding 7.5 sec max ||(LCs)||

[frank pivot]

https://clips.twitch.tv/AnimatedOpenPidgeonCeilingCat-t0q4J2MOOzoQ7ZbB
i got one of the fastest kills i've ever gotten on the HC by complete mistake lol

[midnight pine]

oh i thought they were required

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1136228974167589037/1143362065772326963/cat.gif

[frank pivot]

i was doing no shop purchases and just yeeted him into the next dimension

[ashen monolith]

oh i just assumed they were because they gave money like the transports

[cursive agate]

I took out just 1 coral tank because it looked unusual and got S rank

[midnight pine]

me when i spread misinformation on the internet

[ashen monolith]

checked the s rank website, they are not

there's very little documentation and i don't believe any kills are flat out necessary if they aren't required but do know some things have increased value like the transports here

e.g. those two sniper LCs in attack the old spaceport

[ripe crow]

"Nice shooting, Raven"

[ashen monolith]

turns out they're not flat out required for the s rank but are worth 70 seconds each

so makes sense you have to go out of your way to get them

[ripe crow]

I got a setup to claim one of the first bridges and take out the snipers, but I had to keep jumping down to get low targets, and it's a narrow bridge, so getting back up was hit or miss. For the last wave of nine, I went down for the first 4, and raced the top 5 to the catapult at the larger bridge.

[cursive agate]

I used the ledges the snipers were on to wait/recharge, coral gen + buerzel helped with getting far enough.

[ripe crow]

I made some use of Earhart Hover to recover from redline.

Anyway, last mission of chapter... three? is the worm. Which is pure memorization.

[frank pivot]

https://clips.twitch.tv/PrettiestFreezingGoldfishRalpherZ-CqmJz3CDkxVXHo2F
also got a fast enough kill on Rusty that Flatwell didn't even make it into the arena lol, feat the worst laugh of all time

[ripe crow]

I suppose I really should learn to use assault armor for some of the later boss fights.

[frank pivot]

it's a great offensive option

[dawn stag]

good for chain staggers

[ripe crow]

I've been mostly running Terminal armor because the base frame I'm using is pretty lightweight.

[frank pivot]

terminal got buffed but i still think it's pretty bad

pulse armor > assault armor > terminal > pulse shield thingy

[ripe crow]

Terminal armor's main thing is you dont need to think about it.

[frank pivot]

for sure

i used terminal on my no repair kit ironman run

saved my butt once

[ripe crow]

It's saved my butt twice when I HAD repair kits left but got alpha'd/

well, not alpha exactly, but...

You know, when your mech has 8500 AP, and the repair kit heals 6000, and you're down to 3500...

[dawn stag]

I think terminal is good on lightweights

[frank pivot]

yeah, exactly

that killed me during the snail balteus fight a bunch of times during the starter ac misery grind

[river junco]

Imma be real

I heal when I hear the 50 or 30% ping

Thats about all the thought that goes into it

[frank pivot]

wow wait i just talked for 35 minutes straight at the end???

wtf lol

so after i beat ng++ with no shop purchases, i did a talk-through of all the parts available

[river junco]

[frank pivot]

i didn't realize it was so LONG lmao

[river junco]

Makes sense tho

Was jailbreak at all a useful mission for that

Like the stuff u get from it

[frank pivot]

as i was looking through the jailbreak set, i found out the core is actually not total shit

[dawn stag]

does it actually give you a jamming bomb and ludlow

[frank pivot]

it's very similar to the alba core

[dawn stag]

and morley

[frank pivot]

i wish it gave you all that stuff

[river junco]

Oofies

[frank pivot]

jamming bomb is from the shop, ludlow is from the training haha

[river junco]

Mmmm

[frank pivot]

OH i also found out the training ACs? the credits sequence is fromsoft employees using them to beat every boss

[river junco]

Challenge run where you can only use items not used by any NPC ACs

Also sweet

[frank pivot]

EXCEPT FOR ONE, at one point one of them swaps to a zimmerman hahahaha

[river junco]

Lmaoooo

[river junco]

….. would this restrict you to the literal basic set and the jailbreak and that’s it?

I also don’t think there’s an FCS or generators that see 0 NPC use lol

[frank pivot]

it might be melander c3

[river junco]

Oh yeah you might be able to get away with that

[frank pivot]

let me see

[dawn stag]

I think iguazu uses c3 parts

[frank pivot]

reeee

[dawn stag]

might be one of the others

[frank pivot]

hm

[ashen monolith]

yeah iguazu uses a full c3 set

[river junco]

Weapons isn’t so bad funny enough

[ashen monolith]

evidently preordered the game

[river junco]

Like I don’t think any NPC used like, the chengs

[dawn stag]

considering how many ACs there are, you are probably stuck with all starter stuff aside from weapons

[dawn stag]

he would

[ripe crow]

Ok, this is bull... the worm's first apparance is always leaping in the same orentation relative to you, no matter where you're actually standing- left, with a TINY opening you have to correctly anticipate.

[ashen monolith]

i fully expected the laser turret to go unused, but turns out there's exactly one blueprint utilizing it and that's the What was ALLMIND cooking? quad in the ng+ arena

funnily enough that blueprint's also the only source of a chang-chen

[frank pivot]

raven exists so

[ashen monolith]

mopping up loose ends, i guess

[frank pivot]

you need to find core, arms, legs

[dawn stag]

I found the worm's opening to be very consistent

just boost forward in the same direction as the other ACs and when it first sticks itself out, stay next to where it popped up and wait for it to stop

[frank pivot]

well if anyone feels like listening through my takes on all the "no shop purchases" parts it's here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1954609076?t=01h25m22s

i'm mostly curious

what weapons did i miss out on

because there have to be some really good ones that i just didn't give the time of day

[ashen monolith]

there actually are a few holes in terms of weapons, no npc uses the duckett handgun for one

but the only frame parts not used by a blueprint is jailbreak and the finder eye head

[frank pivot]

yep

just went through all of it to see

[ripe crow]

I got the first opportunity, but from there, my worm-fu is weak

[dawn stag]

there is another scripted opening in phase 2

when rusty replies to michigan about joining balam

phase 3 you just gotta wing it and hope for the best, I usually hit him when he goes vertical

gridwalkers are really handy for ice worm

[ripe crow]

I'm getting better at my 1st shot setup, but changing my booster would DEFINATELY throw that out of whack.

[dawn stag]

the first one is really consistent

he always pops up in exactly the same way and has a big opening

[river junco]

Also for what it’s worth, you should have two needles, don’t fire them both at once unless it’s phase 3

Wait

Even dumber run idea @frank pivot

You can only use parts once you’ve killed an AC that uses them

Discounting the literal starting gear

[frank pivot]

i like this

[river junco]

God the tester ac might actually be the motivation necessary to use those god awful predator drone missiles

[dawn stag]

the active homing missiles?

[ripe crow]

Got it!

My first shot is really consistant. "boost until energy goes out, look until the corner of my energy bar is at a specific building, and when the red dot on the radar stops moving, Q-E right after each other.

[river junco]

Yeah

[dawn stag]

I think you're overcomplicating it, you can just watch him do his little dance when he starts off

[dawn stag]

well actually they are more like switchblade loitering munitions they got buffed in one of the recent patches, I think they're supposed to be pretty good now

[river junco]

Oh cool

[ripe crow]

Second shot, I managed to time the worm's third emergence- the first apparance, he's too far, and the second, it's in the middle of it's drones.

And for the last phase, I got lucky with two pillar moves back to back.

[dawn stag]

like I said, there's an opening in phase 2 when rusty says hell on four legs

[ripe crow]

I wanst waiting for that.

It's S rank, timing is important.

[dawn stag]

you don't need to go that fast to get S rank on the worm

it's really lenient

[ripe crow]

more time to mess up in phase 3.

[cursive agate]

You can probably manual aim for a deeper shot on part 2 but it's rough without practice.

[frank pivot]

If you make a fast build you can do it even without manual aim but like, i haven't bothered learning it lol

On my stream last night i hit the phase 2 manual aim shot right before rusty/michigain have their "reloading" dialogue lol

But i uh, missed the first 2 times it pokes its head out in phase 2

[ashen monolith]

i saw an interesting challenge of "armored core, but i use the blueprint of the last AC i killed" somewhere

that might be very silly

[ripe crow]

Can you use replaying an opponent in the Arena to hot swap, or is that not allowed?

