10 Things You Need to Know About Armored Core 6 Fires of Rubicon

After ten years, FromSoftware and Bandai Namco Entertainment are ready to get back in the robot with Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon. This game has been in development since at least 2016 and was formally announced during the 2022 Game Awards. And now, there’s only a month until launch.

Armored Core 6 releases on August 25, 2023, on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. In anticipation of this monumental release, Bandai Namco held a preview event in Hangar 21. Having previously attended a handful of preview events, I was ready to try out the game for a few hours and be on my way. However, I was not expecting a fully immersive experience, complete with piloting the Exosapien Technologies mech.

Fulfilling my Pacific Rim dreams aside, I essentially had the whole day to try out this game. I’m still new to games outside of the Nintendo consoles, so this was both my first Armored Core title and my first FromSoftware game. Basically, I’m not the best person to tell you how Armored Core 6 stacks up against the rest of the series or other FromSoftware projects. But as a longtime mecha lover, a mech pilot, and a newer gamer, I can tell you what stood out to me and what not to do.

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1. It’s a Good Entry Point for New Players

Armored Core 6 doesn’t rely on the previous entries to set up its story, though I’m sure longtime fans will find plenty of easter eggs. You play as an independent mercenary on the planet Rubicon 3. There’s definitely something nefarious going on here, but that plot is second to your AC missions.

With more of a focus on the gameplay, it’s easy to get into this world and enjoy the thrill of piloting a giant mech. Armored Core VI does an amazing job at portraying the scale of this world – everything seems so small compared to your AC. But there are machines out there bigger than your mech and it’s unintentionally terrifying.

All that aside, all you really need to learn here is the gameplay. Armored Core 6 follows the formula of easy to learn, but hard to master. You’re encouraged to try out new strategies and weapons as you take on more missions. And there’s no shame in dying. Seriously, it took me so long to complete the first boss fight…

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2. It’s Challenging, But Forgiving

Think of Armored Core 6 like Elden Ring, but if the Elden Ring bosses had certain weapon weaknesses so you could make it easier on yourself rather than just relying on learning all the boss patterns. Boss patterns come into play here, but you can optimize your AC for the mission. If you find the low-power but high-ammunition gun isn’t working, you can try out the high-power but low-ammunition plasma gun. You unlock more AC parts and weapons after completing your missions.

Additionally, each mission has checkpoints. If you pass a checkpoint and then fail the mission, you can respawn at that checkpoint. Though you can only take three repair kits into a mission, if you used all three prior to failure, you’ll still respawn with all three. You’ll receive less money and a low rank, but this makes the tougher missions much more doable.

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3. Complete Range of Movement

This mechanic may be overwhelming, but Armored Core 6 functions on all planes. You have a full range of motion to take advantage of. In fact, in your first boss fight, you have to take to the air to avoid some devastating damage on the ground. Basically, if you don’t jump, you’ll die.

You can go backward, forwards, up, down, left, right…you can go anywhere that doesn’t have a barrier. However, you don’t have infinite jumps. You need to keep an eye on your thrust gauge at the bottom of the screen. Once you run out of thrust, you will immediately start falling. In addition to your thrust power, you can propel yourself forward and dodge. Thankfully, this takes up much less thrust stamina than flying straight up. Get ready for dodges to become your best friend.

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4. Simultaneous Weapon Use

You’ll be introduced to this mechanic very early on in the game, but you will come to rely on simultaneous weapon use. Your AC has a total of four weapons: one on each shoulder, a gun on the right hand, and a melee weapon on the left. Each weapon has its own cooldown and reload speed, so you need to keep track of which weapons are loaded and ready to use and which ones are on cooldown. Oh, and you have a shield. Yeah, you’re going to be using all of the controller buttons.

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5. Each New Mechanic Has a Tutorial 

Despite everything above, this barely scratches the surface of what your AC can do. Thankfully, you’re not given everything all at once. The game does a good job of introducing concepts to you and, if you want more guidance, there are some quick tutorials you can do. For example, even though you have a shoulder cannon in the first mission, there’s a tutorial that shows you how to lock onto and hit multiple enemies with that cannon. If you get stuck, you can always go back and practice.

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6. Variety in Mission Difficulty

There’s a huge range of difficulty in your missions. You’ll easily breeze through some of them in ten minutes with an A rank. But there are other missions that will take constant trial and error, and hours of learning and adapting to finally complete. But the game doesn’t exactly ramp up in difficulty as it goes on. Instead, you’ll have those easier missions interspersed between missions that feel impossible to complete.

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7. So Much Customization

You will collect a lot of parts and you will play around with all of them. Though you will find that certain weapons work better on certain enemies, having so many options for how to build your AC make it easier to optimize your AC to your play style.

Going back to the respawn feature, probably the best thing about it is the ability to change your AC before respawning. So if you die in the middle of a mission, you’re given the option to open the customization menu before returning to the checkpoint.

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8. You Can Personalize Your AC

If you find yourself taking hours on character creators, then get ready to truly make your AC yours. You can change the color of your mech, which includes armor, lights, and the base metal underneath the armor. You can specify which parts of the mech you want to be colored. You can make one arm green and one arm orange and keep the legs grey if you want to. You can add fun stickers and even make your own. It’s almost like creating a new clothing pattern in Animal Crossing. 

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9. Practice, Adjust, Repeat

The development team really wants to emphasize the learning aspect of this game. Enemies and bosses have attack patterns that you can learn. You have four different weapons at your disposal. You can go for melee or long-range combat, dodge or guard, and retreat or parry. And since you can return to the customization menu easily and frequently, you should absolutely take advantage of that. This isn’t a game you can completely brute force and button mash. Instead, you need to refine your AC and strategy, and then you can brute force and button mash.

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10. Overcoming Challenges Feels Rewarding

Despite how difficult the game is, it’s definitely doable. But even better, it’s not rage-inducing. If you enjoyed Elden Ring, then you’ll enjoy the challenge Armored Core 6 provides. Again, Armored Core is the less frustrating game of the two, but it takes thought and skill to overcome. And once you do that, it feels so good.

Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon will be available on August 25, 2023. It will be released on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Steam, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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