[ashen monolith]

they did it without at least

that indeed involves chapter 2 as a horrific crossroads: use mad stomp until a mission where you beat an AC in chapter 3, or switch to head bringer after stop the data breach but do that mission, which is fairly difficult as is without it, as mad stomp

[frank pivot]

Can't you just save the arena

Oh right you couldn't do it on a fresh start file

[ashen monolith]

another fun quirk is you have to beat raven as honest brute and then take raven into the ice worm mission, since there aren't any other AC battles until depths exploration 2

nightfall notably does not have a stun needke

[midnight pine]

you can also go to later in the mission w mad stomp and take the optional ac fight

[ashen monolith]

ohh true

forgot about that

yeah that makes the routing a lot easier

[midnight pine]

the REAL terrible part is jailbreak

[ashen monolith]

right.

[midnight pine]

though your one saving grace is not actually having access to the shitty jailbreak weapons

[ashen monolith]

that's a legal grey area since jailbreak isn't saved as a blueprint, and the run i saw didn't do that

but it certainly is an option if you despise having fun

the run i saw had surprising competition between the fires and liberator path, since if you ignore jailbreak you get to be rusty between unknown territory survey and either one of those paths' first mission

where it's either ||being freud into karman line, then steel haze ortus vs. super ayre||

or ||carla/chatty in destroy the drive block and the walter fight||

which is another very silly conundrum: ||if you kill carla first in that mission, by far the more sensible play, you have to defeat snalteus and walter as chatty stick||

ultimately fires path was easier

[ember carbon]

Do you not? As far as I know all the jailbreak weapons are obtainable unless they are special ones with nerfed stats

[midnight pine]

the jailbreak uses special internals and weapons with terrible stats yes

[ember carbon]

Huh didn’t know that I thought it was just the normal version of those weapons
The more you know

[ashen monolith]

yeah, they're actively worse and unfortunately aren't obtainable

[ember carbon]

Still only gonna have 3 weapons on jailbreak one of which is the jamming grenades so it will be a rough time regardless

[midnight pine]

yeah

fighting ||carla and chatty|| as jailbreak sounds like an utterly sisyphean task

[ember carbon]

Yeah that’s a rough fight at the best of times

[keen garden]

You can actually zoom past killing very little and still get the S rank

[midnight pine]

maybe it wouldnt be as bad with the aperitif nerfs but its still not great

[ripe crow]

Depth 3 complete, finally. Had to find enough mobs to kill to bring the score up, which basically involved a lap around the top, than another half lap under to get to the door.

18 more missions left to S rank.

going to declare the redguns safe until tomorrow, at least.

[ashen monolith]

surprisingly enough, it's still as challenging due to the fact that ||chatty is actually notable now||

due to the hand grenade + bazooka buff

[distant forge]

just repeatedly kicked a guy's ass then repeatedly got my ass handed to me by the next guy

perfectly balanced as all things should be

[south oracle]

the Shade eye head is really just a IPSN head huh, mostly because of its single eye on one side

[shut sequoia]

the visor thing only flips over when there's an enemy locked on, it's so cool

[surreal tundra]

Oh cool, I thought it would be only when you're in AB, but that's nice XD
Is it only for hardlock? or does softlock count as long as it's a red reticle?

[shut sequoia]

I think it flips when you're targeting an enemy, it doesn't look like hard lock/softlock matters

[cursive agate]

I've heard it flips down for AB/Expansion use/I think Hard Lock, probably a few more things.

[sharp canopy]

AAAAAAA I KILLED ALLMIND WITH RANSETSU'S (AND EARSHOTS BUT WHATEVER) AAAAAAA

I also did it with Turners but those don't count since they're full-auto

[frank pivot]

ransetsus are fantastic huh

goated guns

[sharp canopy]

I love them, they've got really good range

and their semiauto FGC makes them really good for S-Ranking missions

ahem, FCG

[frank pivot]

i've been using this for my ng+++ victory lap

might swap the laser dagger for moonlight and finagle the gen to something with more output but less capacity

this thing is like 3970 en regen as it is which is borderline

but the fashion of everything being C H O N K is fun

and the gameplay loop is actually enjoyable, you have to manage your distance and when you're about to stagger, you push to close range for the dagger punish

[river junco]

Hmmm

Lore idea

What if the reason the coral is expanding so rapidly is because it’s without purpose?

Power without purpose is a dangerous thing, after all

And the coral, being sentient, might be able to choose a different path if given a reason to

[inland sequoia]

Hmmm maybe it’s because of the name, but i can’t help but find similarities with a mecha anime, Eureka Seven || with coral being a sentient hive-like form of life, interacting on stranger ways with human beings ||

[eager vector]

Yeah I feel like it’s gotta be a deliberate allusion

[frank pivot]

I decided (foolishly) to livestream my no expansions Loader 4 run lmao

We had like... 1 death to the sea spider, and then 8 or 9 to volta lol

Volta is such a shitty fight haha, really showcases what's wrong with tanks in AC6 and how completely overpowered and brainless they are

[ripe crow]

Alternate doesnt seem to be as hard, but is a lot tighter in terms of score. And I cant just pick off C-weapons from the bridge to inflate my score the way I did the other one, because the path branches before then.

[cursive agate]

Volta seems to recovery unusually fast from stagger stun too.

[ripe crow]

looks like I just had to do it faster.

[frank pivot]

Yeah the AI has different rules for stagger recovery than players

Basically you get one hit of any type and then after that they recover instantly

[serene kettle]

Probably why the bunker works so well in pve really. Maximum value out of that stagger

Part of why, anyway

[ripe crow]

The blender blade I think does more damage, if you can keep them from escaping while they still take bonus damage.

Earhart>Pile>Slicer has gotten me several no-repair quickkills.

[cursive agate]

Potentially more on targets with high Kinetic resist, Pile Bunker charge is wacky damage output overall (4k-ish with 150 direct-hit mod)

[ripe crow]

I almost never use the pile charge because I expect the melee boost that the charge doesnt get.

[ripe crow]

Fairwell... buddy.

[ripe crow]

You were the only one...

taking a break before I try the other endgames.

[south oracle]

tried some speedy tank build out more

[frank pivot]

Enjoying the degeneracy?

[south oracle]

the wheelchair is definitely more fragile now, especially against bosses, it's hard to tell whether you should outrun or dodge the attack

I also have another build with explosive thrower, but trying out the plasma bowling ball is fun too

also have to remember to stick to the ground and also actually get in the air against some attacks

[modern hornet]

Plasma Thrower can work on treads, but with how fast you can go, very real risk of overshooting and whiffing the follow-up swing. It really shines with tetrapods, though.

I imagine you'd have far less of a problem using one of the Moonlights with a tank, though.

[south oracle]

wait, do you get to keep moving swinging moonlight on tank and quad?

[ashen monolith]

nope

unless that was changed in a patch or something, it didn't in 1.0

oscillator allowed you some movement in the startup but locked you in for the sweep, which was odd

[distant forge]

so erm, the shoulder-mounted laser shotgun

i dont really think is as ridiculously powerful as the shoulder laser cannon, with its higher weight/en load shorter range and lower rate of fire

but the spread is nice for chip damage, the damage point-blank is nuts, and holy mother of christ the charge shot

[frank pivot]

yeah, i did a run and a couple rounds of pvp with uh

this goober

which is a really larpy build and not optimized at all for anything besides looking like a vesper

but the charged shots on the laser shotties are phenomenal

[halcyon gull]

give me that look too

[frank pivot]

i would post the code! but i just un crashed my pc and i'm gonna go back to streaming my loader 4 run on tweetch haha

[halcyon gull]

you better stream more

[frank pivot]

it's up!

just look for the one psycho with loader 4 or starter AC in the title lmao

[distant forge]

AC: STRING THEORY

[frank pivot]

alrighty, that wraps up NG

Fires end is the easiest so i went ahead and knocked it out first

i kinda just went brainless dodge mode on ||Ayre|| and knocked out the fight in like 5 or 6 tries

imo that fight is almost as easy as ||Walter||

it's just a lot longer

the execution barrier isn't insanely high or anything tho

you just have to stay at it

[inland sluice]

I was not expecting bazooka to be this good.

[shut sequoia]

pretty happy with how my femme Tallgeese looks

[swift nacelle]

Ayyyyyy dual kranich

[shut sequoia]

I enjoy them, if they had just a tiny bit less spread they'd be perfect

[ripe crow]

shoulder pulse gun, laser pistol and pulse blade is what I run on the "max energy firearms" reactor build I've been S ranking half the missions with.

I havnt double checked if the shoulder pulse even counts as a firearm, thou.

[dawn stag]

it do

[shut sequoia]

laser pistols are so good, I love dual trigger pew pews

[ripe crow]

Interesting... when I s ranked Carla and Chatty, I gnored Snail, despite attacking him in my main playthrough... and when I encountered snail in the next mission his dialog changed. "your crime was ignoring me, ignoring arcubus!"

[dawn stag]

yep lol

I totally ignored him on my NG run and it was so funny when he showed up pissed

[eager vector]

I think he does still say it if you don’t ignore him

[ripe crow]

IIRC, if you fight and destroy him in the prior mission, it's "you attacked me, attacked arcubus" not ignored.

[dawn stag]

yeah he has different lines

[ripe crow]

Snail down, finally. tim for a vicory lap with Walter.

...apparently I need to victory lap harder?

there we go. vicotry lap complete

[ripe crow]

MIA and regain control down.

this is rather a nice build. a mix of some of the specialized setups I used for missions I couldnt use the pistol+container missile on, and still has the enfirearm bonus.

[frank pivot]

Hot take: ibis is easier than regular balteus

And is possibly the easiest non trivial boss

[proven bison]

https://www.tumblr.com/iuciferic/731720855289315328?source=share

[distant forge]

intrusive ur opinions on boss difidulcty are categorically insane

i think you're just really good at the game

[dawn stag]

I found all the bosses kind of equally hard

[ripe crow]

Allmind was kicking my ass this morning. My best attempt got phase 2 to 20% health.

[distant forge]

ibis and ayre both kicked my ass for like,,,, ages

though a lot of that was to do with the fact that the first runs i did were without hardlock

its super hard to track the faster bosses without it

[serene kettle]

3 images btw, for anyone who didn't click through

this is good, though a LoR spoiler

[serene kettle]

I wouldn't go so far as to say ||Ayre|| is the easiest but also I found ||Walter|| harder

[distant forge]

mr white was super easy for me

[serene kettle]

yeah I can see how it would be

for lots of people

I just personally had more difficulty with the fight

I did it on NG+ too with a better build than I used for the FoR ending

[distant forge]

he did hit me with his big noodle gun once and i died so hard it killed me in real life

[serene kettle]

I'm embarrassingly bad at dodging the meme beams in that fight

[fallen harness]

i'm unembarrasingly bad at dodging in general, which is why my strategy for the meme beams was "I will block them with the parry buckler"

[distant forge]

im, good at dodging

so i just dodged them

smh

[stuck surge]

I think ||Ibis|| is easier the better you are at stagger punishing

[distant forge]

yeah it def goes better when u have a burst damage focused build

[eager vector]

the final boss difficulties ranked in order by me specifically based on how easy it is for me to land a charged pb in the stagger window: ||walter>ayre>allmind||

[distant forge]

this is the AC i used to trivialize ayre

and also the entire game

[dawn stag]

this mf stanced up

what a look

[halcyon gull]

there is a goal, and that is gonna get it

[ashen monolith]

THE LRBSTER

[distant forge]

not great for s-ranking because of the ammo economy

[dawn stag]

oh yeah it is a larbster

[distant forge]

my take on a lighter weight lobster focused on quickboosts instead of assault boosts

[modern hornet]

Completed my first run-through of the upgraded Loader 4 challenge run.

[frank pivot]

Same lmao, when i did that fight on stream for the No Shop Purchases i think i died on the first attempt 😂

I just got whalloped while in a stagger state

I think he went oscillator into full charged WLT and i was just like "I gotta give him that one"

My nightmare for difficulty is that i'll rock up to a boss and it will be replaced with volta

[serene kettle]

shitpost mod where every enemy is replaced with Volta

Oops all Voltas

[dawn stag]

the worst thing since all isshin

[shut sequoia]

I'm surprised how much I like the Curtis LRs

[midnight pine]

worse, PULSE VOLTA

volta but the only difference is that he has a pulse shield

[distant forge]

volta but he can turn into an airplane like ayre

[midnight pine]

cataphract but its just a giant volta

[halcyon gull]

strider but volta is the strider, and every single machine gun and is the eye

[distant forge]

https://fxtwitter.com/cantina26483/status/1715701203181703336?s=20

this is so gender

[dawn stag]

that's really neat

[distant forge]

i would use the pilebunker more if i was more of a melee gal but b i g g u n

why bunk when i can have two earshots that do the same thing

or LCS cannons so i can just spam so much damage

[wooden nimbus]

I am once again hunting for tracks of a highly specific runtime for clips now that Obundinn and I be catching Ws again

[frank pivot]

I saw someone do single hit moonlight into charged pilebunker slide and it was craaaazy

[ripe crow]

I'm still stuck on Allmind

(but also, 0.2 people have Perfect mercenary and are missiong another achievement?)

[fallen harness]

I think I may have been missing some parts when I got Perfect Mercenary

[frank pivot]

just finished up baws arsenal 2 on ng+ on tweetch 😄

anyone wants to see loader 4 vs balty boi that'll be on in a bit

[frank pivot]

if anyone wants to see defend the dam complex

twitch.tv/intrusive_thot haha

[frank pivot]

top tip for allmind: abuse verticality

the #1 trick for phase 2 and 3 is to keep vertical separation

either be in close above them or below them

[tough fable]

getting bullied by the Enforcer. Turns out being locked in a cage match against god's strongest Ultra isn't all that fun

[frank pivot]

Oh god that fight

Almost all its melee attacks can be dodged to the right

Like YOUR right. Pretty much go past it on your right.

And it is also pretty bad at shooting up at you if you stay in close and above it

[frank pivot]

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1956346221?t=00h36m19s

if you want to see how i handled the enforcer it should be a pretty decent blueprint for where to fly and how to abuse kicks and melee if you've got those on your ac

[long zodiac]

Final boss, NG++ Route

||Ok so like, this is a skill issue but for the second phases second phase, yk the one where he gets the claw, how on earth do you dodge it? Cause it sweeps so wide and it feels like he isn't locked into a direction until like, .1 second before he swings so I can't go over or under.||

(It's more a gameplay spoiler and me ranting loll)

[serene kettle]

Honestly i just popped assault armor during the telegraph and hoped

[long zodiac]

Yeah I just switched over to my double zimmerman/double sweet sixteen and mag dumped

[frank pivot]

Verticality

Try and keep as much vertical space between you as possible

https://youtu.be/MJbHNhvOdTE?si=zjl3mtyBHv1APRak

[long zodiac]

It's kinda unfortunate how powerful that combo is for me, like I had a million other funky builds and then thats what worked

[frank pivot]

Lotsa good examples in my loader 4 vid

[long zodiac]

Yeah, I figured it out in the end :)

[frank pivot]

Hell yeah

[long zodiac]

I will watch that video, always enjoy seeing impressive plays

[frank pivot]

xD well if you want to see more suffering i've been streaming the starter AC with no assault armor

twitch.tv/intrusive_thot

Just wrapped up the start of NG++

[long zodiac]

Well damn, good time for me to catch it

[frank pivot]

I found out some crazy shit on Defend the Mining Ship, like how to aggressively assault boost after helianthus wheels

Turns out chasing them down with the starter missiles and assault boost and kicks and the sword is pretty good

[long zodiac]

Also, about the final fights ||While both the satillite fights where a blast, duking it out with Iguazu and Ayre, the Walter fight is mindblowingly cooler and I kinda wish the Iguazu fight was on the ship as well because god damn, it is the coolest thing riding the ship down through the atmosphere||

Damn amazing game

I'm so glad I came back to it after putting it down at Balteus a week after the game came out

[frank pivot]

The dialogue in the Liberator ending makes it my favorite

I played through the game in one day at launch and hit that ending around 2am, and when i heard ||you made all the credits...|| i legitimately cried a little

[long zodiac]

||It's so hard putting Walter down cause like, god he acting like a distant ass, he wanted us to think he's just a houndmaster and we're a dog, a tool for him to use, but it's in his talks with Michigan and Snail where he's like "Oi, fuck off, 621 is a powerhouse and you need to respect them"||

[frank pivot]

Yeah, the way ||he comes to care for 621|| makes the story so heartbreaking

[long zodiac]

||Walter was a damn hero in my books, to the point I kinda felt dirty after not going through with his legacy, like he deserved for someone to follow through and right the sins of his past||

[frank pivot]

I don't usually talk to game characters in my IRL internal monologue, but when ||walter said to undo the surgery||, I literally though ||but I don't WANT to undo the surgery, I want you to live!|| lol

Like not even "thought something to that effect", those literal words passed through my brain lmao

[long zodiac]

||Like, I did the Fires ending first because I felt like I owed it to him and to Carla and to Chatty and everyone else, I felt bad for killing off Ayre and burning Rubicon sure but still, it felt like it had to be done in a way||

[frank pivot]

I love how at the end ||when walter can finally see that the coral won't necessarily destroy humanity, he lowers his gun and lets 621 and ayre go||

||He gave up everything, including his own life, to destroy the coral to prevent the apocalypse, and right at the end he found out he was wrong the whole time. And he has the sheer iron guts to say "at least my friend should get to try their way"||

[long zodiac]

||He's a hero in my books||

[frank pivot]

For sure. I think Liberator is the clear best ending given that we have Ayre to tell us stuff

But Walter didn't have that luxury

And thus Fires makes perfect sense for him and the Overseers

[long zodiac]

Like, whole way through liberator I felt as though ||"god if I could just tell them what I know, if they knew what was going on and if they knew we could make things right it would be ok"||

[frank pivot]

||And 621 does tell them, but walter just thinks it's the same way that coral makes a lot of old gen augments go crazy||

I expected Walter to be cruel and abusive, and Ayre to basically free us from him. But that's reaaaaallllly not where the story went

[long zodiac]

||It's fucking brutal, there was a part where I felt happy when I take out Carla, and Chatty second and Chatty tells us something to the effect of "You're an idiot if you though Carla would make it this easy"||

[long zodiac]

Not in the slightest

Also also, ||I cannot even blame the Overseers for burning the coral cause like, how on earth where they gonna know the Coral is like, alive lmao||

[frank pivot]

Even if they DID know, all they know is that letting it get into space would be a disaster!

[long zodiac]

Right?? Like, to a point you kinda gotta accept that maybe they're right? Like Liberator and Alea Lacta Est are the same ending on different time lines, Corals gonna keep doing what it's doing and while Liberator is pretty safely good for the people of Rubicon, I can't shake the feeling the Alea Lacta Est is the worst ending

||I'm with V.III about it, sure, being human sucks, you gotta wake up every morning and drink your coffee and chug through your day, but is that not beautiful? Sure, symbiosis might be better for you, but you can't just force that onto people and doubly so with the expected extremely high death rate||

I'm gonna need to sit on this game for a good while

[halcyon gull]

|| Hey, with human bodies I can eat really good food. While with AC bodies that are specifically enabled with Coral, I can fire a big gun.||

[long zodiac]

So it's a toss up then

Theres really no way to know

[ripe crow]

If verticality is key for NG++ boss final phase, I may need to revise my build. My booster and arms are optimized for my pulse blade, but my reactor is singlemindedly En Firearms spec, partially mitigated by Ephenedra core. That generator+booster combo, however, is not that good at verticality, and reverse joint jump cant be doing everything in that fight.

Going to try upgrading to mind beta legs to support a HAL core, but after upgrading the head as well, I'm going from a light middleweight to an after-breakpoint middle/heavyweight.

[surreal tundra]

OH
so THAT was what he meant? I practically always took him out in all my runs with that so I never noticed otherwise lmao

[ripe crow]

lol yea. I fought him the one time I went down that route, so I got the "attacked" dialog, and didnt see anthing else until my S rank run.

[surreal tundra]

I'm also back on vanilla 1.41 and wow, double melee is fun, especially when I'm more used to the controls and the Laserblade's quirks-
Cleaner was the most recent and most annoying fight- had to make do with the turner and the halderman I had

[ripe crow]

...damn, this head is worth 10 points of boost speed... but it's also got a LOT less defense, especially en def...

[surreal tundra]

I can't say which boss I found hardest besides the NG++ boss, cuz I've gone through like 3 sets of mods/9 runs outside of that

[surreal tundra]

wow, sub-300 boost feels unfathomable to me now zxcmn
what boosters are those?

[ripe crow]

Kekaku. Boosters and arms are set for melee, generator for lasers.

[surreal tundra]

Mhm mhm,

[ripe crow]

I've been failing the NG++ boss with a 306 boost build.

[surreal tundra]

vanilla patch I don't think I'll ever move away from the ALULA- maybe the Gridwalker or something,

[ripe crow]

Trying to mix up my legs and core before I gut my main mechanics.

[surreal tundra]

have you compared how melee feels with Kikaku vs ALULA?

[ripe crow]

not yet, see above.

[surreal tundra]

mm mm

[ripe crow]

I wouldnt be gaining much upthrust, and the en consumption is awful.

[surreal tundra]

right- I forgot, not a coral gen,
I guess the RJ-beta is helpful with the low EN recharge and high delay

[dawn stag]

the institute thrusters seem pretty good

[surreal tundra]

oh, right, I remember why I use the high-capacity/high redline recovery coral gens

[dawn stag]

I think the gills are underrated

[surreal tundra]

what about the NGI?

[ripe crow]

gruds look decent.

...gills GUT my melee attack range.

[dawn stag]

gridwalkers feel very slow forwards

[surreal tundra]

so probs not gonna work with double-melee blades, got it

[ripe crow]

Going to give Grids a few tries.

New build vs old build

[surreal tundra]

huh,
1.25 sec on the QB

[ripe crow]

20% more EN defense, and enough AP to pop a repair pack at 3xxxx AP without waste.

[surreal tundra]

that feels horrifying- but that's cuz I'm twitchy lmao

[ripe crow]

Hm. Didnt see that cooldown time.

[surreal tundra]

yeah,

0.50-0.65 already feels slow to me so I have no idea how to adjust to almost double that

[surreal tundra]

oh that's an Earshot

No wonder it's so heavy

[ripe crow]

I'll give it a run or two and report back. It might not be much of a problem for me, as my EN keeps getting eaten bu pressing two directions at once triggering the vert boosters.

[surreal tundra]

wait- triggering the vert boosters?

[ripe crow]

Keyboard, wpress A and D at the same time, you go up.

[surreal tundra]

is that a thing all mkb settings can do by default or-?

[ripe crow]

I dont know.

[surreal tundra]

Fair,

so basically vertical movement is costly?

[ripe crow]

I wish it would stop, because I flail and it's been eating my EN guage.

going to try a run. First run of the day, lest see if sleep and build improve or destroys my reactions.

[surreal tundra]

Mm mm

[ripe crow]

Made it to final phase, barely.

no chance to try out new tactics.

Not used to assault armor, I'm going to need to feel out the timing.

dammit, so close.

[ripe crow]

..trying to change out my booster to the fluegel... what the hell man?

[surreal tundra]

lmaooo oof
and you can't sortie when over the EN output IIRC

swap out the FCS for a less EN-intensive one?

[ripe crow]

Beat him... moment of truth...

It is done.

...now to uninstall and get back to what's left of my life. :p

...Or NG 0, one or the other

[frank pivot]

Congrats!

[ripe crow]

Again, but back to the kekau booster.

[frank pivot]

Did the verticality thing work?

[ripe crow]

...I'm not sure. I'm in a state where I'm not actually thinking about my evasion.

I'm relibly lasting longer in Final Phase, though

And one more win. This time I credit intentionally timing assault armors for Stagger, and also going into the final phase with 2 repair kits and 2 assault armors

[wooden nimbus]

You have gone monke mode, excellent

That is what got me there

[ripe crow]

Went to try my hand against Balt II with the same design. Chose to start replaying from checkpoint because the level is so long, so it only counted as A rank, when I finally got it.

[wooden nimbus]

So far playing with the Lud-Hux Deluxe Obundinn has given me renewed love for going unga bunga through AC6

[stuck surge]

I used the Gills for a long time because of the low power consumption and quick reload, but they're pretty underpowered, especially in melee boost.

[stuck surge]

Lately I've been appreciating the Gen 2 P04 boosters. They're just really well rounded and efficient.

[wooden nimbus]

I am boost kicking a lot and that has severely limited my booster options until the inevitable nerf to my precious boy

[distant forge]

alula or ngi 001 or i riot

i strictly use the alula with the nachtreiher legs

because otherwise the quickboosts are too short

everything else i use ngi 001

u cannot underestimate the ridiculous traversal speed of repeatedly quickboosting with alula and nacht legs

zigzagging towards your opponent

ppl say that QBs are trash compared to assault boost

i am inclined to disagree

but they do need some help

[wooden nimbus]

QB need a buff

I am simply scared they will nerf AB instead

QB/AB balance feels like it should be a danger between two people in constant g strain

But to do that QBers definitely need to be able to do more than they do now

Plus being able to side dash more would help people avoid the instant "AP at- AP at 30%" when dual heavy back weapons get pointed at them

Now just recalling how some of my favorite fights were more about us constantly dancing around each other than anything

[distant forge]

i think that they should get a damage/acs resistanced just like AB

[wooden nimbus]

I can dig it

[distant forge]

it just feels like AB is a better quickboost unless you invest everything into QB

[wooden nimbus]

Listen if it was up to me QB would have I frames so I'm not the best judge but

[iron quarry]

That could unintentionally affect the QB melee tech making it faster which would be fun

[wooden nimbus]

I can definitely support QB ACs and damage resist

[iron quarry]

You can already reach speeds of 700+ with that tech

O what fun

[wooden nimbus]

I don't mind most melee techs for the simple reason that is easier to hit you when you approach me

[iron quarry]

Naw I want it to be faster I wanna hit 1000+ speeds

[wooden nimbus]

Ducky and I doing the Menacing Walk towards each other

[iron quarry]

Menacing walk more like a menacing speed shuffle

[halcyon gull]

https://tenor.com/view/virtual-insanity-virtual-insanity-template-walking-dancing-rearranging-furnitures-gif-27710286

[iron quarry]

Correct

[wooden nimbus]

This at a thousand kilometers per hour

Turns out our fight is just slowed down for the spectators to watch

I should make a Dio Brando color scheme

I just gotta figure out the build

Laser dagger and funnel on the left for the knives maybe

[cursive agate]

I think lighter builds benefit more from QB, since you're getting more drastic speed/distance with every QB?

I haven't used Assault Boost much to dodge attacks unless they're really massive ones I know will be coming

[ripe crow]

Didnt they already nerf AB, particularly for heavyweights?

[wooden nimbus]

I forget the concept of dodging entirely when ABing

[cursive agate]

Nerfed heavyweight AB speed cap, and Impact reduction in AB.

[wooden nimbus]

I side dash to perfect my attack vector

[cursive agate]

I tend to use cranked Boosters like Alula/NGI 001 though, so QB sends me flying. Jumping/flying to avoid attacks is a lot more viable with Gridwalker/NGI 001, with less windup than AB on lighter builds.

Though, I use recoil animation weapons a ton so AB's ability to shoot (non-recoil) weapons rarely gets used by me outside of PVE MT clearing.

[iron quarry]

I actually prefer medium weights over lights but have a preference for high QB thrusters like the NGI 001 or the BST-G2 and their high ideal weights

[wooden nimbus]

I hover around 70-75k weight most of the time

I think Bundy is lighter

[iron quarry]

Im around the 78ks to the 90ks for my builds

[cursive agate]

What's the rough estimate of weight classes in AC6? I'd put heavyweight around +80k because of the harsh speed scaling but unsure of the med-light gradient.

[iron quarry]

74k and below is lightweight 76-90k is medium and anything above 92k is a heavyweight

I think

I could just as well be dumb

[distant forge]

orange is new, blue is old

anything below 75k is light/medium weight, as over 75k boost speed drops harshly

as for the cutoff for light/medium weight, depends entirely on the legs

the max weight for these 3 legs are around 63k, so around that area is lightweight

my personal cutoffs are 60k for light, 75k for medium, and over 100k for heavy

my reasoning for the heavyweight cutoff is anything below 100k is just a fat medium weight

[serene kettle]

yeah there's kind of a light and heavy side to midweight

[distant forge]

only once you truly embrace the girth can you become a heavyweight chad

[serene kettle]

if you say anything higher than 75k is heavyweight, you just lose all the nuance of what heavyweight means lmao

[distant forge]

all of my "heavy" builds are over 100k

[serene kettle]

yeah there's heavy midweight and actual heavyweight

they play and feel a fair bit differently

[distant forge]

cuz ive got mad bitches and my weiner is huge

[ripe crow]

lightweight "stagger&dagger" Took 2 tries to beat Volta.

[distant forge]

that looks dope as fuck but also may i make some reccomendations

[iron quarry]

Hehe fat medium

[cursive agate]

305 boost speed on a light build makes me worry

[serene kettle]

that's honestly pretty good hp for a kasuar/Tian-Qiang build

[ripe crow]

mIND aLPHA GAVE GOOD DEFENSE AND EN SUPPLY FOR BOOST CHAINS.

capslock

[distant forge]

my reccomendation is vp44d head and nachtreiher core

[serene kettle]

yeah mind alpha chest is very solid

though usually for midweights

I guess if you're running very light weapons you can fit it on lighter mechs though

[distant forge]

the tian-quiang is attractive for its very low en footprint and weight but it comes at the cost of everything else, including ACS stability

which is sorely needed for lightweights, especially reverse joint lightweights

[cursive agate]

I think it's the design priorities that throw me off, since I tend to build for speed and Stability instead.

[serene kettle]

I like the Flathead look but tend to go with Basho when that's what I want

Heavier, but similarly light En footprint and much better bulk

and like 2k weight is not that much in the grand scheme of things

[ripe crow]

No margin for a better head, I would have to take something out.

But also, like,4 melee cancels in a row.

[serene kettle]

Incidentally the "low" speed is mostly on the back of using Kikaku, I think

at that weight class you might be better off with gridwalker? Lower melee boost than Kikaku but not actually by that much, and very solid all-rounder stats in general

[cursive agate]

Yea, Kikaku tanks your Boost Speed for more Melee Thrust which I personally find harsh.

[serene kettle]

Don't get me wrong, I love Kikaku, but I run it on heavy midweights

[ripe crow]

Gridwalker has 25% more melee en use, thou

[serene kettle]

where I'm not relying on my speed to survive as much

I'll admit I haven't made a serious attempt at building around Laser Dagger, so it's possible the difference in EN use matters there

[cursive agate]

With Gridwalker on my builds I use raw speed/AB to get into range instead of melee lunges, though Laser Dagger has wild lunges.

[serene kettle]

I prefer the Pulse Sword for melee needs, and the EN use there is too infrequent for a 25% diff to matter all that much

Pulse Sword with Kikaku is Paladin's big damage generator

[serene kettle]

Yeah I tend to think of it more as connection assistance when using it intending to hit (as opposed to lunge cancel tech) - ideally I want to be attacking when already well in range, with the lunge being insurance in case they, like, dodge 😛

[wooden nimbus]

Wondering if my current Obundinn build should sacrifice one of its guns for a melee

Take advantage of the ACS and all

[ripe crow]

I was inspired by this vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLSViF8jLno and decided to try orbits

[serene kettle]

Yeah you can do some goofy things with lunge cancel

[ripe crow]

Chartruse 1st try.

[serene kettle]

I just suggested Gridwalker because it has great all around stats and still has like 10 or 11k melee boost

[ripe crow]

not going up the full arean, just playing what I remember as standouts

[serene kettle]

less than kikaku but a solid second place with fewer sacrifices made

[wooden nimbus]

Also I'm pretty sure I'm one of the few people fielding the hyper light RJs over the Nacht hybrids right now, I almost never see them

I've considered the switch but I love bouncing

[serene kettle]

yeah Kasuar and Nacht have some interesting tradeoffs

RJs do have the best boost kicks so there's that

[ripe crow]

I havnt really exposed myself to the Nest much

[serene kettle]

Every once in a while I'll try to boost kick in a Nacht and whiff because I forgot it's not really a RJ

[wooden nimbus]

I have grown to love kicks

As per my last video

[serene kettle]

Same really, I pvp with friends, not online randos

[wooden nimbus]

I have one where I kicked someone so many times he did an alt f4 but I feel bad about that

So it doesn't have a music track

[serene kettle]

so my optimization advice is a little warped by existing in a meta bubble rather than the larger online meta

[wooden nimbus]

I would pvp with my friends but they are all tryhards who temporarily killed my enjoyment of the game so I'd rather play with y'all or randos

Also one of them likes to blame everyone but himself when we lose 3v3s

I still need to add decals to this build smh my head

[iron quarry]

You play on Xbox?

[wooden nimbus]

Pc

[iron quarry]

Drats

No new fren

[wooden nimbus]

Aw

Maybe one day cross play

[ripe crow]

...I just 1st tried Freud. full combo dagger damage on stagger is actually nutty.

[wooden nimbus]

Freud is my go to tester fight too

The Psych Exam is "can I trash him without hitting 50% AP"

[iron quarry]

Maybe one day

[ripe crow]

One assault armor on his pulse armor.

[wooden nimbus]

Nice

[ripe crow]

overweight becaouse I went with a better head

[wooden nimbus]

Assault counter on pulse is hilarious

My favorite is when you hit it right as they pop theirs and it's just an instant pop

No bubble for you

Alternatively: just leave until it phases out, very funny

[ripe crow]

Would anyone like to burst my swelled head in the Nest?

[iron quarry]

What in the god-damn

[wooden nimbus]

I can jump on later I'm at work rn but I can't guarantee humbling you

I'm kind of garbage

[ripe crow]

eh, better someone to chat with than randoms.

[wooden nimbus]

I'll be home in... 2.5 hours or so?

If you're around I'll let you know

[ripe crow]

ok

I'm not always getting the "above 50
%" mark on freud, but I'm usually hitting 30% remaining.

[wooden nimbus]

That's still good, I'll let you fight both my main builds I have lately and try them out

Neither are terribly optimized

[iron quarry]

Optimized for cool factor

[wooden nimbus]

To be fair have you seen Gleipnir

It's my favorite aesthetic work in 6

Hold on lemme find the

[ripe crow]

I feel like a glass cannon, except I have a crumple zone. Crazy offence if I can get you staggered on my initial EN bar, but a chance to recover (against freud) if I mess up.

That time felt ridiculus though

[wooden nimbus]

Excellent

Okay so this is Gleipnir before the aperitif nerf

[ripe crow]

Is there an easy way on windows to record short vides?

[wooden nimbus]

I use OBS and OpenShot

Gleipnir uses the split hand missile now

Fire rate is just too slow now

[ripe crow]

Chartruse is giving me more trouble than freud. I have enough alpha to just murder freud, but chartruse's health requires a cycle reset. Gridwalkers are duing better than kekakus, though

Embrace the overweight light legs. :p

hmm. Mind betas might be an overall better choice.

[chrome bronze]

https://vxtwitter.com/iuciferic/status/1716158389363876100?s=46&t=fIUfY3FiRXkmKVbIBdHHIw

[ripe crow]

Got an A rank on Baltaus Watchpoint with the kinetic orbit stagger dagger, and took it online an actually won vs some randoms.

[wooden nimbus]

nice

I'm consuming dinner

Then I'll pop on if you want or if not its cool

[ripe crow]

sure

IPSN chat?

[wooden nimbus]

Works for me

I'll use keyword LANCER in case anybody else is in

[queen willow]

https://vxtwitter.com/Iuciferic/status/1716158578002718837

[distant forge]

AC: NEON RAIN

accidentally sent rakaydos to God with this

i did not know it would be that strong

who knew the shotgun version of larbster would be so good

[ashen monolith]

the... lsster?

[midnight pine]

the laser shotguns are so good

i love the back mounted ones dearly

[distant forge]

they dont do that much impact but the sheer dps is a little stupid

[midnight pine]

yeaa

the charged shot is also really good

2 charged back shotguns will instantly stagger most acs in my experience

[distant forge]

i was doing coral convergence with them and like

maeterlinck was staggered by the npcs when i showed up

and i just, one shot her

[ripe crow]

I wasnt playing a "serious" build. :p

[distant forge]

sharted 10k damage on her ass

[distant forge]

hence accidentally lol

[wooden nimbus]

Aerial sends us all upstairs eventually no worries

[ripe crow]

Maybe next time I can put up something resembling a fight, and not ostrich behind a wall.

[wooden nimbus]

I'm still reeling from confidently stepping out of cover just to be nuked instantly

[distant forge]

the hiding behind wall into instant stagger was pretty funny

it was like

magnifying glass to ant

i was surprised and taken aback

[ripe crow]

It was a 54 ton superlight, and definately not viable.

[wooden nimbus]

"Surely my speed and maneuverability will decide this fight"
[instantly vaporized]

That was when she had those triple cannons goin on, oof owwie ouch

[distant forge]

the triple cannons are funny but i find the charged shotgujn blasts are nearly as good

[midnight pine]

the triple cannons are funny but too hard to mount for most builds

imo

i have them on like

two

builds

[ashen monolith]

it's interesting that the back shotgun's charge shot isn't numerically that much stronger than the standard lcs

it's all in the explosion

[distant forge]

the main reason im trying the LCD is because the LCS is getting banned from like, every goddamn tournament ever

and it feels kinda scummy to use it now

and also shotguns r cool

[cursive agate]

The cooling on LCD is better too, letting you charge shot more freely

[ashen monolith]

1000 curses upon the map border for intruding on all my good photos

[hollow ridge]

good music choice

[cursive agate]

Feels downright evil cramming x2 stun needle onto a light-ish build

[frank pivot]

Y'all this fight is going to take me a week of attempts

I was crazy underestimating how good assault armor was vs allmind lol

It saves SO much ammo. A lot of attempts are making it to phase 3 with like 8000 AP + a repair kit, but only 150 gun rounds and like 32 missiles

[distant forge]

here's a clip with my dual bazooka lightweight - mostly dumping this here so i can show to a friend

discord may be phasing out its ability to serve as a file hosting service soon but ill take advantage of it while i can

[dawn stag]

wait really?

what are they doin

[distant forge]

i dont remember the specifics but its something like, each time u link a file on discord it now comes with a request id, in a few months those IDs will begin to expire after a certain amt of time

[dawn stag]

dang

gotta back up my image dump server I guess

[south oracle]

it's still useful, but only as something to show off for a moment, then it's lost forever, unless you have the original file

bazooka seems weirdly good against human opponent, who don't have immediate reaction time to just quickboost away from the attack like AI...

[distant forge]

yeah the buffed velocity and proximity detonation is a deadly combo

[wooden nimbus]

A newer, edgier variant is being tested

[south oracle]

I just wish AI AC isn't so good at pin point dodging, you pretty much can only shoot them at point blank range

unless you are fighting quad or tank

or heavy weight biped

[cursive agate]

I've used a lighter weapon one-handed to waste their dodges for that reason

[south oracle]

same

[distant forge]

https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/484067110952108043/1165830516625387530/image.png?ex=65484747&is=6535d247&hm=49e4f28d4c843d04f0884661c7811a0cbd3b132fc1f67e7894c4805db7c4112f&=&width=967&height=676

here's an interesting one, lightweight big boom boom quad for a friend ('s headmate)

i actually dont know its headmate very well personally so it was a fun game of telephone for what the headmate's robot preferences are

they're making a custom homebrew league character of me which is so sweet of them so like

i gotta make robot

[cursive agate]

Oooh, I hope that goes well

[distant forge]

the build is, something alright

will probably have a lot of trouble hitting AC-sized targets but god the big boom boom does not fuck around

[surreal tundra]

Hm, is there something about the NGI+ALBA legs?
Admittedly the dash felt a little sluggish- tho that might just have been cuz the game was a little laggy- and I've already jumped into NG

[surreal tundra]

Ooooh
Yeah that seems fun, I wonder if someone can mod that in with just params? That'd mean you could do it in a simple regulation change, so just a patch

[surreal tundra]

faster

[ashen monolith]

real lynx behavior

[distant forge]

i like really really powerful, long QBs

i will use the ngi 001 for anything below 90000-95000 weight, then buerezel for anything above as QBs kinda shit the bed at super heavy weights

the exception being when im using the nachtreiher legs i use the alula booster for its shorter delay

those legs have such massive jump distance that it easily makes up for the alula's comparatively weaker individual quickboosts

i dont want my QBs to be little hops

i want to fuckin dbz instant transmission up in ur shit

i wanna go into quicksilver bullet time

i wanna boost chain off the screen like 4th gen armored core

https://tenor.com/view/armored-core-armored-core-for-answer-acfa-ac-gif-13904960185924564705

i want a single quickboost to send me to the next postal code over

i want 621's spine to liquify then enter a gaseous state

[surreal tundra]

Yeesh

[ashen monolith]

though on the topic of short QB chaining, gills on the nachtreiher legs is utter madness and i love it

[surreal tundra]

That last kick- looks like it wouldn't connect, but it did lmao, instant punt

[distant forge]

the wonders of fromsoft netcode

#1159881122822492271 message

this right here though, is a real Netcode Moment

[ashen monolith]

using them on a full set for the boost-efficient core, chaining 5-6 of them feels like i'm outmaneuvering 200 albanys

[surreal tundra]

Hrm, maybe the NGIs felt sluggish there was just something that got messy cuz of the build I had? That or it was just how slowed down everything was (laptop issue basically) and it messed up my reactions/exacerbated the 'lag'

[distant forge]

the QB delay is a bit longer than other boosters

and also the game being quite literally sluggish does tend to do that

[cursive agate]

NGI 001 have 0.41 sec QB duration, that might have been a factor?

[surreal tundra]

I need to go fast djsnf
The laptop slowing things down sometimes just means it makes me wanna go faster in-game so it feels "normal"/like how it should normally be lmao

[surreal tundra]

Become one with the Coral in your augments XD

[surreal tundra]

Oh- wait really? I was at 0.65, might have been the weight?

[distant forge]

ngi have 0.65

[surreal tundra]

ALBA frame, double melee and drone, think it might have been a Nebula REDSHIFT- that or it's just how slowed th game itself was lmao

PH wait they said QB duration not reload isnnsf

Oh yeah- one sec

Okay so
NG run pre-ALBA frame, besides ALULAs on NACHT and swapping to BASHO arms, what'll I need if I'm running double blade?

On second thought its probs much simpler than I might be worrying,

[shut sequoia]

got a much cleaner shot of my SSC Monarch cosplay

[cursive agate]

Looks really nice

---

Little Gem (compact Bazooka) is worth a lot more than I expected in 1x form, really nasty upfront Impact, and strong Accumulative Impact gives it strong utility on lighter builds, along with not needing to worry about ricochets.

[cursive agate]

Cleared the NG++ boss, surprisingly easy for me because of experience across runs, and lots of hours in Monster Hunter.

[twin moss]

First game: took me 3ish days to kill the lava roomba

Today? An hour

And I’m only on NG+!

So I am having the time of my life

[cursive agate]

[NG++ boss] ||Part 3 is incredibly intense, knowing the limits of melee hitboxes really made it easier to me.||

Oh damn, nice! I hope your runs go well!

[feral yew]

Sup fuckers

[surreal tundra]

what're each shotgun good for?
they're not as unbalanced as before right?

[twin moss]

Oh all my Christmases have come at once

[frank pivot]

sweet 16: damage but worse than a wuerger for damage

haldeman: stagger per second

zimmerman: burst stagger

[cursive agate]

Kinetic shotguns are alright after balance patches.

• Haldeman is the most forgiving because of fast reload time, though it isn't particularly special in 1x form.
• Zimmerman hits hard with tight spread but longer reload time
• Sweet 16 is essentially a melee weapon, wildly light for it's output, 3 sec reload.

[twin moss]

||The ‘destroy the coyote hacking drones’ mission ended in me kicking Iguazu’s ass again||

[surreal tundra]

are wuergers worth it even with 110 EN spec?

[twin moss]

I literally could not be more happy if I tried

[feral yew]

||Fucker deserves it||

I think you'll like where the rest of the game is going

[cursive agate]

Wuerger eats really hard if you hit all beams in general, charged attack has 100m-ish of range and interrupts melee attacks.

[frank pivot]

I like them a lot, they hit very hard at close range, and the charge attack is basically the only right hand melee weapon, haha

[surreal tundra]

in the middle of Chapter 3, and I think I've picked out the frame and boosters as "permanent"/not being swapped out, anything I could do better or look forward to in a 1st run?

[surreal tundra]

yeah, I just watched a vid about how good they are earlier today- forgot how much ammo they had and how much the charge costs,

[frank pivot]

A setup with dual Wuergers on a fast, light frame like uhhhh this is really fun

370 boost speed, over 500 AB speed, outputs a good amount of stagger and a huge amount of damage, punishes with melee, plasma verts keep stagger pressure up. If I could run a Huxley without having preeeeettty crappy EN regen, I would. I don't think swapping the head to Basho saves enough EN load to justify mounting the hux

[south oracle]

wuerger is less a laser shotgun and more a energy melee with a shotgun mode

that thing hits hard

[frank pivot]

Yeah, and its EN load is low enough to fit on the VE-20B

[feral yew]

So basically

Crack concentratw

[frank pivot]

It definitely enables fun

[frank pivot]

Honestly, i would drop the laser blade. I would probably run dual guns of some type and swap to melee for punishes.

[surreal tundra]

oh I haven't checked how fast AB should be/what counts as fast/slow AB,
what're the ranges usually?

[twin moss]

Honestly the most iconic line is Carla going ‘you realize the cargo launcher is strictly for cargo, right?’ With the ‘your funeral’ tone of voice.

[frank pivot]

If it's just for PvE, slow is anything under 450, fast is over 500 i think

[surreal tundra]

are the laserblades just not as good?
I think I'll keep on the pulse blade-
what're the good dual-melee combos?

[frank pivot]

Pulse Blade + Anything is good for melee honestly. You can do heavy attacks in neutral with a pulse blade and hit quite a lot to fill out stagger bars

[surreal tundra]

'anything' as in any melee? or any any?

[frank pivot]

Laser Dagger is great, so is Redshift Moonlight and regular Moonlight

[frank pivot]

As in "any melee" 😄

[surreal tundra]

got it,

Hrm, when's the laserblade good?

[frank pivot]

Wow i am falling asleep as i type. Basically the laser blade is good when you want to cover a wide, flat area

Sucks at vertical tracking but has a huge charged aoe sweep

The laser dagger is insanely good

If you run assault armor and stagger someone, the basho laser dagger can kill them guaranteed if they try to AA you off them or pulse shield the combo

[long zodiac]

I have become a laser dagger girlie like overnight

[frank pivot]

It's too good

Basho laser dagger

[long zodiac]

Basho laser dagger kicks so much ass

[surreal tundra]

Mm mm,
so- when I get to boss fights swap out for a dagger over the blade,

if it's PvE/lots of grunts to catch, LB?

[frank pivot]

You do what you enjoy more 😄

[surreal tundra]

When the Coral Oscillator's up- cuz I wanna run it in the final build-

Dagger or Pulse blade?

[frank pivot]

Pulse blade + oscillator is pretty spicy

Both of them can be used in neutral to generate stagger

[surreal tundra]

I mean, I've learned the use of the LB last 3 runs, learning dagger this set of 3 runs sounds fun to try lmao

[feral yew]

Laser slicer go spinny

[surreal tundra]

also I've learned not to use the spin vs Cleaner's weakspot lmao

[long zodiac]

God I need to go back through for a 4th run to get the combat logs for oscillator

[surreal tundra]

it's a total whiff

[long zodiac]

Which like, is cool, I'm enjoying the game, but I'd love to use my red sword

[surreal tundra]

by this point I've kinda memorized where all the Combat logs are lmao, tho I absolutely hate hate hate the stealth mission for how often it crashes my game XD

*if I'm not in the right compatability mode

[surreal tundra]

yeaaah

really only get to use it in the final 2 missions-

only one actually has a boss fight

[feral yew]

I just need a few s ranks and I've basically platinumed it

[long zodiac]

I missed the ||Michigan|| one all 3 times cause like, I felt bad and didn't want to kill him any run

And it only just fully dawned on me

[surreal tundra]

at this point I've decided to just go back and fight some of my favourite bosses once I get the oscillator

[long zodiac]

Man this 4th run I'm gonna do Flames again cause ||Breach the Karmen Line|| is the single coolest mission like ever

[surreal tundra]

hilairously i actually missed the combat logs from ||Chatty and Carla|| cuz I blew up the exact same moment ||Chatty|| did- and I worried but I still got the mission completion- just not the combat logs

[long zodiac]

Oh wtf, you got shafted

[surreal tundra]

it's fiiine

[long zodiac]

What a scam lolll

[surreal tundra]

if a bit of a pain lmao

I'm on my- 10th? 11th? run

[feral yew]

When the game just decides to go "no"

[surreal tundra]

XD
I mean- figure it's fair enough,

and I could go back anyways

I just thought I missed something somehow

[feral yew]

You could but you'd have to do that WHOLE fight again

||emotions and all||

[long zodiac]

God I feel terrible killing ||Carla and Chatty|| it's literally the reason I did Flames first

Like, I could not bring myself to do it

[surreal tundra]

||I've basically gone "I will reset this timeline, don't worry this is noncanon, we're having a PLAYFIGHT aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-||

[long zodiac]

||Sorry Ayre||

[feral yew]

||Hey, toss an apology for my Boi Rusty he didn't deserve it either||

[long zodiac]

TRUE

[surreal tundra]

||her, Rusty, Carla, Chatty, Walter, yeeeikes we wipe out quite a few of our friends||

also it helps that I lost my headset-

so it''s kinda barely audible

[long zodiac]

I talked yesterday or the day before about how like, I did fires first cause ||I felt as though I owed it to Walter to do it, that man is a hero who did his everything to do good, despite pretending to be the worst||

[surreal tundra]

*the plug in ones anyways

[feral yew]

||Yeah and then you nuke half the galaxy so||

[long zodiac]

Thats not how I understood it??

||Nuked Rubicon for sure, but I feel as though it would mention in the epilogue if it was like, half the galaxy||

[surreal tundra]

||no but you do still basically burn like, at least a few solar systems||

I think

||not as big as half the galaxy, but the fires of Ibis were at least that bad I think,||

[feral yew]

||They call you a monster in that ending, my comment was a little hyperbolic||

[long zodiac]

They only explicitly say ||Rubicon|| and I think that alone would make you a monster

[surreal tundra]

it does, the latter thing I mean,
but I suppose it's a ||small mercy it's not as bad as the original fires||

[long zodiac]

I will say however, the ||Walter fight|| has the coolest damn area in the entire game and I kinda wish the the NG++ route finished in that area as well instead of ||the satillite||

Also wish the huge PCA ||death space cannon satillite got more screen time||

[feral yew]

Missed opportunity really

[long zodiac]

For a ||giant death space laser cannon|| you'd think it would do more then take a pot shot at the start, be a minor annoyance at the end of chapter 2, and then in the fire ending ||take a single shot at Xylem||

[feral yew]

Yeah

I think in one of the earlier games you actually get to fight something like that

[twin moss]

I just love punking on encounters that formerly kicked my ass in NG+

[feral yew]

Great feeling right?

I remember ||NG+ Ibis was a cakewalk compared to the first run||

[surreal tundra]

beating/being much much closer to beating them in the first 1 or 2 maybe 3 tries even on new saves is a great feeling too lmao, being used to the controls and the feel of the bosses etc.,

[feral yew]

And the flow of the game too

How certain approaches do and don't work

Like, for instance, your best bet against the PCA chopper in the opening is typically FUCK IT WE BALL

[surreal tundra]

TBH I fought it this run and like- iunno, I wasn't feeling much pressure at all lmao,
very chill, did use like 1 or 2, maybe all the repair kits after some bonks, but wow it goes quick

[dawn stag]

I first try'd the tutorial boss because my friend did it in 2 and I had to beat them

[twin moss]

Now here’s the real question, do I completely punk on Swinburne this time around?

Trick question, the answer is yes since I’m aiming for the RLF simp run

[surreal tundra]

Balteus feels like more of a filter for me now, at least more than the chopper- tho TBF I haven't touched the base game for like the last 6/7/8 or so runs lmao

maybe I don't really mean "filter" so much as places of "oi, wake up, remember this one's patterns? don't fall for this and that"

[ripe crow]

I saw a video the other day suggesting the Closure Satelite was cut content, for a "Attack the Strider" style endgame mission. Particularly if it was after the Karman Line mission, which introduced infinite boost as a level mechanic.

Not the flat arean, the gialt red eyeball with rings.

[wooden nimbus]

I want to fight the satellite

[frank pivot]

Lore question:

Walter probably knew ||Sulla|| personally, right?

[river junco]

It’s implied ||Sulla|| worked for him at some point is my understanding

[frank pivot]

Given that ||Sulla is a first gen augment, and Walter's dad invented coral augmentation. Thus, anyone who was a first gen inherently must have gone under the knife with the involvement of Walter's dad.||

[frank pivot]

Even more than that, I think the two of them were personally acquainted before ||Sulla's augmentation||

[river junco]

Oh yeah that would make sense

[frank pivot]

That also makes ||Sulla's warning|| make more sense

Because if he had simply ||worked for Walter|| in the past, I don't know if it would make sense for him to ||be so nice as to warn Walter that Allmind is on to him and his hound is a coral release candidate||

[quasi copper]

I kinda assumed that not only did Walter know him, either he or his dad did the surgery considering ||Sulla is a 1st-gen augment||

[frank pivot]

Yeah i just connected that today

[quasi copper]

Depending on how you interpret Walter’s age and relation to the RRI

[frank pivot]

I don't even think it needs much interpretation right? The STK sketch shows him, nagai, and carla all in the same room

[quasi copper]

Yeah but some people insist it’s not Walter but his supposed father(???)

[frank pivot]

Bah, assistant #1 is waltuh's dad, #2 is carla, nagai is nagai, waltuh is the kid

There are no unnamed characters in any of the stk or stv sketches

All of them are named characters from the story (minus walter's dad)

[river junco]

Total Sidenote

Wild that father dolmayan being bi is just kinda thrown out there casually
V fun

[chrome bronze]

This isn’t just old man yaoi, this is elder man yaoi

[river junco]

Lmaoooo

I say bi and not gay because ||man it’s really heavily implied he had a romantic relationship with his coral headlady||

[frank pivot]

Broke: we stan our king
Woke: we stan our bi king
Bespoke: we stan our bi philosopher-king

[chrome bronze]

Yah ||she’s flat out called his dead wife I think||

[dawn stag]

mihaly a dolmayan

[chrome bronze]

||People just don’t know she was a coral being||

[river junco]

Oh shit never saw that

Rad

[chrome bronze]

I mean take that with a grain of salt

[river junco]

Oh also

[chrome bronze]

I don’t know for sure

I just think so

[river junco]

LoR spoilers:

||Theres cut dialogue for the penultimate mission confirming that if she’s alive Ziyi pilots the other experimental mech in the ground assault||

[chrome bronze]

||I thought she was piloting a repaired Steel Haze||

[frank pivot]

Which other one? 😄

[chrome bronze]

||Rusty’s original mech||

[dawn stag]

that is also what I thought they were referring to when they mention the other AC

[frank pivot]

Oh so ||steel haze|| was an experimental mech too?

[river junco]

Oh sorry yeah you might be right

Regardless I’m glad for my girl, my dark horse favorite character

[frank pivot]

It's kind of funny that rusty downgrades his mech at the end

[chrome bronze]

||Steel Haze is pretty significantly better then Ziyi’s original mech though||

[frank pivot]

For sure xD

[river junco]

Are the ||Ortus|| parts worse?

[chrome bronze]

||Ortus is pretty clearly designed only to be a cool mid air boss fight to be fair||

[frank pivot]

Much worse booster, less stagger buildup, can't missile kite

[dawn stag]

ortus looks fuckin sweet

[chrome bronze]

||Id argue it is better for that specifically just with how well it staggers+the cross blade being amazing for stagger punishes||

[river junco]

Yeah that’s the real secret is that he’s just sick as fuck

[dawn stag]

so hype when it shows up

[chrome bronze]

I mean it depends

They are legitimately good as AC parts

Like for building your own

But for them all together? The original parts are probably better

[frank pivot]

If Ortus had a more appropriate FCS and two huxleys or two vientos it would be god tier

[river junco]

Well they did rush it out :p

[chrome bronze]

What’s the FCS?

[frank pivot]

The trueno really doesn't pull its weight

[river junco]

Also my favorite NG++ reveal that’s kinda a side thing:

[dawn stag]

I need to just go finish off NG++ so I can read the spoilers

[river junco]

||Fucking, the shadow reveal that Allmind used the Arena Data to replicate everyone’s ACs||

[dawn stag]

I'm on coral convergence

[chrome bronze]

Nearly there then

[river junco]

Yeah you don’t have much left to do

[dawn stag]

yeah

I've been pretty tired recently and it's kind of a daunting mission to dive back into lol

[river junco]

Yeah

I have some tips if you’d like

[dawn stag]

I think I'll be alright

[river junco]

Oh wait have you launched it on NG++ at all

[dawn stag]

no

[river junco]

Ahhh

[dawn stag]

I assume it will be different

[chrome bronze]

It is

[river junco]

You should check it out yeah

[distant forge]

big boom boom kinda scary

[chrome bronze]

That’s a lot of rockets

[distant forge]

dual bazookas and earshots are a combo alright

[shut sequoia]

when you ravens go to ambush the vespers which one of the two do you focus first?

[cursive agate]

Well, ||Pater|| tends to fold easier, but ||Hawkins has a nasty melee to keep track of||

Orbiter core is surprisingly usable for lighter builds, 103 Output Adj. matters a lot when trying to save weight.

[frank pivot]

pater always, dual bubble guns and pulse sword + rj kicks is incredibly annoying

[river junco]

Yeah pater is more of a glass cannon

[queen willow]

I kill V.V because ||Pater's reaction to his death is really funny||

[river junco]

It’s certainly interesting

[feral yew]

I don't even focus one of them in particular I just go "Okay this is the son of a bitch I'm murdering first les go"